I knew it all too well, and then forgot,
Or else I had not on this journey come.
Œdip. What means this? How despondingly thou com'st!
Teir. Let me go home! for thus thy lot shalt thou,
And I mine own, bear easiest, if thou yield.
Œdip. No loyal words thou speak'st, nor true to Thebes
Who reared thee, holding back this oracle. [ 320
Teir. I see thy lips speak words that profit not:
And lest I too a like fault should commit . . .
Œdip. Now, by the Gods, unless thy reason fails,
Refuse us not, who all implore thy help.
Teir. Ah! Reason fails you all, but ne'er will I
*Say what thou bidd'st, lest I thy troubles show.
Œdip. What mean'st thou, then? Thou know'st and wilt not tell, 330
But wilt betray us, and the state destroy?
Teir. I will not pain myself nor thee. Why, then,
All vainly question? Thou shalt never know.
Œdip. Oh, basest of the base! (for thou would'st stir
A heart of stone;) and wilt thou never tell,
But still abide relentless and unmoved?
Teir. My mood thou blamest, but thou dost not know
What dwelleth with thee while thou chidest me.
Œdip. And who would not feel anger, hearing words
Like those with which thou dost the state insult? 340
Teir. Well! come they will, though I should hold my peace.
Œdip. If come they must, thy duty is to speak.
Teir. I speak no more. So, if thou wilt, rage on,
With every mood of wrath most desperate.
Œdip. Yes; I will not refrain, so fierce my wrath,
From speaking all my thought. I think that thou
Did'st plot the deed, and do it, though the blow
