Œdip. By all thy ties of kindness, gentle friend,
Bid me not open deeds of foulest shame.
Chor. The wide-spread rumour growing evermore,
I fain would hear, my friend, the truth in all.
Œdip. Woe! woe!
Chor. Be patient, I beseech thee.
Œdip. Woe, woe is me!
Chor. Comply, as I have done with thy desire!520
*Œdip. Full evil fortune have I borne, my friends,
*But all against my will; for these, God knows,
Were none of them self-chosen.
Chor. How was this?
Œdip. In shameful wedlock did my country join me
Who nothing knew, yea, in accursèd marriage.
Chor. And did'st thou, as I hear, thy mother's bed
Take as thine own, in shame ineffable?
Œdip. Ah me! 'tis death to me to hear it said,
Ο stranger! And these children—they were born . . .530
Chor. What sayest thou?
Œdip. Two sorrows they were born . . . .
Chor. Ο Zeus!
Œdip. From the same womb to which I owed my birth.
Chor. Are they thy daughters?
Œdip. Yea, their father's sisters.
Chor. Ah woe!
Œdip. Ah woe ! ten thousand tangled ills . . .
Chor. Thou suffer'dst . . .
Œdip. Yes, I suffered fearful things.
Chor. And thou hast done . . .
Œdip. I have not done.
Chor. What then?
Œdip. I did but take as gift what I, poor wretch,540
Had, at my country's hands, not merited.
