JOCASTE.
Will not virtue guard thee?
Art thou not sure that thou art innocent?
ŒDIPUS.
We're oft more guilty than we think we are.
JOCASTE.
Disdain the madness of a talking priest,
Nor thus excuse him with unmanly fears.
ŒDIPUS.
Now in the name of the unhappy king,
And angry heaven, let me entreat thee, say,
When Laius undertook that fatal journey,
Did guards attend him?
JOCASTE.
I've already told thee,
One followed him alone.
ŒDIPUS.
And only one?
JOCASTE.
Superior even to the rank he bore,
He was a king, who, like thyself, disdained
All irksome pomp, and never would permit
An idle train of slaves to march before him.
Amidst his happy subjects fearless still,
And still unguarded lived in peace and safety,
And thought his people's love his best defence.
ŒDIPUS.
Thou best of kings, sent by indulgent heaven
To mortals here; thou exemplary greatness!
Could ever Œdipus his barbarous hand
