by W. B. Yeats
CREON. Yes, I ordered it, for I know how greatly you have always loved them.
OEDIPUS. Then may you be blessed, and may Heaven be kinder to you than it has been to me! My children, where are you? Come hither — hither — come to the hands of him whose mother was your mother; the hands that put out your father’s eyes, eyes once as bright as your own; his who, understanding nothing, seeing nothing, became your father by her that bore him. I weep when I think of the bitter life that men will make you live, and the days that are to come. Into what company dare you go, to what festival, but that you shall return home from it not sharing in the joys, but bathed in tears? When you are old enough to be married, what man dare face the reproach that must cling to you and to your children? What misery is there lacking? Your father killed his father, he begat you at the spring of his own being, offspring of her that bore him. That is the taunt that would be cast upon you and on the man that you should marry. That man is not alive; my children, you must wither away in barrenness. Ah, son of Menoeceus, listen. Seeing that you are the only father now left to them, for we their parents are lost, both of us lost, do not let them wander in beggary — are they not your own kindred? — do not let them sink down into my misery. No, pity them, seeing them utterly wretched in helpless childhood if you do not protect them. Show me that you promise, generous man, by touching me with your hand.
[Creon touches him.] My children, there is much advice that I would give you were you but old enough to understand, but all I can do now is bid you pray that you may live wherever you are let live, and that your life be happier than your father’s.
CREON. Enough of tears. Pass into the house.
OEDIPUS. I will obey, though upon conditions.
CREON. Conditions?
OEDIPUS. Banish me from this country. I know that nothing can destroy me, for I wait some incredible fate; yet cast me upon
Cithaeron, chosen by my father and my mother for my tomb.
CREON. Only the Gods can say yes or no to that.
OEDIPUS. No, for I am hateful to the Gods.
CREON. If that be so you will get your wish the quicker. They will banish that which they hate.
OEDIPUS. Are you certain of that?
CREON. I would not say it if I did not mean it.
OEDIPUS. Then it is time to lead me within.
CREON. Come, but let your children go.
OEDIPUS. No, do not take them from me.
CREON. DO not seek to be master; you won the mastery but could not keep it to the end.
[He leads Oedipus into the palace, followed by Ismene, Antigone, and attendants.
CHORUS. Make way for Oedipus. All people said,
‘That is a fortunate man’;
And now what storms are beating on his head!
Call no man fortunate that is not dead.
The dead are free from pain.
Curtain
OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
Based on Sophocles’ Play
PERSONS IN THE PLAY
Oedipus
Creon, King of Thebes
Daughters of Oedipus:
Antigonel, brother-in-law of Oedipus
Ismene —
A Stranger
Polyneices, son of Oedipus
A Messenger
Theseus, King of Athens —
Chorus
Servants and Soldiers
OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
SCENE: The neighbourhood of Athens, near a shrine
OEDIPUS. TO what town or country have we come, Antigone? Who to-day gives alms to the blind man, to wandering Oedipus? I ask little and get less and am content; where there is nobility of character suffering teaches patience, and we have been long enough together to learn that lesson. Bring me, daughter, to some place, to some sacred place perhaps, where we can rest and speak to a passer-by, and find out where we are and what we are to do. We must do whatever they bid us.
ANTIGONE. I can see the distant towers of a city, and this place seems to be sacred; it is shaded with laurels, olives and vines, and nightingales are singing. So sit down upon this stone; you have travelled far for an old man.
OEDIPUS. Seat me upon it and keep a watch over the blind man.
ANTIGONE. I have no need to learn that.
OEDIPUS. Where are we?
ANTIGONE. I do not know this place, but the town I see is Athens.
OEDIPUS. Every passer-by has told us that.
ANTIGONE. Shall I find somebody to tell us where we are?
OEDIPUS. Yes, child, if the place is inhabited.
ANTIGONE. Inhabited it certainly is, but I need not search: somebody is coming.
OEDIPUS. Coming towards us?
ANTIGONE. He is already beside us; ask whatever you want to know.
Enter Stranger, a man of Colonus
OEDIPUS. Stranger, this girl who has sight both for herself and for me tells me that you are there. There is something I would ask.
STRANGER. Get up from that seat before you ask it. You are in a place where no man is permitted to set his foot.
OEDIPUS. What place? And to what God sacred?
STRANGER. A place where none may set his foot, for it belongs to the
Dreadful Goddesses, daughters of the earth and of darkness.
OEDIPUS. I will pray to them if you tell me their names.
STRANGER. We natives call them the Furies, but there are pleasanter names.
OEDIPUS. I beseech them to be gracious to me and to welcome me, for never will I leave this place.
STRANGER. What do you mean by those words?
OEDIPUS. My fate.
STRANGER. I cannot remove you by force until I have reported to the authorities and got their warrant.
OEDIPUS. Seeing that I am an unlucky wanderer, do not for God’s love refuse to answer my questions.
STRANGER. Question and I will answer.
OEDIPUS. Into what manner of country have I come?
STRANGER. The whole neighbourhood is sacred, sacred to Poseidon and to Prometheus the Firebringer; but the spot where you are seated protects Athens and is called the Brazen Threshold. And the first Lord of the Manor was named Colonus, and all his people bear his name as well as their own. Such is this neighbourhood. It is not famous in history, but it is dear to those that inhabit it.
OEDIPUS. SO, then, there are inhabitants?
STRANGER. Yes, all that bear the name of that settler.
OEDIPUS. Have they a king? Or do they decide everything for themselves?
STRANGER. The King of Athens rules them.
OEDIPUS. What is his name?
STRANGER. Theseus, son of Aegeus.
OEDIPUS. Could someone go to him with a message?
STRANGER. With what object? To bring him here?
OEDIPUS. That he may win a great profit by doing a small service.
STRANGER. What profit can he get from a blind man?
OEDIPUS. My words shall not be blind.
STRANGER. Attend to what I say, friend. If I can judge by a man’s looks and not by his clothes, you are no common man. I would not have you get into trouble. I will send no messenger to the town, but I will say what you have said to the neighbours; and so stay there where I found you until they decide whether you may stay there or not.
[The Stranger goes out.
OEDIPUS. Is that man gone?
ANTIGONE. He is gone: say whatever comes into your head; no ear listens but mine.
OEDIPUS. Dreadful apparitions, Furies, Queens, your shrine is the first in this land at which I have bent my knees; therefore be gracious to me and gracious to the God Phoebus. When he proclaimed my doom, my countless sorrows, the God proclaimed that after many years I should come to a shrine of yours and find there rest, hospitality, and death, and bring good fortune to those that did me good, and ruin upon those that had driven me into wandering. Furthermore, he warned me that thunder and lightning and earthquake would announce my death. If I am not too base for your notice, Queens, I who have borne the worst bur
den in the world, and if it has been by your guidance, as I think, that I have found this sacred wood, fulfil the words of Phoebus and show me how to bring all to an end. Dear daughters of ancient darkness, and Athens, most honoured among cities, have mercy upon this ghost of Oedipus, upon this ghost, for the man Oedipus is dead, the man men knew.
ANTIGONE. Hush. Some old men are coming, doubtless to ask what we are doing here.
OEDIPUS. I will be silent, but lead me into the wood and away from the road, till we have learnt what their intentions are.
[She leads him into the wood. The Elders of Colonus, the Chorus, enter as if searching for someone. At first there are confused voices, then one man speaks for all. Where the words are in rhyme all may join in the singing.
CHORUS. Where is he gone? Where has he hidden himself? Look carefully, search every place, for this must be the most insolent man alive. He must be a foreigner, a man from a distant country.
No native would dare to enter this untrodden wood, profane a spot sacred to the apparitions whose very name we dare not speak.
A shrine which we pass turning our eyes away, and pray to so silently that we dare not even move our lips.
OEDIPUS [led from his hiding-place by Antigone]. I am the man you are looking for. I can see with the mind’s eye but have no other sight.
CHORUS. O! O! Dreadful to look upon!
OEDIPUS. DO not consider me a lawless man.
CHORUS. God protect us! Who is this old man?
OEDIPUS. Not so fortunate a man that you need envy him. This girl lets me walk with her strength and look through her eyes.
CHORUS. Alas! Have you been blind from birth? Your life has indeed been accursed, and as it seems to me long, but do not add a new curse to the other. I can save you from that at any rate. Turn back from there before you have wandered into the silent depths of the wood where the sacred pool is. Come back. Come back. Do you not hear me, road-weary man? If you have anything to say to us, come first out of that forbidden spot, come to some place where it is lawful to speak, but keep silent until you have found it.
OEDIPUS. How shall we answer him, daughter?
ANTIGONE. We must obey the customs of this place, listening to its people, and, as far as we can, doing what they ask.
OEDIPUS. Then give me your hand.
ANTIGONE. I put it into yours.
OEDIPUS. NO one dare touch me while I stand upon this spot.
Promise me, therefore, that when I leave it and put myself into your hands I shall not suffer injury.
CHORUS. We promise that, old man.
[Oedipus begins to move forward and then stops.
OEDIPUS. Further?
CHORUS. Yes, still further.
OEDIPUS. Further yet?
CHORUS. Lead him further yet, lady.
ANTIGONE. Follow me as I lead.
CHORUS. We would have you learn what our people hate that you may hate it also, and what we reverence that you may reverence it also.
OEDIPUS. Lead on, child, to some spot where I may speak and hear, for I would hear what is customary, and so not set myself up against fate.
[Oedipus is brought to a ledge of rock at the edge of the road.
CHORUS. Stay your feet at that edge of rock.
OEDIPUS. Have I gone far enough?
CHORUS. I tell you that is far enough.
OEDIPUS. Shall I sit down?
CHORUS. Move him sideways and put him down on the edge of the rock.
ANTIGONE. This is my work; father, step carefully.
[Oedipus groans.
ANTIGONE. Another step; lean your old body upon my arm.
OEDIPUS. It is a dreadful thing to be blind.
[Antigone seats him upon the rock.
CHORUS. Tell me now, unhappy man, what your name is, in what country you were born, and from what country you come.
OEDIPUS. I am an exile, strangers, but forbear.
CHORUS. From what would you have us forbear, old man?
OEDIPUS. From asking my name, from asking anything.
CHORUS. Why do you say that?
OEDIPUS. My birth was horrible.
CHORUS. YOU must answer.
OEDIPUS [to Antigone]. My child, what am I to say?
CHORUS. Who was your father, stranger? And of what family?
OEDIPUS. O misery, misery, what will become of me, my child?
ANTIGONE. Speak: necessity compels it.
OEDIPUS. I will speak, if speak I must.
CHORUS. YOU make a great delay between you; come, speak out.
OEDIPUS. I am the son of Laius — [cry from the Chorus] and my family the Labdacidae.
CHORUS. O God!
OEDIPUS. And my name Oedipus.
CHORUS. That man!
OEDIPUS. But why should my words make you afraid?
[The Chorus half turn away, cover their eyes with their cloaks, and cry out.
OEDIPUS. Miserable that I am! [Clamour goes on-] Daughter, what is going to happen?
CHORUS. Away with you, away out of this land!
OEDIPUS. And your promise? Will you not keep your promise?
CHORUS. The Gods do not punish any man for doing to another what that other has done to him. You knew I did not know your name; you let me promise in ignorance of that, and so I but pay deceit by deceit. Get you gone from this sacred spot, and gone from this neighbourhood before you have brought a curse upon it.
ANTIGONE. Strangers, good honourable men, you will not listen to my father because of what he did against his will, but you should have compassion upon me; there is nothing to set me apart from you! I can still look at you with eyes that might be those of your own kin, and I beseech you that you may have compassion also upon this old man. We come to you in our misery as if you were a
God — no, do not turn away — we scarce dare hope; and yet grant our prayer. I implore you by everything that you hold dear, by wife, by child, by your home, by the God you worship. My father was driven on by a God; how could he help himself?
CHORUS. We pity your father and you his daughter, we pity both alike; you have shared misfortune together: but we dread the anger of the Gods and cannot add anything to what we have already said.
OEDIPUS. It is said that Athens of all the cities of the world has most will and power to succour and protect the exile, but that is fame and therefore but a breath of wind. You persuaded me to leave the rocky place where none dared touch me that you might drive me from your country. Was that succour and protection? What are you afraid of? What can I do against you? My life has been suffering, not doing. I need not tell you that story of my father and my mother; you know it already: it has put terror into you. But tell me this, how does it prove my nature evil? Even had I struck my father knowingly it would have been in self-defence, and I did it in ignorance; but the men that wronged me knew all that they did. Remember, strangers, that I left under a promise a place where the Gods protected me, and that if you do not keep your promise you do dishonour to those Gods, and the Gods know well how to separate those that do them honour from those that do not, and what man ever made them angry and prospered afterwards? Give the Gods their due, avoid what would blast the fair name of Athens. Do not despise me because my face is maimed and hideous. I came to you as a suppliant, I hold your pledge, fulfil that pledge. To you at any rate I should be sacred; for I can bring luck to all this neighbourhood if I have a mind to. When your master comes, whatever his name be, I shall explain my meaning; and as for the rest, see that you are not treacherous.
CHORUS. YOU have spoken words that fill me with awe. I cannot understand, for they are full of hints and mysteries, but it is for my betters to find out their meaning.
OEDIPUS. Where is your master, strangers?
CHORUS. At Athens, and the messenger who has brought us here has gone to fetch him. We sent him when you named yourself.
OEDIPUS. Do you think that he will come, that he will have respect enough for a blind man to come himself?
CHORUS. Yes, certain
ly; for he will hear your name. Your name has gone through all countries, and whatever he is doing, resting or working, he will put it aside and come upon the instant.
OEDIPUS. May he act so that he may call down a blessing not upon me alone but upon his city! Only a fool is his own enemy.
ANTIGONE. O God! Can I believe my own eyes? Can I be mistaken?