208
Œdipus
SCENE VI.
JOCASTE, ÆGINA, HIGH PRIEST, CHORUS.
HIGH PRIEST.
Attend, ye people,
And know, a milder sun now beams upon you:
At length the baleful pestilence is fled,
The graves once more are closed, and death hath left us;
The God of heaven and earth declares his goodness
In peals of thunder: hark!
[Thunder and lightning.
JOCASTE.
What dreadful flashes!
Where am I? heaven! what do I hear! Barbarians—
HIGH PRIEST.
'Tis done: the gods are satisfied: no more
Doth Laius from the tomb cry out for vengeance:
Jocaste, thou mayest live and reign; the blood
Of Œdipus sufficeth.
CHORUS.
Gracious heaven!
JOCASTE.
My son! and must I call him husband too!
Dear dreadful names! is he then dead?
HIGH PRIEST.
He lives,
But from the living and the dead cut off,
Deprived of light: I saw him plunge this sword,