Oedipus Rex

SECOND MESSENGER:


… The king saw too, and with heart-rending groans

Untied the rope, and laid her on the ground. But worse was yet to see. Her dress was pinned

With golden brooches, which the King snatched out

And thrust, from full arm’s length, into his eyes –

 Eyes that should see no longer his shame, his guilt ,

No longer see those they should never have seen,

Nor see, unseeing, those he had longed to see ,

Henceforth seeing nothing but night … To this wild tune

 He pierced his eyeballs time and time again,

Till bloody tears ran down his beard – not drops

But in full spate a while cascade descending

In drenching cataracts of scarlet rain.

 Thus two have sinned ; and on two heads, not one –

On man and wife – falls mingled punishment.

<p class="MsoNormal">Their old long happiness of former times

<p class="MsoNormal">Was happiness earned with justice; but today

<p class="MsoNormal"> Calamity, death, ruin, tears, and shame,

<p class="MsoNormal">All ills that there are names for – all are here.