OEDIPUS.

Back with his arms, ye bondmen! Hold him so.

[_The thralls drag back the_ SHEPHERD'S _arms, ready for torture._

SHEPHERD.

Woe's me! What have I done?... What wouldst thou know?

OEDIPUS.

Didst give this man the child, as he doth say?

SHEPHERD.

I did.... Would G.o.d that I had died this day!

[Sidenote: vv. 1158-1167]

OEDIPUS.

'Fore heaven, thou shalt yet, if thou speak not true.

SHEPHERD.

'Tis more than death and darker, if I do.

OEDIPUS.

This dog, it seems, will keep us waiting.

SHEPHERD.

Nay, I said at first I gave it.

OEDIPUS.

In what way Came it to thee? Was it thine own child, or Another's?

SHEPHERD.

Nay, it never crossed my door: Another's.

OEDIPUS.

Whose? What man, what house, of these About thee?

SHEPHERD.

In the name of G.o.d who sees, Ask me no more!

OEDIPUS.

If once I ask again, Thou diest.

SHEPHERD.

From the folk of Laus, then, It came.

[Sidenote: vv. 1168-1176]

OEDIPUS.

A slave, or born of Laus' blood?

SHEPHERD.

There comes the word I dread to speak, O G.o.d!

OEDIPUS.

And I to hear: yet heard it needs must be.

SHEPHERD.

Know then, they said 'twas Laus' child. But she Within, thy wife, best knows its fathering.

OEDIPUS.

'Twas she that gave it?

SHEPHERD.

It was she, O King.

OEDIPUS.

And bade you ... what?

SHEPHERD.

Destroy it.

OEDIPUS.

Her own child?...

Cruel!

SHEPHERD.