OEDIPUS Teiresias, seer who comprehendest all, Lore of the wise and hidden mysteries, High things of heaven and low things of the earth, Thou knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught, What plague infects our city; and we turn To thee, O seer, our one defense and shield.
TEIRESIAS Let me go home; prevent me not; 'twere best That thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine.
But the greater thing--in which thou art unwilling to believe--is thy body with its big sagacity; it saith not "ego," but doeth it.
Behind thy thoughts and feelings, my brother, there is a mighty lord, an unknown sage--it is called Self; it dwelleth in thy body, it is thy body.
O Father, gracious was that word which clos'd
Thy sovran sentence, that Man should find grace; For which both Heav'n and Earth shall high extoll
Thy praises, with th' innumerable sound Of Hymns and sacred Songs, wherewith
thy Throne Encompass'd shall resound thee ever blest.
And when I bade the dream Upon
thy spirit flee,
Thy violet eyes to me Upturned, did overflowing seem With the deep, untold delight Of Love's serenity;
Thy classic brow, like lilies white And pale as the Imperial Night Upon her throne, with stars bedight, Enthralled my soul to thee!
And thou, much plumper dame, whom no airy forms nor phantoms of imagination cloathe; whom the well-seasoned beef, and pudding richly stained with plums, delight: thee I call: of whom in a treckschuyte, in some Dutch canal, the fat ufrow gelt, impregnated by a jolly merchant of Amsterdam, was delivered: in Grub-street school didst thou suck in the elements of
thy erudition.
Send no lunge beyond
thy length; Lend no rotten bough
thy strength.
If thou knowest thyself, it will follow thou wilt not puff thyself up like the frog that strove to make himself as large as the ox; if thou dost, the recollection of having kept pigs in thine own country will serve as the ugly feet for the wheel of
thy folly."
Look this day in mercy and blessing on
Thy humble people, and graciously hear us, spare us, and have mercy upon us!
THESEUS Wouldst tell the old misfortune of
thy race?
HAEMON O father, I am thine, and I will take
Thy wisdom as the helm to steer withal.