Is struggling, and in vain essays to rear

Her head emergent from the blood-stained wave.
Her fruits are blasted in the opening bud;
Her herds, infected, perish; her weak births
Are blighted immature. The fiery God,*
Loathed Pestilence, o'er this devoted city
Hangs imminent, and desolates th' abode
Of Cadmus, while in shrieks and piercing groans
Dark Pluto richly revels. Hence I bend,

With these sad youths, a suppliant at thine altars;
Not that we deem thee equal to the Gods,

But in the sad vicissitudes of life,

Or visitations of the angry Gods,

Account thee first of men. At Thebes arriving,
Thou didst redeem us from the tax imposed
By that relentless monster,' uninformed,
Untaught of us; by pitying Heaven alone
We deem thee sent our glory to restore.

+ The " fiery God," according to Musgrave, is Mars. The ground of his conjecture is the application of the epithet

pós to the planet bearing the name of that divinity. It appears more probable, however, that the expression poetically denotes a personification of Pestilence.

'Aodou, literally, songstress; so called, because her enigmas were propounded in verse.

Now, worthiest Edipus! on thee we fix
Our supplicating eyes,-O find us aid,
Or from the sure responses of the Gods,
Or man's experienced wisdom. Oft we see
That prudent counsels, e'en in deadliest ills,
Impart returning life. Noblest of men

Arise, once more the drooping state revive,
Arise, and wisdom guide thee! Though our realm
Hails thee her great Deliverer for the deeds
Of other days, no more can we recall

Thy happier sway-if, once by thee preserved,
Again we sink in ruin.

Then restore

Our rescued state to safety; and as erst
With happiest omens thou didst rise and save,
So be again thyself. Still o'er this land
Wouldst thou bear sway,-'tis better far to rule
O'er peopled cities, than deserted realms.
"Nought can strong tower or stately ship avail,
If nobler man, the soul of each, be wanting.

The same thought has been beautifully imitated, we might almost say translated, by Sir William Jones.

What constitutes a state?

Not high-raised battlements, or laboured mound,
Thick wall, or moated gate:

Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned,

Ed. O my afflicted people, but too well I know the purport of your prayers; I know Your common sufferings; yet, 'mid all your woes, None mourns so deeply as your pitying monarch: Each o'er his own peculiar misery weeps, Nor thinks of others' pain;-my heart is wrung At once for you, the city, and myself. Nor do ye rouse me now from reckless sleep; Know, many tears your King hath shed for you, And traversed many a path in thought's wild maze. One remedy alone my search discerned ; This I at once applied. The noble Creon, Menaceus' son, my kinsman," have I sent To Phœbus' Pythian shrine, charged to demand How I may save the state by word or deed, Now, as I reckon the revolving days,

The strange delay alarms me; for his stay

Hath passed the allotted term.

When he arrives,

7

Not bays, and broad-armed ports

Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;

No;-men, high-minded men.

Taußgos. The Greeks restrict this term, in its proper and peculiar sense, to those who are connected by ties of affinity, but not by blood, though it is occasionally taken, in a general sense, to express both.

VOL. I.

If I perform not all the God ordains,

Account your monarch basest of mankind.

Pr. Well hast thou said, O King! These youths

proclaim

The wished approach of Creon.

Ed. Royal Phoebus,

Grant he return with tidings not less glad,
Than the fair promise of his brightening eye.
Pr. He seems indeed exultant, or his brow
With the rich laurel were not thus enwreathed.
Ed. Soon shall we learn; our voice can reach
him now.

Enter CREON.

CEDIPUS, CREON, PRIEST, THEBANS.

Ed. Prince, our loved kinsman, great Menaceus'

son,

What answer bring'st thou from the God to Thebes?

Cr. Auspicious tidings; e'en our present ills,

If guided well, may yield a prosperous issue.

8 Those who returned from the oracle of Delphi, with an auspicious answer, were crowned with wreaths of laurel.

Ed. What mean thy words? Nor livelier hope

I draw,

Nor added terrors, from a speech like this.

Cr. If 'mid this concourse thou wouldst hear, I

stand

Prepared to speak; if not,

Ed. Nay, speak to all.

to pass within.

I count not life itself

Of equal interest with my people's sorrow.
Cr. Let me then tell the bidding of the God.
Phoebus hath straitly charged us to expel

Our state's pollution, nurtured in its bosom;

Nor harbour guilt that cannot be forgiven.

Ed. What, then, is this mysterious guilt, and what The due atonement?

Cr. Exile from the land,

Or death requiting death, since guiltless blood

Troubles the state.

Ed. To whose disastrous fate

Points this response?

Cr. O King, ere yet thy hand

Assumed the helm of empire in our state,

Laius was lord in Thebes.

Ed. Thus fame hath told me:

I ne'er beheld the monarch.

Cr. He was slain;