Fathom the vast abyss of heavenly justice.
Whatever is, is in its causes just,
Since all things are by fate. But purblind man
Sees but a part o'the chain; the nearest links;
His eyes not carrying to that equal beam,
That poises all above.—
The prologue states, that the play, if damned, may be recorded as the "first buried since the Woollen Act." This enables us to fix the date of the performance. By the 30th Charles II. cap. 3. all persons were appointed to be buried in woollen after 1st August, 1678. The play must therefore have been represented early in the season 1678-9. It was not printed until 1679.
Footnotes:
- Nero is said to have represented the character of Œdipus, amongst others of the same horrible cast.—Suetonius, Lib. VI. Cap. 21.
- Thus Seneca is justly ridiculed by Dacier, for sending Laius forth with a numerous party of guards, to avoid the indecorum of a king going abroad too slenderly attended. The guards lose their way within a league of their master's capital; and, by this awkward contrivance, their absence is accounted for, when he is met by Œdipus.
- Voltaire, however, held a different opinion. He thought a powerful effect might be produced by the exhibition of the blind king, indistinctly seen in the back ground, amid the shrieks of Jocasta, and the exclamations of the Thebans; provided the actor was capable of powerful gesture, and of expressing much passion, with little declamation.
- Quoi! la necessite des vertus et des vices
- D'un astre imperieux doit suivre les caprices?
- Et Delphes malgré nous conduit nos actions
- Au plus bizarre effet de ses predictions?
- L'ame est donc toute esclave; une loi soveraine
- Vers le bien ou le mal incessamment l'entraine;
- Et nous recevons ni crainte ni desir,
- De cette liberté qui n'a rien a choisir;
- Attachés sans relache á cet ordre sublime,
- Vertueux sans merite, et vicieux sans crime;
- Qu'on massare les rois, qu'on brise les autels,
- C'est la faute des dieux, et non pas des mortels;
- De toute la vertu sur la terre epandue
- Tout le prix ces dieux, toute la gloire est due;
- Ils agissent en nous, quand nous pensons agir,
- Alons qu'on delibere, on ne fait qu'obeir;
- Et notre volonté n'aime, hait, cherche, evite,
- Que suivant que d'en haut leur bras la precipite!
- D'un tel aveuglement daignez me dispenser
- Le ciel juste a punir, juste a recompenser,
- Pour rendre aux actions leur peine ou leur salaire,
- Doit nous offrir son aide et puis nous laisser faire.