Dioc. Had merit, not her dotage, been considered;
Then Creon had been king; but Œdipus,
A stranger!
Cre. That word, stranger, I confess,
Sounds harshly in my ears.
Dioc. We are your creatures.
The people, prone, as in all general ills,
To sudden change; the king, in wars abroad;
The queen, a woman weak and unregarded;
Eurydice, the daughter of dead Laius,
A princess young and beauteous, and unmarried,—
Methinks, from these disjointed propositions,
Something might be produced.
Cre. The gods have done
Their part, by sending this commodious plague.
But oh, the princess! her hard heart is shut
By adamantine locks against my love.
Alc. Your claim to her is strong; you are betrothed.
Pyr. True, in her nonage.
Dioc. I heard the prince of Argos, young Adrastus,
When he was hostage here—
Cre. Oh name him not! the bane of all my hopes.
That hot-brained, head-long warrior, has the charms
Of youth, and somewhat of a lucky rashness,
To please a woman yet more fool than he.
That thoughtless sex is caught by outward form.
And empty noise, and loves itself in man.
Alc. But since the war broke out about our frontiers,
He's now a foe to Thebes.
Cre. But is not so to her. See, she appears;
Once more I'll prove my fortune. You insinuate
Kind thoughts of me into the multitude;
Lay load upon the court; gull them with freedom;
And you shall see them toss their tails, and gad,
As if the breeze had stung them.