The grief, the death, the pestilential air,

Which with thyself thou bring'st. Go speed thy flight

To any land, e'en to thy parents' realm. 80

Jocasta [who has entered in time to hear her husband's last words]: What boots it, husband, to augment thy woes

With lamentations? For I think, indeed,

This very thing is regal, to endure

Adversity, and all the more to stand,

With heart more valiant and with foot more sure,

When the weight of empire totters to its fall. 85

For 'tis not manly to present thy back