MESS. They are dead; and they that live
Are guilty of the death.
CH. The slayer, who?
And who the slain? Declare.
MESS. Haemon is dead,
And by a desperate hand.
CH. His own, or Creon’s?
MESS. By his own hand, impelled with violent wrath
At Creon for the murder of the maid.
CH. Ah, Seer! how surely didst thou aim thy word!
MESS. So stands the matter. Make of it what ye list.
[page 36][1180-1217] CH. See, from the palace cometh close to us
Creon’s unhappy wife, Eurydicè.
Is it by chance, or heard she of her son?
Enter EURYDICE.
EURYDICE. Ye men of Thebes, the tidings met mine ear
As I was coming forth to visit Pallas
With prayerful salutation. I was loosening
The bar of the closed gate, when the sharp sound
Of mine own sorrow smote against my heart,
And I fell back astonied on my maids
And fainted. But the tale? tell me once more;
I am no novice in adversity.