CE. My lips shall utter what the God hath said.
Sovereign Apollo clearly bids us drive
Forth from this region an accursed thing
(For such is fostered in the land and stains
Our sacred clime), nor cherish it past cure.
OED. What is the fault, and how to be redressed?
CR. By exile, or by purging blood with blood.
Since blood it is that shakes us with this storm.
OED. Whose murder doth Apollo thus reveal?
[page 88][103-137] CR. My gracious lord, before thy prosperous reign
King Laius was the leader of our land.
OED. Though I ne’er saw him, I have heard, and know.
CR. Phoebus commands us now to punish home,
Whoe’er they are, the authors of his death.
OED. But they, where are they? Where shall now be read
The fading record of this ancient guilt?
CR He saith, ’tis in this land. And what is sought
Is found, while things uncared for glide away.
OED. But where did Laius meet this violent end?
At home, afield, or on some foreign soil?