" A NTIGONE . "
Guard. The matter went this way. No sooner there
(Under your dreadful menace as we were),
We swept the dusty wrapper which enclosed
The dead, and left the weltering corpse exposed.
To windward, by the hilltop, down we sit,
Well out of range for stink from him to hit.
And man kept man with ugly words alert
If any one his duty should desert.
So for a time it was, till by-and-by
The sun's bright disk rode midway up the sky,
And heat grew scorching: when a sudden gust
(Sky-plague!) uplifts from earth a storm of dust.
It fills the plain and all the leafy wood
Along the plain torments; high heaven stood
Thick. Closing eye, the pest of God we took.
'T was long before 't abated. Then we look,
And lo! the girl! with wails of high distress —
Shrill as the cry of bird in bitterness
To see home rifled, chick-bereaved the bed:
— And even so, when stript she seized the dead,
— She screamed a loud lament, and with the worst
Curses the doers of the deed she curst.
Then drouthy dust in hand straightway she fetched,
And from a jug of hammered bronze, outstretched,
With three libation-draughts the dead she crowned.
But when we saw, we up and closed around,
And took her in a moment — undismayed.
When to her charge the former acts we laid,
And these, she did not offer to deny
At all. Both glad and sorry at once was I:
Right glad when your own trouble's at an end
For you, but sorry work to bring a friend
To trouble! Oh! but all such things amount
To little when my own escape I count!
Creon [ to A NTIGONE ]. You — who toward the ground your glances bow,
Do you deny this action or avow?
Antigone. I do avow and not deny the charge.
Creon [ to Guard ]. Take yourself off, where'er you like to be,
Absolved from heavy accusation, free!
[ To A NTIGONE .] You, — tell me quick, no length of words! — you knew
The edict had forbidden so to do?
Antigone. Yes. Could I fail to know? 'T was noised at large.
Creon. And you presumed beyond the law to go?
Antigone. Yes: for not Zeus, I think, proclaimed it so;
Not justice, dwelling with the Gods below,
The type of human statute so defined.
Nor could I in your proclamation find
Such force that mortal creature might out-range
The unwritten code of Gods which cannot change:
Not of to-day nor yesterday — 't is living
For evermore, and none can date its giving!
And was it likely I should fear the pride
Of any man so much as, this defied,
To face God's bar? That I must die, I knew:
O yes — edict or no! If ere time due,
I count that gain. For one who lives, as I
Live, in much misery — how can he die
And not be gainer? Slight the pain to me,
To meet this fate; but had I borne to see
My mother's son a graveless corpse remain,
Painful it had been: now I feel no pain.
A fool's act? Well, are you yourself, who rule
My act is folly, better than a fool?
Leader of Chorus . Harsh was the sire, the breed proves harsh no less
In her: she knows no yielding in distress.
Creon . Nay, but I'll have you know, pride overstiff
His falls the most; and hardest iron, if
The fire shall to excessive temper bake,
You shall observe most often flaw and break.
A little curb, when horses chafe and fume,
I know, will mend their manners! little room
For pride to swell when master lives next door!
This girl, adept in insolence before
When ordinance of law she overstept,
Proves now afresh in insolence adept
After the act: she laughs and vaunts her plan!
Upon my word, I 'm no man — she 's the man
If this triumph of hers go unatoned!
Not — be she sister's child — not, tho she owned
More ties of blood than all yon household shrine
Assembles — shall she 'scape from doom condign!
Guard. The matter went this way. No sooner there
(Under your dreadful menace as we were),
We swept the dusty wrapper which enclosed
The dead, and left the weltering corpse exposed.
To windward, by the hilltop, down we sit,
Well out of range for stink from him to hit.
And man kept man with ugly words alert
If any one his duty should desert.
So for a time it was, till by-and-by
The sun's bright disk rode midway up the sky,
And heat grew scorching: when a sudden gust
(Sky-plague!) uplifts from earth a storm of dust.
It fills the plain and all the leafy wood
Along the plain torments; high heaven stood
Thick. Closing eye, the pest of God we took.
'T was long before 't abated. Then we look,
And lo! the girl! with wails of high distress —
Shrill as the cry of bird in bitterness
To see home rifled, chick-bereaved the bed:
— And even so, when stript she seized the dead,
— She screamed a loud lament, and with the worst
Curses the doers of the deed she curst.
Then drouthy dust in hand straightway she fetched,
And from a jug of hammered bronze, outstretched,
With three libation-draughts the dead she crowned.
But when we saw, we up and closed around,
And took her in a moment — undismayed.
When to her charge the former acts we laid,
And these, she did not offer to deny
At all. Both glad and sorry at once was I:
Right glad when your own trouble's at an end
For you, but sorry work to bring a friend
To trouble! Oh! but all such things amount
To little when my own escape I count!
Creon [ to A NTIGONE ]. You — who toward the ground your glances bow,
Do you deny this action or avow?
Antigone. I do avow and not deny the charge.
Creon [ to Guard ]. Take yourself off, where'er you like to be,
Absolved from heavy accusation, free!
[ To A NTIGONE .] You, — tell me quick, no length of words! — you knew
The edict had forbidden so to do?
Antigone. Yes. Could I fail to know? 'T was noised at large.
Creon. And you presumed beyond the law to go?
Antigone. Yes: for not Zeus, I think, proclaimed it so;
Not justice, dwelling with the Gods below,
The type of human statute so defined.
Nor could I in your proclamation find
Such force that mortal creature might out-range
The unwritten code of Gods which cannot change:
Not of to-day nor yesterday — 't is living
For evermore, and none can date its giving!
And was it likely I should fear the pride
Of any man so much as, this defied,
To face God's bar? That I must die, I knew:
O yes — edict or no! If ere time due,
I count that gain. For one who lives, as I
Live, in much misery — how can he die
And not be gainer? Slight the pain to me,
To meet this fate; but had I borne to see
My mother's son a graveless corpse remain,
Painful it had been: now I feel no pain.
A fool's act? Well, are you yourself, who rule
My act is folly, better than a fool?
Leader of Chorus . Harsh was the sire, the breed proves harsh no less
In her: she knows no yielding in distress.
Creon . Nay, but I'll have you know, pride overstiff
His falls the most; and hardest iron, if
The fire shall to excessive temper bake,
You shall observe most often flaw and break.
A little curb, when horses chafe and fume,
I know, will mend their manners! little room
For pride to swell when master lives next door!
This girl, adept in insolence before
When ordinance of law she overstept,
Proves now afresh in insolence adept
After the act: she laughs and vaunts her plan!
Upon my word, I 'm no man — she 's the man
If this triumph of hers go unatoned!
Not — be she sister's child — not, tho she owned
More ties of blood than all yon household shrine
Assembles — shall she 'scape from doom condign!