Painful to work the woe of those we honour.

Yet all regrets are fruitless, and must yield

To mine own preservation.

Cr. Answer thou,

Bending thy head to earth,-dost thou confess,

Or canst deny the charge?

Ant. I do confess it

Freely; I scorn to disavow the act.

Cr. Thou, from the threatened penalty absolved,

[To MESSENGER.

Go where thou wilt, acquitted.

But for thee,

[TO ANTIGONE.

Reply with answer brief to one plain question,

Without evasion. Didst thou know the law,

That none should do this deed?

Ant. I knew it well;

How could I fail to know, it was most plain.

Cr. Didst thou then dare transgress our royal

mandate?

Ant. Ne'er did eternal Jove such laws ordain, Or Justice, throned amid th' Infernal Powers, Who on mankind these holier rites imposed ;Nor can I deem thine edict armed with power To contravene the firm unwritten laws

Of the just Gods, thyself a weak frail mortal!
These are no laws of yesterday,-they live
For evermore, and none can trace their birth.
I would not dare, by mortal threat appalled,
To violate their sanction, and incur

The vengeance of the Gods. I knew before

That I must die, though thou hadst ne'er proclaimed it;

And if I perish ere th' allotted term,

I deem that death a blessing. Who that lives,
Like me, encompassed by unnumbered ills,

But would account it blessedness to die?

If then I meet the doom thy laws assign,
It nothing grieves me. Had I left my brother,
From mine own mother sprung, on the bare earth
To lie unburied, that indeed might grieve me;
But for this deed I mourn not. If to thee
Mine actions seem unwise, 'tis thine own soul
That errs from wisdom when it deems me senseless.
Ch. This maiden shares her father's stubborn soul
And scorns to bend beneath misfortune's power.
Cr. Yet thou mightst know, that loftiest spirits

oft

Are bowed to deepest shame; and thou mightst mark The hardest metal soft and ductile made

VOL. I.

R

By the resistless energy of flame;

Oft, too, the fiery courser have I seen

By a small bit constrained. High arrogant thoughts
Beseem not one, whose duty is submission."
In this presumption she was lessoned first,
When our imperial laws she dared to spurn,
And to that insolent wrong fresh insult adds,
In that she glories vaunting in the deed.
Henceforth no more deem mine a manly soul;-
Concede that name to hers, if from this crime
She shall escape unpunished. Though she spring
From our own sister;-were she sprung from one
'Dearer than all whom Hercian Jove defends,
She and her sister shall not now evade

A shameful death; for I accuse her, too,
And deem her privy to these lawless rites.
Hence, call her hither; late within I marked
Her frenzied ravings and distempered mood.
The mind that broods in darkness o'er its guilt
By starts of frenzy is betrayed to light.

I hate the wretch, who, when convicted, strives

3 In the original, from one more near of blood than all under the protection of Hercian Jove. This Jupiter was the guardian of the house, in the court of which his altar stood.

To veil detected guilt in honour's garb.

Ant. And wouldst thou aught beyond my death?

Cr. No more ;

'Tis all I seek.

Ant. Then wherefore dost thou pause?-
For all thy words are hateful to mine ear,
And ever will be hateful; nor my speech
To thee is less unwelcome. Whence could I
Obtain a holier praise, than by committing
My brother to the tomb? These, too, I knew,
Would all approve the action, but that fear
Curbs their free thoughts to base and servile silence.
But 'tis the noble privilege of tyrants

To say and do whate'er their lordly will,
Their only law, may prompt.

Cr. Of all the Thebans,

Dost thou alone see this?

Ant. They too behold it;

But fear constrains them to an abject silence.
Cr. Doth it not shame thee to dissent from these?
Ant. I cannot think it shame to love my brother.
Cr. Was not he too, who died for Thebes, thy
brother?

Ant. He was; and of the self-same parents born.
Cr. Why then dishonour him to grace the guilty?

Ant. The dead entombed will not attest thy

words.

Cr. Yes; if thou honour with an equal doom That impious wretch—

Ant. He did not fall a slave;

He was my brother.

Cr. Yet he wronged his country;

The other fought undaunted in her cause.

Ant. Still Death at least demands an equal law. Cr. Ne'er should the base be honoured like the

noble.

Ant. Who knows, if this be holy in the shades? Cr. Death cannot change a foe into a friend. Ant. My nature tends to mutual love, not hatred. Cr. Then to the grave, and love them, if thou

must ;

But while I live, no woman shall bear sway.

Ch. Lo! at the portal fair Ismene stands, Dissolved in tears at her loved sister's peril. The cloud of heartfelt sorrow lowers

O'er her dejected brow,

And dims the radiance of her loveliness.

ISMENE is brought in.