OED. O shameless utterance!  Wilt thou lay thy hold
On me?

CR.  Be silent!  Speak no more!

OED. No more? 
May these dread Goddesses not close my lips
To this one prayer of evil against thee,
Thou villain, who, when I have lost mine eyes,
Bereavest me of all that I had left
To make my darkness light!  Therefore I pray,
For this thy wrongful act, may He in heaven
Whose eye sees all things, Helios, give to thee
Slowly to wither in an age like mine!

CR.  Men of this land, bear witness to his rage!

OED. They see us both, and are aware that I
Repay thee but with words for deeds of wrong.

CR.  No longer will I curb my wrath.  Though lonely
And cumbered by mine age, I will bear off
This man!

OED. Me miserable!

CH.  How bold thou art,
If standing here thou think’st to do this thing!

CR.  I do.

CH.  Then Athens is to me no city.

CR.  Slight men prevail o’er strength in a just cause.

OED. Hear ye his words?

CH.  He shall not make them good. 
Be witness, Zeus!

CR.  Zeus knows more things than thou.

OED. Is not this violence?

CR.  Violence you must bear.

CH.  Come, chieftain of our land! 
Come hither with all speed.  They pass the bound.

Enter THESEUS.

THE.  Wherefore that shouting?  Daunted by what fear
Stayed ye me sacrificing to the God[2]
Who guards this deme Colonos?  Let me know
What cause so hastened my reluctant foot.

OED. Dear friend (I know thy voice addressing us),
One here hath lately done me cruel wrong.

THE.  Who is the wrong-doer, say, and what the deed?

OED. This Creon, whom thou seest, hath torn away
Two children that were all in all to me.

THE.  Can this be possible?

OED. Thou hear’st the truth.

THE.  Then one of you run to the altar-foot
Hard by, and haste the people from the rite,
Horsemen and footmen at the height of speed
To race unto the parting of the roads
Where travellers from both gorges wont to meet. 
Lest there the maidens pass beyond our reach
And I be worsted by this stranger’s might
And let him laugh at me.  Be swift!  Away! 
—­For him, were I as wroth as he deserves,
He should not go unpunished from my hand. 
But now he shall be ruled by the same law
He thought to enforce.  Thou goest not from this ground
Till thou hast set these maids in presence here;
Since by thine act thou hast disgraced both me
And thine own lineage and thy native land,
Who with unlicensed inroad hast assailed
An ancient city, that hath still observed
Justice and equity, and apart from law