Thou differest from all these Thebans in that view.
ANTIGONE
These also share it; but they curb their tongues for thee.
CREON
And art thou not ashamed to act apart from them?
ANTIGONE
No; there is nothing shameful in piety to a brother.
CREON
Was it not a brother, too, that died in the opposite cause?
ANTIGONE
Brother by the same mother and the same sire.
CREON
Why, then, dost thou render a grace that is impious in his sight?
ANTIGONE
The dead man will not say that he so deems it.
CREON
Yea, if thou makest him but equal in honour with the wicked.
ANTIGONE
It was his brother, not his slave, that perished.
CREON
Wasting this land; while he fell as its champion.
ANTIGONE
Nevertheless, Hades desires these rites.
CREON
But the good desires not a like portion with the evil.
ANTIGONE
Who knows but this seems blameless in the world below?
CREON
A foe is never a friend-not even in death.
ANTIGONE
Tis not my nature to join in hating, but in loving.
CREON
Pass, then, to the world of the dead, and, it thou must needs love, love them. While I live, no woman shall rule me.
(Enter ISMENE from the house, led in by two attendants.)CHORUS (chanting)
Lo, yonder Ismene comes forth, shedding such tears as fond sisters weep; a cloud upon her brow casts its shadow over her darkly-flushing face, and breaks in rain on her fair cheek.
CREON
And thou, who, lurking like a viper in my house, wast secretly draining my life-blood, while I knew not that I was nurturing two pests, to rise against my throne-come, tell me now, wilt thou also confess thy part in this burial, or wilt thou forswear all knowledge of it?
ISMENE
I have done the deed,-if she allows my claim,-and share the burden of the charge.
ANTIGONE
Nay, justice will not suffer thee to do that: thou didst not consent to the deed, nor did I give thee part in it.
ISMENE
But, now that ills beset thee, I am not ashamed to sail the sea of trouble at thy side.
ANTIGONE
Whose was the deed, Hades and the dead are witnesses: a friend in words is not the friend that I love.
ISMENE
Nay, sister, reject me not, but let me die with thee, and duly honour the dead.
ANTIGONE
Share not thou my death, nor claim deeds to which thou hast not put thy hand: my death will suffice.
ISMENE
And what life is dear to me, bereft of thee?
ANTIGONE
Ask Creon; all thy care is for him.
ISMENE
Why vex me thus, when it avails thee nought?
ANTIGONE
Indeed, if I mock, 'tis with pain that I mock thee.
ISMENE
Tell me,-how can I serve thee, even now?
ANTIGONE
Save thyself: I grudge not thy escape.
ISMENE
Ah, woe is me! And shall I have no share in thy fate?
ANTIGONE
Thy choice was to live; mine, to die.
ISMENE
At least thy choice was not made without my protest.
ANTIGONE
One world approved thy wisdom; another, mine.
ISMENE
Howbeit, the offence is the same for both of us.
ANTIGONE
Be of good cheer; thou livest; but my life hath long been given to death, that so I might serve the dead.
CREON
Lo, one of these maidens hath newly shown herself foolish, as the other hath been since her life began.
ISMENE
Yea, O king, such reason as nature may have given abides not with the unfortunate, but goes astray.
CREON
Thine did, when thou chosest vile deeds with the vile.
ISMENE
What life could I endure, without her presence?
CREON
Nay, speak not of her 'presence'; she lives no more.
ISMENE
But wilt thou slay the betrothed of thine own son?
CREON
Nay, there are other fields for him to plough.
ISMENE
But there can never be such love as bound him to her.
CREON
I like not an evil wife for my son.
ANTIGONE
Haemon, beloved! How thy father wrongs thee!
CREON
Enough, enough of thee and of thy marriage!
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
Wilt thou indeed rob thy son of this maiden?
CREON
'Tis Death that shall stay these bridals for me.
LEADER
'Tis determined, it seems, that she shall die.
CREON
Determined, yes, for thee and for me.-(To the two attendants) No more delay-servants, take them within! Henceforth they must be women, and not range at large; for verily even the bold seek to fly, when they see Death now closing on their life.
(Exeunt attendants, guarding ANTIGONE and ISMENE.-CREON remains.)CHORUS (singing)
strophe 1
Blest are they whose days have not tasted of evil. For when a house hath once been shaken from heaven, there the curse fails nevermore, passing from life to life of the race; even as, when the surge is driven over the darkness of the deep by the fierce breath of Thracian sea-winds, it rolls up the black sand from the depths, and there is sullen roar from wind-vexed headlands that front the blows of the storm.
antistrophe 1
I see that from olden time the sorrows in the house of the Labdacidae are heaped upon the sorrows of the dead; and generation is not freed by generation, but some god strikes them down, and the race hath no deliverance.
For now that hope of which the light had been spread above the last root of the house of Oedipus-that hope, in turn, is brought low--by the blood-stained dust due to the gods infernal, and by folly in speech, and frenzy at the heart.
strophe 2
Thy power, O Zeus, what human trespass can limit? That power which neither Sleep, the all-ensnaring, nor the untiring months of the gods can master; but thou, a ruler to whom time brings not old age, dwellest in the dazzling splendour of Olympus.
And through the future, near and far, as through the past, shall this law hold good: Nothing that is vast enters into the life of mortals without a curse.
antistrophe 2
For that hope whose wanderings are so wide is to many men a comfort, but to many a false lure of giddy desires; and the disappointment comes on one who knoweth nought till he burn his foot against the hot fire.
For with wisdom hath some one given forth the famous saying, that evil seems good, soon or late, to him whose mind the god draws to mischief; and but for the briefest space doth he fare free of woe.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
But lo, Haemon, the last of thy sons;-Comes he grieving for the doom of his promised bride, Antigone, and bitter for the baffled hope of his marriage?
(Enter HAEMON)
CREON