Oedipus.
Oh, riddles everywhere and words of doubt!
Tiresias.
Aye. Thou wast their best reader long ago.
Oedipus.
Laugh on. I swear thou still shalt find me so.
Tiresias.
That makes thy pride and thy calamity.
Oedipus.
I have saved this land, and care not if I die.
Tiresias.
Then I will go.—Give me thine arm, my child.
Oedipus.
Aye, help him quick.—To see him there makes wild
My heart. Once gone, he will not vex me more.
Tiresias (turning again as he goes).
I fear thee not; nor will I go before
That word be spoken which I came to speak.
How canst thou ever touch me?—Thou dost seek
With threats and loud proclaim the man whose hand
Slew Laïus. Lo, I tell thee, he doth stand
Here. He is called a stranger, but these days
Shall prove him Theban true, nor shall he praise
His birthright. Blind, who once had seeing eyes,
Beggared, who once had riches, in strange guise,
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