Page 1
OEDIPUS.
ACT. I. SCENE Thebes.
The Curtain rises to a plaintive Tune, representing the present con∣dition of Thebes; Dead Bodies appear at a distance in the Streets; Some faintly go over the Stage, others drop.
Enter Alcander, Diocles, Pyracmon.
Alc.
MEthinks we stand on Ruines; Nature shakes
About us; and the Universal Frame
So loose, that it but wants another push
To leap from off its Hindges.
Dioc.
No Sun to chear us; but a Bloody Globe
That rowls above; a bald and Beamless Fire;
His Face o're-grown with Scurf: the Sun's sick too;
Shortly he'll be an Earth.
Pyr.
Therefore the Seasons
Lye all confus'd; and, by the Heaven's neglected,
Forget themselves: Blind Winter meets the Summer
In his Mid-way, and, seeing not his Livery,
Has driv'n him headlong back: And the raw damps
With flaggy Wings fly heavily about,
Scattering their Pestilential Colds and Rheumes
Through all the lazy Air.
Alc.
Hence Murrains follow'd
On bleating Flocks, and on the lowing Herds:
At last, the Malady
Grew more domestick, and the faithful Dog
Dy'd at his Masters Feet.