oding in their fancies the same pleasures,
And urges their remembrance to desire.

_Dioc._ Had merit, not her dotage, been considered;
Then Creon had been king; but OEdipus,
A stranger!

_Cre._ That word, _stranger_, I confess,
Sounds harshly in my ears.

_Dioc._ We are your creatures.
The people, prone, as in all general ills,
To sudden change; the king, in wars abroad;
The queen, a woman weak and unregarded;
Eurydice, the daughter of dead Laius,
A princess young and beauteous, and unmarried,--
Methinks, from these disjointed propositions,
Something might be produced.

_Cre._ The gods have done
Their part, by sending this commodious plague.
But oh, the princess! her hard heart is shut
By adamantine locks against my love.

_Alc._ Your claim to her is strong; you are betrothed.

_Pyr._ True, in her nonage.

_Dioc._ I heard the prince of Argos, young Adrastus,
When he was hostage here--

_Cre._ Oh name him not! the bane of all my hopes.
That hot-brained, head-long warrior, has the charms
Of youth, and somewhat of a lucky rashness,
To please a woman yet more fool than he.
That thoughtless sex is caught by outward form.
And empty noise, and loves itself in man.

_Alc._ But since the war broke out about our frontiers,
He's now a foe to Thebes.

_Cre._ But is not so to her. See, she appears;
Once more I'll prove my fortune. You insinuate
Kind thoughts of me into the multitude;
Lay load upon the court; gull them with freedom;
And you shall see them toss their tails, and gad,
As if the breeze had stung them.

_Dioc._ We'll about it. [_Exeunt_ ALC. DIOC. _and_ PYR.

_Enter_ EURYDICE.

_Cre._ Hail, royal maid! thou bright Eurydice,
A lavish planet reigned when thou wert born,
And made thee of such kindred mould to heaven,
Thou seem'st more heaven's than ours.

_Eur._ Cast round your eyes,
Where late the streets were so thick sown with men,
Like Cadmus' brood, they jostled for the passage;
Now look for those erected heads, and see them,
Like pebbles, paving all our public ways;
When you have thought on this, then answer me,--
If these be hours of courtship?

_Cre._ Yes, they are;
For when the gods destroy so fast, 'tis time
We should renew the race.

_Eur._ What, in the midst of horror?

_Cre._ Why not then?
There's the more need of comfort.

_Eur._ Impious Creon!

_Cre._ Unjust Eurydice! can you accuse me
Of love, which is heaven's precept, and not fear
That vengeance, whi