At length the dire prediction is fulfill’d,
And Oedipus is now, tho’ innocent,
A base incestuous parricide: O virtue!
Thou fatal empty name; thou who didst guide
My hapless days, thou hadst now pow’r to stop
The current of my fate: alas! I fell
Into the snare by trying to avoid it:
Heav’n led me on to guilt, and sunk a pit
Beneath my sliding feet: I was the slave
Of some unknown, some unrelenting power,
That us’d me for it instrument of vengeance:
These are my crimes, remorseless cruel gods!
Yours was the guilt, and ye have punish’d me.
[Passage continues]