Oedipus Three Cantoes

The poem Oedipus: Three Cantoes is the only published work by Thomas Evans, a clergyman who studied at Cambridge from 1608 to 1622 and served as rector of two parishes (St Helen, Bishopgate, London in 1618-1619 and Little Holland, Essex from 1618 up to his death in 1633; Cooper 2004). Alongside this poem, Evans seems to have authored also some verses in a manuscript miscellany (Cooper 2004). As announced in its full title, the poem is divided into three cantos, respectively devoted to Oedipus’ “infortunate infancy”, his “execrable actions”, and his “lamentable end”, thereby presenting the myth in chronological order. Evans wrote the poem when he was at Cambridge, after obtaining his BA from Corpus Christi College, and dedicated it to John Clapman, a clerk of the Chancery.[1]

            The dedicatory epistle is followed by a letter to the “ingenious and ingenuous reader”, in which he pre-empts criticisms from his detractors by saying his poem neither offers salacious details nor censures people’s morality. Moreover, he rejects any criticism by those who hold a prejudicial view of his work or poetry as a whole because of their “ignorance”. Evans then touches on the subject matter of his poem, pointing out that the events he tells have been told before by others with many variations; he therefore thought he could equally “follow his fancy”. Also, any imitation he has made should be imputed to the “aptness of the author”, except that he does not say who this author is; the likeliest option, however, is Seneca, who authored the tragedy Oedipus. Both paratexts, the dedicatory epistle and the letter to the readers, are full of learned quotations from classical literature and erudite mythological references.

            The first canto is centred on the figure of Laius: this is quite unconventional in Evan’s possible sources, wherein the motives and feelings of Laius as a parent killing his child are never addressed. Laius’ prominence in the canto is testified by the character’s direct speeches: a long lament (167 lines out of the whole canto’s 577) in which, although aware of the oracle predicted, he declares himself incapable of killing his own son; another monologue after Oedipus’ birth, in which by means of allegorical imagery, he expresses his dismay at the discrepancy between his child’s outward beauty and the potential to sin that the oracle attribute to him; and a speech to the servant to whom he assigns the task of killing Oedipus.

The second canto shifts its focus on the young Oedipus, who goes to Delphi to consult Apollo’s oracle again and obtain the same answer: he is going to kill his father and beget children with his mother. Incredulous and baffled, Oedipus challenges Apollo and decides to leave his parents in order to avoid any parricide and incest. In so doing, however, Oedipus actually helps fate in fulfilling the oracle and meets his father Laius during his journey towards Thebes: in a fit of madness Oedipus kills Laius and flees. Jocasta and the subjects had barely completed the funeral rites to mourn Laius’ death when another misfortune befalls on Thebes: a monster, the Sphinx, settled on a mountain and killed every passer-by who was unable to solve her aenigmas. The city calls for help for anyone capable of solving the Sphinx’ riddle offering the kingship over Thebes in return. Oedipus accepts the challenge and gets to meet Jocasta before solving the riddle. They feel mutual attraction and Jocasta is taken over by a soul struggle between love and shame. Oedipus solves the Sphinx’ riddle and, as a reward, he becomes King of Thebes and Jocasta’ new husband and begets four children, two pair of twins: Polyneices and Eteocles, Antigone and Ismene.

In the opening of the third canto, yet another calamity has befallen on Thebes: a plague. After learning from the oracle that the cause is Laius’ murderer, who pollutes the city. Oedipus curses the murderer and, uncertain as to what he should do to find him, decides to consult Tiresias, a blind priest of Apollo.  Tiresias raises the ghost of Laius and the former king accuses the new king of parricide and of incest. Informed by a messenger, Oedipus suspects that this is a stratagem of Creon’s in order to gain the throne but Jocasta’s account of the circumstances of Laius’ death make him realize he was the killer. At that point, an old man from Corinth announces the death of Polybus, the man Oedipus believed to be his father. Oedipus refuses the now vacant crown of Corinth because he fears to commit incest with Merope but the old messenger, in an attempt to reassure him, reveals that she is not his real mother. The old man himself had received Oedipus as a child from a Theban shepherd. Oedipus summons this shepherd who at first lies about the identity of this baby’s parents and then is forced with tortures to reveal the truth: the baby’s mother is Oedipus wife. There follows a long lament by Oedipus who meditates on death as a cure from his sins. He takes out his eyes and, at Jocasta’s request, he kills her.

In the first two cantos, Evans’ sources are not clearly identifiable as one would expect from a poem on a subject so frequently explored. However, this comes as no surprise as Oedipus’ “infancy” and “actions” are usually matter of the arguments that precedes the play devoted to the Theban saga such as Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus and Seneca’s Oedipus and Phoenissae. Unlike the first two cantos, the third betrays more openly his main source, i.e., Seneca’s Oedipus: the invocation of Laius’ ghost, the presence of Tiresias’ daughter Manto, and the digression on the trees in the grove in which Tiresias performed the rites are all plot elements of this play. It is possible that Evans also looked at Alexander Neville’s translation of the play published for the first time in 1563 and republished as part of Thomas Newton’s collection Seneca His Tenne Tragedies in 1581. In any case, Evans introduces two significant variations to Seneca’s treatment of the myth: Oedipus meets Jocasta at the palace before solving the riddle of the Sphinx and Jocasta dies by Oedipus’ hand, at her request.

Overall, the poem has a tendency to pedantry: it is awash with learned mythological references, which sometimes are difficult to identify; its vocabulary is mostly chosen and archaic; long descriptions with virtuosic display of erudition slow down the rhythm of the rhyming iambic pentameters. Nonetheless, the poem is made livelier thanks to a constant alternation of diegetic and dialogic sections. Also, Evans proves skilled in investigating the feelings and emotions of the characters.

References

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[1] The Chancery is the court presided over the Lord Chancellor and, unlike the courts of the common law, administered justice according to system of equity (White 1996, 46).

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Thomas Evan’s Oedipus Three Cantoes was published in one single octavo edition in 1615 in London by the printer Nicholas Okes (STC (2nd ed.) / 1059). Among the three copies now extant (two in the United States, one in the UK), the one used for the diplomatic, semidiplomatic and modernised version is the one available on EEBO, i.e., the copy preserved at the Huntington Library. Overall, the witness presents several ink stains, which often impair the readability of the printed text. A handwritten number appears on the title page, perhaps due to a librarian’s cataloguing methods. Running titles help readers orient themselves throughout the tripartite poem, specifying which canto one is reading. Ornamental motifs decorate the page of the dedicatory epistle and the letter to the reader, as well as the first page of each canto. A decorative frame encloses the argument appearing on the first page of canto I; a floral ornament signals the end of canto I and III. The title page bears no printer’s device.