May all go now with what is finished!
The castle of my King is overthrown,
A house no more, a house vanished and gone!

OTHER WOMEN
O God, if it may be in any way,
Let not this house be wrecked! Help us who pray!
I know not what is here: some unseen thing
That shows the Bird of Evil on the wing.
[THESEUS _has read the tablet and breaks out in uncontrollable emotion_.]

THESEUS
Oh, horror piled on horror!--Here is writ...
Nay, who could bear it, who could speak of it?

LEADER
What, O my King? If I may hear it, speak!

THESEUS
Doth not the tablet cry aloud, yea, shriek,
Things not to be forgotten?--Oh, to fly
And hide mine head! No more a man am I.
God what ghastly music echoes here!

LEADER
How wild thy voice! Some terrible thing is near.

THESEUS
No; my lips' gates will hold it back no more;
This deadly word,