Oedipus Tyrannus; or, Swellfoot the Tyrant

SCENE 1.2: / THE PUBLIC STY. / THE BOARS IN FULL ASSEMBLY. / ENTER PURGANAX.

PURGANAX: / Grant me your patience, Gentlemen and Boars, / Ye, by whose patience under public burthens / The glorious constitution of these sties / Subsists, and shall subsist. The Lean-Pig rates / Grow with the growing populace of Swine, / The taxes, that true source of Piggishness / (How can I find a more appropriate term / To include religion, morals, peace, and plenty, / And all that fit Boeotia as a nation / To teach the other nations how to live? ), / Increase with Piggishness itself; and still / Does the revenue, that great spring of all / The patronage, and pensions, and by-payments, / Which free-born Pigs regard with jealous eyes, / Diminish, till at length, by glorious steps, / All the land's produce will be merged in taxes, / And the revenue will amount to-nothing! / The failure of a foreign market for / Sausages, bristles, and blood-puddings, / And such home manufactures, is but partial; / And, that the population of the Pigs, / Instead of hog-wash, has been fed on straw / And water, is a fact which is-you know- / That is-it is a state-necessity- / Temporary, of course. Those impious Pigs, / Who, by frequent squeaks, have dared impugn / The settled Swellfoot system, or to make / Irreverent mockery of the genuflexions / Inculcated by the arch-priest, have been whipped / Into a loyal and an orthodox whine. / Things being in this happy state, the Queen / Iona-