Hippolytus [4]
Then what strange mystery is there that drives thee on to die? PHAEDRA O, let my sin and me alone, 'tis not 'gainst thee I sin. NURSE Never willingly! and, if I fail, 'twill rest at thy door. PHAEDRA How now? thou usest force in clinging to my hand. NURSE Yea, and I will never loose my hold upon thy knees. PHAEDRA Alas for thee! my sorrows, shouldst thou learn them, would recoil on thee. NURSE What keener grief for me than failing to win thee? PHAEDRA 'Twill be death to thee; though to me that brings renown. NURSE And dost thou then conceal this boon despite my prayers? PHAEDRA I do, for 'tis out of shame I am planning an honourable escape. NURSE Tell it, and thine honour shall the brighter shine. PHAEDRA Away, I do conjure thee; loose my hand. NURSE I will not, for the boon thou shouldst have granted me is denied. PHAEDRA I will grant it out of reverence for thy holy suppliant touch. NURSE Henceforth I hold my peace; 'tis thine to speak from now. PHAEDRA Ah! hapless mother, what a love was thine! NURSE Her love for the bull? daughter, or what meanest thou? PHAEDRA And woe to thee! my sister, bride of Dionysus. NURSE What ails thee, child? speaking ill of kith and kin. PHAEDRA Myself the third to suffer! how am I undone! NURSE Thou strik'st me dumb! Where will this history end? PHAEDRA That "love" has been our curse from time long past. NURSE I know no more of what I fain would learn. PHAEDRA Ah! would thou couldst say for me what I have to tell. NURSE I aw no prophetess to unriddle secrets. PHAEDRA What is it they mean when they talk of people being in "love-"? NURSE At once the sweetest and the bitterest thing, my child. PHAEDRA I shall only find the latter half. NURSE Ha! my child, art thou in love? PHAEDRA The Amazon's son, whoever he may be- NURSE Mean'st thou Hippolytus? PHAEDRA 'Twas thou, not I, that spoke his name. NURSE O heavens! what is this, my child? Thou hast ruined me. Outrageous! friends; I will not live and bear it; hateful is life, hateful to mine eyes the light. This body I resign, will cast it off, and rid me of existence by my death. Farewell, my life is o'er. Yea, for the chaste I have wicked passions, 'gainst their will maybe, but still they have. Cypris, it seems, is not goddess after all, but something greater far, for she hath been the ruin of my lady and of me and our whole family. CHORUS (chanting) O, too clearly didst thou hear our queen uplift her voice to tell her startling tale of piteous suffering. Come death ere I reach thy state of feeling, loved mistress. O horrible! woe, for these miseries! woe, for the sorrows on which mortals feed! Thou art undone! thou hast disclosed thy sin to heaven's light. What hath each passing day and every hour in store for thee? Some strange event will come to pass in this house. For it is no longer uncertain where the star of thy love is setting, thou hapless daughter of Crete. PHAEDRA Women of Troezen, who dwell here upon the frontier edge of Pelops' land, oft ere now in heedless mood through the long hours of night have I wondered why man's life is spoiled; and it seems to me their evil case is not due to any natural fault of judgment, for there be many dowered with sense, but we must view the matter in this light: by teaching and experience to learn the right but neglect it in practice, some from sloth, others from preferring pleasure of some kind or other to duty. Now life has many pleasures, protracted talk, and leisure, that seductive evil; likewise there is shame which is of two kinds, one a noble quality, the other a curse to families; but if for each its proper time were clearly known, these twain could not have had the selfsame letters to denote them. So then since I had made up my mind on these points, 'twas not likely any drug would alter it and make me think the contrary. And I will tell the too the way my judgment went. When love wounded me,