Hippolytus [7]
winging her flight hither and thither like a bee. PHAEDRA Peace, oh women, peace! I am undone. LEADER OF THE CHORUS What, Phaedra, is this dread event within thy house? PHAEDRA Hush! let me hear what those within are saying. LEADER I am silent; this is surely the prelude to evil. PHAEDRA (chanting) Great gods! how awful are my sufferings! CHORUS (chanting) What a cry was there! what loud alarm! say what sudden terror, lady, doth thy soul dismay. PHAEDRA I am undone. Stand here at the door and hear the noise arising in the house. CHORUS (chanting) Thou art already by the bolted door; 'tis for thee to note the sounds that issue from within. And tell me, O tell me what evil can be on foot. PHAEDRA 'Tis the son of the horse-loving Amazon who calls, Hippolytus, uttering foul curses on my servant. CHORUS (chanting) I hear a noise but cannot dearly tell which way it comes. Ah! 'tis through the door the sound reached thee. PHAEDRA Yes, yes, he is calling her plainly enough a go-between in vice, traitress to her master's honour. CHORUS (chanting) Woe, woe is me! thou art betrayed, dear mistress! What counsel shall I give thee? thy secret is out; thou art utterly undone. PHAEDRA Ah me! ah me! CHORUS (chanting) Betrayed by friends! PHAEDRA She hath ruined me by speaking of my misfortune; 'twas kindly meant, but an ill way to cure my malady. LEADER OF THE CHORUS O what wilt thou do now in thy cruel dilemma? PHAEDRA I only know one way, one cure for these my woes, and that is instant death.
(HIPPOLYTUS bursts out of the palace, followed closely by the NURSE.)
HIPPOLYTUS O mother earth! O sun's unclouded orb! What words, unfit for any lips, have reached my ears! NURSE Peace, my son, lest some one hear thy outcry. HIPPOLYTUS I cannot hear such awful words and hold my peace. NURSE I do implore thee by thy fair right hand. HIPPOLYTUS Let go my hand, touch not my robe. NURSE O by thy knees I pray, destroy me not utterly. HIPPOLYTUS Why say this, if, as thou pretendest, thy lips are free from blame? NURSE My son, this is no story to be noised abroad. HIPPOLYTUS A virtuous tale grows fairer told to many. NURSE Never dishonour thy oath, my son. HIPPOLYTUS My tongue an oath did take, but not my heart. NURSE My son, what wilt thou do? destroy thy friends? HIPPOLYTUS Friends indeed! the wicked are no friends of mine. NURSE O pardon me; to err is only human, child. HIPPOLYTUS Great Zeus, why didst thou, to man's sorrow, put woman, evil counterfeit, to dwell where shines the sun? If thou wert minded that the human race should multiply, it was not from women they should have drawn their stock, but in thy temples they should have paid gold or iron or ponderous bronze and bought a family, each man proportioned to his offering, and so in independence dwelt, from women free. But now as soon as ever we would bring this plague into our home we bring its fortune to the ground. 'Tis clear from this how great a curse a woman is; the very father, that begot and nurtured her, to rid him of the mischief, gives her a dower and packs her off; while the husband, who takes the noxious weed into his home, fondly decks his sorry idol in fine raiment and tricks her out in robes, squandering by degrees, unhappy wight! his house's wealth. For he is in this dilemma; say his marriage has brought him good connections, he is glad then to keep the wife he loathes; or, if he gets a good wife but useless kin, he tries to stifle the bad luck with the good. But it is easiest for him who has settled in his house as wife mere cipher, incapable from simplicity. I hate a clever woman; never may she set foot in my house who aims at knowing more than women need; for in these clever women Cypris implants a larger store of villainy, while the artless woman is by her shallow wit from levity debarred. No servant should ever have had access to a wife, but men should put to live with them beasts,
(HIPPOLYTUS bursts out of the palace, followed closely by the NURSE.)
HIPPOLYTUS O mother earth! O sun's unclouded orb! What words, unfit for any lips, have reached my ears! NURSE Peace, my son, lest some one hear thy outcry. HIPPOLYTUS I cannot hear such awful words and hold my peace. NURSE I do implore thee by thy fair right hand. HIPPOLYTUS Let go my hand, touch not my robe. NURSE O by thy knees I pray, destroy me not utterly. HIPPOLYTUS Why say this, if, as thou pretendest, thy lips are free from blame? NURSE My son, this is no story to be noised abroad. HIPPOLYTUS A virtuous tale grows fairer told to many. NURSE Never dishonour thy oath, my son. HIPPOLYTUS My tongue an oath did take, but not my heart. NURSE My son, what wilt thou do? destroy thy friends? HIPPOLYTUS Friends indeed! the wicked are no friends of mine. NURSE O pardon me; to err is only human, child. HIPPOLYTUS Great Zeus, why didst thou, to man's sorrow, put woman, evil counterfeit, to dwell where shines the sun? If thou wert minded that the human race should multiply, it was not from women they should have drawn their stock, but in thy temples they should have paid gold or iron or ponderous bronze and bought a family, each man proportioned to his offering, and so in independence dwelt, from women free. But now as soon as ever we would bring this plague into our home we bring its fortune to the ground. 'Tis clear from this how great a curse a woman is; the very father, that begot and nurtured her, to rid him of the mischief, gives her a dower and packs her off; while the husband, who takes the noxious weed into his home, fondly decks his sorry idol in fine raiment and tricks her out in robes, squandering by degrees, unhappy wight! his house's wealth. For he is in this dilemma; say his marriage has brought him good connections, he is glad then to keep the wife he loathes; or, if he gets a good wife but useless kin, he tries to stifle the bad luck with the good. But it is easiest for him who has settled in his house as wife mere cipher, incapable from simplicity. I hate a clever woman; never may she set foot in my house who aims at knowing more than women need; for in these clever women Cypris implants a larger store of villainy, while the artless woman is by her shallow wit from levity debarred. No servant should ever have had access to a wife, but men should put to live with them beasts,