Hippolytus [9]
I gladden Cypris, my destroyer, by yielding up my life, and shall own myself vanquished by cruel love. Yet shall my dying be another's curse, that he may learn not to exult at my misfortunes; but when he comes to share the self-same plague with me, he will take a lesson in wisdom. (PHAEDRA enters the palace.) CHORUS (chanting)
strophe 1
O to be nestling 'neath some pathless cavern, there by god's creating hand to grow into a bird amid the winged tribes! Away would I soar to Adria's wave-beat shore and to the waters of Eridanus; where a father's hapless daughters in their grief for Phaethon distil into the glooming flood the amber brilliance of their tears.
antistrophe 1
And to the apple-bearing strand of those minstrels in the west then would come, where ocean's lord no more to sailors grants passage o'er the deep dark main, finding there the heaven's holy bound, upheld by Atlas, where water from ambrosial founts wells up beside the couch of Zeus inside his halls, and holy earth, the bounteous mother, causes joy to spring in heavenly breasts.
strophe 2
O white-winged bark, that o'er the booming ocean-wave didst bring my royal mistress from her happy home, to crown her queen 'mongst sorrow's brides! Surely evil omens from either port, at least from Crete, were with that ship, what time to glorious Athens it sped its way, and the crew made fast its twisted cable-ends upon the beach of Munychus, and on the land stept out.
antistrophe 2
Whence comes it that her heart is crushed, cruelly afflicted by Aphrodite with unholy love; so she by bitter grief o'erwhelmed will tie a noose within her bridal bower to fit it to her fair white neck, to modest for this hateful lot in life, prizing o'er all her name and fame, and striving thus to rid her soul of passion's sting.
(The NURSE rushes out of the palace.)
NURSE Help! ho! To the rescue all who near the palace stand! She hath hung herself, our queen, the wife of Theseus. LEADER OF THE CHORUS Woe worth the day! the deed is done; our royal mistress is no more, dead she hangs in the dangling noose. NURSE Haste! some one bring a two-edged knife wherewith to cut the knot about her neck. FIRST SEMI-CHORUS Friends, what shall we do? think you we should enter the house, and loose the queen from the tight-drawn noose? SECOND SEMI-CHORUS Why should we? Are there not young servants here? To do too much is not a safe course in life. NURSE Lay out the hapless corpse, straighten the limbs. This was a bitter way to sit at home and keep my master's house! (She goes in.) LEADER OF THE CHORUS She is dead, poor lady; 'tis this I hear. Already are they laying out the corpse.
(THESEUS and his retinue have entered, unnoticed.)
THESEUS Women, can ye tell me what the uproar in the palace means? There came the sound of servants weeping bitterly to mine ear. None of my household deign to open wide the gates and give me glad welcome as traveller from prophetic shrines. Hath aught befallen old Pittheus? No, Though he be well advanced in years, yet should I mourn, were he to quit this house. LEADER 'Tis not against the old, Theseus, that fate, to strike thee, aims this blow; prepare thy sorrow for a younger corpse. THESEUS Woe is me! is it a child's life death robs me of? LEADER They live; but, cruellest news of all for thee, their mother is no more. THESEUS What! my wife dead? By what cruel stroke of chance? LEADER About her neck she tied the hangman's knot. THESEUS Had grief so chilled her blood? or what had befallen her? LEADER I know but this, for I am myself but now arrived at the house to mourn thy
strophe 1
O to be nestling 'neath some pathless cavern, there by god's creating hand to grow into a bird amid the winged tribes! Away would I soar to Adria's wave-beat shore and to the waters of Eridanus; where a father's hapless daughters in their grief for Phaethon distil into the glooming flood the amber brilliance of their tears.
antistrophe 1
And to the apple-bearing strand of those minstrels in the west then would come, where ocean's lord no more to sailors grants passage o'er the deep dark main, finding there the heaven's holy bound, upheld by Atlas, where water from ambrosial founts wells up beside the couch of Zeus inside his halls, and holy earth, the bounteous mother, causes joy to spring in heavenly breasts.
strophe 2
O white-winged bark, that o'er the booming ocean-wave didst bring my royal mistress from her happy home, to crown her queen 'mongst sorrow's brides! Surely evil omens from either port, at least from Crete, were with that ship, what time to glorious Athens it sped its way, and the crew made fast its twisted cable-ends upon the beach of Munychus, and on the land stept out.
antistrophe 2
Whence comes it that her heart is crushed, cruelly afflicted by Aphrodite with unholy love; so she by bitter grief o'erwhelmed will tie a noose within her bridal bower to fit it to her fair white neck, to modest for this hateful lot in life, prizing o'er all her name and fame, and striving thus to rid her soul of passion's sting.
(The NURSE rushes out of the palace.)
NURSE Help! ho! To the rescue all who near the palace stand! She hath hung herself, our queen, the wife of Theseus. LEADER OF THE CHORUS Woe worth the day! the deed is done; our royal mistress is no more, dead she hangs in the dangling noose. NURSE Haste! some one bring a two-edged knife wherewith to cut the knot about her neck. FIRST SEMI-CHORUS Friends, what shall we do? think you we should enter the house, and loose the queen from the tight-drawn noose? SECOND SEMI-CHORUS Why should we? Are there not young servants here? To do too much is not a safe course in life. NURSE Lay out the hapless corpse, straighten the limbs. This was a bitter way to sit at home and keep my master's house! (She goes in.) LEADER OF THE CHORUS She is dead, poor lady; 'tis this I hear. Already are they laying out the corpse.
(THESEUS and his retinue have entered, unnoticed.)
THESEUS Women, can ye tell me what the uproar in the palace means? There came the sound of servants weeping bitterly to mine ear. None of my household deign to open wide the gates and give me glad welcome as traveller from prophetic shrines. Hath aught befallen old Pittheus? No, Though he be well advanced in years, yet should I mourn, were he to quit this house. LEADER 'Tis not against the old, Theseus, that fate, to strike thee, aims this blow; prepare thy sorrow for a younger corpse. THESEUS Woe is me! is it a child's life death robs me of? LEADER They live; but, cruellest news of all for thee, their mother is no more. THESEUS What! my wife dead? By what cruel stroke of chance? LEADER About her neck she tied the hangman's knot. THESEUS Had grief so chilled her blood? or what had befallen her? LEADER I know but this, for I am myself but now arrived at the house to mourn thy