Shameful, maybe, yet for thee better than honour's code. Better this deed, if it shall save thy life, than that name thy pride will kill thee to retain.
PHAEDRA
I conjure thee, go no further! for thy words are plausible but infamous; for though as yet love has not undermined my soul, yet, if in specious words thou dress thy foul suggestion, I shall be beguiled into the snare from which I am now escaping.
NURSE
If thou art of this mind, 'twere well thou ne'er hadst sinned; but as it is, hear me; for that is the next best course; I in my house have charms to soothe thy love,-'twas but now I thought of them;-these shall cure thee of thy sickness on no disgraceful terms, thy mind unhurt, if thou wilt be but brave. But from him thou lovest we must get some token, word or fragment of his robe, and thereby unite in one love's twofold stream.
PHAEDRA
Is thy drug a salve or potion?
NURSE
I cannot tell; be content, my child, to profit by it and ask no questions.
PHAEDRA
I fear me thou wilt prove too wise for me.
NURSE
If thou fear this, confess thyself afraid of all; but why thy terror!
PHAEDRA
Lest thou shouldst breathe a word of this to Theseus' son.
NURSE
Peace, my child! I will do all things well; only be thou, queen Cypris, ocean's child, my partner in the work! And for the rest of my purpose, it will be enough for me to tell it to our friends within the house.
(The NURSE goes into the palace.)
CHORUS (singing)
strophe 1
O Love, Love, that from the eyes diffusest soft desire, bringing on the souls of those, whom thou dost camp against, sweet grace, Onever in evil mood appear to me, nor out of time and tune approach!
Nor fire nor meteor hurls a mightier bolt than Aphrodite's shaft shot by the hands of Love, the child of Zeus.
antistrophe 1
Idly, idly by the streams of Alpheus and in the Pythian shrines of Phoebus, Hellas heaps the slaughtered steers; while Love we worship not, Love, the king of men, who holds the key to Aphrodite's sweetest bower,-worship not him who, when he comes, lays waste and marks his path to mortal hearts by wide-spread woe.
strophe 2
There was that maiden in Oechalia, a girl unwed, that knew no wooer yet nor married joys; her did the Queen of Love snatch from her home across the sea and gave unto Alcmena's son, mid blood and smoke and murderous marriage-hymns, to be to him a frantic fiend of hell; woe! woe for his wooing!
antistrophe 2
Ah! holy walls of Thebes, ah! fount of Dirce, ye could testify what course the love-queen follows. For with the blazing levin-bolt did she cut short the fatal marriage of Semele, mother of Zeus-born Bacchus. All things she doth inspire, dread goddess, 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.)HIPPOLYTUSO 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
