No More Learning

Act II Scene I (Aricia, Ismene)

Aricia

Hippolyte wishes to see me here? And why?
Hippolyte looks for me, wants to say goodbye?
Ismene, is this true? Surely, you're incorrect?

Ismene

It's due to Theseus's death: the first effect. 370
My lady, be ready on every side to view
Those Theseus rejected, who'll flock to you.
Aricia's finally mistress of her fate,
And you'll soon see all Greece is at your feet.

Aricia

So it's not, Ismene, some ill-founded rumour? 375
I have no enemies: I'm a slave no longer?

Ismene

No, my lady, the gods no longer oppose it,
And Theseus goes to meet your brothers' spirits.

Aricia

Do they say what action has ended his days?

Ismene

Unbelievable tales of his ending circulate 380
They say that the waves have swallowed the faithless:
A husband, yet abductor of some fresh mistress.
They even say, and this rumour's widely spread,
That, with Pirithous, he went down among the dead,
Saw the Cocytus, and the shores of darkness, 385
Showed himself alive to infernal shades, no less:
But could not escape from that gloomy sojourn,
And re-cross the border we pass without return.

Aricia

Am I to believe a man, prior to his dying breath,
Could penetrate to the deep house of the dead?
390
What spell drew him to that formidable shore?

Ismene

You alone doubt, Madame: Theseus is no more:
Athens laments it, Troezen knows of it,
And has recognised Hippolytus already.
Phaedra, in the palace, trembles for her son's life, 395
From all her anxious friends she demands advice.

Aricia

And you think Hippolytus, kinder than his father,
Being more humane, will make my chains lighter?
That he'll pity my troubles?

Ismene

Madame, I think so.

Aricia

Is unfeeling Hippolytus known to you though? 400
What shallow hope makes you think he'll pity me,
And respect a sex he treats disdainfully?
You see he's evaded us for some time now,
And seeks the places where we never go.

Ismene

I know all that they say about his coldness: 405
But I've seen proud Hippolytus in your presence:
And, even as I watched, the rumours of his pride
Redoubled my curiosity, I find.
His reality didn't quite match the rumour:
At your first glances I found him someone other. 410
His eyes, that wished in vain to evade you,
Already, filled with yearning, could not leave you.
A lover's name perhaps would slight his courage:
But he has the eyes of one, if not the language.

Aricia

Dear Ismene, my heart hears it so eagerly, 415
Your speech that owes so little to reality!
O you who know me does it seem believable
That the sad plaything of a fate so pitiable,
A heart fed always on tears and bitterness,
Could still know love, and its sad foolishness? 420
Born of a king, a noble prince of this world,
I alone escaped the furious wars unfurled.