No More Learning

Act III Scene III (Phaedra, Oenone)

Extinguish all thought of this vain amour,
Madame. And summon up your former honour. 825
The King, thought dead, will appear before your face:
Theseus is here: Theseus has reached this place.
The crowd go now to see him, in a headlong rush,
I went out, at your command, to find Hippolytus,
When a thousand cries split the heavens. . . 830

Phaedra

My husband is alive, Oenone, that's sufficient.
I've confessed an unworthy love he'll deplore.
He lives. And I wish to know of nothing more.

Oenone

What?

Phaedra

I predicted it, but you'd not accept it. 835
Your tears prevailed then over my deep regret.
Dying this morning I would have been wept for:
I followed your counsel: I die without honour.

Oenone

You die?
Phaedra

Just heavens! This day, what have I done?
My husband will appear: with him is his son. 840
I'll see the witness to my adulterous amour
Noting the manner in which I greet his father,
My heart full of the sighs he would not embrace,
My eyes wet with the tears scorned by that ingrate.
Do you think that he, conscious of Theseus' honour, 845
Will conceal what I am burning with, this ardour?
Will he let his king and father be betrayed?
Can he contain the horror he's displayed?
He'd be silent in vain. I know my transgression,
Oenone, and I'm not one of those bold women 850
Who enjoy their crimes in peace and tranquillity,
And know how to show their faces unblushingly.
I know my madness, and recall it completely.
Already it seems these walls, and these ceilings
Will speak aloud, and are ready to accuse me, 855
Await my husband, to disabuse him of me.
Let me die. From what horrors death sets me free!
Is it such great misfortune to cease to be?
Death, to the wretched, is no cause for terror.
The name I leave behind is all I have to fear.