No More Learning

She wishes to see the light: yet with deep sadness
Orders the world outside to be dismissed. . . 150
She is here.

Hippolyte

Enough: I'll leave this place to her,
And show my odious face to her no longer.

Act I Scene III (Phaedra, Oenone)

Phaedra

Let's go no further. Stay, dear Oenone.
I can't support myself: my strength has left me.
My eyes are dazzled, on seeing the light of day, 155
My knees, trembling beneath me, have given way.
Alas!

(She sits down. )

Oenone

All-powerful gods! If tears could but appease.

Phaedra

How these vain ornaments, these veils burden me!
What irksome hand, weaving these knots around,
Has gathered my hair with such care on my brow?
160
All afflicts, and harms, and conspires to harm me.

Oeneone

Your wishes thwart one another, alternately!
You yourself, condemning your unjust intent,
Urged our hands to prepare you for this instant:
You yourself, recalling your former strength, 165
Wished to rise again, and see the light at length.
You see it, mistress, and start to hide once more:
Do you hate the daylight you were searching for?

Phaedra

Noble, glittering creator of a sad family,
You, whose daughter my mother dared claim to be, 170
Who blush perhaps on viewing my troubled mind,
Oh Sun, I come to look on you for one last time.

Oeneone

What! Will you never forget that cruel desire?
Am I always to see you renouncing life entire,
Making funereal preparations for your death? 175

Phaedra

Gods! Why am I not sitting in that dark forest?
When shall I follow the chariot with my eyes
Charging nobly on, through the dust that flies?

Oenone

What, lady?

Phaedra

Maddened, where am I! What did I say?
Where have I let my will and spirit go play? 180
I have lost them: the gods deny me their use.