I can see the
shameful
reason for your coldness.
Racine - Phaedra
Respect closes my lips: which you should approve. 1090
And without wishing you to increase your pain
Reflect on my life, and think who I am, again.
Crime of sorts ever precedes some greater crime.
Whoever crosses lawful boundaries, in time
Violates the most sacred rights with impunity: 1095
As well as virtue, crime too has its degrees,
And no one has ever seen shy innocence
Suddenly transform itself to extreme licence.
A single day can't make a man who's virtuous
A treacherous assassin: cowardly, incestuous. 1100
Nurtured in the womb of a chaste heroine,
I've never betrayed my blood, and my origin.
Pittheus, accounted wise amongst all men,
Deigned to instruct me when I left her hands.
I do not seek to present myself to advantage: 1105
But if any virtue fell to my share by parentage,
My Lord, I've shown hatred above all I believe
For the errors that men dared to impute to me.
Throughout Greece they know this of Hippolytus,
That I've carried virtue to the point of rudeness. 1110
They know the inflexible rigour of my sadness.
The daylight is not so pure as my heart's depths.
Yet they say Hippolytus, drunk with base desire. . .
Theseus
Yes, you're condemned for that same cowardly pride.
I can see the shameful reason for your coldness. 1115
Phaedra alone bewitched your lustful senses.
And for every other object your soul, indifferent,
Disdained to burn with any flame so innocent.
Hippolytus
No, father, this heart - a truth too great to hide -
Has never disdained to burn with chaste desire. 1120
At your feet I'll confess my true offence:
I love, I love it's true, in your defiance.
Aricia holds my wishes slaves to her law: your
Son has indeed been conquered by Pallas' daughter.
I adore her, and my soul, rebelling at your order, 1125
Can only breathe, and be inspired by her.
Theseus
You love her? No, this is a crude deception.
You pretend to this crime as a justification.
Hippolytus
My Lord, for six months I've shunned and loved her.
Trembling to speak to you myself I came here. 1130
What! Can nothing disabuse you of your error?
What fearful vow, in reassurance, must I swear.
By heaven, and earth, and all that Nature sees.
