No More Learning

Raised in the forests, he has their wildness too.
Hippolytus, hardened by their savage laws,
Hears love's language he never heard before.
Perhaps his astonishment explains his silence, 785
And our complaints perhaps show too much violence.

Oenone

Think: a barbarian formed him in her womb.

Phaedra

Scythian, and barbarian, she's known love too.

Oenone

He has a deadly hatred for all our sex.

Phaedra

Then I'll suffer a dearth of rivals, I expect. 790
Your advice, in short, is out of season.
Serve my madness, Oenone, not my reason.
His inaccessible heart is opposed to love:
Let's find a weaker spot that he might be moved.
The charms of Empire appeared to stir him: 795
He could not conceal it: Athens attracts him:
His ships are already turned that way I find,
Their fluttering sails abandoned to the wind.
Seek out for me this youth and his ambition,
Oenone. Make the crown glitter to his vision. 800
Let him place the sacred diadem on his brow:
The honour of setting it there's all I wish now.
Let's cede the power we can't hold to this man.
He'll teach my son how to exercise command.
Perhaps he'd truly like to replace his father. 805
I'll commit to his power both son and mother.
Try every means you can to change his mind:
Your words will find a more ready ear than mine.
Urge him, weep; moan; paint Phaedra as dying,
Don't be ashamed to adopt a suppliant's sighing. 810
I'll approve you in all: I've no hope but you.
Go, I'll await you, then decide what I shall do.

Act III Scene II (Phaedra)

Phaedra

O you, who see the shame into which I fall,
Implacable Venus, am I sufficiently in thrall?
You could take your cruelty no further though. 815
Your triumph's complete: your arrows all strike home.
Yet cruel one, if you still seek fresh glory
Attack some more rebellious enemy.
Hippolytus flees you, who, braving your anger,
Has never bowed his knees before your altar. 820
Your name seems to offend those proud ears of his.
Goddess, take vengeance! We share the same cause.
If only he loves.