Dark
presentiments
rise to terrify me here.
Racine - Phaedra
Why am I not avenged?
980
Has Greece, to whom my arm has been so useful,
Given a sanctuary to this criminal?
You do not reply? My son? Is my own son
In complicity with my enemies then?
Enter. Too close a secret overwhelms me. 985
Let us swiftly know the guilt, and the guilty.
Let Phaedra explain the trouble I find her in.
Act III Scene VI (Hippolytus, Theramenes)
Hippolytus
What's the meaning of these words that chill me with fear?
Will Phaedra, always a prey to her deep emotion,
Destroy herself, by framing her own self-accusation. 990
You gods! What will the King say? What deadly poison
Has spread through his whole house with this passion!
For myself, filled with love his hatred must disdain,
How he once saw me then, how he finds me again!
Dark presentiments rise to terrify me here. 995
But innocence has nothing, in the end, to fear.
Come: let me seek elsewhere some means of address,
By which I might move my father's tenderness,
And speak to him of a love he may oppose,
But which all his power knows no way to depose. 1000
Act IV Scene I (Theseus, Oenone)
Theseus
Ah! What do I hear? A reckless traitor,
Planned this outrage to his father's honour?
Destiny, how relentlessly you pursue me!
I know not where I am, or where I journey.
O tenderness! O kindness so ill repaid! 1005
A detestable design! A plot so boldly made!
To achieve the object of his dark course,
His insolence employed the use of force.
I recognise this blade, tool of his madness,
I armed him with it for a nobler purpose. 1010 Did our blood ties not provide enough restraint!
And Phaedra has delayed his punishment!
Has Greece, to whom my arm has been so useful,
Given a sanctuary to this criminal?
You do not reply? My son? Is my own son
In complicity with my enemies then?
Enter. Too close a secret overwhelms me. 985
Let us swiftly know the guilt, and the guilty.
Let Phaedra explain the trouble I find her in.
Act III Scene VI (Hippolytus, Theramenes)
Hippolytus
What's the meaning of these words that chill me with fear?
Will Phaedra, always a prey to her deep emotion,
Destroy herself, by framing her own self-accusation. 990
You gods! What will the King say? What deadly poison
Has spread through his whole house with this passion!
For myself, filled with love his hatred must disdain,
How he once saw me then, how he finds me again!
Dark presentiments rise to terrify me here. 995
But innocence has nothing, in the end, to fear.
Come: let me seek elsewhere some means of address,
By which I might move my father's tenderness,
And speak to him of a love he may oppose,
But which all his power knows no way to depose. 1000
Act IV Scene I (Theseus, Oenone)
Theseus
Ah! What do I hear? A reckless traitor,
Planned this outrage to his father's honour?
Destiny, how relentlessly you pursue me!
I know not where I am, or where I journey.
O tenderness! O kindness so ill repaid! 1005
A detestable design! A plot so boldly made!
To achieve the object of his dark course,
His insolence employed the use of force.
I recognise this blade, tool of his madness,
I armed him with it for a nobler purpose. 1010 Did our blood ties not provide enough restraint!
And Phaedra has delayed his punishment!
