To what
distraction
did love not drive my mother!
Racine - Phaedra
235
Is this the reward that loyalty shall be given?
Phaedra
What benefit do you hope for from this violence?
You'll shudder with horror if I break my silence.
Oenone
Great gods, what could you tell me that wouldn't yield
To the horror of seeing you die, my eyes unsealed? 240
Phaedra
If you knew my crime, my fate that crushes the will,
I would die no less: I would die more guilty still.
Oenone
Madame, by the tears for you that wet my face,
By your faltering knees that I here embrace,
Free my spirit from dreadful questioning. 245
Phaedra
You wish it so. Rise.
Oenone
Speak: I am listening.
Phaedra
Heaven! What shall I tell her? Begin, but where?
Oenone
Don't offend me with these idle hints of terror.
Phaedra
O Venus' hatred! O fatal anger!
To what distraction did love not drive my mother! 250
Oenone
Forget those things, and in future, my lady,
Let eternal silence hide their memory.
Phaedra
Ariadne, my sister! Wounded by what passion
Did you die on the shore, where you were abandoned?
Oenone
Why this, my lady? What mortal misery 255
Excites you today against your family?
Phaedra
Because Venus wills that of this dreadful race
I shall perish the last, and the most disgraced.
Oenone
Do you love?
Phaedra
I feel all the furies of desire.
Oenone
For whom?
Phaedra
You shall know all my deepest fire. 260
I love. . . . At the deadly name I tremble, shudder.
Is this the reward that loyalty shall be given?
Phaedra
What benefit do you hope for from this violence?
You'll shudder with horror if I break my silence.
Oenone
Great gods, what could you tell me that wouldn't yield
To the horror of seeing you die, my eyes unsealed? 240
Phaedra
If you knew my crime, my fate that crushes the will,
I would die no less: I would die more guilty still.
Oenone
Madame, by the tears for you that wet my face,
By your faltering knees that I here embrace,
Free my spirit from dreadful questioning. 245
Phaedra
You wish it so. Rise.
Oenone
Speak: I am listening.
Phaedra
Heaven! What shall I tell her? Begin, but where?
Oenone
Don't offend me with these idle hints of terror.
Phaedra
O Venus' hatred! O fatal anger!
To what distraction did love not drive my mother! 250
Oenone
Forget those things, and in future, my lady,
Let eternal silence hide their memory.
Phaedra
Ariadne, my sister! Wounded by what passion
Did you die on the shore, where you were abandoned?
Oenone
Why this, my lady? What mortal misery 255
Excites you today against your family?
Phaedra
Because Venus wills that of this dreadful race
I shall perish the last, and the most disgraced.
Oenone
Do you love?
Phaedra
I feel all the furies of desire.
Oenone
For whom?
Phaedra
You shall know all my deepest fire. 260
I love. . . . At the deadly name I tremble, shudder.
