And Phaedra has delayed his
punishment!
Racine - Phaedra
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!
Phaedra's silence has spared the guilty one!
Oenone
Phaedra has rather spared a father's pain.
Ashamed of a passionate lover's designs 1015
The criminal desire reflected in his eyes,
Phaedra was dying. My Lord, a deadly sight,
Her hand quenching her eyes' innocent light.
I saw her lift her arm: I ran to save her.
I alone, for your love, have preserved her: 1020
And pitying both her distress and your fears,
Despite myself, I've served to explain her tears.
Theseus
The traitor couldn't prevent himself turning pale!
I saw him shudder with fear, finding me again.
I was astonished by such lack of joyousness, 1025
His cold embrace has chilled my tenderness.
But had he already declared this guilty love
In Athens, this passion by which he's devoured?
Oenone
My lord, remember the Queen's complaints.
His guilty passion the cause of all her hate. 1030
Theseus
And his passion then began again in Troezen?
Oenone
I've explained, my Lord, all that happened then.
The Queen has been left too long in mortal pain:
Allow me to leave you, and go to her again.
