1075
Theseus by your fury measures his own good.
Theseus by your fury measures his own good.
Racine - Phaedra
1040
Hippolytus
May I ask you, my Lord, what gloomy cloud,
Allows itself to trouble your noble brow?
Will you dare to confide this secret to me?
Theseus
Traitor, do you dare to show yourself before me?
Monster, whom the thunderbolt too long has spared, 1045
Foul leavings of those thieves I swept from the earth!
After the transports of horror-filled passion led
Your madness as far as your father's bed,
You dare to present your hostile face to me
You approach this place full of your infamy, 1050
Rather than finding, under some unknown sky,
A country where my name never met the eye.
Traitor, flee. Don't come here to brave my pain,
Tempting the anger I can barely contain.
Enough eternal disgrace has been heaped on me 1055
In having brought to light a son so guilty,
Without his death, a shameful future memory,
Arriving to stain my noble labours' glory:
Flee, if you don't wish my swift punishment
To add to the rascals who've known chastisement, 1060
Take care that the star that lights us never
Sees you setting a reckless foot here, ever.
Flee, I say, and set out without returning,
Rid all my lands of your dreadful being.
And you, Neptune, you, if my courage ever 1065
Cleansed your shore of those infamous murderers,
Remember that as a prize for all my labour,
You promised to fulfil my future prayer.
During the long rigours of a cruel prison,
I never called on your immortal person. 1070
Eager for the help I expect from your care,
For this greater need I retained my prayer.
Today I beg you, avenge an unhappy father.
I now abandon a traitor to your anger.
Drown his outrageous desires in his own blood.
1075
Theseus by your fury measures his own good.
Hippolyte
Phaedra accuse Hippolytus of a guilty passion!
Such excess of horror renders my spirit numb:
So many unforeseen blows together rain on me
They stifle my words, and rob me of my speech. 1080
Theseus
Traitor, you imagined that in cowardly silence
Phaedra would bury all your brutish insolence.
You should never have dropped your sword as you fled
Which, left in her hands, condemns you instead:
Or rather in order to complete your treachery, 1085
You should have robbed her of life and speech.
Hippolyte
Rightly indignant at such a dark deceit,
My Lord, I should allow the truth to speak.
But I'll suppress a secret that touches you.
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.
Hippolytus
May I ask you, my Lord, what gloomy cloud,
Allows itself to trouble your noble brow?
Will you dare to confide this secret to me?
Theseus
Traitor, do you dare to show yourself before me?
Monster, whom the thunderbolt too long has spared, 1045
Foul leavings of those thieves I swept from the earth!
After the transports of horror-filled passion led
Your madness as far as your father's bed,
You dare to present your hostile face to me
You approach this place full of your infamy, 1050
Rather than finding, under some unknown sky,
A country where my name never met the eye.
Traitor, flee. Don't come here to brave my pain,
Tempting the anger I can barely contain.
Enough eternal disgrace has been heaped on me 1055
In having brought to light a son so guilty,
Without his death, a shameful future memory,
Arriving to stain my noble labours' glory:
Flee, if you don't wish my swift punishment
To add to the rascals who've known chastisement, 1060
Take care that the star that lights us never
Sees you setting a reckless foot here, ever.
Flee, I say, and set out without returning,
Rid all my lands of your dreadful being.
And you, Neptune, you, if my courage ever 1065
Cleansed your shore of those infamous murderers,
Remember that as a prize for all my labour,
You promised to fulfil my future prayer.
During the long rigours of a cruel prison,
I never called on your immortal person. 1070
Eager for the help I expect from your care,
For this greater need I retained my prayer.
Today I beg you, avenge an unhappy father.
I now abandon a traitor to your anger.
Drown his outrageous desires in his own blood.
1075
Theseus by your fury measures his own good.
Hippolyte
Phaedra accuse Hippolytus of a guilty passion!
Such excess of horror renders my spirit numb:
So many unforeseen blows together rain on me
They stifle my words, and rob me of my speech. 1080
Theseus
Traitor, you imagined that in cowardly silence
Phaedra would bury all your brutish insolence.
You should never have dropped your sword as you fled
Which, left in her hands, condemns you instead:
Or rather in order to complete your treachery, 1085
You should have robbed her of life and speech.
Hippolyte
Rightly indignant at such a dark deceit,
My Lord, I should allow the truth to speak.
But I'll suppress a secret that touches you.
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.
