1310
Your entreaties made me forget my duty.
Your entreaties made me forget my duty.
Racine - Phaedra
1295
View it with another eye as pardonable error.
You love. We cannot overcome destiny.
You were led on by some deadly sorcery.
Is that a happening unknown among us?
Is it only over you that love has triumphed? 1300
Weakness among us is only too natural.
Mortal, submit to the fate of all things mortal.
You complain of a yoke imposed long ago:
Even the gods of Olympus, those gods, we know,
Who frighten criminals with thunderous action, 1305
Have sometimes burned with an illicit passion.
Phaedra
What do I hear? What advice do you dare to give?
Do you wish to poison me while I still live.
Wretched girl! This is how you destroy me.
You turn me back to the light from which I flee.
1310
Your entreaties made me forget my duty.
I avoided Hippolytus: him you made me see.
What did you seek to do? Why did your impious lips
Dare to blacken his life by accusing him?
Perhaps he will die, and the sacrilegious vow 1315
Of a maddened father may yet be carried out.
I'll listen to you no more. Go, loathsome monster,
Go: leave me to brood on my pitiful future.
May a just heaven reward you, as you deserve:
And may your punishment forever serve 1320
To terrify those whose like cowardly address,
Nourishes wretched princes in their weakness,
Urges the inclination of their hearts, and then
Dares to smooth the path of crime for them:
Detestable flatterers, the most deadly gift 1325
That celestial anger offers royalty!
Oneone (Alone. )
You, gods! To serve her I've done all, given all:
And I receive this for it? I've earned this reward.
Act V Scene I (Hippolytus, Aricia)
Aricia
What! You can be silent in this great danger?
You would leave a loving father a prey to error? 1330
Cruel one, if you scorn the power of my tears,
And consent without pain to leave me forever,
Go then, distance yourself from poor Aricia.
View it with another eye as pardonable error.
You love. We cannot overcome destiny.
You were led on by some deadly sorcery.
Is that a happening unknown among us?
Is it only over you that love has triumphed? 1300
Weakness among us is only too natural.
Mortal, submit to the fate of all things mortal.
You complain of a yoke imposed long ago:
Even the gods of Olympus, those gods, we know,
Who frighten criminals with thunderous action, 1305
Have sometimes burned with an illicit passion.
Phaedra
What do I hear? What advice do you dare to give?
Do you wish to poison me while I still live.
Wretched girl! This is how you destroy me.
You turn me back to the light from which I flee.
1310
Your entreaties made me forget my duty.
I avoided Hippolytus: him you made me see.
What did you seek to do? Why did your impious lips
Dare to blacken his life by accusing him?
Perhaps he will die, and the sacrilegious vow 1315
Of a maddened father may yet be carried out.
I'll listen to you no more. Go, loathsome monster,
Go: leave me to brood on my pitiful future.
May a just heaven reward you, as you deserve:
And may your punishment forever serve 1320
To terrify those whose like cowardly address,
Nourishes wretched princes in their weakness,
Urges the inclination of their hearts, and then
Dares to smooth the path of crime for them:
Detestable flatterers, the most deadly gift 1325
That celestial anger offers royalty!
Oneone (Alone. )
You, gods! To serve her I've done all, given all:
And I receive this for it? I've earned this reward.
Act V Scene I (Hippolytus, Aricia)
Aricia
What! You can be silent in this great danger?
You would leave a loving father a prey to error? 1330
Cruel one, if you scorn the power of my tears,
And consent without pain to leave me forever,
Go then, distance yourself from poor Aricia.
