Is my own son
In complicity with my enemies then?
In complicity with my enemies then?
Racine - Phaedra
960
The tyrant surprised me unarmed, defenceless.
I saw the sad object of my tears, Pirithous,
Thrown to cruel monsters by that barbarian,
Those he fed on the blood of wretched men.
For myself, he shut me in a gloomy cavern, 965
A deep place, near to the realm of shadows.
The gods relented, when six months had passed,
I tricked the eyes of those who guarded me, at last.
I freed Nature from a treacherous opponent:
He served as food for that monstrous regiment. 970
And now when I think to approach so joyfully
All that the gods have made most dear to me:
What do I find? When my soul, my own again,
Wants to drink its fill of so dear a vision,
There's only fear and trembling to welcome me: 975
They all refuse my embraces, and they flee.
And myself knowing the terror I produce,
Would prefer to be in that prison in Epirus.
Speak. Phaedra complains I've been offended.
Who has betrayed me? 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?
The tyrant surprised me unarmed, defenceless.
I saw the sad object of my tears, Pirithous,
Thrown to cruel monsters by that barbarian,
Those he fed on the blood of wretched men.
For myself, he shut me in a gloomy cavern, 965
A deep place, near to the realm of shadows.
The gods relented, when six months had passed,
I tricked the eyes of those who guarded me, at last.
I freed Nature from a treacherous opponent:
He served as food for that monstrous regiment. 970
And now when I think to approach so joyfully
All that the gods have made most dear to me:
What do I find? When my soul, my own again,
Wants to drink its fill of so dear a vision,
There's only fear and trembling to welcome me: 975
They all refuse my embraces, and they flee.
And myself knowing the terror I produce,
Would prefer to be in that prison in Epirus.
Speak. Phaedra complains I've been offended.
Who has betrayed me? 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?
