Jean Racine (1639–1699). Phædra.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| Act IV |
| | | Scene V |
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Phædra (alone)
Ah, he is gone! What tidings struck mine ears? | |
| What fire, half smother’d, in my heart revives? | |
| What fatal stroke falls like a thunderbolt? | |
| Stung by remorse that would not let me rest, | |
| I tore myself out of Œnone’s arms, | 5 |
| And flew to help Hippolytus with all | |
| My soul and strength. Who knows if that repentance | |
| Might not have moved me to accuse myself? | |
| And, if my voice had not been choked with shame, | |
| Perhaps I had confess’d the frightful truth. | 10 |
| Hippolytus can feel, but not for me! | |
| Aricia has his heart, his plighted troth. | |
| Ye gods, when, deaf to all my sighs and tears, | |
| He arm’d his eye with scorn, his brow with threats, | |
| I deem’d his heart, impregnable to love, | 15 |
| Was fortified ’gainst all my sex alike. | |
| And yet another has prevail’d to tame | |
| His pride, another has secured his favour. | |
| Perhaps he has a heart easily melted; | |
| I am the only one he cannot bear! | 20 |
| And shall I charge myself with his defence? | |
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