 | Hippolitus |  |
Scena Secunda.
Theseus.Phædra. Nurse. Servants.
O partner of my bed, dost thou receive
Me thus? This all the welcome I must have;
Lay by this sword; restore my troubled sence,
And say, what fury doth perswade thee hence.
Ph.
Alas great Theseus, by thy Scepter, by
The toward hopes of thy Posterity,
By thy return, and me now dost permit
Me here to die.
34
What cause requireth it?
Ph.
The benefit were lost the cause once known.
The.
Why none shall hear it but my self alone.
Dost thou mistrust thy Husband? never fear
My brest will prove a faithful Treasurer.
Ph.
Conceal thou first, what thou wouldst have conceal'd
The.
Yet shall all means of dying be withheld
From thee.
Ph.
The willing can't want means.
The.
Relate,
What crime thou with thy death wouldst expiate.
Ph.
Why that I live.
The.
Cannot my tears prevail?
Ph.
That death is welcomest which friends bewail.
The.
Well she is obstinate; but I will force
What she conceals with torments from the Nurse.
Load her with ir'ns, stripes shall make her betray
What ere she knows.
Ph.
Now I will tell you, stay.
The.
Why dost thou turn away thy face, and seek
To hide the tears, which trickle down thy cheek?
Ph.
Thee, thee, Father of gods, and thee from whom
Our hours first Originall did come,
Dayes brightest Lampe, I call to witness how
I neither to his prayers, nor threats did bow,
And yet my body did his force sustain,
But with my bloud, Ile wash it clean again.
The.
Say who hath been the ruine of our fame?
Ph.
One whom thou little thinks.
The.
Tell me his name,
35
This sword will tell you, which he left, afeard
To be attach'd by the alarum'd guard,
The.
Oh me! what crimes, what monstrous crimes doe I
Behold? rough with the little Imagerie,
The Iv'ry hilt with those Illustrious signs,
Which glorifie th' Actean Nation shines,
But how escaped he?
Ph.
Why these can say,
With what a fearfull speed he fled away.
| Hippolitus | |