University of Virginia Library

Scena Tertia.

Phædra.
Hippolitus. Nurse.
VVho calls me back to grief; my bosome fir'd
A new? how sweetly had I here expir'd?
But why refuse I life? courage my mind,
Try, execute what thou thy self injoyn'd.
Speak boldly, she, who fearfully doth crave,
Begs a deniall; my worst crime I have
Acted long since. Shame commeth now too late,
I've lov'd a sin, if in it fortunate,
A Husbands name may palliate the deed;
Those sins are oft thought honest, which succeed.
Go too, begin my soul. Sir, I a while desire
Your privacy: let all the rest retire.

Hip.
See here is none to interrupt us; speak.

Ph.
But my seal'd lips cannot the silence break.
Both urg'd to speech, and forced to be still.
I call you Gods to witness that my will.

Hip.
Can you not speak your mind.

Nu.
Great griefs are best
By silence, little ones by words exprest.

Hip.
Mother give me the burthen of your cares.

Ph.
The name of Mother to much distance bears.
An Humbler name becomes our Love. Call us
Thy sister, or thy maid, Hippolitus.
But rather maid. I the most slavish yoke
Will wear. Command it shall be undertook.
Ile clime the frozen Pindus through deep snows
Run through the fire, and armed troops; expose
My naked brest to naked swords, receive
This Scepter then, and let me be thy slave.
To rule becommeth thee, me to obey.
It ill becomes a womans arm to sway
So great a Nation, thou who 'rt in the pride
Of blooming youth, thy Fathers people guide.
Protect thy suppliant in thy bosome hid.
Take pitty on a widdow.

Hip.
Heaven forbid:
Madam my Father will come safely back:

Ph.
From Styx, and those insatiate realms no track
Doth lead to the forsaken light, shall he
Who came a ravisher, dismisled be?
'Lesse Plut'ol sit down a tame Cuckold too.

Hip.
Heavens far more equall power this will doe.
But while it yet rests in suspence, Ile please
My Brethren with all fitting offices
Protect Thee, that thou seem not widdowed: I
The absence of my Father, will supply.

Ph.
O credulous Lovers! O deceitfull Love!
Hath he not said enough? now prayers shall move.
O pitty; hear even my silence wooe.
I would, yet would not speak.

Hip.
What ailest thou?

Ph.
That which thou little thinks a step-dame should

Hip.
Speak plainly and thy doubtful words unfold.

Ph.
Why Love within my raging bosome fumes,
And with a cruel fire my reins consumes.
The flame which in my bowels hid remains
Thence shooteth up and down my melting veins,
As agile fire over dry timber spread.

Hip.
What with chast love of Theseus thou art mad?

Ph.
Thou art in the right: I love that ancient face
Which Theseus had when he a stripling was;
When first the down budding upon his chin
He saw the house the Minotaur was in,
And crooked mazes the long thred up wound.
How glorious then? his hair with fillets bound,
A dainty blush over his cheek was spread,
And his soft arms were the securest bed.
Like thy Diana, or my Phœbus then;
Or rather thee: thus, thus he looked, when
He pleas'd his foe; thus loftily did bear
His head, but thou art something hansomer;
Thou'st all thy fathers parts; and yet against
Reason some of thy Mothers too retain'st,
A Scythian rigour in a Græcian face;
Had'st thou come with thy Father in those dayes,
Then Ariadnes clew had sure been thine,
Thou, thou my Sister, wheresoere thou shine
In spangled skies, a cause so like thine own
Assist; one family hath both undone,
The Father thee, and me the Son, thou sees
A suppliant Princes fallen on her knees;
Free from aspersions, innocently good;
Chang'd but to thee; I'm sure none else have woo'd
This day to grief, or life an end shall bring,
Pitty a Lover.

Hip.
Thou Almighty King
Of Gods canst thou so mildly see, so mildly hear
Her wickednes? if now the Heavens be clear,
When wilt thou thunder? let the troubled air
Now run on heaps, and day a Vizard wear.
May the reversed Stars now backwards run.
And what dost thou, thou the irradiate Sun
Behold thy Grandchilds lusts? for shame lay by
Thy beams, and into utter darkness fly.
And why art thou idle Spectator turn'd
Great Jove, the world not yet with lightning burn'd,
Thunder at me; let thy quick flame consume
Me, I am wicked, and deserve the doom.
I've pleas'd my Step-dame, merit I to be
Incestuous thought? for this Impiety.
Seem'd I most fit? deserves my strictness this?
O Women excellent in wickedness!
O thou in thy unbounded lusts more wild
Than was thy Mother! Shee only defil'd
Her self, yet was the wicked theft betray'd
By the Prodigious issue which shee had;
The doubtfull birth witness'd his Mothers shame
With his fierce look, from the same womb thou came
Thrice happy are they in their prosp'rous fate
Who are by fraud consum'd, destroid by hate;
Father I envie thee: this sin, this sin,
Is greater then Medeas could have been.

Ph.
I know our houses Fate; I crave, I know
What is forbid, but cannot help it tho,
Thee thorough flames, o're rocks; the foaming deep,
And heady torrents company I'le keep.
Where ere thou goes, there frantick I will be,
Behold coy youth, again I kneel to thee.

Hi.
Keep of, and touch not my chast lims, what now
Immodest wretch, wilt thou imbrace me too?
Then shall my sword due vengeance take; my hand
Wreath'd in her hair, her shameless neck doth bend.
Bow-bearing Goddess, never bloud with more
Justice was on thy Altars spilt before.

Ph.
Why now Hippolitus, I have my wish:
Thou curst my frenzy; 'bove my hope was this,
To perish by thy hand, and chast.

Hip.
Avaunt,
And live; least any thing to thee I graunt,
Nor shall this steel, by thee polluted, ere
Defile my chaster side by hanging there.
What Tanais, what Mæotis, which doth pay
His waters tribute to the Pontick sea
Can wash me clean? not all great Neptunes flouds
Can expiate this crime. O Beasts! O Woods!

Nu.

Exeunt.
CHORUS.