Men say that too engrossing pursuits in life more oft cause disappointment than pleasure, and too oft are foes to health.
Wherefore do not praise excess so much as moderation, and with me wise men will agree.
(PHAEDRA lies back upon the couch.)
LEADER OF THE CHORUS (speaking)
O aged dame, faithful nurse of Phaedra, our queen, we see her sorry plight; but what it is that ails her we cannot discern, so fain would learn of thee and hear thy opinion.
NURSE
I question her, but am no wiser, for she will not answer.
LEADER
Nor tell what source these sorrows have?
NURSE
The same answer thou must take, for she is dumb on every point.
LEADER
How weak and wasted is her body!
NURSE
What marvel? 'tis three days now since she has tasted food.
LEADER
Is this infatuation, or an attempt to die?
NURSE
'Tis death she courts; such fasting aims at ending life.
LEADER
A strange story if it satisfies her husband.
NURSE
She hides from him her sorrow, and vows she is not ill.
LEADER
Can he not guess it from her face?
NURSE
He is not now in his own country.
LEADER
But dost not thou insist in thy endeavour to find out her complaint, her mind?
NURSE
I have tried every plan, and all in vain; yet not even now will I relax my zeal, that thou too, if thou stayest, mayst witness my devotion to my unhappy mistress. Come, come, my darling child, let us forget, the twain of us, our former words; be thou more mild, smoothing that sullen brow and changing the current of thy thought, and I, if in aught before failed in humouring thee, will let that be and find some better course. If thou art sick with ills thou canst not name, there be women here to help to set thee right; but if thy trouble can to men's ears be divulged, speak, that physicians may pronounce on it. Come, then, why so dumb? Thou shouldst not so remain, my child, but scold me if I speak amiss, or, if I give good counsel, yield assent. One word, one look this way! Ah me! Friends, we waste our toil to no purpose; we are as far away as ever; she would not relent to my arguments then, nor is she yielding now. Well, grow more stubborn than the sea, yet be assured of this, that if thou diest thou art a traitress to thy children, for they will ne'er inherit their father's halls, nay, by that knightly queen the Amazon who bore a son to lord it over thine, a bastard born but not a bastard bred, whom well thou knowest, e'en Hippolytus-(At the mention of his name PHAEDRA'S attention is suddenly caught.)PHAEDRAOh! oh!
NURSE
Ha! doth that touch the quick?
PHAEDRA
Thou hast undone me, nurse; I do adjure by the gods, mention that man no more.
NURSE
There now! thou art thyself again, but e'en yet refusest to aid thy children and preserve thy life.
PHAEDRA
My babes I love, but there is another storm that buffets me.
NURSE
Daughter, are thy hands from bloodshed pure?
PHAEDRA
My hands are pure, but on my soul there rests a stain.
NURSE
The issue of some enemy's secret witchery?
PHAEDRA
A friend is my destroyer, one unwilling as myself.
NURSE
Hath Theseus wronged thee in any wise?
PHAEDRA
Never may I prove untrue to himl NURSE
Then what strange mystery is there that drives thee on to die?
PHAEDRA
O, let my sin and me alone, 'tis not 'gainst thee I sin.
NURSE
Never willingly! and, if I fail, 'twill rest at thy door.
PHAEDRA
How now? thou usest force in clinging to my hand.
NURSE
Yea, and I will never loose my hold upon thy knees.
PHAEDRA
Alas for thee! my sorrows, shouldst thou learn them, would recoil on thee.
NURSE
What keener grief for me than failing to win thee?
PHAEDRA
'Twill be death to thee; though to me that brings renown.
NURSE
And dost thou then conceal this boon despite my prayers?
PHAEDRA
I do, for 'tis out of shame I am planning an honourable escape.
NURSE
Tell it, and thine honour shall the brighter shine.
PHAEDRA
Away, I do conjure thee; loose my hand.
NURSE
I will not, for the boon thou shouldst have granted me is denied.
PHAEDRA
I will grant it out of reverence for thy holy suppliant touch.
NURSE
Henceforth I hold my peace; 'tis thine to speak from now.
PHAEDRA
Ah! hapless mother, what a love was thine!
NURSE
Her love for the bull? daughter, or what meanest thou?
PHAEDRA
And woe to thee! my sister, bride of Dionysus.
NURSE
What ails thee, child? speaking ill of kith and kin.
PHAEDRA
Myself the third to suffer! how am I undone!
NURSE
Thou strik'st me dumb! Where will this history end?
PHAEDRA
That "love" has been our curse from time long past.
NURSE
I know no more of what I fain would learn.
PHAEDRA
Ah! would thou couldst say for me what I have to tell.
NURSE
I aw no prophetess to unriddle secrets.
PHAEDRA
What is it they mean when they talk of people being in "love-"?
NURSE
At once the sweetest and the bitterest thing, my child.
PHAEDRA
I shall only find the latter half.
NURSE
Ha! my child, art thou in love?
PHAEDRA
The Amazon's son, whoever he may be-
NURSE
Mean'st thou Hippolytus?
PHAEDRA
'Twas thou, not I, that spoke his name.
NURSE
O heavens! what is this, my child? Thou hast ruined me.
Outrageous! friends; I will not live and bear it; hateful is life, hateful to mine eyes the light. This body I resign, will cast it off, and rid me of existence by my death. Farewell, my life is o'er.
Yea, for the chaste I have wicked passions, 'gainst their will maybe, but still they have. Cypris, it seems, is not goddess after all, but something greater far, for she hath been the ruin of my lady and of me and our whole family.
CHORUS (chanting)
O, too clearly didst thou hear our queen uplift her voice to tell her startling tale of piteous suffering. Come death ere I reach thy state of feeling, loved mistress. O horrible! woe, for these miseries! woe, for the sorrows on which mortals feed! Thou art undone!
thou hast disclosed thy sin to heaven's light. What hath each passing day and every hour in store for thee? Some strange event will come to pass in this house. For it is no longer uncertain where the star of thy love is setting, thou hapless daughter of Crete.
PHAEDRA
Women of Troezen, who dwell here upon the frontier edge of Pelops'
