Racine: Phaedra

MEDEA fl
Of evil fortune that befalls their lords
Is a calamity : but such a pitch
Of grief am I arrived at, that I felt
An impulse which constrained me to come forth
From these abodes, and to the conscious earth
And heaven proclaim the lost Medea's fate.
Attendant,—Cease not the plaints of that unhappy dame ?
Nurse.—Your ignorance I envy : for her woes
Are but beginning, nor have yet attained
Their mid career.
Attendant.— O how devoid of reason,
If we with terms thus harsh may brand our lords,
Of ills more recent nothing yet she knows.
Nurse.—Old man, what mean you ? Scruple not to speak.
Attendant.—Nought. What I have already said repents me.
Nurse.—I by that beard conjure you not to hide
The secret from your faithful fellow-servant.
For I the strictest silence will observe
If it be needful.
Attendant.— Someone I o'erheard
(Appearing not to listen, as I came
Where aged men sit near Pirene's fount
And hurl their dice) say that from Corinth's land
Creon, the lord of these domains, will banish
The children with their mother ; but I know not
Whether th' intelligence be true, and wish
It may prove otherwise.
Nurse,— Will Jason brook
Such an injurious treatment of his sons.
Although he be at variance with their mother?
Attendant.—By new connections are all former ties
Dissolved, and he no longer is a friend
To this neglected race.
Nurse.— We shall be plunged
In utter ruin, if to our old woes.
Yet unexhausted, any fresh we add.
Attendant.—Be silent, and suppress the dismal tale.
For 'tis unfit our royal mistress know.
Nurse.—Hear, O ye children, how your father's soul
Is turned against you : still, that he may perish