Racine: Phaedra

94
EURIPIDES
O most unwise ! These imprecations spare.
What if your lord's affections are engaged
By a new bride, reproach him not, for Jove
Will be the dread avenger of your wrongs
Nor melt away with unavailing grief,
Weeping for the lost partner of your bed.
Medea [within].—Great Themis and Diana, awful queen,
Do ye behold the insults I endure.
Though by each oath most holy I have bound
That execrable husband. May I see
Him and his bride, torn limb from limb, bestrew
The palace ; me have they presumed to wrong,
Although I ne'er provoked them. O my sire,
And thou my native land, whence I with shame
Departed when my brother I had slain.
Nurse.—Heard ye not all she said, with a loud voice
Invoking Themis, who fulfils the vow.
And Jove, to whom the tribes of men look up
As guardian of their oaths. Medea's rage
Can by no trivial vengeance be appeased.
Chorus.—Could we but draw her hither, and prevail
On her to hear the counsels we suggest.
Then haply might she check that bitter wrath,
That vehemence of temper ; for my zeal
Shall not be spared to aid my friends. But go,
And say, " O hasten, ere to those within
Thou do some mischief, for these sorrows rush
With an impetuous tempest on thy soul."
Nurse.—This will I do; though there is cause to fear
That on my mistress I shall ne'er prevail
Yet I my labor gladly will bestow.
Though such a look she on her servants casts
As the ferocious lioness who guards
Her tender young, when anyone draws near
To speak to her. Thou would'st not judge amiss.
In charging folly and a total want
Of wisdom on the men of ancient days,
Who for their festivals invented hymns,
And to the banquet and the genial board
Confined those accents which o'er human life