Racine: Phaedra

LIFE A DREAM
Unless opposing almost certain evil
Against so slight contingency of good.
Well—thus perplex'd, I have resolved at last
To bring the thing to trial : whereunto
Here have I summon'd you, my Peers, and you
Whom I more dearly look to, failing him,
As witnesses to that which I propose
And thus propose the doing it. Clotaldo,
Who guards my son with old fidelity.
Shall bring him hither from his tower by night,
Lockt in a sleep so fast as by my art
I rivet to within a link of death.
But yet from death so far, that next day's dawn
Shall wake him up upon the royal bed.
Complete in consciousness and faculty.
When with all princely pomp and retinue
My loyal Peers with due obeisance
Shall hail him Segismund, the Prince of Poland,
Then if with any show of human kindness
He fling discredit, not upon the stars,
But upon me, their misinterpreter
With all apology mistaken age
Can make to youth it never meant to harm.
To my son's forehead will I shift the crown
I long have wish'd upon a younger brow
And in religious humiliation.
For what of worn-out age remains to me,
Entreat my pardon both of Heav'n and him
For tempting destinies beyond my reach.
But if, as I misdoubt, at his first step
The hoof of the predicted savage shows
Before predicted mischief can be done,
The self-same sleep that loosed him from the chain
Shall reconsign him, not to loose again.
Then shall I, having lost that heir direct.
Look solely to my sisters' children twain
Each of a claim so equal as divides
The voice of Poland to their several sides,
But, as I trust, to be entwined ere long
Into one single wreath so fair and strong
«»5