Racine: Phaedra

CALDERON
236
Clotaldo.— As sure as anything
Is, or can be.
Segismund.— You swear it on the faith
You taught me—elsewhere ?
Clotaldo [kissing the hilt of his sword].—Swear it upon this
Symbol, and champion of the holy faith
I wear it to defend.
Segismund [to himself].—My eyes have not deceived me, nor
my ears,
With this transfiguration, nor the strain
Of royal welcome that arose and blew.
Breathed from no lying lips, along with it.
For here Clotaldo comes, his own old self,
Who, if not Lie and phantom with the rest—
[Aloud] Well then, all this is thus.
For have not these fine people told me so,
And you, Clotaldo, sworn it? And the Why
And Wherefore are to follow by and by
And yet—and yet—why wait for that which you
Who take your oath on it can answer—and
Indeed it presses hard upon my brain
What I was asking of these gentlemen
When you came in upon us ; how it is
That I—the Segismund you know so long-
No longer than the sun that rose to-day
Rose—and from what you know
Rose to be Prince of Poland ?
Clotaldo.— So to be
Acknowledged and entreated, sir.
Segismund.— So be
Acknowledged and entreated
Well—But if now by all, by some at least
So known—if not entreated—heretofore
Though not by you—For, now I think again,
Of what should be your attestation worth.
You that of all my questionable subjects
Who knowing what, yet left me where, I was.
You least of all, Clotaldo, till the dawn
Of this first day that told it to myself?
Clotaldo.—Oh, let your Highness draw the line across