Racine: Phaedra

LIFE A DREAM 237
Fore-written sorrow, and in this new dawn
Bury that long sad night.
Segismund.— Not ev'n the Dead,
Call'd to the resurrection of the blest,
Shall so directly drop all memory
Of woes and wrongs foregone!
Clotaldo.— But not resent—
Purged by the trial of that sorrow past
For full fruition of their present bliss.
Segismund.—But leaving with the Judge what, till this earth
Be cancell'd in the burning heav'ns. He leaves
His earthly delegates to execute,
Of retribution in reward to them
And woe to those who wrong'd them—Not as you.
Not you, Clotaldo, knowing not—And yet
Ev'n to the guiltiest wretch in all the realm.
Of any treason guilty short of that.
Stern usage— ^but assuredly not knowing,
Not knowing 'twas your sovereign lord, Clotaldo,
You used so sternly.
Clotaldo.— Ay, sir ; with the same
Devotion and fidelity that now
Does homage to him for my sovereign.
Segismund.—Fidelity that held his Prince in chains!
Clotaldo.—Fidelity more fast than had it loosed him
Segismund.—Ev'n from the very dawn of consciousness
Down at the bottom of the barren rocks.
Where scarce a ray of sunshine found him out,
In which the poorest beggar of my realm
At least to human-full proportion grows
Me !
Me—whose station was the kingdom's top
To flourish in, reaching my head to heav'n.
And with my branches overshadowing
The meaner growth below 1
CLOTALDa Still with the same
Fidelity—
Segism uNa— To me t
Clotaldo.— Ay, sir, to you.
Through that divine allegiance upon which
All Order and Authority is based
Which to revolt against