Racine: Phaedra

THE MISANTHROPE
ACT FIRST
Scene I.
Philinte, Aleeste
Philinte, What is it? What can be the matter with you?
Alceste [seated^. Out of my sight!
Philinte. But still, tell me what new whim .
. .
Alceste. Leave me, I tell you, and go and hide yourself.
Philinte. But you might, at any rate, listen to me without
getting angry.
Alceste. I will be angry, and I will not listen.
Philinte. I hardly understand you, Alceste, in your sudden
outburst of spleen ; and although we are friends, I am
one of the first . . .
Alceste [rising abruptly]. I, your friend! No: strike my
name from off your list, if you please; I have certainly,
till now, professed to be so, but after what I have just
discovered in you, I tell you plainly that I am your friend
no longer. I have no wish for a place in corrupt hearts.
Philinte. I am very guilty, it seems, Alceste.
Alceste. Guilty ! you ought to die of mere shame. There is
no possible excuse for such an action, and every man of
honor would set his face against it. I find you overwhelming
a man with caresses and professing for him
the utmost tenderness. I find you adding to the trans-
port of your embraces protestations, offers, vows of devotion,
yet when afterwards I ask you who the man is, you
can hardly tell me his name ; your love for him vanishes
the moment you leave him, and you speak of him as of
a person entirely indifferent to you. 'Sdeath ! it is an unworthy,
cowardly, base thing to demean one's self so far
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