Racine: Phaedra

of my heart were true ;
THE MISANTHROPE 309
its alarms were but too well foundedj
and those frequent suspicions which were thought
odious were true guides to what my eyes have now seen.
Yes, in spite of all your skill in dissimulation, Heaven hinted
to me what I had to fear. But do not think that I shall bear
this insult unavenged. I know that it is not in our power
to govern our inclinations ; that love is always spontaneous
that we cannot enter a heart by force, and that every heart
is free to name its conqueror. I would not complain, there-
fore, if you had from the first spoken to me without dissembling
; for, although you would have crushed within me
the very springs of my life, I should have blamed my fate
alone for it. But to think that my love was encouraged by
you ! It is such a treacherous, such a perfidious action,
that no punishment seems too great for it. After such an
outrage, fear everything from me ; I am no longer master
of myself ; anger has conquered me. Pierced to the heart by
the cruel blow with which you kill me, my senses are not
overswayed by reason ; I yield myself up to a just revenge,
and I cannot answer for what I may do.
Celimene. What can have called forth such an insult? Have
you lost all sense and judgment ? Pray speak
Alceste. Yes, when on seeing you I drank in the poison which
is killing me ; yes, when like a fool I thought I had found
some sincerity in those treacherous charms that have deceived
me.
Celimene. Of what treachery are you complaining?
Alceste. Ah ! false heart, how well you feign ignorance ! But
I will leave you no loophole of escape ! Look at your own
handwriting ; this letter is sufficient to confound you
against such evidence you can have nothing to answer.
Celimene. So this is the cause of your strange outburst.
Alceste. And you do not blush at the sight ?
Celimene. There is no occasion for me to blush.
Alceste. What! will you add audacity to your deceit? Will
you disown this letter because it is not signed ?
Celimene. Why should I disown it, when it is mine ?
Alceste. And you can look at it without being ashamed of the
crime of which it shows you to be guilty towards me ?
Celimene. You are, in truth, a most foolish man.