Racine: Phaedra

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MOLIERE
Scene VII.
Celim^ne, Eliante, Alceste, Philinte
Alceste [to Celimene]. Well, I have heard them all, and, in
spite of what I see, I have kept silent; have I had com-
mand over myself long enough, and may I now .
. . ?
Celimene. Yes, you may say all you like ; you have a right to
complain and to reproach me with anything you please. I
confess myself in the wrong, and in my confusion I have
no wish to look for vain excuses. I have despised the
anger of the others, but I acknowledge my faithlessness
towards you ; your resentment is just. I know how guilty
I must seem to you, and that everything must seem to
prove my fickleness ; in short, that you have cause to hate
me. Do so, I submit.
Alceste. Can I cease to love you? Can I thus forget all my
tenderness for you? I wish to hate you, but my heart
refuses to obey. [To Eliante and Philinte.] See to what
an unworthy love can lead; be both of you witnesses of
my infatuation. But this is not all, you will see me carry
my weakness yet further; I will show you how wrongly
we are called wise, and how in all hearts there still remains
something of the man. [To Celimhte.] Yes, faith-
less woman, I willingly forgive you all my wrongs; I will
find in my own heart an excuse for all your actions, and
will lay the blame on the manners of the age, provided,
however, that you agree to the resolution I have taken.
It is this: you will henceforth shun all intercourse with
mankind, and will follow me without delay into the solitude
where I have vowed to live. It is only thus that you
can redeem in the world's opinion the mischief your letters
have done, and only thus that, after the scandal which a
noble mind must abhor, my heart will still be able to love
you.
Celimene. What! renounce the world before I grow old, go
and bury myself in the wilderness . . .
Alceste. But if your love answers to mine, what can be to
you all the rest of the world ; are not all your desires centred
in me?