Racine: Phaedra

PH^DRA 341
Scene n.
flippolytus, Aricia, Ismene.
HiPPOLYTUS. Lady, ere I go
My duty bids me tell you of your change
Of fortune. My worst fears are realized
My sire is dead. Yes, his protracted absence
Was caused as I foreboded. Death alone,
Ending his toils, could keep him from the world
Conceal'd so long. The gods at last have doom'd
Alcides' friend, companion, and successor.
I think your hatred, tender to his virtues,
Can hear such terms of praise without resentment,
Knowing them due. One hope have I that soothes
My sorrow : I can free you from restraint.
Lo, I revoke the laws whose rigor moved
My pity ; you are at your own disposal,
Both heart and hand ; here, in my heritage.
In Troezen, where my grandsire Pittheus reigti'd
Of yore and I am now acknowledged King,
I leave you free, free as myself—and more.
Aricia.—Your kindness is too great, 'tis ovenvhelming.
Such generosity, that pays disgrace
With honor, lends more force than you can think
To those harsh laws from which you would release me.
HiPPOLYTUS.—Athens, uncertain how to fill the throne
Of Theseus, speaks of you, anon of me, r
And then of Phaedra's son.
Aricia.— Of me, my lord?
HiPPOLYTUS.—I know myself excluded by strict law
Greece turns to my reproach a foreign mother.
But if my brother were my only rival.
My rights prevail o'er his clearly enough
To make me careless of the law's caprice.
My forw^ardness is check'd by juster claims:
To you I yield my place, or, rather, own
That it is yours by right, and yours the sceptre,
As handed down from Earth's great son, Erechtheus.
Adoption placed it in the hands of .^Egeus
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