Racine: Phaedra

PH^DRA 345
And fear lest I have shut your ears against
His cries. I tremble lest your righteous anger
Visit on him ere long the hatred earn'd
By me, his mother.
HiPPOLYTUS. No such base resentment,
Madam, is mine.
Ph^dra.— I could not blame you, Prince,
If you should hate me. I have injured you:
So much you know, but could not read my heart.
T' incur your enmity has been mine aim
The self-same borders could not hold us both
In public and in private I declared
Myself your foe, and found no peace till seas
Parted us from each other. I forbade
Your very name to be pronounced before me.
And yet if punishment should be proportion'd
To the offence, if only hatred draws
Your hatred, never woman merited
More pity, less deserved your enmity.
HiPPOLYTUs.—A mother jealous of her children's rights
Seldom forgives the offspring of a wife
Who reign'd before her. Harassing suspicions
Are common sequels of a second marriage.
Of me would any other have been jealous
No less than you, perhaps more violent?
Ph^dra.—Ah, Prince, how Heav'n has from the general law
Made me exempt, be that same Heav'n my witness I
Far different is the trouble that devours me
HiPPOLYTUS.—This is no time for self-reproaches. Madam.
It may be that your husband still beholds
The light, and Heav'n may grant him safe return,
In answer to our prayers. His guardian god
Is Neptune, ne'er by him invoked in vain.
Phaedra.—He who has seen the mansions of the dead
Returns not thence. Since to those gloomy shores
Theseus is gone, 'tis vain to hope that Heav'n
May send him back. Prince, there is no release
From Acheron's greedy maw. And yet, methinks.
He lives, and breathes in you. I see him still
Before me, and to him I seem to speak