Racine: Phaedra

Recall thy promise to reward those efforts,
Crown'd with success, by granting my first pray'r.
Confined for long in close captivity,
I have not yet call'd on thy pow'rful aid,
Sparing to use the valued privilege
Till at mine utmost need. The time is come,
I ask thee now. Avenge a wretched father!
I leave this traitor to thy wrath ; in blood
Quench his outrageous fires, and by thy fury
Theseus will estimate thy favor tow'rds him.
HiPPOLYTUs.—Phaedra accuses me of lawless passion !_
This crowning horror all my soul confounds
Such unexpected blows, falling at once,
O'erwhelm me, choke my utterance, strike me dumb.
Theseus.—Traitor, you reckon'd that in timid silence
Phaedra would bury your brutality.
You should not have abandon'd in your flight
The sword that in her hands helps to condemn you
Or rather, to complete your perfidy,
You should have robb'd her both of speech and life.
HiPPOLYTUS.— Justly indignant at a lie so black
I might be pardon'd if I told the truth ;
But it concerns your honor to conceal it.
Approve the reverence that shuts my mouth
And, without wishing to increase your woes.
Examine closely what my life has been.
^
J
y
Great crimes are never single, they are link'd
To former faults. He who has once transgress'd
May violate at last all that men hold
Most sacred ; vice, like virtue, has degrees
Of progress ; innocence was never seen
To sink at once into the lowest depths
Of guilt. No virtuous man can in a day
Turn traitor, murderer, an incestuous wretch.
The nursling of a chaste, heroic mother,
I have not proved unworthy of my birth.
Pittheus, whose wisdom is by all esteem'd,
Deign'd to instruct me when I left her hands.
It is no wish of mine to vaunt my merits,
But, if I may lay claim to any virtue,
359