Racine - Phaedra - College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

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SCENE 6
PHAEDRA,OENONE
PHAEDRA. ACT IV. SCENE 6 / !9!
pHAEDRA Oenone dear, do you know what I have learned?
OENONE No, but in truth I'm quaking still with fear
Of the wild urge that sent you rushing here:
I feared some blunder fatally adverse.
PHAEDRA I had a rival. Who would have thought it, Nurse?
OENONE What?
PHAEDRA Yes, Hippolytus is in love; it's true.
That savage creature no one could subdue,
Who scorned regard, who heard no lovers' pleas,
That tiger whom I viewed with trembling knees,
Is tame now, broken by a woman's art: 10
Aricia's found the way into his heart.
OENONE Aricia?
PHAEDRA 0 pain I never felt before!
What new, sharp torments have I kept in store!
All that I've suffered-frenzies, fears, the dire
Oppression of remorse, my heart on fire, 15
The merciless rebuff he gave to me-
All were but foretastes of this agony.
They love each other! By what magic, then,
Did they beguile me? Where did they meet, and when?
You knew. Why did you keep me unaware, 20
Deceived as to their furtive love-affair?
Were they much seen together? Were they known
To haunt the deep woods, so as to be alone?
Alas, they'd perfect liberty to meet.
Heaven smiled on hearts so innocent and sweet; 25
Without remorse, they savored Iove's.delight:
For them, each dawn arose serene and bright­
While I, creation's outcast, hid away
From the Sun's eye, and fled the light of day.
Death was the only God I dared implore. 30
I longed for him; I prayed to be no more.
Quenching my thirst with tears, and fed on gall,
Yet in my woe too closely watched by all,
I dared not weep and grieve in fullest measure;
I sipped in secret at that bitter pleasure; 35
And often, wearing a serene disguise,
I kept my pain from welling in my eyes.
OENONE What will their love avail them? They will never
Meet again.
PHAEDRA But they will love forever, ..
Even as I speak-ah, deadly thought!-they dare 40
o To mock my crazed desire and my despair.
Despite this exile which will make them part,