Less wrathfully distempered than ’tis now;
Else thou canst never know, where thou art keen
With vain resentment and with vain desire.
Her. Speak what thou wilt and cease, for I in pain Catch not the sense of thy mysterious talk.
Hyl. I come to tell thee of my mother’s case, And her involuntary unconscious fault.
Her. Base villain! hast thou breathed thy mother’s name, Thy father’s murderess, in my hearing too!
Hyl. Her state requires not silence, but full speech.
Her. Her faults in former time might well be told.
Hyl. So might her fault to-day, couldst thou but know.
Her. Speak, but beware base words disgrace thee not.
Hyl. List! She is dead even now with new-given wound.
Her. By whom? Thy words flash wonder through my woe.
Hyl. Her own hand slaughtered her; no foreign stroke.
Her. Wretch! to have reft this office from my hands.
Hyl. Even your rash spirit were softened, if you knew.
Her. This bodes some knavery. But declare thy thought!
Hyl. She erred with good intent. The whole is said.
Her. Good, O thou villain, to destroy thy sire!
Hyl. When she perceived that marriage in her home,
She erred, supposing to enchain thy love.
Her. Hath Trachis a magician of such might?
Hyl. Long since the Centaur Nessus moved her mind
To work this charm for heightening thy desire.
Her. O horror, thou art here! I am no more.
My day is darkened, boy! Undone, undone!
I see our plight too plainly: woe is me!
Come, O my son!—thou hast no more a father,—
Call to me all the brethren of thy blood,
And poor Alcmena, wedded all in vain
