Nurse: He'll flee.
Phaedra: Through Ocean's self I'll follow him.
Nurse: Thy sire remember.
Phaedra: And my mother too.
Nurse: Women he hates.
Phaedra: Then I'll no rival fear.
Nurse: Thy husband comes.
Phaedra: With him Pirithoüs!
Nurse: Thy sire! 245
Phaedra: To Ariadne he was kind.
Nurse: O child, by these white locks of age, I pray,
This care-filled heart, these breasts that suckled thee,
Put off this rage; to thine own rescue come.
The greater part of life is will to live.
Phaedra: Shame has not wholly fled my noble soul. 250
I yield: let love, which will not be controlled,
Be conquered. Nor shalt thou, fair fame, be stained.
This way alone is left, sole hope of woe:
Theseus I'll follow, and by death shun sin.
Nurse: Oh, check, my child, this wild, impetuous thought; 255
Be calm. For now I think thee worthy life,
Because thou hast condemned thyself to death.
Phaedra: I am resolved to die, and only seek
The mode of death. Shall I my spirit free
By twisted rope, or fall upon the sword,
Or shall I leap from yonder citadel? 260
Nurse: Shall my old age permit thee thus to die
Self-slain? Thy deadly, raging purpose stay.
No one may easily come back to life.
Phaedra: No argument can stay the will of one 265
Who has resolved to die, and ought to die.
Quick, let me arm myself in honor's cause.
Nurse: Sole comfort of my weary age, my child,
If such unruly passion sways thy heart,
Away with reputation! 'Tis a thing
Which rarely with reality agrees;
It smiles upon the ill-deserving man, 270
And from the good withholds his meed of praise.
Let us make trial of that stubborn soul.
Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/195
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Hippolytus or Phaedra
177
