Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/210

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Thy stepdame was the Colchian; but this,
This woman is a greater curse than she.
Phaedra: I clearly see the destiny of my house:
We follow ever what we should avoid.
But I have given over self-control;
I'll follow thee through fire, through raging sea, 700
O'er ragged cliffs, through roaring torrents wild—
Wherever thou dost go, in mad pursuit
I shall he borne. Again, O haughty one,
I fall in suppliance and embrace thy knees.
Hippolytus: Away from my chaste body with thy touch
Impure! What more? She falls upon my breast! 705
I'll draw my sword and smite as she deserves.
See, by her twisted locks, I backward bend
Her shameless head. No blood more worthily
Was ever spilled, O goddess of the bow,
Upon thy altars.
Phaedra: ⁠Now, Hippolytus, 710
Thou dost fulfil the fondest wish of mine;
Thou sav'st me from my madness; greater far
Than all my hopes, that by the hands I love,
By thine own hands, I perish ere I sin.
Hippolytus: Then live, be gone! Thou shalt gain naught from me.
And this my sword, defiled by thy base touch,
No more shall hang upon my modest side.
⁠[He throws his sword from him.]
What Tanaïs will make me clean again? 715
Or what Maeotis rushing to the sea,
With its barbaric waves? Not Neptune's self,
With all his ocean's waters could avail
To cleanse so foul a stain. O woods! O beasts!
⁠[He rushes off into the depths of the forest.]
Nurse [in soliloquy, while Phaedra seems to have fallen in a fainting fit]:
Now is her fault discovered. Soul of mine,
Why dost thou stand in dumb amaze? This crime
We must throw back upon the man himself, 720
And charge him with a guilty love, ourselves.
Sin must be hid by sin. The safest way
Is to go straight forward on the course you fear.