Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/215

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Hippolyutus or Phaedra
197

He brought me also to the upper world. 845
But ah, my wearied frame has lost the strength
It had of old; I walk with faltering steps.
Alas! how great a task it was to reach
The world of light from lower Phlegethon,
To flee from death and follow Hercules!
But why this sound of wailing in my ears? 850
Let someone tell; for agonies of woe
And grief and lamentations sad I meet
Upon the very threshold of my home—
A fitting welcome to a guest from hell.
Nurse: The queen is obstinately bent on death,
And scorns the strong remonstrance of our tears. 855
Theseus: Why should she die, her husband safe returned?
Nurse: That very cause compels her speedy death.
Theseus: Thy words are dark and hide some weighty truth.
Speak out and tell what grief weighs down her soul.
Nurse: She tells her grief to none. Some secret woe 860
She hides within her heart, and is resolved
To take her secret with her to the grave.
But speed thee to her; there is need of haste.
Theseus: Unbar the close-shut portals of my house.

[The doors are opened and Theseus encounters his wife just within.]

Theseus [to Phaedra]: My queen, is't thus thou dost receive thy lord,
And welcome back thy husband long desired? 865
Nay, put away the sword from thy right hand,
And give me heart again. Reveal to me
The cause that forces thee to flee from life.
Phaedra: Alas, great Theseus, by thy kingly power,
And by thy children's souls, by thy return, 870
And by my ashes, suffer me to die.
Theseus: What cause compels thy death?
Phaedra: The fruit of death
Would perish if I let its cause be known.
Theseus: None else shall hear it save myself alone.
Phaedra: A chaste wife fears her husband most of all.
Theseus: Speak out; I'll hide thy secret in my heart. 875
Phaedra: The secret thou wouldst have another guard,
First guard thyself.