Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Phèdre
ACT I
Scene 1.Hip polytus, Theramenes.
Hippolitus. I have made up my mind, Theramenes.
Theramenes. My lord, where will you go to look for him?
Hippolitus. Stop, Theramenes, and show respect for Theseus.
Theramenes. My lord, for how long have you feared the presence of this peaceful town you loved as a boy,
Hippolitus. The time of happiness is over. Everything has changed since the gods sent to these shores the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae.
Theramenes. I understand. I know the cause of your suffering.
Hippolitus. Her vain enmity is not what I fear.
Theramenes. Are you, also, my lord, persecuting her?
Hippolitus. If I hated her, I would not flee her.
Theramenes. My lord, may I try to explain your flight?
Hippolitus. You are bold to ask this question.
Theramenes. My lord, once your fate is inscribed,
Hippolitus. I am leaving, Theramenes, to search for my father.
Theramenes. Will you not see Phèdre before going, my lord?
Hippolitus. It is my intention. You may inform her.
[Oenone enters.]
What new woe has upset her faithful Oenone?
Scene 2.Hippolytus, Oenone, Theramenes.
Oenone. Alas, my lord, what sorrow is equal to mine?
Hippolytus. I understand. I will leave her alone.
Scene 3.Phèdre, Oenone.
Phèdre. Let us go no farther. Stay here, Oenone.
Oenone. Would that our tears might appease the gods!
Phèdre. These useless ornaments and these veils are heavy on me.
Oenone. Your wishes are destroyed as soon as they are expressed!
Phèdre. O Sun, noble and shining author of a wretched family,
Oenone. Will you never renounce this cruel desire?
Phèdre. Why am I not sitting in the shadow of the forests?
Oenone. What did you say?
Phèdre. I am a fool. Where am I and what did I say?
Oenone. If you must blush, let it be from that silence which still embitters the violence of your woe.
Phèdre. Stop!
Oenone. My reproach moves you!
Phèdre. Wretched woman, what name did you utter?
Oenone. How justified is your anger!
Phèdre. I have too far prolonged its guilty length.
Oenone. What kind of remorse torments you?
Phèdre. Thanks to heaven my hands are not criminal.
Oenone. What terrible project have you conceived that your heart is so anguished by it?
Phèdre. I have said enough to you. Spare me the rest.
Oenone. Die and maintain your inhuman silence.
Phèdre. What can you hope for by thus forcing me?
Oenone. What could you say that would be worse than the horror of seeing you die before my eyes?
Phèdre. When you learn of my crime and the fate crushing me,
Oenone. For the sake of the tears I have shed for you,
Phèdre. Since you must know it, stand up.
Oenone. Speak! I am listening.
Phèdre. What can I tell her? Where can I begin?
Oenone. Stop offending me by this vain terror.
Phèdre. The hatred of Venus and her fatal anger caused a perverted love to grow in my mother.
Oenone. You must forget that. Hide that memory in unbroken silence throughout all the future.
Phèdre. My sister Ariadne, wounded by a strange love,
Oenone. Why are you saying this? What mortal torment urges you today to speak against all your family?
Phèdre. It is the will of Venus that of all my family I shall die the last and the most wretched.
Oenone. Are you in love?
Phèdre. I feel all the furies of love.
Oenone. For whom?
Phèdre. You are going to hear the extreme of all horrors.
Oenone. What man?
Phèdre. You know the son of the Amazon woman,
Oenone. Hippolytus? All gods of heaven!
Phèdre. It was you who named him.
Oenone. My blood is congealed in all my veins.
Phèdre. My suffering comes from farther back. Scarcely was I bound by the marriage law to the son of Aegeus,
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Phèdre"
by .
Copyright © 2001 Wallace Fowlie.
Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
