is some trick, some oily strategem?
I came here to beg you not to condemn
my son, already uncertain of his life.
Ridiculous, mad embassy, for a wife
who loves her stepson! Prince, I only spoke
about myself! Avenge yourself, invoke
your father; a worse monster threatens you
than any Theseus ever fought and slew.
The wife of Theseus loves Hippolytus!
Come on, Prince! Look, this monster, ravenous
for her execution, will not flinch.
I want your sword's spasmodic final inch.
I want death! Wait, you fear my blood will foul
your virgin flesh.
If
you begrudge my soul
this glorious annihilation at your hand,
unbuckle, drop your sword. Prince, I command
you, I entrust you with my fate!
Oh let me kill myself and expiate
my love for you and perish, while your sword
severs me from this body I abhorred!2
III
PHAEDRA:
Nurse, the last calamity
has come.
This
is the bottom of the sea.
All that preceded this had little force–
the flames of lust, the horrors of remorse,
the prim refusal by my
grim
young master,
were only feeble hints of this disaster.
They love each other! Passion blinded me.
I let them blind me, let them meet and see
each other freely! Was such bounty wrong?
Oenone, you have known
this
all along,
2. From Act II, Scene 5.
