Third Episode

PHAEDRA.Silence ye Women! Something is amiss.

LEADER.How? In the house?--Phaedra, what fear is this?

PHAEDRA.Let me but listen! There are voices. Hark!

LEADER.I hold my peace: yet is thy presage dark.

PHAEDRA.Oh, misery!O God, that such a thing should fall on me!

LEADER.What sound, what word,O Women, Friend, makes that sharp terror startOut at thy lips? What ominous cry half-heardHath leapt upon thine heart?

PHAEDRA.I am undone!--Bend to the door and hark,Hark what a tone sounds there, and sinks away!

LEADER.Thou art beside the bars. 'Tis thine to markThe castle's floating message. Say, Oh, sayWhat thing hath come to thee?

PHAEDRA (calmly).Why, what thing should it be?The son of that proud Amazon speaks againIn bitter wrath: speaks to my handmaiden!

LEADER.I hear a noise of voices, nothing clear.For thee the din hath words, as through barred locksFloating, at thy heart it knocks.

PHAEDRA."Pander of Sin" it says.--Now canst thou hear?--And there: "Betrayer of a master's bed."

LEADER.Ah me, betrayed! Betrayed!Sweet Princess, thou art ill bested,Thy secret brought to light, and ruin near,By her thou heldest dear,By her that should have loved thee and obeyed!

PHAEDRA.Aye, I am slain. She thought to help my fallWith love instead of honour, and wrecked all.

LEADER.Where wilt thou turn thee, where?And what help seek, O wounded to despair?

PHAEDRA.I know not, save one thing to die right soon.For such as me God keeps no other boon.

(The door in the centre bursts open, and HIPPOLYTUS comes forth, closely followed by the NURSE. PHAEDRA cowers aside.)

HIPPOLYTUS.O Mother Earth, O Sun that makest clean,What poison have I heard, what speechless sin!

NURSE.Hush O my Prince, lest others mark, and guess ...

HIPPOLYTUS.I have heard horrors! Shall I hold my peace?

NURSE.Yea by this fair right arm, Son, by thy pledge ...

HIPPOLYTUS.Down with that hand! Touch not my garment's edge!

NURSE.Oh, by thy knees, be silent or I die!

HIPPOLYTUS.Why, when thy speech was all so guiltless? Why?

NURSE.It is not meet, fair Son, for every ear!

HIPPOLYTUS.Good words can bravely forth, and have no fear.

NURSE.Thine oath, thine oath! I took thine oath before!

HIPPOLYTUS.'Twas but my tongue, 'twas not my soul that swore.

NURSE.O Son, what wilt thou? Wilt thou slay thy kin?

HIPPOLYTUS.I own no kindred with the spawn of sin!(He flings her from him.)

NURSE.Nay, spare me! Man was born to err; oh, spare!

HIPPOLYTUS.O God, why hast Thou made this gleaming snare,Woman, to dog us on the happy earth?Was it Thy will to make Man, why his birthThrough Love and Woman? Could we not have rolledOur store of prayer and offering, royal goldSilver and weight of bronze before Thy feet,And bought of God new child souls, as were meetFor each man's sacrifice, and dwelt in homesFree, where nor Love nor Woman goes and comesHow, is that daughter not a bane confessed,Whom her own sire sends forth--(He knows her best!)--And, will some man but take her, pays a dower!And he, poor fool, takes home the poison-flower;Laughs to hang jewels on the deadly thingHe joys in; labours for her robe-wearing,Till wealth and peace are dead. He smarts the lessIn whose high seat is set a Nothingness,A woman naught availing. Worst of allThe wise deep-thoughted! Never in my hallMay she sit throned who thinks and waits and sighs!For Cypris breeds most evil in the wise,And least in her whose heart has naught within;For puny wit can work but puny sin.Why do we let their handmaids pass the gate?Wild beasts were best, voiceless and fanged, to waitAbout their rooms, that they might speak with none,Nor ever hear one answering human tone!But now dark women in still chambers layPlans that creep out into light of dayOn handmaids' lips--(Turning to the NURSE.)As thine accursèd headBraved the high honour of my Father's bed.And came to traffic ... Our white torrent's sprayShall drench mine ears to wash those words away!And couldst thou dream that I ...? I feel impureStill at the very hearing! Know for sure,Woman, naught but mine honour saves ye both.Hadst thou not trapped me with that guileful oath,No power had held me secret till the KingKnew all! But now, while he is journeying,I too will go my ways and make no sound.And when he comes again, I shall be foundBeside him, silent, watching with what graceThou and thy mistress shall greet him face to face!Then shall I have the taste of it, and knowWhat woman's guile is.--Woe upon you, woe!How can I too much hate you, while the illYe work upon the world grows deadlier still?Too much? Make woman pure, and wild Love tame,Or let me cry for ever on their shame!(He goes off in fury to the left. PHAEDRA still cowering in her place begins to sob.)

PHAEDRA.Sad, sad and evil-starred is Woman's state.What shelter now is left or guard?What spell to loose the iron knot of fate?And this thing, O my God,O thou sweet Sunlight, is but my desert!I cannot fly before the avenging rodFalls, cannot hide my hurt.What help, O ye who love me, can come near,What god or man appear,To aid a thing so evil and so lost?Lost, for this anguish presses, soon or late,To that swift river that no life hath crossed.No woman ever lived so desolate!

LEADER OF THE CHORUS.Ah me, the time for deeds is gone; the boastProved vain that spake thine handmaid; and all lost!(At these words PHAEDRA suddenly remembers the NURSE, who is cowering silently where HIPPOLYTUS had thrown her from him. She turns upon her.)

PHAEDRA.O wicked, wicked, wicked! Murderess heartTo them that loved thee! Hast thou played thy part?Am I enough trod down?May Zeus, my sire,Blast and uproot thee! Stab thee dead with fire!Said I not--Knew I not thine heart?--to nameTo no one soul this that is now my shame?And thou couldst not be silent! So no moreI die in honour. But enough; a storeOf new words must be spoke and new things thought.This man's whole being to one blade is wroughtOf rage against me. Even now he speedsTo abase me to the King with thy misdeeds;Tell Pittheus; fill the land with talk of sin!Cursèd be thou, and whoso else leaps inTo bring bad aid to friends that want it not.(The NURSE has raised herself, and faces PHAEDRA, downcast but calm.)

NURSE.Mistress, thou blamest me; and all thy lotSo bitter sore is, and the sting so wild,I bear with all. Yet, if I would, my Child,I have mine answer, couldst thou hearken aught.I nursed thee, and I love thee; and I soughtOnly some balm to heal thy deep despair,And found--not what I sought for. Else I wereWise, and thy friend, and good, had all sped right.So fares it with us all in the world's sight.

PHAEDRA.First stab me to the heart, then humour meWith words! 'Tis fair; 'tis all as it should be!

NURSE.We talk too long, Child. I did ill; but, oh,There is a way to save thee, even so!

PHAEDRA.A way? No more ways! One way hast thou trodAlready, foul and false and loathed of god!Begone out of my sight; and ponder howThine own life stands! I need no helpers now.(She turns from the NURSE, who creeps abashed away into the Castle.)

Only do ye, high Daughters of Trozên,Let all ye hear be as it had not been;Know naught, and speak of naught! 'Tis my last prayer.

LEADER.By God's pure daughter, Artemis, I swear,No word will I of these thy griefs reveal!

PHAEDRA.'Tis well. But now, yea, even while I reelAnd falter, one poor hope, as hope now is,I clutch at in this coil of miseries;To save some honour for my children's sake;Yea, for myself some fragment, though things breakIn ruin around me. Nay, I will not shameThe old proud Cretan castle whence I came,I will not cower before King Theseus' eyes,Abased, for want of one life's sacrifice!

LEADER.What wilt thou? Some dire deed beyond recall?

PHAEDRA (musing).Die; but how die?

LEADER.Let not such wild words fall!

PHAEDRA (turning upon her).Give thou not such light counsel! Let me beTo sate the Cyprian that is murdering me!To-day shall be her day; and, all strife pastHer bitter Love shall quell me at the last.Yet, dying, shall I die another's bane!He shall not stand so proud where I have lainBent in the dust! Oh, he shall stoop to shareThe life I live in, and learn mercy there!(She goes off wildly into the Castle.)