Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PHAEDRE: ACT 1, SCENE 5, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He comes; my blood withdraws into my heart
Last Line: Nor let so sure a shame take hold on you.


PHAEDRA.
He comes; my blood withdraws into my heart,
And I forget what I would say to him.

OENONE.
Think of your son: he has no hope but you.

PHAEDRA.
My lord, you leave us: I have come to add
My tears unto your sorrows; I have come
To plead before your pity for a son.
He has no father; and the day is near
When he must lose me also; he is now,
Even in his childhood, thronged about with foes.
My son has no defender: only you.
But I am troubled by a secret fear,
I fear to have closed your ears against his cries,
I tremble lest a wrath so just avenge
On him a mother so most hate-worthy.

HIPPOLYTUS.
Lady, I harbour not so base a thought

PHAEDRA.
Though you should hate me, I would not reproach you,
Prince; you have seen me seek to do you harm.
You could not look into my heart and read.
I have set myself to bargain for your hate,
I have not suffered you about my hearth,
I have spoken ill against you everywhere,
Desiring many seas to separate us;
I have ordained it law that no man speak
Your name before me; and yet, yet, my lord,
If the offence mete out the penalty,
If only hate could waken hate in you,
No woman ever needed pity more,
Nor any were less worthy of your hate.

HIPPOLYTUS.
A mother jealous of her children's right
Hardly forgives another woman's son,
Lady, I know; and second wedlock breeds
Causeless suspicion for its earliest fruit;
Nay, any other had borne no less a grudge,
And I perhaps had pardoned greater wrongs

PHAEDRA.
Ah no, the gods be witness to me here
If they have given me such a woman's heart,
Or if the care that bites me now be this!

HIPPOLYTUS.
Lady, your care is not yet without hope;
It may be that your lord yet sees the light,
It may be that our tears shall bring him back:
Neptune protects him, and my father's prayers
Cannot invoke that guardianship in vain

PHAEDRA.
Twice may no man behold the realms of death:
Theseus has looked upon the dreadful shore,
And there is no god that shall give him back
Or loose the prey of greedy Acheron.
What do I say? But Theseus is not dead,
He breathes in you, I seem to see him still,
I see him, speak to him, my heart . . . Ah me,
My tongue betrays the love I would not speak.

HIPPOLYTUS.
I see the mighty workings of your love:
Theseus is dead, yet Theseus lives for you,
And love of him enkindles all your soul.

PHAEDRA.
I faint, I burn for Theseus, dear my prince;
I love him; not as hell has looked on him,
Unfaithful to a thousand loves, and now,
Now wantoning after the queen of the dead,
But true, but proud, even a little stern,
Young, fair, and drawing all hearts after him,
Such as they say the gods are; such, my lord,
As I see you. He had your port, your eyes,
Your speech, the blood coloured his cheeks as nobly
When he set sail for Crete, and took the hearts
Of Minos' daughters and was worthy of love.
But you? Why then without Hippolytus
Gathered the bravest lords of Greece together?
Why were your feet too young to follow his
Into the ship that set him on our shores?
You should have slain the monster, though he lay
Deep in the winding mazes of his lair
Enfolded, and my sister should have set
The fatal thread into your hand to guide
Your way in the labyrinth. Ah no, my thought
Would have outrun her thought before she found it:
Love would have lessoned me; 'tis I, 'tis I
That should have brought you forth, and set your feet
In a safe way: how many happy cares
This lovely head had cost me! for my love,
A thread were all too fragile to have held
So dear a life; I would have gone with you,
Been comrade of your perils, sharing them;
And Phaedra, with you in the labyrinth,
Should have been found again, or lost, with you.

HIPPOLYTUS.
Gods! have I heard aright? Forget you, lady,
That Theseus is my father and your husband?

PHAEDRA.
Why do you dream I have forgotten it,
Prince? Have I lost the keeping of my fame?

HIPPOLYTUS.
Lady, forgive. I blush to have mistook
So innocent a discourse. My conscious shame
Cannot endure to look upon your face.
I leave you.

PHAEDRA.
Cruel, you have understood
Too well, and surely I have said enough?
Now you shall know Phaedra and all her madness:
I love. Yet think not that I hold myself
Innocent in the sight of mine own eyes,
No, in the very moment that I love you;
Nor think that I have nurtured willingly
The poison of the madness of this love.
I am the prey of the avenging gods:
You do not hate me as I loathe myself.
The gods be witness, they who in my breast
Have set this fatal fire to all my blood,
And snatched a cruel glory, matching them
In might against a simple mortal heart.
Look in your soul, remember all the past:
Have I but fled? nay, I have driven you forth,
I have been unkind to you, intolerable,
Sought out your hate, that I might fight with love;
And what has all my labour profited me?
You hate me worse, I do not love you less;
Your sorrows make you lovelier in mine eyes.
I faint, I am wasted with sharp fires and tears;
See now, only look on me with your eyes,
If your eyes would but only look on me.
What do I say? Now I have spoken all,
And all my shame, think you that willingly
I speak it? For my son's sake did I come,
Trembling, to plead for him against your hate;
Alas, I am too full of that I love,
I have but spoken to you of yourself.
Slay me, and save me from my hateful love,
And be a hero's son, whose son you are,
And rid the world of a monster, slaying me.
See, Theseus' widow loves Hippolytus!
See now, so foul a monster should not live:
Here is my heart: your hand must strike me here.
I feel it leap to meet you; see, it longs
Already to be purged of its offence.
Strike; if I am unworthy of your slaying,
If your hate grudge me so desired a death,
Or if so vile blood may not stain your hand,
Hold back your hand: strike not: give me the sword:
Now.

OENONE.
Nay, what do you, lady? O, just gods!
Some one comes near: I pray you quit this place,
Nor let so sure a shame take hold on you.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net