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Phaedra-Jean Racine · Andromache

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Act one of Phaedra by John Racine, translated by Robert
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  Speaker 1: Bruce Boswell. This is a Libraryvox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: please visit Libryvox. Dodd Orc Dramatis Personi narrated by.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Lambda Theseus read by Bruce Pierrey.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Phedra read by Elizabeth Clett.
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  Speaker 4: Hippolytus read by libbygone.
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  Speaker 5: Erisia read by Charlotte Ducatt.
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  Speaker 6: Oh Noney read by Amanda Friday.
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  Speaker 7: Feraminees read by Alan Mapstone.
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  Speaker 8: Is Many read by MICHAELA.
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  Speaker 9: Panope read by Marian Carwin.
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  Speaker 1: Scene one Hippolytus phemenees.
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  Speaker 4: My mind is settled, dear therremines, and I can stay
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  Speaker 4: no more in lovely Trozen, in doubt that racks my
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: soul with mortal anguish. I grow ashamed of such long idleness.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: Six months and more my father has been gone, and
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: what may have befallen one? So dear, I know not,
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  Speaker 4: nor what corner of the earth hides him?
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  Speaker 7: And where, Prince will you look for him? Already to
• 1:25
  Speaker 7: content your just alarm? Have I not crossed the seas
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  Speaker 7: on either side? Of Corinth asked if aught were known
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  Speaker 7: of theseus where Acheron is lost among the shades, visited Elis,
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  Speaker 7: doubled Tenarus, and sailed into the sea that saw the
• 1:41
  Speaker 7: fall of Icarus, inspir'd with what new hope? Under what
• 1:46
  Speaker 7: favored skies think you to trace his footsteps? Who knows
• 1:51
  Speaker 7: if the king your father wishes the secret of his
• 1:53
  Speaker 7: absence known? Perchance, while we are trembling for his life,
• 1:59
  Speaker 7: the hero calmly plot some fresh in tregue, and only
• 2:03
  Speaker 7: waits till the deluded fair cease.
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: Dear theeremines respect the name of theseus. Youthful errors have
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  Speaker 4: been left behind, and no unworthy obstacle detains him. Phedra
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: has long fixed a heart in constant once, nor did
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: she fear a rival in seeking him. I shall but
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  Speaker 4: do my duty and leave a place I dare no
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  Speaker 4: longer see.
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  Speaker 7: Indeed, when Prince, did you begin to dread these peaceful haunts?
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  Speaker 7: So dear to happy childhood where I have seen you?
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  Speaker 7: Oft prefer to stay rather than meet the tumult and
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  Speaker 7: the pomp of Athens and the court. What danger shun you?
• 2:43
  Speaker 7: Or shall I say, what grief?
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  Speaker 4: That happy time is gone? And all is changed since
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  Speaker 4: to these shores the god sent Phedra.
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  Speaker 7: I perceive the cause of your disress. It is the
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  Speaker 7: queen whose sight offends you with a step dame spite.
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  Speaker 7: She schemed your exile soon as she set eyes on you.
• 3:06
  Speaker 7: But if her hatred is not wholly vanished, it has
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  Speaker 7: at least taken a milder aspect. Besides, what danger can
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  Speaker 7: a dying woman, one who too longs for death bring
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  Speaker 7: on your head? Can Phaedra, sickening of a dire disease
• 3:24
  Speaker 7: of which she will not speak, weary of life and
• 3:26
  Speaker 7: of herself, form any plots against you?
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  Speaker 4: It is not her vain enmity I fear another foe.
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  Speaker 4: Alarmed Hippolatus, I fly. It must be owned from young Arecia,
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  Speaker 4: the sole survivor of an impious race.
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  Speaker 7: What you become her persecutor too? The gentle sister of
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  Speaker 7: the cruel sons of Pallas shared not in their perfidy.
• 3:50
  Speaker 7: Why should you hate such charming innocence?
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  Speaker 4: I should not need to fly if it were hatred?
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  Speaker 7: May I then learn the meaning of your flight? Is
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  Speaker 7: this the proud Hippolytus I see than whom there breathed
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  Speaker 7: no fiercer foe to love and to that yoke which
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  Speaker 7: theseus has so often dured. And can it be that
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  Speaker 7: venus scorn so long will justify your sire at last?
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  Speaker 7: Has she, then, setting you with other mortals, forced yen
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  Speaker 7: Hippolytus to offer incense before her?
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  Speaker 4: Can you, love, friend, ask me? Not you who have
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  Speaker 4: known my heart from infancy and all its feelings of
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  Speaker 4: disdainful pride, Spare me the shame of disavowing all that
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  Speaker 4: I professed. Born of an Amazon, that wildness you wonder at,
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  Speaker 4: I sucked with mother's milk when come to riper age,
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  Speaker 4: reason approved what nature had implanted, Sincerely bound to me
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  Speaker 4: by zealous service. You told me then the story of
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  Speaker 4: my sire. And know how oft attentive to your voice
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  Speaker 4: I kindled when I heard his noble acts as you
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  Speaker 4: described him, bringing consolation to mortals for the absence of alsides,
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  Speaker 4: the highways cleared of monsters and of robbers. Procustes Circion
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  Speaker 4: sciro Synus slain, the epidaurian giant's bones, dispersed creat reeking
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  Speaker 4: with the blood of minotaur. But when you told me
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  Speaker 4: of less glorious deeds, troth plighted here and there, and everywhere,
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  Speaker 4: young Helen stolen from her home at Sparta, and Peribea's tears,
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  Speaker 4: and Salamus, and many another trusting heart deceived, whose very
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  Speaker 4: names have scaped his memory, forsaken Ariadne on the rocks,
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  Speaker 4: complaining last this Phedra bound to him by better ties.
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  Speaker 4: You know with what regret I heard and urged you
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  Speaker 4: to cut short the tale. Happy had I been to
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  Speaker 4: a race? From my remembrance that unworthy part of such
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  Speaker 4: a splendid record, I, in turn, am I too made
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  Speaker 4: the slave of love and brought to stoop so low,
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  Speaker 4: the more contemptible that no renown is mine, as such
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  Speaker 4: exalts the name of theseus. No monster's quells have given
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  Speaker 4: me a right to share his weakness. And if my
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  Speaker 4: pride of heart must needs be humbled, Eresa should have
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  Speaker 4: been the last to tame. It was I beside myself
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  Speaker 4: to have forgotten eternal barriers of separation between us, by
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  Speaker 4: my father's stern command, her brethren's blood must ne'er be
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  Speaker 4: reenforced by sons of hers. He dreads a single shoot
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  Speaker 4: from Stock so guilty, and would fain with her bury
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  Speaker 4: their name, that even to the tomb, content to be
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  Speaker 4: his ward, for her, no touch of hymen may be lit.
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  Speaker 4: Shall I espouse her rights against my sire rashly provoke
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  Speaker 4: his wrath and launch upon a mad career.
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  Speaker 7: The gods, dear Prince, if once your hour is come,
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  Speaker 7: care little for the reasons that should guide us, Wishing
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  Speaker 7: to shut your eyes theseus unseals them. His hatred, stirring
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  Speaker 7: a rebellious flame within you lends his enemy new charms.
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  Speaker 7: And after all, why should a guiltless passion alarm you?
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  Speaker 7: Dare you not to say its sweetness, but follow rather
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  Speaker 7: a fastidious scruple. Fear you to stray where Hercules has wandered?
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  Speaker 7: What heart so stout that Venus has not vanquish'd? Where
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  Speaker 7: would you be yourself so long her foe had your
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  Speaker 7: own mother constant in her scorn of love ne'er glowed
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  Speaker 7: with tenderness for theseus? What boots it to affect a
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  Speaker 7: pride you feel? Not confess it? All is changed. For
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  Speaker 7: some time past you have been seldom seen with wild delight,
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  Speaker 7: urging the rapid car along the strand, or skillful in
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  Speaker 7: the art that Neptune taught making the unbroken steed obey
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  Speaker 7: the bit less. Often have the woods return'd our shouts,
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  Speaker 7: A secret burden on your spirit's asked has dim dry?
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  Speaker 7: How can I doubt you? Love? Vainly? Would you conceal
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  Speaker 7: the fatal wound? Has not the fair orisia touched your heart?
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  Speaker 4: Theramenes, I go to find my father.
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  Speaker 7: Will you not see the queen before you start?
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  Speaker 4: My prince, that is my purpose. You can tell her, yes,
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  Speaker 4: I will see her duty bids me to do it.
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  Speaker 4: But what new ill vexes her?
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  Speaker 1: Dear? Onone scene doo hippolydes annone, theremenes.
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  Speaker 6: Alas, my lord, what grief was air like mine? The
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  Speaker 6: queen has almost touched the gates of death. Vainly close
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  Speaker 6: watch I keep by day and night e'en in my arms.
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  Speaker 6: A secret malady slays her, and all her senses are disordered.
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  Speaker 6: Weary yet restless, from her couch, she rises pants for
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  Speaker 6: the outer air, but bids me see that no one
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  Speaker 6: on her misery intrudes. She comes enough.
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  Speaker 4: She shall not be disturbed nor confronted with a face
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  Speaker 4: she hates.
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  Speaker 1: Scene three phedra anone.
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  Speaker 3: We have gone far enough, stay dear anone. Strength fails me,
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  Speaker 3: and I needs must rest awhile my eyes are dazzled
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  Speaker 3: with this glaring light, so long unseen, My trembling knees
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  Speaker 3: refuse support, Oh me.
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  Speaker 6: Would heaven that our tears might bring relief?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, how these cumbrous gods, these veils oppress me. What
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  Speaker 3: officious hand has tied these knots and gathered o'er my brow,
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: these clustering coils? How all conspires to add to my distress?
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  Speaker 6: What is one moment wished? The next is irksome? Did
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  Speaker 6: you not just now sick of inaction? Bid us deck
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  Speaker 6: you out and with your former energy recalled desire to
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  Speaker 6: go abroad and see the light of day once more?
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  Speaker 6: You see it? And would fain be hidden from the
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  Speaker 6: sunshine that you sought?
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  Speaker 3: Thou, glorious author of a hapless race, whose daughter twas
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  Speaker 3: my mother's boast to be? Who well mayst blush to
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  Speaker 3: see me in such plight for the last time I
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  Speaker 3: come to look on thee o sun?
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  Speaker 6: What still are you in love with death? Shall I
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  Speaker 6: ne'er see you reconciled till life? Forego these cruel accents
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  Speaker 6: of despair?
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  Speaker 3: Would I were seated in the forest's shade, When may
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  Speaker 3: I follow with delighted eye through glorious dust, flying in
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  Speaker 3: full career.
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  Speaker 6: A chariot, Madam.
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  Speaker 3: Have I lost my senses? What said I? And where
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  Speaker 3: am I? Whitherstray vain wishes?
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  Speaker 2: Ah?
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  Speaker 3: The gods have made me mad I blush ononi, and
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  Speaker 3: confusion covers my face. For I have let you see
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  Speaker 3: too clearly the shame of grief that in my own
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  Speaker 3: despite or flows these eyes of mine.
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  Speaker 6: If you must blush, blush at a silence that inflames
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  Speaker 6: your woes, resisting all my care death to my voice?
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  Speaker 6: Will you have no compassion on yourself? But let your
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  Speaker 6: life be ended in mid course? What evil spell has
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: drained its fountain dry? Thrice have the shades of night
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  Speaker 6: obscured the heavens? Since sleep has entered through your eyes?
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  Speaker 6: And thrice the dawn has chased the darkness. Thence, since
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  Speaker 6: food pasted your way and lips, and you are faint
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  Speaker 6: and languid, to what dread purpose is your heart inclined?
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  Speaker 6: How dare you make attempts upon your life, and so
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  Speaker 6: offend the gods who gave it? You prove false to
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  Speaker 6: theseus and your marriage vows? Aye, and betray your most
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  Speaker 6: unhappy children, bending their necks, yourself beneath the yoke that
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  Speaker 6: day be sure which robs them of their mother, will
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  Speaker 6: give high hopes back to the stranger's son, to that
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  Speaker 6: primy of you and yours to whom an amazon gave birth.
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  Speaker 6: I mean hippolytis ye gods, Ah, this reproach moves.
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  Speaker 3: You, unhappy woman, to what name gave your mouth utterance?
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  Speaker 6: Your wrath is just tis well that that ill omened
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  Speaker 6: name can rouse such rage. Then live, Let love and
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  Speaker 6: duty urge their claims. Live suffer not this son of
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  Speaker 6: Scythia crushing your children neath his odious sway to rule
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  Speaker 6: the noble offspring of the gods, the purest blood of Greece.
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  Speaker 6: Make no delay. Each moment threatens death. Quickly restore your
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  Speaker 6: shattered strength, while yet the torch of life holds out
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  Speaker 6: and can be fanned into a flame.
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  Speaker 3: Too long have I endured its guilt and shame?
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  Speaker 6: Why? What remorse gnaws at your heart? What crime can
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  Speaker 6: have disturbed you? Thus your hands are not polluted with
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  Speaker 6: the blood of innocence?
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  Speaker 3: Thanks be to Heaven, My hands are free from stain.
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  Speaker 3: Would that my soul were innocent as they?
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  Speaker 6: What awful project have you then conceived? Whereat your conscience
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  Speaker 6: should be still alarmed?
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  Speaker 3: Have I not said, enough, spare me the rest. I
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  Speaker 3: die to save myself a full confession.
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  Speaker 6: Die then, and keep a silence so inhuman, But seek
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  Speaker 6: some other hand to close your eyes. Though but a
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  Speaker 6: spark of life remains within you. My soul shall go
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  Speaker 6: before you to the shades. A thousand roads are always
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  Speaker 6: open thither. Pained at your want of confidence, I'll choose
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  Speaker 6: the shortest cruel one. When has my faith deceived?
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  Speaker 8: You?
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  Speaker 6: Think how in my arms you lay new born for you?
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  Speaker 6: My huntry and my children I have forsaken. Do you
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  Speaker 6: thus repay my faithful service?
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  Speaker 3: What do you expect from words so bitter? Were I
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  Speaker 3: to break silence, horror would freeze your blood?
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  Speaker 6: What can you say to horrify me more than to
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  Speaker 6: behold you die before my eyes?
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  Speaker 3: When you shall know my crime, My death will follow
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  Speaker 3: none the less, but with the added stain of guilt.
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  Speaker 6: Dear madam, by all the tears that I have shed
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  Speaker 6: for you, By these weak knees I clasp, relieve my
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  Speaker 6: mind from torturing doubt.
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  Speaker 3: It is your wish. Then rise I hear you speak,
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  Speaker 3: Oh heavens, how shall I.
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  Speaker 6: Begin dismiss vain fears? You wound me with distrust?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, fatal animosity of Venus into What wild distractions did
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  Speaker 3: she cast? My mother?
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  Speaker 6: Be they blotted from remembrance and for all time to come,
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  Speaker 6: buried in silence.
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  Speaker 3: My sister Ariadne, by what love were you betrayed to
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: death on lonely shores? Forsaken Madam?
• 14:48
  Speaker 6: What deep seated pain prompts these reproaches against all your kin?
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  Speaker 3: It is the will of Venus, and I perish, last,
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  Speaker 3: most unhappy of a fe emily where all were wretched?
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  Speaker 6: Do you love?
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  Speaker 3: I feel all its mad fever?
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  Speaker 6: Ah for whom here now.
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  Speaker 3: The crowning horror? Yes, I love. My lips trembled to
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: say his name? Whom know you him? Son of the Amazon,
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  Speaker 3: whom I've oppressed so long?
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  Speaker 6: Hippolytis, great Gods.
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  Speaker 3: Tis you have named him?
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  Speaker 6: All My blood within my veins seems frozen. Oh despair,
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: Oh cursed race, ill omened journey land of misery? Why
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: did we ever reach thy dangerous shores?
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: My wound is not so recent, scarcely had I been
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: bound to theseus by the marriage joke and happiness and
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: peace seemed well secured when Athens showed me my proud
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: enemy alternately turned pale and blushed to see him, and
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: my soul grew all distraught. A mist obscured my vision,
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  Speaker 3: and my voice faltered. My blood ran cold, then burned
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  Speaker 3: like fire. Venus I felt in all my fever'd frame
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  Speaker 3: whose fury had so many of my race? Pursued with
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: fervent vows, I sought to shun her. Torments built and
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  Speaker 3: decked for her a shrine, and there mid countless victims
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  Speaker 3: did I seek the reason I had lost, But all
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: for naught. No remedy could cure the wounds of love
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  Speaker 3: in vain. I offered incense on her altars when I
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: invoked her name. My heart adored Hippolytus before me constantly,
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: And when I made her altars smoke with victims. Was
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  Speaker 3: for a god whose name I dared not utter. I
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  Speaker 3: fled his presence everywhere, but found him a crowning horror
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  Speaker 3: in his father's features against myself. At last, I raised
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  Speaker 3: revolt and stirred my courage up to persecute the enemy.
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  Speaker 3: I loved to banish him. I wore a step dame's
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  Speaker 3: harsh and jealous carriage with ceaseless cries. I clamored for
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  Speaker 3: his exile till I had torn him from his father's arms.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: I breathed once more onone. In his absence, my days
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  Speaker 3: flowed on, less troubled than before, and innocent, submissive to
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  Speaker 3: my husband. I hid my grief, and of our fatal marriage,
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  Speaker 3: cherished the fruits, vain caution, cruel fate brought hither by
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: my spouse himself. If I saw again the enemy whom
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: I had banished, and the old wound too quickly bled afresh,
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: no longer is it love hid in my heart, but
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: venus in her might, seizing her prey. I have conceived
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: just terror for my crime. I hate my life and
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: hold my love in horror dying. I wished to keep
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  Speaker 3: my fame unsullied and bury in the grave a guilty passion.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: But I have been unable to withstand tears and entreaties.
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  Speaker 3: I have told you all content, if only, as my
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: end draws near, you do not vex me with unjust reproaches,
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  Speaker 3: nor with vain effort seek to snatch from death the
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: last faint lingering sparks of vital breath.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Scene four fabra anone penno.
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  Speaker 9: Fain would I hide from you tidings so sad? But
• 19:02
  Speaker 9: tis my duty, madam, to reveal them. The hand of
• 19:05
  Speaker 9: death has seized your peerless husband, and you are last
• 19:08
  Speaker 9: to hear of this disaster. What say you, panope, The queen,
• 19:13
  Speaker 9: deceived by vain trust in heaven, begs safe return for theseus,
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  Speaker 9: while Hippolytus, his son, learns of his death from vessals
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  Speaker 9: that are now in port. Ye gods divided counsel sway
• 19:27
  Speaker 9: the choice of Athens. Some would have the prince your
• 19:30
  Speaker 9: child for master. Others, disregarding the laws, dare to support
• 19:34
  Speaker 9: the stranger's son. Tis even said that a presumptuous faction
• 19:38
  Speaker 9: would crown Eresia and the house of Palis. I deemed
• 19:41
  Speaker 9: it right to warn you of this danger. Hippolytus already
• 19:45
  Speaker 9: is prepared to start, and should he show himself at Athens,
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  Speaker 9: tis to be feared. The fickle crowd will all follow
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  Speaker 9: his lead.
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  Speaker 6: Enough, the Queen, who hears you by no means, will
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  Speaker 6: neglect this timely warning.
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  Speaker 1: See fi cidra Annie.
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  Speaker 6: Dear lady, I had almost ceased to wurde the wish
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  Speaker 6: that you should live, thinking to follow my mistress to
• 20:08
  Speaker 6: the tomb from which my voice had failed to turn you.
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: But this new misfortune alters the aspect of affairs and
• 20:15
  Speaker 6: prompts fresh measures. Madam, Theseus is no more. You must
• 20:20
  Speaker 6: supply his place. He leaves a son a slave if
• 20:23
  Speaker 6: you should die, But if you live, a king on
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  Speaker 6: whom has he to lean but you no hand but
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: yours will dry his tears. Then live for him, or
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: else the tears of innocence will move the gods his
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: ancestors to wrath against his mother.
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  Speaker 3: Live.
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  Speaker 6: Your guilt is gone. No blame attaches to your passion.
• 20:43
  Speaker 6: Now the king's decease has freed you from the bonds
• 20:47
  Speaker 6: that made the crime and horror of your love. Hippolytus
• 20:50
  Speaker 6: no longer need be dreaded him. You may see henceforth
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: without reproach. It may be that, convinced of your aversion,
• 20:58
  Speaker 6: he means to head the rebels undeceive him, soften his
• 21:02
  Speaker 6: callous heart, and bend his pride. King of this fertile
• 21:06
  Speaker 6: land in Trozen, here his portion lies. But as he
• 21:10
  Speaker 6: knows the laws give to your son. The ramparts that
• 21:14
  Speaker 6: Minerva built and protects, a common enemy threatens you both
• 21:18
  Speaker 6: unite them to oppose Arisia.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: To your counsel, I consent, Yes, I will live if
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: life can be restored, if my affection for a son
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: has power to rouse my sinking heart at such a
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: dangerous hour.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: End of Act one, Act too of Phedra by Jonacine,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: translated by Robert Bruce Boswell. This is a Librivos recording.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain, so more
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit librivokx dot org. Scene
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: one Rikia is many.
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: Hippolyticis requests to see me here. Hippolytis desire to bid farewell.
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: It's true, as maney, are you not deceived?
• 22:21
  Speaker 8: This is the first result of Theseus's death. Prepare yourself
• 22:25
  Speaker 8: to see from every side hearts turned towards you that
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: were kept away by Theseus. Mistress of her lot. At last,
• 22:31
  Speaker 8: Aresius soon shall find all Greece followed to do her homagetis.
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: Not then is Mane an idle tale? Am I no
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: more a slave? Have I no enemies?
• 22:42
  Speaker 8: The gods oppose your peace no longer? And the soul
• 22:45
  Speaker 8: of Theseus is with your brothers.
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: Does the voice of Fame tell how he died?
• 22:50
  Speaker 8: Rumors incredible are spread. Some say that seizing a new
• 22:54
  Speaker 8: bride the faithless husband by the waves was swallowed. Others affirm,
• 22:59
  Speaker 8: and this prevails, though with perithous to the world below.
• 23:03
  Speaker 8: He went and saw the shores of dark Cucritus, showing
• 23:06
  Speaker 8: himself alive to the pale ghosts, but that he could
• 23:09
  Speaker 8: not leave those gloomy realms, which whoso enters there abides forever.
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: Shall I believe that ere this destined hour a mortal
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: may descend into the gulf of Hades. What attraction could
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: o'er come its terrors?
• 23:24
  Speaker 8: He is dead, and you willlone doubt it. The men
• 23:28
  Speaker 8: of Athens mourn his loss. Chrozen already hails Hippolitas as king,
• 23:33
  Speaker 8: and Phedra, fearing for her son, asks counsel of the
• 23:36
  Speaker 8: friends who share her trouble. Here in this.
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: Palace, will Hippolytus thank you, prove kinder than is sire,
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: make light my chains and pity my misfortunes?
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: Yes, I think so, Madame Ah.
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: You know him not, or you would never deem so
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: hard a hat can pity feel or me alone? Except
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: from the contempt in which he holds our sex? Has
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: he not long avoided every spot where we resorts?
• 24:02
  Speaker 8: I know what tales are told of proud Hippolytis, But
• 24:05
  Speaker 8: I have seen him near you, and have watched with
• 24:08
  Speaker 8: curious eye, how one is seemed so cold, would bear
• 24:11
  Speaker 8: himself Little did his behavior correspond with what I'd look
• 24:15
  Speaker 8: for In his faced confusion appeared at your first glance.
• 24:19
  Speaker 8: He could not turn his languid eyes away, but gazed
• 24:22
  Speaker 8: on you. Love is a word that may offend his pride.
• 24:27
  Speaker 8: But what the tongue disowns looks can betray.
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: How eagerly my hat he has what you say, though
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: it may be delusion, dear ismonette, did it seem possible
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: to you who know me, that I, sad spots of
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: a relentless fate, fed upon bitter tears by day and night,
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: could ever taste maddening draft of love? The last frail
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: offspring of a royal race, children of Earth, I only
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: have survived war's fury. Cut off in the flower of youth,
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: mown by the sword six brothers, I have lost the
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: hope of an illustrious house whose blood Earth drank with
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: sorrow near akin to his whom she has self produced.
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: Since then, you know how, through all Greece, no heart
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: has been allowed to sipher me, lest by a sister's flame,
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: the brother's ashes be perchance rekindled, you know. Besides with
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: what disdain I viewed my conqueror's suspicions and precautions, And
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: how opposed as I have been to love, I often
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: thanked the king's injustice, which happily confirmed my inclination. But
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: then I never beheld his son, not that attracted merely
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: by the eye. I love him for his beauty and
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: his grace, endowments which he owes to nature's bounty, charms
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: which she seems to know, not ought to scorn. I
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: love and prize him riches more rare the virtues of
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: his sire, without his faults. I love as I must
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: own that generous pride which ne'er has stopped beneath the
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: ama yoke. Phaedra reaps little glory from a lover so
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: lavish of his size. I am too proud to share
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: devotion with a thousand others, or enter where the door
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: is wide open, but to make one who ne'er has
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: stooped before, bend his proud neck, to pierce a heart
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: of stone, to bind a captive whom his chains astonish,
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: who vainly against a pleasing yoke, rebels that piques my
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: ardor and I long for that twas easier to disarm
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: the god of strength than this Hippolytus, For Hercules yielded
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: so often to the eyes of beauty as to make
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: triumph cheap. But dear Ismonet, I take too little heeds
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: of ipposition beyond my power to quell. And you may
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: hear me humbled by sore defeat, upbraided by pride. I
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: now admire what can he love? And I have happiness
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: to bend.
• 26:58
  Speaker 8: He comes yourself? Shall hear him?
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Scene two, Hippolytes, Arichia is many.
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: Lady, ere I go. My duty bids me to tell
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: you of your change of fortune. My worst fears are realized.
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: My sire is dead. Yes, his protracted absence was caused,
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: as I foreboded, death alone, ending his toils could keep
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: him from the world concealed so long the gods at
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: last have doomed Alsaide's friend, companion and successor. I think
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: your hatred, tender to his virtues, can hear such terms
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: of praise without resentment? Knowing them due? One hope have
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: I that soothes my sorrow? I can free you from restraint. Lo,
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: I revoke the laws whose rigor moved my pity. You
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: are at your own disposal, both heart and hand. Here
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: in my heritage Introsen, where my grandsire Pitheus reigned of yore,
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: and I am now acknowledged king, I leave you free,
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: free as myself and more.
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: Your kindness is to greats tis overwhelming. Such generosity that
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: pays disgrace with honor lends more force than you can
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: think to those hash laws from which you would release me.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: Athens, uncertain how to fill the throne of theseus speaks
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: of you, Anon of me, and then a Phadrius son
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: of me. My Lord, I know myself excluded by strict
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: law Greece turns to my reproach a foreign mother. But
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: if my brother were my only rival, my rights prevail
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: o'er his clearly enough to make me careless of the
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: law's caprice. My forwardness is checked by juster claims to you.
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: I yield my place, or rather own that it is
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: yours by right and yours. The scepter has handed down
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: from Earth's great son Erectheus adoption placed it in the
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: hands of Eegius Athens by him protected and increased, welcomed
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: a king so generous as my sire and your hapless
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: brothers in oblivion. Now she invites you back within her walls.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: Protracted strife has cost her groans enough. Her fields are
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: glutted with your kinsman's blood fattening the furrows out of
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: which it sprung. At first, I rule this trozen, while
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: the son of Phaedra has in crete a rich domain.
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: Athens is yours. I will do all I can to
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: join for you. The votes divided now between us stund.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: At all I hear, my Lord, I fear, I almost
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: fear a dream deceives me. Am, I indeed awake? Can
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: I believe such generosities? What God puts it into your hearts? Well?
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: Is the fame deserved that you enjoy? That fame falls
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: short of truth? Would you for me prove traitor to yourself?
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: Was it not boon enough? Never to hate me? So
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: long I have stained from harboring this empty.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: To hate you? I to hate you, however dark my
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: fierce pride was painted. Do you suppose a monster gave
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: me birth? What savage temper? What envenomed hatred? Would not
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: be mollified at sight of you? Could I resist the
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: sole bewitching charm?
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: Why? What is this, sir?
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: I have said too much not to say more. Prudence
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: in vain resists the violence of passion. I have broken
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: silence at last, and I must tell you now the
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: secret that my heart can hold no longer. You see
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: before you an unhappy instance of hasty pride, A prince
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: who claims compassion, I who so long the enemy of love,
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: mocked at his fetters and despised his captives, who pitying
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: poor mortals that were shipwrecked and seeming safety viewed the
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: shores from land. Now find myself to the same fate, exposed,
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: tossed to and fro upon a sea of troubles. My
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: boldness has been vanquished in a moment, and humbled is
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: the pride wherein I boasted for nearly six months, passed ashamed, despairing,
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: bearing where'er I go the shaft that rends my heart.
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: I struggle vainly to be free from you and from myself.
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: I shun you present absent, I find you near. I
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: see your form in the dark forest depths. The shades
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: of night, nor less broad daylight bring back to my
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: view the charms that I avoid. All things conspire to
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: make Hippolytus your slave for fruit of all my bootless size,
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: I fail to find my former self, my beau and javelins.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: Please me no more. My chariot is forgotten with all
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: the sea God's lessons, and the woods echo my groans
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: instead of joyous shouts, urging my fiery steeds. Hearing this
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: tale of passion, so uncouth you blush perchance at your
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: own handiwork with what wild words I offer you my
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: heart strange captive held by silken jess. But dearer in
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: your eye should be the offering that this language come
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: strange to my lips, reject not vows expressed so ill,
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: which but for you, had ne'er been formed.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Scene three, Hippoly does arikia teremenez this many Prince?
• 32:17
  Speaker 7: The Queen comes, I herald her approach tis you. She
• 32:22
  Speaker 7: seeks me. What her thought may be? I know not,
• 32:28
  Speaker 7: but I speak on her behalf. She would converse with
• 32:32
  Speaker 7: you ere you go?
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: Hence, what shall I say to her? Can she expect?
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: You?
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: Cannot? Noble Prince, refuse to hear her. Howe're convinced she
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: is your enemy, some shades of pity and her tears
• 32:43
  Speaker 5: as jew.
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: Shall we part thus? And will you let me go?
• 32:47
  Speaker 8: Not?
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: Knowing if my boldness has offended the goddess Hiador, whether
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: this heart left in your hands.
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: Go Prince, pursue the schemes your generous souls. It takes
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: make Athens own my scepter. All the gifts you offer
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: me I will accept, But this high frown of empire
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: is not one of the most precious in my sights.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Scene four Hippolydes.
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: Thereminez friend is already, but the Queen approaches. Go see
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: the vessel and fit trim to sail. Haste, bid the
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: crew aboard and hoist the signal. Then soon return and
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: so deliver me from interview most irksome.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Scene five Phedra Hippolydes anone.
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: There I see him. My blood forgets to flow, my
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: tongue to speak what I am come to say.
• 33:42
  Speaker 6: Think of your son, how all his hopes depend on you.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: I hear you leave us, And in haste I come
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: to add my tears to your distress. And for a
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: son plead my alarm. No more has he a father,
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: And at no distant day my son must witness my death.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Already do a thousand foes threaten his youth? You only
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: can defend him. But in my secret heart, remorse awakes
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: and fear lest I have shut your ears against his cries.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: I tremble lest your righteous anger visit on him ere
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: long the hatred earned by me his mother.
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: No such base resentment, madam, is mine.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: I could not blame you, Prince, if you should hate me.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: I have injured you so much, you know, but could
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: not read my heart to incur Your enmity has been
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: mine aim the self. Same borders could not hold us,
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: both in public and in private. I declared myself your foe,
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: and found no peace till sees parted us from each other.
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: I forbade your very name to be pronounced before me.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: And yet, if punishment should be proportioned to the offense,
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: if only hatred draws your hatred, never woman merited more pity,
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: less deserved your enmity.
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: A mother jealous of her children's rights seldom forgives the
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: offspring of a wife who reigned before her. Harassing suspicions
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: are common sequels of a second marriage of me. Would
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: any other have been jealous no less than you, perhaps
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: more violent.
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: Ah, Prince, how Heaven has from the general law made
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: me exempt. Be that same heaven my witness far different
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: is the trouble that devours me.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: This is no time for self reproaches.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Madam.
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: It may be that your husband still behold the light,
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: and Heaven may grant him safe return in answer to
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: our prayers. His guardian god is Neptune, ne'er by him
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: invoked in vain.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: He who has seen the mansions of the dead returns not. Thence,
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: since to those gloomy theseus is gone, tis vain to
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: hope that Heaven may send him back. Prince, there is
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: no release from Acharon's greedy maw. And yet methinks he
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: lives and breathes in you. I see him still before me,
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: and to him I seem to speak my heart. Oh
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: I am mad do what I will. I cannot hide
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: my passion.
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: Yes, I see the strange effects of love. Theseus, though dead,
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: seems present to your eyes. For in your soul there
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: burns a constant flame.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes, for theseus, I languish and I long not
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: as the shades have seen him of a thousand different forms,
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: the fickle lover and of Pluto's bride, the would be ravisher,
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: but faithful proud e into a slight disdain with you,
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: youthful charms attracting every heart as gods are painted. Or
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: like yourself, he had your mien, your eyes spoke, and
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: could blush like you. When the Isle of Crete, my
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: childhood's home, he crossed the wave, worthy to win the
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: love of Mino's daughters. What were you doing, then? Why
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: did he gather the flower of grease and leave Hippolytus? Oh?
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: Why were you too young to have embarked on board
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: the ship that brought thy sire to Crete? At your
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: hands with the monster, then have perished despite the windings
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: of his vast retreat. To guide your doubtful steps within
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: the maze, my sister would have armed you with the clue,
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: But no therein would Phaedra have forestalled Her love would
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: have first inspire me with the thought, and I it
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: would have been whose timely aid had taught you all
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: the labyrinth's crooked ways. What anxious care a life so
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: dear had cost me? No thread had satisfied your lover's fears.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: I would myself have wished to lead the way and
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: share the peril you were bound to face. Phedra with
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: you would have explored the maze with you emerged in safety,
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: or have perished.
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: God's What is this I hear? Have you forgotten that
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: theseus is my father and your husband?
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: Why should you fancy I have lost remembrance thereof and
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: am regardless of mine honor.
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: Forgive me, madam, with a blush. I own that I
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: misconstrued words of innocence for very shame. I cannot bear
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: your sight longer.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: I go, Oh, cruel prince, too well, you understood me.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: I have said enough to save you from mistake. I love,
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: but think not that at the moment when I love
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: you most, I do not feel my guilt. No weak
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: compliance has fed the poison that invects my brain, the
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: ill starred object of celestial vengeance. I am not so
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: detestable to you as to myself. The gods will bear
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: me witness who have within my veins kindled this fire,
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: the gods who dig a barbarous delight in leading a
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: poor mortal's heart astray. Do you yourself recall to mind
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: the past twas not enough for me to fly. I
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: chased you out of the country, wishing to appear inhuman odious,
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: to resist you better. I sought to make you hate
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: me all in vain, hating me more. I loved you
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: none the less new charms were lent to you by
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: your misfortunes. I have been drowned in tears and scorched
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: by fire. Your own eyes might convince you of the truth,
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: if for one moment you could look at me. What
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: ist I say? Think you? This vile confession that I
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: have made is what I meant to utter. Not daring
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: to betray a son for whom I trembled twas to
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: beg you not to hate him. I came weak purpose
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: of a heart too full of love for you to
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: speak of aught. Besides, take your revenge, Punish my odious passion,
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: Prove yourself worthy of your valiant sire, and rid the
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: world of an offensive monster. Does theseus his widow dare
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: to love his son, the frightful monster? Let her not
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: escape you. Here is my heart, This is the place
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: to strike, already prompt to expiate its guilt. I feel it.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: Leap impatiently to meet your arm. Strike home. Or if
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: it would disgrace you to steep your hand in such
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: polluted blood, If that were punishment two mild to slake
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: your hatred, lend me then your sword. If not your
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: arm quick gived.
• 41:12
  Speaker 6: What madam, will you do just God's but some one comes?
• 41:17
  Speaker 6: Go fly from shame? You cannot scape if seen by any.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Thus Scene six hippolydes terminez is that the.
• 41:27
  Speaker 7: Form of Phedra that I see hurried away? What means
• 41:32
  Speaker 7: these signs of sorrow? Where is your sword? Why are
• 41:37
  Speaker 7: you pale? Confused?
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: Friend? Let us fly? I am indeed confounded with horror
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: and astonishment extreme Phedra. But no gods, let this dreadful
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: secret remain forever buried in oblivion.
• 41:51
  Speaker 7: The ship is ready if you wish to sail, But
• 41:55
  Speaker 7: Athens has already given her vote. Their leaders have cons
• 42:00
  Speaker 7: salted all her tribes. Your brother is elected. Phedra wins. Phedra,
• 42:07
  Speaker 7: a herald, charged with a commission from Athens, has arrived
• 42:11
  Speaker 7: to place the reins of power in her hands. Her
• 42:15
  Speaker 7: son is king.
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: Ye gods, who do know her? Do you thus reward
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: her virtue?
• 42:21
  Speaker 7: A faint rumor meanwhile whispers that Theseus is not dead.
• 42:26
  Speaker 7: But Innipyrus has shown himself. But after all my search
• 42:31
  Speaker 7: I know too well.
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: Let nothing be neglected. This rumor must be traced back
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: to its source. If it be found unworthy of belief,
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: let us set sail and cost whate'er it may to
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: hands deserving trust the scepter's sway.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: End of act Tu attri al Phedra by Jonasin, translated
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: by Robert Bruce Boswell. This is a libryvox recording. All
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: libryvox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit libryvox DoD Org Scene one
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: hebra annonee ah.
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: Let them take out swhere the worthless honors they bring me?
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: Why so urgent I should see them? What flattering balm
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: can soothe my wounded heart?
• 43:31
  Speaker 8: Far?
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: Rather hide me? I have said too much. My madness
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: has burst forth like streams in flood, and I have uttered.
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: What should ne'er have reached his ear? Oh God, how
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: he heard me? How reluctant to catch my meaning, dull
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: and cold as marble, and eager only for a quick retreat.
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: How oft his blushes made my shame the deeper. Why
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: did you turn me from the death? I sought? Oh,
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: when his sword was pointed to my bosom, did he
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: grow pale or try to snatch it from me? That
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: I had touched? It was enough for him to render
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: it forever horrible, leaving defilement on the hand that holds it.
• 44:12
  Speaker 6: Thus, brooding on your bitter disappointment, you only fan a
• 44:15
  Speaker 6: fire that must be stifled. Would it not be more
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: worthy of the blood of minnows to find peace in
• 44:20
  Speaker 6: nobler cares and in defiance of a wretch who flies
• 44:24
  Speaker 6: from what he hates? Rain mount the proffered throne?
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: I reign? Shall I the rod of empire sway? When
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: reason reigns no longer? Or myself? When I have lost
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: control of all my senses, When neath a shameful yoke,
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: I scarce can breathe, When I am dying fly, I
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: cannot leave him?
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: Dare you not fly from him? You dared to banish
• 44:51
  Speaker 6: the time?
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: For that is past. He knows my frenzy, I have
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: over stepped the bounds of modesty and blazoned forth my
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: shame before his eyes. Hope stole into my heart against
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: my will? Did you not rally my declining powers? Was
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: it not you yourself recalled my soul, when fluttering on
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: my lips, and with your counsel, lent me fresh life
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: and told me I might love him.
• 45:19
  Speaker 6: Blame me or blame me not for your misfortunes of
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: what was I incapable to save you? But if your
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: indignation air was roused by insult, can you pardon his contempt?
• 45:30
  Speaker 6: How cruelly his eyes, severely fixed, surveyed you almost prostrate
• 45:35
  Speaker 6: at his feet. How hateful then appeared his savage pride.
• 45:38
  Speaker 6: Why did not Phaedra see him?
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: Then?
• 45:40
  Speaker 6: As I beheld him?
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: This proud mood that you resent may yield to time.
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: The rudeness of the forests where he was bred, inured
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: to rigorous laws, clings to him. Still love is a
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: word he ne'er has heard before. It may be his
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: surprised stuff him. And too much vehemence was shown in
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: all I said.
• 46:04
  Speaker 6: Remember that his mother was a barbarian Scythian.
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: Though she was, she learned to love.
• 46:11
  Speaker 6: He has for all the sex hatred intense.
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: Then in his heart no rival shall ever reign. Your
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: counsel comes too late onone serve my madness, not my reason.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: His heart is inaccessible to love. Let us attack him
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: where he has more feeling. The charms of sovereignty appeared
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: to touch him. He could not hide that he was
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: drawn to Athens. His vessel's prows were thither turned. Already
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: all sail was set to scud before the breeze. Go
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: you on, my behalf to his ambition, appeal, and let
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: the prospect of the crown dazzle his eyes. The sacred
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: diadem shall deck his brow. No higher honor mind than
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: there to bind it. Hayes shall be the p I
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: cannot keep, and he shall teach my son how to
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: rule men. It may be he will deign to be
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: to him a father, son and mother. He shall control.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: Try every means to move him. Your words will find
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: more favor than can mine. Urge him with groans and tears,
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: show Phaedra dying, nor blush to use the voice of
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: supplication in you is my last hope. I'll sanction all
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: you say, And on the issue hangs my fate.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: Scene too Fabra alone.
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: Venus implacable, who ceased me? Shamed and sore confounded? Have
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: I not enough been humbled? How can cruelty be stretched farther?
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: Thy shafts have all gone home, and thou hast triumphed?
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: Wouldst thou win a new renown? Attack an enemy more contumacious?
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: Pippolytus neglects thee braves thy wrath, nor ever at thine
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: altars bowed the knee. Thy name offends his proud disdainful ears.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: Our interests are alike. Avenge thyself, force him to love.
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: But what is this? Onone returned already? He detests me then,
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: and will not hear you.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Scene three febra anonee.
• 48:41
  Speaker 6: Madam, you must stifle a fruitless love. Recall your former virtue.
• 48:46
  Speaker 6: The king, who was thought dead, will soon appear before
• 48:48
  Speaker 6: your eyes. Theseus has just arrived. Theseus is here. The
• 48:53
  Speaker 6: people flocked to see him with eager haste. I went
• 48:56
  Speaker 6: by your command to find the prince, when with a
• 48:59
  Speaker 6: thousand shouts the air was rent.
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: My husband is alive. That is enough. On one, I
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: have owned a passion that dishonors him. He lives. I
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: ask to know no more what I foretold it, but
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: you refuse to hear. Your tears prevailed over my just remorse.
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: Dying this morn, I had deserved compassion, your advice I took,
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: and die dishonored, die just heavens, what have I done?
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: To day? My husband comes with him his son, and
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: I shall see the witness of my adulterous flame. Watch
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: with what face I greet his father? While my heart
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: is big with sighs he scorned, and tears that could
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: not move him moisten mine eyes. Think you that his
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: respect for theseus will induce him to conceal my madness,
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: nor disgrace his sire and king. Will he be able
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: to to keep back the horror he has for me?
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: Silence would be in vain. I know my treason, and
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: I lack the boldness of those abandoned women who can
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: taste tranquility and crime, and show a forehead all unabashed.
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: I recognize my madness, recall it, all these vaulted roofs.
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: Methinks these walls can speak and ready to accuse me. Wait,
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: but my husband's presence to reveal my perfidy. Death only
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: can remove this weight of horror? Is it such misfortune
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: to cease to live? Death causes no alarm to misery?
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: I only fear the name that I shall leave behind
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: me for my son's how sad a heritage. The blood
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: of Jove might justly swell the pride that boasts descend
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: from heaven. But heavy weighs a mother's guilt upon her offspring. Yes,
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: I dread the scorn that will be cast on them
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: with too much truth For my disgrace. I tremble when
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: I think that, crushed beneath that curse, they'll never dare
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: to raise their eyes.
• 51:15
  Speaker 6: Doubt not I pity both. Never was fear more just
• 51:19
  Speaker 6: than yours. Why then expose them to this ignominy? Why
• 51:23
  Speaker 6: will you accuse yourself? You thus destroy the only hope
• 51:26
  Speaker 6: that's left. It will be said that Phedra, conscious of
• 51:30
  Speaker 6: her perfidy, fled from her husband's sight. Hippolytis will be
• 51:34
  Speaker 6: rejoiced that, dying, you should lend his charge support. What
• 51:38
  Speaker 6: can I answer him? He'll find it easy to confute
• 51:41
  Speaker 6: my tale, and I shall hear him with an air
• 51:44
  Speaker 6: of triumph to every open ear. Repeat your shame, sooner
• 51:48
  Speaker 6: than that may fire from heaven. Consume me, deceive me,
• 51:52
  Speaker 6: not say do you love him?
• 51:54
  Speaker 9: Still?
• 51:55
  Speaker 6: How look you now on this contemptuous prince, as.
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: On a monster, frightful to my eyes? Why yield him? Then?
• 52:02
  Speaker 6: In easy victory? You fear him? Venture to accuse him
• 52:06
  Speaker 6: first as guilty of the charge which he may bring
• 52:09
  Speaker 6: this day against you? Who can say tis false? All
• 52:13
  Speaker 6: tells against him? In your hands? His sword happily left
• 52:16
  Speaker 6: behind your present trouble, your past, distress, your warnings to
• 52:21
  Speaker 6: his father his exile, which your earnest prayers obtained.
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: What would you have me? Slander, innocence.
• 52:29
  Speaker 6: My zeal has need of naught from you but silence.
• 52:33
  Speaker 6: Like you, I tremble and am loath to do it
• 52:35
  Speaker 6: more willingly. I'd face a thousand deaths. But since without
• 52:39
  Speaker 6: this bitter remedy, I lose you, and to me, your
• 52:41
  Speaker 6: life outweighs all else, I'll speak theseus, howe'er enraged, will
• 52:47
  Speaker 6: do no worse than banish him again. A father when
• 52:50
  Speaker 6: he punishes, remains a father, and his ire is satisfied
• 52:54
  Speaker 6: with a light sentence. But if guiltless blood should flow,
• 52:58
  Speaker 6: is not your honor of more moment a treasure far
• 53:01
  Speaker 6: too precious to be risked. You must submit whatever it dictates,
• 53:05
  Speaker 6: for when our reputation is at stake, all must be sacrificed,
• 53:10
  Speaker 6: conscience itself. But some one comes, tis theseus, and.
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: I see Hippolytus my ruin plainly written in his stern eyes.
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: Do what you will. I trust my fate to you.
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: I cannot help myself.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: See four Thesus, Hippolytes phedra annone terminus.
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: Fortune no longer fights against my wishes, madam, and to
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: your arms restores stay.
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: Theseus do not profane endearments that were once so sweet,
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: but which I am unworthy now to taste. You have
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: been wronged. Fortune has proved spiteful, nor in your absence
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: spared your wife. I am unfit to meet your fond caress.
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: How I may bear my shame? My only care henceforth.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: Scene Si, this is hippolytus, teremenus.
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: Strange welcome for your father?
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: This?
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: What does it mean? My son?
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: Phedra alone can solve this mystery. But if my wish
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: can move you, let me never see her more. Suffer
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: Hippolytus to disappear forever from the home that holds your wife.
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: You, my son, leave me.
• 54:31
  Speaker 4: Twas not I who sought her, twas you who led
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: her footsteps to these shores. At your departure, you thought,
• 54:37
  Speaker 4: meet my lord to trust Eresia and the Queen to
• 54:40
  Speaker 4: this Trozanian land, And I myself was charged with their protection.
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: But what cares? Henceforth? N need keep me here? My
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: youth of idleness has shown its skill enough or paltry
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: foes that range the woods? May I not quit a
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: life of such inglorious ease, and dip my spear in
• 54:57
  Speaker 4: nobler blood. Ere you had reached my aid age. More
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: than one tyrant monster, more than one had felt the
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: weight of your stout arm. Already successful in attacking insolence,
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: you had removed all dangers that infested our coasts to
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: east and west. The traveler feared outrage, no longer hearing
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: your deeds. Already Hercules relied on you and wrested from
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: his toils, while I unknown, son of so brave a sire,
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: and far behind even my mother's footsteps. Let my courage
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: have scoped to act, And if some monster yet escaped you,
• 55:31
  Speaker 4: let me lay the glorious spoils down at your feet,
• 55:34
  Speaker 4: or let the memory of death face nobly, keep my
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: name alive, and prove to all the world that I
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: was your son.
• 55:41
  Speaker 8: Why?
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: What is this? What terror has possessed my family to
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: make them fly before me? If I returned to find
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: myself so feared, so little welcome, why did Heaven release
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: me from prison? My sole friend, misled by passion, was
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: bent on robbing of his wife, the tyrant who rule
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: Epirus with regret. I lent the lover aid, But fate
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: had made us blind myself as well as him. The
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: tyrant seized me, defenseless and unarmed. Peritheus, I saw, with
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: tears cast forth to be devoured by savage beasts that
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: lapped the blood of men, myself in gloomy caverns. He
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: enclosed deep in the bowels of the earth and nigh
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: to Pluto's realms. Six months I lay ere heaven had pity,
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: and I scaped the watchful eyes that guarded me. Then
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: did I purge the world of a foul foe, And
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: he himself has fed his monsters. But when with expectant
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: joy to all that is most precious, I draw near
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: of what the gods have left me. When my soul
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: looks for full satisfaction in a sight so dear, my
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: only welcome is a shudder, embrace rejected, and a hasty flight, inspiring,
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: as I clearly do such terror would I were still
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: a prisoner in Epirus. Phedra complains that I have suffered outrage.
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: Who has betrayed me? Speak? Why was I not avenged?
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: Has Greece to whom mine arm so oft brought useful
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: aid sheltered the criminal? You make no answer? Is my
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: son mine own dear son confederate with mine enemies. I'll
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: enter this suspenses overwhelming. I'll learn at once the culprit
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: and the crime, and Phedra must explain her troubled state. C.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: Six Hippolytes tereminus.
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: What do these words portend, which seem to freeze my
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: very blood? Will Phaedra, in her frenzy accuse herself and
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: seal her own destruction? What will the king say? God's
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: what fatal poison has loved spread over all his house?
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: My self full of a fire? His hatred disapproves, how
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: changed he finds me from the son he knew, with
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: dark forebodings in my mind. Alarmed but innocence has surely
• 58:10
  Speaker 4: not to fear. Come let us go, and in some
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: other place consider how I may best move my sire
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: to tenderness and tell him of a flame vexed but
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: not vanquished by a father's blame.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: End of Act three, Act four, off Heedra by John Ascene,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: translated by Robert Bruce Boswell. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Scene one.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: This is annone.
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: Ah, what is this I hear? Presumptuous traitor? And would
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: he have disgraced his father's honor? With what relentless footsteps?
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: Fate pursues me. Whither I go? I know not, nor
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: where no I am? Oh kind affection, ill repaid, audacious scheme,
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: abominable thought to reach the object of his foul desire.
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: The wretch disdained not to use violence. I know this
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: sword that served him in his fury, the sword I
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: gave him for a nobler use. Could not the sacred
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: ties of blood restrain him. And Phaedra was she loath
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: to have him punished? She held her tongue. Was that
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: to spare the culprit.
• 59:47
  Speaker 6: Nay, but to spare a most unhappy father. Overwhelmed with
• 59:51
  Speaker 6: shame that her eyes should have kindled so infamous a
• 59:53
  Speaker 6: flame and prompted him to crime so heinous, Phedro would
• 59:57
  Speaker 6: have died. I saw her raise her arm and ran
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 6: to save her. To me alone, you owe it that
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 6: she lives. And in my pity both for her and
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 6: you have I, against my will, interpreted her tears.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: The traitor he might well turn pale. Twas fear that
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: made him tremble when he saw me. I was astonished
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: that he showed no pleasure. His frigid greeting chilled my tenderness.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: But was this guilty passion that devours him declared already?
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: Ere I banished him from Athens?
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 6: Sire? Remember how the queen urged you illicit love caused
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 6: all her hatred.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: And then this fire broke out again that trozen.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 6: Sire, I have told you all too long. The queen
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 6: has been allowed to bear her grief alone. Let me
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 6: now leave you and attend to her.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: See two, they says Hippolytes.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: Ah, there he is, Great Gods, that noble mien might
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: well deceive an eye less fond than mine. Why should
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: the sacred stamp of virtue gleam upon the forehead of
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: an impious wretch? Ought not the blackness of a traitor's
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: heart to show itself by sure and certain signs?
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 4: My father, May I ask what fatal cloud has troubled
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 4: your majestic countenance? Dare you not trust the secret to
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: your son?
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: Traitor? How dare you show yourself before me? Monster whom
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: Heaven's bolts have spared too long, survivor of that robber crew,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: whereof I cleansed the earth after your brutal lust, scorned
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: even to respect my marriage, bed you venture, you, my
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: hated foe, to come into my presence here where all
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: is full of your foul infamy, instead of seeking some
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: unknown land that never heard my name. Fly, traitor, Fly
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: stay not to tempt the wrath that I can scarce, restrain,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: nor breathe my hatred disgrace. Enough have I incurred forever
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: in being father of so viole, a son, without your
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: death staining indelibly the glorious record of my noble deeds. Fly,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: And unless you wish quick punishment to add you to
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: the criminals cut off by me, take heed this sun
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: that lights us. Now ne'er sees you more set foot
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: upon this soil. I tell you once again, fly, haste, return,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: not rid all my realms of your atrocious presence to THEE.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: To THEE great Neptune, I appeal, if e'erst I cleared
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: thy shores of foul assassins, recall thy promise to reward
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: those efforts crowned with success by granting my first prayer.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: Confined for long in close captivity, I have not yet
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: called on thy powerful aid, sparing to use the valued
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: privilege till at mine utmost need. The time is come.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: I ask THEE now avenge our wretched father. I leave
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: this traitor to thy wrath in blood, quench his outrageous fires,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: and by thy fury theseus will estimate Thy favor towards him.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 4: Pedra accuses me of lawless passion. This crowning horror all
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 4: my soul confounds. Such unexpected blows falling at once, overwhelm me,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 4: choke my utterance. Strike me, dumb.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: Traitor, You reckoned that, in timid silence, Phedra would bury
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: your brutality. You should not have abandoned in your flight
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: the sword that in her hands helps to condemn you,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: or rather to complete your perfidy. You should have robbed
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: her both of speed and life.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: Justly indignant at a lie so black, I might be
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 4: pardoned if I told the truth. But it concerns your
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 4: honor to conceal it. Approve the reverence that shuts my mouth, And,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 4: without wishing to increase your woes, examine closely what my
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: life has been. Great crimes are never single. They are
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 4: linked to former faults. He who has once transgressed may
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 4: violate at last all that men hold most sacred vice,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 4: like virtue, has degrees of progress. Innocence was never seen
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 4: to sink at once into the lowest depths of guilt.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 4: No virtuous man can in a day turn traitor, murderer
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 4: and incestuous wretch, the nursling of a chaste, heroic mother.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 4: Have I not proved unworthy of my birth Pitheus, whose
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 4: wisdom is by all esteemed deigned to instruct me when
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 4: I left her hands. It is no wish of mine
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 4: to vaunt my merits. But if I may lay claim
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 4: to any virtue, I think beyond all else, I have
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 4: displayed abhorrence of those sins with which I am charged.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 4: For this, Hippolytus is known in Greece so continence that
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 4: he is deemed austere all. No, my abstinence is inflexible.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 4: The daylight is not purer than my heart. How then
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 4: could I burning with fire profane?
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, dastard, tis that very pride condemns you. I see
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: the odious reason of your coldness. Phedra alone bewitched your
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: shameless eyes, your soul to others, charms indifferent, disdained the
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: blameless fires of lawful love.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 4: No, Father, I have hidden it too. Long, this heart
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 4: has not disdained a sacred flame. Here at your feet,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 4: I own my real offense. I love and love in
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 4: truth where you forbid me bound to eurysia. By my
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 4: heart's devotion, the child of Pallace has subdued your son,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 4: a rebel to your laws. Her I adore and breathe
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 4: forth ardent size for her alone.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: You love her heavens, But no I see the trick
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: you feign, a crime to justify yourself.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 4: Sir, I have shunned her for six months and still
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 4: love her. To you yourself, I came to tell it,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: trembling the while, can nothing clear your mind of your mistake?
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 4: What oath can reassure you? By Heaven and earth and
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 4: all the powers.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: Of nature, the wicked never shrink from perjury, Cease, cease,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: and spare me or some protestations. If your false virtue
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: has no other aid.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 4: Though it to you seem false and insincere, Phedra has
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 4: a secret cause to know it true.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: Ah, how your shamelessness excites my wrath?
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 4: What is the term and place of my banishment?
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: Were you beyond the pillars of alsides, your perjured presence
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: were too near me?
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 4: Yet what friends will pity me when you forsake and
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 4: think me guilty of a crime.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: So vile go Look you out for friends who hold
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: in honor adultery, and clap their hands that incest, low
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: lawless traitors, steeped in infamy, The fit protectors of a
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: knave like you are.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 4: Incest and adultery. The words you cast at me, I
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 4: hold my tongue yet think what mother Phaedra had too well?
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 4: You know her blood, not mine, is tainted with these horrors?
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: Or what does your rage before my eyes lose all
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: restraint for the last time out of my sight hands, straitor,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: wait not till a father's wrath force thee away mid
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: general execration.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: See three.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: They say, is alone, wretch, Thou must meet inevitable ruin.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: Neptune has sworn by sticks to gods themselves a dreadful oath,
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: and he will execute his promise. Thou canst not escape
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: his vengeance. I lov'd THEE, and in spite of thine offense,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: my heart is troubled by anticipation for THEE. But thou
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: hast earned thy doom too well. Had father ever greater
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: cause for rage? Just gods who see the grief that
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: overwhelms me. Why was I cursed with such a wicked son?
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: See for phedra they is.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 3: My lord. I come to you, filled with just dread.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 3: Your voice, raised high in anger, reached mine ears, and
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 3: much I fear that deeds have followed threats. Oh, if
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 3: there yet is time, spare your own offspring, respect your
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: race and blood. I do beseech you. Let me not
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: hear that blood cry from the ground. Save me the
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 3: horror and perpetual pain of having caused his father's hand
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: to shed it.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: No, madam, from that stain, my hand is free. But
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 2: for all that the wretch has not escaped me, the
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 2: hand of an immortal now is charged with his destruction.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 2: Tis a debt that Neptune owes me, and you shall
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: be avenged.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 3: A debt owed you. Prayers made in anger.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 2: Never fear that they will fail. Rather join yours to
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: mine in all their blackness. Paint for me his crimes
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: and fan my tardy passion to white heat. But yet
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: you know not all his infamy. His rage against you
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: overflows in slanders. Your mouth, he says, is full of
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 2: all deceit. He says, Eresea has his heart and soul
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: that her alone.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 3: He loves Eresia.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: Aye, he said it to my face, an idle pretext,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: a trick that gulls me. Not let us hope, Neptune
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: do him speedy justice to his altars. I go to
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: urge performance of his oaths.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: See fire Cedra alone, Oh he's gone.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 3: What tiding struck mine ears? What fire hath smothered in
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: my heart revives? What fatal stroke falls like a thunderbolt.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 3: Stung by remorse that would not let me rest, I
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 3: tore myself out of Onone's arms and flew to help
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 3: Hippolytus with all my soul and strength. Who knows if
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 3: that repentance might not have moved me to accuse myself,
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 3: And if my voice had not been choked with shame,
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: perhaps I had confessed the frightful truth Hippolytus can feel,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 3: but not for me. Areesia has his heart his blighted droth,
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 3: ye godds, when deaf to all my sighs and tears.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 3: He armed his eye with scorn, his brow with threats.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 3: I deemed his heart impregnable to love, was fortified against
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 3: all my sex alike. And yet another has prevailed to
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 3: tame his pride. Another has secured his favor. Perhaps he
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 3: has a heart easily melted. I am the only one
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 3: he cannot bear, And shall I charge myself with his defense?
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: See six phedra Anne.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 3: No, you, dear nurse, what I have learned just now?
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: No?
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 6: But I come in truth with trembling limbs. I dreaded
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 6: with what purpose he went forth? The fear of fatal
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 6: madness made me pale?
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 3: Who would have thought it? Nurse, I had a rival arrival. Yes,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 3: he loves I cannot doubt it, This wild, untamable hippolotist,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 3: who scorned to be admired, whom lover's sighs wearied, This
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 3: tiger whom I feared to rouse, fawns on a hand
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 3: that has subdued his pride. Eresia has found entrance to
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 3: his heart.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 10: Aresia, oh anguish as yet untried for what new tortures
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 10: am I still reserved? All I have undergone transports of passion,
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 10: longings and fears, The horrors of remorse, the shame of
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 10: being spurned with contumely were feeble foretastes of my present torments.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 10: They love each other by what secret charm have.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 3: They deceived me? Where? And when? And how met they
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 3: you knew it all? Why was I cousined? You never
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 3: told me of those stolen hours of amorous converse? Have
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 3: they oft been seen talking together? Did they seek the
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: shades of thickest woods alas full freedom? Had they to
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 3: see each other? Heaven approved their sighs. They loved without
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 3: the consciousness of guilt, And every morning sun for them
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 3: shone clear, while I, an outcast from the face of nature,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 3: shunned the bright day and sought to hide myself. Death
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 3: was the only god whosain I dared to ask. I
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 3: waited for the grave's release, Watered with tears, nourished with
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 3: gall my woe was all too closely watched. I did
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 3: not dare to weep without restraint in mortal dread. Tasting
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 3: this dangerous solace, I disguised my tyranny the tranquil countenance,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 3: and oft had I to check my tears and smile?
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 6: What fruit will they enjoy of their vain love? They
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 6: will not see each other more.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 3: That love will last forever, even while I speak, Oh
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 3: fatal thought. They laughed to scorn the madness of my
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 3: distracted heart, in spite of exile, that soon must part
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 3: them with a thousand oaths they seal yet closer union.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 3: Can I suffer a happiness o nony which insults me?
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 3: I crave your pity. She must be destroyed. My husband's
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 3: wrath against a hateful stock shall be revived, nor must
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 3: the punishment be light. The sister's guilt passes the brothers,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 3: I will entreat him in my jealous rage. What am
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 3: I saying? Have I lost my senses? Is Vaedra jealous?
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 3: And will she employ theseus for help? My husband lives?
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 3: And yet I burn? For whom whose heart is this?
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 3: I claim is mine? That every word I say, my
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 3: hair stands up with horror. Guilt henceforth has passed all bounds,
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 3: hypocrisy and incest breathe at once through all My murderous
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 3: hands are ready to spill the blood of guileless innocence?
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 3: Do I yet live? Wretch that I am, and dare
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 3: to face this holy son from whom I spring. My
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 3: father's sire was king of all the gods. My ancestors
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 3: fill all the universe. Where can I hide in the
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 3: dark realms of Pluto? But there my father holds the
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 3: fatal urn. His hand awards the irrevocable doom. Mine knows
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 3: his judge of all the ghosts in Hell. Oh, how
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 3: his awful shade will start and shudder when he shall
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 3: see his daughter brought before him, forced to confess sins
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 3: of such varied die crimes. It may be unknown to
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 3: Hell itself. What wilt thou say, my father? At a
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 3: sight so dire, I think, I see thee drop thee urn, and,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 3: seeking some unheard of punishment, thyself become my executioner. Spare me.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 3: A cruel goddess has destroyed thy race, and in my
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 3: madness recognize her wrath alas my aching heart has reaped
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 3: no fruit of pleasure from the frightful crime, the shame
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 3: of which pursues me to the grave and ends in torment,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 3: life long misery.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 6: Ah Madam, pray dismiss a groundless dread. Look less severely
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 6: on a venial error. You love, We cannot conquer destiny.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 6: You are drawn on as by a fatal charm. Is
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 6: that a marvel without precedent among us has love triumphed
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 6: over you, and or none else. Weakness is natural to man,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 6: a mortal to a mortal's lot. Submit you chafe against
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 6: a yoke that others have long since borne. The dwellers
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 6: in Olympus, the gods themselves who terrify with threats the
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 6: sins of men have burned with lawless fires.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 3: What words are these?
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: I hear?
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 3: What counsel this you dare to give me? Will you
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 3: to the end, poor poison in mine ears? You have
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 3: destroyed me. You brought me back when I should outs
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 3: have quitted. The light of day made me forget my duty,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 3: and see Hippolytus till then avoided. What hast thou done?
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 3: Why did your wicked mouth, with blackest lies slander his
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 3: blameless life? Perhaps you've slain him, and the impious prayer
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 3: of an unfeeling father has been answered, No, not another word,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 3: Go hateful monster away and leave me to my piteous fate.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 3: May Heaven with justice pay you your deserts, and may
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 3: your punishment forever be a terror to all those who
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 3: would like you nourish with artful wiles. The weaknesses of
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 3: princes push them to the brink of ruin to which
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 3: their heart inclines and smoothed the path of guilt. Such
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 3: flatterers doth the wrath of Heaven bestow on kings as
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 3: its most fatal.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 6: Oh Gods to serve her? What have I not done?
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 6: This is the due reward that I have won.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: End of Act four, Act PI, Alphedra by Jara. Scene
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: translated by Robert Bruce Boswell. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: All liberyvox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit libryvokx dot org. Scene one, Hippolytes, Rikia.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 5: Can you keep silence in his mortal peril? Your father
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 5: loves you? Will you leave him thus deceived? If in
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 5: your cruel heart you scorn my tears, content to see
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 5: me never more go apart from poor Risia, but at
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 5: least going secure the safety of your life, defend your
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 5: honor from the shameful step, and force your father to
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 5: recall his prayers. That yet is time? Why, out of
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 5: mere caprice, leave the fields free from Phaedra's calumnies, Let
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 5: theseus know the truth?
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 4: Could I say more without exposing him to dire disgrace?
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 4: How should I venture by revealing all to make a
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 4: father's brow grow red with shame? The odious mystery to
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 4: you alone is known. My heart has been outpoured to
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 4: none save you and Heaven. I could not hide from you, Judge.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 4: If I love you all, I fain would hide even
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 4: for myself. But think under what seal I spoke. Forget
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 4: my words, if that may be, and never let so
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 4: pure mouth disclose this dreadful secret. Let us trust to
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 4: Heaven my vindication. For the gods are just for their
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 4: own honor. They will clear the guiltless sooner or later.
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 4: Punished for her crime, Phedra will not escape the shame.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 4: She merits. I ask no other favor than your silence.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 4: In all be so I give my wrath free scope.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 4: Make your escape from this captivity. Be bold to bear
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 4: me company and flight. Linger not here on this accursed soil,
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 4: where virtue breathes a pestilential air to cover your departure.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 4: Take advantage of this confusion caused by my disgrace. The
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 4: means of flight are ready. Be assured you have as
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 4: yet no other guards than mine. Powerful defenders will maintain
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 4: our quarrel. Argos spreads open arms, and Sparta calls us.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 4: Let us appeal for justice to our friends, nor suffer
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 4: Phedra in a common ruin, joining us both to hunt
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 4: us from the throne and aggrandize her son by robbing us,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 4: embrace this happy opportunity. What fear restrains you seem to hesitate?
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 4: Your interest alone prompts me to urge boldness When I
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 4: am all on fire? How comes it that you are ice?
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 4: Fear you to follow? Then the banished man, ah.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 5: Dear to me, would be such exile? With what joy
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 5: my fate to yours? United? Could I live by all
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 5: the world forgotten? But not yet has the sweet tie
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 5: bound us together? How then can I steal away with you?
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 5: I know the strictest honor forbids me not out of
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 5: your father's hands to free myself. This is no parents home,
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 5: and flight is lawful when one flies from tyrants. But you, sir,
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 5: love me, and my virtue shirks.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 4: No, No, your reputation is to me as dear as
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 4: to yourself. A nobler purpose brings me to you. Fly
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 4: from your foes and follow a husband heaven that sends
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 4: us these misfortunes that's free from human instruments. The pledge
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 4: between us. Torches do not always light the face of hymen.
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 4: At the gates of Trozen mid ancient tombs, where princes
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 4: of my race lie buried, stands a temple neer approached
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 4: by perjurers. Where mortals dare not make false oaths for
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 4: instant punishment befalls the guilty. Falsehood knows no stronger check
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 4: than what is present there, the fear of death that
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 4: cannot be avoided. Thither then will go if you consent
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 4: and swear to love for ever, and take the Guardian
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 4: God to witness our solemn vows and his paternal care entreat.
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 4: I will invoke the name of all the holiest powers, Chaste,
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 4: Dian and the Queen of Heaven. Yea, all the gods
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 4: who know my heart will guarantee my sacred promises.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 5: The King draws near depats, make no delay to mask
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 5: my flights. I linger, yet one moments go you and
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 5: leave with me some trusty guides to lead my timid
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 5: footsteps to your sides.
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: Scene two they say, us aritya, as many.
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 2: Ye gods throw light upon my troubled mind, show me
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 2: the truth which I am seeking.
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 5: Here, Get ready, dear ismone for our flights.
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: See tree, they says, Arichia.
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: Your color comes and goes. You seem confused, madam. What
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: business had my son with you?
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 5: Sire? He was bidding me farewell for.
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 2: Ever your eyes it seems cantame that stubborn pride, and
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: the first sighs he breathes are paid to you.
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 5: I can't deny the truth. He has not, sire, inherited
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 5: your hatred and injustice. He did not treat me like
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 5: a criminal.
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: That is to say, he swore eternal love. Do not
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 2: rely on that inconstant heart to others? Has he sworn
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 2: as much before he?
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 5: Sire?
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 2: You ought to check his roving taste. How could you
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 2: bear a partnership so vile?
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 5: And how can you endure that vilest slanders should make
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 5: a life so pure as black as pitch? Have you
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 5: so little knowledge of his hats? Do you so ill
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 5: distinguished between guilt and innocence? What missed before your eyes
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 5: blinds them to virtue so conspicuous? Ah tis too much
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 5: to let false tongues defame him? Repent, call back your
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 5: murderous wishes, Sire, fear feel lest Heaven, in its severity,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 5: hate you enough to hear and grant your prayers. Often
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 5: e'er wraths the God accept our victims, and often chastise
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 5: us with their gifts.
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 2: No fainly would you cover up his guilt. Your love
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 2: is blind to his depravity. But I have witness irreproachable tears.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 2: Have I seen true tears that may be trusted?
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 5: Take heed, my lord, Your hands invincible have rid the
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 5: world of monsters numble us, but all are not destroyed.
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 5: When you have left alive, your son forbids me to
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 5: say more, knowing what respect he still regards you, I
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 5: should too much distress him. If I dared complete my sentence,
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 5: I will imitate his reverence, and to keep silence.
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: Leave you see Saul, sayus alone?
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: What is there in her mind? What meaning lurks in speech? Begun?
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 2: But to be broken? Short? Would both deceive me with
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 2: a vain pretense? Have they conspired to put me to
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 2: the torture? And yet despite my stern severity, what plaintive
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 2: voice cries deep within my heart? A secret pity troubles
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: and alarms me. Onone shall be questioned once again, I
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: must have clearer light upon this crime. Guards biddenone, Come
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 2: and come alone.
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: See five the sayus peno.
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 9: I know not what the queen intends to do, but
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 9: from her agitation dread the worst fatal despair is painted
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 9: on her features. Death's pallor is already in her face.
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 9: Onone shamed and driven from her sight, has cast herself
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 9: into the ocean depths. None knows what prompted her to
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 9: deed so rash, And now the waves hide her from
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 9: us forever.
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 2: What say you?
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 9: Her sad fate seems to have added fresh trouble to
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 9: the queen's tempestuous soul. Sometimes, to soothe her secret pain,
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 9: she clasps her children close and bathes them with her tears.
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 9: Then suddenly, the mother's love forgotten, she thrusts them from
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 9: her with a look of horror. She wanders to and
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 9: fro with doubtful steps. Her vacant eye no longer knows us.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 9: Thrice she wrote, And thrice did she, changing her mind,
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 9: destroy the letter. Ere twas well begun vouchsafe to see
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 9: her sire, vouchsafe to help her.
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 2: Heavens is onone dead, and Phaedra bent on dying too. Oh,
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 2: call me back, my son. Let him defend himself, and
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 2: I am ready to hear him. Be not hasty to
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 2: bestow thy fatal bounty, Neptune, Let my prayers rather remain
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 2: ever unheard. Too soon I lifted cruel hands, believing lips
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 2: that may have lied. Ah, what despair may follow?
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: See six, there says theremins.
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 2: Theremines, is it thou? Where is my son? I gave
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 2: him to thy charge from tenderest childhood? But whence these
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 2: tears that overflow thine eyes? How is it with my son?
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 7: Concern? Too late? Affection? Vain? Hippolytus is dead?
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 2: Gods, I have seen.
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 7: The flower of all mankind cut off, and I am
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 7: bold to say that none deserved it? Less?
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 2: What my son dead? When I was stretching out my
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 2: arms to him? Has Heaven hastened his end? What was
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 2: this sudden stroke?
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 7: Scarce? Had we passed out of the gates of Troisen,
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 7: he silent in his chariot, and his guards downcast and
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 7: silent too around him, Ranged to the Mycenean road, he
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 7: turn'd his steeds, then, lost in thought, allowed the reins
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 7: to lie loose on their backs. His noble chargers eer
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 7: so full of ardor to obey his voice, with head
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 7: depressed and melancholy eye seem now to mark his sadness
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 7: and to share it. A frightful cry that issues from
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 7: the deep with sudden discord, rends the troubled air, and
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 7: from the bosom of the earth. A groan is heard
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 7: in answer to that voice of terror. Our blood is
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 7: frozen at our very hearts with bristling manes, the listening
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 7: steeds stand still. Meanwhile, upon the watery plain there rises
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 7: a mountain billow with a mighty crest of foam, that
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 7: shoreward rolls, and as it breaks before our eyes, vomits
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 7: a furious monster with formidable horns. Its brow is armed
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 7: and all its body clothed with yellow scales. In front
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 7: a savage bull behind a dragon, turning and twisting in
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 7: impatient rage. Its long, continued bellowings make the shore tremble,
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 7: The sky seems horror struck to see it. The earth
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 7: with terror quakes. Its poisonous breath infects the air. The
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 7: wave that brought it ebbs in fear. All fly, forgetful
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 7: of the courage that cannot aid, and an enighboring temple
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 7: take refuge. All save bold Hippolytus, a hero's worthy son.
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 7: He stays his steeds, seizes his darts, and, rushing forward,
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 7: hurls a missile with sure aim that wounds the monster
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 7: deep in the flank. With rage and pain. It springs
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 7: into the horse's feet and roaring falls, writhes in the
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 7: dust and shows a fiery throat that covers them with
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 7: flames and blood and smoke. Fear lends them wings death
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 7: to his voice for once, and heedless of the curb,
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 7: they onward fly. Their master wastes his strength in efforts,
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 7: vein with foam and blood. Each courser's bit is red.
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 7: Some say a god amid this wild disorder. Or seen
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 7: with goads pricking their dusty flanks or jagged rocks, they rush,
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 7: urged on by terror. Crash goes the axle tree. The
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 7: intrepid youth sees his car broken up, flying to pieces,
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 7: and falls himself entangled in the reins. Pardon my grief,
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 7: That cruel spectacle will be for me a source of
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 7: endless tears. I saw thy hapless son. I saw him, sire,
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 7: dragg'd by the horses that his hands had fed, powerless
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 7: to check their fierce career his voice, but adding to
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 7: their fright his body. Soon one mass of wounds, our
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 7: cries of anguish fill the plain. At last they slacken
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 7: their swift pace, then stop, not far from those old
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 7: tombs that mark where lie the ashes of his royal sires.
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 7: Panting I thither run and after me his guard along
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 7: the track stained with fresh blood that reddens all the
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 7: rocks caught in the briars. Locks of his hair hang
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 7: dripping gory spoils. I come, I call him, stretching forth
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 7: his hand. He opens his dying eyes, soon clos'd again.
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 7: The gods have robbed me of a guiltless life. I
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 7: hear him say, take care of Sadarysia when I am dead,
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 7: dear friend, if ere my father morn undeceiv'd his son's
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 7: unhappy fate, falsely accus'd to give my spirit peace, tell
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 7: him to treat his captive tenderly and to restore with that.
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 7: The hero's breath fails, and a mangled corpse lies in
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 7: my arms, piteous object trophy to the wrath of heaven,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 7: so changed his father would not know.
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 2: Him alas my son, dear hope for ever lost. The
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 2: ruthless gods have served me, but too well for what
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 2: a life of anguish and remorse am I reserved?
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 7: Arisia. At that instant, flying from you, comes timidly to
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 7: take him for husband. There in presence of the gods,
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 7: Thus drawing nigh, she sees the grass all red, and
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 7: Reeking sees sad sight for lover's eye. Hippolytus stretched there,
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 7: pale and disfigured, but for a time, doubtful of her misfortune,
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 7: unrecognize the hero she adores. She looks and asks where
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 7: is Hippolytus, only too shore at last that he lies
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 7: there before her with sad eyes that silently reproach the gods.
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 7: She shudders, groans, and falls, swooning, and all but lifeless
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 7: at his feet is many, all in tears. Kneels down
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 7: beside her and calls her back to life. Life that
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 7: is naught but sense of pain. And I to whom
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 7: this light is darkness, now come to discharge the duty
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 7: the hero has imposed on me, to tell thee his
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 7: last request, a melancholy task. But hither comes his mortal enemy.
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: See seven, They says, Phedra teremnis bano, God's.
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 2: Madam, you've triumphed and my son is killed. Ah, but
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 2: what room have I for fear? How justly suspicion racks
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 2: me that in blaming him, I erred, But he is dead.
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 2: Accept your victim, rightly or wrongly slain. Let your heart
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 2: leap for joy my eyes I'll be forever blind since
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 2: you accuse him I'll believe him guilty. His death affords
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 2: me cause enough for tears, without a foolish search for
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 2: further light, which, powerless to restore him to my grief,
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 2: might only serve to make me more unhappy. Far from
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 2: this shore, and far from you, I'll fly, for here
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 2: the image of my mangled son would haunt my memory
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 2: and drive me mad. From the whole world I fain
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 2: would banish me, for all the world seems to rise
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 2: up in judgment against me, and my very glory waits
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 2: my punishment. For were my name less known, tware easier
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 2: to hide me all the favors the gods have granted me,
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 2: I mourn and hate. Nor will I importune them with
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 2: vain prayers. Henceforth, forever give me what they may, what
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 2: they have taken. Will all else outweigh theseus.
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 3: I cannot hear you and keep silence. I must repair
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 3: the wrong that he has suffered.
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 2: Your son was innocent, unhappy, father, and it was on
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 2: your word that I condemned him. Think you such cruelty
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 2: can be excused.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 3: Moments to me are precious. Hear me theseus, twas I
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 3: who cast an eye of lawless passion, unchaste and dutiful Hippolytus,
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 3: Heaven in my bosom kindled baleful fire, and vile Annone's
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 3: cunning did the rest. She feared Hippolytus, knowing my madness,
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 3: would make that passion known, which he regarded with horror.
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 3: So advantage of my weakness she took and hastened to
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 3: accuse him first for that she has been punished, though
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 3: too mildly, seeking to shun my wrath, she cast herself
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 3: beneath the waves. The sword ere now had cut my
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 3: thread of life, but slandered innocence made its cry heard,
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 3: and I resolved to die in a more lingering way,
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 3: confessing first my penitence to you. A poison brought to
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 3: Athens by Medea runs through my veins. Already in my
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 3: heart the venom works, infusing there a strange and fatal chill.
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 3: Already as through thickening mists, I see the spouse to
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 3: whom my presence is an outrage. Death from mine eyes
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 3: veiling the light of heaven restores its purity that they defiled.
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 2: She dies, my Lord would that the memory of her
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 2: disgraceful deed could perish with her. A disabused too late,
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 2: come let us go and with the blood of mine.
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 2: Unhappy son mingle our tears clasping his dear remains in
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 2: deep repentance for a prayer detested. Let him be honored
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 2: as he well deserves. And to appease his sore offended ghost,
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 2: be her near kinsman's guilt. Whate'er it may, Eresia shall
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 2: be held my daughter from today.
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: End of Act five. End of Phedra by Jonasine, translated
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: by Robert Bruce Boswell,