Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/205

Rh Was left undone: but brothers by the hand Of brothers fell, parents by children's hands, Husbands by wives', and impious mothers killed Their helpless babes. Stepmothers need no words; The very beasts are kind compared with them. Of all these evils woman was the cause, The leader she. She with her wicked arts Besets the minds of men; and all for her And her vile, lustful ways, unnumbered towns Lie low in smoking heaps; whole nations rush To arms; and kingdoms, utterly o'erthrown, Drag down their ruined peoples in their fall. Though I should name no other, Aegeus' wife Would prove all womankind a curséd race. Nurse: Why blame all women for the crimes of few? Hippolytus: I hate them all. I dread and shun and curse Them all. Whether from reason, instinct, blind And causeless madness, this I know—I hate. And sooner shall you fire and water wed; Sooner shall dangerous quicksands friendly turn And give safe anchorage; and sooner far Shall Tethys from her utmost western bounds Bring forth the shining day, and savage wolves Smile kindly on the timid does, than I, O'ercome, feel ought but hate to womankind. Nurse: But oft doth love put reins on stubborn souls, And all their hatred to affection turns. Behold thy mother's realm of warlike dames; Yet even they the sway of passion know. Of this thy birth itself is proof enough. Hippolytus: My comfort for my mother's loss is this, That now I'm free to hate all womankind. Nurse: As some hard crag, on every side unmoved, Resists the waves, and dashes backward far The opposing floods, so he doth spurn my words. But hither Phaedra comes with hasty step, Impatient of delay. What fate is hers? Or to what action doth her madness tend? [Phaedra enters and falls fainting to the earth.]