Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/208

190 My inmost marrow is devoured with love; And through my veins and vitals steals the fire, As when the flames through roomy holds of ships Run darting. Hippolytus: Surely with a modest love For Theseus thou dost burn. Phaedra: Hippolytus, 'Tis thus with me: I love those former looks Of Theseus, which in early manhood once He wore, when first a beard began to show Upon his modest cheeks, what time he saw The Cretan monster's hidden lurking-place, And by a thread his labyrinthine way Retraced. Oh, what a glorious sight he was! Soft fillets held in check his flowing locks, And modesty upon his tender face Glowed blushing red. His soft-appearing arms But half concealed his muscles' manly strength. His face was like thy heavenly Phoebe's face, Or my Apollo's, or 'twas like thine own. Like thee, like thee he was when first he pleased His enemy. Just so he proudly held His head erect; still more in thee shines out That beauty unadorned; in thee I find Thy father all. And yet thy mother's stern And lofty beauty has some share in thee; Her Scythian firmness tempers Grecian grace. If with thy father thou hadst sailed to Crete, My sister would have spun the thread for thee And not for him. O sister, wheresoe'er In heaven's starry vault thou shinest, thee, Oh, thee I call to aid my hapless cause, So like thine own. One house has overthrown Two sisters, thee the father, me the son. [To Hippolytus.] Behold, as suppliant, fallen to thy knees, A royal princess kneels. Without a spot Of sin, unstained and innocent, was I; And thou alone hast wrought the change in me.