Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/210

192 Thy stepdame was the Colchian; but this, This woman is a greater curse than she. Phaedra: I clearly see the destiny of my house: We follow ever what we should avoid. But I have given over self-control; I'll follow thee through fire, through raging sea, O'er ragged cliffs, through roaring torrents wild— Wherever thou dost go, in mad pursuit I shall he borne. Again, O haughty one, I fall in suppliance and embrace thy knees. Hippolytus: Away from my chaste body with thy touch Impure! What more? She falls upon my breast! I'll draw my sword and smite as she deserves. See, by her twisted locks, I backward bend Her shameless head. No blood more worthily Was ever spilled, O goddess of the bow, Upon thy altars. Phaedra: Now, Hippolytus, Thou dost fulfil the fondest wish of mine; Thou sav'st me from my madness; greater far Than all my hopes, that by the hands I love, By thine own hands, I perish ere I sin. Hippolytus: Then live, be gone! Thou shalt gain naught from me. And this my sword, defiled by thy base touch, No more shall hang upon my modest side. [He throws his sword from him.] What Tanaïs will make me clean again? Or what Maeotis rushing to the sea, With its barbaric waves? Not Neptune's self, With all his ocean's waters could avail To cleanse so foul a stain. O woods! O beasts! [He rushes off into the depths of the forest.] Nurse [in soliloquy, while Phaedra seems to have fallen in a fainting fit]: Now is her fault discovered. Soul of mine, Why dost thou stand in dumb amaze? This crime We must throw back upon the man himself, And charge him with a guilty love, ourselves. Sin must be hid by sin. The safest way Is to go straight forward on the course you fear.