Fearful lest Hippolytus should betray her, when she found he would not
return her sinful passion, Phaedra accused his son to Theseus of the very
crime of which she had herself been guilty, and excited the father's ire
against his son in a terrible degree.
[Illustration]
_The._ "'Dost thou dare look upon me boy?
_Hip._ My father?
_The._ Dost see this sword?
_Hip._ Aye!
_The._ Dost dread it?
_Hip._ No; the innocent have nought to fear;
_The._ Now by my crown, this is most base effrontery,
But 'tis in vain, thy mother hath told all,
Hath told how, with an impious love, thy heart
Hath turned to her's; how with an impure lip,
Thy words have pierced her to the soul.
_Hip._ And dost thou doubt me father?
_The._ Perfidious wretch! can'st stand before me thus?
Monster too long escaped Jove's fearful thunder,
After a love filled with an awful horror
And transports of affection fiercely urged,
That would pollute thy father's marriage bed,
Thou darest present to me thy traitor brow,
And vow thine innocence.
Away from these scenes of thine infamy,
Away and seek beneath a sky unknown,
A land where Theseus' name hath never sounded;
Fly, traitor! brave no longer here, my hate!
Within a court that I shall hold with dread,
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For ever will the curse cling to my name,
And endless infamy my memory,
That, having given birth to one so shameless,
I dared not take the life I gave to him!
Wretch that thou art, dost thou not answer me?
_Hip._ Sire, I am not the wretch that thou would'st make me.
Horror--astonishment--have kept me silent--
_The._ Darest thou add falsehood to thine infamy?
_Hip._ Thy words are most unjust!
_The._ And there thou standest with a brow as calm
As innocence itself.
_Hip._ In this I am most innocent!--
Nay, interrupt me not, for I will speak--
Thou hast accused me of an awful crime,
Thou hast accursed me with a father's curse,
And I must vindicate myself or die?
Phaedra, my mother, and thy wife, avowed
In accents shameless as the wish she breathed,
A most incestuous passion for my person:
With fierce disdain I spurned her offered love,
Implored her to remember that I stood
Before her as thy son, and did entreat her
To come back to the straight path of her duty.
_The._ And dost thou think that thou canst thus deceive me?
Away, away, no more pollute my court;
Wert thou not called my son, thy time were short.'"