PHAEDRA HIPPOLYTUS; PHAEDRA; CHORUS OF TROEZENIAN WOMEN HIPPOLYTUS. Lay not thine hand upon me; let me go; Take off thine eyes that put the gods to shame; What, wilt thou turn my loathing to thy death? PHAEDRA. Nay, I will never loosen hold nor breathe Till thou have slain me; godlike for great brows Thou art, and thewed as gods are, with clear hair: Draw now thy sword and smite me as thou art god, For verily I am smitten of other gods, Why not of thee? CHORUS. O queen, take heed of words; Why wilt thou eat the husk of evil speech? Wear wisdom for that veil about thy head And goodness for the binding of thy brows. PHAEDRA. Nay, but this god hath cause enow to smite; If he will slay me, baring breast and throat, I lean toward the stroke with silent mouth And a great heart. Come, take thy sword and slay; Let me not starve between desire and death, But send me on my way with glad wet lips; For in the vein-drawn ashen-coloured palm Death's hollow hand holds water of sweet draught To dip and slake dried mouths at, as a deer Specked red from thorns laps deep and loses pain. Yea, if mine own blood ran upon my mouth, I would drink that. Nay, but be swift with me; Set thy sword here between the girdle and breast, For I shall grow a poison if I live. Are not my cheeks as grass, my body pale, And my breath like a dying poisoned man's? O whatsoever of godlike names thou be, By thy chief name I charge thee, thou strong god, And bid thee slay me. Strike, up to the gold, Up to the hand-grip of the hilt; strike here; For I am Cretan of my birth; strike now; For I am Theseus' wife; stab up to the rims, I am born daughter to Pasiphae. See thou spare not for greatness of my blood, Nor for the shining letters of my name: Make thy sword sure inside thine hand and smite, For the bright writing of my name is black, And I am sick with hating the sweet sun. HIPPOLYTUS. Let not this woman wail and cleave to me, That am no part of the gods' wrath with her; Loose ye her hands from me lest she take hurt. CHORUS. Lady, this speech and majesty are twain; Pure shame is of one counsel with the gods. HIPPOLYTUS. Man is as beast when shame stands off from him. PHAEDRA. Man, what have I to do with shame or thee? I am not of one counsel with the gods. I am their kin, I have strange blood in me, I am not of their likeness nor of thine: My veins are mixed, and therefore am I mad, Yea therefore chafe and turn on mine own flesh, Half of a woman made with half a god. But thou wast hewn out of an iron womb And fed with molten mother-snow for milk. A sword was nurse of thine; Hippolyta, That had the spear to father, and the axe To bridesman, and wet blood of sword-slain men For wedding-water out of a noble well, Even she did bear thee, thinking of a sword, And thou wast made a man mistakingly. Nay, for I love thee, I will have thy hands, Nay, for I will not loose thee, thou art sweet, Thou art my son, I am thy father's wife, I ache toward thee with a bridal blood, The pulse is heavy in all my married veins, My whole face beats, I will feed full of thee, My body is empty of ease, I will be fed, I am burnt to the bone with love, thou shalt not go, I am heartsick, and mine eyelids prick mine eyes, Thou shalt not sleep nor eat nor say a word Till thou hast slain me. I am not good to live. CHORUS. This is an evil born with all its teeth, When love is cast out of the bound of love. HIPPOLYTUS. There is no hate that is so hateworthy. PHAEDRA. I pray thee turn that hate of thine my way, I hate not it nor anything of thine. Lo, maidens, how he burns about the brow, And draws the chafing sword-strap down his hand. What wilt thou do? wilt thou be worse than death? Be but as sweet as is the bitterest, The most dispiteous out of all the gods, I am well pleased. Lo, do I crave so much? I do but bid thee be unmerciful, Even the one thing thou art. Pity me not: Thou wert not quick to pity. Think of me As of a thing thy hounds are keen upon In the wet woods between the windy ways, And slay me for a spoil. This body of mine Is worth a wild beast's fell or hide of hair, And spotted deeper than a panther's grain. I were but dead if thou wert pure indeed; I pray thee by thy cold green holy crown And by the fillet-leaves of Artemis. Nay, but thou wilt not. Death is not like thee. Albeit men hold him worst of all the gods. For of all gods Death only loves not gifts, [1] Nor with burnt-offering nor blood-sacrifice Shalt thou do aught to get thee grace of him; He will have nought of altar and altar-song, And from him only of all the lords in heaven Persuasion turns a sweet averted mouth. But thou art worse: from thee with baffled breath Back on my lips my prayer falls like a blow, And beats upon them, dumb. What shall I say? There is no word I can compel thee with To do me good and slay me. But take heed; I say, be wary; look between thy feet, Lest a snare take them though the ground be good. HIPPOLYTUS. Shame may do most where fear is found most weak; That which for shame's sake yet I have not done, Shall it be done for fear's? Take thine own way; Better the foot slip than the whole soul swerve. PHAEDRA.