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Was that confent? O fenfelefs politician!
When adverfe paffion ftruggled in my breast,
When anger, fear, love, forrow, guilt, defpair,
Drove out my reafon, and ufurp'd my foul,
Yet this confent you plead, O faithful Lycon!
Oh! only zealous for the fame of Phædra!
With this you blot my name, and clear your own;
And what's my frenzy, will be call'd my crime:
What then is thine? Thou cool deliberate villain,
Thou wife, forethinking, weighing politician!

LYCON.

Oh! 'twas fo black, my frighted tongue re

coil'd

At its own found, and horror fhook my foul. Yet ftill, though pierc'd with fuch amazing anguish,

Such was my zeal, fo much I lov'd my queen, I broke through all, to fave the life of Phædra.

PHEDRA.

What's life? Oh all ye gods! can life atone For all the monftrous crimes by which 'tis bought? Or can I live? When thou, oh foul of honour! Oh early hero! by my crimes art ruin'd. Perhaps ev'n now the great unhappy youth Falls by the fordid hands of butchering villains; Now, now he bleeds, he dies-Oh perjur'd trai

tor:

Sce, his rich blood in purple torrents flows,
And nature fallies in unbidden groans;
Now mortal pangs diftort his lovely form;
His rofy beauties fade, his itarry eyes
Now darkling twim, and fix their clofing beams;
Now in fhort gafps his labouring fpirit heaves,
And weakly flutters on his faultering tongue,
And ftruggles into found. Hear, monster, hear,
With his laft breath he curfes perjur'd Phædra :
He fummons Phædra to the bar of Minos;
Thou too fhalt there appear; to torture thee,
Whole hell fhall be employ'd, and fuffering

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Fear not to speak it; that harmonious voice Will make the faddeft tale of forrow pleafing, And charm the grief it brings.-Thus let = hear it.

Thus in thy fight; thus gazing on thofe eyes,
I can fupport the utmoft fpite of fate,
Aud ftand the rage of heaven.-Approach

PHEDRA.

Off, or I fly for ever from thy fight: Shall I embrace the father of Hippolitus?

THESEUS.

Forget the villain, drive him from your foul.

PHEDRA.

Can I forget, or drive him from my foul! Oh he will fill be prefent to my eyes: His words will ever echo in my ears; Still will he be the torture of my days, Bane of my life, and ruin of my glory.

THESEUS.

And mine and all.-Oh most abandon'd r Oh lafting scandal to our godlike race! That could contrive a crime fo foul as inceft.

PHÆDRA.

Incest Oh name it not !

The very mention shakes my inmost foul:
The gods are startled in their peaceful manfiens,
And nature fickens at the fhocking found.
Thou brutal wretch! Thou execrable monter
To break through all the laws that early flow
From untaught reafon, and diftinguish man;
Mix like the fenfelefs herd with beftial luft,
Mother and fon prepofterously wicked;
To banish from thy foul the reverence due

To honour, nature, and the genial bed,
And injure one fo great, fo good as Thefeus.

THESEUS.

To injure one fo great, fo good as Phædra; O flave to wrong fuch purity as thine, Such dazzling brightnefs, fuch exalted virtue.

* PHEDRA.

Virtue! All-feeing gods, you know my virtue! Must I support all this? O righteous Heaven? Can't I yet speak? Reproach I could have borne, Pointed his fatyrs ftings, and edg'd his rage, But to be prais'd-Now, Minos, I defy thee; Ev'n all thy dreadful magazines of pains, Stones, furies, wheels, are flight to what I fuffer, And hell itfelf's relief.

THESEUS.

What's hell to thee?

What crimes could'ft thou commit? or what reproaches

Could innocence fo pure as Phædra's fear,
Oh, thou'rt the chafteft matron of thy fex,
The faireft pattern of excelling virtue.
Our latest annals fhall record thy glory,
The maid's example, and the matron's theme.
Each skilful artift fhall exprefs thy form,
In animated gold. The threatening fword
Shall hang for ever o'er thy fnowy bofom;
Such heavenly beauty on thy face fhall bloom,
As fhall almost excufe the villain's crime;
But yet that firmness, that unfhaken virtue,
As ftill fhall make the monfter more detefted.
Where'er you pafs, the crowded way shall found
With joyful cries, and endless acclamations:
And when afpiring bards, in daring strains,
Shall raife fome heavenly matron to the powers,
They'll fay, she's great, fhe's true, fhe's chafte as
Phædra.

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Canft thou not guess?-
Canft thou not read it in my furious paffions?
In all the wild diforders of
my foul?
Could't thou not fee it in the noble warmth
That urg'd the daring youth to acts of honour?
Could't thou not find it in the generous truth,
Which fparkled in his eyes, and open'd in his
face?

Could'ft not perceive it in the chafte referve?
In every word and look, each godlike act,
Could't thou not fee Hippolitus was guiltless?

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The maid's example, and the matron's theme,
With beftial paflion woo'd your loathing fon;
And when deny'd, with impious accufation
Sully'd the lure of his fhining honour;
Of my own crimes accus'd the faultlefs youth,
And with enfaring wiles deftroy'd that virtue
I try'd in vain to shake.

THESEUS.

Is he then guiltless? Guiltlefs! Then what art thou? And oh juft

Heaven!

What a detefted parricide is Thefeus?

PHEDRA.

What am I? What indeed, but one more black Than earth or hell e'er bore! O horrid mixture Of crimes and woes, of parricide and incelt, Perjury, murder; to arm the erring father Against the guiltlefs fon. O impious Lycon! In what a hell of woes thy arts have plung'd me.

THESEUS.

Lycon! Here, guards!—Oh most abandon'd villain! [ther. Secure him, feize him, drag him piece-meal hiEnter GUARDS.

GUARDS.

Who has, my lord, incurr'd your high dif pleasure?

THESEUS.

Who can it be, ye gods, but perjur'd Lycon? Who can inspire fuch forms of rage, but Lycon? Where has my fword left one fo black, but Lycon? Where! Wretched Thefeus in thy bed and heart, The very darling of my foul and cyes!

Oh beauteous fiend! But truft not to thy form. You too, my fon, was fair; your manly beauties Charm'd every heart! (O Heavens.) to your defruction.

You too were good, your virtuous foul abhorr'd The crimes for which you dy'd. Oh impious Phædra:

Incestuous fury! Execrable murth'refs!

Is there revenge on earth, or pain in hell,
Can art invent, or boiling rage luggeft,
Ev'n endless torture which thou shalt not fuffer?

PHEDRA.

And is there aught on carth I would not suffer? Oh, were there vengeance equal to my crimes, Thou need'ft not claim it, moft unhappy youth, From any hands but mine: T' avenge thy fate, I'd court the fiercest pains, and fue for tortures; And Phædra's fufferings fhould atone for thine: Ev'n now I fall a victim to thy wrongs; Ev'n now a fatal draught works out my foul; Ev'n now it curdles in my fhrinking veins The lazy blood, and freezes at my heart.

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And yet with joy I flew to his destruction,
Boafted his fate, and triumph'd in his ruin.
Not this I promis'd to his dying mother,
When in her mortal pangs the fighing gave me
The laft cold kiffes from her trembling lips,
And reach'd her feeble wandering hands to mite:
When her last breath, now quivering at her
mouth,

Implor'd my goodnefs to her lovely fon;
To her Hippolitus. He, alas! defcends
An early victim to the lazy fhades,
(Oh heaven and earth!) by Thefeus doom'd, de

PHEDRA.

[feed

He's doom'd by Thefeus, but accus'd by Phz,

dra,

By Phædra's madness, and by Lycon's hatred.
Yet with my life I expiate my frenzy
And die for thee, my headlong rage deftroy'd:
Thee I purfue (oh great ill-fated youth!)
Purfue thee ftill, but now with chafte defires:
Thee through the difmal wafte of gloomy death;
Thee through the glimmering dawn, and purer
day,

Through all th' Elyfian plains: Orighteous Minos!
Elyfian plains! There he and his Ifmena
hall fport for ever, fhall for ever drink
Immortal love; while I far off shall how!
In lonely plains; while all the blackest ghosts
Shrink from the baleful fight of one more met
And more accurs'd than they.
[itrous,

THESEUS.

I too must go;

I too must once more see the burning fhore Of livid Acheron and black Cocytus, Whence no Alcides will releafe me now.

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Then why this flay? Come on, let's plunge
See hell fets wide its adamantine gatos, [gether:
See through the fable gates the black Cocytus
In fmoky circles rowls its fiery waves:
Hear, hear the stunning harmonics of wee,
The din of rattling chains, of clafling whips,
Of groans, of loud complaints, of piercing fricks
That wide through all its gloomy world refound,

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How huge Magara ftalks! what streaming fires
Blaze from her glaring eyes! what ferpents curl
In horrid wreaths, and hils around her head!
Now, now the drags me to the bar of Minos.
See how the awful judges of the dead
Look ftedfast hate, and horrible dismay!
See Minos turns away his loathing eyes,
Rage chokes his ftruggling words: the fatal urn
Drops from his trembling hands: O all ye gods!
What, Lycon here! Oh execrable villain!
Then am I ftill on earth? By hell I am,
A fury now, a fcourge preferv'd for Lycon!
See, the just beings offer to my vengeance
That impious flave. Now, Lycon, for revenge;
Thanks, Heaven, 'tis here.I'll fteal it to his
heart.

Work of my life, and labour of my foul.
For thee alone, my forrows, lull'd, fhall ceafe;
Ceafe for a while to mourn my murder'd fon :
For thee alone my fword once more shall rage,
Reftore the crown of which it robb'd your race:
Then let your grief give way to thoughts of
empire;

At thy own Athens reign. The happy crowd
Beneath thy eafy yoke with pleasure bow,
And think in thee their own Minerva reigns.

ISMENA.

Muft I then reign? Nay, must I live without
him?

Not fo, oh godlike youth! you lov'd Ismena;
You for her fake refus'd the Cretan empire,
And yet a nobler gift, the royal Phædra.

[Miftaking Thefeus for Lycon, offers to ftab bim, | Shall I then take a crown, a guilty crown,

GUARDS.

Heavens 'tis your lord.

PHEDRA.

My lord O equal Heaven!
Muft each portentuous moment rife in crimes,
And fallying life go off in parricide?
Then truft not thy flow drugs. Thus fure of death
[Stabs berfelf.
Complete thy horrors- -And if this fuffice not,
Thou, Minos, do the reft.

THESEUS.

At length she's quiet,
And earth now bears not fuch a wretch as The-
Yet I'll obey Hippolitus and live;
feus;
Then to the wars; and as the Corybantines,
With clashing shields, and braying trumpets,

drown'd

The cries of infant Jove- -I'll stifle conscience,

And nature's murmurs in the din of arms.
But what are arms to me? Is he not dead
For whom I fought? For whom my hoary age
Glow'd with the boiling heat of youth in battle?
How then to drag a wretched life beneath,
An endless round of kill returning woes,
And all the gnawing pangs of vain remorse?
What torment's this?Therefore, O greatly
thought,

Therefore do juftice on thyfelf-and_live;
Live above all most infinitely wretched.
-Nay, then, avenging Heaven

Ifmena too

ISMENA enters.

Has vented all its rage.-O wretched maid!
Why doft thou come to fwell my raging grief?
Why add to forrows, and embitter woes?
Why do thy mournful eyes upbraid my guilt?
Why thus recall to my afflicted foul

The fad remembrance of my godlike fon,
Of that dear youth my cruelty has ruin'd?

Ruin'd

ISMENA.

From the relentless hand that doom'd thy death?
Oh! 'tis in death alone I can have ease.
And thus I find it.

[Offers to flab berfelf.

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THESEUS.

Be this thy doom,

[tues,

To live for ever in Ifmena's arms. -O all ye powers! O awful The-Go, heavenly pair, and with your dazzling vir [him? Your courage, truth, your innocence, and love, Say, where's my lord? fay, where has fate difpos'd Amaze and charm mankind; and rule that em Oh fpeak the fear diftracts me.

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Deep was her auguish; for the wrongs she did That Heaven, whose mercy rescued erring Theless

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