place my head upright--I am faint in the joints of my
limbs, my friends, lay hold of my fair-formed hands, O attendants--The
dressing on my head is heavy for me to support--take it off, let flow my
ringlets on my shoulders.

NUR. Be of good courage, my child, and do not thus painfully shift [the
posture of] your body. But you will bear your sickness more easily both
with quiet, and with a noble temper, for it is necessary for mortals to
suffer misery.

PHAE. Alas! alas! would I could draw from the dewy fountain the drink of
pure waters, and that under the alders, and in the leafy mead reclining I
might rest!

NUR. O my child, what sayest thou? Wilt thou not desist from uttering these
things before the multitude, blurting forth a speech of madness?[8]

PHAE. Bear me to the mountain--I will go to the wood, and by the pine-trees,
where tread the dogs the slayers of beasts, pursuing the dappled hinds--By
the Gods I long to cheer on the hounds, and by the side of my auburn hair
to hurl the Thessalian javelin bearing the lanced weapon in my hand.

NUR. Wherefore in the name of heaven, my child, do you hanker after these
things? wherefore have you any anxiety for hunting? and wherefore do you
long for the fountain streams? for by the towers there is a perpetual flow
of water, whence may be your draught.

PHAE. O Dian, mistress of Limna near the sea, and of the exercises of the
rattling steeds, would that I were on thy plains, breaking the Henetian
colts.

NUR. Wherefore again have you madly uttered this word? at one time having
ascended the mountain you set forth with the desire of hunting; but now
again you long for the colts on the wave-beaten sands. These things demand
much skill in prophecy [to find out], who it is of the Gods that torments
thee, O lady, and strikes mad thy senses.

PHAE. Wretch that I am, what then have I committed? whither have I wandered
from my sound mind? I have gone mad; I have fallen by the evil influence of
some God. Alas! alas! unhappy that I am--Nurse, cover my head again, for I
am ashamed of the things I have spoken: cover me; a tear trickles down my
eyes, and my sight is turned to my disgrace. For to be in one's right mind
causes grief: but madness is an ill; yet it is better to perish, nothing
knowing of one's ills.

NUR. I cover thee--but when in sooth will death cover my body? Length of
life teaches me many things. For it behooves mortals to form moderate
friendships with each oth