PHAE. Thou, too, O wretched sister, wife of Bacchus!

NUR. Child, what ails thee? thou speakest ill against thy relations.

PHAE. And I the third, how unhappily I perish!

NUR. I am struck dumb with amazement. Whither will thy speech tend?

PHAE. _To that point_, whence we have not now lately become unfortunate.

NUR. I know not a whit further of the things I wish to hear.

PHAE. Alas! would thou couldst speak the things which I must speak.

NUR. I am no prophetess so as to know clearly things hidden.

PHAE. What is that thing, which they do call men's loving![12]

NUR. The same, my child, a most delightful thing, and painful withal.

PHAE. One of the two feelings I must perceive.

NUR. What say'st? Thou lovest, my child? What man!

PHAE. Him whoever he is,[13] that is born of the Amazon.

NUR. Hippolytus dost thou say?

PHAE. From thyself, not me, you hear--this name.

NUR. Ah me! what wilt thou go on to say? my child, how hast thou destroyed
me! Ladies, this is not to be borne; I will not endure to live, hateful is
the day, hateful the light I behold. I will hurl myself down, I will rid me
of this body: I will remove from life to death--farewell--I no longer am.
For the chaste are in love with what is evil, not willingly indeed, yet
still [they love.] Venus then is no deity, but if there be aught mightier
than deity, that is she, who hath destroyed both this my mistress, and me,
and the whole house.

CHOR. Thou didst hear, O thou didst hear the queen lamenting her wretched
sufferings that should not be heard. Dear lady, may I perish before I come
to thy state of mind! Alas me! alas! alas! O hapless for these pangs! O the
woes that attend on mortals! Thou art undone, thou hast disclosed thy evils
to the light. What time is this that has eternally[14] awaited thee? Some
new misfortune will happen to the house. And no longer is it obscure where
the fortune of Venus sets, O wretched Cretan daughter.

PHAE. Women of Troezene, who inhabit this extreme frontier of the land of
Pelops. Often at other times in the long season of night have I thought in
what manner the life of mortals is depraved.[15] And to me they seem to do
ill, not from the nature of their minds, for many have good thoughts, but
thus must we view these things. What things are good we understand and
know, but practice not; some from idleness, and others preferring some
other pleasures to what is right: for there are many pleasures in life-long