then by coolness master my resolve.HippolytusFather, thy part in this doth fill me with amaze; wert thou my son and I thy sire, by heaven! I would have slain, not let thee off with banishment, hadst thou presumed to violate my honour.TheseusA just remark! yet shalt thou not die by the sentence thine own lips pronounce upon thyself; for death, that cometh in a moment, is an easy end for wretchedness. Nay, thou shalt be exiled from thy fatherland, ~~and wandering to a foreign shore drag out a life of misery;~~ ~~for such are the wages of sin.~~Bergk rejects the first, Nauck the second of these lines.HippolytusOh! what wilt thou do? Wilt thou banish me, without so much as waiting for Time’s evidence on my case?TheseusAy, beyond the sea, beyond the bounds of Atlas, if I could, so deeply do I hate thee.HippolytusWhat! banish me untried, without even testing my oath, the pledge I offer, or the voice of seers?TheseusThis letter here, though it bears no seers’ signs, arraigns thy pledges; as for birds that fly o’er our heads, a long farewell to them.Hippolytus(aside). Great gods! why do I not unlock my lips, seeing that I am ruined by you, the objects of my reverence? No, I will not; I should nowise persuade those whom I ought to, and in vain should break the oath I swore.TheseusFie upon thee! that solemn air of thine is more than I can bear. Begone from thy native land forthwith!HippolytusWhither shall I turn? Ah me! whose friendly house will take me in, an exile on so grave a charge?TheseusSeek one who loves to entertain as guests and partners in his crimes corrupters of men’s wives.HippolytusAh me! this wounds my heart and brings me nigh to tears to think that I should appear so vile, and thou believe me so.TheseusThy tears and forethought had been more in season when thou didst presume to outrage thy father’s wife.HippolytusO house, I would thou couldst speak for me and witness if I am so vile!TheseusDost fly to speechless witnesses? This deed, though it speaketh not, proves thy guilt clearly.HippolytusAlas! Would I could stand and face myself, so should I weep to see the sorrows I endure.TheseusAy, ’tis thy character to honour thyself far more than reverence thy parents, as thou shouldst.HippolytusUnhappy mother! son of sorrow! Heaven keep all friends of mine from bastard birth!