Away, I do conjure thee; loose my hand.NurseI will not, for the boon thou shouldst have granted me is denied.PhaedraI will grant it out of reverence for thy holy sup- pliant touch.NurseHenceforth I hold my peace; ’tis thine to speak from now.PhaedraAh! hapless mother,Pasiphae, wife of Minos, deceived by Aphrodite into a fatal passion for a bull. Cf. Verg. Aen. vi. ad init., also Ovid Metam., viii, 131 sqq. what a love was thine!NurseHer love for the bull? daughter, or what meanest thou?PhaedraAnd woe to thee! my sister,Ariadne, deserted by Theseus in the isle of Naxos, where Dionysus found her. bride of Dionysus.NurseWhat ails thee, child? speaking ill of kith and kin.PhaedraMyself the third to suffer! how am I undone!NurseThou strik’st me dumb! Where will this history end?PhaedraThat love has been our curse from time long past.NurseI know no more of what I fain would learn.PhaedraAh! would thou couldst say for me what I have to tell.NurseI am no prophetess to unriddle secrets.PhaedraWhat is it they mean when they talk of people being in love?NurseAt once the sweetest and the bitterest thing, my child.PhaedraI shall only find the latter half.NurseHa! my child, art thou in love?PhaedraThe Amazon’s son, whoever he may be,—NurseMean’st thou Hippolytus?