Hippolytus
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.
- then by coolness master my resolve.
- Father, 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.
- A 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.)
- Oh! what wilt thou do? Wilt thou banish me, without so much as waiting for Time’s evidence on my case?
- Ay, beyond the sea, beyond the bounds of Atlas, if I could, so deeply do I hate thee.
- What! banish me untried, without even testing my oath, the pledge I offer, or the voice of seers?
- This 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.
- (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.
- Fie upon thee! that solemn air of thine is more than I can bear.
- Begone from thy native land forthwith!
- Whither shall I turn? Ah me! whose friendly house will take me in, an exile on so grave a charge?
- Seek one who loves to entertain as guests and partners in his crimes corrupters of men’s wives.
- Ah me! this wounds my heart and brings me nigh to tears to think that I should appear so vile, and thou believe me so.
- Thy tears and forethought had been more in season when thou didst presume to outrage thy father’s wife.
- O house, I would thou couldst speak for me and witness if I am so vile!
- Dost fly to speechless witnesses? This deed, though it speaketh not, proves thy guilt clearly.
- Alas! Would I could stand and face myself, so should I weep to see the sorrows I endure.
- Ay, ’tis thy character to honour thyself far more than reverence thy parents, as thou shouldst.
- Unhappy mother! son of sorrow! Heaven keep all friends of mine from bastard birth!