exceed in beauty all her sex? Did aspire to fill the husband's place
after thee and succeed to thy house? That surely would have made me

out a fool, a creature void of sense. Thou wilt say, "Your chaste
man loves to lord it." No, no! say I, sovereignty pleases only those

whose hearts are quite corrupt. Now, I would be the first and best
at all the games in Hellas, but second in the state, for ever happy

thus with the noblest for my friends. For there one may be happy,
and the absence of danger gives a charm beyond all princely joys.

One thing I have not said, the rest thou hast. Had I a witness to
attest my purity, and were I pitted 'gainst her still alive, facts

would show thee on enquiry who the culprit was. Now by Zeus, the god
of oaths, and by the earth, whereon we stand, I swear to thee I

never did lay hand upon thy wife nor would have wished to, or have
harboured such a thought. Slay me, ye gods! rob me of name and honour,

from home and city cast me forth, a wandering exile o'er the earth!
nor sea nor land receive my bones when I am dead, if I am such a

miscreant! I cannot say if she through fear destroyed herself, for
more than this am I forbid. With her discretion took the place of

chastity, while I, though chaste, was not discreet in using this
virtue.

LEADER
Thy oath by heaven, strong security, sufficiently refutes the

charge.
THESEUS

A wizard or magician must the fellow be, to think he can first
flout me, his father, then by coolness master my resolve.

HIPPOLYTUS
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.

THESEUS
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.

HIPPOLYTUS
Oh! what wilt thou do? Wilt thou banish me, without so much as

waiting for Time's evidence on my case?
THESEUS

Ay, beyond the sea, beyond the bounds of Atlas, if I could, so
deeply do I hate thee.

HIPPOLYTUS
What! banish me untried, without even testing my oath, the

pledge offer, or the voice of seers?
THESEUS

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.
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.

THESEUS
Fie upon thee! that solemn air of thine is more than I can bear.

Begone from thy native land forthwith!
HIPPOLYTUS

Whither shall I turn? Ah me! whose friendly house will take me in,
an exile on so grave, a charge?

THESEUS
Seek one who loves to entertain as guests and partners in his

crimes corrupters of men's wives.
HIPPOLYTUS

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.

THESEUS
Thy tears and forethought had been more in season when thou

didst presume to outrage thy father's wife.
HIPPOLYTUS

O house, I would thou couldst speak for me and witness if I am
so vile!

THESEUS
Dost fly to speechlesswitnesses? This deed, though it speaketh

not, proves thy guilt clearly.
HIPPOLYTUS

Alas! Would I could stand and face myself, so should I weep to see
the sorrows I endure.

THESEUS
Ay, 'tis thy character to honour thyself far more than reverence

thy parents, as thou shouldst.
HIPPOLYTUS

Unhappy mother! son of sorrow! Heaven keep all friends of mine
from bastard birth!

THESEUS
Ho! servants, drag him hence! You heard my proclamation long ago

condemning him to exile.
HIPPOLYTUS

Whoso of them doth lay a hand on me shall rue it; thyself expel
me, if thy spirit move thee, from the land.

THESEUS
I will, unless my word thou straight obey; no pity for thy exile

steals into my heart.
(THESEUS goes in. The central doors of the palace are closed.)

HIPPOLYTUS
The sentence then, it seems, is passed. Ah, misery! How well I

know the truth herein, but know no way to tell it! O daughter of
Latona, dearest to me of all deities, partner, comrade in the chase,

far from glorious Athens must I fly. Farewell, city and land of
Erechtheus; farewell, Troezen, most joyous home wherein to pass the

spring of life; 'tis my last sight of thee, farewell! Come, my
comrades in this land, young like me, greet me kindly and escort me

forth, for never will ye behold a purer soul, for all my father's
doubts.

(HIPPOLYTUS departs. Many follow him.)
CHORUS (singing)

strophe 1
In very deed the thoughts I have about the gods, whenso they

come into my mind, do much to soothe its grief, but though I cherish
secret hopes of some great guiding will, yet am I at fault when survey

the fate and doings of the sons of men; change succeeds to change, and
man's life veers and shifts in endless restlessness.

antistrophe 1
Fortune grant me this, I pray, at heaven's hand,-a happy lot in

life and a soul from sorrow free; opinions let me hold not too precise
nor yet too hollow; but, lightly changing my habits to each morrow

as it comes, may I thus attain a life of bliss!
strophe 2

For now no more is my mind free from doubts, unlooked-for sights
greet my vision; for lo! I see the morning star of Athens, eye of

Hellas, driven by his father's fury to another land. Mourn, ye sands
of my native shores, ye oak-groves on the hills, where with his

fleet hounds he would hunt the quarry to the death, attending on
Dictynna, awful queen.

antistrophe 2
No more will he mount his car drawn by Venetian steeds, filling

the course round Limna with the prancing of his trained horses.
Nevermore in his father's house shall he wake the Muse that never