Main Body
Act Two
FIRST SCENE.
ARICIE, ISMENE.
ARICIA.
- Hippolyte asks to see me in this place?
- Hippolyte is looking for me, and wants to say goodbye?
- Ismene, are you telling the truth? Are you not deceived?
ISMENE.
- This is the first effect of the death of Theseus.
- Prepare yourself, lady, to see all around
- Fly to you hearts by Theseus spread apart.
- Aricie, in the end, of her fate is mistress,
- And soon at his feet will see all of Greece.
ARICIA.
- Is it not then, Ismene, an ill-established noise?
ISMENE.
- No, madame, the gods are no longer against you;
- And Theseus joined the spirits of your brothers.
ARICIA.
- Do we say which adventure ended its days?
ISMENE.
- Incredible speeches are sown about his death.
- They say that, kidnapper of a new lover,
- The waves have swallowed up this unfaithful husband.
- It is even said, and this noise is widespread everywhere,
- That with Pirithoüs in hell descended,
- He saw the Cocytus and the dark shores,
- And showed himself alive to the infernal shadows;
- But that he could not get out of this sad stay,
- And iron the edges that we pass without returning.
ARICIA.
- Will I believe that a mortal, before his last hour,
- Can the dead penetrate the deep abode?
- What charm drew him to these dreaded shores?
ISMENE.
- Theseus is dead, madame, and you alone doubt it:
- Athens moans; Trézène is informed of it,
- And already for its king recognizes Hippolyte;
- Phèdre, in this palace, trembling for her son,
- From his troubled friends asks for advice.
ARICIA.
- And you think that for me more human than his father,
- Hippolyte will make my chain lighter;
- That he will pity my misfortunes?
ISMENE.
- Madam, I believe him.
ARICIA.
- Is the insensitive Hippolyte known to you?
- On what frivolous hope do you think he pities me,
- And respect in me only a sex he disdains?
- You see how long he has avoided our steps,
- And look for all the places where we are not.
ISMENE.
- I know of its coldness everything that is recited;
- But I saw this superb Hippolyte near you;
- And even, seeing him, the sound of his pride
- Redoubled my curiosity for him.
- His presence at this noise did not seem to answer:
- From your first glances I saw it merge;
- His eyes, which in vain wanted to avoid you,
- Already full of languor, could not leave you.
- The name of lover perhaps offends his courage;
- But he has the eyes, if he does not have the language.
ARICIA.
- May my heart, dear Ismene, listen eagerly
- A speech which perhaps has little basis!
- O you who know me, did it seem believable to you
- That the sad toy of a pitiless fate,
- A heart always nourished with bitterness and tears,
- Must have known love and its crazy pains?
- Remains of the blood of a noble king son of the Earth,
- I am the only one escaped from the fury of war:
- I lost, in the flower of their young season,
- Six brothers … What hope for an illustrious house!
- Iron reaped everything; and the damp earth
- Reluctantly drank the blood of the nephews