PHAEDRA I could not blame you, Prince, If you should hate me. I have injured you: So much you know, but could not read my heart. T' incur your enmity has been mine aim. The self-same borders could not hold us both; In public and in private I declared Myself your foe, and found no peace till seas Parted us from each other. I forbade Your very name to be pronounced before me. And yet if punishment should be proportion'd To the offence, if only hatred draws Your hatred, never woman merited More pity, less deserved your enmity. HIPPOLYTUS A mother jealous of her children's rights Seldom forgives the offspring of a wife Who reign'd before her. Harassing suspicions Are common sequels of a second marriage. Of me would any other have been jealous No less than you, perhaps more violent. PHAEDRA Ah, Prince, how Heav'n has from the general law Made me exempt, be that same Heav'n my witness! Far different is the trouble that devours me! HIPPOLYTUS This is no time for self-reproaches, Madam. It may be that your husband still beholds The light, and Heav'n may grant him safe return, In answer to our prayers. His guardian god Is Neptune, ne'er by him invoked in vain. PHAEDRA He who has seen the mansions of the dead Returns not thence. Since to those gloomy shores Theseus is gone, 'tis vain to hope that Heav'n May send him back. Prince, there is no release From Acheron's greedy maw. And yet, methinks, He lives, and breathes in you. I see him still Before me, and to him I seem to speak; My heart-- Oh! I am mad; do what I will, I cannot hide my passion. HIPPOLYTUS Yes, I see The strange effects of love. Theseus, tho' dead, Seems present to your eyes, for in your soul There burns a constant flame.