_Aux portes de Trezène, et parmi ces tombeaux,_ _Des princes de ma race antiques sepultures,_ _Est un temple sacré formidable aux parjures._ _C'est là que les mortels n'osent jurer en vain;_ _Le perfide y reçoit un châtiment soudain;_ _Et, craignant d'y trouver la mort inévitable,_ _Le mensonge n'a point de frem plus redoubtable._ At Trezène's gates, amidst the ancient tombs In which repose the princes of my race, A sacred temple stands, the perjurer's dread. No daring mortal there may falsely swear, For swift the vengeance which pursues his crime, Inevitable death his instant lot; Nowhere has falsehood a more awful curb. The learned commentator of the great Racine makes the following remark on these Trezenian proofs or ordeals: "M. de la Motte has remarked that Hippolytus should have proposed to his father to come and hear his justification in this temple, where no one dared venture on swearing to a falsehood. It is certain, that in such a case Theseus could not have doubted the innocence of that young prince; but he had received too convincing evidence against the virtue of Phædra, and Hippolytus was not inclined to make the experiment. M. de la Motte would have done well to have distrusted his own good taste, when he suspected that of Racine, who appears to have foreseen the objection here made. In fact, Theseus is so prejudiced against Hippolytus that he will not even permit him to justify himself by an oath." I should observe that the criticism of La Motte was originally made by the deceased marquis de Lassai. He delivered it at M. de la Faye's, at a dinner party at which I was present together with the late M. de la Motte, who promised to make use of it; and, in fact, in his "Discourses upon Tragedy," he gives the honor of the criticism to the marquis de Lassai. The remark appeared to me particularly judicious, as well as to M. de la Faye and to all the guests present, who--of course excepting myself--were the most able critics in Paris. But we all agreed that Aricia was the person who should have called upon Theseus to try the accused by the ordeal of the Trezenian temple; and so much the more so, as Theseus immediately after talks for a long time together to that princess, who forgets the only thing that could clear up the doubts of the father and vindicate the son. The commentator in vain objects that Theseus has declared to his son he will not believe his oaths: Toujours les scélérats ont recours au parjure. --_Phedra._ Act iv., scene 2. The wicked always have recourse to oaths. There is a prodigious difference between an oath taken in a common apartment, and an oath taken in a temple where the perjured are punished by sudden death. Had Aricia said but a single word on the subject, Theseus could have had no excuse for not conducting Hippolytus to this temple; but, in that case, what would have become of the catastrophe?