Already gone!Tell it, ye conscious walls;
Bear it, ye winds, upon your pitying wings;
Refound it, fame, with all your hundred tongues,
Oh hapless youth! All Heaven conspires against you.
The conscious walls conceal the fatal fecret:
Th' untainted winds refufe th' infecting load:
And fame itfelf is mute.- -Nay, ev'n Ifmena,
Thy own Ifmena 's fworn to thy destruction.
But still, whate'er the cruel gods defign,
In the fame fate our equal ftars combine,
And he who dooms thy death pronounces mine..

THE END OF THE FOURTH ACT.

}

A

LYCON.

CCUSE yourself? Oh! on my knees I beg you,

By all the gods, recal the fatal message.

Heavens! Will you stand the dreaded rage of Thefeus ? And brand your fame, and work your own destruction

PHÆDRA.

By thee I 'm branded, and by thee destroy'd;

Thou bofom ferpent, thou alluring fiend!
Yet fhan't you boast the miseries you cause,
Nor 'scape the ruin you have brought on all.

LYCON..

LYCON.

Was it not your command? Has faithful Lycon E'er fpoke, e'er thought, design'd, contriv'd, or acted? Has he done aught without the queen's confent?

PHEDRA.

Plead'st thou confent to what thou first inspir'dft? Was that confent? O fenfeless politician!

When adverse paffions struggled in my breast,
When anger, fear, love, forrow, guilt, despair,
Drove out my reason, and ufurp'd my foul,
Yet this confent you plead, O faithful Lycon !
Oh! only zealous for the fame of Phædra!
With this you blot my name, and clear your own ;
And what's my frenzy, will be call'd my crime:
What then is thine? Thou cool deliberate villain,
Thou wife, fore-thinking, weighing politician !

LYCON.

Oh! 'twas fo black, my frighten'd tongue recoil'd At its own found, and horror shook my foul. Yet ftill, though pierc'd with fuch amazing anguish Such was my zeal, so much I lov'd my queen, I broke through all, to save the life of Phædra,

PHÆDRA.

What 's life? Oh all ye gods! Can life atone
For all the monstrous crimes by which 'tis bought
Or can I live? When thou, oh foul of honour!
Oh early hero! by my crimes art ruin'd.
Perhaps ev'n now the great unhappy youth
Falls by the fordid hands of butchering villains ▷

Now, now he bleeds, he dies-Oh perjur'd traitor!
See, his rich blood in purple torrents flows,
And nature fallies in unbidden groans;
Now mortal pangs distort his lovely form ;
His rofy beauties fade, his ftarry eyes
Now darkling fwim, and fix their clofing beams
Now in fhort gafps his labouring spirit heaves,
And weakly flutters on his faultering tongue,
And ftruggles into found. Hear, monster, hear,
With his last breath he curfes perjur'd Phædra:
He fummons Phædra to the bar of Minos;
Thou too fhalt there appear; to torture thee,
Whole hell fhall be employ'd, and suffering Phædra
Shall find fome eafe to fee thee ftill more wretched.

LYCON.

Oh all ye powers! Oh Phædra! Hear

By all my zeal, by all my anxious cares,

By thofe unhappy crimes I wrought to ferve you,
By these old wither'd limbs and hoary hairs,

By all my tears! Oh Heavens! She minds me not, She hears not my complaints. Oh wretched Lycon! To what art thou referv'd?

PHEDRA.

Referv'd to all

The harpeft, flowest pains that earth can furnish,
To all I wish- -On Phædra--Guards, fecure him.

LYCON carried off.

Ha! Thefeus, gods! My freezing blood congeals,
And all my thoughts, designs, and words are lost.

Enter

Enter THESEUS.

THESEUS..

Doft thou at last repent? Oh lovely Phædra!
At laft with equal ardour meet my vows:
O dear-bought bleffing! Yet I 'll not complain,
Since now my sharpest grief is all o`erpaid,

And only heightens joy.Then hafte, my charmer,. Let's feaft our famish'd fouls with amorous riot,

With fiercest bliss atone for our delay,

And in a moment love the age we 've loft..

PHÆDRA.

Stand off, approach me, touch me not; fly hence, Far as the distant skies or deepest center.

THESEUS.

Amazement! Death! Ye gods who guide, the world, What can this mean? So fierce a deteftation, So ftrong abhorrence !—Speak, exquisite tormentor! Was it for this your fummons fill'd my. foul With eager raptures, and tumultuous transports ? Ev'n painful joys, and agonies of bliss. Did I for this obey my Phædra's call, And fly with trembling haste to meet her arms? And am I thus receiv'd? O cruel Phædra! Was it for this you rouz'd my drowsy soul. From the dull lethargy of hopeless love? And doft thou only fhew those beauteous eyes To wake despair, and blast me with their beams?

PHEDRA.

PHEDRA.

Oh! were that all to which the gods have doom'd

me; But angry Heaven has laid in ftore for Thefeus Such perfect mischief, such transcendent woe, That the black image fhocks my frighted foul, And the words die on my reluctant tongue.

THESEUS.

Fear not to speak it; that harmonious voice Will make the faddeft tale of forrow pleafing, And charm the grief it brings. Thus let me hear it, Thus in thy fight; thus gazing on those eyes,

I can fupport the utmost spite of fate,

And ftand the rage of Heaven.

fair!

PHÆDRA.

Approach, my

Off, or I fly for ever from thy fight : Shall I embrace the father of Hippolitus?

THESEUS.

Forget the villain, drive him from your foul."

PHEDRA.

Can I forget? O drive from my foul: Oh! he will still be present to my eyes; His words will ever echo in my ears; Still will he be the torture of my days, Bane of my life, and ruin of my glory.

THESEUS.

And mine and all.- Oh most abandon'd villain !

Oh lafting scandal to our godlike race!

That could contrive a crime fo foul as inceft.

PHÆDRA.