Act III

Scene II

Phædra (alone)

Venus implacable, who seest me shamed

And sore confounded, have I not enough

Been humbled? How can cruelty be stretch’d

Farther? Thy shafts have all gone home, and thou

Hast triumph’d. Would’st thou win a new renown?

Attack an enemy more contumacious:

Hippolytus neglects thee, braves thy wrath,

Nor ever at thine altars bow’d the knee.

Thy name offends his proud, disdainful ears.

Our interests are alike: avenge thyself,

Force him to love—

But what is this? Œnone

Return’d already? He detests me then,

And will not hear you.