PHAE. Yes, for from base things we devise things noble.

NUR.  Wilt not thou, then, appear more noble by telling it?

PHAE.  Depart, by the Gods, and let go my hand!

NUR.  No in sooth, since thou givest me not the boon that were right.

PHAE.  I will give it; for I have respect unto the reverence of thy hand.

NUR.  Now will I be silent:  for hence is it yours to speak.

PHAE.  O wretched mother, what a love didst thou love!

NUR.  That which she had for the bull, my child, or what is this thou meanest?

PHAE.  Thou, too, O wretched sister, wife of Bacchus!

NUR.  Child, what ails thee? thou speakest ill against thy relations.

PHAE.  And I the third, how unhappily I perish!

NUR.  I am struck dumb with amazement.  Whither will thy speech tend?

PHAE. To that point, whence we have not now lately become unfortunate.

NUR.  I know not a whit further of the things I wish to hear.

PHAE.  Alas! would thou couldst speak the things which I must speak.

NUR.  I am no prophetess so as to know clearly things hidden.

PHAE.  What is that thing, which they do call men’s loving![12]

NUR.  The same, my child, a most delightful thing, and painful withal.

PHAE.  One of the two feelings I must perceive.

NUR.  What say’st?  Thou lovest, my child?  What man!

PHAE.  Him whoever he is,[13] that is born of the Amazon.

NUR.  Hippolytus dost thou say?

PHAE.  From thyself, not me, you hear—­this name.

NUR.  Ah me! what wilt thou go on to say? my child, how hast thou destroyed me!  Ladies, this is not to be borne; I will not endure to live, hateful is the day, hateful the light I behold.  I will hurl myself down, I will rid me of this body:  I will remove from life to death—­farewell—­I no longer am.  For the chaste are in love with what is evil, not willingly indeed, yet still [they love.] Venus then is no deity, but if there be aught mightier than deity, that is she, who hath destroyed both this my mistress, and me, and the whole house.

CHOR.  Thou didst hear, O thou didst hear the queen lamenting her wretched sufferings that should not be heard.  Dear lady, may I perish before I come to thy state of mind!  Alas me! alas! alas!  O hapless for these pangs!  O the woes that attend on mortals!  Thou art undone, thou hast disclosed thy evils to the light.  What time is this that has eternally[14] awaited thee?  Some new misfortune will happen to the house.  And no longer is it obscure where the fortune of Venus sets, O wretched Cretan daughter.