EURIPIDES
the darkness hides and mist encompasses;
we are proved luckless lovers of this thing
that glitters in the underworld: no man
can tell us of the stuff of it, expounding 195
what is, and what is not: we know nothing of it.
Idly we drift, on idle stories carried.
Phaedra (to the servants)
Lift me up! Lift my head up! All the muscles
are slack and useless. Here, you, take my hands.
They're beautiful, my hands and arms! 200
Take away this hat! It is too heavy to wear.
Take it away! Let my hair fall free on my shoulders.
Nurse
Quiet, child, quiet! Do not so restlessly
keep tossing to and fro! It's easier
to bear an illness if you have some patience 205
and the spirit of good breeding.
We all must suffer sometimes: we are mortal.
Phaedra
O,
if I could only draw from the dewy spring
a draught of fresh spring water!
If I could only lie beneath the poplars, 210
in the tufted meadow and find my rest there! '
Nurse
Child, why do you rave so? There are others here.
Cease tossing out these wild demented words
whose driver is madness.
Phaedra
Bring me to the mountains! I will go to the mountains! 215
Among the pine trees where the huntsmen's pack
trails spotted stags and hangs upon their heels.
God, how I long to set the hounds on, shouting!
188