Chapter: SCENE IV


          THESEUS (alone)
          What is there in her mind? What meaning lurks
          In speech begun but to be broken short?
          Would both deceive me with a vain pretence?
          Have they conspired to put me to the torture?
          And yet, despite my stern severity,
          What plaintive voice cries deep within my heart?
          A secret pity troubles and alarms me.
          Oenone shall be questioned once again,
          I must have clearer light upon this crime.
          Guards, bid Oenone come, and come alone.




SCENE V
          THESEUS, PANOPE


          PANOPE
          I know not what the Queen intends to do,
          But from her agitation dread the worst.
          Fatal despair is painted on her features;
          Death's pallor is already in her face.
          Oenone, shamed and driven from her sight,
          Has cast herself into the ocean depths.
          None knows what prompted her to deed so rash;
          And now the waves hide her from us for ever.

          THESEUS
          What say you?

          PANOPE
          Her sad fate seems to have added
          Fresh trouble to the Queen's tempestuous soul.
          Sometimes, to soothe her secret pain, she clasps
          Her children close, and bathes them with her tears;
          Then suddenly, the mother's love forgotten,
          She thrusts them from her with a look of horror,
          She wanders to and fro with doubtful steps;
          Her vacant eye no longer knows us. Thrice
          She wrote, and thrice did she, changing her mind,
          Destroy the letter ere 'twas well begun.
          Vouchsafe to see her, Sire: vouchsafe to help her.

          THESEUS
          Heav'ns! Is Oenone dead, and Phaedra bent
          On dying too? Oh, call me back my son!
          Let him defend himself, and I am ready
          To hear him. Be not hasty to bestow
          Thy fatal bounty, Neptune; let my pray'rs
          Rather remain ever unheard. Too soon
          I lifted cruel hands, believing lips
          That may have lied! Ah! What despair may follow!

 Disturbed by Oenone's hints, Theseus realizes that he himself still has doubts and calls the guards to bring Oenone to him so that he may question her further. But Panope, one of Phaedra's waiting women, has shocking news for him. Phaedra has driven Oenone from her presence, and Oenone has thrown herself into the sea. Now Phaedra, alternately kissing her sons and pushing them away in horror, has three times begun a letter and thrice destroyed it. Panope fears she is about to kill herself and begs Theseus to come and calm her. Glimpsing the truth, Theseus calls upon his son to come back and defend himself and begs Neptune not to grant him his boon.

