of piety toward men. O! O! O! O! and now the pain, the pain comes upon
me, loose unhappy me, and let death come to be my physician. Destroy me,
destroy the unhappy one--I long for a two-edged blade, wherewith to cut me
in pieces, and to put my life to an eternal rest. Oh unhappy curse of my
father! the evil too of my blood-polluted kinsmen, my old forefathers,
bursts forth[50] upon me; nor is it at a distance; and it hath come on me,
wherefore, I pray, who am nothing guilty of these ills? Alas me! me! what
can I say? how can I free my life from this cruel calamity? Would that the
black and nightly fate of Pluto would put me wretched to eternal sleep!

DI. Oh unhappy mortal, with what a calamity art thou enthralled! but the
nobleness of thy mind hath destroyed thee.

HIPP. Let be. O divine breathing of perfume, for, even though being in
ills, I perceived thee, and felt my body lightened of its pain.[51] The
Goddess Dian is in this place.

DI. Oh unhappy one! she is, to thee the most dear of deities.

HIPP. Mistress, thou seest wretched me, in what state I am.

DI. I see; but it is not lawful for me to shed a tear down mine eyes.

HIPP. Thy hunter, and thy servant is no more.

DI. No in sooth; but beloved by me thou perishest.

HIPP. And he that managed they steeds, and guarded thy statutes.

DI. _Ay_, for the crafty Venus hath so wrought.

HIPP. Ah me! I perceive indeed the power that hath destroyed me.

DI. She thought her honor aggrieved, and hated thee for being chaste.

HIPP. One Venus hath destroyed us three.

DI. Thy father, and thee, and his wife the third.

HIPP. I mourn therefore also my father's misery.

DI. He was deceived by the devices of the Goddess.

HIPP. Oh! unhappy thou, because of this calamity, my father!

THES. I perish, my son, nor have I delight in life.

HIPP. I lament thee rather than myself on account of thy error.

THES. My son, would that I could die in thy stead!

HIPP. Oh! the bitter gifts of thy father Neptune!

THES. Would that the prayer had never come into my mouth.

HIPP. Wherefore this wish? thou wouldst have slain me, so enraged wert thou
then.

THES. For I was deceived in my notions by the Gods.

HIPP. Alas! would that the race of mortals could curse the Gods!

DI. Let be; for not even when thou art under the darkness of the earth
shall the rage arising from the bent of the Goddess Venus descend upon thy
body unrevenged: by reason of thy piety and thy exce