Andromache by Jean Racine - Act 1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Andromache a tragedy act one seen one Orestes pilodes.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes, since I find again a friend so true, my
fortune gins to wear another face already seems her wrath
to have been soothed, permitting us to meet each other here.
Who would have thought that this detested coast would first
present you to Arresti's eyes and lost six months and more,
you should be found where an epis pirus holds his court.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Thanks be to Heaven that has detained my steps so
oft and seemed to shut me out from Greece. Since
that disastrous day when winds and waves scattered our vessels,
almost in the sight of this epirus, how I mourned
and wept myself an exile for Arrestes fate, dreading for him.

(00:56):
Ever some danger, knew, some sorrow that my friend could
not share that melancholy. Most of all I feared, which
I have seen so long, your soul or cloud. I
feared that Heaven might grant you cruel aid and offer
what you ever sought a tomb. But now I see you,

(01:18):
and if I may dare to say it, happier fortune
brings you here this stately train that on your steps
attends looks not like that. A wretch who seeks his death.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Alas who knows what fortune is my guide? Love bids
me seek a cruel mistress here, But I am ignorant
of fate's decrees. Whether tis life or death that I
shall find?

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Is then your soul so bound in slavery that, for
love's sake alone you care to live? What spell con
straine you to those fires again? The tortures you have
suffered or forgot? Will she who would not listen to
your prayers? Sparta in epirus proved more kind. Ashamed of

(02:04):
having uttered vows so vain, you should despise her, Speak
no more of her. Your words deceived me.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
I deceived myself, or well not friend, a wretch who
clings to you? Have I from you ere hidden heart's desire.
You knew my flame, fresh born, my earliest sighs, when
Menelaus pledged his daughter's hand to Pearis, the avenger of
his race. You witnessed my despair. Since then you've seen

(02:35):
how I have dragged my chains from sea to sea.
I saw you pitying my forlorn estate, ready to follow
me where'er I went, checking my madness in its wild career.
You saved me from myself from day to day. But
when distracted by my fears, I thought Hermione was lavishing
her charms on Pearis. Well you know how filled with

(02:59):
wrath I strove to make forgetfulness repay her scorn. I
made you think, and thought myself. The victory achieved deemed
passion changed to hatred and disparaging her charms, abhorred her harshness,
and defied her eyes to raise the tender feelings I
crushed in that deceitful calm. I came to Greece and

(03:22):
found her prince's mustard to withstand a danger and no
mean one that appeared fraught with fresh troubles. Eagerly I
joined their ranks and hoped in war to find release
from other cares. That former strength regained. My heart would
lose all memory of love, But mark with me, how
persecuting fate entrapped me in the snare I thought to

(03:43):
shun on every side. I heard murmurs and threats raised
against Pearus from the whole of Greece, complaining that forgetful
of his blood and promise at his court, he rears
her foe asktyinax the young, ill fated son of Hector,
relic of so many kings bareneath Troy, to save the
babe from death and dromachay, as I have heard, deceived

(04:06):
whilely ulysses, while another child, torn from her arms, was
slaughtered in a stead. They say hermione has failed to
charm my rival, that elsewhere his heart and crown, he
offers mene loss. Loath to trust, the rumor is sore
vexed at long delay. The cause of its displeasure is
to me a source of secret triumph. Yet at first

(04:27):
I deemed it but a feeling of revenge, a thought
that flattered pride. But soon I found the fair tormentor
had resumed her place within my heart, the smoldering fire revived.
I felt my hatred melt and disappear, or rather felt
my love had never ceased. So, listening support from all
the Greeks to Pearis, I was sent, and here I am.

(04:48):
My mission is to try if I can rest this
infant from his arms, who, while he lives, brings fear
to many. Happy shall I be if I can carry
off not hector son, but my princess, Nor fancy that
my flame fanned by repression can extinguished be by any peril,
all resistance prov'd to be in vain. I blindly yield

(05:11):
myself to passion's sway. I love Hermione, and come to
win her, fly with her, or die peeress. You know what,
think you will he do? Tell me what passes in
this court and what within his heart? Still to Hermione?
Is he enslaved? Will he restore the prize of which
he robbed me?

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Should I promise that I should deceive you? Not with
his consent? Shall she be yours? Not that he seems
much pleased to have won her, Hector's widow fires his
heart with warmer passion, But she proves unkind and hitherto
has paid his love with hate. Though daily he attempts

(05:54):
in every way to bind her stubborn will or rouse
her fears from her, He hides her boy threatens his life.
Then fame would dry the tears he forced to flow
Hermione has seen a hundred times her lover's wrath, submit

(06:14):
to sue again and offer humbly off rejected vows with
troubled sighs of mingled love and rage. You must not
then expect that I can tell the emotions of a
heart so ill controlled in its distraction, he may wed,
perchance the one he scorns, and lose the one he loves.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
But tell me how hermione beholds her charms contemned the
marriage writes delayed.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
To all appearances, she would seem my lord disdainful of
her suitor's fickleness, and thinks that, anxious to be reconciled,
he'll soon entreat her to take back his heart to me. Indeed,
she has her grief revealed. She mourns in secret his indifference,

(07:06):
ready to leave him. Still she always stays, and sometimes
cause arrestes to her.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Aid, Ah, if I thought so pilodes full. Soon would
I go cast myself.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Fulfill your task. Wait on the king and tell him
that all Greece is banded against Hector's son, so far
from giving up the child of her he loves. Their
hatred will but make his heart more fond. All efforts
made to part them will the more unite them. Urge

(07:41):
your mission, and its end must fail. He comes.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Prepare her then to see a lover who comes hither
but for.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Her scene two pearis orestes Phoenix.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
By my voice, all grease addresses you, Let me express
my pleasure in her choices. Me and at beholding face
to face Achilles offspring, conqueror of Troy. Yes, we admire
your exploits like his own before him, Hector fell Troy
before you. Your daring and success alike have shown Achilles
set alone can fill his place. But what he never

(08:22):
would have done with pain, we see you do, giving
unhappy Troy fresh power to injure, letting pity move your
heart with fatal touch, prolonging feud already waged. So long
do you forget the might of Hector? We remember still
what blood he cost us At his very name, Widows
and orphans tremble not a home, but calls for vengeance

(08:44):
on this son of his for father or for husband
lost through him? Who knows what harm this child may
one day work? Perchance he may come down upon our
ports as we have seen a sire, do burn our
ships and fire in hand pursue them or the waves? Sir?
Shall I dare to tell you what I think you fear,
what recompense your cares may meet, And lest this serpent

(09:07):
in your bosom nurse may punish you one day for
sheltering him. Be the desire of Greece then satisfied secure
your life by wreaking her revenge, destroy a dangerous foe,
who willng you practice the sword hereafter to be used
against her.

Speaker 4 (09:24):
Greece alarms herself too much on my behalf by more
important cares. I thought her moved, and that such envoy
brought some grander project than I yet have heard. Who
would suppose that Agamemnon's son would deign to intervene in
this affair, or that all Greece, after such triumphs, one

(09:46):
could thus conspire against an infant's life, to whom am
I to make the sacrifice. Greece may no longer claim
his life as hers? Or is it not allowed to
me alone of all the Greeks to treat as I
may please a captive one by lot? When neath the
walls of smoking Troy, the victor's blood be sprint, the

(10:08):
spoil divided to my share. There fell Andromache and Hector's
infant son Ulysses made the cup of misery or flow
for Hecuba to Argos, went Cassandra, with your sire. Have
I controlled them or their captives, or presumed to claim
the fruit of their brave deeds? They fear the day
when Hector shall revive his son may take my life

(10:30):
if his be spared. Such caution shows care in excess.
Misfortunes so remote are quite beyond my ken. I see
proud Troy as once she was mother of heroes, queen
of Asia, crowned with towers, And then I see how
she fell headlong, how she prostrate lies for walls but

(10:53):
heaps of ashes. I behold a river that runs blood,
forsaken fields, a child in chains, And little can I
think that Troy so fallen meditates revenge? If it were
sworn that Hector's son should die, why did we let
a year pass o'er his head? Why could we not
have slain him in the arms of priam Troy might

(11:16):
well have been his tomb no less than that of
others age and youth, pleaded alike in vain their weakness,
then war's frenzy and knight's darkness worse than we left
no distinctions to our murderous swords. My rage was fierce
as that of any there against the vanquished. But should

(11:36):
cruelty outlive one's fury? Can I, in cool blood, discarding
pity slaughter a poor child, No, sir, let Greece, hunt
up some other prey efface elsewhere. All vestiges of Troy.
My enmity is finished, and what war has spared Eperus
safely shall preserve.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
You know, my Lord full well, what the cunning trick
brought to the sword of false Astianax instead of Hector's son.
It is not Troy nor Trojans. It is Hector. They pursue.
Greece tracks the father's footsteps in the sun. The wrath
is bloodshed kindled, must in blood be quenched, And none

(12:18):
but Hector's can avail even to Epirus. Will they follow it?
Prevent them? No?

Speaker 4 (12:25):
The challenge I accept with joy and in Epreus. Let
them seek a second Troy, while hatred makes them class
with foes. The friend who brought them victory. Greece will
not then, for the first time requite unjustly all Achilles services.
Once Hector profited, the day may come when Hector's son
shall profit in his turn.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
So Greece and you find the rebellious son.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
Have I then conquered only to depend on her?

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Hermione will check your course between her father and yourself.
Her eyes will interpose.

Speaker 4 (12:58):
She may be dear to me and yet I need
not be her father's slave, because I love her. Time
may reconcile honor, perchance with what affection claims Meanwhile, fair
Helen's daughter, you may see I know what tie of
blood links you and her. No longer will I keep
you after that? Go say that I refuse what Grease demands.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Scene three, peeris Phoenix.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Thus then you send him to his mistress's feet.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
Long for the princess has his passion burned. They say,
what if that fire should be revived?

Speaker 1 (13:40):
His heart be given to her and her to him.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
Let them love Phoenix. She may take her leave with
my consent. Aye. Let the enamored pair go back to Sparta.
Not a port shall bar their exit. Let her spare
me more constraint, my lord, I'll bear my soul another time.
And Drummache approaches.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Scene four, peeris and Dromache Phoenix. Suphysia is it I, madam?

Speaker 4 (14:15):
You seek? May I indulge a hope so pleasing.

Speaker 5 (14:19):
I was passing to the place that holds my son,
permitted once a day to see the only being left
to me of Troy intactor. And I have not yet
wept with him, no, nor held him in my arms
a moment.

Speaker 4 (14:35):
Greece, if her alarm tells truth, will give you other
causes soon for tears?

Speaker 5 (14:42):
What is this terror that has struck her heart? Has
done some troy and managed to escape.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
Not yet extinguished. As the hatred felt for Hector, and
they dread his son.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
Their fear has found a worthy object. He poor child,
yet knows not Hector for his sire nor you for master.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
All the same, the Greeks demand his blood, and Agamemnon's
son is here to urge his punishment.

Speaker 5 (15:14):
Will you pronounce sentence so hard? My interest in him
is his sole crime. It is not that they fear
he will avenge his father, but will dry his mother's tears.
He would have filled the place of sire and husband.
I must lose them all, and at your hand.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
Weep not I have refused to do their bidding. Though
they threaten war, Shall they again, with twice five hundred
ships set sail to force you to give up your son?
Though all the blood that Helen caused to flow must
be the price. And after ten years war my palace
sink in flames. I falter not, and with my own

(15:59):
will I defend his life. But mid these perils suffered
for your sake? Will you refuse to grant a kinder
look pressed on all sides and hated by the Greeks?
Must I still strive against your cruelty? My arm is
at your service. May I hope you will accept the
heart's devotion to let not your champion have to reckon

(16:22):
you among the number of his enemies.

Speaker 5 (16:24):
Think what ye do, my lord? What Greece will say?
Can soul so great as you as such weakness show?
You would not have your generous purpose pass for the
mere madness of love's sake? Swain, how can you wish
a captive sad as I to love you? I, who

(16:45):
cannot bear myself? Can ies that sorrow haunts have charms
for you? Doomed by yourself to everlasting tears? No, no
respect your captive's misery. Relieve the wretched to a mother's arms,
restore a sun wis stand the cruelty of all the Greeks.

(17:09):
Nor make my heart the price of succor, and at
need against my will, protect him that will conduct that
befits Achille's son?

Speaker 4 (17:20):
What is your wrath still hot? Shall hatred and the
punishment oft prompts ne'er cease? Much woe I doubtless caused.
And Troy has seen this hand dyed crimson with your
blood a hundred times, but smitten by the shafts from
Beauty's eyes? Have I not dearly paid for all their tears?
And long since learned remorse? I suffer all the ills

(17:44):
I gave to Troy, vanquished and taken prisoner, with regrets loaded,
consumed with fires more fierce than those I kindled, Such anxiety,
such tears, such restless longings. Was I eer so harsh
as you are?

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Now?

Speaker 4 (17:59):
Have you not indeed enough? Nay? Let our common foes
unite us? Tell me only I may hope I give
you back. Your son will be to him a father,
and will teach him to avenge his country. I myself
will punish Greece for your calamities, and mine one look
shall give me strength for all. Troy shall revive een

(18:22):
from her ashes, sooner than its siege lasted. Her walls
shall rise, Your son be crowned her king.

Speaker 5 (18:30):
I care not for such glory. Now that prospect pleased
me while his father lived Troy's sacred walls that Hector
could not safe. May never hope to see our faces more?
My Lord, the wretched are content with less this exile,
only that these tears demand Far from the Greeks, aye too,

(18:56):
and far from you. Let me go hide my son
and to mourn my loss. Your love inflames their hatred
against us. Return to Helen's daughter, Oh, return that.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
Can I not?

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Then?

Speaker 4 (19:14):
Why distress me more? How may a heart that's yours
be given to her? I know that she has promised
its command. I know she hither came to reign as
queen Fate to Epirus brought you both alike, her to
impose the chains of slavery, and you to wear them.
But I took no pains to please her, Seeing how

(19:34):
your charms prevail and hers are scorned. It might be
rather thought that she is a captive here and you
are queen. Ah. How a single sigh of all I
breathe for you would carry joy if given to her?

Speaker 5 (19:50):
How should they not be welcome? Can she ever forget
the services that you have wrought? Hector and Troy are
names that do not cause a shudder, Nor is all
her tenderness devoted to the dead. Ah, what a loss
was mine? Bitter to think on slaying him? Your father

(20:11):
made himself immortal gained the crown of all his glory,
and my tears have made you both renowned.

Speaker 4 (20:21):
It needs must be that I obey you, Madam, and
forget nay hate you. Love has been too violent to
change its course to mere indifference. Be well assured. The
heart henceforth that loves no more with passion, must with
fury hate Nough will I, in my righteous anger spare
the son shall answer for the mother's scorn. Greece asks

(20:43):
his life. Why should I always stoop to save the ungrateful?
I'll do so no more.

Speaker 5 (20:50):
Aless, then he must die his mother's tears his sole
protection and his innocence. And yet chance, so wretched is
my lot. His death may lift this load of misery,
life and its woes I bore, but for his sake,

(21:11):
to follow him will bring me to his sire, Thus reunited.
Thanks to you, my lord, we three shall.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
Madam, go and see your son. The sight of him
may teach your heart to shun the path to which
your anger beckons you. I'll choose another hour to learn
my fate. Think how to save him while you clasp
him close.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
End of Act one