Andromache by Jean Racine - Act 2

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Act two of Andromache by Jean Racine, translated by Robert
Bruce Boswell. Scene one, Hermione, cleone, Yes, he.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Shall see me, since you'll have it, so that pleasure
will I grant him once again? Soon philadies will bring him.
But were I to use my judgment, it should not
be so.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
What evil lurks there in the sight of him?

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Say?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Is he not the same orestes still, for whose return
you sighed a hundred times, whose love and constancy have
been the theme of your regret, paid with ingratitude.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
That love, it is which makes his presence here repugnant,
shame for me triumph, for him to see my misery
so like his own? Is that the proud Hermione, he'll say, No,
she who scorned me once herself despised, the wretch who
on her heart said price so high, learns in hurt

(01:06):
and the bangs of outraged love.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Oh, Heavens, dispel these most unworthy fears. Too deeply has
he felt your power to charm? He comes to urge
his love, not to insult. He brings a heart from
which he cannot blot your image. But you have not
told me yet, What writes your sire.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
If pierhis still delays, and if he will not let
the trojan die, my father bids me with the Greek's depart.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Tis well, then hear orestes you at least may finish
that which Pearis has begun. You must forestall him to
obtain success. Have you not told me that you hated him?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Hate him, cleony? Can just pride? Do less when he
forgets the favor of really given that heart was treacherous,
which I learned to love too, Dear, he was not
to be hated.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Now fly from him, then, and since you are beloved.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Ah, let my rage have time to grow more strong.
Leave me to guard myself against my foe. Cleonide is
terrible to part, and you will force me to it.
But too well, the faithless.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Wretch wait you for some new wrong to love his
slave before your very eyes? What more can make him odious?
If not that? What greater insult can he offer?

Speaker 5 (02:31):
Yet?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Had he known how, he would have left undone nothing
that could displease you?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Why provoke fresh torture? I would faint disguise the truth.
Try to believe not what your eyes have seen. Think
that my love is banished? Give me joy that I
have conquered, and my heart is steeled against its sweetness.
Make me think so too, You would have me fly?

(03:00):
Is not to hinder it. Let us depart and leave
him to enjoy a conquest that degrades him to his slave,
himself submissive. Let us fly. But what if faith and
duty should reclaim his heart, if he should crave his
pardon at my feet and love have power to make

(03:21):
him all my own. But no, he only seeks to
humble me. Let us stay, to mar their happiness, finding
some pleasure still in spoiling theirs, or making him renounce
his solemn pledge, render him guilty in the eyes of Greece.
Already I have drawn upon the sun their anger. I

(03:45):
would have them ask of him their mother too. And
so those banks repay which she has made me feel.
Let her lose him, Nay, let him cause her death.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Thank you that she whose eyes run down with tears
can pleasure find in trying to supplant you that bowed
down with grief, she courts her persecutor's love. What signs
have shown her anguish soothed thereby? Why is her soul
then plunged in misery? Why against a favored lover? So severe, Ah, I.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Have leant to credulous SNAr to faithless vows, and uttered
what I felt. I saw no danger and sincerity. My
eyes and God had let their secret out, and my
own heart pleaded his cause too well. What woman would
not have declared her love as I did, trusting to

(04:40):
his solemn oaths. Did his eye scorn me then as
it does now? You cannot but remember all combined to
aid his suit. My family avenged the joy of Greece,
our vessels charged with spoils from Troy, His father's exploits
by the sons eclipsed. His passion deemed to pass my own.

(05:04):
My heart, yes, and his fame even dazzled you. Ever
he betrayed me, All of you conspired to the same end. Enough,
if Pirus has I have not ceased to feel Oreste's
heart is noble as his deeds, and he can love

(05:25):
without return, aye, and perhaps can make himself beloved. I'll
see him fuck he comes, ah Me, I had not
thought he was so nigh.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Scene too hermione orestes cleone.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Sir, Shall I think some tender traces left of formal
love prompt you to visit me in my distress or
is it duty's voice, and that alone which urges you
to come.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
Such is the fatal blindness of my heart known to
you well, that I am destined still to come and
come again to worship you, in spite of all my
vows to come no more to see you will. I
know reopened wounds. Each step that brings me near makes
me forsworn. I know it, and I blushed thereat. But
Heaven that saw how our last parting wrung my heart

(06:26):
be witness how I strove to free myself by certain
death from oath so hard to keep and ceaseless torture.
How to savage tribes whose gods are only pleased with
human blood I offered life, They shut their temple doors,
sparing to take such willing sacrifice to you. At length
I must come, and from your eyes must seek the
death that shunned my close pursuit, And there, indifferent shall

(06:49):
end despair. They need but cut the last fond cord
of hope to bring the fatal hour for which I
yearn They need but say what they have said before,
said always for a year that has been my only aim.
Be yours the victim's blood that Scythians might have split
instead of you had any so relentless there been found, Have.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Done, sir, with these accents of despair, with matters more
momentous you are charged? Why talk of Scythia or my cruelty?
Think of the many kings you represent, and must their
vengeance on your transports? Hang? Is it orestes blood that
they demand? Discharge the office they imposed on you?

Speaker 5 (07:33):
Peirus refuses, and my task is done, Madam. He sent
me back. Some other power makes him defend the cause
of Hector's.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Son, false and forsworn.

Speaker 5 (07:45):
So ready to depart my own fate at your lips,
I come to learn ere uttered your reply? I think
I hear that you detest me in your secret heart?

Speaker 2 (07:56):
What always so unjust? Why dill your grief forever of
my enemity? Complain? How have I shown the harshness that
you blame so often? Twas obedience to my sire that
brought me hither? But who knows if I have not

(08:16):
been sick at heart since then and shared alarms no
less than yours. I may have shed in this sapirus
bitter tears, And none can say I have not sometimes
wished you here despite my duty.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
Wished me here, Oh joy, But can it be to
me that you addressed these heavenly words. Open your eyes
and see arrestes upon whom they frowned so long.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yes, you who first taught them to know their power,
whose love, with their attractions grew, whose worth I could
not but esteem, and who have had my sighs, and
whom indeed I fain would love.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
I understand how hopeless is my lot. Your heart is
given to peeris and to me vain wishes.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Ah, you need not envy him unless you crave my hatred.

Speaker 5 (09:14):
Yes, for then love well might follow from a source opposed.
I cannot please you, whom you fain would love, But
if you wish to hate me, love alone would be obeyed,
and I should win your heart. Ye, Gods, such worship
and such tender love speak they not for me? Could
you lend an ear? Your voice alone supports a prior

(09:35):
claim for Peers. It may be against your will, against
his certainly, for in his soul he hates you, loves
another who.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Has dead to tell you that he scorns me. Have
his looks and words revealed?

Speaker 5 (09:48):
It?

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Think you that my eyes can light no lasting fire,
but soon must rouse contempt. Perhaps more favorable judge, miss
somewhere else be found?

Speaker 5 (10:01):
Tis well to taunt me? Thus, am I the one
who scorned your charms? Have you not tried my constancy? Enough?
Am I a witness that your eyes lack power? Despise them? Ah?
How gladly would they see my rival? So despise them?
As do I?

Speaker 2 (10:19):
What care I say whether he loves or hates? Go
and against a rebel, arm all Greece, pay him the
price of disobedience. Go, Let them make this land a
second Troy. Will you say, now my heart is given
to him?

Speaker 5 (10:38):
Madam? Do more, and come to grease yourself. Will you
remain here as a hostage? Come to every heart. Let
your fair eyes appeal till common hatred prompts our joint attack.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
What if you had Andromaki?

Speaker 5 (10:53):
Meanwhile, Madam?

Speaker 2 (10:55):
What deep disgrace must then be mine? To have this
Phrygian woman hold my place?

Speaker 5 (11:02):
And yet you hate him? Madam? Own the truth? We
cannot shut Love's fire within the breast. Our very eyes
betray us, silence speech and fires we hide in vain
burst forth more fears.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Your mind is prepossessed, I see it well, and spreads
a deadly venom over my words in every argument detects
deceit and thinks my hatred prompted by my love. I
must explain myself, and you shall act accordingly. You know
it twas duty led my footsteps hither and detains me here.

(11:38):
I cannot leave till Pearus or my sire compel me.
Make my father understand the foe of Greece will form
no marriage bond with us between the Trojan and myself.
Make Peirus choose which he will keep and which dismiss. Farewell,
I wait but his consent to follow you?

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Scene three orestes.

Speaker 5 (12:05):
Yes, you will follow me. No doubt of that already
is consent is sure? Nor need I fear that Peirus
wants to keep you, for he has no eyes for
sooth say for its dear andromachey. All else shirks him
and seeks some pretext. They may part himself in you.
One word and all is done. What joy to rob
appiis of a prize so rare Troy's relics she may

(12:28):
save and keep unharmed, brave Hector's widow and his son,
and thousand others. Tis enough for me that ne'er again
to see thee or thy prince Hermione departs. Good fortune
brings him hither to such charms love. Close his eyes
while we hold converse.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Scene four, Peeris Orestes, Phoenix.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
I have sought you, sir, to own that, in a
fit of violence, I fought against your reasons. Since I went,
the justice and their force have shown themselves. I feel
like you that I have thwarted Greece, my father's efforts,
and indeed my own in aiding Troy, frustrating all achieved
both by Achilles and myself. Nor now do I condemn resentment,

(13:16):
which was based on solid ground. Your victim soon shall
be at your disposal.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
By this firm resolve, prudent as firm aktus blood buys peace.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
And to assure you further, I consent to wed Hermione
the pledge of peace forever. Such a pleasing spectacle can
have no better witness here than you, who represents all
Greece and most her Sire, for in yourself his brother
lives again. Go to her, tell her that tomorrow morn
I will receive her at your hands with.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Peace, Orestes, aside great gods. Scene five Peeris Phoenix.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Well, Phoenix has love won the day? Say do your
eyes refuse to know me.

Speaker 6 (14:08):
Still I see you as you were. That righteous wrath
restores you to the Greeks and to yourself no more
the plaything of a servile flame. Tis Pyrus, tis Achilles' son,
and more his rival, who at last obeys the laws

(14:31):
of honor and a second triumph. Winds or Troy.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
Say rather that my victory begins to day, when I
can feel its joy, and my heart, lifted from its
low estate, seems to have triumphed o'er a thousand foes
in crushing love. Think, Phoenix, what a host of troubles
I avoid that follow close on passion? How content to
sacrifice duty and friendship danger I despised, courting destruction from

(14:59):
the arms of Greece. Might I but win a single
look of love?

Speaker 6 (15:04):
Why bless my lord the kind severity which gives you back?

Speaker 4 (15:10):
See how she treated me. I thought that when the
mother's fears were roused, she would have yielded for her
infant's sake, disarmed by his caresses. But I found no
signs of weakness, mingled with her tears, embittered by her woes,
more fierce she seemed each time the name of Hector
passed her lips oft. As I promised to protect her

(15:31):
son tis Hector? She would say, as in her arms
she held him his those eyes that mouth the heart
already bold, my husband, I embrace in this his image?
Does she think that I will let her keep him? Thus?
To feed her love for Hector?

Speaker 6 (15:48):
Such were doubtless the return that she would make. But
leave her now I.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
See how consciousness of beauty flatters her and makes her
proudly wake despite my wrath to see me at her
knees rather at mine, I'll see her crouch in vain
eternal hate parts Hector's widow and achilles son.

Speaker 6 (16:11):
Then speak of her no more to me, my liege.
Go see Hermione, and at her feet, be your sore
thought her pleasure, and forget what's past. Prepare her for
the nuptial right yourself nor to arrival, leave that task
who loves her, But too well.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
Think you she will be jealous if I wed Hermione.

Speaker 6 (16:37):
What harping on the trojan woman? Still? What matters it
to you? If vexed or glad? What spell attracts you
towards her? In despite of your own will?

Speaker 4 (16:50):
I have not told her all I mean to say.
I showed, but half the rage I feel. She knows
not what a bitter foe she has in me. Let
us return and flout her vengeance to my hatred. Give
full scope and see her pride and beauty in the dust.

Speaker 6 (17:07):
Come go and cast yourself before her, sir, go, swear
that in your heart you love her still, and so
encourage her to scorn you more.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
I see you, think, my heart ready to find excuses,
hankers after her and seeks atonement.

Speaker 6 (17:27):
Yes, you love her, That's enough.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
Love her forsooth? Who hates me? All the more the
more she's flattered, friendless, with no hope. But over me,
a stranger, I a slave, I can destroy her son,
perhaps I ought to her. I give that son myself
my throne, and in her treacherous heart can gain no
rank better than that of persecutor. No, no, I have

(17:54):
sworn it. My revenge is sure, and shall for once
her hatred justify her infant. I abandon let her shed
what tears she may call me, whatever name anguish can prompt, ah,
what a sight to day her eyes will see phoenix.
Twill be her death, and I shall cause it. Yea
myself shall hold the dagger to her breast.

Speaker 6 (18:18):
Why blazon it abroad too highly? Did you rate your
strength some hours ago?

Speaker 4 (18:25):
Pardon the tenderness of an old wound. You need not
fear it. Matched with my resentment, tis the final spark
of love extinct. I'll follow your advice. Must I give
up her son? And must I see the princess?

Speaker 6 (18:39):
Yes, sire, and with humble vows, assure her.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
What I promised, I'll perform.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
End of Act two