A just remark! yet shalt thou not die by the sentence thine own lips pronounce upon thyself; for death, that cometh in a moment, is an easy end for wretchedness. Nay, thou shalt be exiled from thy fatherland, and wandering to a foreign shore drag out a life of misery; for such are the wages of sin. Bergk rejects the first, Nauck the second of these lines. Hippolytus Oh! what wilt thou do? Wilt thou banish me, without so much as waiting for Time’s evidence on my case? Theseus Ay, beyond the sea, beyond the bounds of Atlas, if I could, so deeply do I hate thee. Hippolytus What! banish me untried, without even testing my oath, the pledge I offer, or the voice of seers? Theseus This letter here, though it bears no seers’ signs, arraigns thy pledges; as for birds that fly o’er our heads, a long farewell to them. Hippolytus (aside). Great gods! why do I not unlock my lips, seeing that I am ruined by you, the objects of my reverence? No, I will not; I should nowise persuade those whom I ought to, and in vain should break the oath I swore. Theseus Fie upon thee! that solemn air of thine is more than I can bear. Begone from thy native land forthwith! Hippolytus Whither shall I turn? Ah me! whose friendly house will take me in, an exile on so grave a charge?