In my stepmother's eyes.

[To Phaedra.]

Did I seem one

To thee to do this vile and shameful thing?

Did I seem easy fuel to thy fire,685

I only? Has my virtuous life deserved

Such estimate? Thou, worse than all thy kind!

Thou woman, who hast in thy heart conceived

A deed more shameful than thy mother's sin,

Whose womb gave monstrous birth; thou worse than she!