Note 396 — Part II—The Worldlings (continued 2)
Henri Van Laun translation
"Aureng-Zebe," V. 4, 1. Dryden thought he was imitating Racine, when six lines further on he makes Nourmahal say: "I am not changed, I love my husband still; But love him as he was, when youthful grace And the first down began to shade his face: That image does my virgin-flames renew, And all your father shines more bright in you."
Racine's Phèdre (2, 5) thinks her husband Thesus dead, and says to her stepson Hippolytus:
"Oui, prince, je languis, je brûle pour Thésée: Je l'aime... Mais fidèle, mais fier, et même un peu farouche, Charmant, jeune, traînant tous les coeurs après soi, Tel qu'on dépeint nos dieux, ou tel que je vous voi. Il avait votre port, vos yeux, votre langage; Cette noble pudeur colorait son visage."
According to a note in Sir Walter Scott's edition of Dryden's works, Langbaine traces this speech also to Seneca's Hippolytus.—Tr.