Phaedra and Figaro

New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1961. 213 pp. Split to webbing before TP, else very good or better. Robert Lowell has translated Racine's Phedre, and Jacques Barzun has Translated Beaumarchais's Figaro's Marriage. ''Hippolytus: What now? His anger turns my blood to ice. / Will Phaedra, always uncertain, sacrifice / herself? What will she tell the King? How hot / the air's becoming here! I feel the rot / of love seeping like poison through this house.'' ''Figaro: I mean, English is a wonderful language--it takes but a few words to cover a lot of ground. With 'God damn,' in English, a man need lack for nothing. Do you want to sink your teeth into a nice juicy fowl? Go into a tavern and make this gesture (turning a spit) and say 'God damn!' The waiter brings you a joint of salt beef with no bread--it's marvelous! Do you want a good glass of burgundy or claret--just do this (drawing a cork) 'God damn!' and they bring you a a foaming tankard of beer--it's perfectly wonderful! Should you meet one of those attractive ladies who go trotting about with their elbows pulled back and their hips swinging a bit, just put your finger delicately on your lips--'God damn!'--and you get slapped as if by a stevedore. That proves they get your meaning. The English people, it is true, use a word or two more, here or there in conversation, but it is clear that 'God damn!' is the core of the langauge--so if your only reason for leaving me behind in Spain is--''. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. Illus. by Parker, Frank. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.