Pylades is trying to calm an enraged Orestes, who has decided to carry off Hermione. Orestes also hates Pyrrhus, who, he says, had no interest in Hermione until Orestes declared his love for her. Hermione was about to accept him and showed her wrath against Pyrrhus.
Pylades says he is deceiving himself, that Hermione still loves Pyrrhus and would never leave him. Orestes would do better to flee her; if he kidnaps her, she will spend the rest of her life hating him. But Orestes is determined; he has suffered enough, and it is her turn to suffer. If this makes him a criminal, it is preferable to suffer for a crime than to suffer, as he has up until now, for doing no wrong at all. But there is no need for Pylades to share the risk of kidnapping Hermione.
Pylades assures his friend that he will help him carry off the princess that very night. But now it is important for Orestes to dissimulate and keep secret what he intends to do.
This advice is tested when Hermione enters and explains to Orestes that she is marrying Pyrrhus out of duty, and that though her love for Orestes was great enough that she was willing to leave with him, she must now carry out her royal responsibilities. Orestes finds such perfidy almost intolerable, but manages to restrain himself and bid her a formal farewell.
