Oh rage! Oh despair! Oh age, my enemy!

This exclamation is spoken by Don Diègue (Diego), an aging nobleman in Pierre Corneille’s tragedy "Le Cid" (1637). Early in the play, Diègue is publicly insulted and struck by the Count (Le Comte), and—because of his age and physical decline—he cannot defend his honor in a duel. Bound by the aristocratic code of honor yet incapacitated by old age, he turns to his son Rodrigue, urging him to avenge the affront. The line crystallizes the play’s central tensions between honor, family duty, and the constraints imposed by social expectation and personal limitation.

The cry stages a collision between inner passion and bodily limitation. “Rage” and “despair” name Diègue’s immediate emotional response to humiliation; “age, my enemy” identifies the deeper cause of his powerlessness—time has robbed him of the capacity to act according to the honor code that still governs him. The line is memorable because it externalizes age as an adversary, turning a private condition into a dramatic antagonist. In "Le Cid," this moment also motivates the plot’s ethical dilemma: Diègue’s inability to fight transfers the burden of vengeance to Rodrigue, forcing the younger man to choose between love and duty.

Common French original: « Ô rage ! ô désespoir ! ô vieillesse ennemie ! »