Ll. 27, 28. Cf. in the _Odyssey_ (viii. 64): Demodocus, 'the blind
singer, to whom, in recompense of his lost sight, the Muses had given an
inward discernment, a soul and a voice to excite the hearts of men and
gods to delight.'--Lamb, _Advent. of Ulys._, vii.
Ll. 31, 32. Menander in Stobaeus, _Florilegium_, xcvi.
Ll. 33-38. _Od._ vii. 208.
L. 39. _Thamyris._ The story is told in the _Iliad_ (ii. 594): 'the
muses.... Because he proudly durst affirm he could more sweetly sing
than that Pierian race of Jove.... Bereft his eyesight, and his
song that did the ear enchant, and of his skill to touch his harp
disfurnished his hand.'--CHAPMAN.
L. 45. _puisse... changer ta destinée_, for _puisse ta destinée
changer_. The same construction may be seen in: 'Puisse périr comme eux
quiconque leur ressemble.'--Racine, _Athalie_, IV. ii.
Ll. 46, 47. _ce que... tient la peau._ For the inversion of the
subject in relative clauses see Meyer-Lübke, iii. § 751, and A.
Darmesteter-Sudre, _Syntaxe_, § 492.
L. 48. _Ils versent..._ The verb _verser_, 'to cause a liquid to flow
out of a vessel,' is extended to solids, e.g. '_verser_ du blé dans un
sac' (LITTRÉ).
Ll. 49, 50. _les olives huileuses,... et les figues mielleuses._ 'The
honied fig and unctuous olive smooth.'--Cowper, _Od._ vii. 139.
L. 56. _venus de Jupiter._ In the sense in which Nausicaa, _Od._
vi. 207, says: '_From Jove come_ all strangers, and the needy of a
home.'--CHAPMAN.
Ll. 57-67. _Od._ vi. 154.
L. 62. _ce palmier de Latone._ In Lamb's _Adventures of Ulysses_, the
hero says to Nausicaa: 'Lately at Delos (where I touched) I saw a young
palm which grew beside Apollo's temple; it exceeded all the trees which
ever I beheld for straightness and beauty: I can compare you only to
that.' Under this palm-tree Latona gave birth to Apollo and Diana.
See also _Solomon's Song_, vii. 7: 'This thy stature is like to a
_palm-tree_.'
L. 69. _aura vu..._ The future is here used in order to express an
hypothesis, as in this: 'Comment se fait-il qu'il ne soit pas encore
arrivé?--Il _aura_ oublié.' See Ayer, _Gram. comp. de la langue
française_, § 203. For another similar use of the future see p. 25, l.
95.
Ll. 73-5. _Od._ i. 169-73. But Telemachus addresses Athene in more naïve
words, saying: 'I do not think thou couldst come to this island _on
foot_.'
L. 74. _Comment, et d'où viens-tu?_ Boldly elliptical for 'comment es-tu
venu ici et d'où viens-tu?' _l'onde maritime._ A rare use of the adj.
_maritime_. La Fontaine has an instance of it: _Ce maritime empire_,
VIII, ix; cf. 'la vague _marine_,' p. 29, l. 16.
Ll. 81, 82. _Mais pauvre... Ils m'ont... jeté_: a bold ellipsis as in
'Je t'aimais _inconstant_, qu'aurais-je fait _fidèle_!'--RACINE.
L. 88. _âme ouverte à sentir._ There are numerous instances in Chénier
of the use of _à_ in the sense of _pour_, a somewhat archaic feature
which, no doubt, was one of the grounds on which his early critics based
their reproach of incorrectness. But this is really racy French. The
employment of _à = pour_ may be traced throughout French literature:
thirteenth century, 'Les dismes furent establies et donées anciennement
_a_ sainte église _soustenir_'; fourteenth century, 'Amis leur sont
nécessaires _a_ leurs bonnes actions _acomplir_'; sixteenth century, 'Il
le somma de partir _à parlementer_'; seventeenth century, 'La couronne
n'a rien _à_ me _rendre_ content,' Molière, _D. Garc._ V. vi; '_A_ lui
_rendre_ service elle m'ouvre la voie,' Corneille, _Sertorius_, II. v.;
eighteenth century, '_A faire_ d'un tel gentilhomme un Achille au pied
léger, l'adresse de Chiron même eût eu de la peine à suffire,' J.-J.
Rousseau, _Émile_, ii.; nineteenth century, 'Que cette place est bonne
_à_ le bien _poignarder_,' V. Hugo, _Cromwell_, V. iii; 'Il en faudrait
un monde _à faire_ un grain de sable,' Lamartine, _Jocelyn_, quatrième
époque (see the _Jocelyn_ of this series, p. 75, l. 308). It is not
strange that this should have been thought incorrect, when we see the
French Academy, in their judgement on the _Cid_, and Voltaire, in his
notes to Corneille, make the same mistake. See Haase, § 124, 2°, and
F. Godefroy, _Lexique comparé de la Langue de Corneille_. For a similar
instance see p. 6, l. 183.
L. 93. _mobiles._ The epithet will be more easily understood if we think
of its contrary, 'inert'.
L. 98. _j'étais misérable..._ _Misérable_ is here used in the sense 'to
be pitied,' a sense frequent in the seventeenth century. _j'étais_, the
imperfect of the indicative for the conditional past, as in 'Hercule, ce
dit-il, tu _devois_ bien purger La terre de cette hydre,' La Fontaine,
_Fables_, VIII. v, or in 'Sans vous, _j'étais_ noyé.'
L. 100. _N'eussiez._ The more usual French construction would be, with
repetition of the subject, '_vous_ n'eussiez.' _armé... les pierres et
les cris._ A favourite phrase with Chénier (see p. 112, l. 105, and in
_Le Jeu de Paume_, 'La tyrannie... _arme_... ses cent yeux...'). Racine,
_Les Frères Ennemis_, I. iii, speaks of '_armer_ et le fer et la faim'
against someone. An old translation of the Bible has '_J'armerai_ contre
eux les dents des bêtes farouches,' _Deut._ xxxii. 24. Thus in the
_Odyssey_, when the 'mastiffs' fly at Ulysses, the herdsman runs up, and
'his cry (with frequent stones flung at the dogs) repell'd this way and
that their eager course they held.'--Chapman, _Odyss._ xiv. ll. 49-51.
L. 110. _Ma bouche ne s'est point ouverte à leur répondre._ See note to
p. 3, l. 88.
L. 119. _place_ is, of course, a subjunctive. The omission of _que_
before subjunctives expressing a wish was the rule in Old French.
The practice was still prevalent in seventeenth-century French. It is
exceptional now, as in: _Fasse le ciel! Puissiez-vous réussir! Vive la
France!_
Ll. 119-121. _Un siège... sous la colonne._ Cf. _Odyss._ (Chapman's
transl., viii. p. 365): 'His place was given him in a chair all graced
With silver studs, and 'gainst a pillar placed;... The herald on a pin
above his head His soundful harp hung.'
L. 123. _Ingénieux_, here, seems to be used, not in its French sense of
'clever, having an aptitude for invention,' which would be but a poor
compliment paid to the great Homer, but with its Latin meaning of
'gifted with genius.'
L. 135. _vaillant._ I take it to mean, not 'courageous,' but 'vigorous
in body, robust, able-bodied,' a sense not recorded in Littré, though
well known in everyday French, the sense of English _valiant_ in 'the
sturdy and _valiant_ beggars' of the statute-book.