Ll. 149-156. E. Faguet, in his _Chénier_, observes how like a picture
this is composed. In the foreground the blind man sitting under a
tree, with the shepherds and wayfarers pressing around him, while the
background displays the deserted flocks and roads, and the intervening
space is crowded with the attentive nymphs and sylvans enticed out of
their abodes.
Ll. 149, 150. Virgil, _Ecl._ vi. 28 'tum rigidas motare cacumina quercus
(videres).'
L. 157. _Car en de longs détours..._ A long line. Its twelve syllables
certainly take more time in the delivery than any other twelve. Hence
the better adapted the line is to convey the poet's meaning.
L. 158. _Il enchaînait._ The meaning is that he gave a _connected_
account of....
L. 162. _Les amours immortelles_ for _les amours des immortels_. Virgil,
_Georg._ iv. 347.
L. 164. _Iliad_, i. 528: 'He said; and his black eyebrows bent;... great
heaven shook.'--CHAPMAN.