Ll. 241-252. E. Faguet in his _Chénier_ quotes this passage as an
instance of energetic precision. 'The problem, he writes, is to depict
this: A centaur (bear in mind that a centaur is a creature half-beast,
half-man, with the body of a horse, the bust and head of a man, four
feet, two arms, all this you must bear in mind), a centaur, with his
two fore-feet, is trying to bear down a man, while, with his right arm,
armed with a club, he seeks to brain another man. A third man leaps on
to the back of the centaur, whence, pulling back his enemy's head with
one hand, he thrusts a burning brand down his throat. The problem is to
put all this in clear, precise, energetic, picturesque lines, and in few
lines too. Chénier has succeeded in putting it in twelve times twelve
syllables, with the result that, as it is, it stands in sharp outline as
in a piece of sculpture.'
L. 246. _D'un érable noueux_, a club of maple. Dryden, _Aen._
'[Hercules] tossed about his head his _knotted oak_.'