Ll. 23, 24. _les voeux des... humains Ouvrent des immortels les
bienfaisantes mains._ If the maid is a goddess indeed, the beggar
entertains some hopes of her mercy, for, says he, 'oftentimes have
the prayers of the unfortunate opened the bountiful hands of the
immortals--obtained of those hands that they should "open their bounty"
(_Henry VIII_, iii. 2. 184) to them.'
Ll. 25, 26. _quelque front... qui te nomme_, one of those incoherent
metaphors which our (in this respect) delicate taste demurs at,
but which the old writers--Shakespeare being among the greatest
sinners--indulged in freely.
These two lines display imperfect rimes, the _o_ in _couronne_ being
short, whilst the _o_ in _trône_ is long.
L. 34. _Tremblante._ The 'rejet' helps the meaning. The reader's voice,
arrested by the unavoidable pause at the end of the preceding line, is
forced into imitating the hesitation that he is told was discernible
in the maid's utterance. But perhaps this is more perceptible to a
Frenchman used to more rigidity in the rimed versification of his great
classics than to an Englishman with the freedom of blank verse in his
ear.
L. 35. _quand la nuit descend_, the present for the future. See Haase, §
67, Remark I; Ayer, p. 466.
L. 42. _il pleure aux pleurs..._ This is neatly said. Notice the use of
the preposition _à_ expressing a relation of cause, as in '_A_ l'orgueil
de ce traître, De mes ressentiments je n'ai pas été maître' (Molière,
_Tartufe_, v. 3. 1709). See Haase, § 123. Cf. p. 7, l. 211.
Ll. 51, 52. _au devoir... Rangent... Ranger à_ = _soumettre à, réduire
à._
L. 54. _ses mains sur ce visage._ This was one of the rites observed by
suppliants. See Euripides, _Hecuba_, 344.
L. 55. _Indulgente._ Becq de Fouquières remarks that the adjective is
used in its Latin sense of _complaisant_. This is the English meaning:
'disposed to gratify by compliance with desire or humour,' whilst the
French meaning is restricted to that of being 'ready to overlook or
forgive faults or failings.'