L. 62. _n'insulte à sa misère._ _Insulter à_, still in use by the side
of transitive _insulter_, is the equivalent of obsolete English 'insult
over, on, at.'
L. 66. _mon élève_, not my 'pupil,' but my 'foster-child.' A farmer or a
nurseryman speaking of the cattle he breeds or the plants he raises will
say _mes élèves_. But the term is here exceptionally applied to a human
being.
L. 74. _Le toit s'égaye et rit._ This line, criticized by Ponsard
(_Études antiques_) as non-Homeric, is a translation of Catullus,
lxiv. 285 'queis permulsa domus iocundo _risit_ odore.' In fact, the
attribution of feelings to inanimate things is as old as poetry itself.
Countless instances in all languages might be adduced. For this use of
_laugh_ in English see _N.E.D._, s.v. laugh 1 c., and notice that Pope,
in translating the _Odyssey_, has made Homer say, 'In the dazzling
goblet _laughs_ the wine,' iii. 601.