L. 195. _Et le cep et la treille._ The low vine-plant, such as is seen
in the vine-growing parts of France, and the espalier or trellis vine.
L. 196. _la faux recourbée._ One of those descriptive epithets so
frequent in primitive poetry.
Ll. 199-201. Hesiod, _Op. et Dies_, 307, 303-5.
L. 201. _à rien faire._ Some purists censure the use of _rien_ without
_ne_ on the ground that _rien_ of itself means _quelque chose_
(Lat. _rem_), as in: 'Pourquoi consentez-vous à _rien_ prendre de
lui?'--Molière, _Tartufe_, V. vii; but the abuse, if it is really to be
considered as one, is authorized by the best writers, Molière, Racine,
&c. In answers _rien_ is used by itself with the sense of 'nothing.' Add
to this the phrases _pour rien_, _réduire à rien_, _venir à rien_, _un
homme de rien_, _rien que cela_, _si peu que rien_, _moins que rien_,
where _rien_ actually means 'nothing'. Also the substantive: _un rien,
des riens_. Also _un vaurien_ (='un homme qui ne vaut rien'). The
objection to _rien_ in the present sentence would be just if the
omission of the negation _ne_ entailed the least ambiguity, but such is
not the case.