L. 44. _Sans connaître Cérès._ 'Non _Cereris_ placuere dapes, non
pocula Bacchi' is Gaulmin's paraphrase of Prodromus (Paris, 1625). For a
similar use of 'Ceres,' see Ovid, _Met._ iii. 437. Milton has: 'A field
Of _Ceres_ ripe for harvest waving bends' (_Paradise Lost_, iv. 980,
981); and Byron: 'Beneath his ears of _Ceres_ groan the roads' (_Don
Juan_, XII. ix).
L. 46. _ta vieille inconsolable mère_, not _ton inconsolable vieille
mère_, which would be the more usual, but less forcible, order.
L. 48. _T'asseyait sur son sein._ _Sein_ (bosom) here stands for _giron_
(lap). This is the Latin phrase _in sinu_. The English Bible reads (Luke
xvi. 23): 'He (the rich man) seeth Abraham... and Lazarus in his bosom,'
whereas Langland, more explicit and accurate, says, 'Ich sauh hym
[Lazarus] sitte... in Abraham's _lappe_' (_P. Pl._, C. ix, 283).
L. 53. _presse de ta lèvre._ She says this holding out the cup to him,
so that there is no need for her to express the word 'cup,' which is
therefore understood. Yet it appears that Chénier did not mean ll. 53,
54 to stand thus, as they are struck out in the MS. (Dezeimeris, p. 69).
Ll. 59, 60. _sur leur jeune sein... leur robe._ He says _leur_, as if
everybody ought to understand him, because his own thought is full of
them--those dancing fair ones mentioned in the following line. This, as
well as the preceding 'presse' and 'la mienne' higher up, is of those
true touches that carry us into the atmosphere of life.