L. 26. _Sur leur sein, dans leurs bras, assis_... Elliptical: 'he
sitting on their knees,' For this sense of _sein_ see note to p. 24, l.
48.
L. 29. _Leurs mains vont caressant._ _Aller_ with the gerund of a
verb was a periphrase much in vogue in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, and meaning nothing more than the verb itself. It is now of
rare use, except in poetry (Haase, §70 A). Palsgrave says that 'que je
vous yraye devisant' amounts to 'que vous deviseroye,' Littré,
however, in his dictionary (s. v. 'aller,' 21), says that it expresses
continuity.
L. 30. _étamine._ This is, Sainte-Beuve observes, the _prima lanugine
malas_ of the Latins. Cf. 'Flaventem prima lanngine malas... 'Clytium,'
_Aen._ x. 324, 'downy-cheeked Clytius'; or 'Clytius in his beardless
bloom,' as Dryden, not very accurately, renders it. For _étamine_ see
note to p. 50, l. 38.
Ll. 38, 39. Virgil, _Ecl._ vi. 43.
Ll. 46-52. The syntax of this sentence would incur the blame of a
strict grammarian. He would first observe that in the wording, 'pour te
paraître belle, l'eau pure...,' it is pure water that is represented
as wanting to appear at its best, and that, in order to avoid this
absurdity, the author should have written 'pour te paraître belle, elle
(_the idyll_ a...)--in short, the construction that reappears in the
following clause, 'elle a pressé ses flancs....' Next he might perhaps
object to 'Et des fleurs sur son sein ... et sa flûte à la main,' a
clause in which he would miss the verb. But say '_elle met_ des fleurs
sur son sein, etc., et _elle prend_ sa flûte à la main,' and notice the
loss in vivacity. As the young person bustles, so does the sentence.
L. 51. _les pipeaux de Segrais._ Segrais (1624-1701) wrote idylls
praised by Boileau. He also had a hand in the composition of the two
novels of Mme de la Fayette, _Zaïde_ and _La Princesse de Clèves_, and
gave a metrical translation of the _Aeneid_, now forgotten.
L. 52. _connus... aux nymphes._ Both _connu à_ and _connu de_ are said,
though the latter is more common at the present day.