L. 42. _aux champs._ For the substitution of _à_ for _dans_ see note to
p. 16, l. 308.
L. 45. _Avoir amis, enfants, épouse._ The omission of the indefinite
article before _épouse_ is quite normal in an enumeration. It is a
feature of the old language. Besides 'avoir femme et enfant,' which is
also an enumeration, we still say 'prendre femme.'
L. 49. _aimable mensongère._ Chénier avails himself of a source of
derivation always open. He turns the adjective _mensonger_ into a noun.
This had already been done by Marot: 'De moi n'aura _mensonger_ ne
buveur Bien ne faveur,' iv. 308, in Littré, _Hist._
Ll. 49-62. In this passage, a critic observes, we have, as it were, an
earnest of the Lamartinian melancholy reverie.