This elegy is imitated from Tibullus, III. vi, with perhaps a few
reminiscences of Propertius, III. xvii.
L. 15. _ne trouve plus des armes._ Why _des armes_ instead of _ne...
plus d'armes_? Because, says Ayer (p. 407), the negation does not bear
on the verb, while Haase (§ 119 B., Rem. 1) will have it that it is
in order to mark that the negation falls more on the verb than on the
object. The latter explanation seems to us to be the correct one. The
idea here is: Camille _no longer_ finds in my heart what she was wont to
find there, namely, 'des armes.'
L. 19. _Pleurante._ One of those inflected present participles for using
which Chénier was censured by his early critics. Were they aware that
this particular one occurs twice in Racine? '_Pleurante_, après son char
voulez-vous qu'on me voie,' _Androm._ IV. v. 54; 'Que la veuve d'Hector
_pleurante_ à vos genoux,' ibid. III. iv. 3. Cf. p. 24, l. 61; p. 25,
ll. 70, 89; p. 42, XXIV, l. 1; p. 56, l. 8.
L. 26. _le liège tenace._ One of those periphrases so much in vogue
in the eighteenth century. Yet, here, there might be an excuse in the
playful tone adopted by the poet. And certainly what follows is in the
same humorously dignified diction.