L. 2. _L'axe_, the wheel. Thus Homer, _Il_. xvi. 378, uses [Greek: axôn]
for [Greek: trochos], Chénier was particularly fond of this word, and
a note of his lets us into the secret of his affection for it. Having
written, in a sketch of another piece, 'Si d'un _axe_ brûlant le soleil
nous éclaire,' he observes, 'I like _axe_ better than _char_. It is less
trivial. The Latins say it everywhere: "Volat vi fervidus _axis_," Virg.
(_Georg._ iii. 107); "Spoliis onerato Caesaris _axe_" Propert. (ii. 3.
13).' Anacreon, _Od._ iv, compares human life to a wheel. Cf. BUCOLICS,
XIV, p. 35, l. 5.
L. 4. Horace, _Od._ ii. 9: a reminiscence already met with, see p. 14,
l. 209.
Ll. 17, 18. _Moi qui...mon réveil._ Cf. this other instance occurring in
Chénier, 'Moi, l'espérance amie est bien loin de mon coeur.' As we say,
'mon coeur _à moi_,' for the sake of emphasis, we can also, somewhat
more disconnectedly; say '_moi_, mon coeur est sans espoir,' '_elle_,
son coeur est libre.' The thought expressed here is a reminiscence of La
Fontaine, _Fabl._ VII. xii.
L. 20. _Le nocher... Nocher_ (from Lat. _nauclerus_, Greek [Greek:
nauklêros]), formerly a master's mate or a skipper, is, with
_nautonier_, a poetic word for _pilote_.
L. 21. _d'esclaves abondant._ _Abondant en esclaves_ would be more
accordant with modern usage. La Bruyère writes, 'Si les hommes abondent
_de_ biens' (in LITTRÉ), and Haase, § 114, illustrates the construction
with a quotation from a letter of La Fontaine.
L. 23. _du Potose._ Cerro de Potosi, a mountain of Bolivia, rich in
metallic ores.
L. 28. _libre de chaîne._ _Chaîne_ ought to have taken an _s_. But then
it would not have rhymed for the eye.