Poésies choisies de André Chénier
IX. Tel J'étais Autrefois...
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.
L. 30. aux pressoirs. See note to p. 16, l. 308.
L. 37. je la voi. See note to p. 17, l. 317.
L. 39. Son nom, sa voix absente errent dans mon oreille. Chénier had put the verb in the singular, as is his constant practice (see note to p. 25, l. 74), and the correction was not necessary. This metaphor Chénier seems to have delighted in. He repeats it in Hermès: 'Autour du demi-dieu, les princes immobiles Aux accents de sa voix demeuraient suspendus, Et l'écoutaient encore quand il ne chantait plus.' Cf. Milton, Par. Lost, viii, 1-3.
L. 48, à ses lèvres saisie, snatched from her lips.
L. 58. longtemps. Longuement would be clearer, or lentement, as below, l. 74.
L. 66. n'aimer plus. With an infinitive, the expletives pas, point, and plus come immediately after ne: ne plus aimer. Yet the construction we find here is also to be met with, though not so frequent: 'ils s'enveloppaient là-dedans, bien décidés à ne penser plus.'— MICHELET. Ayer, p. 563; Haase, § 156, Rem, ii.
L. 71. en riant, deriding me.
IX. TEL J'ÉTAIS AUTREFOIS...