Poésies choisies de André Chénier
III. La Liberté.
L. 291. Od. xiv. 42.
L. 308. au même précipice. In Old French ou (=en le) got confused with au (=à le), whence a constant substitution of au for ou in the masculine, and, by extension, of à la for en la in the feminine. See Meyer-Lübke, § 417, and Haase, § 120, and cf. p. 33, l. 4.
L. 317. je revoi. The Old French spelling (voi from video) has been retained in versification for rhyming purposes.
L. 323. J'ai honte à ma fortune, instead of: 'J'ai honte de ma fortune'; as Molière writes: 'J'aurais honte à la prendre.'—Le Dépit amoureux, I. ii.
L. 331. So Nausicaa does to Ulysses (Od. viii. 461).
III. LA LIBERTÉ.
L. 1. qui t'agite? Qui here is a neuter and means 'what.' See Darmesteter, § 416.
L. 8. parmi l'herbe. Delicately archaic. Thus Corneille has 'parmi l'air,' Mel. IV. vi. and La Fontaine 'Parmi la plaine,' Fables, XI. i. 4. See Haase, § 131 A.
Ll. 12, 13. Notice the fine effect of imitative harmony in these lines. They are as rough as the landscape they describe. Much of their harshness is due to the predominance of the sound of r.
Ll. 36, 37. Euripides, Hec. 332.
L. 38. rien à soi. Soi, which is now more especially used when the subject of the sentence is on, was formerly indiscriminately used with lui put for lui-même. See note to p. 29, VII, l. 10.
L. 49. Aen. iv. 487.
L. 54. les maux qu'on me fait. The plural of mal is not common with the verb faire. There is an instance of it in Régnier: 'sa barbe... où certains animaux... luy faisoient mille maux,' Satire x, 171-4.
L. 66. De qui les blés. This use of de qui, when the antecedent is an inanimate thing, was condemned by Vaugelas, whose rule has prevailed. Yet there is a tendency with many modern writers to return to the older practice.
L. 72. The horn of plenty, or cornucopia, or Amalthaea's horn.
L. 73. Sans doute que. How are we to account for this que? The phrase is the result of an ellipsis, and stands for 'il est sans doute que.'
L. 75. Je n'y vois. Y refers to la terre, l. 55.
L. 80. Elle est pour moi marâtre. Marâtre is an adjective here=inexorable.
L. 87. Je m'occupe à leurs jeux. For a distinction between s'occuper à and s'occuper de see Littré, Dict., s.v. 'occuper,' Remarque. The meaning here is: I occupy my mind in seeing them play.
L. 88. sur la rosée et sur l'herbe brillante, a hendiadys for sur l'herbe brillante de rosée.
L. 93. Deux fois... promenés. An ablative absolute. Promener, of course, is not the proper word for 'driving' a flock, but an expression of angry contempt for the tedious and, as it were, unprofitable work.
L. 101. injure, in the singular, for the sake of the metre.
L. 107. Du chaume. Calpurnius, Aegl. viii. 66.
L. 117. la mienne. This syntactical incorrectness—for la mienne cannot mean ma vierge—is in fact an elegance. The shepherd is full of the idea of his love, and most naturally says la mienne, meaning ma bien-aimée. This neglect of strict logic is most natural.