Poésies choisies de André Chénier
Chapitre XVII
L. 29. du sein de la mer. Il. i. 359-361. Thetis 'instantly appeared up from the grey sea like a cloud.'—CHAPMAN.
L. 30. comme un songe. In the Odyssey (xi. 207) the soul of Ulysses' mother vanishes (like a dream). Also Aen. vi. 702.
XVII.
L. 1. Song of Solomon, i. 6.
Ll. 7-10. Song of Solomon, i. 7.
XVIII.
L. 8. le mol et doux coton. Cf., in N.E.D., Cotton. 'Down or soft hair growing on the body.' Obs. rare [so F. coton=poil, 1615, Crooke, Body of man, 65: 'Pubes doeth more properly signifie the Downe or cotton when it ariseth about those parts.'
L. 11. Ovid, Heroid. xv. 93-95.
L. 22. ce jeune Troyen, Ganymede.
L. 23. Adonis, whose mother, Myrrha, had before his birth been turned into a tree that distilled myrrh.
XIX.
Ll. 1-8. Shakespeare, I Henry IV. iii. l. 214-222. That Chénier was sensible to the magic of this passage argues that, in spite of prejudices, he would recognize beauty wherever he found it.
L. 11. Car le... Becq de Fouquières conjectures that the poet would have written 'car le bel Endymion...,' or rather 'car le dieu d'amour...,' but was prevented by the metre.