Poésies choisies de André Chénier
Chapitre XX
L. 13. The song at the beginning of the fourth act of Measure for Measure gave Chénier the idea of these lines.
XX.
Ll. 11-20. An imitation of Bion, Idyll iv.
L. 15. et sa voix... Et here introduces a consequence, as in: 'Plus je vous envisage, Et moins je me remets, monsieur, votre visage,' Racine, Plaideurs, II, iv; or in 'give him an inch, and he take an ell.' Cf. p. 63, IX, l. 1.
XXII
L. 20. tu fais mes amours. Faire here is synonymous with être as in 'faire l'admiration de tous.'
L. 28. Te bêler mes amours. For another instance of this transitive use of bêler see p. 46, XXXIII, l. 10.
L. 32, Plutôt que te laisser. After que following a comparative, modern visage prefers de before the infinitive. See Haase, § 88.
XXIII. LE SATYRE ET LA FLÛTE.
L. 1. Toi, de Mopsus ami! Ironical. 'That thou never wast!' This beginning shows that these lines were meant as part of an eclogue: the subject to be two shepherds disputing the prize of singing. Mopsus is an excellent singer and poet mentioned in Virgil, Ecl. v. Berecynthus is a mountain in Phrygia on which the mysteries of Cybele were celebrated.
L. 3. Hyagnis. According to Apuleius, Flor. iii, Hyagnis was the father and teacher of Marsyas, the flute-player.
L. 4. énervé, emasculate. 'Semiviro Cybeles cum grege iunxit iter,' Martial, iii. 91.