III. la jeune captive. – André Chénier

This celebrated poem was written in the prison de Saint-Lazare. La
Jeune Captive was a Mademoiselle de Coigny. She had, at the age of
fifteen, married the Marquis de Rosset, later on Duc de Fleury. She was
twenty-five at the time of her imprisonment. She was set free after
the 9th of Thermidor. This poem first appeared in the Décade
philosophique, hardly six months after the death of Chénier.

L. 11. Pindar, Nem. vii. 77.

Ll. 28-30. Cf. p. 52, ll. 43, 44.

Ll. 34, 35. Cf. p. 52, l. 42.

L. 36. Cf. p. 52, l. 41.

L. 39. dévore. For the verb in the singular see note to p. 25, l. 74.

L. 40. Palès. The goddess of shepherds. This mythological allusion
strangely mars this fine poem.

L. 43. triste et captif. A kind of ablative absolute.

Ll. 53, 54. This madrigal winding up this pathetic lyric is in poor
taste indeed.