XII. non, je ne l’aime plus… – André Chénier

Ll. 5-8. Tibullus, II. iv. 13 ff.

L. 9. Voilà donc comme on aime! This use of the indefinite on, at
the same time familiar and poetical, occurs in Corneille, Pol. II. i:
‘Est-ce là comme on aime?’ And in Molière, Tart. II. iv: ‘C’est donc
ainsi qu’on aime?’ The nuance cannot pass into English.

L. 13. Tibullus, I. v. 21.

Ll. 14, 15. Ignorés et contents… notre asile…. This abridged
construction, with the past participle or the adjective before which
étant is understood, is neat when not equivocal, that is, when the
past participle or the adjective are clearly connected with a noun or
pronoun in the principal clause (notre, in the present case). Ayer, §
278, 3.

L. 30. Le vent…. Tibul. I. v. 36. A frequent image in Latin writers.
In French many are the variations on this original theme: ‘Autant en
emporte le vent’ (= so much breath is wasted). ‘Ses paroles miellées
S’en étant aux vents envolées,’ writes La Fontaine, Fab. X. xi, and
Bertin, Am. II. i, imitating the passage of Tibullus, has ‘Les vents,
hélas! en tourbillons fougueux Sur l’océan ont emporté mes voeux’ (a
sentence, by the bye, in which it is difficult to see the logic of ‘en
tourbillons fougueux’ and ‘sur l’océan’).

Ll. 33-54. Tibullus, i. 9. 17.

L. 33. Garde d’être. For garde-toi d’être. In the older language
the pronoun object of reflexive verbs was frequently omitted. A trace of
this ellipsis is still extant with faire followed by a reflexive verb
in the infinitive (faire taire = faire se taire). Haase, § 61. We
still say dépêchons, arrêtez, for dépêchons-nous, arrêtez-vous.

L. 38. J’allais couvrant. See note to p. 27, l. 29.

L. 42. Qui font jeu de…, a simplification of the phrase ‘se faire un
jeu de.’

L. 48. avec le lin. Mouchoir would have appeared too prosaic in
those days.

Ll. 52. a monté ma lyre avec ma voix. Another instance of ‘one word
passing under favour of another,’ for a voice can hardly be said to be
strung. See note to p. 64, X, ll. 15, 16.

Ll. 53, 54. Vulcan, the god of fire, for ‘fire’. L’onde où tout
s’oublie is misleading as suggesting Lethe. Consumer, though
representing chiefly the action of fire, originally means ‘to use up
destructively,’ and so can apply to the action of water. (Cf. this
English instance: ‘The horses were partly (the ships being broken)
consumed in the sea.’–Usher, Aun. vi. 424, in N.E.D.) The verb is
moreover in the singular according to Chénier’s practice (see note to p.
25, l. 74).