XV. néère. – André Chénier
L. 1…. Mais… This beginning shows that the piece is only a
fragment. For this comparison see Ovid, Heroid. vii. 1, 2.
L. 7. Sébéthus. The river Sebetus runs through Campania. It is often
mentioned by Sannazaro in his elegies, from which Chénier has borrowed
the idea.
Ll. 9, 10. moi, celle qui te plus, moi, celle qui t’aimai. In this
instance the agreement of the verbs with moi is condemned by modern
grammarians. It would occur in the older language, and Bossuet himself
has said, speaking of God, ‘Je suis celui qui suis’ (Lat. sum qui sum,
Eng. ‘I am that am,’ Wyclif, Ex. iii. 14). See Littré, s.v. ‘celui,’
Rem. 4.
L. 16. A reminiscence of Catullus, lxiv. 117 ff.
L. 19. l’astre pur des deux frères d’Hélène. It is the ‘fratres
Helenae, lucida sidera’ of Horace (Od. i. 3), namely Castor and
Pollux. The constellation was said to be propitious to seafarers.
L. 21. Pæstum. A town in Lucania famous for its roses. See Virgil,
Georg. iv. 118, 119.
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.
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.
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.
