Xxix. a l’hirondelle. – André Chénier

These lines are imitated from an epigram of Evenus of Paras.

L. 1. Fille de Pandion. Pandion, son of and king of Athens, had two
daughters, Procne and Philomela. Procne was ultimately turned into a
swallow and Philomela into a nightingale. See Ovid, Met. vi. 412 ff.

L. 10. A ton nid. Nid for nichée: ‘Et portant à son bec son
modeste butin, De son nid babillard revient calmer la faim.’–Delille,
En. xii (in LITTRÉ). In the same way ‘nest,’ in English, is used for
‘brood.’ Cf. Virgil, Georg. iv. 17, and La Font., Fables, X. vii.
17.

XXX.

These lines are imitated from Thomson, Autumn, 167-174.

XXXI.

Becq de Fouquières observes that when André Chénier composed this
short bucolic fragment the revolutionary storm was raging. Chénier, a
suspect, threatened with arrest, was sick in body and mind, and had
gone to the waters at Forges for a few days’ rest.

L. 8. lent. Lent, in the sense of ‘supple, flexible,’ is a Latinism
twice or thrice used by Chénier, and perhaps nowhere else to be found in
French literature. The second instance occurs in his Art d’aimer, the
third (doubtful) on p. 75, l. 17. ‘Un cuir souple et lent thus forms a
pleonasm which mars this piece otherwise so neat.

XXXII.

L. 10. The subject might tempt a sculptor.