triste, sad, because absent

17. mélancolie, not "melancholy," but gîooniy "atrabilious humor," a veiled allusion to that madness that had befallen Orestes as a vengeance of the Furies for the slaying of his mother, Clytemnaestra.

19. cruel secours. An ox3mioron. His death would hâve been a relief to Orestes, but a cruel grief to Pylades.

23. pompeux appareil, magnificent train or " state," as ambassador of the princes of Greece. Cp. 1639.

25. Hélas. The j, now usually pronouncedwas silentin Racine*s day.

26. inhumaine. This is the first of many words and phrases in Andromaque^ borrowed from the French Euphuists {Précieux). See 109 and page 4, note 4. Racine assumes that Orestes*s love for Hermione had been constant while she had first encouraged ( 536) and then discouraged (500) him.