ACT I
SCKNB I.
Page 3 hmê 8 — (Tett vous-même, seigneur ! Is that yon indeed sireP
8 4 — Devancer V aurore ... : Made you rise so long
before dawn. N. devancer h temps, to Mutstrip time ; ceux qui nous ont devancé», oiiX predeceseors, our ancestors.
I 6 — Jour: Light. N. le petit jour, moming twi*
light ; il fait jour^ it is day light j y r ami? jour, broad day light.
• t—Dans VAuiide : Aulis is a seaport ef Bo»otia,
opposite Eubœa. In this lins Riwine by Aulide evidently means the province, rh« tenitory of which Aulis is the chief city ; had ha meant a town he oomld nQt hâve used the article. Aulide, howerver, iike Chaldde, is used without the article, both by Rotrou and Racine, to reprswnt tdie town" of Aulis and Chalcis.
A 8 — Exaucés : Hâve the winds heard our prayera
this night ? Diana had produced a calm which prevented the Greeks from leaving the port to sail to the conquest of Troy. Her angrer had been roused by Agamemnon's killing a Htag, an animal sacretl to her.
S 9 — Neptune : The divinity presiding over the seas
and one of the twelve great gods of Latin polytheism.
8 10 — Heureux qui satisfait: Ci, Botrou's version of
Euripides —
Heureuse ta fortune, heureuse ta vieillesse. Qu'aucun danger ne suit, et qu'aucun boin ne presM I Heureuse la bassesse où l'homme vit content. Et malheureux l'honneur qui le travaille tant.
i 17 — /ioi . . . Atrée : Agamemnon was King of
Mycenœ, father of Iphigenia, Electra, and Orestes, husband of Clytemnestra, and son of AtreuH.
A \9- Issu: The pawt participle of is9%r, to 'ssue, to
■pring front Jstu and issir are th^ oui} fonns
M iphtgéhti.
of the verb extant in Modem Prench. lH. à Pissue du conseil, du sermon, when the council, the sermon was over. Agamemnon was connected with Jupiter through Tantalus, son ol Zeus (Jupiter) ; Atreus, the father of Agamemnon, was the grandson of Tantalus.
Paff« 3 lim 21 — Achille : Achilles, son of Peleus, King of Thpssaly and of Thetis, who foretold him that hia fate was either to gain glory and die early, or to live a long but inglorious life ; the hero chose the former, and took part in the Trojan War, from which he knew that he was not to return.
4 2 — Et d'un hymen . . .: Wishestokin die Hymen'»
torch in the fiâmes of burning Troy.
4 6 — Vingt rois: The Greek chiefs who had placed
Agamemnon at their head.
4 10 — Ilion: Ilium, another rame for Troy.
4 16 — Oreste, Clytemnestre, Iphigénie : See note, p. 3,
4 \^— Avertir (Lat. advertere, to tum to), is usually
used in the sensé of to warn, to caution ; it is used hère in the sensé of instruire, to inform.
4 1J> — Non ... : Agamemnon is hère " thinking
aloud," engrossed by some terrible thought, and not heeding Arcas.
4 21 — Trouble : Distraction, agitation, grief. N. don't
take the trouble, ne vous donnez pas la peine, or, ne vous dérangez pas ; he is in trouble, il est dans rembarras ; after ail the trouble I bave taken, après tout le mal que je me suis donné.
1 3T— Fit taire ce transport : Quelled this enthusiaioa.
N. faire taire, to silence.
4 38 — Ménélas, Nestor, Ulysse : Menelaus, King of
Lacedaemon, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen, who eloped from him with Paris to Troy, thus causing the Trojan War. — Nestor, King of Pylos, famous for his wisdotn and éloquence. He is said to bave lived through three générations of men. — Ulysses, King of Ithaca, famed for his craft and éloquence.
4 36 — Que devins-je : What were my feelings. N. je
ne sais ce qu'il est devenu, I do not, kno^r what bas become of him, what he is doing with himself.
6 1 — Calchaa: Calchas, the wisest soothsayer among
the Greeks before Troy.
k i— Hélène : Helen, daughter of Zeus (Jupiter) ar4
Lt)da; ahe waa of surpaiibjai^ b^tauty, and
being Boaght in-marriage by thenoblest chiefa from ail parts of Greece, she chose MenelauB for her husband. Paris seduced her, and carried her ofif to Troy. The Greek chiefs who had been her suitors resolved to revenge her abduction, and sailed against Troy, which fell after a siège of ten years.
Paçe 6 Une 5 — Diane : Diana (in Greek Artemis), one of the ^'reatest divinities of the Greeks, daughter of Zous and Leto (Jupiter and Latona). In the Trojan War she sided with the Trojans (see note, p. 3, 1. 8).
6 7 — Iphigénie : Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamem-
non, was "du sang d'Hélène," for her mother, Clytemnestra, waa Helen's sister,
6 11 — Je demeurai sans voix . . . passage: I remained
speechlesa, and recovered the use of my voice but to give utterance to countless sobs.
b 16 — Que n'en croyois-je . . . alarmée : Why did I
not yield then to my patemal love and to my fears ? N. que ne used for pourquoi ne, and also for à quoi —
Du zèle de ma loi qoe sert de tous parer î
Rac., " Athal.," i,, l.
6 19 — Rappelant sa cruelle industrie : Galling to his aid
his cruel wiles. Ulysses, as we hâve said bfcfore, was famous for his craft and bi.oquence. N. user dHfidustrte, to use cunning ; chevalier d'industrie^ one who lives by his wits (a sharper).
6 23 — De quel front ... : There is understtôod hère
»/ me demanda, he asked me with what countenance. ** Front," forehead, the part for the whole, for visage, face. N. un homme effronté^ a brazen'faced fellow ; c'est un effronté, he is a saucy fellow.
5 29 — Four comble de malheur : To complète the
measure of my misfortune. Comblh^ âummit, Lat. cumulus, a heap ; this is one of the examples of the insertion of the letter h between two liquids after the dropping of an unaccented vowel ; hum{i)li8, humble ; sim(u)lare^ sembler^ to seem ; uum{e)rus, nombre ; C(im{e)ra, chambre, room, etc., etc.
rt 80— Aftf« ennuis : M y sorrows, my anxieties. In lofty style ennui is a word of great force ; in conversation al style its meaniag is cc^ideraily weaker. Both Littr<i and Brachet seem to prefer the etymology in odio, " est mihi m* odiOf** cela œ'vnnuie, to mttetia, hurt, ii^ury.
^ rPHIGÉNOB.
Page 6 lim Zl—Vengeant de leurs autels ... : Avenging tht
slight done to their altars, thirsting for blood. The goda were angered because Agamemnon refused the sacrifice they had asked for. 6 3ô — Je me rendis : I gave way.
8 4 — £n Argos : We should say now à Argos. Mé-
nage (1613—1692) tells us in his "Observations sur la langue françoise" that en was used before names of towns beginning with a vowel, also before some beginning with a consonant; à in Racine's time had in most cases taken the place of en, but the latter was still used, particularly for the sake of euphony.
• 6 — Fartir son époux : Start as her husband (aftei
having married her).
6 8 — Avez'Vous prétendu que : Could you think that.
N. prétendre la première place, to claim the first place (as a right) ; prétendre à la première place, to endeavour to obtain the first place.
• 9— Qu'armera l'amour et la raison: Eemark that
the verb is in the eingular, although it is followed by two subjects joined by et; this, which in Modem French would be considered incorrect, occurs several times in Racine, especially when the subjects corne after the verb.
i 12 — Pelée : Peleus ; hence Achilles is often called,
from his father's name, Pelides, Peleïades, or Pelion.
6 18 — En courant — i.e., in a short time.
6 19 — Suivant de près sa renommée : FoUowing close
upon the news of his exploits. N. regarder de près, to take a close view of ; cela me touche de près, I am nearly concerned in it ; il me touche de près, he is my near relation.
6 20 — Bans Varmée : In Modem French we should say
à Varmée.
f M — S'applaudit de» bontés : Rejoices at, congratulâtes
herself of . . . N. applaudir une chose, une personne, to express approval by clapping ; applaudir à une chose, to approve of a thing ; applaudir à une personne is to approve of what a person has done, to congratulate a person. Littré, however, says in his Dictionary, ** Les exemples qui sont ici rapportés montrent que cette distinction n'est pas réelle."
9 M'— Une amour mutuelle . . .: On page 20, in the
«peech of Iphigenia, we find amour féminine in Une 1, and masculine in Une 8. In Racine's time the g^der of that word wai evidently
1I0TB8 o«
not flxed. In Modem French it is masculine in the eingular, féminine in the plural, Brachet explains this anomaly as foUows : — •* . . . Abstract nouns ending in or, masculine in Latin, havebecome féminine in French . . , honneur, amour, labeur, are the only French masculine substantives derived from masculine Latin nouns ending in or, and y et honneur was féminine in the Middle Ages, as well aa amour . , . Thèse féminine nouns vexed the Latinista and pédants of the sixteenth century, who, wishing to restore the gender they had in Latin, created le labeur firom labor, and tried to mike amour of the masculine only. This attempt failed, but from that time amour, by a strange rule, has become masculine in the singular and féminine in the plural" (The Public School French Grammar).
Pa^4 6 li»e 29>— Sa piété pour moi : H er love for me; piété filiale ^ filial piety, affection.
6 29 — Rien ne peut balancer : Balancer is used hère in
the senee of to equal (in weight) ; "which nothing can eqr.al."
7 1 — La reine qui dan* SparU . . . foi : Sparta, also
called Lacedsemon, waa the capital of Laconica and the chief city of Peloponnesus. It ia therethat Agamemnonmarried Clytemnestra.
Foi, hère, loyal services, fidelity ; Arcas will betray the secrets intrusted to him by hia master, in the interest of Clytemnesira, to whom he owed everything, aa it is hinted in the next line.
1 4 — xMi/cène : A town in Argolis, N.E. of Argo«,
whence Clytemnestra was coming with her daughter ; ** J'écrivis en Argos."
7 7 — Mais ne Vécarie poi),t : But do not lose youi
way ; écarter properly means to put away a card ; 0. F. esearter, from es (ex) and carte (charta). Cf. English discard. N. le vent a écarté les nuages^ the wind has dispersed the clouds ; écarter un coup, to ward off a blow.
7 14— Réveillerotit leur brigue : Will renew their in-
trigues, ft . sa brigue est forte, he has a great party ; briguer la fam«wr d* quelqu'un, to court one's favour,
7 2%—Eriphile : Eriphyle This character is not in
Ëuripides. It was inventedby Racine to avoid the sacrifice of Iphigenia, which would hâve been répugnant to the feflings of bis audience, and the substitution of a hind (as in Euripidett), which he feared would be considvred ludiorouM.
•8 TPTnoéNTE.
fage 7 Une 29— Lesôos: The largest of the islands of the -3Sgean Sea, along the coast of Asia Minor. This conquest of Lesbos by Achilles is mentioned in the 9th book of the Iliad, line 271 : —
ôrt Aiafiov itî;^T*/M.Evr)v ïXts avros
(when y ou yourself took Lebos the well* built).
f 84 — Ulysse : See note on p. 4, 1. 33.
N. This first scène is generally considered as " un chef-d'œuvre d' exposition." Ail the important characters of the pièce hâve been most cleverly and naturally introduced to the spectator.
