FIN DU CINQUIÈME ET DERNIER ACTE
~ O^UUL^^, )
ACT I
Pag* 13 toi* 6— J 'ignore le destin d'une tête si chère: I am ignorant of the fate of one so dear. Remark that ignorer never has the meaning of the English to ignore, i.e. t not to recognise. There are many examples in poetry of tête used, as ibove, iov personne. Cf. "Olllntov xipot," &c, Soph. O. T., 40; and "capitisque injuria cari," Virg. JE. 4, 354.
13 13— Chez les morts : In the infernal régions; in the kingdom of the dead.
13 14— Le Ténare : Taenarus, a promontory in Laconia, now Cape Mata pan.
13 15 — Icare: Icarus, a son of Doedalus, who on his
flight from Crète fell into the JEgt&n Sea, part of which was named after him.
14 6 — Nouvelles amours: "... Abstract nouns end-
ing in or, masculine in Lai in, hâve become féminine in French. . . . Honneur, amour, labeur, are the only French masculine substantives derived from masculine Latin nouns ending in or, and yet honneur was féminine in the Middle Ages, as well as amour. . . .
Thèse féminine nouns vexed the Latinists and pédants of the sixteenth century, who, wishing to restore the gender they had in Latin, created le labeur from labor, and tried to make 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," by A.
Brachet, &c.) 14 18— D'Athène et de la cour : The correct spelling is Athènes, but, in poetry, the s may be dropped whenever the mètre or euphony require it.
76 PHÈDRE
Pag* 15 Inu II— Sang : Race, family. Aricîa was the sister of thc Pallantides, sons of Pallas, brother of iEgeus. They conspired against Theseus, and were massacred by him.
16 5 — Une mère amazone : Hippolytus was the son pf
Antiope, an Amazon. The Amazons were a community of warlike women who dwelt on the river Thermodon, in Asia Minor.
16 14 — De l'absence d'Alcide: Alcides, or Hercules, sp famous for his exploits, had been received aroong the gods.
16 16— Procruste, Cercyon, et Scirron, et Sinnis: Procrustes, t.*., " The Stretcher/'waylaid travellers, tied them upon a bed, and stretched or eut their limbs to make them of the same size as the bed. Cercyon killed ail strangers whom he overcame in wrestling. Sciron compelled those whom he caught to wash his feet on the Scironian rock, and kicked them into the sea, where a tortoise devoured their bodies. Sinis or Sinnis fastened his victims to the top of a fir tree, which he bent and then let spring up again.
l6 17 — Du géant d'Epidaure : Periphates, a robber of Attica, son of Vulcan. - «,
16 18— Minotaure : Minotaurus, a monster, half man and half bull, which devoured every year the seven youths and seven maidens whom the Athenians were obliged to send to Crète as a tribute.
Theseus went as, one of the seven youths, and slew the monster.
16 22 — Péri bée : Peribaea, condemned by her fathér to be thrown into the sea, was hidden in the island of Salamis, where Theseus found her.
16 25 — Ariane : Ariadne, daughter of Minos, and sister
of Phsedra, fell in love with Theseus, and gave him the due of thread by means of which he found his way out of the Labyrinth of the Minotaur. Theseus promised to marry her, but abandoned her.
17 25 — Antiope. See note on page 16, Une 5.
17 27 — Mais que sert d'affecter un superbe discours? What is the use of affecting such pride in your speech? Remark "que sert," although we say servir à, and compare this expression with the Latin ose, " quid prodest "
