PAR SURIUS
Siméon Métaphraste lived at Constantinople in the tenth century. He paraphrased the lives of the saints. — Surius (i 522-1 578), a German Carthusian, author of Viiae Sanctorum^ coinpleted and abridged Metaphrastus.
6 4 à : for modem par.
6 10 écartée : = " d'un temps ou d'un pays fort éloigné de nous." (M.-L.)
7 3 cependant que : for modem pendant que. So in 365 and commonly in C.
7 7 Martyrologe romain: the list of martyrs and later of ail saints venerated by the church, published in 1586 by authority of Gregory XIII, the Pope who reformed the calendar.
7 8 13* de : for modem /j». So in 1. 12.
7 9 Baronius (1538-1607) : a cardinal.
7 10 Mosander : a sixteenth-century German writer, editor of Surius.
7 20 industrieux : ingenious.
7 28 Decius and Valerian, whose reigns were confused by C.'s authorities, both issued edicts against the Christians ; Decius in 249 or 250, Valerian in 257 and 258. The original texts do not survive, but their gênerai ténor is known.
7 33 proposées : équivalent to threatened.
8 16 initié de : for initié à.
9 6 n'avance rien : gains nothing. Cf. Surius, Vitae Sanctorum (9 Januaris). Félix : " Si velis, inquit, O Polyeucte, aliquantisper vivere, donec tuam videas uxorem. — Quaenam autem adhuc, inquit sanctus,
uxoris mei cura est, et filiorum, qui ex rébus humanis nihil omnino euro, cum in solis coelestibus mens versetur ? . . . Tua autem filia, si me quidem sequatur, beata erit, . . . sin minus, ipsa quoque cum vostris diis mala maie peribit." C. has softened Polyeucte's harshness. 9 30 Co'éffeteaa (i 574-1623) : Bishop of Marseilles.
The Examen of Polyeucte appeared in 1660, in the collected édition of C.'s Works, together with the Examens of his other plays produced before that date. Thèse " examinations " are an honest and often successful attempt at self-criticism. They show C.'s scrupulous exactitude and his fondness for quoting authorities.
10 14 pratiqué : contrived.
10 18 une médiocre bonté : cf. Aristotle's Foetics, ch. xiii.
10 22 ailleurs: in the Discours de la tragédie^ Œuvres, Gr. Écriv. éd., T. I, p. 59. " L'exclusion des personnes tout à fait vertueuses qui tombent dans le malheur bannit les martyrs de notre théâtre. Polyeucte y a réussi contre cette maxime."
10 23 Mintumus published his De Poeta at Venice in 1559.
10 27 Heinsius (i 580-1655) : a famous Dutch scholar. His édition of Aristotle and his De Constitutione tragica secundum Aristotelem appeared in 161 1. He wrote a number of Latin tragédies, among them Herodes Infanticida.
11 3 Grotius (i 583-1645) : one of the greatest of Dutch scholars and statesmen. He spent many years in France. Among his Latin tragédies are Christus patiens and Sophompaneas, the latter the story of Joseph. Both were translated into English in the seventeenth century.
11 5 Buchanan (i 506-1 582), a great Scotch scholar, taught at Paris and at Bordeaux, where Montaigne was one of his pupils. His Latin plays are Jepthes and Baptistes.
11 10 aussi : = en effet. Cf. note on 288.
11 19 Another ni would now be required, before Buchanan, and pas would be superfluous. Cf. note on 154.
11 20 aussi : = non plus. Cf. note on 1794.
1 1 21 fournis : filled oui.
11 22 constitution: dramatic construction.
12 13 ont leur justesse: ar^ strictly observed^
18 28 on s'en est dû ouvrir: for modem on a dû s'en ouvrir. The position of se makes devoir apparently reflexive, and thereby nécessitâtes the auxiliary être. Cf. note on 115.
14 8-9 From Pompée, 391-392. Not quoted literally,
16 8 tirer en exemple: quote as a précèdent.
