Cf

115 déplaisir: grief '^ stronger than now. — vous peut émouvoir: for modem peut vous émouvoir. In Old French a pronoun, object of an infinitive dépendent on a verb, preceded both ; it still commonly did so in the seventeenth century when no préposition intervened between verb and infinitive, and in the idiom venir Je. Q,i. 275 and 1014. In later éditions C. changed many passages (cf. 648 and var.) to conform to the modem usage, then coming irito vogue, by which the pronoun précèdes the infinitive unlsss the auxiliary be faire, voir, entendre, envoyer, sentir, or laisser. Cf .M.-L., T. I, p. xliv, and H., § 154, C.

119 vains :y^a \h.

121 Ne ... ma J Fear no harm. mal is apparently a sort of neuter adjective. Cf. "c'(iiA mal à vous," "être mal en cour," " rien de mieux." Mal survives as itttributive adjective in compounds (malheur) and in " Bon an, mal an./

125 te précipi'; : a pronoun-object frequently preceded the second of two affirmât^ ■> imperatives connected by ^^ oti, or mais-, rarely so now. Cf. i2yD an î H., § 154, B.

127-l!iS Notinng in what précèdes There i.s not>inc 10 show that Pauline tian, nor^èoes he figure in her dreain. may hcdre mean j<frtor daine d.

justifies this violent language.

knows Néarque to be a Chris- Cf. her surprise in 807. — fatal

129 Tu: the main characters always use the familiar he to their subordinates, the confidants, while the latter use the respectful vous. Cf. 136, 280, 319, and passim.

129-135 V. justly criticises Pauline's indulging in thèse conceits at a moment when she thinks her husband is in imminent péril.

132 vœux: protestations of affection.

137 d'entière confidence: for avec une entière confidence. De indicating manner, common in the seventeenth century, still exists in some locutions, e.g. de la sorte. Cf. H., §115.

139-144 Criticised by V. as too familiar for tragedy. He says of 142 : " Ce vers est absolument comique, et comme burlesque."

140 à propos : fitting.

141 Assurez-vous sur lui : trust Mm. Cf. assurance in 25, and Clitandre, 1187 var.

145 On . . . cœur: Husband and wife hâve but a single heart. — traverses : trials.

146 fonctions : duties. " L'idée est un peu subtile." (V.)

147 assemblés : united, wedded. This use of assembler for unir is common in C. ; cf. Mélite, 1287, Médée, 1434. etc.; also La Fontaine, Fables, L. IV, xviii, and Contes, L. I, i.

154 Another ni would be required now, before espoir. Cf. 926. On seventeenth-century use of négatives cf. M.-L., under ne, ni, point, rien.

155-156 Belief in dreams seems to hâve been widespread in Rome at this time, even among the educated. Cf. L. Friedlander, Sittengeschichte Roms, IIP'' Theil, IV, i. — fatalité : fate : in sensé of destin. Cf., •* la fatalité du destin," Montesquieu, Lettres persanes, XXXIII.

157 crédit: credence.

161 A raconter : = en racontant. Cf. 895 and 947 ; also note on 1046. Cf. H., § 124, B, 3°. As to maxims, C. says " il en faut user sobrement." {Discours du poème dramatique. Œuvres, T. I, p. 18.) On which Lanson comments: "personne n'a mis plus de sentences \ntaxi7ns\ ni de plus belles, dans la tragédie." Cf. 168, 612, 613, 914, 1024, 1025, 1356; Cid, 405-406, etc. C. was doubtless influenced in his use of maxims by the tragedy of Robert Garnier (i 545-1601) and the Poétiqvteoi \. C Scaliger (i 561), which was founded on the works of Seneca. iÇvni t^he earliest French tragedy, Jodelle's Cléopâtre, has many commonp!c?.e philosophical reflections in the choruses.

163 discours: story. So in r Illusion, 63 and 148.

164 mes autres amours : my first love. Amours, plr-* '- -"eans " loveaffair " ; not necessarily in the bad sensé of English >mours."

Il8 NOTES

166 la raison : will and reason are the mainsprings of C.'s psychology, as of that of his contemporary, Descartes. Cf. 85-86, 195, 202, 215, 332, 477, 491, 500, 506, 513-516, 741, 790, 1405, 1518; also Cinna, 1696- 1697: "Je suis maître de moi comme de l'univers; Je le suis, je veux l'être." Cf. the following passages from Descartes : " notre volonté ne se portant à suivre ni à fuir aucune chose que selon que notre entendement la lui représente bonne ou mauvaise, il suffit de bien juger pour bien faire." — Discours de la méthode^ IIP Partie. (1637.) " Ceux même qui ont les plus faibles âmes pourraient acquérir un empire très absolu sur toutes leurs passions, si on employait assez d'industrie à les dresser et à les conduire." — Traité des passions de rame, art. 50. (1649.)

168 Cf. Milton's "I cannot praise a fugitive and cloister'd vertue, unexercis'd and unbreath'd." — Areopagitica. (1644.) — doute d' : distrusts.

169 ce malheureux visage : thèse sorry charms. Précieux, rather than "burlesque," as V. calls it. Cf. "ces tristes appas," 1249.

170 courage : heart. In the seventeenth century, courage was practically synonymous with cœur, and frequently indicated the passions, affections, etc., of the heart, like the Latin animus. Cf. 332, 409, 741, 777, 889, and 1568.

172 désirs : Jacquinet suggests that, since Sévère is thought to be dead, désirs may hère be taken as regrets, one of the meanings of the Latin desideriuni. I find no other instance of such use, except possibly the following example from Nicot : " De désir ou regret qu'elles ont de celles qui sont laissées derrière : Ad desyderium relictarum."

173-176 Decius himself did not war with the Persians, but several of his predecessors did, and his successor Valerian died in captivity among them.

180 pompeusement: solemnly. — vains tombeaux : cenotaphs.

182 plus honnête homme: a truer gentleman. Cf. 1303. The honnête homme was the idéal of seventeenth-century society, and the term is very common in the literature of the time. The Dictionaire de V Académie françoise, 1694, defines : '■'■ Hojineste homme. Outre la signification . . , homme d'honneur, . . . comprend encore toutes les qualitez agréables qu'un homme p/;;ut avoir dans la vie civile. . . . Quelquefois . . . hon- 7ieste homme mj veut dire autre chose que galant homme \gentleman'\, hOïaiT>e de tKjnne conversation, de bonne compagnie."

185 qae. for à qjioi. Cf. Médée, 1593, and M.'s Don Garde, i486, —fortune : (/^y:;.-) station. Cf. R.'s Andromaque, 913: " une illustre fortune," and M.'s l'avare, A. I, se. i, "y tient votre fortune déguisée."

187 invincible : insuperable ; no»/ properly to be compared ; but c£ trop parfaite^ 621 ; plus unique^ Horace, 141 ; trop irréparable. Pompée^

188 auprès d': with. — vertueux: noble \ merely a stock epithet.

189 What a splettdid opportunity to show noble constancy ! 191-192 en and Ce apparently refer to résistance. The lines are

obscure. — faillir: sin.

193 Parmi: = au milieu de, dans. It is now seldom so used except

before a plural noun (cf., however, "parmi la forêt," De Régnier, les

Gardiennes) ; but etymologically (from Latin per mediuni) it is correct

before a singular also, and was so used through the seventeenth century.

Cf. H., § 134, A.

196 Sanctioned the love into which my eyes had betrayed me. ^

198 combien j'étais blessée : how deep Cupid's dart had sunk. Blesser

(primarily = "to wound") in matters of love is very common in C.

Cf. " smitten."

202 devoir: sensé of duty. Cf. 215, 332, 446, 447, 513, 521, 526, 538, 539' 570» 621, 790, and Nicomède, 484. Used in this sensé also by M., Fourceaugnac, A. I, se. ii, and R., Bajazet, 151.

203 parfait amant: a stock expression. Cf. 572 and Cid, 496.

204 son gouvernement: the province of which he is governor. From the end of the thirteenth century to 1789 France was divided into a varying number of gouvernements, originally military divisions. The so-ca.\\Qà grands gotivernemetits corresponded in gênerai to the divisions by provinces. Hence C.'s use of the word hère.

210 qu'il me prît pour maîtresse: that he should become betrothed to me. Maîtresse did not hâve its présent unfavorable meaning.

213 flamme: love. Flamme and feu were stock synonyms ior amour in the style noble. Flammes is so used at least as early as Jodelle, Cléopâtre, Prologue.

215-218 Cf. " L'hymen me le rendra précieux à son tour, Et le devoir fera ce qu'aurait fait l'amour." — Rodogune, 377-378.

222 vengeance: i.e. "un arme, instrument de sa vengeance." (P. de J.) Cf. 576, Médée, 701, Nicomède, 87, and " la force à la main," M., Scapin, A. I, se. iv.

225-226 ces . . . mémoire : those glorious wounds which, by taking €%vay his life, sectire his famé.

235 Pour ... de: /^ put into effect. avancer meaiis "to bring about." — effet : cf. 42. — discours : speech ; the usual mearing. Cf. note on 163.

238 c'est . . . désespère : this is inhat throws me into utter despair.

242 rages: translate as if singular. Cf. troubles, 355 and 725; beautés, 371 ; volontés, 372 ; froideurs, 405 ; bontés, 1224 and 1267 ; félicités, 1534 ; rages. Suivante, 766, Andromède, 719, and Boileau, Namur, 81. "Au 17^ siècle ces termes abstraits pluralisés s'employaient fréquemment pour marquer l'état, la disposition, seulement avec augmentation de force dans la signification, et avec l'idée nécessairement d'un état, d'une disposition qui se reproduisent plusieurs fois. . . . Quantité de ces mots abstraits, qui ne sont plus usités qu'au singulier, s'employaient au 17^ siècle très-souvent au pluriel, pour marquer la répétition des faits et des actes." (G., T. I, p. 352.) " Rages ne se dit plus au pluriel." (V.) But cf. " ces rages," V. Hugo, Quatrevingt-treize, L. IV, ch. ix.

244 C, perhaps in imitation of the drama of antiquity, e.g. the Perses of iEschylus and the Electra of Sophocles, made use of dreams and oracles several times, e.g. in Horace, Andromède, and Œdipe. In the Examen of Horace he says that dreams " peuvent faire encore un grand ornement dans la protase {exposition), pourvu qu'on ne s'en serve pas souvent. Je voudrais qu'ils eussent l'idée de la fin véritable de la pièce, mais avec quelque confusion qui n'en permît pas l'intelligence entière. C'est ainsi que je m'en suis servi . . . dans Folyeucte." A dream was employed before C. in Jodelle's Cléopâtre, A. I (1552) ; in his contemporary Mairet's Sophonisbe, A. II, se. i (c. 1634) ; and after him, in R.'s Athalie, A. II, se. v (1691). Cf. Examen, p. 14, and Introduction, p. xix. Bossuet, in his Oraison funèbre d'Anne de Gonzague (1685), relates a dream, with évident faith, as being of divine origin.

247 de soi: a common seventeenth-century use; cf. 912. En ellemême vionlà. now be required. Cf. H., § 13, A. — peut . . . horreur: may make y ou shudder.

254 charmes : incantations, magie spells, as frequently. The Christians were supposed to be magicians. Cf. 258, 14 16, and Théodore, 601-606. A curious médiéval tradition represented Virgil as both a magician and a Christian prophet. Cf. D. Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, Part II, ch. vii.

255 Et que : on the construction, — noun and clause, connected by et que, object of the same verb, — see G., T. II, p. 227. — sur mon époux dépends on venge rather than on ramassé, as it has sometimes been taken. — leur troupeau ramassé: their assembled mob. This contemptuous use of trotcpeau (originally "a herd of animais ") applied to humans, I do not find recognized by dictionaries earlier than the 1835 éd. of the

Dictionnaire de V Académie. Cf. " Misérable troupeau qu'a dissipé la crainte," R., Athalie^ 1 103. The meaning '* flock " (of a priest) was common.

256 Félix's mission in Armenia was to persécute the Christians.

269 ne va qu'à : aims only at. Commonly so used in M.

268 toucher : move.

277 dans ... campagne: i.e. "près d'ici, dans la campagne." (P. de J.)

278 gros: host. Cf. Héraclius, 174, and Théodore, 1798.

279 crédit: influence. So in 634. Cf. note on 157.

285 While brave Sévère succumbed to numbers. sa refers to Sévère, vertu (from Latin virtus, itself from vir) very frequently meant " manliness," "valor," in the seventeenth century. So in 306, 412, 591, 734, 751, 1358. In earlier usage it signified even "physical strength," as in Jodelle, Cléopâtre, A. III : " Me pensois-tu veufve de ma vertu ? " Cf. note on 348.

288 Le roi de Perse aussi: = c''est que le roi de Perse. This causal use of aussi (akin to aussi bien), = c'est que or en effet, is not mentioned by M.-L. or G., nor recognized clearly by modem or seventeenth-century dictionaries. (Nicot gives ne aussi — nec vero.) It occurs in the Examen, p. II, 1. 10; 443; Mélite, 837 var. ; Clitandre, 707; Suivante, 285, 579, 925; Cid, 357; Pompée, 361; also in Malherbe and frequently in M.; cf. the respective Lexiques in the Gr. Écriv. eds.

294 généreux : noble or magnanimous ; the usual seventeenth-century meaning. Cf. 327.

295 dernier: either récent or great. "Dans le langage pretieux, le mot de dernière . . . signifie tantost grand, comme l'on voit dans cette phrase : /e vous en ai la dernière obligation,^'' etc. — Somaize, Grand Dictionnaire des Prétieuses, éd. Livet, T. I, p. xlviii. (1660.)

299 alliance: i.e. bymarriage. Txz.\\^\âXç.,his daughter's hand. Cf. 211.

304 Perse : Persian. Perse, noun or adjective, refers to the people or language of ancient Persia only ; of modem Persia, persan is used.

309 croître: for accroître-, often transitive in C. and R., but seldom so now.

311 Mais : indeed (and not " but "), — a very common use.

313 amour: frequently féminine in the seventeenth century, though masculine was gaining préférence. C. changed many passages in later éditions, to avoid féminine. Cf. 77 var., 689, 11 63, 1243, 1659, 1661 var.

318 su: learned; a very common use of jaw/r, not recognized by most dictionaries. Cf. connaître in the sensé " to become acquainted with."

319 y : indefinite, = "à le recevoir." (V.)

320 V. objects to this scène that Félix, govemor of Armenia, must hâve known of the doings of Sévère, Roman gênerai and favorite of the Emperor,in near-by Persia; that it was unnatural for Sévère to come to Armenia to offer sacrifice ; that Sévère must hâve known of Pauline's marriage. He adds : " Toutefois le défaut de vraisemblance laisse souvent subsister l'intérêt."

321 ordre: ordering.

328 flatter: raise false hopes in. Cf. Nicomède^ 1423. 330 la vertu toute nue : merit unadorned. 337 ménage: turn to advantage.

341 sais : = connais^ as not infrequently in the seventeenth century. Cf. 1 183.

342 Je sens . . . mon cœur qui . . . s'intéresse : —je sens mon cœur sHntéresser. Cf. Tobler, Vermischte Beitràge, III, p. 63, and H., § i, Rem.

343 poussera: will utter\ common in C. Cf. 440. — foi: faithfulness, i.e. as wife. Cf. 1^93, 1610. More often, in the seventeenthcentury drama,/^/= "promise to marry," as in 1309.

346 toujours aimable : still worthy to be loved. {Not '* amiable.") 348 The Une is explained by 339-344 and 353-356. — m'assurer de:

guarantee. Cf. var. and 1198. — vertu: virtue^ as in 353. Cf. notes on

285 and 330.

352 où : = auxquels. Cf. 727 and 1768. In Old French, and through

the seventeenth century, où often = <J, as well as dans, -\- lequel, and

referred to persons as well as to things. Cf. H., § 38.

354 succès: outcome\ a common seventeenth-century meaning. Cf. 847. For the modem meaning cf. 314.

355 ces troubles puissants : this prof ound agitation. Ci. 377 and 504, and note on 242.

360 au-devant : = devant, en devant. (M.-L.)

361 Meanwhile rally your dazed sensés. Cf. note on 85.

362 songe : bear in mind.