V.
M. Dezeimeris (Leçons diverses et remarques sur le texte de divers auteurs) has shown that Chénier, in this elegy, had borrowed not a few hints from Ausonius, Epistola X.
L. 1. solitaires divines. Which is the noun, which the adjective? Solitaire must be the noun (though certain critics have expressed the opinion that it is divine which is the noun). Firstly, there is the masculine noun 'un solitaire,' and it is hard to see why there should not be a feminine, 'une solitaire.' Secondly, the subsequent lines show that Chénier addresses the Muses as lovers of solitude, and it is more logical that the predominant idea should be embodied in the noun, not in the epithet.
L. 3. Nîme. Nîmes (earlier Nismes), in the dep. Gard. The final s has been dropped to admit the elision of the e. 'Nîmes égare' would have sounded most unnatural.
L. 5. aux bords de Loire. The omission of the definite article before Loire and Garonne is archaic. It was the current practice in the sixteenth century, and still occurs occasionally in the seventeenth.--Haase, § 3 B. It is to be noticed that in the next line Chénier writes 'ces nymphes du Rhône,' and, in fact, the omission of le before Rhône seems hardly possible. It is difficult to account for such anomalies. A few individual relics of former usage have thus survived. One of these is the phrase 'entre Sambre et Meuse.'
L. 7. son flambeau vous luit. Such constructions, where à followed by an indirect object, or implicitly contained in the dative of the unstressed personal pronoun, where the present language uses pour, were quite current formerly, and, though uncommon, may still be used.--Haase, § 125 B.
L. 8. Dansantes. The predilection of Chénier for the inflected present participle has now been illustrated by many instances. See p. 24, l. 61; p. 25, ll. 70, 89; p. 42, XXIV, l. 1.
Ll. 9-12. Cf. Cowley (Essays: Of Agriculture): 'One might as well undertake to dance in a crowd, as to make good verses in the midst of noise and tumult.'
'As well might corn as verse in cities grow; In vain the thankless glebe we plough and sow, Against th' unnatural soil in vain we strive, 'Tis not a ground in which these plants will thrive.'
L. 15. les rapides chars. Conventionally poetical for carrosses, which, in those days, would have been the proper word. In the same way airain should have been fer (cercles = tires).
L. 17. ne me soient point avares. See note to p. 56, l. 7.
L. 21. Dormir. The more modern construction would be de dormir. See Hasse, § 87. An echo of La Fontaine, who divided his life into two parts, spent 'L'une à dormir, et l'autre à ne rien faire.'
L. 22. le doux oubli d'une vie. Horace's Oblivia vitae.
L. 31. dans Sichem. This is the wording of the older translation of the Bible. Ostervald's translation has 'à Sichem.'
L. 33. un amoureux courage. We here touch the point where courage = 'l'ensemble des passions qu'on rapporte au coeur' merges into courage = 'fermeté qui fait supporter ou braver le péril, la souffrance,' as Littré defines the two meanings.
L. 35. Horace's well-known wish (Sat. II. vi).
L. 42. aux champs. For the substitution of à for dans see note to p. 16, l. 308.
L. 45. Avoir amis, enfants, épouse. The omission of the indefinite article before épouse is quite normal in an enumeration. It is a feature of the old language. Besides 'avoir femme et enfant,' which is also an enumeration, we still say 'prendre femme.'
L. 49. aimable mensongère. Chénier avails himself of a source of derivation always open. He turns the adjective mensonger into a noun. This had already been done by Marot: 'De moi n'aura mensonger ne buveur Bien ne faveur,' iv. 308, in Littré, Hist.
Ll. 49-62. In this passage, a critic observes, we have, as it were, an earnest of the Lamartinian melancholy reverie.
L. 66. Julie. The heroine of Rousseau's Nouvelle Héloïse.
L. 67. Clarisse. Clarissa Harlowe in Richardson's novel of this name.
L. 70. Clémentine. The Lady Clementina in Richardson's novel, Sir Charles Grandison.
