XII. NON, JE NE L'AIME PLUS...

Ll. 5-8. Tibullus, II. iv. 13 ff.

L. 9. Voilà donc comme on aime! This use of the indefinite on, at the same time familiar and poetical, occurs in Corneille, Pol. II. i: 'Est-ce là comme on aime?' And in Molière, Tart. II. iv: 'C'est donc ainsi qu'on aime?' The nuance cannot pass into English.

L. 13. Tibullus, I. v. 21.

Ll. 14, 15. Ignorés et contents... notre asile.... This abridged construction, with the past participle or the adjective before which étant is understood, is neat when not equivocal, that is, when the past participle or the adjective are clearly connected with a noun or pronoun in the principal clause (notre, in the present case). Ayer, § 278, 3.

L. 30. Le vent.... Tibul. I. v. 36. A frequent image in Latin writers. In French many are the variations on this original theme: 'Autant en emporte le vent' (= so much breath is wasted). 'Ses paroles miellées S'en étant aux vents envolées,' writes La Fontaine, Fab. X. xi, and Bertin, Am. II. i, imitating the passage of Tibullus, has 'Les vents, hélas! en tourbillons fougueux Sur l'océan ont emporté mes voeux' (a sentence, by the bye, in which it is difficult to see the logic of 'en tourbillons fougueux' and 'sur l'océan').

Ll. 33-54. Tibullus, i. 9. 17.

L. 33. Garde d'être. For garde-toi d'être. In the older language the pronoun object of reflexive verbs was frequently omitted. A trace of this ellipsis is still extant with faire followed by a reflexive verb in the infinitive (faire taire = faire se taire). Haase, § 61. We still say dépêchons, arrêtez, for dépêchons-nous, arrêtez-vous.

L. 38. J'allais couvrant. See note to p. 27, l. 29.

L. 42. Qui font jeu de..., a simplification of the phrase 'se faire un jeu de.'

L. 48. avec le lin. Mouchoir would have appeared too prosaic in those days.

Ll. 52. a monté ma lyre avec ma voix. Another instance of 'one word passing under favour of another,' for a voice can hardly be said to be strung. See note to p. 64, X, ll. 15, 16.

Ll. 53, 54. Vulcan, the god of fire, for 'fire'. L'onde où tout s'oublie is misleading as suggesting Lethe. Consumer, though representing chiefly the action of fire, originally means 'to use up destructively,' and so can apply to the action of water. (Cf. this English instance: 'The horses were partly (the ships being broken) consumed in the sea.'--Usher, Aun. vi. 424, in N.E.D.) The verb is moreover in the singular according to Chénier's practice (see note to p. 25, l. 74).