II. LE MENDIANT.
In this piece, illustrative of the rites of hospitality in ancient Greece, Chénier has drawn much of his inspiration from the arrival of Ulysses in Phaeacia; as it is described in the sixth book of the _Odyssey_. The reader will also notice, from the gaps in the text and unfinished lines, that the poem had not reached the stage of completion. Chénier, who himself published none but two of his poems, was prevented by death from giving the finishing touch to this and many other pieces.
L. 8. _Od._ 127, 137; _Aen._ iii. 590.
L. 15. _Aspect_, in the sense of 'apparition, ghost,' is a Latinism. Yet it is quite an allowable concretisation of the word, as in French and English 'apparition, vision,' in English 'sight' and in English 'aspect' itself, which we find used with the meaning of 'a thing seen' in the _N.E.D._
L. 21. _Od._ vi. 150.
Ll. 23, 24. _les voeux des... humains Ouvrent des immortels les bienfaisantes mains._ If the maid is a goddess indeed, the beggar entertains some hopes of her mercy, for, says he, 'oftentimes have the prayers of the unfortunate opened the bountiful hands of the immortals--obtained of those hands that they should "open their bounty" (_Henry VIII_, iii. 2. 184) to them.'
Ll. 25, 26. _quelque front... qui te nomme_, one of those incoherent metaphors which our (in this respect) delicate taste demurs at, but which the old writers--Shakespeare being among the greatest sinners--indulged in freely.
These two lines display imperfect rimes, the _o_ in _couronne_ being short, whilst the _o_ in _trône_ is long.
L. 34. _Tremblante._ The 'rejet' helps the meaning. The reader's voice, arrested by the unavoidable pause at the end of the preceding line, is forced into imitating the hesitation that he is told was discernible in the maid's utterance. But perhaps this is more perceptible to a Frenchman used to more rigidity in the rimed versification of his great classics than to an Englishman with the freedom of blank verse in his ear.
L. 35. _quand la nuit descend_, the present for the future. See Haase, § 67, Remark I; Ayer, p. 466.
L. 42. _il pleure aux pleurs..._ This is neatly said. Notice the use of the preposition _à_ expressing a relation of cause, as in '_A_ l'orgueil de ce traître, De mes ressentiments je n'ai pas été maître' (Molière, _Tartufe_, v. 3. 1709). See Haase, § 123. Cf. p. 7, l. 211.
Ll. 51, 52. _au devoir... Rangent... Ranger à_ = _soumettre à, réduire à._
L. 54. _ses mains sur ce visage._ This was one of the rites observed by suppliants. See Euripides, _Hecuba_, 344.
L. 55. _Indulgente._ Becq de Fouquières remarks that the adjective is used in its Latin sense of _complaisant_. This is the English meaning: 'disposed to gratify by compliance with desire or humour,' whilst the French meaning is restricted to that of being 'ready to overlook or forgive faults or failings.'
L. 58. _sur l'autre bord._ Across the bridge.
L. 62. _n'insulte à sa misère._ _Insulter à_, still in use by the side of transitive _insulter_, is the equivalent of obsolete English 'insult over, on, at.'
L. 66. _mon élève_, not my 'pupil,' but my 'foster-child.' A farmer or a nurseryman speaking of the cattle he breeds or the plants he raises will say _mes élèves_. But the term is here exceptionally applied to a human being.
L. 74. _Le toit s'égaye et rit._ This line, criticized by Ponsard (_Études antiques_) as non-Homeric, is a translation of Catullus, lxiv. 285 'queis permulsa domus iocundo _risit_ odore.' In fact, the attribution of feelings to inanimate things is as old as poetry itself. Countless instances in all languages might be adduced. For this use of _laugh_ in English see _N.E.D._, s.v. laugh 1 c., and notice that Pope, in translating the _Odyssey_, has made Homer say, 'In the dazzling goblet _laughs_ the wine,' iii. 601.
L. 75. _au loin circule_, i.e. forms a long circle.
L. 77. _animées_, appearing alive, of course, like the 'animated marble' of Pope, _Temple of Fame_, 73.
Ll. 77, 78. _Od._ vii. 100, 'Youths forged of gold, at every table there, Stood holding flaming torches.'--CHAPMAN. Cf. Lucretius, ii. 24.
L. 84. _lits teints._ _Aen._ i. 708, which Dryden translates 'The painted couches.'
L. 86. _Est admise_: exceptionally, for women, as a rule, did not sit at the same table with the men.
L. 89. _Et déjà vins_, &c. The ellipsis of the verb imparts greater vivacity to the narrative. The unexpected interruption is therefore made more abrupt.
L. 93. _s'assied parmi la cendre._ _Od._, vii. 153: '[Ulysses] went to the hearth, and in the ashes sat,' CHAPMAN; 'as the custom was in those days when any would make a petition to the throne,' adds Lamb by way of commentary, _Adventures of Ulysses_, vi.
L. 94. _Od._ vii, 144, 145. '...His view With silence and with admiration strook The court quite through.'--CHAPMAN.
Ll. 97-100. Hesiod, _Theog._ 84. _De l'Olympe envoyé_, ibid. 97.
L. 98. _Semblent d'un roi._ Elliptical for _semblent être d'un roi_. _Être de_ itself is elliptical for _de être celui, ceux_. The French idiom has its English equivalent in 'My kingdom _is_ not _of_ this world.'
L. 100. _Od._ xiv. 205; Hesiod, _Theog._ 97.
L. 102. _la main hospitalière_, with the definite article, not '_ta_ main...,' as has sometimes been printed, nor, as the more current phrase runs, '_une_ main.' The beggar is then made to use, as it were, a technical phrase, to name a well-known rite. In the same way we say '_the_ kiss of peace,' '_the_ stirrup-cup.'
L. 104. _Od._ xvii 347: 'Bashful behaviour fits no needy man.'--CHAPMAN.
L. 110. _Theognis_, 649.
Ll. 111, 112. This seems to owe something to an extract from Menander in the _Florilegium_ of Stobaeus, xcvi, which, together with a line of _Theognis_, quoted under the same heading, has partly inspired the following lines of Chénier, ll. 113, 114.
L. 115. _plus que l'enfer_, more than the gates of hell, is the phrase, _Il._ ix. 312; _Od._ xiv. 156.
L. 116. _Le public ennemi_, i.e. _l'ennemi public_. The inversion is awkward, as the collocation of the words is precisely that which would express 'the hostile public.'
Ll. 122-4. _Od._ xvii. 485.
L. 123. _traînés_, of course, goes with _haillons_.
L. 125. _Il._ l. 22.
L. 127. _et que puissent._ The more modern phrase would be _puissent tes voeux_. Malherbe: '_que puisses-tu_, grand soleil de nos jours, Faire sans fin le même cours.' See Haase, 73 B.
Ll. 127, 128. _Od._ xvii. 354.
L. 134. For these details see _Od._ iv. 290.
L. 139. _nourrit un long amour_: a very happy phrase, recalling La Fontaine's 'quittez le _long espoir_ et les vastes pensées,' _Fables_, XL viii. In Shakespeare's '_A long farewell_ to all my greatness.' _Henry VIII_, iii. 2. 351, we have a similar use of 'long'. Such epithets stand in lieu of a whole phrase.
L. 143. _Od._ vii. 174, 175: 'And there was spread A table, which the butler set with bread,'--CHAPMAN.
L. 144. _Sieds-toi._ _Se seoir_, for instances of which we must go to the seventeenth century, its uses being confined to the present of the indicative, the imperative, and the infinitive, is an archaism. Such archaisms, like _que puissent_ above, give more solemnity to the tone, make the scene recede, as it were, into the past.
L. 150. _l'éponge._ _Od._ i. 111: 'Some... With porous _sponges_ cleansing tables.'--CHAPMAN.
L. 151. _S'approche_, i.e. 'is brought by the servants.' The stranger does not sit at the common table, but, as when Ulysses is entertained by Alcinous, a table is spread for him.
L. 152. _le disque_: _discus_, platter for meat, whence O.E. 'disc,' E. 'dish,' and German _Tisch_, a table. _d'airain_; cf. _Il._ xi. 630: 'a brass fruit-dish.'--CHAPMAN.
L. 153. _l'amphore vineuse._ An epithet of nature. Chénier, it will be noticed, used them freely, as the ancients did.
L. 155. _leur lendemain..._ A thought akin to that in Homer, _Od._ xv. 400: 'Betwixt his sorrows every humane joys.'--CHAPMAN.
Ll. 156-159. _Od._ vii. 178: '... command That instantly your heralds fill in wine, That to the god that doth in lightnings shine We may do sacrifice: for he is there Where these his reverend suppliants appear.'--CHAPMAN.
L. 158. _Pour boire._ An unexpected passage from indirect to direct speech, as in Homer, _Il._ xv. 348. The abrupt break in construction is more telling in French than in English, where it is a more common device.
L. 160. For this rite see _Od._ iii. 45.
L. 163, 164. _Od._ vii. 192.
L. 169. _De sourire et de plainte_ would be _de sourires et de plaintes_ in prose. But the two _s_'s of the plural would prevent the two _e_'s from being elided and so give two syllables more.
L. 170. _tes nobles toits._ The plural for the singular, that the form of the word, riming with _abois_, may satisfy the eye. A Latinism besides.
Ll. 174-179. _Od._ xiv. 462. I cannot refrain from giving here Chapman's quaint equivalent for _ce que... il eût mieux valu taire_: 'strong wine,' he makes Ulysses say, 'moves the wise to... prefer a speech to _that were better in_.'
L. 184. See _Od._ viii. 136.
L. 185. _n'ai point passé l'âge_ 'où l'on est robuste' is understood.
L. 186. _La force et le travail, que je n'ai point perdus_, a hendyadis for 'la force de travailler.'
Ll. 188 ff. In the same way Ulysses (_Od._ xv. 317) declares to Eumaeus that he is ready to do all kind of menial work to earn a livelihood.
L. 194. _diriger_, train.
L. 195. _Et le cep et la treille._ The low vine-plant, such as is seen in the vine-growing parts of France, and the espalier or trellis vine.
L. 196. _la faux recourbée._ One of those descriptive epithets so frequent in primitive poetry.
Ll. 199-201. Hesiod, _Op. et Dies_, 307, 303-5.
L. 201. _à rien faire._ Some purists censure the use of _rien_ without _ne_ on the ground that _rien_ of itself means _quelque chose_ (Lat. _rem_), as in: 'Pourquoi consentez-vous à _rien_ prendre de lui?'--Molière, _Tartufe_, V. vii; but the abuse, if it is really to be considered as one, is authorized by the best writers, Molière, Racine, &c. In answers _rien_ is used by itself with the sense of 'nothing.' Add to this the phrases _pour rien_, _réduire à rien_, _venir à rien_, _un homme de rien_, _rien que cela_, _si peu que rien_, _moins que rien_, where _rien_ actually means 'nothing'. Also the substantive: _un rien, des riens_. Also _un vaurien_ (='un homme qui ne vaut rien'). The objection to _rien_ in the present sentence would be just if the omission of the negation _ne_ entailed the least ambiguity, but such is not the case.
L. 202. _Od._ xix. 253 and 322.
L. 203. _élever sa langue_ for _élever la voix_ is decidedly indefensible. But Chénier carefully avoids obvious alliances of words. See note to p. 64, l. 4.
L. 205. _Sans craindre qu'un affront ne trouble._ The second negative _ne_ had better have been left out. The strict rule is to omit it after _sans_. Yet several instances of _sans que... ne_ and even _sans que... ne... point_ occur in the seventeenth century, namely in Mme de Sévigné. See Haase, § 103 B.
L. 206. _L'indigent se méfie._ Menander in Stobaeus, _Florilegium_, xcvi. _Od._ vii. 307.
L. 209. A reminiscence of Horace, _Od._ ii. 9. The same thought occurs again at p. 66, l. 4.
L. 210. Propertius, ii. 28. 31; Theocritus, _Idyll._ iv. 4.
L. 211. _Et tel pleure._ Cf. 'Tel qui rit vendredi, dimanche pleurera.'--Racine, _Plaideurs_, i. I. Observe the fitness of those two forms of the same proverb to their several contexts. The _vendredi_ and _dimanche_, humorous precisions, would never do here.
L. 212. _en tes discours préside_--not '_à_ tes discours.' Chénier means, not 'wisdom presides over thy discourses,' but 'wisdom rules, bears sway, prevails, is paramount in thy discourses,' Cf. _Od._ xix. 352; xx. 37.
Ll. 228-231. _Aen._ i. 628.
Ll. 229, 230. _n'a point à l'indigence fait..._, 'has not caused indigence to envy the destiny of the wealthy Lycus,' The object of _faire_, which is at the same time the subject of the infinitive _envier_, is in the dative. See Littré, _Dict._, s. v. 'Faire,' Remarques 1-5; also Haase, 390.
L. 235. _et te souviens._ This peculiar form of the imperative is used only when another imperative goes before. Whereas in the ordinary form, _souviens-toi_, the stressed form of the pronoun is used (as is the rule when the pronoun is the object of an imperative or a prepositional object: _écris-moi, nous avons songé à lui_), in this construction the pronoun preceding the verb follows the rule of all pronouns placed before verbs and is in the unstressed form.
Ll. 250, 251. Hesiod, _Op. et Dies_, 285.
L. 260. _qu'avait tissus l'Euphrate._ _Tissu_ is the past participle of the obsolete verb _tistre_, now replaced by _tisser_.
L. 264. _Seul maintenant_--a sort of ablative absolute.
L. 275. _Et sans que nul mortel._ _Nul_, though of itself a negative, occurs after _sans_: 'Sans _nuls_ égards pour les petits.'--La Bruyère, xiv. True it is that La Bruyère might have said, with Malherbe and La Fontaine, '_sans point_ d'égards...,' which nobody would think of using at the present day. 'Sans qu'_aucun_ mortel'--_aucun_=_aliquis unus_, and so is no negative--would have been more logical, but harsh.
L. 282. By the device of concluding the long period with these three sad syllables, the pathos of the statement is heightened.
L. 284. _a tombé._ _Tomber_, generally used with the auxiliary _être_, also admits of the auxiliary _avoir_. Littré, _Dict._, s.v. 'Tomber,' 61°.
L. 287. _je ne revois._ The present used instead of the future tense imparts more emphasis to the asseveration. See Ayer, p. 466.
L. 289. _vapeurs_, fumes.
L. 291. _Od._ xiv. 42.
L. 308. _au même précipice._ In Old French _ou_ (=_en le_) got confused with _au_ (=_à le_), whence a constant substitution of _au_ for _ou_ in the masculine, and, by extension, of _à la_ for _en la_ in the feminine. See Meyer-Lübke, § 417, and Haase, § 120, and cf. p. 33, l. 4.
L. 317. _je revoi._ The Old French spelling (_voi_ from _video_) has been retained in versification for rhyming purposes.
L. 323. _J'ai honte à ma fortune_, instead of: 'J'ai honte _de_ ma fortune'; as Molière writes: 'J'aurais honte _à_ la prendre.'--_Le Dépit amoureux_, I. ii.
L. 331. So Nausicaa does to Ulysses (_Od._ viii. 461).