V. HYLAS.

The subject of the poem is taken from Theocritus, _Id._ xiii., and Virgil, _Ecl._ vi.

L. 1. _Le navire éloquent._ Argo, which Malherbe calls 'le navire qui parlait,' Lebrun 'la nef à voix humaine,' and Chénier himself in a fragment (XLIX., p. 118 of the first volume of the edition published in 1874 by G. de Chénier), 'le vaisseau parleur.'

L. 2. _Colchos._ This Colchos has never had any existence except in the imagination of French poets. It is, in fact, the accusative of _Colchi_, the Colchians, or inhabitants of Colchis, mistaken for the name of a town.

Ll. 12-14. _Et leur onde... un... zéphire, un murmure... 'l'avertit._ The verb is in the singular, agreeing with the last subject, as is the constant practice with Chénier. Cf. note to p. 25, l. 74.

L. 14. _et soupire._ The first editor has corrected this into _et l'attire_. But the nymph first attracts the attention of the boy and then sighs out her desire (as again on l. 19).

L. 15. _jette des fleurs._ _Jeter_ is said of plants and trees (E. _shoot_), whence _rejeton_ (E. _shoot_).

L. 20. _il l'admire couler._ See note to p. 8, l, 260.

L. 26. _Sur leur sein, dans leurs bras, assis_... Elliptical: 'he sitting on their knees,' For this sense of _sein_ see note to p. 24, l. 48.

L. 29. _Leurs mains vont caressant._ _Aller_ with the gerund of a verb was a periphrase much in vogue in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and meaning nothing more than the verb itself. It is now of rare use, except in poetry (Haase, §70 A). Palsgrave says that 'que je vous yraye devisant' amounts to 'que vous deviseroye,' Littré, however, in his dictionary (s. v. 'aller,' 21), says that it expresses continuity.

L. 30. _étamine._ This is, Sainte-Beuve observes, the _prima lanugine malas_ of the Latins. Cf. 'Flaventem prima lanngine malas... 'Clytium,' _Aen._ x. 324, 'downy-cheeked Clytius'; or 'Clytius in his beardless bloom,' as Dryden, not very accurately, renders it. For _étamine_ see note to p. 50, l. 38.

Ll. 38, 39. Virgil, _Ecl._ vi. 43.

Ll. 46-52. The syntax of this sentence would incur the blame of a strict grammarian. He would first observe that in the wording, 'pour te paraître belle, l'eau pure...,' it is pure water that is represented as wanting to appear at its best, and that, in order to avoid this absurdity, the author should have written 'pour te paraître belle, elle (_the idyll_ a...)--in short, the construction that reappears in the following clause, 'elle a pressé ses flancs....' Next he might perhaps object to 'Et des fleurs sur son sein ... et sa flûte à la main,' a clause in which he would miss the verb. But say '_elle met_ des fleurs sur son sein, etc., et _elle prend_ sa flûte à la main,' and notice the loss in vivacity. As the young person bustles, so does the sentence.

L. 51. _les pipeaux de Segrais._ Segrais (1624-1701) wrote idylls praised by Boileau. He also had a hand in the composition of the two novels of Mme de la Fayette, _Zaïde_ and _La Princesse de Clèves_, and gave a metrical translation of the _Aeneid_, now forgotten.

L. 52. _connus... aux nymphes._ Both _connu à_ and _connu de_ are said, though the latter is more common at the present day.