426 Tout révère, for tous révèrent, for metrical reasons. See App. I, Metre.
430 Traiter de = "to call," always with an unfavorable connotation.
444 fragile, of course, must be translated here "broken."
445 salutaire, here "timely."
449 l'artifice. The definite article is used distributively: = "all artifice."
452 Racine heightens the contrast between Haman's past and present fortunes by imagining him to have been bought for a slave, in boyhood, by a Persian master. This the Bible does not state, although the Rest of the Book of Esther calls him a Macedonian (xvi, 10), but immediately adds "and as a stranger received of us."
454 soutiens de ma puissance. Male children were, and still are, indispensable to prosperity in the East, as the supporters and defenders of the family.
458 atteinte is now usually unfavorable.
459 Mardochée assis, etc. See l. 139, N, for this Latin construction.
462 tandis que. See l. 69, N. Tant que would have been more precise here.