553-554 Que l'injure échappe à ma vengeance plutôt qu'un si rare bienfait [échappe] à ma reconnaissance.—L'injure = "wrong" here; often = "insult."
555 Supply: "if this service went unrewarded." Cf. Verg. Aen. I, 48-49.
558 Que. See App. IV, ii. A.
563 Et = "Then."—D'autant moins goes closely with following que.
569 Que. See App. IV, ii. C.
579 Conseils = "counsels," not "councils."
583-584 An instance of dramatic "irony," by which the poet makes words to be spoken, of which the spectator already knows the untruth.
587 gage is the same word as "wage." Here = "reward." Cf. "the wages of sin is death."
593 Note que, not à quoi.
596 This line explains en vain of l. 595.—Pour vous régler sur eux . . . = "that you should be guided by their practice."—Près de, here "in comparison with," more usually "auprès de," in accordance with the tendency to use compound forms for secondary meanings. Cf. mouvoir and émouvoir; perdu and éperdu.