[L. 177.] mortels aux épouses... This must be an instance of those 'régimes inusités donnés aux adjectifs' which Raynouard censured in 1819. This is once more à in the sense of pour. 'Rechercher un trépas si mortel à ma gloire,' Corneille, Cid, I. ii. But compare the (perhaps) more modern construction: 'Cette mode durera peu; elle est mortelle pour les dents.'—Madame de Sévigné, 4 avril 1671 (in LITTRÉ).
[L. 179.] Laetas segetes. Virgil, Georg. i. I.
[L. 182.] Homer. Iliad, xviii. 491; Hesiodus, The Shield of Hercules, 274.
[L. 183.] à soulever les mers. à=pour. See note to p. 3, l. 88.
[Ll. 185, 186.] Il. xviii. 35-70.
[L. 189.] Ulysses' descent to Hades, Od. xi.
[L. 190.] les champs d'asphodèle. Od. xi, 539.
[Ll. 191-194.] Od. xi. 36. Aeneid, vi. 305. l. 192, and Dryden's translation of the corresponding line of Virgil may be compared: 'And youths entombed before their father's eyes.'
[Ll. 197-200.] Od. viii. 274. Ovid, Metam. iv. 175. Inconnus, here, for invisibles. The stricture of the first critic of A. Chénier, Népomucène Lemercier, that the poet 'dénature le sens des mots,' if generally unjust, may apply to this instance.
[L. 201.] il revêtait d'une pierre soudaine is very happily said for il revêtait soudainement de pierre.