[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.