[L. 54.] les maux qu'on me fait. The plural of mal is not common with the verb faire. There is an instance of it in Régnier: 'sa barbe... où certains animaux... luy faisoient mille maux,' Satire x, 171-4.
[L. 66.] De qui les blés. This use of de qui, when the antecedent is an inanimate thing, was condemned by Vaugelas, whose rule has prevailed. Yet there is a tendency with many modern writers to return to the older practice.
[L. 72.] The horn of plenty, or cornucopia, or Amalthaea's horn.
[L. 73.] Sans doute que. How are we to account for this que? The phrase is the result of an ellipsis, and stands for 'il est sans doute que.'
[L. 75.] Je n'y vois. Y refers to la terre, l. 55.
[L. 80.] Elle est pour moi marâtre. Marâtre is an adjective here=inexorable.
[L. 87.] Je m'occupe à leurs jeux. For a distinction between s'occuper à and s'occuper de see Littré, Dict., s.v. 'occuper,' Remarque. The meaning here is: I occupy my mind in seeing them play.
[L. 88.] sur la rosée et sur l'herbe brillante, a hendiadys for sur l'herbe brillante de rosée.
[L. 93]. Deux fois... promenés. An ablative absolute. Promener, of course, is not the proper word for 'driving' a flock, but an expression of angry contempt for the tedious and, as it were, unprofitable work.
[L. 101.] injure, in the singular, for the sake of the metre.