[L. 107.] Du chaume. Calpurnius, Aegl. viii. 66.
[L. 117.] la mienne. This syntactical incorrectness—for la mienne cannot mean ma vierge—is in fact an elegance. The shepherd is full of the idea of his love, and most naturally says la mienne, meaning ma bien-aimée. This neglect of strict logic is most natural.
[Ll. 151, 152.] Some writers have printed si j'étais plus sage..., as if the sentence were unfinished, and explain that 'I should not take them' is understood. But the thought rather seems to be expressed elliptically: Were I wiser, these gifts forebode no good to me (and I should listen to these misgivings).
[L. 156.] j'aurai pu. The future expressing what is likely to have taken place. See Ayer, § 203.
IV. LE MALADE.
M. Dezeimeris (Leçons nouvelles et remarques sur le texte de divers auteurs, Bordeaux, 1879) has shown how much this poem owed to a Greek versified romance by Theodoras Prodromus, entitled The Adventures of Rhodanthe and Dosicles. To this very indifferent and cold production he has traced both the scheme and most characteristic details of Chénier's Malade. We have deemed it unadvisable to crowd our notes with the numerous passages of the Byzantine writer which have inspired our poet.
[Ll. 1-3.] This invocation, a litany in form, may have been suggested by the Orphic hymn to Apollo.
[L. 6.] qui meurt abandonnée, i.e. qui meurt si elle est abandonnée.
[L. 7.] Qui n'a pas dû rester..., 'who surely has not been spared by death that she might see her own son die.'
[Ll. 8, 9.] Assoupis, assoupis... Frequent repetitions occur throughout this piece, all with a most natural and pathetic effect. M. Dezeimeris that Chénier took the hint from Prodromus, in whose poem, however, the repetitions, for the most part irrelevant, are mere mannerism.