[L. 15.] un jeune taureau blanc. 'Iuvencum candentem,' Aen. ix. 627.
[L. 22.] Aen. x. 557.
[Ll. 24, 25.] Il. i. 362. Thetis says to Achilles; 'Why weeps my son? what grieves thee? Speak, conceal not what hath laid such hard hand on thee, let both know.'—CHAPMAN.
[L. 34.] See tapes in A. Rich's Dict. of Roman and Greek Antiq.
[L. 36.] ô douleurs! The s is required by the rhyme rather than by the sense.
[L. 43.] Euripides, Hipp. 135.
[L. 44.] Sans connaître Cérès. 'Non Cereris placuere dapes, non pocula Bacchi' is Gaulmin's paraphrase of Prodromus (Paris, 1625). For a similar use of 'Ceres,' see Ovid, Met. iii. 437. Milton has: 'A field Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends' (Paradise Lost, iv. 980, 981); and Byron: 'Beneath his ears of Ceres groan the roads' (Don Juan, XII. ix).
[L. 46.] ta vieille inconsolable mère, not ton inconsolable vieille mère, which would be the more usual, but less forcible, order.
[L. 48.] T'asseyait sur son sein. Sein (bosom) here stands for giron (lap). This is the Latin phrase in sinu. The English Bible reads (Luke xvi. 23): 'He (the rich man) seeth Abraham... and Lazarus in his bosom,' whereas Langland, more explicit and accurate, says, 'Ich sauh hym [Lazarus] sitte... in Abraham's lappe' (P. Pl., C. ix, 283).
[L. 53.] presse de ta lèvre. She says this holding out the cup to him, so that there is no need for her to express the word 'cup,' which is therefore understood. Yet it appears that Chénier did not mean ll. 53, 54 to stand thus, as they are struck out in the MS. (Dezeimeris, p. 69).