[Ll. 59, 60.] sur leur jeune sein... leur robe. He says leur, as if everybody ought to understand him, because his own thought is full of them—those dancing fair ones mentioned in the following line. This, as well as the preceding 'presse' and 'la mienne' higher up, is of those true touches that carry us into the atmosphere of life.
[L. 65.] Reminiscences of Virgil, Ecl. v. 58; Georg. ii. 151.
[L. 70.] cette vierge dansante. The first editor had altered this into 'cette vierge charmante,' either because the epithet recurs at ll. 61, 89, or because he objected to this declension, or rather adjectival use, of the past participle. For this syntactical feature see Darmesteter et Hatzfeld, Le seizième siècle en France, §210; Haase, §91. See also note to p. 62, l. 19.
[L. 71.] Pallas (Od. i. 58) represents Ulysses as longing to see 'His country's smoke leap from her chimney tops.'—CHAPMAN.
[L. 74.] enchante ta vieillesse. An easy correction would be enchantent, which would not spoil the metre, but, as a rule, Chénier makes the verb agree with the last subject. See Ayer, §217.
[Ll. 76, 77.] Tibullus, i. 3. 8.
[L. 80.] Viendras-tu point...? The omission of ne in direct interrogation, very frequent in the seventeenth century, is still to be met with in modern poetry, e.g.: 'Viendras-tu pas voir mes ondines?'—V. Hugo, Ballades, 4. (Haase, §101 A.)
[L. 84.] Racine, Phèdre, I. iii: 'Ariane, ma soeur, de quel amour blessée...'
[L. 93.] Virgil, Ecl. vi. 21 'Aegle naiadum pulcherrima...'
[L. 95.] ne sera-ce point. A future of doubt.