[L. 103.] Ovid, Met. i. 481.
[L. 105.] garde que jamais elle soit... Ne was generally omitted in the seventeenth century after expressions of fear and after garde, gardez, prenez garde (Haase, §104 B).
[L. 109.] va la trouver. Cf. the first scene of the third act of Racine's Phèdre. The entire poem is to some extent the counterpart of Racine's play.
[L. 126.] d'âge chancelante. Cf. Aen. iv. 641.
[L. 132.] L'insensé. In the sense, Becq de Fouquières remarks, not of demens, but of amens, as in Ovid, Am. iii II. 25.
V. HYLAS.
The subject of the poem is taken from Theocritus, Id. xiii., and Virgil, Ecl. vi.
[L. 1.] Le navire éloquent. Argo, which Malherbe calls 'le navire qui parlait,' Lebrun 'la nef à voix humaine,' and Chénier himself in a fragment (XLIX., p. 118 of the first volume of the edition published in 1874 by G. de Chénier), 'le vaisseau parleur.'
[L. 2.] Colchos. This Colchos has never had any existence except in the imagination of French poets. It is, in fact, the accusative of Colchi, the Colchians, or inhabitants of Colchis, mistaken for the name of a town.
[Ll. 12-14.] Et leur onde... un... zéphire, un murmure... 'l'avertit. The verb is in the singular, agreeing with the last subject, as is the constant practice with Chénier. Cf. note to p. 25, l. 74.