[Ll. 7-10.] Song of Solomon, i. 7.
XVIII.
[L. 8.] le mol et doux coton. Cf., in N.E.D., Cotton. 'Down or soft hair growing on the body.' Obs. rare [so F. coton=poil, 1615, Crooke, Body of man, 65: 'Pubes doeth more properly signifie the Downe or cotton when it ariseth about those parts.'
[L. 11.] Ovid, Heroid. xv. 93-95.
[L. 22.] ce jeune Troyen, Ganymede.
[L. 23.] Adonis, whose mother, Myrrha, had before his birth been turned into a tree that distilled myrrh.
XIX.
[Ll. 1-8.] Shakespeare, I Henry IV. iii. l. 214-222. That Chénier was sensible to the magic of this passage argues that, in spite of prejudices, he would recognize beauty wherever he found it.
[L. 11.] Car le... Becq de Fouquières conjectures that the poet would have written 'car le bel Endymion...,' or rather 'car le dieu d'amour...,' but was prevented by the metre.
[L. 13.] The song at the beginning of the fourth act of Measure for Measure gave Chénier the idea of these lines.