XXV. EH BIEN! JE LE VOULAIS...
[L. 6.] Hier, a dissyllable. It was a monosyllable in the older language, as indeed, etymologically, it should be.
ÉPITRES.
I. A LE BRUN ET AU MARQUIS DE BRAZAIS.
[L. 3. ]Brazais. André Chénier, at the time he wrote this epistle, was serving as cadet gentilhomme in a regiment of infantry quartered at Strasbourg, and the Marquis de Brazais was a cavalry officer in the same garrison. The piece, elegant and delicate as it is, is therefore to be ranked among the poet's juvenilia.
[L. 5.] Pandore. The fable of Pandora's box is too well known to need relating.
[L. 6.] trésor de misère. A Biblical expression. Cf. Prov. x. 2 and Jas. v. 3. In the latter passage the French translation by de Saci has: 'C'est là le trésor de colère que vous amassez pour les derniers jours,' where the English Bible has: 'Ye have heaped treasure together.'
[L. 13 ff.] Imitated from Horace, Od. I. v.
[L. 15.] d'un pouvoir... dominé, i.e. dominé par un pouvoir. Haase, § 113.
[L. 18.] A cette mer trompeuse et se livre et s'engage. The preposition à required by se livrer, is an archaism after s'engager. For à=sur see Haase, § 130 B, and cf. note to p. 97, l. 383. It would seem, at first sight, that s'engager sur says less than se livrer à, but it makes the step more irretrievable.