[L. 96.] et je crée avec eux. Thus happily does Chénier characterize his attempt at original imitation. Another important declaration will be found at ll. 117-9.
[L. 105.] une pourpre.... The purpureus pannus or purple patch of Horace, Ars Poet. 15.
[L. 109.] brave, bold.
[L. 124.] fuit mes poétiques doigts. Once transformed by the poet's hand, prose goes and dances and sings. An easy improvement would be to delete the ';' after doigts and the ',' after dansante.
[L. 130.] Les attache, i.e. les greffe, grafts them.
[L. 140.] Montaigne.... 'Je veulx qu'ils donnent une nazarde à Plutarque sur mon nez,' Ess. I. x. 'I will have them wound Plutarch through my sides,' Cotton's translation.
POÈMES.
I. L'INVENTION.
[L. 1.] fis du Mincius: Virgil, born at Mantua, on the banks of the river Mincius (now Mincio).
[L. 2.] peuple-roi, Latin populus-rex, people-king.