[L. 170.] bassin pompeux. See A. Rich, Dict. of Roman and Greek Antiq., under Naumachia.
[L. 178.] Lucian, Quomod. hist. conser. sit, i, speaks of a kind of summer-madness which seized the inhabitants of Abdera. After witnessing the exciting performance of an actor, named Archelaüs, in Euripides' Andromede, they went about shouting out this line from the play, 'O Love, thou tyrant both of men and gods.'
[L. 184.] Sur des pensers nouveaux faisons des vers antiques, i.e. let us express modern, personal thoughts in a form worthy of antiquity.
[L. 221.] son vide, his empty mind.
[L. 223.] jette une rose. See note to p. 27, l. 15.
[L. 243.] Cf. Martial, VI. xv.
[L. 248.] ces larmes... Ovid, Met. ii. 584, explains the formation of amber by the tears the sisters of Phaeton shed.
[L. 262.] et dressent tes cheveux. G. de Chénier, in his edition, prints et dresser tes cheveux. But the correction is unnecessary, as the same transitive employment of the verb occurs in a fragment of Chénier: '[Il] verse une sueur froide et dresse ses cheveux.'
[L. 272.] le docte ciseau. Docte, meaning 'scholarly,' rather than 'skilful,' is, in my opinion at least, not very apposite here.
[L. 277.] flanes invaincus aux travaux, i.e. dans les travaux. See note to p. 16, l. 308. An allusion to Hercules.