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bon, ou, si vous voulez, l'amour-passion, l'amour-maladie: un amour dans lequel il y a toujours un principe de haine. (Lemaître.)

420 Is Hermione sincere? or is she merely seeking a pretext for waiting and hoping a little longer?

425 saurait: 'can.'

428 crains: fear' in the sense of dread'; translate 'shrink.'

432 fais-le-moi: moi object of fais; le object of croire.

443 forçant: the preposition en was much more frequently omitted before a present participle than in modern French.

445 It was Hermione, then, who had stirred up the anger of the Greeks, and this has resulted in the sending of Orestes. Her agitation of spirit is the more intense as she feels herself to be directly responsible for the present crisis.

446 lui: the antecedent is of course le of lines 443-444.

455 It is a characteristic practice of Racine to let fall from time to time these sane opinions from the lips of characters whose judgment has not been troubled by the force of overpowering passions. But Hermione is so absorbed in her bitter thoughts that she is not persuaded, perhaps does not even hear what her confidante has said.

458 pouvoir: after a few verbs of believing, saying, thinking, and the like the French uses an infinitive where in English we should have a clause; so here: that I could.'

461 déclarée: the feminine ending shows the gender of se, herself.' 463 l'œil qu': equivalent to l'œil dont in modern French; a construction frequent in the seventeenth century.

476 This verse has often been cited as a basis for comparison of the dramatic systems of Corneille and Racine. Corneille held that characters under the stress of strong emotion should be given words " more ingenious (rhetorical) than the ordinary course of passions." Here, on the contrary, Racine suggests the desperation of Hermione by the most matter-of-fact and the most natural of expressions. Compare with it the last verse of the first act.

SCÈNE II. Pas un vers dans les rôles d'Hermione et d'Oreste qui n'exprime, en mots rapides et forts comme des coups d'épée, les illusions, les souffrances, l'égoïsme, la folie et la méchanceté de l'amour : en sorte qu'on y trouverait la psychologie complète de l'amour-passion et de la jalousie. (Lemaître.)

490 dégageait, finissait: one would expect a subjunctive, or perhaps better the conditional phrase pourrait dégager etc., 'might fulfill

and end.'

491 mendié la mort: as a matter of fact, Orestes had gone to Taurica upon the suggestion of the Delphic oracle, which promised recovery from his madness if he would bring to Argos the statue of Artemis. He went there with Pylades, and, after nearly being put to death, succeeded in bringing away the statue through the assistance of his sister, who was a priestess in the temple. But there was little in the adventure to correspond with what Orestes says here, and Racine's contemporaries pounced upon the detail with avidity. Some editors think that Racine has Orestes use these words merely to arouse Hermione's sympathy. Mesnard, editor of the Grands Écrivains edition, believes that Racine really knew of some such legend; this is very unlikely. At all events there was enough in the incident to lend color to these words, and the tragico-romantic gilding of the story is quite in accordance with the character of Orestes as Racine conceived it.

501 m'anime: idiomatic present with depuis; 'has animated (filled)

me.'

505 Note the tone of restrained coquetry with which Hermione tries to divert the conversation from the tragic channels into which Orestes is determined to turn it.

512 dégagé: note the ruthless sarcasm with which Orestes plays upon this word which Hermione had just used. Her exclamation, v. 515, shows how cruelly he has hit the tender spot.

525 avoir: see note to v. 458.

526 jamais: removed from its normal position after n'ait for emphasis. 530 s'adresse: translate by passive.

536 voudrais consider all that the word and tense suggest in this connection.

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540 en 'for it,' ' for that,' 'because of it,'' on account of it.'

549 hait: not to be translated too literally. It has rather the meaning indicated by méprise of the next verse, and so frequently throughout the play. This passage, from v. 545 on, is to be considered as a sort of vain regret addressed rather to the thought of Hermione than to Hermione herself. But this unlucky remark, touching as it does the sorest point in the heart of Hermione, throws her into such a passion that she will go much farther than she had any intention of going when the interview commenced.

550 Qui vous l'a dit: another one of the simple, but very poignant, phrases so characteristic of Racine. He will use it still more effectively toward the end of the play, v. 1543.

564 Ilion alternative name for Troy.

573 Once more Hermione, in her naïveté, has unconsciously revealed the depth of her love for Pyrrhus. Orestes' words are fraught with the deepest discouragement.

578 venin by 'poison' Hermione refers to the moodiness that characterizes Orestes.

579 raisons: 'reasons,' i.e. arguments: translate here 'words.'

584 que: for à moins que, whence the expletive ne before fasse. 587 du = entre.

596 à often used before an infinitive to express purpose, like pour in modern French.

615 Note the emphasis placed upon prudent. Compare with v. 143-172. 622 son frère: i.e. Agamemnon, murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Ægisthus.

624 j'attends: present for the future, as in modern familiar style.

SCÈNE V. Pyrrhus: dans la scène charmante qui termine le deuxième acte c'est un bon jeune homme, naïvement amoureux, qui trahit presque comiquement son inquiétude, son espoir, son dépit. Parmi les contemporains, les uns le trouvaient trop violent et trop sauvage, et les autres trop doucereux. Mais qu'il est vrai avec tout cela! (Lemaître.)

626 connaître = reconnaître; see next verse.

628 à vous à vous-même.

634 D'aujourd'hui: de in expressions of time was often used where we should find depuis or dès in modern French.

646 dût a striking example of the subjunctive after an affirmative verb of thinking: see note to v. 403.

648 pleurs: the omission of the partitive in cases like this was becoming exceptional in Racine's time. Among contemporary writers the most frequent examples are to be found in La Fontaine. See v. 776: je ne vois que malheurs.

664 commencer à: we should expect commencer par.

668 s'en faut reposer: the verse was often criticized by French classicists on the ground that it savors too much of comedy; among these, Boileau, who is said to have noted that this verse provoked a smile upon the part of the audience.

677 y again for à elle, vers elle.

688 je puis in modern French puis is used only in the negative with pas omitted before an infinitive, and in the interrogative. — doi: = dois; the s, which does not belong to the form etymologically, is often omitted in verse on account of the rule that riming words must not be such as would take different consonant sounds in linking to a following vowel.

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708 This scene was severely criticized for the elements of comedy which it contains. According to Racine's son Louis, Boileau declared that had it come to his attention sooner il l'eût obligé à supprimer ce morceau." Like the artist he was, Racine profited by the criticism. None of the heroes of his other tragedies venture upon anything so near fatuity as these speeches of Pyrrhus.

Et peut-être ta plume aux censeurs de Pyrrhus

Doit les plus nobles traits dont tu peignis Burrhus. (Boileau.)

ACTE III

714 bien omit or translate by else': it does no more than suggest the repetition of faut.

715 veux: in the primitive sense 'will.'

718 croira = pensera.

722 Hermione: the earlier editions read d'Hermione, but this is said to have been a typographical error.

734 destin: 'project'; a peculiar use of the word, but not without example. Perhaps one might translate course of events.' The actor's copy is said to have contained dessein, 'purpose.'

736 See note to verse 455.

749 quand followed by conditional, even if . . . had.'

757 lui rirait: distinguish between lui rire smile upon her,' 'favor her,' and rire d'elle laugh at her.'

772 Orestes, like many who are too weak to hold their own in the world, feels that this is a world in which foul play wins; he infers that one who forbids himself to use foul play condemns himself to impotence and is no very admirable figure. That this feeling rings hollow (v. 1180 ff.), and that it ends in a crime which wins nothing, are equally characteristic. Racine drew this type long before Byron and the French romanticists made it fashionable. Note the satire on it in v. 1323 f.

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773 de tout temps: see note to v. 634. Since all time some (I know not what) unjust power'; i.e. some unjust power has ever left, etc. 778 Il [Oreste] me paraît le premier des héros romantiques. C'est déjà l'homme fatal, qui se croit victime de la société et du sort, marqué pour un malheur spécial, et qui s'enorgueillit de cette prédestination, et qui en même temps s'en autorise pour se mettre au-dessus des lois. C'est déjà le réfractaire, le révolté aux déclamations frénétiques. (Lemaître.) 792 The stage represented, according to the directions, un palais à colonnes, et dans le fond une mer."

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829 bien: the cæsura shows that this word is to be associated with moins, not with aussi.

860 que predicative after est-ce, and not to be translated.— pleurante: modern French usually qui pleure. It will be recalled that a present participle used verbally, i.e. expressing an action, is invariable; used adjectively, i.e. expressing a quality or state, it is inflected. The form used by Racine here has given rise to considerable discussion, which is thus summarized by L. Crouslé in his "Grammaire de la langue française," Paris, 1896: "On pourrait douter s'il faut lire pleurante ou pleurant: car le sens pourrait fort bien être de voir la veuve d'Hector pleurer à vos genoux'; et, en effet, certaines éditions donnent pleurant. Mais M. Paul Mesnard, qui fait autorité, donne pleurante, ce qui signifie 'la veuve d'Hector en larmes à vos genoux.' Des grammairiens ont cru pouvoir citer ce vers comme un exemple de pleurant pris comme participe présent." The difference of the inflected form from the uninflected can, if desired, be indicated in translation by a transposition, *at your feet weeping.' See verse 1329 for another example of the same usage. 864 où as frequently in the seventeenth century, for à with a relative pronoun referring to persons.

873-875 In the Iliad (24,765–775) Helen tells how Hector had always taken her part against the scorn and sarcasm of the rest of the royal family.

879 s'en assurer: en referred to persons quite as freely as to things. So here its antecedent is un enfant, and we may translate 'you may make sure of him by trusting to his mother's care,' or, more freely, 'under his mother's care you need have no fears about him,' 'you may leave him to his mother's care without anxiety.'

892 Tu vois: these words have been strangely misinterpreted as a bit of coquetry, whereas of course, they merely refer with sad irony to verse 889.

929 trancher: equivalent to a passive, as in modern French after faire and laisser.

930 sur: equivalent to dans; translate 'over.'

936 devait in its frequent meaning 'was to,' 'was destined to.'

938 In the Iliad, Achilles grants Priam's request for the body of Hector.

942 malgré lui-même: i.e. malgré ce qu'il a fait.

944 tombeau: the empty tomb which Andromache had constructed for Hector in Epirus; see verses quoted from the Æneid in the First Preface. 946 séparât subjunctive after que (v. 945) replacing si (v. 943). — There has been a great deal of discussion among French critics over

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