Chapter 5

166 Devoir means 1. "to owe;" 2. "to have to," "must" expressing either physical necessity (e.g., "You must be tired") or moral obligation; 3. "to be [about] to;" e.g., "I am to be queen of the May."

170 race d'Amalécite, in apposition to _Aman_, is infinitely more contemptuous than the equally metrical _de race amalécite_. Tr. "of the brood of Amalek." Cf. Book of Esther, iii. 1, where Haman is stated to be descended from Agag, king of the Amalekites.

171 crèdit:--"personal influence," which Haman has used as a weapon to strike down his foes.

173 prévenir means: 1. "to forestall," 2. "to give notice" (l. 203), "to warn," i.e., to forestall the mishap; 3. "to prejudice," i.e., to forestall impartial judgment, as here.

174 en horreur à. Cf. _odio esse alicui_, and _en proie à (l. 1177). See App. V, i.

176 pris. Cf. _prendre jour avec quelqu'un_ = "to make an appointment."

182 les restes, very strong when applied to persons.

183 See l. 140, N.

189 Note the agreement of the adverb.--_Le feu de_ = "the fire that inspired . . ."

194 affecte = "claims." The word is very skillfully chosen. It conveys, without the slightest disrespect, Esther's sense of the arbitrary character of this law.

203 _sans [que je puisse] le prévenir_. The queen may not even inform the king of her desire to speak with him.

208 Que dis-je? = "Nay!"

209 sang, a frequent metonymy for _race_, as in English.

211 Book of Esther, iv. 14: "and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

214 vain--"idle," "useless." Cf. "in vain."

216 ses saints = "his holy ones."

218 d'un enfant, and not _d'une enfant_, because the statement is general. The next line appeals to Esther directly, hence the fem. heureuse.

221 peuvent = "can avail."

226 Cf. Isaiah, xl. 17. "All the nations are as nothing before him; they are counted to him less than nothing."

227 trépas (from _trans_ and low Latin _passare_) is the passing across the boundary of life. Cf. our two uses of "trespass."

230 que is here a survival from the very frequent construction which begins with _c'est: c'est, sans doute, que_. . .-_Éprouver_ has either an active sense, "to put to the test," or a passive, "to experience."

232 The addition of _bien_ to _vouloir_ weakens the meaning from strong volition to condescension. Here: "has deigned." Cf. l. 357. Similarly _aimer_ = "to love," but _aimer bien_ = "to like."

234 en. See App. V, ii. C.

237 cette grâce, i.e., of being the instrument of our delivery. The statement is of course hypothetical, and the future is used, instead of the conditional, only for greater directness and force.

238 toute votre race, obviously "thou and thy father's house," Book of Esther, iv. 14.

240 assidus à prier is the order.

242 jeûne, from _jejunum_. Cf. our "jejune."

245 "And if I perish, I perish," Book of Esther, iv. 16. _Contente_, now colloquially = our "glad," has here its truest sense of "satisfied."

247 Qu'on s'éloigne. The touch of dignity added to the command by the use of the indefinite pronoun, can hardly be translated. For the following prayer, see Introd. section IV.

259 sert has here its full etymological meaning of "being a slave." Its other meanings are: 2. with _de_, "to serve as," "to be used for," l. 843; 3. with accus. "to serve" a person, a cause, etc., l. 336; 4. with dative, "to be of use" to a person or for a purpose, l. 333.

200 veut, as often, = "seek to." Note that the _de_ before _être_ is not dependent on _peu_, but is the regular preposition introducing an infinitive not at the beginning of a sentence.--For _vouloir_, used as a pseudo-auxiliary, see l. 155, N.

261 Insulter, like _applaudir_, is used with the accus. in a literal, with the dat. in a figurative, sense.

262 Imputer always implies that you charge a person with an _offence_. Here there is a slight hypallage: the offence lies in the fact that the conqueror dares to credit his false gods with his triumph, and not, as the words would literally signify, in that with which he credits them.

263 Note that adjectives at the end of the line are strongly emphatic.

266 Foi means: 1. "faith," l. 256; 2. "loyalty," l. 375; 3. "truth," as here; 4. "promise," l. 1152. If the Jews were annihilated, the Saviour promised by God to the seed of Abraham could not be born to them.

277 où, frequently used for the dat. of relative pron. referring to things.

299 Il fut is elegant for _il y eut_. Cf. l. 477. For the tense, see App. II, ii. B. b.

309 Arracher is "to snatch away," "to pull off" or "up;" _déchirer_ is "to tear into pieces."

332 Note that autrui can never be nominative.

333 Que. See App. IV, 1. A.

347 Ni is almost always followed by _ne_ without _pas_, because _ne_ is only attended by its intensifying particle _pas_ when used as the sole negative in the clause, without any accompanying _rien_, _jamais_, _aucun_, etc. Here, therefore, there should be no _pas_. Its introduction creates a sort of anacoluthon, and throws great stress on the negative.

364 When Pharaoh's host was swallowed up by the Red Sea.

367 paille légère = "chaff."

373 ne . . . que. Cf. l. 13, N.

375 en. See App. V, ii. E.

382 Tout ce . . . de mystères is a construction framed on the analogy of genitives following adverbs of quantity.

386 fait and not _faite_. See App. III.

392 fuit is the present tense because _qui le fuit_ is equivalent to an adjective.

404 The story is that, at the death of Gomates, the candidates to the throne of Persia, unable to settle their rival claims, agreed that he should be king whose horse should neigh first after sunrise, and that Darius won the crown through the wit of his servant who led a mare to the appointed spot in advance. See Herodotus, III. 85-86.

405 idée, by frequent metonymy for _esprit_.

406 Chaldaea was famous for its astronomers, who had fixed the duration of the year, were acquainted with the zodiac, and as early as the middle of the fourth century B.C., already possessed astronomical records extending over 1,900 years. They were also far-famed astrologers, and as such were in great demand as late as the last years of the Roman empire.

415 eut du ciel. Cf. Gray's Elegy: "He gained from heaven, 'twas all he asked," etc.

419 Striking witness is borne to Haman's high position by the flattery paid him by Hydaspes.

426 Tout révère, for _tous révèrent_, for metrical reasons. See App. I, Metre.

430 Traiter de = "to call," always with an unfavorable connotation.

444 fragile, of course, must be translated here "broken."

445 salutaire, here "timely."

449 l'artifice. The definite article is used distributively: = "all artifice."

452 Racine heightens the contrast between Haman's past and present fortunes by imagining him to have been bought for a slave, in boyhood, by a Persian master. This the Bible does not state, although the Rest of the Book of Esther calls him a Macedonian (xvi, 10), but immediately adds "and as a stranger received of us."

454 soutiens de ma puissance. Male children were, and still are, indispensable to prosperity in the East, as the supporters and defenders of the family.

458 atteinte is now usually unfavorable.

459 Mardochée assis, etc. See l. 139, N, for this Latin construction.

462 tandis que. See l. 69, N. _Tant que_ would have been more precise here.

465 est . . . à. The construction is _ad sensum_, as though _sembler_ had been used.

468 Note the use of aller as a pseudo-auxiliary. Cf. l. 155, N.

469 C'est trop peu d'une telle . . . The _de_ in such forms is due to false analogy with the construction in which an infinitive in apposition follows _c'est_, for which see l. 260, N.

477 Il fut. See App. II, ii. B. b.

478 This line, expressive of the multitude of the Jews, heightens the contrast with l. 480.

484 a dû. See l. 166, N.

485-87 I Sam. xv, 7-8: "And Saul smote the Amalekites . . . and he took Agag, the King of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword."

486 vils, a classical adjective = "valueless," "contemptible." Cf. Merch. of Ven. ii., 4: "'tis vile, unless it may be quaintly ordered." The flocks and herds have no value, are contemptible, as adversaries; hence, = "helpless." Cf. l. 522.

493 couleurs, now familiarly used for "false representations." _J'armai_, cf. l. 171.

494 J'interessai . . . etc. "I showed him his glory at stake." Note the tense of _trembla_: = "till he trembled." See App. II, ii. B. a.

502 Cf. Gen. xvi., 12; "his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him."

504 Note Haman's concluding appeal to the greed of human nature. He is a crafty counsellor, as unscrupulous as he is clever.

511 For enfin, see l. 160; for the Latin construction of _le trépas différé_, see l. 139.

519-520 There is here a slight confusion in construction. If a comma preceded _terrible_, _souvent_ would then be regularly dependent on _combien_. But there is no authority for this punctuation, and we must supply a repeated _combien_, thus: _tu sais combien terrible . . . [il est it combien] souvent, etc.

521 à cannot be consequent to _trop_, which always takes _pour_. Tr. "in tormenting me."

523 Que. See App. IV, ii. A.

527 The imperfect for the conditional past, for greater vividness. Cf. "One moment more and he was a dead man" = he would have been . . .

529 veux bien. See l. 232, N. It is condescension on the king's part to make a confession at all.

530. Note that the king views himself as the father of his people: a piece of flattery on Racine's part towards Louis XIV.

533 succès, conformably with its derivation, is here without the usual favorable connotation. Cf. "luck" = "good luck."--_Fureur_ expresses aggressive madness (cf. _ira furor brevis est_), which the king assumes could alone prompt such an attempt.

538 More indirect flattery for Louis XIV.

539 Foi. See l. 266, N.

541 trop = "passing." For superlative use of _si_, cf. 1021.

545 frappe = "impresses."

546 nous = "us" [kings]. See App. I, Hiatus.

547 de = "out of," "among."

548 faire valoir, lit. = "to make to have its full value;" hence, "to set off." Tr. "to show off." _Nous_ is indirect obj.--_Intéressés_, is the opposite of "disinterested."

549 Note that the French says: "there are none who _do_," instead of "there is none who _does_," a plural due to the plural denotation of _en_.

551 Et might well have preceded this second clause, which is parallel to that in l. 550.

553 ["While they are only] too ready . . ."

553-554 Que l'injure échappe à ma vengeance plutôt qu'un si rare bienfait [échappe] à ma reconnaissance.--L'injure = "wrong" here; often = "insult."

555 Supply: "if this service went unrewarded." Cf. Verg. Aen. I, 48-49.

558 Que. See App. IV, ii. A.

563 Et = "Then."--_D'autant moins_ goes closely with following _que_.

569 Que. See App. IV, ii. C.

579 Conseils = "counsels," not "councils."

583-584 An instance of dramatic "irony," by which the poet makes words to be spoken, of which the spectator already knows the untruth.

587 gage is the same word as "wage." Here = "reward." Cf. "the wages of sin is death."

593 Note que, not _à quoi_.

596 This line explains _en vain_ of l. 595.--_Pour vous régler sur eux_ . . . = "that you should be guided by their practice."--_Près de_, here "in comparison with," more usually "auprès de," in accordance with the tendency to use compound forms for secondary meanings. Cf. _mouvoir_ and _émouvoir_; _perdu_ and _éperdu_.

597 neveux, classical for "posterity." For _servir de_, see l. 259, N.

600-612 The construction is:

( _que ce mortel . . . fût mené_; _j'e voudrais_ ( _que, pour comble . . ., un seigneur . . . ( guidât . . . et criât . . ._

603 orné refers to _coursier_.

604 dans has the force of "through the streets of."

605 comble from Latin _cumulus_, the "heap" that tops a full measure. Hence its connotation is generally, though not always, favorable. E.g., _Combler de faveurs.--Le comble de l'ingratitude est de haïr ses bienfaiteurs.--Le voleur, poursuivi, se réfugia dans les combles du château.--Au comble de la misère_.

607 enfin, see l. 160, N.

614 This line explains ingenuously enough the reason for the statement in l. 613.

616 il refers to preceding _ce_.

619 prétends = "mean."

622 fais--"see."

625-628 The apodosis begins with _Plus j'assure_. . . .

630 en. See App. V, ii. C.

633 sans être attendue = "unsummoned."

635 Je me meurs. _Se mourir_ is either more elevated in style than _mourir_, or = "to die slowly."

637 suis-je pas? The omission of _ne_, the one real negative particle, is only possible as a poetical license, and is rightly very rare.--_Frère_, a classical strong form for "friend."

644 encore un coup, = "once more." _Coup_ enters into many idioms. Cf. Le coup de grâce.--Le coup de l'étrier.--La ville fut prise par un coup de main.--Venez me donner un coup de main.--Il s'est engagé par coup de tête.--Un coup d'essai, de maître, d'éclat.--Un coup de pied.--Après coup.--Coup sur coup.--A coup sûr.--C'est un coup monté.

648 d'effroi depends on _combien_.

649 la foudre, because the king can strike as suddenly and irresistibly as the thunderbolt.

653 étincelle, lit. "sparkles," but here: "flashes."

654 The Parsees, in Asia, worship fire to this day. The king here invokes his gods, the sun and stars.

656 peine is never "physical pain."

661 se pouvoir is only used impersonally, = "to be possible."

676 en. See App. V, ii. C.--_Astres ennemis_ is in accordance with the astrological superstitions of the time.

678 respectable, in its full etymological sense of "worthy of respect."

681 interêt, see l. 57, N.

686 veut = "bids."

690 entre, here "above."

692 grâce devant vos yeux = "favor in your sight."

693 fûtes, in the past definite, expresses that he may have been favorable to her in the past, in a period of time _that has come to an end_, implying "even though he be so no more." See App. II, ii. B. b.

701 qu'on lui fasse entendre = "give him to understand." For dat. _lui_, see App. III, N.

708 clartés, properly "lights;" the plural being, as often is the case, the concrete manifestation of that quality of which the singular is the abstract name. Cf. "charity" and "charities."

713 Que vous semble. See App. IV, i. B.

714 devoir is here used as a pseudo-auxiliary; see l. 155, N,--_L'emporter_, idiomatic for "to win the day." The substantive, for which the fossilized pronoun _le_ stands, is uncertain. Cf. _l'échapper belle_, idiomatic for "to have a narrow escape."

778 Note the force of the tense: "I never [once] admired." See App. II, ii. B. b.

779 Note the difference between _avoir envie de_ and _porter envie a_.

799 errer is never, while "to err" is always used figuratively.

820 en. See App. V, ii. D.

825 rejoindre = "to join." This prefix _re_- is more freely used in French than in English. Cf. _recopier_ = "to copy."

826 See Book of Esther, vi. 13-14, for the few lines on which Racine has built the two strong scenes that follow. Also i. 6, for the description of the grandeur of this "court of the garden of the king's palace."

832 éclaircir is "to restore to its own brightness;" _éclairer_ is "to throw a light from without upon." Cf. l. 177.

835 ressentir, from _re_ + _sentir_. Note the doubling of the "_s_," in order to preserve its sound as in _sentir_. Cf. _ressembler_, _ressource_, _ressusciter_, etc.

aussi cette félicité, i.e., the joy of having been favored as mentioned in l. 834, as well as the pain of the affront.

836 le mal is of course a reference to ll. 618-622; _le bienfait_, to l. 702.

838-843 Racine had great experience of court. See Introd. I.--_Dévorer_, figurative, "to endure in silence." Cf. _dévorer ses larmes_ = "to restrain one's tears."

841 essuyer, fig. = "to put up with something disagreeable," the figure being taken from wiping up spilt liquid, as the way to make the best of a mishap. E.g., _Il essuya un refus--Ce vaisseau a essuyé une tempête--Ce général avait essuyé plusieurs défaites.

842 un outrage endure. For this Latin construction, see l. 139, N.

868 exerçant, "wielding," correctly refers to the speaker, Haman, as the king's minister.

872 ma vie exposée, another Latin construction.

874 Que sert. See App. IV, i. A.

881 le peuple. Cf. l. 56, N.

890 For the spelling _voi_ (which is etymologically correct, seeing that no first person singular ends in "s" in Lat.), see App. I, Rhyme.

892 Cf. Claudian, _In Rufinum_, I. 22, 23. . . . tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant.

894 ces bords écartés, i.e., Macedonia. We have already referred to Rest of the Book of Esther, xvi. 10, where Haman is described as a Macedonian.

896-897. See l. 485, N.

898 For enfin, see l. 160, N.

910 Note the skillful way in which the poet shows Haman so possessed with his grief that he can entertain no other thought.

911 ce chagrin, i.e., that betrayed by l. 910.

928 dès longtemps, in prose _depuis longtemps_. See l. 75 N.

934 en, see App. V, ii. C.

935 se resserre = "is wrung."

938 ne le connaître pas. This position of _pas_, after the infinitive, is elegant and emphatic.

946 croître is transitive only in poetry.

955 Suspendez = "A truce to. . . ."

956 puissent is so frequently used to express an exclamative wish, that it usually drops the _que_, which here however is retained.

962 encore, i.e., in addition to that fear.

992 riche is the subst.--_Sous la loi_ goes closely after _gémisse_.

1008 For servir de, see l. 259, N.

1012 camp = "host."

1021 For the virtual superlative _si sage_, cf. l. 541.

1024 Dussiez-vous, = _quand même vous devriez_. This elegant use of the imperf. subj. with subject pronoun inverted (= _quand même_ and the conditional) is generally confined to the auxiliaries, or pseudo-auxiliaries, such as _savoir_, _pouvoir_, _falloir_, etc. In the third person sing. however, where the verb-forms are less unwieldly, other verbs may be so used: it is a matter of euphony.--For the previous offer, see l. 660.

1039 aurait puise. Note this conditional past of hypothetical statement. It always implies that the speaker is unwilling to indorse the statement on his own responsibility.

Jour means: 1. "day;" 2. "day-light;" 3. any "light,"; physical (as in _un abat-jour_) or figurative, e.g., l. 1136; 4. "birth," cf. l. 1277; 5. in plural, "life."

1047 contrée, always = "region."

1050 Here begins a magnificent passage where elevation of language almost reaches inspiration.

1053 qu'on outrage--an adj., "oppressed."

1059 See 2 Kings, xvii. 5-23. Shalmaneser, in 718 B.C., took captive the kingdom of Israel, and Nebuchadnezzar II., the kingdom of Juda in 606. The captivity of the Jews under the Assyrians lasted 70 years, 606-536 B.C., when they obtained leave from Cyrus to return to Palestine. See Introd., section 4, Chron. Table.

1062-3 Isaiah xlv. 1-3: "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and the gates will not be shut, I will go before thee, and make the rugged places plain: I will break in pieces the doors of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron; and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places." For the Persian kings of these times, see Introd. section 4. Cyrus reigned about 560-530 B.C.

1068 son temple détruit, another Latin construction.--Nebuchadnezzar II. destroyed the temple of Jerusalem after his capture of the city in 587 B.C.

1073 sortait, a most instructive use of the imperfect; the narrative pauses in the succession of _events_, to lay stress on the happy _state_ now prevailing. See App. II, ii. A.

1075 son fils, Cambyses (reigned 529-522 B.C.).

1077 vous, on the assumption that Ahasuerus is Darius (reigned 521-485 B.C.).

1082 en. See App. V, ii. C.

1086 La Thrace, near enough to Macedonia for the queen's oratorical purposes. Thracia (now N. E. Roumelia), like Scythia (l. 1096), was then a remote and almost unknown region, whose inhabitants were all "barbarians."

1096 sqq. Esther is supremely skillful in laying to the king's credit all that can flatter his pride, and charging all she complains of against this _Scythe impitoyable_: a name all the more hateful to the king as Darius had led an army against the Scythians and lost it (513 B.C.), although Esther puts the expedition in a more flattering light in l. 1116.

1104 Que. See App. IV, i. A.

1123 Saul, first king of the Israelites, was the son of Kish, a Benjamite (I Sam. ix. 1-2), and Mordecai is also stated (Book of Esther ii. 5) to be the son of Kish, a Benjamite.

1127 Impossible to anticipate more skillfully the retort that Mordecai should have honored the king's favorite.

1135 convert de votre pourpre makes the offence almost personal to the king.

1136 For jour, see l. 1039, N.

1141 achever = "to finish." Tr. "come down in thy fullness."

1146 crédit, see l. 171.

1151 vos ennemis aussitôt massacrés, another Lat. construction. These lines are a very skillful revelation of Haman's character; he attempts to bribe the queen by the offer of that which would seem most desirable to himself.

1162 en. See App. V, ii. D.

1168 The king interprets Haman's attitude as an attempt at violence.

1175 repaisse. Cf. Verg. Aen. VIII, 265: nequeunt expleri corda tuendo.

1190 est expiré (on the analogy of _est mort_), for _a expiré_, which would be impossible in classical French poetry. See App. I, Hiatus. The result is more stress on the state, instead of on the action.

1193 Cf. Juvenal, x. 66. _Seianus ducitur unco Spectandus_.

1194 "O king, live forever!"

1196 entends, as very frequently, = "understand." Note a third use: "to understand by one's own words," i.e., "to mean."

1213 Je n'ai fait que passer may be translated: "before I had passed by;" lit. "I only passed by," I needed not to wait, in order to witness the short-lived triumph of the wicked.

1214 surprendre = "to take unawares."

1231 couronnée = "on the throne."

1256 se plaît de, now rather _se plaît à_.

1264 Cf. Ps. xviii. 9; "he bowed the heavens also, and came down."

1267 Jeune peuple. Cf. l. 56, N. There is also an allusion to the reconstitution of the Jews as a nation, promised by the king, ll. 1182-1189.

1280 Note that nous is dative. See App. III, N.

APPENDIX I.

FRENCH VERSE.

French verse, as found in the classical writers, consists of lines in which the principal factor is the number of syllables (loosely called _pieds_ in French, as well as _syllabes_), and not, as in English, the number of accents.

METRE.

The "heroic verse," or _grand vers_ in French, is the _hexamètre_, or _vers alexandrin_: the former name being due to the fact that this line consists of two halves or _hémistiches_ of six syllables each; the latter a name derived from the poet Alexandre de Bernay, who, in the latter half of the twelfth century, first used this metre in his celebrated epic of "_Alexandre_."

1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 E.g., Esth. l. 2.: _Que béni soit le ciel || qui te rend à mes voeux_!

Lyric poetry may have lines of any number of syllables.

E.g., Esth. l. 1241: _Rompez vos fers_ 4 sylls. l. 970: _Ses criminels attentats_ 7 " l. 722: _En un moment s'est-il évanoui_ 10 "

All syllables, mute or otherwise, are counted except, (1) when a 'mute e' is elided before a word beginning with a vowel or 'mute h,' e.g.,

1 2 3 4 5 6 l. 1: _Est-ce toi, chèr(e) Élis(e)?_ = 6 sylls.;

(2) at the end of a line, where the 'mute e' is reckoned with the preceding sounded syllable, which is thus made a "feminine rhyme," e.g.;