Chapter 13

L. 69. _aura vu..._ The future is here used in order to express an hypothesis, as in this: 'Comment se fait-il qu'il ne soit pas encore arrivé?--Il _aura_ oublié.' See Ayer, _Gram. comp. de la langue française_, § 203. For another similar use of the future see p. 25, l. 95.

Ll. 73-5. _Od._ i. 169-73. But Telemachus addresses Athene in more naïve words, saying: 'I do not think thou couldst come to this island _on foot_.'

L. 74. _Comment, et d'où viens-tu?_ Boldly elliptical for 'comment es-tu venu ici et d'où viens-tu?' _l'onde maritime._ A rare use of the adj. _maritime_. La Fontaine has an instance of it: _Ce maritime empire_, VIII, ix; cf. 'la vague _marine_,' p. 29, l. 16.

Ll. 81, 82. _Mais pauvre... Ils m'ont... jeté_: a bold ellipsis as in 'Je t'aimais _inconstant_, qu'aurais-je fait _fidèle_!'--RACINE.

L. 88. _âme ouverte à sentir._ There are numerous instances in Chénier of the use of _à_ in the sense of _pour_, a somewhat archaic feature which, no doubt, was one of the grounds on which his early critics based their reproach of incorrectness. But this is really racy French. The employment of _à = pour_ may be traced throughout French literature: thirteenth century, 'Les dismes furent establies et donées anciennement _a_ sainte église _soustenir_'; fourteenth century, 'Amis leur sont nécessaires _a_ leurs bonnes actions _acomplir_'; sixteenth century, 'Il le somma de partir _à parlementer_'; seventeenth century, 'La couronne n'a rien _à_ me _rendre_ content,' Molière, _D. Garc._ V. vi; '_A_ lui _rendre_ service elle m'ouvre la voie,' Corneille, _Sertorius_, II. v.; eighteenth century, '_A faire_ d'un tel gentilhomme un Achille au pied léger, l'adresse de Chiron même eût eu de la peine à suffire,' J.-J. Rousseau, _Émile_, ii.; nineteenth century, 'Que cette place est bonne _à_ le bien _poignarder_,' V. Hugo, _Cromwell_, V. iii; 'Il en faudrait un monde _à faire_ un grain de sable,' Lamartine, _Jocelyn_, quatrième époque (see the _Jocelyn_ of this series, p. 75, l. 308). It is not strange that this should have been thought incorrect, when we see the French Academy, in their judgement on the _Cid_, and Voltaire, in his notes to Corneille, make the same mistake. See Haase, § 124, 2°, and F. Godefroy, _Lexique comparé de la Langue de Corneille_. For a similar instance see p. 6, l. 183.

L. 93. _mobiles._ The epithet will be more easily understood if we think of its contrary, 'inert'.

L. 98. _j'étais misérable..._ _Misérable_ is here used in the sense 'to be pitied,' a sense frequent in the seventeenth century. _j'étais_, the imperfect of the indicative for the conditional past, as in 'Hercule, ce dit-il, tu _devois_ bien purger La terre de cette hydre,' La Fontaine, _Fables_, VIII. v, or in 'Sans vous, _j'étais_ noyé.'

L. 100. _N'eussiez._ The more usual French construction would be, with repetition of the subject, '_vous_ n'eussiez.' _armé... les pierres et les cris._ A favourite phrase with Chénier (see p. 112, l. 105, and in _Le Jeu de Paume_, 'La tyrannie... _arme_... ses cent yeux...'). Racine, _Les Frères Ennemis_, I. iii, speaks of '_armer_ et le fer et la faim' against someone. An old translation of the Bible has '_J'armerai_ contre eux les dents des bêtes farouches,' _Deut._ xxxii. 24. Thus in the _Odyssey_, when the 'mastiffs' fly at Ulysses, the herdsman runs up, and 'his cry (with frequent stones flung at the dogs) repell'd this way and that their eager course they held.'--Chapman, _Odyss._ xiv. ll. 49-51.

L. 110. _Ma bouche ne s'est point ouverte à leur répondre._ See note to p. 3, l. 88.

L. 119. _place_ is, of course, a subjunctive. The omission of _que_ before subjunctives expressing a wish was the rule in Old French. The practice was still prevalent in seventeenth-century French. It is exceptional now, as in: _Fasse le ciel! Puissiez-vous réussir! Vive la France!_

Ll. 119-121. _Un siège... sous la colonne._ Cf. _Odyss._ (Chapman's transl., viii. p. 365): 'His place was given him in a chair all graced With silver studs, and 'gainst a pillar placed;... The herald on a pin above his head His soundful harp hung.'

L. 123. _Ingénieux_, here, seems to be used, not in its French sense of 'clever, having an aptitude for invention,' which would be but a poor compliment paid to the great Homer, but with its Latin meaning of 'gifted with genius.'

L. 135. _vaillant._ I take it to mean, not 'courageous,' but 'vigorous in body, robust, able-bodied,' a sense not recorded in Littré, though well known in everyday French, the sense of English _valiant_ in 'the sturdy and _valiant_ beggars' of the statute-book.

L. 140. _douleurs_, rheumatic pains.

Ll. 149-156. E. Faguet, in his _Chénier_, observes how like a picture this is composed. In the foreground the blind man sitting under a tree, with the shepherds and wayfarers pressing around him, while the background displays the deserted flocks and roads, and the intervening space is crowded with the attentive nymphs and sylvans enticed out of their abodes.

Ll. 149, 150. Virgil, _Ecl._ vi. 28 'tum rigidas motare cacumina quercus (videres).'

L. 157. _Car en de longs détours..._ A long line. Its twelve syllables certainly take more time in the delivery than any other twelve. Hence the better adapted the line is to convey the poet's meaning.

L. 158. _Il enchaînait._ The meaning is that he gave a _connected_ account of....

L. 162. _Les amours immortelles_ for _les amours des immortels_. Virgil, _Georg._ iv. 347.

L. 164. _Iliad_, i. 528: 'He said; and his black eyebrows bent;... great heaven shook.'--CHAPMAN.

L. 166. The war of the Titans.

L. 167. The Trojan war is here entered upon.

L. 168. Cf, Homer, _Iliad_, iii. 13; xiii. 336; Virgil, _Aeneid_, ix, 63, 64.

L. 170. _Iliad_, ii, 455: 'And as a fire upon a huge wood, on the heights of hills; that far off hurls his light; so the divine brass shined on these.'--CHAPMAN.

L. 172. _Iliad_, xix. 405, Xanthus, one of Achilles' horses ('twas Juno's will to make vocal the palate of the one,' to use Chapman's words), answers his master's charge to acquit himself well with a prediction that 'not far hence the fatal minutes are Of _his_ grave ruin.'

L. 177. _mortels aux épouses..._ This must be an instance of those 'régimes inusités donnés aux adjectifs' which Raynouard censured in 1819. This is once more _à_ in the sense of _pour_. 'Rechercher un trépas si _mortel à_ ma gloire,' Corneille, _Cid_, I. ii. But compare the (perhaps) more modern construction: 'Cette mode durera peu; elle est _mortelle pour_ les dents.'--Madame de Sévigné, 4 avril 1671 (in LITTRÉ).

L. 179. _Laetas segetes._ Virgil, _Georg._ i. I.

L. 182. Homer. _Iliad_, xviii. 491; Hesiodus, _The Shield of Hercules_, 274.

L. 183. _à soulever les mers._ _à=pour._ See note to p. 3, l. 88.

Ll. 185, 186. _Il._ xviii. 35-70.

L. 189. Ulysses' descent to Hades, _Od._ xi.

L. 190. _les champs d'asphodèle._ _Od._ xi, 539.

Ll. 191-194. _Od._ xi. 36. _Aeneid_, vi. 305. l. 192, and Dryden's translation of the corresponding line of Virgil may be compared: 'And youths entombed before their father's eyes.'

Ll. 197-200. _Od._ viii. 274. Ovid, _Metam._ iv. 175. _Inconnus_, here, for _invisibles_. The stricture of the first critic of A. Chénier, Népomucène Lemercier, that the poet 'dénature le sens des mots,' if generally unjust, may apply to this instance.

L. 201. _il revêtait d'une pierre soudaine_ is very happily said for _il revêtait soudainement de pierre_.

L. 202. _Il._ xxiv. 602.

L. 203. _Accents de douleurs_ would, in prose, be _accents de douleur_, without the _s_, which is here put that, as _douleurs_ rhymes with _pleurs_, the eye may be satisfied.

L. 204. _Od._ xix. 518; Virgil, _Ecl._ vi. 78.

L. 208. _Od._ iv. 220.

L. 209. _Od._ x. 304.

Ll. 210-212. _Od._ ix. 94. See Tennyson's _Lotos Eaters_.

L. 211. _à ce philtre charmés_, an instance of _à_ denoting a relation of cause--'Qui demeure surprise _à_ l'éclat de ces lieux,' Molière, _Psyché_, III. i. 988. See Haase, § 123.

L. 212. _Od._ ix. 54.

L. 214. _Od._ xxi. 295; _Il._ i. 266, ii. 742; Ovid, _Met._ xii. 210. Chénier follows Ovid.

L. 217. _enfants de la nue._ The Centaurs were descended from Ixion and Nephele, the cloud.

L. 221. _mon affront_, i.e. the affront offered me. This is a frequent use. Thus Racine makes Athalie say: 'que je ne cherche point à venger _mes_ injures,' i.e. the wrongs suffered by me.

L. 224. Ovid, _Met._ xii. 247.

L. 226. _Aen._ x. 730; _Od._ xviii. 99.

Ll. 241-252. E. Faguet in his _Chénier_ quotes this passage as an instance of energetic precision. 'The problem, he writes, is to depict this: A centaur (bear in mind that a centaur is a creature half-beast, half-man, with the body of a horse, the bust and head of a man, four feet, two arms, all this you must bear in mind), a centaur, with his two fore-feet, is trying to bear down a man, while, with his right arm, armed with a club, he seeks to brain another man. A third man leaps on to the back of the centaur, whence, pulling back his enemy's head with one hand, he thrusts a burning brand down his throat. The problem is to put all this in clear, precise, energetic, picturesque lines, and in few lines too. Chénier has succeeded in putting it in twelve times twelve syllables, with the result that, as it is, it stands in sharp outline as in a piece of sculpture.'

L. 246. _D'un érable noueux_, a club of maple. Dryden, _Aen._ '[Hercules] tossed about his head his _knotted oak_.'

L. 250. _chevelure horrible_, in the Latin sense of 'horrid, bristling.'

Ll. 254-256. _Et le bois porte au loin des hurlements... l'ongle frappant...._ Of course, what the wood conveys far away are such sounds as the trample of hoofs, the cries of the wounded warriors, the crash of the broken vessels, &c.

L. 255. _l'ongle_, Lat. _ungula_, stands for _le sabot_. Cf. _Aen._ viii. 596 'quatit _ungula_ campum.'

Ll. 260, 261. _Admiraient... abonder les paroles._ This use of _admirer_ followed by a pure infinitive, though, so far as we know, unprecedented, has nothing shocking in it and tends to make the line more concise. The construction is on the analogy of that which is customary with such verbs as _voir_, _entendre_, and 'admiraient abonder' is here said for 'voyaient avec admiration abonder.' Everything here is striking in the matter of language. _Admirer_ is somewhat archaic and means 'to wonder.' 'Abonder de sa bouche' is anything but a hackneyed phrase. The etymological meaning of _abonder_, Lat. _abundare_, to overflow, was surely in the mind of Chénier when he wrote this. Such novelties as these make his style exquisite. Some pains should be taken to make something pass into English of the felicitous phrasing. Shall we presume to submit this suggestion; 'they admired the divine words, how they flowed from his lips'?

L. 262. _Comme en hiver la neige..._ _Il._ iii. 221, 'And words that flew about our ears, like drifts of winter's snow.'--CHAPMAN.

Ll. 263-265. Cf. Homer, _Hymn to Apollo_, 514.

L. 268. _Convive du nectar_ (table-companion of the gods--Horace's 'Conviva Deorom,' _Od._ i. 28--at their nectar) is a novel collocation of words, and, though of difficult analysis, grammatically speaking, is perfectly satisfactory as being easily understood, 'Partaker of nectar' would be an easy English rendering.

L. 269. _prospère_ renders the _laetus_ of Virgil, _Aen._ i. 732. The English equivalent might be 'blest.' Chénier liked the word, as appears from his Commentary on Malherbe.

L. 270. _Homère._ The name of the blind bard, which, ever since the first lines of the poem, has been a mystery for no reader, has been kept for the last word of the poem.

II. LE MENDIANT.

In this piece, illustrative of the rites of hospitality in ancient Greece, Chénier has drawn much of his inspiration from the arrival of Ulysses in Phaeacia; as it is described in the sixth book of the _Odyssey_. The reader will also notice, from the gaps in the text and unfinished lines, that the poem had not reached the stage of completion. Chénier, who himself published none but two of his poems, was prevented by death from giving the finishing touch to this and many other pieces.

L. 8. _Od._ 127, 137; _Aen._ iii. 590.

L. 15. _Aspect_, in the sense of 'apparition, ghost,' is a Latinism. Yet it is quite an allowable concretisation of the word, as in French and English 'apparition, vision,' in English 'sight' and in English 'aspect' itself, which we find used with the meaning of 'a thing seen' in the _N.E.D._

L. 21. _Od._ vi. 150.

Ll. 23, 24. _les voeux des... humains Ouvrent des immortels les bienfaisantes mains._ If the maid is a goddess indeed, the beggar entertains some hopes of her mercy, for, says he, 'oftentimes have the prayers of the unfortunate opened the bountiful hands of the immortals--obtained of those hands that they should "open their bounty" (_Henry VIII_, iii. 2. 184) to them.'

Ll. 25, 26. _quelque front... qui te nomme_, one of those incoherent metaphors which our (in this respect) delicate taste demurs at, but which the old writers--Shakespeare being among the greatest sinners--indulged in freely.

These two lines display imperfect rimes, the _o_ in _couronne_ being short, whilst the _o_ in _trône_ is long.

L. 34. _Tremblante._ The 'rejet' helps the meaning. The reader's voice, arrested by the unavoidable pause at the end of the preceding line, is forced into imitating the hesitation that he is told was discernible in the maid's utterance. But perhaps this is more perceptible to a Frenchman used to more rigidity in the rimed versification of his great classics than to an Englishman with the freedom of blank verse in his ear.

L. 35. _quand la nuit descend_, the present for the future. See Haase, § 67, Remark I; Ayer, p. 466.

L. 42. _il pleure aux pleurs..._ This is neatly said. Notice the use of the preposition _à_ expressing a relation of cause, as in '_A_ l'orgueil de ce traître, De mes ressentiments je n'ai pas été maître' (Molière, _Tartufe_, v. 3. 1709). See Haase, § 123. Cf. p. 7, l. 211.

Ll. 51, 52. _au devoir... Rangent... Ranger à_ = _soumettre à, réduire à._

L. 54. _ses mains sur ce visage._ This was one of the rites observed by suppliants. See Euripides, _Hecuba_, 344.

L. 55. _Indulgente._ Becq de Fouquières remarks that the adjective is used in its Latin sense of _complaisant_. This is the English meaning: 'disposed to gratify by compliance with desire or humour,' whilst the French meaning is restricted to that of being 'ready to overlook or forgive faults or failings.'

L. 58. _sur l'autre bord._ Across the bridge.

L. 62. _n'insulte à sa misère._ _Insulter à_, still in use by the side of transitive _insulter_, is the equivalent of obsolete English 'insult over, on, at.'

L. 66. _mon élève_, not my 'pupil,' but my 'foster-child.' A farmer or a nurseryman speaking of the cattle he breeds or the plants he raises will say _mes élèves_. But the term is here exceptionally applied to a human being.

L. 74. _Le toit s'égaye et rit._ This line, criticized by Ponsard (_Études antiques_) as non-Homeric, is a translation of Catullus, lxiv. 285 'queis permulsa domus iocundo _risit_ odore.' In fact, the attribution of feelings to inanimate things is as old as poetry itself. Countless instances in all languages might be adduced. For this use of _laugh_ in English see _N.E.D._, s.v. laugh 1 c., and notice that Pope, in translating the _Odyssey_, has made Homer say, 'In the dazzling goblet _laughs_ the wine,' iii. 601.

L. 75. _au loin circule_, i.e. forms a long circle.

L. 77. _animées_, appearing alive, of course, like the 'animated marble' of Pope, _Temple of Fame_, 73.

Ll. 77, 78. _Od._ vii. 100, 'Youths forged of gold, at every table there, Stood holding flaming torches.'--CHAPMAN. Cf. Lucretius, ii. 24.

L. 84. _lits teints._ _Aen._ i. 708, which Dryden translates 'The painted couches.'

L. 86. _Est admise_: exceptionally, for women, as a rule, did not sit at the same table with the men.

L. 89. _Et déjà vins_, &c. The ellipsis of the verb imparts greater vivacity to the narrative. The unexpected interruption is therefore made more abrupt.

L. 93. _s'assied parmi la cendre._ _Od._, vii. 153: '[Ulysses] went to the hearth, and in the ashes sat,' CHAPMAN; 'as the custom was in those days when any would make a petition to the throne,' adds Lamb by way of commentary, _Adventures of Ulysses_, vi.

L. 94. _Od._ vii, 144, 145. '...His view With silence and with admiration strook The court quite through.'--CHAPMAN.

Ll. 97-100. Hesiod, _Theog._ 84. _De l'Olympe envoyé_, ibid. 97.

L. 98. _Semblent d'un roi._ Elliptical for _semblent être d'un roi_. _Être de_ itself is elliptical for _de être celui, ceux_. The French idiom has its English equivalent in 'My kingdom _is_ not _of_ this world.'

L. 100. _Od._ xiv. 205; Hesiod, _Theog._ 97.

L. 102. _la main hospitalière_, with the definite article, not '_ta_ main...,' as has sometimes been printed, nor, as the more current phrase runs, '_une_ main.' The beggar is then made to use, as it were, a technical phrase, to name a well-known rite. In the same way we say '_the_ kiss of peace,' '_the_ stirrup-cup.'

L. 104. _Od._ xvii 347: 'Bashful behaviour fits no needy man.'--CHAPMAN.

L. 110. _Theognis_, 649.

Ll. 111, 112. This seems to owe something to an extract from Menander in the _Florilegium_ of Stobaeus, xcvi, which, together with a line of _Theognis_, quoted under the same heading, has partly inspired the following lines of Chénier, ll. 113, 114.

L. 115. _plus que l'enfer_, more than the gates of hell, is the phrase, _Il._ ix. 312; _Od._ xiv. 156.

L. 116. _Le public ennemi_, i.e. _l'ennemi public_. The inversion is awkward, as the collocation of the words is precisely that which would express 'the hostile public.'

Ll. 122-4. _Od._ xvii. 485.

L. 123. _traînés_, of course, goes with _haillons_.

L. 125. _Il._ l. 22.

L. 127. _et que puissent._ The more modern phrase would be _puissent tes voeux_. Malherbe: '_que puisses-tu_, grand soleil de nos jours, Faire sans fin le même cours.' See Haase, 73 B.

Ll. 127, 128. _Od._ xvii. 354.

L. 134. For these details see _Od._ iv. 290.

L. 139. _nourrit un long amour_: a very happy phrase, recalling La Fontaine's 'quittez le _long espoir_ et les vastes pensées,' _Fables_, XL viii. In Shakespeare's '_A long farewell_ to all my greatness.' _Henry VIII_, iii. 2. 351, we have a similar use of 'long'. Such epithets stand in lieu of a whole phrase.

L. 143. _Od._ vii. 174, 175: 'And there was spread A table, which the butler set with bread,'--CHAPMAN.

L. 144. _Sieds-toi._ _Se seoir_, for instances of which we must go to the seventeenth century, its uses being confined to the present of the indicative, the imperative, and the infinitive, is an archaism. Such archaisms, like _que puissent_ above, give more solemnity to the tone, make the scene recede, as it were, into the past.

L. 150. _l'éponge._ _Od._ i. 111: 'Some... With porous _sponges_ cleansing tables.'--CHAPMAN.

L. 151. _S'approche_, i.e. 'is brought by the servants.' The stranger does not sit at the common table, but, as when Ulysses is entertained by Alcinous, a table is spread for him.

L. 152. _le disque_: _discus_, platter for meat, whence O.E. 'disc,' E. 'dish,' and German _Tisch_, a table. _d'airain_; cf. _Il._ xi. 630: 'a brass fruit-dish.'--CHAPMAN.

L. 153. _l'amphore vineuse._ An epithet of nature. Chénier, it will be noticed, used them freely, as the ancients did.

L. 155. _leur lendemain..._ A thought akin to that in Homer, _Od._ xv. 400: 'Betwixt his sorrows every humane joys.'--CHAPMAN.

Ll. 156-159. _Od._ vii. 178: '... command That instantly your heralds fill in wine, That to the god that doth in lightnings shine We may do sacrifice: for he is there Where these his reverend suppliants appear.'--CHAPMAN.

L. 158. _Pour boire._ An unexpected passage from indirect to direct speech, as in Homer, _Il._ xv. 348. The abrupt break in construction is more telling in French than in English, where it is a more common device.

L. 160. For this rite see _Od._ iii. 45.

L. 163, 164. _Od._ vii. 192.

L. 169. _De sourire et de plainte_ would be _de sourires et de plaintes_ in prose. But the two _s_'s of the plural would prevent the two _e_'s from being elided and so give two syllables more.

L. 170. _tes nobles toits._ The plural for the singular, that the form of the word, riming with _abois_, may satisfy the eye. A Latinism besides.

Ll. 174-179. _Od._ xiv. 462. I cannot refrain from giving here Chapman's quaint equivalent for _ce que... il eût mieux valu taire_: 'strong wine,' he makes Ulysses say, 'moves the wise to... prefer a speech to _that were better in_.'

L. 184. See _Od._ viii. 136.

L. 185. _n'ai point passé l'âge_ 'où l'on est robuste' is understood.

L. 186. _La force et le travail, que je n'ai point perdus_, a hendyadis for 'la force de travailler.'

Ll. 188 ff. In the same way Ulysses (_Od._ xv. 317) declares to Eumaeus that he is ready to do all kind of menial work to earn a livelihood.

L. 194. _diriger_, train.

L. 195. _Et le cep et la treille._ The low vine-plant, such as is seen in the vine-growing parts of France, and the espalier or trellis vine.

L. 196. _la faux recourbée._ One of those descriptive epithets so frequent in primitive poetry.

Ll. 199-201. Hesiod, _Op. et Dies_, 307, 303-5.

L. 201. _à rien faire._ Some purists censure the use of _rien_ without _ne_ on the ground that _rien_ of itself means _quelque chose_ (Lat. _rem_), as in: 'Pourquoi consentez-vous à _rien_ prendre de lui?'--Molière, _Tartufe_, V. vii; but the abuse, if it is really to be considered as one, is authorized by the best writers, Molière, Racine, &c. In answers _rien_ is used by itself with the sense of 'nothing.' Add to this the phrases _pour rien_, _réduire à rien_, _venir à rien_, _un homme de rien_, _rien que cela_, _si peu que rien_, _moins que rien_, where _rien_ actually means 'nothing'. Also the substantive: _un rien, des riens_. Also _un vaurien_ (='un homme qui ne vaut rien'). The objection to _rien_ in the present sentence would be just if the omission of the negation _ne_ entailed the least ambiguity, but such is not the case.

L. 202. _Od._ xix. 253 and 322.

L. 203. _élever sa langue_ for _élever la voix_ is decidedly indefensible. But Chénier carefully avoids obvious alliances of words. See note to p. 64, l. 4.

L. 205. _Sans craindre qu'un affront ne trouble._ The second negative _ne_ had better have been left out. The strict rule is to omit it after _sans_. Yet several instances of _sans que... ne_ and even _sans que... ne... point_ occur in the seventeenth century, namely in Mme de Sévigné. See Haase, § 103 B.

L. 206. _L'indigent se méfie._ Menander in Stobaeus, _Florilegium_, xcvi. _Od._ vii. 307.

L. 209. A reminiscence of Horace, _Od._ ii. 9. The same thought occurs again at p. 66, l. 4.

L. 210. Propertius, ii. 28. 31; Theocritus, _Idyll._ iv. 4.

L. 211. _Et tel pleure._ Cf. 'Tel qui rit vendredi, dimanche pleurera.'--Racine, _Plaideurs_, i. I. Observe the fitness of those two forms of the same proverb to their several contexts. The _vendredi_ and _dimanche_, humorous precisions, would never do here.

L. 212. _en tes discours préside_--not '_à_ tes discours.' Chénier means, not 'wisdom presides over thy discourses,' but 'wisdom rules, bears sway, prevails, is paramount in thy discourses,' Cf. _Od._ xix. 352; xx. 37.

Ll. 228-231. _Aen._ i. 628.

Ll. 229, 230. _n'a point à l'indigence fait..._, 'has not caused indigence to envy the destiny of the wealthy Lycus,' The object of _faire_, which is at the same time the subject of the infinitive _envier_, is in the dative. See Littré, _Dict._, s. v. 'Faire,' Remarques 1-5; also Haase, 390.