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Jean Racine - Esther
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.
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