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.