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.; 1 2 3 4 5 6 l. 7 . . . || _est cher à ma mémoire!_ = 6 sylls. It is for this reason that Racine avails himself (ll. 92, 436, 514, 1232) of the license to spell _encor_ instead of _encore_, thereby reducing the word by one syllable: 1 2 3 4 5 6 l. 436 . . . || _le voit encor la nuit_; and conversely he writes _jusques_ for _jusque_ before _au_, to prevent the elision and keep the word dissyllabic, in 1 2 3 4 5 6 l. 136 _Sion, jusques au ciel_: || . . . .