521 à cannot be consequent to _trop_, which always takes _pour_. Tr. "in tormenting me."
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.
541 trop = "passing." For superlative use of _si_, cf. 1021.
546 nous = "us" [kings]. See App. I, Hiatus.
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.
563 Et = "Then."--_D'autant moins_ goes closely with following _que_.
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."
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.