Chapter VII: Appendix: III

_ACTIVE INFINITIVES WITH PASSIVE MEANING_.

_Faire_, _laisser_, and a very few verbs of physical perception, such as _voir_, _entendre_, _sentir_, are idiomatically used before an active infinitive which assumes a passive meaning. E.g., _J'ai fait faire un habit_, "I have had a coat made."

These constructions are due to the dropping of the obvious subject of the infinitive ("I made [the tailor] make a coat") which must be supplied in order to account for the form.

E.g., Esth. l. 9: . . . _je te fais chercher_ = _que je fais [mes esclaves] te chercher.

l. 146: _Quand verrai-je relever tes remparts_ = _quand verrai-je [tes fils] relever tes remparts_.

l. 386: _Sa voix s'est fait entendre_ = _sa voix a fait [nous] entendre elle-même_.

l. 731: _laissant de ses eaux partager le secours_ = _laissant [cette main] partager le secours de ses eaux_.

For other instances of this construction, see ll. 110, 181, 394, 407, 523.

This construction is possible in English: . . . "for whose sake Artemis let slay the boar" (Swinburne, Argument of "Atalanta in Calydon.")

NOTE. It should be borne in mind that, should the subject of the infinitive be expressed, whenever the infinitive is _transitive_, that subject may (and if the first verb is _faire_, must) be put in the dative case, or in the oblique case with _par_. Thus in l. 52,

_Il me fit d'un empire accepter l'espérance_,

_me_ is dative and not accusative. Similarly in l. 1280,

_Il nous fait remporter une illustre victoire_,

_nous_ is dative.