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NOTES TO PICCIOLA.

BOOK I.

I.

PAGE 15.

1. 1. dont le nom, 'whose name'. Observe that dont corresponds to the Latin cujus, quorum, etc., and is used both for persons and things, whereas de qui can be said of persons only. Duquel, de laquelle (or de qui speaking of persons), must be used for 'whose' whenever there is a preposition between 'whose' and its antecedent, as: 'L'enfant aux caprices duquel (or de qui) nous nous soumettons'.

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1. 2. oublié des érudits, forgotten by the learned'. Obs. that the genitive in French answers, for the most part, to the Latin genitive and ablative. Whenever the passive verb expresses a state or condition and not an action of the body or mind the preposition de is used instead of par.

1. 3. pourrait au besoin se retrouver, might, in case of need, still be found. The French dislike the use of the passive, and employ in its place a reflective verb, as 'cela se trouva' (it was found), or the impersonal on, as 'on l'aimait' (he was loved).

1. 4. était né (natus erat), 'was born'. Naître, like all other neuter verbs that express a change of state or place, is conjugated with the auxiliary être. Some neuter verbs of motion use avoir if they imply action, être if they imply state or condition.

1. 5. haute intelligence, ‘lofty intellect'. Haut before the substantive that it qualifies means exalted (morally), after the substantive it signifies high (physically).

façonnée dans les écoles, 'trained in the lecture rooms'.

1. 6. le pli, the bent, i.e. the habit of disputation'. Pli is a verbal substantive from plier (Lat. plicare), the doublet of which is ployer. 1. 7. faits sociaux, 'social phenomena'.

1. 8. il devait faire, 'he was bound to become'. Devoir is used with an infinitive to form idiomatic tenses. Je dois...I must, I am to,, I cannot but, I am in duty bound to.

1. 10. dès, 'from'; der. from Lat. de ex, sc. tempore.

1. 11. complète. The adjectives ending in et which do not double the in the feminine are complet, concret, discret, inquiet, secret, prêt, reflet, replet.

1. 12. s'être donné la peine, 'to have taken the trouble'. Obs. donné remains invariable because its direct object la peine comes after it; the pronoun s' (=se) is the dative or indirect object.

1. 13. faire preuve de, 'to exhibit'.

1. 18. s'il avait de nombreux valets, if he had many intellectual resources at his command'; lit. numerous servants (these seven languages) ministering to his intellect. Valet, from medieval Latin vassalettus, was formerly vaslet and, if true to its etymology, should be written with the circumflex accent.

1. 20. ses landes à défricher, 'its waste lands to be reclaimed'. Landes is moors, while terres is lands.

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1.5. il fit un autre roman, 'he only produced a fresh romance, a new fiction'.

1. 8. quelque chose de. Observe that with quelque chose, quelqu'un, personne, quoi, rien, the genitive of the adj. is used instead of the adj. in agreement with the noun; cp. Lat. aliquid novi.

1. 11. tant d'honnêtes existences..., 'so many honest folk were thus comfortably regulating their life on a wrong principle'.

1. 14. l'ouragan révolutionnaire, 'the revolutionary hurricane,' i. e. the sweeping changes introduced by the Revolution of 1789. Ouragan; in the 17th cent. houragan; originally a sea-term brought from the Antilles.

1. 18. s'il allait mettre le feu...,what, if perchance he was on the point of setting the world on fire at the four points of the compass, all about a doubt of his '.

1. 24. se choquent sans bruit, 'clash noiselessly'.

1. 26. sentence..., a sentiment more brilliant than accurate'. Observe that words used in apposition require no article in French.

1. 31. plus il n'entrevit qu'obscurité..., 'the more he perceived that he had before him nothing but obscurity and confusion'. Entrevoir is to catch a glimpse of, to see dimly.

1. 34. feu follet, will-o'-the-wisp,' ignis fatuus'. Follet is a diminutive of fol=fou, derived from the medieval Lat. follus, one who grimaces, moves affectedly. Another derivation is follis, a balloon.

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1. 5. fanaux menteurs, 'misleading beacons'. Fanal was introduced in the 16th cent. from the Ital. fanale.

1. 6. mettaient au défi, 'bid defiance to,' 'set at defiance'.

1. 7. ballotté..., 'tossed about between Bossuet and Spinosa'. Bossuet, the eloquent bishop of Meaux under Louis XIV., and Spinosa, the

Jewish philosopher, whom the Rabbis of Amsterdam excommunicated, stand here as representatives of orthodoxy and heresy. The temper of opinion has changed about Spinosa; he is no longer called a systematic atheist but a God-intoxicated man. Baruch Despinosa, or Benedictus de Spinoza, was born at Amsterdam in 1632. His parents were descendants of Portuguese Jews who had sought refuge in Holland from the merciless Inquisition. The opinions, for holding which he was excommunicated, are such as must shock all Christians and most Theists; to him, even more than to Kant, can be applied the epithet of 'all-shattering'; there is but a trivial distinction between his Acosmism, which makes God the one universal being, and Atheism, which makes Cosmos the one universal existence. (Lewes, Hist. of Philosophy.)

1. 8. spiritualistes.... The different systems or schools of philosophy here alluded to are partly explained by their names. Thus the Deists believe in the existence of God, but not in revealed religion; the Atheists deny the existence of Deity; Spiritualists have a regard only to spiritual things; Sensualists hold that all our knowledge is derived originally from the senses; Animists trace everything to the action of the soul; Ontologists dwell on the essence of beings and their abstract properties; Eclectics pick out what seems to them best of different systems; Materialists refer everything to matter.

1. 14. Leibnitz (born at Leipzig, 1646) was one of the most illustrious of metaphysicians. While Locke (born at Wrington, Somerset, 1632) was doing his utmost to destroy Ontology, Leibnitz endeavoured to place it on a scientific basis. He constructed a scheme from logical principles accepted à priori. The principle of Contradiction, the principle of Sufficient Reason, the principle of Agreement (convenientia), were all, so to speak, derived from the à priori notions of the wisdom and goodness of God. Immanuel Kant was born at Königsberg in 1724; there he passed a calm and happy existence, meditating, professing and writing. He had mastered all the sciences; he had studied languages, and cultivated literature. He lived and died a type of the German professor. His Critique of the Pure Reason ushered in a new Philosophy, a system which explained the action and re-action of the Objective (external objects) and the Subjective (the human mind).

1. 15. les sceptiques.... These names explain themselves; Sceptics throw doubt on everything; Empirics trust to experience; Realists maintain that in external perception the objects immediately known are real existences; Nominalists hold that abstract properties (Universals) have no objective existence and are mere names; Pantheists see God in everything in nature.

1. 28. comme s'il eût créé lui-même, 'just as if he himself had founded it'. Obs. that si before an auxiliary usually takes the imperfect subjunctive. Si generally takes a present or imperfect indicative, but, when the verb on which the condition depends is a verb of doubt, the future or conditional is used, as: 'Je vous avertirai si je le vois,' but 'je ne sais s'il réussira'.

1. 30. si fort obsédé, 'so much beset'. Fort and bien used for très require no hyphen to unite them with the word they qualify.

1. 34. depuis l'installation..., 'ever since the establishment of the consular government'. After the return of Bonaparte from Egypt, in 1799, the five Directors, who constituted the executive power, were replaced by three Consuls of whom he was first. This form of government lasted till 30 Sept. 1804, when he made himself Emperor. 1. 38. fréquenta le monde, 'went into society'.

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1. 6. il avait essayé d'une liaison, he had tried an intimacy'. Essajer, v. a. to try (physically); essayer de to make the trial of (morally).

1. 8. vulgaires, 'common-place'.

encroûtés d'erreurs, 'incrusted (or imbued) with errors'.

1. 10. on ne trouve plus, we no longer find'. The indefinite on is more commonly used in French than its corresponding pronoun one, in English; it is used constantly to avoid the passive; cp. p. 15, 1. 3.

1. 11. qui en savent autant,... those even who know as much (about it)'. The pronoun en cannot here be rendered in English; it always accompanies the indefinite pron. quelqu'un, quelques-uns, autre, and the numeral adjectives or adverbs of quantity, when the noun to which they refer is not expressed in the same part of the sentence.

1. 20. sevrée, 'weaned,' ' deprived'. Sevrer from Lat. separare is a doublet of séparer.

1. 22. dépassait du premier bond..., 'outstripped at one leap the pompous revelry of the Regency'. This Regency was that of Philip, duke of Orleans, from 1715 to 1723, during the minority of Louis XV. 1. 29. P'hôte, the guest'. Observe hôte like its Lat. original hospes is both host and guest.

1. 31. dérider son cœur, cheer his heart'. Dérider (lit. unwrinkle). 1. 32. en aveugle, blindly'. Aveugle from Lat. aboculus, compd. of ab (privative) and oculus, like amens, out of one's mind, which is compd. of a and mens.

1. 33. la sirène, the alluring siren'=pleasure. Siren, in mythology, one of certain fabulous sea-nymphs in S. Italy who enticed mariners to destruction by sweet music.

1. 2. le doux non-savoir, 6

formed from the inf. are all

PAGE 19.

Subst.

'sweet_(or happy) ignorance'. masc. In the case of le plaisir, le loyer, le loisir, l'avenir, we have in the inf. used as subst. the only remains of the Old French verbs plaisir (placere), to please; loyer (locare), to let; loisir (licere), to have time; avenir (advenire), to happen.

1. 13. désenchantant son regard, ‘banishing all illusions from before his eyes'.

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1. 17. et ne témoignaient que du désir..., gave indications only of the desire to secure at his expense a seat'. Témoigner is here v. n. 1. 23. qui s'attaque aux superbes, which assails the proud'. Sattaquer à is stronger than attaquer, it is to attack with pertinacity.

1. 24. il croyait sentir, for il croyait qu'il sentait, he thought he smelt'. This use of the infinitive is elegant, and always resorted to with the verbs croire, espérer, penser, when the inf. following these verbs has the same subject as they have.

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1. 25. qui en avait fourni la laine, which had furnished the wool of which it was made'.

1. 26. il voyait se promener, he saw crawling'. Obs. that the inf. (not as in English the participle present) is used after verbs of sight and hearing.

1. 28. ses colifichets, his knick-knacks,'' his trinkets'. Colifichet is der. from coller and ficher, to gum and fix little cut-out figures.

1. 38. il se fit initier, he got initiated'. Observe the infinitive active with faire instead of the passive. This also occurs with laisser, which, like faire, forms with the accompanying infinitive a verbal expression the sense of which is active: Ex. se laisser prendre, se faire tuer. The active form of the infinitive preceded by à appears also in sentences in which the English use the passive form: Ex. Il est bien à plaindre, -bon à brûler.

PAGE 20.

1. 3. peut-être cet amour...n'était-il; this interrogative form is generally used after peut-être, en vain, du moins, à peine, toujours, aussi (in the sense of accordingly'), when they precede the verb instead of following it. Cp. Germ. vielleicht werde ich, perhaps shall I.

1. 7. en revenait,' thence fell back upon. En is derived from Lat. inde and is not generally used when speaking of persons; this is not however owing to its adverbial origin, since dont-de-unde applies to persons as well as to things without life.

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1. 8. le fier gentilhomme, the haughty nobleman'. Gentilhomme here refers to birth and rank; when it refers to manners only it may be translated by gentleman.

1. 14. couvait,' was brewing'. Couver (Lat. cubare) is to hatch, to sit on eggs.

1. 16. l'éventa à temps, discovered it in good time'.

1. 18. la plaine de Grenelle. The plain of Grenelle, in which military executions then took place, is now built upon and is included within the walls of Paris. The present Boulevard de Grenelle occupies a portion of this plain.

1. 19. enlevés à domicile, arrested in their own homes.

II.

1. 23. Alpes grecques, Graian Alps'. These form (with the Cottian. Alps) the W. boundary of the basin of the river Pô; they extend from Mont Cenis to Mont Blanc.

1. 24. moi, touriste, 'I a tourist'. Obs. the disjunctive pronoun moi because apart from the verb. In Old French moi, toi, lui were used for the indirect object only, and je, tu, il for the subject, e.g. 'je

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