1. 6. on m'en apprit un. Notice the pron. en used partitively to supplement the numeral un; cp. p. 5, 1. 29.

1. 7. comment est-ce qu'il dit? 'how does it go on?'

1. 8. je ne sais, 'I can't tell'. Notice that pas is generally omitted with the verbs savoir, pouvoir, cesser, oser, bouger. This apparent anomaly is really a survival of the old usage; in the Old Fr. language ne was sufficient of itself and the words pas, point, goutte, mie, rien simply defined the negation, 'not a step, not a point, not a drop, not a scrap, not (any) thing'.

1. 9: il y a du mouton dedans, 'there is some sheep in it'. Much of the comic effect is lost in the English translation of the French mouton which means mutton as well as sheep.

1. 18. que n'est for que ne l'est. For the use of ne after a comparative, see p. 2, 1. 33.

1. 20. le plus joli du monde. After a superlative the English in is expressed in French by de.

1. 33. qui me montre 'who teaches me'; here me is dat. and les armes (understood) acc.

arrêter, 'to engage'.

1. 39. il n'y a rien qui soit. Notice the subjunctive after a relative pronoun preceded by a negative statement. The subjunctive is the mood used to express uncertainty; it therefore occurs most frequently after interrogative, negative, dubitative and imperative sentences.

PAGE 7.

1. 5. ne saurait rien faire. The verb savoir is often used for pouvoir, especially in the conditional taken negatively.

1. 8. n'arrivent que pour...'happen but through not learning music'. Molière often uses, as here, pour with the infinitive instead of parce que with the indicative; e.g. 'pour n'apprendre pas' =‘parce qu'ils n'apprennent pas'.

1. 11. dont, 'with which' or 'whereof'; dont, Lat. de-unde, is used in an abl. as well as in a gen. sense.

1. 13.

1. 16.

1. 19.

1. 22.

faute de, in Old Fr. par faute de.
manque d'union, 'lack of harmony'.
s'accorder, 'to harmonise'.

un manquement. Translate 'a slip', so as to correspond

with un mauvais pas, 'a false step', which follows.

1. 25. un tel='so and so'; the word homme is understood.

1. 34. à cette heure à présent.

1. 35. nos deux affaires, 'our two compositions'.

1. 38.

que peut exprimer la musique. This inversion of verb and subject after a relative pronoun in the acc. is very common, especially when the subject is of considerable length; its object is to balance better the whole sentence.

PAGE 8.

1. 2. vous figurer, 'picture to yourself'.

1. 8. donner dans la bergerie, launch into the sheepfold', i.e. ‘have recourse to pastorals': donner is here intransitive. This is a satire against the 'Grand Opéra Italien'.

1. 9. affecté aux bergers, 'attributed to shepherds'.

1. 11. passe, passe,='well, well', lit. 'let it pass'.

1. 16. de, 'by'. With verbs that express sentiment more than physical effort, action of the mind more than of the body, de is used instead of par.

1. 18. quoi que with subjunctive='whatever'; quoique also with subjunctive='although'.

1. 19. il n'est rien for il n'y a rien.

1. 23. dans une même envie, 'in one common flame'.

1. 28. l'amoureuse loi='love's yoke'.

1. 31. de, 'any'. After a negative verb, and also after an adv. of quantity (except bien used for beaucoup), de is used instead of du, de la, des.

1. 32. jour='life'.

PAGE 9.

1. 6. que tu m'es précieuse, 'how precious you are to me'. Obs. that the adj. or adv. comes after the verb in a sentence beginning with que != Lat. quam! 'How!'

1. 20. je te veux offrir for je veux t'offrir; cp. p. 2, 1. 22; p.4, 1. 27. 1. 26. qui des deux for lequel des deux.

1. 28. qui manquera, 'whoever will lack'.

Obs. manquer de = 'to be wanting in'; manquer à, 'to neglect, to slight'; manquer, without prep. 'to miss'; manquer, intrans.'to fail, to err'.

=

1..29. le puissent perdre les dieux for puissent les dieux le perdre. This pronoun le which is the antecedent to qui in the preceding line, is placed at the beginning of this for the sake of emphasis.

PAGE 10.

1. 3. bien troussé, 'well trussed' or 'well put together'; colloquial expression; so is dictons, 'words'.

1. 6. dont une danse puisse, 'with which a dance can'. The subjunctive is always used after a relative pron. preceded by a superlative. 1. 8. sont-ce encore, 'is it again'. For this plural form of the verb see p. 3, 1. 14.

ACT II.

PAGE 11.

1. 5. voilà qui n'est point sot 'this is not amiss'. Qui is here used in the sense of 'something which'. Voici, voilà are compounded of the adv. ci and là and of voi, the old imperative of voir, these two components were separable in the Old Fr., e.g. 'voi-me là' (for me voilà)='here I am'.

1. 6. se trémoussent bien='trip it right merrily'; se trémousser='to bestir one's self'.

1. 11. tantôt, 'presently'; compd. of tant tôt, 'so soon (as possible)'. It is used of past as well as of future time. When repeated it means at one time...at another.

au moins 'mind you'. This peculiar use of au moins='at least', is elliptical, some verb (e.g. je m'y at ends) being understood.

1. 12. personne, Lat. persona, is naturally fem.; with the idea of man it has become masc. in such locutions as personne n'est venu (i.e. in the sense of nemo in Lat.), the idea of man causing its proper gender to be forgotten; so the new idea of man, individual, caused the change of gender in the word gens.

1. 13. céans, 'here'; Old Fr. çaiens, originally çaens, compd. of adv. çà (Lat. ecce-hac) and ens (Lat. intus).

1. 15. au reste='but', 'besides', lit. 'as for the rest'.

1. 18. chez soi, 'at home'. In Mod. Fr. soi is only used in connexion with the indefinite pronouns.

1. 24. un dessus, ‘a treble'; haute-contre, 'counter-tenor'; basses continues, 'sustained bass parts'.

1. 28. trompette marine, a viol with a single string the sound of which resembled that of a trumpet; it is much as if one were to propose a banjo at a classical concert.

PAGE 12.

1. 6. de certains menuets. This is dependent on content.

1. 8. me les voyiez danser for me voyiez les danser. Here les refers

to menuets.

1. 17. estropiés '(hanging down as if they were) maimed', estropier, 'to cripple', from Ital. stroppiare.

1. 22. à propos='by the by'; lit. 'to the point'; Lat. ad propositum. comme il faut faire une révérence, 'how one must make a bow'. Comme for comment.

1. 23. marquise, 'marchioness'. Marquis, originally a governor set over the marches (frontiers) of the empire of Charlemagne; hence marchensis contracted into marchis=marquis.

1. 36. faites un peu= 'just show me'.

PAGE 13.

1. 6. dis-lui qu'il entre, 'tell him to come in'. Dis implying a command, the verb entrer is in the subjunctive.

1. 14.

en avoir présenté un. For this en, supplementing the numeral un, see p. 5, 29.

1. 15.

1.

la révérence = 'the (sword) salute'.

1. 16. point tant écartées, 'not so far apart'. Obs. when there is no verb the ne of the negation is omitted.

1. 20. à la hauteur de 'level with'.

1. 21. plus quartée = 'more squared'.

1. 22.

de quarte 'in quarte', a term in fencing. The whole sentence should be rendered: 'engage my sword in quarte and lunge from that position'.

1. 23.

une, deux. The fem. is used, the word fois being understood. remettez-vous='as you were'.

1. 26. porter la botte='to make a thrust'; botter, 'thrust, lunge' (in fencing) is from Ital. botta and is distinct from botte, 'a truss' or 'bundle (of hay)', O. H. G. bôzo, 'a fagot'; and also distinct from botte, 'a butt, leather bottle' (and finally boot), Germ. Bütte.

1. 32. en garde='parry', lit. 'on your guard'.

PAGE 14.

1. 2. ne point recevoir. Obs. that both parts of the negation precede the verb in the infinitive.

1. 9. du cœur, 'any courage'.

sûr, 'sure', Lat. securus, with a circumflex; while sur, 'on, upon’, Lat. super, has none.

tuer, 'to kill', from Medieval Lat. tutare, 'to extinguish'.

1. 14. l'on voit. Obs. l'on is generally used for on after si, et, où, and also after que, quoi; this use of the article with on is quite natural, since on homme, but derived from homo, whereas homme is from hominem. 1. 15.

nous autres, 'we fencing masters'; the indef. autre is often used thus to emphasise the personal pronoun.

1. 16. l'emporte hautement = carries the day with a high hand', lit. 'gains it' (i.e. Tavantage); cp. Lat. portare victoriam.

1. 19. tout beau! 'gently!' Tout doux, 'softly!'

1. 23. de plaisantes gens, 'comical folk'. Plaisant is obsolete in the sense of pleasant; its modern sense is 'amusing, droll, waggish'. Obs. an adj. that precedes gens is fem., while one which follows it is masc. (Tout is a peculiar exception to this rule; it remains masc. whether it comes before or after the word gens, unless coupled with an adj. which has a distinct fem. termination, e.g. 'toutes ces bonnes gens'.)

1. 35. lui qui. The second antecedent to qui, viz. the disjunctive pron. lui, is introduced because the original antecedent le (in l'aller quereller) does not immediately precede the relative.

1. 37. je me moque de, 'I care nothing for'.

PAGE 15.

1. 11. je vous étrillerai d'un air-'I'll drub you in a pretty fashion'. étriller is derived from étrille, 'curry-comb', formerly estrille from Lat. strigilis; cp. 'I'll comb your hair for you'.

1. 12. de grâce='I beseech you'.

1. 13.

rosser, 'to thrash'; Prov. rossegar, 'to beat a horse', der. from rosse, 'a sorry jade' (itself from Germ. Ross).

1. 29. se dire des injures, 'to insult each other'; se is here dat. en vouloir venir aux mains for vouloir en venir aux mains, 'to wish to come to blows about it'.

1. 30.

1. 32. s'emporter, 'fly into a passion'; hence emportements, ‘fits of temper'.

PAGE 16.

1. 19. de tirer des armes, 'of fencing'.

1. 26. baladin, 'mountebank', 'dancer'; der. from bal, 'ball', verbal subst. of O. Fr. baller, 'to dance', Lat. ballare.

1. 28. bélître de pédant, 'pedantic scoundrel'; for this genitive used adjectively cp. Lat. monstrum mulieris'.

1. 29. cuistre fieffe, 'arrant snob'; cuistre is der. by Littré, through custre (Germ. Küster), from Lat. custodem; it signified originally a 'college-servant', then a 'pedant'.

1. 34. coquins, 'rascals'; der. from Lat. coquus, 'cook, scullion'. 1. 36. la peste de l'animal, ‘plague take the animal'; lit. ‘be (in possession of)'.

1. 40. diantre soit de l'âne bâté, 'the deuce take the saddled ass'.

1. 13. battez-vous, 'fight'.

PAGE 17.

1. 14. je n'y saurais que faire, 'I cannot help it'; lit. 'I should not know what to do about it'.

1. 20. raccommodant son collet, 're-adjusting his bands'.

1. 27. laissons cela = 'no more of that'.

1. 30.

1. 5.

1. 8.

j'enrage='I am vexed'; lit. 'I become mad'.

veut dire, 'signifies'.

PAGE 18.

avoir raison = 'to be right'; similarly avoir tort=' to be wrong', avoir faim to be hungry', etc.

1. 19. qui sont-elles? for quelles sont-elles?

1. 23. universaux, 'universals', i.e. first principles; term used in Logic; so also catégories (='classification'), the name given by Aristotle to the first part of his Organon, wherein he divides into ten classes or 'categories' the ideas that can serve as either subject or attribute.

1. 27. rébarbatifs, 'crabbed'; from O. Fr. rebarber, compd. of re and barbe.

1. 28. ne me revient point, 'does not take my fancy'. Obs. revenir has the figurative meaning of 'to please'.

1. 1.

PAGE 19.

il n'y a morale qui tienne=‘in spite of all ethics'; lit. 'none that may hold or check'.

1. 2.

tout mon soul, 'all my fill'; soul, 'satiated', O. Fr. saoul, from Lat. satullus, found in Varro.

1. 8. la physique, ‘natural philosophy'.

1. 13. feux volants for feux-follets, 'will-o'-the wisp' or 'ignis fatuus'. tintamarre 'row'; brouillamini, 'confusion'.

1. 16.

1. 30. voyelle, 'vowel'; Lat. vocalis, so called because it makes a distinct voice or utterance and forms a syllable by itself, whereas the consonant (Lat. consonare, to sound along with) cannot make a distinct syllable without being sounded along with a vowel.