Sans cela. See note on page 46, line
JESSY
This delightful little story, one of the very few by Anatole France touching upon England, is somewhat suggestive of Dickens.
Page 140. — I. Élisabeth. Queen Elizabeth reigned from 1558 to 1603.
2-3. Bog, Bogus. It was common for scholars at this time to Latinize their names. It is quite possible that Anatole France is punning on the English word “bogus.”
17-19. Et tel . . . le reste. Anatole France, fundamentally unsystematic himself, never wearies of ridiculing all systems of philosophy.
27. Clausentina, Southampton. The Roman settlement of Clausentum was very near the modern city of Southampton.
Page 143. — 10. Pline. C. Plinius Secundus {Pliny the Elder), 23-79 AD., was the author of a famous work on natural history.
II. Avicenne, Avicenna (980-1037), famous Arabic philosopher and physician.
23. sitôt levée, a common type of abbreviation, for sitôt (que je me suis) levée.
LES PAINS NOIRS
This story illustrates the half serious, half smiling vein in which Anatole France liked to treat legends of miracles. It takes place in his beloved Florence, scene of many of his stories and of his novel Le lys rouge. The origin of the story is found: first, in a passage, quoted as epigraph, from the StuUifera Navis, the Latin version of the sixteenth century German Narrenschijf, {Ship of Fools), picturing the fate of the rich miser who refuses a crumb to the beggar; second, in the tradition that
NOTES
Saint Michael weighed the souls of sinners before admitting them to heaven; and third, in a passage from the Golden Legend relating how a dead sinner was restored to life and amended his ways.
Page 146. — i. En ce temps-là; apparently the fourteenth or fifteenth century. — Nicolas Nerli. Nerli was a Florentine name, but Nicolas seems unknown to fame.
2. la noble ville de Florence. Florence was at the height of her prosperity and her glory, literary and artistic, from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century.
ig. Vertus. The Virtues are divided into intellectual, moral and theological; the last are Faith, Hope and Charity.
22. Alexandre. Alexander the Great, of Macedon (356- 323 B.C.), the famous conqueror, was the hero of a long medieval romance relating many marvelous adventures, some historical, some imaginary.
23. Tristan. Tristan (Tristram), legendary nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, has been immortalized in medieval epic and in Wagner’s opera by his love for Iseut (Isolde). His name also became connected with the legends of King Arthur and the Round Table.
Page 146. — 2. Sainte-Marie-Nouvelle, Santa Maria Novella, a fine Gothic and Renaissance church, built 1278-1470.
Page 147. — • i. “ muet de toute lumière ” ; a quotation from Dante’s Inferno, V, 28: “lo venni in loco d’ogni luce muto ” (“I came into a place mute of all light ”). — saint Michel. Saint Michael, the Archangel, is sometimes represented in medieval art holding a pair of scales in which he weighs the souls of the dead.
S. rognures. Before the invention of milled edges on coins dishonest people often clipped off and kept a little of the precious metal.
Page 148. — 3-4. pour n’être point, even if they were not. See note on page 7, line 6.
NOTES
30. larron, the thief crucified with Jesus, to whom He said: “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” See Luke, xxiii, 39-43-
31. prostituée, the woman, sometimes identified with Mary Magdalene, who anointed Christ’s feet, and to whom He said: “Thy sins are forgiven.” See Luke, vii, 37-50.
EXERCICES
MODÈLE A SUIVRE Conversation
Questioti: A qui l’auteur offre-t-il cette histoire ?
Réponse: Il ne l’offre qu’aux gens qui veulent bien s’amuser.
Expressions idiomatiques
Employer la locution suivante dans des phrases complètes de votre invention:
à vrai dire.
A vrai dire, je n’ose espérer que ce récit lui plaise.
Exercice de grammaire
Mettre des mots pour compléter le sens à la place des tirets:
La comtesse entra — l’oratoire.
La comtesse entra dans l’oratoire.
EXERCICE I
Pages 3-7
A. Conversation
Répondre par des propositions complètes aux questions suivantes :
1. Pourquoi ne reste- t-il nul vestige du duché des Clarides?
