Cinq à, Five or

22. un lit meilleur qu’on n’en eût trouvé, a better bed than one could have found. The pluperfect subjunctive is used in written French instead of the perfect conditional (aurait trouvé) in the conclusions (or result clauses) of conditional sentences. ( Outline , I, C). Si l’on avait essayé is omitted. Ne is not to be translated; it is used in a comparison of inequality of which the first clause is not negative.

25. A moi n’appartenait pas l’honneur . . . , The honor . . . was

not mine. The unusual word order emphasizes moi. - — un si beau lieu, such a lovely spot.

NOTES

Page 6. — 5, d’en entendre parler, of hearing them talked about. After faire, laisser, and verbs of sense perception (entendre, sentir, voir), followed by a second verb, the pronoun object of the second verb (here en) is placed before the first verb. Note also that verbs of sense perception are usually followed in French by the infinitive (as here) or a relative clause, and in English by a participle.

10. mes Commentaires Elzévir. Elzévir remains in the singular because it is a proper name used as an adjective, as in des meubles Louis seize, etc.

19. Je mis pied à terre. In this expression, pied is pronounced, as usually, [pje], but in pied-à-terre, ‘ lodging occupied occasionally,’ or in de pied en cap, ‘ cap à pie,’ the d of pied is pronounced [t].

22. les mauvais soldats de Gédéon, who knelt down to drink and so were rejected by Gideon for service against the Midianites ( Judges , vii, 4-7). French forms of Old Testament names, such as Gédéon (Gideon), are taken from the Latin Bible (Vulgate). Mérimée, like Victor Hugo, is one of the rare French writers who make Biblical references with some frequency.

26. qu’il tenait d’abord horizontale, which he had previously held horizontally. Mérimée is fond of such uses of the imperfect for a preceding action which had continued until a given moment in the past. He thereby gives greater reality to his style.

28. Ne croyant pas devoir me formaliser, Hs I did not think I ought to take ofense.

Page 6. — 3. Mon cigare allumé. This construction, an imitation of the Latin, étant or ayant été being omitted, is popular with French writers and well adapted to Mérimée’s alert brevity.

8. à la manière andalouse. Andalusians pronounce s with the tip of the tongue against the lower teeth, so that their origin is readily detected.

1 7. comme il y avait longtemps que je n’avais fumé ! how long it has been since I have smoked! Pas is omitted with je n’avais fumé because pas is rarely used with a negative verb in a compound tense after il y a . . . que referring to time.

22. bien qu’il se dît. Bien que, quoique and other conjunctions

NOTES

of concession are regularly followed by the subjunctive. (II,

27. des murs . . . , tuiles . . . , pierres . . . Roman ruins. The tuiles à rebords are roof tiles with raised edges, serving to carry off the rain.

30. ce qui generally is used in summarizing an entire clause, qui in referring to a single word.

32. haras de Cordoue. Cf. Borrow, The Zincali (1843; cf. below, note to page 18, line 4), p. 63: “ Cordova has always been celebrated for its steeds, the best breeding horses in the whole of Spain being found in the stalls of the large landed proprietors in the neighborhood. These animals are of unequalled beauty ...” There was a famous royal stud in Cordova in Napoleonic times.

Page 7. — 1. prétendait, maintained; prétendre only occasionally means ‘ pretend.’

4. en, do not translate; it means ‘ in regard to the matter. ’ — C’est que j’étais = C’est parce que j’étais.

21. sans que j’en devinasse . . . without my guessing; subjunctive of manner, in use only after sans que and loin que, which negative the statement that follows.

Page 8. — 10. Je ne doutai pas que je n’eusse. Positive verbs of doubt are regularly followed by the subjunctive (II, A, 3, a); negative verbs of doubt and denial do not necessarily take the subjunctive. When they do, as here, the subjunctive is frequently preceded by ne.

12. que m’importait? The impersonal subject of importait is omitted by a survival of Old French usage.