boule. Often used familiarly for terre

1. 2. Laid. He once said to Savinien Lapointe : ' Non seulement j'étais laid, mais j'avais l'air bête.' (Mém. sur Béranger, p. 27.) He certainly looks both in a portrait of the Brussels edition of songs published by Wahlen et Cie in 1824. The many later portraits picture him as a kindly, venerable, and on the whole good-looking old man.

ch'etif et souffrant. Cf. Introd., § 1. On August 22, 1841, he writes: 'Me voilà arrivé, à travers de bien tristes événements, à soixante et un ans. Quel âge ! A vingt ans on me prédisait, et je le croyais un peu, que j'atteindrais difficilement la trentaine.'

I. 5. Une plainte . . . de ma bouche sortit. The construction is, strictly speaking, incorrect, as the participial clause above does not refer to une plainte, the subject of the sentence ; but it occurs frequently nevertheless, when the participle may be taken, as here, to agree by syllepsis with a personal pronoun implied in the possessive adjective. Thus : Telles estoient ses prières, estant à genoux sur l'échaffaud.

(Brantôme.) Et pleures du vieillard, il grava sur leur marbre Ce que je viens de raconter.

(La Fontaine.)