UN REVKTLÎ.ON DANS LE MARAIS

Many of the solid uld family mansions of the Marais quarter arc nowadays occupied by commercial and industrial firms. The irony of names is very cleverly applied in this pièce, a plebeian soda-water

fabricant, Majesté jeune, locating his trade in the hôtel de Xesmond. Yet in material dignity, certain of the great bronze manufacturers in particular, whose iieadquarters are in the Marais district, prohably surpass many titled families who lived there before piebeian industry was esteemed a respectable calHng.

The pretty conceit of this fantastic sketch calls " Rip van Winkle " to mind; or some readers may discover traces of that resemblance, which critics hâve affirmed, between Daudet's earher manner and that of Dickens.

The terni réveillon most properly nieans a Christmas-Eve supper, such as was and, in a nieasure, still is customary after the midnight mass.

' The Place Royale, at présent named the Place des Vosges, was the most fashionable part of Paris during the reign of Louis XIII.

'•^ St. Paul, or in full, St. Paul et St. Louis, an old Jesuit church in the rue St. Antoine.

^ diable de : means little more than " bothersome," " confounded."

^ encoignures, also written encogmires : "corners."

'^ hôtel, when used of private dwellings, means properly a large and sumptuous mansion, commonly consisting of a great rectangular building enclosing a spacious cour.

^ ci-devant : " formerly."

" bordereau: " mémorandum," commercial "form."

^ pilastres, frontons (pediments) : characteristic features of the Renaissance architecture prevailing in this part of Paris.

^ caisse in such a context means " pay-office," " cashier's office."

^'^ ateliers : " workshops."

^1 camion: " dray." Camionnage : what we call "jobbing express."

i^ caisses : " boxes "; hère used in its primary sensé.

^3 en dentelle : " like lace-work."

1* vous a : "reminds one of," "impresses one like," etc. The vous is an " ethical " dative.

^^ Hein?... tout de même: a vague exclamation, — "Well? after ail, suppose the Nesmonds should come back."

^^ échafaudé : "towering"; from /«r^rt/rtW, "scaffold."

1' guindées par : " stiff on account of."

1^ Paniers: hère, of course, the eighteenth century petticoat is re-

J^OTKS. 55

ferred to, whose aiiiplitiule is sd hunioiously described in one of Addison's essays.

1^ minauder : " to simper."

2'^ trumeau : " pier-glass."

-1 dire que : " to think that."

•22 éventé : " flat."

-^ mousse : of liquids, " foam." l'itis mtisseu.x is the French expression for wines of the Champagne variety.

-■•Rameau: a French composer living fiom 1683 to 1764. The airs menus et mélancoliques of tlie French niusic of those times are especially reproduced, on the l'rench stage, in performances of the Bourgeois Gentilhomme.

-^ atours: an old word for féminine adornment; women's raiment, attire, apparel.

'^ voiture de roulage : " heavy wagon." The daily business of the tirm thus prosily chases Mr. Majesté's vision avvay.

^ Thèse fanciful names are in actual use in Paris to designate the passenger steamboats plying on the Seine. The beats whose course ends within the city Hmits are called Bateaux mouches ; those running up stream to Charenton, or down to St. Cloud and Suresnes, les Hirondelles.

2 la veste à bas : " my jacl<.et thrown off."

" mouches à vapeur : " small steamboats."

■• liséré : " edge."

^moucheron: literally " gnat "; hère "sonny."

'■' empêtré : entangled.

' Mort-qui-trompe : " Death in Disguise."

" chaîne : line of boats in tow.

^ remorquer is used of steam towing; remorqueur, tugboat; touer, of " warping," or the cable System; and haler, of ordinary canal-l)oat towing. Chemin de halnf;e : " tow-path."

^'^ bateaux de blanchisseuses : the floating sheds or wash-houses in which Prench washerwdmen " paddle " their clothes.

11 pontons d'embarquement : " floating steambcjat-landings."