Je la tiens. — I hâve her

21. Ça pleure, &c. — They cry, &c. Ça (cela) is often famîliarly used when speakin^ of persons ; sometimes contemptuously, but not always.

22. Chicanier. — Disputatious Lower Normandv, of which (Jaen (pronounced as if written Can) is the principal cfty, has long been proverbial for the litigious character of its inhabitants The scène of Kacine's comedy of " Les Plaideurs " is laid dans une ville de Basse Normandie. Statistics, however, do not support the commonly received opinion, that there are more lawsuits in Nonnandy than in other provinces of France.

23. En rupture de ban. — Having strayed beyond the proper limits. Bompre son ban is a law tenu, and means to break one's sentence of banishment or exile.

24. Il faut que je vous dégoîse une bonne /bis. — I must let ont once for ail. Dégoîser^ from gosier, the throat, is now used only in the most

familiar conversation. It was originally applied to birds, and meant to warble: now it is a rather inélégant expression, applied to those who talk inconsiderately, bluntly, or even coarsely.

25. Suspecte, — Heid in suspicion ; or the same word may be used in English in its revolationary meaning. The Loi des suspects of 1793 provided that ail persoâs, Mrho hy tbeir connections, speakings, or writings, had become suspect to the govcmment, should be arrested.

26. Je n'y vais pas par quaire chemins. — I don't go in a roundabout way about it.

27. Ecus. — Crowns. Though no coin of the value of three francs (about sixty cents) is now in circulation, the word écu bas remained, and is in common use. It is aiso used for coins now current, as tm écu de cinq francs^ a five-franc pièce.

28. Le commerce des grains. — This was notoriouslj a branch of trade in which mach corruption existed about the period this play is supposed to embrace.

29. Ne votts gênez piu, passez à t office, — Pray, do not stand upon ceremony; go to the servantes room.

30. ÙAlembert. — Celebrated raathematician, bom in 1717, died 1788. He is mcntioned hère on account of his association with Diderot in the Encyclopédie, a work in which is to be found the fullest expression of the philosophy of the eighteenth century, and the influence of which was strongly felt in the subséquent evcnts of the French Révolution.

31. Une famille derwe, — A famiiy of magistrates or of lawyers. Persons who foUow the professions of the law are called aens de robe, from the long gowns still wom in courts of justice. Jocularly, the word robin is used for a limb of the law.