il fallut en donner. See note to p

Page 65. 1. 30. Vous seriez donc is a use of the conditional to express surprise or doubt ; cf. 1. 38.

Page 66. 1. 21. basilic, ' basilisk,' a fabulous snake, the glance and breath — and apparently the sight — of which were fatal. See Shakespeare : —

It is a basilisk unto mine eye,

Kills me to look on 't. — Cymheline, ii. iv. 107.

Make me not sighted like the basilisk :

l've looked on thousands, who hâve sped the better

By my regard, but killed none so. — Winter^s Taie, i. ii. 388.

Voltaire modifies the fable to lus purpose. The name means ' a little king ', and was given to the serpent, Pliny says, because of a spot on its head like a crown.