n'en pouvant plus d'effoH et de douleur, 'exhausted with

efforts and pain'.

8. la machine ronde, 'the earth' in older writers this expression signifies 'the sky'.

11. la corvée 'compulsory labour'; previously to the French Révolution, the nobles could compel the peasantry to work gratuitously for them during a certain portion of their time, that work was called la corvée.

12. lui font d'un malheureux la peinture achevée, 'place before his eyes the true picture of a misérable man'.

16. tu ne tarderas guère, 'that will not detain you long , some commentators maintain that tu ne tarderas guère means that 'death will soon corne back again'. But why so ? especially when Hu ne tarderas pas' is still used with the sensé of 'you will not delay long'.

19 — 20. Plutôt souffrir que mourir, C'est la devise des hommes.

Thèse two lines bave become proverbial.

XII. LE RENARD ET LA CIGOGNE. Phœdrus Lib. L fable 26. Line 1. compère and commère which originally meant 'gossip', then

'godfather' and 'godmother' are now often used in jest for 'fellow' and 'dame'.