AOT II
SCXNB I.
16 17 — A Venvi : In émulation of. N. ilê travaillent à
renvi, they strive who shall work most or beat. Toutes les villes se taxèrent à Penvi pour subvenir aux besoins de l'État, ail the towns strove which should be foremost in taxing themselvea to relieve the necessities of the State. Etym. renvier, a. v., to place a further siim on the game ; compound of O, F. envier (a term used in gambling), from Lat. invitare, whence verbal s. m. envi, a challenge, whence the phrase à Venvi.
16 26 — Voyez : In old éditions we find voye» instead of
voyiez.
16 8 — Tout vous rit: Fortune smiles upon you.
N. tout lui rit, everything is propitious to him; nous rirons bientôt, we shall hâve fine sport by-and-by ; cela rit à V imagination, that pleases the mind.
16 VJ—En butte : Exposed to. Butte, s.f., a butt, rising
ground, knoll ; O. F. bute, fem. form of but, s.m. , aim, mark. Thèse two words had the same primitive meaning, as is seen in the phrase Itreen butte asservir de but à.
1( 19 - Je reçus et je vois le jour que je respire. Sans que
père ni mère ait daigné me sourire : I was bom and I hâve lived without . . . X« jour que je respire is a phrase used by Racine, Corneille, &c., to mean ''life." The second Une reminds one of Virgil's
.... Cui non risere parentes.
— Eclogue iv., line 62.
10 21 — Et pour comble d'horreur : And to make the
horror of my f ate complète.
wonw 7S
PlÊgê 17 lim 9^Domt fêtais prévenue : The thoughta (or hope)
of wbich I entertained.
17 11 — La fierté ctun sang : ïhe pride of a noble extrao-
tion.
17 21 — Vous va êou» son appui présenter un asile : Will
with his support oflfer you a refuge. In
prose the construction would be "va sous
son appui vous présenter."
17 29- -TV* te vas étonner : The construction would be
in prose, *' tu vas i' étonner."
18 1 — Qui m'arracha <fun coup ma naissance, et ton père ;
Who deprived me at a blow of the secret of
my birth, and of your father (who alone
knew that secret).
18 8 — Sur quel espoir fondée : Trnsting to what hope
(probably that of seeing her love requited). 18 13 — Le ciel s'est fait une Joie . . . à rassembler : We
should say now, " se faire une joie cfo ..."
18 2B—Je me laissai conduire à cet aimable guide : Racine
uses hère à instead of par, by ; in the seventeenth century the use of prépositions was not fixed as it is now, wheu conduire à could mean nothing else but ** to lead to. "
19 \i—Me servira de loi : Will dictate to me what I
hâve to do.
scBNB n.
19 2Z— Et quels empressements Vous dérobent sitôt à nos
embrassemens : And what bas carried you away so soon from our fond embrace ?
19 26— Mon respect a fait place aux transports de la
fine : . . . Iphigenia means that she respectfully waitèd until the queen had given her father an aflfectionate greeting.
20 8 — Mais que . . . je sens, ior combien je sens.
20 Ib—A part : Aside ; à part is the abbreviation of à
part lui.
20 24 — Éloignetnent: Hère, absence.
20 21— A quij'avois pour moi vanté votre tendresse : An
inversion for à qui j'avois vanté votre tendresse
pour moi.
20 19 — J'ai fait gloire à ses yeux de . . . : I boasted
before her ... In prose the expreosioa would be **je me suis fait gloire de." N. je m*en fais gloire, I am proud of it.
21 2 — N^éclauciret-vous point o front chargé d^ennuis :
Will you not drivn away the gloom that overshadows your countenance ?
SI 9— Auteur de nos alarmé* : The cause of our fétu».
Ï4 iFBTséwnç.
Alarme came into the French language îu the sixteenth century, from the Italian aWarme, to amas ! a cry by which the soldiera were Bummoned to take arms.
SCXMB III.
Page 22 Une 12^£i de quelque disgrâce ... : And ■vrhatever may be the afiaiction which causes your tears. 22 14— 17« ne m'en défends point : 1 do not deny it.
22 29 — Je voi, instead of Je vois : M. Brachet says,
" Both in French and in Latin the letter s is characteristic of the second person singulai : amas, aimes ; amabas, aimais, &c. The first person singular never has an s in Latin : amo, credo, video, teneo ; hence in Old French: J^aime, Je croi, Je voi, Je tien. In the fourteenth century there came in a habit (unreasonable, because not based on etymology) of adding s to the first person, and of writing: je viens, je tiens, je vois. The correct form, Je croiy Je voi^ Je tien, is found in Corneille, Molière, La Fontaine, and Kacine (seventeenth cenlury) ; and Voltaire, in the eighteenth century, wrote —
La mort a respecté ces jouré que jeté doi.
— " Alzire " ii., 2.
But thèse forms, whose historical foundation was unknown, appeared to be poetical licences." Certainly ; but is not the name of *' poetical licence " the right one to give to a form which is two or three centuries old, and which the poets above mentioned use at the end of the line where it is considered neces- 3ary to rhyme to the eye as well as to the ear, but which they abandon in the body of the line for the form then and now recognised as the correct one. Je crois, &c. ?
t2 Bl— Qu'à peine : Same as qu'avec peine hère. See
note to p. 13, 1. 24.
23 6 — Les sermens '. See note to p. 12, 1. 18.
