M. Prudhomme : the chief character in Henri Monnier's

book Grandeur et décadence de Joseph Prudhomme (1852), called latcr on (1857) Vie et opinions de M. Joseph Prudhomme. ' Joseph Prudhomme, pupil of Brard and St. Orner,' caligraphist and sworn expert in the courts of law, is the synthesis of bourgeois imbecility, radiant, serene, and self-satisfied, letting fall from his fat lips ' one weak, washy, everlasting flood ' of puérile aphorisms and inane circumlocu ■ tions. He says : ' The car of the State floats on a précipice. . . This sword is the proudest day of my life,' etc. (E. Cobham Brewer, The Reader s Handbook of Allusions, Références, Plais, and Stories).

Notes 105

Page i.iNE

20. 2. avait buriné : lit. ' had engraved. ' A burin is a ' graver, '

or tool for engraving letters on stonc or nietallic plates. ,, 10. pattes de mouche, ' regular scrawl. ' ,, 16. volute: strictly speaking, a term of architecture meaning

a kind of spiral scroll, iised in the lonic and Composite

capitals.

,, 25. expertise d'écrivains jurés, ' e.xamination by expert cali-

graphists. '

,, 26. du ressort de : the légal term for ' within the jurisdiction,' ' within the pale of . . , ' hère ' of the compétence of . '

,, Brard et de Saint-Omer : sec note p. 20, 1. 2. , , 28. paraphent, ' sign with a fîourish. ' Parapher (or parafer) is also used as a transitive verb with the meaning of ' to put one's initiais and flourish to a document ' ; cf. on paraphe les écritures, de peur qu on ne puisse en supposer d'autres (Bossuet).