j'en ai malà la tête, ‘it makes my head ache.’ Literally

Poor Caboussat, bis

rtaining to the spectator.

19. Je vous dérange? ‘DoI disturb you ?° vous dérungez pas ! ‘ don’t disturb yourself 1

situation is very ente:

Compare ne

In exclamatory expressions like this one the French of

ten prefer the positive, while the English prefer the negative. Compare est-ce

Norss, 43

assez bête ? ‘isn't it awfully supid! ; Yen a-t-i ? ‘aren't

there heaps of them ?’ and many other phrases,

Ça avale du verre, ‘they eat glass.” Ça (contraction of cela), in familiar discourse, is often used in à plural sense as here, in speaking of animals and even of men. Note

how the comedy is pushed to the very verge of absurdity.

Elle en est morte, ‘She died of it. Note tense again.

Ce que c’est... humanité! ‘That our poor humanity for you!’ A sort of pious ejaculation frequentlÿ employed in connection with misfortune in men’s lives. As applied here it is extremely farcical.

Ça marche, ‘it is going on well.” Ça is used as a pronoun for all kinds of nouns in familier discourse. Compare note to 1. 1.

a été goûtée, ‘ was appreciated.’

Je vous en réponës ! ‘You may depend on it !’ literally ‘I answer for it to you.”

joliment troussée, ‘splendidly composed.” Trousser means primarily ‘to tuck up,’ ‘to turn up” (of the bottom of a dress, etc.), then in familiar discourse it comes to have the meaning of ‘to make,” ‘to arrange, etc., as in un petit diner bien troussé, un compliment bien troussé (a wellturned compliment).

Je compte SUP, ‘I am counting on,’ ‘I am expecting.”

Tant mieux! ‘I am glad of it !*

quand cela ne serait que, ‘even if it were only.’

aller loin is a common phrase in French for ‘make one’s fortune,’ ‘rise to à high position,’ ete. Comrnare the phrase, ce jeune homme est laborieux, il ira loin, ‘that Young man is industrious, he will rise.”

conseil municipal. The municipal unit in France is the commune whose governing body is the conseil Municipal, the chairman of which is the maire. The communes are united into cantons for which there is no council. The cantons are united into arrondissements whose council is

emma

TRS

is called consei/ général (see p. 6, 1. 13).

est occupée, ‘has been occupied.?

instruit, ‘educated.”

Îl ne sait pas le grec. This ridiculous speech, put into the mouth of Machut, is probably an echo of the famous Passage, so well known to Frenchmen, found in Acte IIL., scene 5, of les Femmes Savantes : Du grec! O ciel! du grec ! il sait du grec !

Vous ceindrez l’écharpe municipale, ‘you will be maire,’ literally « You will put on the municipal sash.’ The maire wears à sash as à sign of his office.

Parbleu ! ‘I should think 80 !”

Conseiller d'arrondissement. The next step in the ladder above maire, See note to p. 5, 1 18.