Scène IL
Page 17 km l — A moi, comte, deux mots : Hère, count, a iwxd with you.
17 7— La même vertu: The very virtue. Notice.—
Before the noun or pronoun, même means same or even ; after it, self, itself. La même vertu, the same virtue ; même la vertu, even virtue ; elle-même, herself ; même elle, even she. In Corneille's time this rule did not exist.
17 14 — Jeune présomptueux : Presumptuous youth.
17 16— Aux âmes bien nées: In high-born soûls valour does not wait for âge. A for dans is often used with a good effect by Corneille.
In high-born soûls, Valour** not meted by the years thcy've toid.
— W. F. Nokes.
17 20— Mes pareils à deux fois ne se font pas connaître s The like of me need no second trial to show their worth.
17 21— Et pour leur coup d'essai veulent des coups de
maître : And will hâve a masterly stroke as a first essay. Notice. — Coup d'étourdi, a rash action. Coup de désespoir, a desperate attempt. Coup d'état, violent measures, or, a pièce of great policy.
18 2 — Au seul bruit de ton nom : At the mère sound of
your name.
18 : 4 — Le destin de ma perte : My doom, my inévitable death.
18 5 — En téméraire : Rashly. Notice. — Vous parlez en
soldat, je dois agir en roi, you speak like a soldier, I must act like a king ; Il me traite en ami, he treats me as a friend.
18 8 — Invaincu : Some hâve blamed Corneille, others
hâve praised him, for having invented this word, which he has used several times in his plays ; but it is found in Ronsard (1524- 1584), Robert Garnier (1 545-1 601), Agrippa d'Aubigné (1524- 1585).
18 10— Par tes yeux : By the bright fire in your eyes.
18 14 — Mouvements : Impulses, transports.
8* le cm.
Page 18 &m 21— Un coup d'essai fatal : Seek not to make thv maidcn-strokc thy last. Essai, Provençal, assag ; Ital. assaggio; Lat. exagium, a weighingmachine; there is not far from the sensé of weighing to that of trying ; for other examples of I-at. x becoming ss in French see note, p. 9, 1. 13. Notice. — The Lat. medial consonant g bas been dropped, as in gigantem, géant ; magister, maître ; regina, reine ; fagina, faîne, beech-nut ; negare, nier, to deny, etc., etc.
f 8 34 — A vaincre sans péril, on triomphe sans gloire. Cf. " Ignominiam judicat gladiator cum inferiore componi, et scit eum situ gloria vinci qui sine pertçuîo vincitur." (Seneca de Providentia, cap. iii.)
18 25— Abattu : Overcome ; lit beaten down. Notice. — Abattre une maison, to pull down a house ; Abattre un arbre, to fell a tree ; La pluie abat la poussière, the rain lays the dust
18 37 — Indigne pitié : Base pity ; unmerited, offensive.
19 2— Qui survit .... Notice that qui hère is separated
from its antécédent fils by dégénère; there is no ambiguity whatever, and other instances are to be found in Corneille, Racine, La Fontaine, Boileau ; but it is to be imitated only with great reserve in verse, and avoided in prose.
