SCENE IV

$ 7 — Enfin vous l’emportez : So, then, you triumph

(y ou carry it over me).

U 13 — Pour grands que soient les rois : Ilowever great

kings may be ; though kings be never so great. “ This expression has become obsolète ; it was very good at the time ; it is not to the honour of the human mind that the same expression should be good at one time and bad at another. We should say now tout grands que sont , quelque grands que soient les rois.*' — Voltaire.

g 20 — De n’examiner rien quand un roi l’a voulu : Not

to question anything that a king has willed. This is a very bold construction, and not to be imitated in prose. The pronoun le refers to rien, Lat. rem , with the sense of chose , thing. See rien , in the Etymological Vocabulary at the end of this book.

NOTES

Page 8 line 24 — A jamais : For ever. Notice. — Four toujours, for ever.

8 26 — Partis, pl. of parti : Match. Il a épousé un bon

parti, he h as made a good match ; he has married well.

8 26 — Ce beau fils l (ironical) ; This precious son.

Very wrongly written in some éditions beau-filsy which means son-in-law.

8 28 — Lui doit enfler le cœur d’une autre vanité : Mus

bloat him up with greater vanity.

Encourage him, and bloat him up with praise, That he may get more bulk before he dies.

— Dryden.

9 4 — Comme, same as comment, how. Both Corneille

and Molière frequently use comme where we should now prefer comment.

9 4 — S’endurcir à la peine : Get hardened to fatigue ;

get inured to hardships, from dur, hard. Cf. enhardir, to make boid ; enrichir, to make rich ; envieillir, to make old.

9 7 — Forcer une muraille : To carry a wall, to storm a

citadel.

9 10 — Expliquant à ses yeux vos leçons par l’effet :

Explaining your precepts by visible deeds, putting before his eyes your lessons into practice.

9 13 — Tissu: Here sériés, succession. Formed from the

past part, of tisser, to vveave ; La- , texere. Numerous examples can be brought iorvvard of the Lat. e becoming i in Fr., and of x becoming SS. (1) tenere , tenir ; implere> emplir ; ?u.icerey moisir ; ceray cire ; ebriusy ivre ; sexy six, etc. : (2) examen , essaim ; laxare , laisser ; exire y Old Fr. issir, Modem Fr. issu, adj. — issue, subst.

9 17- Sont d’un autre pouvoir : Carry greater weight

with them, hâve greater power. Notice this usage of autre ; other than, different to the one you mention, better, greater.

9 19*20 — Années, journées. Notice that année, journée, mean year, day, with the idea of the occupations which fill that space of time. Here reference is made to the exploits accomplished during years, during days. An, jour, are day or year in the abstract. Je vous souhaite une bonne année, I wish you a happy new year, i.e. , I wish ail that happens during that space of time to be agrejable to you ; La journée

d’un ouvrier, a day’s work. Same différence exists between matin and matinée, soir and soirée.

Page 9 lint 23 — Fer : Sword. Literally iron ; the material of whicb a thing is made for the thing itself. “ Brave Macbeth with his brandished Steel” (Shak.).

9 30 — A l’ombre de ... : Beneath the shelter of . . .

Ombre, shadovv, shade. Lat. umbra .

9 32 — Pour répondre en hâte à son grand caractère :

Quickly to respond to his generous disposition. Notice. — Il a mauvais caractère, he is bad tempered ; He has a bad charger, il a une mauvaise réputation.

10 a — Quand l’âge dans mes nerfs a fait couler sa glace :

When the frosts of old âge had numbed my nerves.

Now that time has laid on me his icy touch.

— W. F. Notes.

IO 4 — Aujourd’hui : To-day, now, at présent. Les

hommes d’aujourd’hui, our contemporaries.

See Etym. Vocab.

IO 10 — En être refusé : To be denied it.

IO 14 — Le mesure au courage :

The king his honours metes by valour's ru le.

—W. F. Nokes.

10 15— Bras : Lit. arm, the arm that does mighty deeds f

hence here merit, valour. Old Fr. brace, Lat. brachium. Cf to embrace, embrasser.

IC 21 — Achève et prends ma vie . . . : Crown the deed

and take my life . . . —

Corne, follow up this outrage by my death !

10 22 — Ait vu rougir son front : Had cause to blush.

11 1 — En ce besoin me laisse: Forsakes me when

needed most.

II 3 — Si ce honteux trophée avait chargé ma main : Il

I should carry in my hand so discreditable a trophy.

II 7 — Ne lui servira pas d’un petit ornement : Will be

no small ornament to it ; lui refers to histoire de ta vie.

NOTES