s'il était-â'iZ y avait

5. la guerre a d'heureux hasards, war cames wUh it happy chances, i.e., I may be killed.

16. l'emporte sur, triumphs over; lit., "carries it away over." U représenta vaguely "victory."

22. C'était trop peu de votre jeunesse, . . . pureté. Four youth, your charm, your purity were not enough.

85. — 4. Qui a terre a guerre, generally, Qui terre a, gtterre a, He who has land has war, i.e., in this case, love affaira brîng duels.

8. pen mettrais ma main au feu. Translate: Vd stake my life on U; Ht., "l'd put my hand in the fire about it." In the Middle Ages an accused person was sometimea required to put hia hand in the fire. If the fire did not bum the hand, the accused waa declared innocent. To put the hand in the fire for a peraon or a thing means to be certain that the hand would not be bumed, just as the hand of an innocent person would not be bumed.

86. — 1. faire des excuses! apologize! i.e., you would hâve me apologîze to Pontgrimaud, the man with whom I am to fîght a duel!

21. vous serez bien avancé quand . . . mauvais coup! You*U he a ht hetter off when youWe wounded!

24. Vieux serpent! Verdelet seea that M. Poirier's remarks are driving Gaston to the duel.

87. — 27. de tirer sa coupe, fnm striHng <nU. Tirer sa coupe means, Hterally, "to swim with an overhand stroke."

88. — 12, va te battre. The only time in the play that Antoinette addresses her husband in the second person singular. A good touch on the author's part.

22. Saint-Georges. The Chevalier de Saint-Georges was a odebrated musician and foncer of the eighteenth century.

89. — 21. Tout à vous de coeur, CordiaUy yours; too familiar, xmder the circumstances.

24. Grimaud. Grimaud, as a common noim, means "scrîbbler"i{ aiso "peevish fellow," "young and raw pupil." 29. A partir d'aujourd'hui, From this day oi^.

NOTES

90. — 7. Tu feras comme les nobles bretons, etc. In Brittany, prier to the French Revolutiony noblemen who wished to engage in commercial pursuits deposited their swords with the Parliament and began wearing them again as soon as they retired f rom trade. While the swords were in the hands of the Parliament, the owners were deprived of their rights and privilèges as nobles. Parîemeat, here, means one of the several principal judidal courts in France before the Révolution.

12. Ezêcutons-noiis, PU have to çive in; lit., "let's give in."

19. charbonnier qui est maître chez lui. The proverb runs as follows: Charbonnier est maître chez lui, ''Charcoal bumer is master in his own house/' i.e., the poorest man does as he pleases in his own house.