dispositions, cf. page 34, note

3. vous voyez bien ... les cache, y ou see, therefore, that I conceal them from you. Silvia speaks with warmth and éloquence, and her statement that she conceals her sentiments is charming in its absurdity.

Page 64. — 1. sensible à ma tendresse, you share my love.

2. le mérite vaut bien la naissance, merit is worth as mue H as birth. A favorite sentiment in the i8th century, and which we find expressed in many novels and comédies. Voltaire took that idea as the subject of his Nanine t which, like ail his comédies, was a failure, because he himself appears in his plays and pleads a case in a rather affècted style, unworthy of his genius and his wit.

3. Que d'amour! How much love! Silvia is enraptured because Dorante has given her such an extraordinary proof of his love.

Page 65. — 1. jugez du cas que ... de l'acquérir, judge how

82 NOTES tP. W

/ valued your heart by the delicacy with which I tried to acquire it. Silvia expresses the dramatic System of Marivaux: délicate and subtle love won by délicate and subtle words.