de force à, capable of, equal to; ironical

14. Bouvard is a character of G. Flaubert’s posthumous novel Bouvard et Pécuchet, in which the author shows two foolish old bachelors indulging in all sorts of silly fads and pastimes, under the pretext of acquiring knowledge. A

15. Latude (1725-1805) was a French nobleman who, after a quarrel with Mme. de Pompadour was shut up inthe Bastille, where he remaïned thirty-six years. His story of his captivity and of his escapes was very widely read at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

16. poires d’angoisse, gags used in the prisons of the old ré gime when the methods of torture were still in vogue.

29. qui entendait à sa façon, wo had his way of understanding.

46. — 7. licence, taken here in its etymological meaning of permission, which is rare to-day although common in classical French.

16. fiches, slips of paper or cardboard like those used in card catalogues. Scholars make great use of them for notes.

21. Placards. Here a technical, printer’s term: ga//ey-proofs, which means proofs printed on one side without pagination.