m'était, was fo me, for était pour moi, à mes yeux

66. — 3. ne m'’étaient plus de rien — , did not interest me. DW'étre de rien à is an idiom: #of fo be of any interest to.

68.1. bureau à cylindre: ro//-top desk; in France an old fashioned piece of furniture.

7O.— 715. Tout beau! 0/4 on, stop a little! somewhat antiquated.

72.— 14. Pythagore. Pythagoras (569-670 B. C.) was one of the earliest Greek philosophers and mathematicians. He is said to have invented the table of multiplication called for that reason fable de Pythagore.

18. bon point, & good mark, given to little children in schools. There are also mauvais points. See page 85.

73.— 28. absente. Ironical allusion to a famous verse of Racine, Britannicus (Act I, Sc. 1). Agrippina says that she regrets the time when she ruled the State and assembled the senate at her will,

Et que derrière un voile, invisible et présente

J'étais de ce grand corps l'âme toute puissante, 74.—11. The complete quotation is:

La faim mit au tombeau Malfilâtre ignoré ; S'il n’eût été qu’un sot, il aurait prosperé.

These famous verses are taken from a satire of Gilbert entitled Ze dix-huitième Siècle, published in 1775. Gilbert (1751- 1780) is better known for his Adieux à la vie, a short poem that he wrote a week before his death, at the age of thirty-one.

Malfilâtre (1733-1767) was likewise a young poet who died a premature death after having lived in poverty.