travers, notion ox fancy

70. cinq actes. The regular classical tragedy is always in five acts and in verse, and constructed with a uniformity of System that inevitably degenerated into mechanical monotony.

Notes, 73-89 Le Trésor

73. comédiens, no doubt a little contemptuous, but comédiens ordinaires de V Empereur was then the name of the sociétaires of the Comédie Française, whose function it was to sustain classic traditions. Historically comedia {comédie^ bas not exactly the significance of " comedy," as we may see from Dante's use of the word.

74. Faux Smerdis, an ancient Persian king, pretended brother of Cambyses, killed by Darius in 521 B.C.

75. n'auront qu'à se taire, willjust hâve ta be silent. 76-78. Voltaire was regarded with some justice as having

contributed essentially to the restless skeptical optimism that characterized and partly caused the Révolution. Hence the Abbé calls him scélérat and animal, while like a classic degenerate he admires the stérile correctness of his tragédies, of which the best are Zaïre (1732) and Mérope (1736).

84. Vert-Galant, the popular name of King Henry of Navarre, alludes both to his good nature and to his varied and facile attachments. Translate ^^Gay gallant^^ and op. Kitchin's History of France^ ii. 440 sqq. Most of his reign of twenty-one years was spent in fighting of some sort.

86. meutre. Henry was assassinated, May 14, 1610, by Ravaillac, a fanatic.

88, 89. The Abbé thinks tragedy must be written in style noble, i.e. that commonplace words and phrases are to be avoided by paraphrase. This was a great fault of the later classical tragedy, and was sometimes carried far beyond the limits of the ludicrous. For an instance, see the présent editor's Modem French Literature, p. 208 ; but observe that the Abbé is also anxious to préserve " local color," and rejects Henry as a subject, because he will not suffer his tragic hero to swear as the historical king did. This zeal for an affected naturalism on the stage is commonly attributed to the romanticists, but Coppée is perfectly justified in attributing it to a writer of 1802. See Brunetière, Époques du théâtre français^ [94]

Le Trésor Notes, 92-129

p. 319. Ventre-saint-gris was the favorite oath of King Henry. It is not necessary to translate it. 92. Observe the primitive dinner hour.