Scène

256. de plus belle, in the finest fashion. Ironical. Note that the Duke shows growing bitterness, rising at times to cynicism, throughout this scène. It is from this mocking spirit that he is to be saved by Veronica's dévotion.

258. jacobin, a democrat. The name is derived from that of a Parisian ultra-revolutionary club, organized in 1789, which met in an abandoned convent of the Jacobins, between the présent Church of St. Roch and the Vendôme Column. The club was dissolved by an order of the Convention, Nov. il, 1794 (2ist Brumaire, Year IV.), but its spirit survived.

279. acquéreur de biens. Purchasers of confiscated estâtes were naturally odious to the old nobility. See 36 and 140.

282. Paîra le dot, i.e, the bridegroom, instead of the parents, would settle a suitable dowry on the wife. This would be less H [97]

Notes, 289-394 Le Trésor

foreign to English ideas than to those of France, especially of pre-revolutionary times. There the amount of the dowry is to some extent still an index of social position, and is a matter of légal contract, usually arranged by the parents of the " lovers." The French custom and its results are admirably illustrated and satirized in Poudre aux yeux, a little comedy by Labiche, and in La Question d'' Argent by Dumas y?/y in this séries.

289. champ de foire, fair grounds. Country fairs on the continent are often occasions rather of festivity than of trade, especially those held on and around St. John Baptist's day, June 24th, which continues the tradition of the pre-Christian midsummer festival.