je veux que, / insist that, etc

7. Dame ! pour ne . . . remarquer. Well, yes ; in order not to be singular.

8. CMtdeur, va ! This is simplicity ! Imperative forms of aller , voir and tenir are frequently mere interjections, to be translated variously according to the context. Va usually affirms something just said, hence will often be well rendered in English by repeating the emphatic word of the sentence with some strengthening modifier; e.g., je n'ai pas de remords, val / kave no remorse, none whatever; or, c'est joli, va! that is fine, very fine. Soinetimes by emphasis upon another word in the sentence, as above.

9. Non, non, va ! Translate, No, no, you are much mistaken (i.e. in supposing that I have no reason to expect a place from the influence of Mme de Céran) !

10. c'est bien ici . . . élections, it is really here that reputations, situations and elections are made and lost, and at a high price, — Surfaire = to pay too much for,

11. les malins font leur affaire, the intriguers prosper. Malin, person of vicious motives and methods.

Page 7. ~ I. hôtel de Rambouillet en 188 1. 1 881 is the time of the action of this play. — Hôtel, name restricted with us to a house of public entertainment, is applied in France to any single building in a city that is large and sumptuous in its appointments, — frequently to a private dwelling. — Hôtel de Rambouillet, the residence of the marquise de Rambouillet, born in 1588, a French lady of remarkable grace and tact. At her receptions gathered all who were distinguished in art and letters, and this circle became the recognized authority in matters of taste, manners and language. It was the first of the famous salons presided over by women whose culture, grace and tact enabled them to make their circles the centres of influence both hterary and political, in Paris, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

2. Tenue means variously etiquette, deportment, costume, and expresses here what is of external decorum as opposed to excellence of mental or moral qualities.

Page 8. — I. Laisse donc ! Never mind !

2. c'est égal 1 This expression is much used and varies with the context. Translate : all right! all right ! all the same to me !

3. bagnoire, in the theatre a box close to and below the stage, sometimes called the proscenium box of the parterre, or ground-floor.

4. gentil! A favorite adjective. Compare some questionable uses of

Il8 LE MONDE OÙ L'ON S'ENNUIE