Scène VL

. L 165. sur de telles gens quel fonds pourrait'on faire ? gens is properly féminine, and the idea it expresses (of men or individuals) is properly masculine; consequently this word has both genders. It takes in the féminine ail the adjectives which précède it (les bonnes gens), and in the masculine those which follow (les gens de ce pays sont bons) ; see !• 371. — quel fonds pourrait-on faire? fonds hère means capital (see Littré's Dict,)y liter., what capital could one make?

1» 175. vûus voir (Passez bon œil^ look rather favourably upon you.

I. 180. xe qu^il m* en a coûté, what I hâve had to put up with. See 1. 13.

II. 184, 186. et comme... et que; the conjunction que is very often used in France instead of comme, quand, and si, when clauses b^nning with those words are foUowed by others of the same nature. Thus, again:

** Quand tout cédait à Louis, et que nous croyions voir revenir le temps des miracles..." (Bossuet.)

94 LE VIEUX CÉLIBATAIRE. [act l

1. 199. fCa point d*tnfants.,.; after an adverb of n^;ation the partitive article is not iised«

1. 106. beau-frère, a brother-in-law ; beau is hère an epithet of endearment miich in use during the middie âges. Thus :

''Biau fîlz, la première chose que je t'enseigne, c'est que tu mettes ton cuer en amer Dieu." (Joinville.) The mediaeval expression for * brother-in-law ' was sororge or serorge, from the L. sororius.

1. 1 1 1. jfè traitai ses revers et inconduite ^ i. e» comme étant le résultat de son inconduite, I ascribed his reverses to his dissipated life.

1. 118. chargez-m'en, i.e. chargez-moi de son entretien, give me the care of his maintenance.

1. 220. H jeta les hauts cris^ he protested loudly, — il Rengagea, see

L 227. exprès, on purpose; selected for the purpose.