PREFACE

A brief comedy in one act, with a minimum of sentiment and a maximum of legitimate fun and action, needs no other recommendation to the young student of the French language. Les Deux Sourds does not claim to be lofty literature ; but it is, beyond a doubt, sound colloquial French, exhibiting the give and take of ordinary conversation in lively, natural form : the clever plot can scarcely fail to appeal to the most languid, while to the earnest reader the frequent exclamations, expletives, and suspensions are all significant and instructive.

Special pains should be taken to render the French into equally lively real English, in short to be satisfied with nothing less than an * acting version', the test being : "Could I say this if I were acting the part before an audience of my friends ? " Thus a most useful and farreaching lesson in translation should be learnt from this and kindred texts.

The author of Les Deux Sourds^ Jules Moinaux, wrote during the third quarter of the nineteenth century a number of short plays and farces, while he also was a regular contributor to the Parisian comic press. Most of his work is ephemeral in character.

The notes to this edition are as few as possible, the verbal difficulties being generally explained in the vocabulary.