quelle fête, how delightful
3. Ouf, an exclamation of fatigue, or of relief after an oppressive situation.
Page 69. — i. Rendons; compare the Gospel of St. Matthew, XXII, 21, the reply of Jesus to the Pharisees who inquired whether they should pay tribute to Caesar: "Render therefore unto Caesar
Il6 NOTES [P. 69-91
the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's."
Page 71. — I. j'y reste suggests Marshall MacMahon's famous declaration in the trenches before the Malakoff. tower at Sebastopol (Sept. 4, 1855), during the Crimean War: "/'y suis^ fy resity^ "Here I am, here I stay!"
Page 72. — i. caiman, etc., name of the chief, alligator-whoweeps-for-hiS'Offspring.
2. La latnpe crie à vide. Sardou apparently had in mind the squeaking of the screw when a very dry lamp-wick is turned up. The stage-direction in an earlier edition reads: La lampe crie comme lorsqu'elle est vide.
Page 79. — i. ventre de loup, an old-fashioned oath intended to strengthen the statement which follows; here there is also an element of irritation: Buty hang it all/
2. courre, old infinitive of courir ^ no longer used except as a hunting term meaning *to hunt with dogs.*
Page 80. — I. tutoyer, literally, to say tu instead of vous to a person; it implies being on terms of intimacy. In English, a husband might put it: My wife never calls me by my first name.
Page 81. — I. ça, she^ a colloquial and very contemptuous way of referring to a person.
Page 88. — i. Plus de, the second part of the negative only is used, since ne must go with the verb, and is omitted when the verb is not expressed.
2. je l'aurai perdu, the future perfect tense, used to express probability in the past: / probably lost it.
Page 89. — i. cierge, owes much gratitude; the allusion is to the practice in the Catholic Church of burning a candle before the altar as a votive offering, out of gratitude to Divine intervention for having escaped some impending evil.
Page 91. — I. Bastille, the most notorious prison in Paris, destroyed by a mob at the outbreak of the French Revolution, July 14, 1789. Jean-Henri Latude was imprisoned there for
p. 91-96] NOTES 117
many years; his startling escapes are frequently alluded to in French literature.
Page 94. — i . louis, the name first given to a gold-piece coined under Louis XIII, which bore his head. During the Empire the coin bore the head of the Emperor, and was called a Napoléon, Both names are now applied to the current twenty-franc piece.
2. Tiens! Tant pisi Here! never mind! I must kiss you! Tant pis means literally *so much the worse;* that is, it can't be helped if it is wrong.
Page 95. — i. Hercule, a mythological hero of Greece, endowed with superhuman strength. He abandoned his wife Dejanira, and she thereupon sent him a tunic which had been dipped in the poisonous blood of the Centaur Nessus, who had been killed by Hercules. When he put on this garment, he was driven crazy with pain, and sacrificed himself on a funeral pyre on top of Mount Oeta.
2. saurais, the conditional of savoir ^ often has the meaning of the present of pouvoir.
VOCABULARY
â, to, at, in, on, for, with.
abandon, m., neglect.
abandonner, to abandon.
abat-jour, m., shade.
abattu, -e, despondent.
abjurer, to abjure.
aboi, m. J barking.
abominablement, abominably.
abord, w., approach; d' — , first, at first.
abréger, to abridge, cut short.
abrutir, to render brutish, stupefy; s' — , to degrade oneself.
absolument, absolutely.
absorber, to absorb.
absurde, absurd.
accablement, m., prostration.
accentuer, to accentuate.
accepter, to accept.
accompagner, to accompany.
accorder, to grant.
accoudé, -e, leaning.
accourir, irr., to run up, hasten.
accours, accouru, from accourir.
accroupi, -e, crouching.
accuser, to accuse.
acheva, to finish, complete.
