Mon sujet, the Wandering Jew

P. 19, 1. 7. Kédacteur, though usually translated ' éditer,' does not mean exactly what that word means in English, but is applied to any writer on the regular staff of a newspaper.

1. II. Je n'eus garde is not so much equal to 'I did not care to refuse,' as to * I took good care not to refuse.'

1. 15. Paperasse, '-asse' is always a termination indicating contempt : ' savantasse,' ' hommasse,' etc. Italian is extraordinarily rich in thèse terminations, which modify the meaning of a word ; English is alraost barren of them ; French holds a middle place.

P. 20, 1. 28. Gloser, 'gossip;' ' talk scandai,'

1. 31. Baladin. Literally a dancer, but often used as a contemptuous term for ail kinds of stage-players.

1. 32. Dans le meilleur des mondes possibles. The famous catchword by which Voltaire in Candide ridicules the optimist théories of Leibnitz.

P. 21, 1. 3. Morgue, the dead-house of Paris, where ail bodies foimd in the Seine or elsewhere are exposed, that the friends of the deceased may hâve a chance of recognising them : filets, nets purposely spread below the bridges to catch bodies.

112 quinet's letters to his mother,

1. II. Maréchaussée, the mounted police, more pioperly called, since the Révolution, gendarmerie. Quinet may hâve used the word purposely and playfully to give a literary and historical flavour to his story, or under the Restoration the old term may hâve been brought back into popular use.