Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine
, shares with M. Victor Hugo the honour of having throMoi new life into
French poetry. His principal works are the Méditations poétiques (1820),
the Nouvelles méditations (1833), the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses
(i8«9), Jocdyn (1835). . .
1. «4. Bernard le Bouvier de Fontendle (1657 — 1757) distinguished himself in almost every branch of literature. As a philosopher he deserves the greatest praise, and the éloges he pronounced on varions scientific men, in his capacity of secrétaire perpétuel de V Académie des sciences are excellent.
1. «5. Marc René Le Voyer d*Argenson (1652 — 1721) succeeded La Reynie as lieutenant of Police ; was made Keeper of the Seals in 171 8, during d'Aguesseau's first exile.
L 38. lieutenant de Police^ the magistrate appoînted as head of the Paris police; the first was La Reynie (1667); Fontenelle*s description, alluded to above, of the duties belonging to the lieutenant de police^ has often been quoted as a model of accuracy and style.
L ap. à grands traits; à^avec^ in a bold manner.
P. 34, 1. 8. les embrasser avec développement^ to grasp and develop theni.
P» 35» !• !• Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully (1560 — 1641), the able, intelligent, honest and patriotic minister of Heniy IV.
François Michel Le Tellier, marquis de Louvois (1639 — 1691), one of the cabinet-ministers who took the most important part in the measures which distinguished the reign of Louis XIV. ; " un de ces hommes," says M. Bouillet, " dont on est forcé d'admirer les talents, mais dont on ne saurait aimer la personne."
L 3. Vhomme de ses d&uts, the man such as he had exhibited himself in his earliest performances.
L 16. qtà rentre tout à fait dans la curiosité, which belongs entirely to the enquiring tum of mind. Curiosité hère ='* penchant à voir et à savoir." (Littré.)
Pli$ie rancien, Pliny the Elder. Catus Plinius Secundus («3—79)
NOTES. 8i
excels in his descriptions of nature, and bas often been compared in that respect to BufTon.
L 27. Jardin des Plantes de Paris, This useful establishment, founded for the teaching of natural histoiy in ail its branches, was created in 1626 by Louis XIII. at the urgent request of his physicians Hërouard and Guy la Brosse.
1. 38. Poméranie, a province of Prussia, the capital of which is Stettin. The name Ponurania is derived from Slavonic Pomarski^ near the sea.
1. 30. la Malniaison, an estate near Ruel in the environs of Versailles. The empress Joséphine (Marie Joséphine Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, b. 1763) died there in 18 14.
P. 36, 1. 5* Posen, a town in Polish Prussia, occupied by the French in 1806.
L 6. frappé dans ses biens, liter. struck in his property, i. e. whose property had been confiscated.
L 28. spirittul, witty.
1. 29^ trh-goûté à son heure^ very much appreciated at the tinie of its existence.
1. 33. entendons nous bien, liter. : let us understand each other well ; i. e. let us speak clearly.
P. 37, 1. 2. respect des maîtres =pour les maîtres , for the leading représentatives of literature.
accueil; the adjective gracieux or favorable is understood : kind access granted.
