II. pensionnaires, boarders

1. 15. misérables versions. Father Lefebvre is very severe. The translation of the Bible by Lemaistre de Sacy (161 2 — 1684) is déficient in simplicity, no doubt, but does not deserve the epithet misérable,

1. 28. Aristarques. The celebrated grammarian Aristarchus, born about 180 B.C., has left his name as the désignation of ail critics.

P. 14, 1. 6. Le petit ahnanach de 710 s grands hommes. This satirical review of the innumerable and often worthless candidates for literary famé was published in 1788 by Rivarol, Antoine, comte de (1753 — 1801), with the motto : Dis ignotis. The witty editor thus expresses the object he had in view : *'il faudrait mettre dans la louange la sobriété que la nature observe dans la production des grands talents."

1. 10. Né7'on. Do7nitius Claudius Nero (a. D. 37 — 68) is the hero of three French tragédies, besides that of M. Daru : Brita7tnicits, by Racine ; Epicharis et Néron, by Legouvé ; Une fête de Néro7i, by Soumet.

1. 12. le récit de la mort d'' Ag7'ippi7te. Agrippina was killed A.D. 59. Suetonius Ti'anquilhis, a celebrated Roman historian, born about A. D. 70. See his life of Claudius, 43, 44. — Çor7telius Tacitus (? 54 — 134 ?), one of the greatest of Latin prose writers. See his An7ials, XIV. 8.

1. 17. tm comp7^o7nis avec le goût.., a tribute paid to the taste...

1. 21. • notre célèbre chansonnier — Pierre yean de Béranger (1780 — ^857). Bien loin de se livrer aux hasards de l'imagination... Bérangei fait de ses chansons de véritables compositions." (Vinet.)

1, 23. ondoyer^ to baptize privât ely.

1. 24. qui ne feront jamais {le sujet d^) un article... which will ne ver supply the materials for a notice.

1. 31. Minerve... Pallas, Athênê considered first as the goddess of literature and art, and, secondly, as the goddess of waj.

1. 33. Neuilly, a village near Paris, on the banks of the Seine.

P. 15, 1. 7. V Année littéraire, a v^^ell known literary review, founded by Fréron, Élie Catherine (1719 — i77i)> and continued after his death by Geoffroy, Julien Louis (1743 — 18 14).

1. 10. lettre motivée^ a letter in which the grounds of his objections were stated.

1. 15. modeler la forme, to mould into an appropriate shape the expression itself.

1. 17. un style sautillant, an abrupt style. Voltaire has called the author oiV Esprit des lois "le sautillant Montesquieu." 1. 21. comme dit Mœniîis...cî. Horace:

...Egomet mî ignosco, Msenius inquit. {Satir. i. 3.)

1. 27. Jean François Collin d'' Harleville (1755 — 1806) has composed several pretty comédies. Les Châteaux en Espagne (1789), Le Vieux Célibataire (1792).

1. 30. qui en dit beaucoup = qui dit beaucoup de choses, which is very expressive.

P. 16, 1. 4. quHl fûen a sur monté =quHl n^a surmonté d'' elles ; surmonté invariable here because it governs a genitive, not an accusative.

1. 6. il a coupé, retourné... has subdivided, thrown into a new order...

1. ï8. de ne pas s'en tenir = de ne pas se tenir quant à cela^ not to be satisfied with.