La place — The square

Un liomme sentimental — A man of feeling, a kind-hearted man. The word sentimental is hère used rather in the sensé it had at the end of the last century, than in the sensé it bas now.

Large. — Notice that large means wide or broad. For convenience, though very rarely, it may be translated large, but it has in ordinary modem French alw.nys the idea of width or breadth. Primitively it meant simply large, and it is found used in this sensé in the seventeenth century, and even in modem authors, in poetry or stately prose.

Fourneau. — Poêle, used on the previous page, is the proper word for stove, but in Lorraine fourneau (really furnaee) is often used instead of poêle. Hence the fréquent interchange of the two words in the stories of Erckmann-Chatrian.

3. Trouble. — This word more frequently means disturbance (as hère) or tumult, agitation, confusion or uneasiness, than trouble. The English word trouble is variously translated in French — in many cases by peine, as, To take the trouble — prendre or se donner la peine.

Bu lard aux clioux — Pork and cabbage.

Bes noudels et des knœpfels. — Noudels is for JSfudel, a kind of Geiman macaroni. Knœpfel, are a sort of dough-balis about as large as a very small potato.

Mauser. — A German word meaning mouser, mouse-hunter. Throughout this book it is used in the sensé of mole-catch er — taupier.

4. Bénicher. — This word generally means to take ont ci the nest (nid), to dislodge. Hère it simply means to take ont.

5. // rafistolait la vaisselle fêlée avec du fil de fer — He put together cracked crockery with wire. Rafistoler is very familiar, and means to patch up, to mend.

Tiroir à Rabots — Cabbage-slicer or cabbage-cutter. This

XOTES. 203

instrument is made of a séries of supeiposed blades somewhat like the cutting part of a plane (rabot).

Pas de choux? — Any cabbages? Pas is hère elliptically used for iiavez-vous pas i

6. Oignons — Spelt also ognons. generally means onions; hère it means bunions, or rather it is loosely used for corns in gênerai.

aSÏ le cœur vov.s en dit — If you would like some, or, at your service. In this very colloquial expression camr is used euphuistically for estojnac. En dire is used in varions sensés; hère it means to hâve a désire for. It sometimes means to be favorable as in the line of Molière from V Étourdi :

Si le sort nous en dit. tout sera bien réglé. (If fate favors us, ail will be well.— (Act. V., se. 2).)

Elles formaient harhe — They were settling. I hâve ventured on this translation, but I hâve not been alDle to find the expression former barhe in any dictionary.

7. Salm-Salm. — Salin is \he name of several very ancient noble familles of Germany. Salm-Salm is one of the collatéral branches.

8. Chasses à courre — Hunts with hounds. Courre is an old verb which has remained as a spécial hunting term, to run, to hunt. Courir has taken its place, in the gênerai sensé of to run.

Les trois électeurs. — This seems to refer to the three ecclesiastical electors of Mayence, Trêves, and Cologne.

9. Dormir en x><^i^ sur les deux oreilles — Dormir sur les deux oreilles means to sleep soundly, without fear, to feel perfectly safe.

Noblesse de robe — The magistracy, or the clergy.

10. Noblesse d' épée — The nobility of the sword, or simply the nobility.

A plate couture— ^ounàXy. Battre à plate couture literally means to beat until the seams (coutures) are flattened out; that is, to beat soundly.

Faisait-il — Said he ; a not infrequent use of faire in the sensé of dire. Notice the use of the imperfect in this case as well as in the previous paragraphs. Faisait-il would thereforemore exactly be translated, He used tosay; Fit-il, He said.

11. Frelon. — This word properly means hornet. It is also used, as hère, for drone. which is properly /o;/.f bourdon.

Remplumer.— To nevv-feather, to retrieve the losses. Peinplumer means to feather again. It is scarcely ever used except liguratively as a reflexive verb, se remplumer, to mend one's affairs, to feather one's nest, to pick up again (after an illness).

Jacobin.— Ov\gmd\\w jacobin meant only a monk of the order of Saint Dominic. so called from the chùrch of Saint- Jacques

(Jcacobus) in Paris, which was given to them, and near which they built their convent. After 1789 it was used to designate tlie members of tlie political society which met in this convent. They were ardent iipholders of democracy and eqnahty. The name, since then, has often been nsed abusively as radical souietiraes is.

12. Ye ri-Peter. — This seeras to be a nickname of some German personage, but I hâve- noi been able to find ont who is nieant.

0)1 verrait trop facJIement que leurs pensées, leurs invervtions et leurs désirs se rapportent à de pauvres génies. — This sentence is not a mode! of précision. The word invention is very loosely used, Se rapporter means to refer or relate to, but it is misapplied hère. The whole with a little good-will may be translated : It would be too easily seen that their thoughts, their contrivances, and their desires proceed from (or indicate) weak minds.

Rien que de grands gaillards, coiffés d'immenses chapeaux à cornes — Nothing but tall fellows, with immense cocked hats on their he ds. The chapeau à cornes was primitively chapeau à trois cornes, of which one of the points {cornes) was afterwards fîattened ont. It was also called tricorne, as on p. 40. As to coiffer, it is impossible to translate it by one word. It is derived from coiffe, a head-dress or cap. It may be rendered by, to put on the head, to cover, to place in the hair, to dress the hair, or in varions other ways according to the context. The same is the case with chausser, which refers to the feet as coiffer does to the head.

15. Tignasse — Shock of hair. Tignasse seems to hâve meant primitively a badly kept wig ; it is also spelt teignasse, from teigne, scurf. It is a favorite word with Erckmann-Chatrian. It is very farailiar.

En train de brasser la pâte — Mixing the dough. Brasser is properly to brew, hence, to stir up or mix together. It is connected with an old French word which means malt, and is not derived from bras, arm, as its présent spelling would seem to Indicate. To knead is pétrir, as in the second line of this chapter, p. 13. En train de, which was left untranslated, means, in the act of, busy.