Du haut en bas — From head to foot
208 XOTES.
46. Se découpaient sur le fond noir — Stood out agains-t the dark background.
47. Kreutzer s. — Kreuzer^ a small German coin, worth much less than a cent.
La folie reprend le dessus— ^'hç; s getting crazy again ; literally, lier craziness is resnming the upper hand. Folle, two ]:nes above means crazy, not foolisli.
Fourneau. — See note to p. 2.
Le bon esjjiHt—The good sensé.
48. Mais il faut que tout s^en 7?2é/e— Everything must come in to bother. The tone of the conversation in this volume is often very familiar ; it would be betraying the original to try to render it into élégant English, nlthough it is very often impossible to translate the French without raising the tone a little, as may be seen in the very next note.
49. // est dit que tout doit aller de travers — It is fated that ail niiist go wrong.
50. Au premier— In the second story, not the ground-floor, Avhich in French is rez-de-chaussée.
Oui., ft-il—Yes, said he. Faille is very often thus iised, rather familiarly, instead of dire or répondre.
52. L)e uJdans. — Notice that iddan is treated as if it began with an aspirate li.
Des bandes de lard — Sides of bacon.
Plus on regardait, 2)lus il vous manquait de choses — The more you looked, the more things were found missing. Notice the qiiite regiilar omission of the article before plus, and the impersonal use of manquer.
53. Voilà bien les enfants— Th^t'?, jiist the way children are. 55. Vasistas. — A small door or window made in a larger
one, which may be opened separately to see what is going on beyond. The word is made up of the three German words wàs ist r?«.s— what is that. The dictionaries translate the Word by casement.
Wwins€r.—A.\\ eminent Aiistrian gênerai, born 1724, died
57. ^«.9^^/.e— Coat-tail. The iisiial meaning of basque, when it is not a proper noun or adjective, is skirt or tail of a coat. The popular phrase il est toujours pendu à mes basques means he is always folio wing me, he is always at my heels.
Yl.
59. Toutes les vieilles iSaloiné du village arrivaient à la fie chez nous — Ail the oldwomen of the village came to ourhoiise in a procession, or one aftcr another. Salomé is merely a
InOTES. 209
woman's name used in a gênerai sensé, because it is common in those régions ; notice tliat being a proper noim it takes no s in tlie plural.
60. Quelle misère — What a shame. Attention is called to tlie Word misère^ whicli it is often a mistake to translate by misery.
Il fallait les entendre jacasser — You ought to hâve heard tlie m jabber.
Se faire la révérence et se donner des tours de reins agréables— Courtesying to eacli otlier, and bending tbeir bodies to bo agréable. Reins means loins.
Oarsoula — For Ursula, thus spelt to conform to the local pronimciation.
Seigneur Dieu! — Many exclamations in which the words Seigneur or Dieu occur, especially J/o?^ Dieu, can scarcely ever be satisfactorily rendered in English, as they are far from liaving the force that the words seem to imply. They are considérée! in France as mère harmless interjectional phrases ; certainly no idea of profanity is ever connected Fith them by those who make use of them. Hence they may be left altogether untranslated, or, when it is possible, some such English équivalents as the following may be employed : Goodness ! Gracions ! Dear me ! Oh my ! Oh dear î or sometimes, even, Indcad, Truly, Why.
61. Qui ne clevait pas être grand'chose — Who couldn't amount to much. The elision of an e in such expressions as grand'chose, grand' mère, etc., is only apparent, not real. Anciently French adjectives derived from Latin adjectives of two terminations like grandis-e did not add an e mute for the féminine. Later, however, thèse adjectives foUowed the analogy of the others, and grand became grande before féminine nouns. bat not in the above-mentioned and in a few other expressions. The printers and editors of the sixteenth century, thinking au elision had taken place, inserted the apostrophe, which subséquent usage has sanctioned. The d in grand'' is always silent before a consonant.
63= Les talons aux épaides — Taking to their heels.
64. Kirschenirasser. — The more usual form is Idrsch-icasser or more simply kirsch. It is a very strong spirit, made from the fermented juice of cherries.
Mans Wurst. — Commonly written Hansivurst in German : an ancient character in German pantomimes and farces, a caricature of the Italian Harlequin, corresponding to the English Jack Pudding.
65. Cassons une ovûte—LeV^ eat tj bit. Littré deflnes casser u)i croûte avec quelqu'un, "manger Mmicalement et sans façon avec lui."
Si, mon oncle — Yes, uncle. Notice that Fritzel says si, while tlie uncie imraediately after says oui, for yes. Si is used m-
'210 XOTES.
stead of oui to deny a négative statement or question, thus : You haven't worked this morning ?— Yes, I hâve— jT?^ îi'aspas ti^availlé ce matin f — Si.
