mots ayenturiers, words which pass speedily out of use

Page 27* — i. Théodecte, notice that many of the names used in thèse portraits are of Greek origin. This particular person is supposed to be D'Aubigné, the brother of Mme de Maintenon.

2. Il faut laisser parler, etc.; La Bruyère found some of the traits of this character in his Greek predecessor, Theophrastus.

Page 28. — i. Pimaginatioiiy this opposition of the "imagination '* to " bon sens/' and '* raison " occurs more than once in La Bruyère. His was a realistic epoch ; see page 34, lines 5-9.

Page 29. — i. soi, today lui would be used. The reflexive pronoun has lost much ground since the seventeenth century ; cf. page 28, line 21, but see page 38, Une 4.

Page 81. — I. la fuite, the désire to escape.'

2. J'approche d'une petite yiUe, etc., one of the author's celebrated sketches. It was written for the fifth édition, while the paragraph (no. 50) that follows, and which seems to explain this passage, had already appeared in the fourth.

Page 82. — i. président, of the parliament ; see page 53, note 2.

2. les élus et les assesseurs, the former were minor magistrates who gave décisions in the matter of taxes, the latter were adjuncts to the regular judge, his counsellors.

Page 38* — i. dispute = discussion.

2. L'on a TU, etc., this may be an allusion to Mlle de Scudéry's SaturdaySf which among other things produced the novel of Clélie; see paragraph 68.

Page 84. — i. avaient relation » avaient rapport, 2. les plus honnêtes gens, the best-bred people, The final absurdity of this style of conversation in the lower social cLrcles is the subject of Molière's satire in les Précieuses ridicules.

3. Cettç manière basse de plaisanter, etc. ; see Molière's Critique de V Ecole des Femmes ^ Se i.

Pagre 35« — i. Lucain, the Latin poet Lucan (39-65), author of 1

the Pharsalia,

2. Claudien, Latin poet of the fourth century, who celebrated Stilicon's victories over the Goths.