21 4 passé maître: passed master; that is, one who had passed to the rank of master in his craft.

21 7 en of it, referring to water, understood.

219 Ce n'est pas tout de boire: translate as if it read, boire n'est pas

tout.

21 17 il est bon: that's good.

21 22 vous: ethical dative; omit in translating.

21 24 par excellence: by way of distinction.

FABLE 27. La Fontaine, livre iii, fable 9. Æsop, 276; Phædrus, i, 8. 22 2 de frairie: at a merry-making or feast.

22 4 pensa: see 7 8. The usual order, il pensa en perdre la vie, would not suit the meter here.

225 bien avant à : far down in.

22 6 De bonheur: in modern French, par bonheur.

22 13 commère: see 10 1.

FABLE 28. La Fontaine, livre iii, fable 10. Æsop, 63.

FABLE 29. La Fontaine, livre ii, fable 2. Abstemius, 195; Faerno, 47. 231 Rodilardus: Gnawbacon, a cat name borrowed from Rabelais. 23 4 dedans: = dans.

23 11 sabbat: revel, carousal. The word sabbath was used in the Middle Ages for a meeting of witches or sorcerers, the sabbath being a Jewish institution and Jews being generally regarded as sorcerers. 23 15 plus tôt que plus tard: the sooner the better: lit. "sooner than later."

23 21 chose: here = rien.

23 23 vas: see 20 13.

23 24 Je ne saurais: supply y aller; see also 13 26.

23 26 se sont tenus: were held. Chapitre is here used, as in line 12, to mean the meeting of a chapter.

FABLE 30. La Fontaine, livre iii, fable 13. Æsop, 268.

24 2 avecque: in La Fontaine's time avec was sometimes written avecque for the sake of the meter.

24 3 apparemment: see 4 3.

24 6 Jamais... carnages: this means that if the sheep went out for pasture, the wolves killed them; if the wolves went out for slaughter, the shepherds killed them.

24 8 qu'en tremblant: translate after de leurs biens.

24 10 loups, brebis: supply donnent after each of these. 24 13 que:

où.

24 15 vous: see 21 22.

24 23 un seul: in modern French, pas un seul. 24 26 de soi: in itself.

24 27 de quoi sert-elle: what's the good of it?

FABLE 31. La Fontaine, livre iii, fable 17. Æsop, 31; Horace, Epistles, i, 7.

251 Damoiselle: my lady. This title was formerly applied to young ladies of high rank.

252 étroit: in La Fontaine's time pronounced as if written étret, thus making a rhyme with flouet. Compare the pronunciation of roide.

25 3 sortait de: was recovering from.

25 4 à discrétion: this never means "with discretion," but at will, as you please, as indicated by the next line. Note also that the terminations tion and sion in poetry regularly have two syllables each; in ordinary pronunciation, one.

25 5 lie: a word already obsolete in La Fontaine's time, except in the expression faire chère lie, "to feast, revel."

25 6 Dieu sait la vie, etc.: a somewhat confused sentence; supply qu'elle mena after vie.

25 19 l'on for on, to avoid hiatus, l'on not being permissible when a closely following word begins with /. - à bien d'autres: to many others. The rat means that the weasel is not the only one to whom this fable applies.

25 20 par trop approfondir: = en approfondant trop, by examining too closely.

FABLE 32. La Fontaine, livre iv, fable 5. Æsop, 331.

25 22 talent: nature, endowments.

25 24 quoi que: note the difference between quoique and quoi que. 25 25 saurait: see 13 26.

25 28 C'est . . . laisser: this line means that conduct should depend on one's individuality. Since all have not the same nature, they cannot all act alike.

26 6 de pair à compagnon: on terms of equality or companionship. The words pair (English peer) and compagnon have here nearly the same meaning.

26 7 monsieur, madame: master, mistress.

26 14 s'en vient: comes up. En (Latin inde) when used with verbs of motion indicates the origin of the motion. It is now rarely used except in s'en aller.

26 15 corne: a word (Latin cornu) usually meaning horn, but also applied to horny substances, such as hoofs. The usual word here would be sabot. Compare English corn, an excrescence on the foot.

26 18 de: with.

26 20 Martin-bâton: translate as if it read Martin avec un bâton. Martin is a common name for a servant.

FABLE 33. La Fontaine, livre iv, fable 9. Phædrus, i, 3.

26 24 se: dative, to itself.

26 27 bafoué: this and the next four words have nearly the same meaning. They may be translated ridiculed, pushed about, hissed at, mocked, derided.

26 29 d'étrange sorte: badly; lit. "in a strange way."

27 4 en: about them.

FABLE 34. La Fontaine, livre iv, fable 13. Phædrus, iv, 4; Horace, Epistles, i, 10.

TITLE. s'étant voulu : wishing, or who wished. The reflexive pronoun logically belongs to venger. For the order, compare 19 1. The position of the pronoun also accounts for the auxiliary; in modern French it would read ayant voulu se venger.

276 De tous temps: always.—sont: supply pas and translate as a past tense.

27 8 habitait: by poetic license for habitaient. In the seventeenth century, when several words formed the subject of a verb it was not unusual to make the verb agree with only one of them. So Corneille in Polyeucte, 849: “Sa bonté, son pouvoir, sa justice est immense.”

27 21 que: for avant que, which is regularly followed by the subjunctive; ne is pleonastic.

27 23 à vous: yours, or at your service; said as a phrase of courteous thanks, not meant literally.

27 24 en (before retourne): see 26 14.

27 25 Non pas cela: not so. — il fait meilleur : it is more comfortable; meilleur is here used adverbially.

285 sage: supply il aurait été.

287 c'est... que: compare the construction of this line with 5 12.

28 8 qui: lequel would be more regular; qui after a preposition is usually applied only to persons.

FABLE 35. La Fontaine, livre iv, fable I4. Æsop, 47; Pha drus, i, 7.

28 9 masques de théâtre : actors; an allusion to the fact that in ancient times actors wore masks on the stage.

28 14 fait: possession, wealth, a rather common meaning of the word in the seventeenth century. Compare L'Avare, i, 4 : "Bienheureux qui

a son fait bien placé.”

28 16 lui fit dire: caused him to utter. Lui is treated as the indirect object of the verb-phrase fit dire, the direct object being qu(e) in the line above. Compare 8 4.

28 19 de cervelle point: for il n'y a point de cervelle.

FABLE 36. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 7. The last five lines of this fable are found in Phædrus, iv, 10; the rest is substantially La Fontaine's own creation.

TITLE. Besace: a bag or wallet with an opening in the middle. It is usually thrown over the shoulder so that one pouch is in front, the other behind.

28 22 s'en vienne comparaître: come and appear; compare 26 14.

291 et pour cause: and with reason; because he was the ugliest and would therefore be most likely to object to his make-up.

297 on ne l'a qu'ébauché: they have only blocked him out; not finished him.

29 8 il ne se fera peindre: he will never have himself (his portrait) painted. 29 10 Tant s'en faut : far from it.

29 19 pour elle: for herself; that is, in her own opinion.

29 20 Jupin: see 18 26.

29 23 lynx, taupes: the lynx is noted for its sharp sight; the mole is traditionally supposed to have no eyes, because its eyes are so deepset that the fur hides them from careless observers.

29 27 besacier: wallet-bearer; a word of La Fontaine's own invention. FABLE 37. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 21. Phædrus, iii, 13.

In this fable the author evidently meant to satirize the legal procedure of his day.

30 14 fourmilière: means, of course, all the ants in the ant-hill.

30 22 n'a-t-il. ours. this refers to the popular belief that the female bear gets her cubs into proper shape after birth by licking them. Rabelais, iii, 42, says : "un ours naissant n'a pieds, ni mains, peau, poil ni tête; ce n'est qu'une pièce de chair, rude et informe. L'ourse à force de lécher, la met en perfection des membres." The meaning of the above line is, "Has n't the judge got this case into proper shape yet?" 30 30 parties: opponents. The word usually means the two parties (plaintiff and defendant) to a lawsuit.

311 Turcs: a Turkish judge hears the case and gives his decision at

once.

31 6, 7 l'huître, les écailles: see Fable 86.

FABLE 38. La Fontaine, livre ii, fable 5. Æsop, 307.

31 8 donna tête baissée: went head foremost; lit. " (with) head down." 31 15 ou bien: see 16 23.

31 17 profession: nature.

31 27 aux oiseaux ennemie : in modern French, ennemie aux oiseaux. 32 2 telle should be tel, since it refers to oiseau. The poet evidently had in mind chauve-souris, which is feminine.

32 3 Qui: see 20 7.

32 8 d'écharpe changeants: in prose changeants d'écharpe, “changing their scarf," that is, their colors; "turning their coats." Compare changeants with mendiants, 11 24.

329 faire la figue à: to laugh at. For the origin of the phrase, see Littré under figue.

32 10 sage: not "wise," but prudent. the people (with whom he finds himself).

selon les gens: according to

32 11 ligue la ligue, or la Sainte Ligue, was a coalition of Catholic noblemen against Henry III of France (1574-1589), who himself was a Catholic but had made peace with the Huguenots. It led to a civil war which was ended by Henry IV in 1594.

FABLE 39. La Fontaine, livre iv, fable 2. Æsop, 370.

32 13 Amphitrite: the goddess of the sea; here, the sea itself.

32 20 brebis: for the rhyme, see 8 15.

32 23 Corydon, Tircis (English Thyrsis): names of shepherds frequently found in pastoral poetry.

32 24 Pierrot: Pete; a common name for a farm laborer.

33 11 en: on account of it; refers to la mer.

33 12 monts et merveilles: very wonderful things.

33 13 fiez-vous-y := si vous vous y fiez.

FABLE 40. La Fontaine, livre iv, fable 6. Phædrus, iv, 6; Babrius, 31. TITLE. Rats: La Fontaine, in using this word, was probably thinking of mice rather than of rats, as is shown by the word souriquois in 34 4. See also Fables 91 and 97.

33 14, 17 belettes, étroites: for the rhyme, see 25 2.

33 19 l'animal à longue échine: the long-backed animal, the weasel. 34 4 le peuple souriquois: the mouse (or rat) tribe. Souriquois, from souris, is, apparently, an invention of La Fontaine's.

34 6 Artarpax: a name meaning bread-thief, formed in imitation of the two following, which are found in a Greek burlesque poem called Batrachomyomachia, "Battle of the Frogs and Mice." It was formerly