78 en voulait à: was after, wished to get.

718 comme moi: as I do. If these words were translated literally, "like me," they might be referred to meunier. The language is, however, ambiguous.

719 malade: badly off; an unusual use of the word.

FABLE 12. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 16. Æsop, 90.

7 24 n'en pouvant plus de: exhausted with; after pouvant supply faire, "being able to do no more"; en cannot be translated.

7 27 En est-il: for y en a-t-il, "is there one of them?" En refers to the inhabitants of the world, but it is better to omit it in translating. — la machine ronde: the earth. For the second en in this line, see 2 18.

8 3 la corvée: forced labor. Before the Revolution, peasants were usually forced to do a certain amount of work for the lord of the manor without compensation. This was often very burdensome. See Martineau's The Peasant and the Prince.

84 lui: him. "When two accusatives, one of the person, the other of the thing, would occur with a transitive verb, the accusative of the person is turned into the indirect object in the dative" (Harrison's French Syntax, p. 190).

88 tu ne tarderas guère: please be quick about it; lit. “you will not be long." He wishes to get rid of the sight as soon as possible.

8 10 ne bougeons: pas is frequently omitted after bouger. FABLE 13. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 6. Phædrus, i, 5.

815 au temps jadis: in olden time. In La Fontaine's time the final letters in brebis and pris were usually pronounced in poetry, thus rhyming with jadis, whose final letter was pronounced, as it usually is to-day. Many other final consonants vary thus in pronunciation.

8 19 Eux venus: they having arrived, or after they had arrived; compare le père mort, 4 21.

8 22 en qualité de sire: as being lord or king. Kings were quite commonly addressed as sire.

8 30 tout d'abord: on the spot; lit. "very first."

FABLE 14. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 9. Æsop, 297; Horace, Satires, ii, 6. The story is very common.

9 4 ortolans: a European singing bird resembling the lark.

99 honnête: not "honest," but abundant.

9 12 en train: supply de manger.

917 on refers to those who had disturbed the rats.

9 18 rats: supply sont.

9 19 de dire the historical infinitive; usually

=

past definite.

923 que: for parce que.

FABLE 15. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 18. Phædrus, i, 26.

10 1 Compère: compère and commère originally denoted those who were associated with the father and mother at the baptism of a child, but in La Fontaine's time this meaning had vanished. Compère le renard may be translated "Br'er Fox."

Besogne is a word of wide rendered "for the whole

10 2 commère la cigogne: Madam Stork. 10 4 pour toute besogne: as his sole dish. application, and the phrase here may be business"; compare pour tout potage, 43 22, and L'Avare, iii, 2. 107 miette: lit. "crumb"; here = rien, hence the omission of the article.

10 12 point: in modern French de would be required after point. 10 16 cuit à point: done to a turn; lit. "cooked to (the proper) point." 10 17 bon appétit: supply il a before bon.

10 18, 19. Note that viande has two syllables while friande has three. 10 21 col: col and cou were originally the same word (Latin collum). Now col is used figuratively, cou in a literal sense for the "neck" of an animal.

10 25 aurait pris: the conditional is due to the compression of the phrase. It might read Honteux comme serait un renard qu'une poule avait pris.

10 26 serrant la queue. By supplying entre les jambes we can translate this literally, but in French serrer la queue alone may mean "to hold the tail between the legs."

10 28 à la pareille: supply chose.

FABLE 16. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 5. Phædrus, iii, 7; Avianus, 37. 11 13 II. ... vous: it depends on you alone; you have it in your power. 11 19 franche lippée: free lunch or feast; that is, a feast that can be had without fighting.

11 23 gens portants bâtons: tramps, since these frequently carry sticks; mendiants is the present participle. In modern French we should have mendiant, but in old French the participle always agreed; in La Fontaine's time usage varied. The rule making the present participle invariable was adopted by the Academy in 1679.

121 col: in modern French cou; see 10 21.

12 3 Mais encor: but (I ask) again. The wolf is not satisfied with the dog's answer. The final e of encore is frequently dropped in poetry for the sake of the meter. dont: in prose this would be par lequel. 12 6 qu'importe: what does it matter? Compare déplaise, 2 14.

12 10 Cela dit: compare le père mort, 4 21. —court encor(e): a common expression, indicating that some one has gone off in great dissatisfaction or discomfiture.

FABLE 17. La Fontaine, livre ii, fable II. Æsop, 256. Marot, nearly 150 years earlier (in 1525), related this fable with greater spirit and detail.

12 16 assez à l'étourdie: rather heedlessly. Étourdie is an adjective qualifying some such noun as manière, understood.

12 18 montra ce qu'il était: the lion is popularly supposed to be magnanimous.

12 21 d'un ... affaire: note the difference between avoir affaire de, "to have need of," and avoir affaire à, "to have to do with."

12 28 ni: the use of ni in this line is somewhat peculiar. We should have expected ou since there is no negative; ni force ni rage would be more usual.

Æsop, 296.

FABLE 18. La Fontaine, livre ii, fable 12. 13 3 fourmis: an old form, doubtless used here to avoid a hiatus, as also in line 8. In line the s is necessary in order to make a correct rhyme with petits, it being a principle in French prosody that words, in order to rhyme, must not merely sound alike; there must also be some correspondence in the form, at least sufficient to make the liaisons similar. In old French the usual form was fourmis or formis, and was masculine. In La Fontaine's time, however, la fourmi was the form most in use.

13 12 l'oiseau de Vénus: the dove. The s in Venus is regularly pronounced, but is silent here to rhyme with nus.

13 17 tire de long: flies far away.

13 19 point de... obole: he didn't get even a cent's worth of pigeon. The obole was an old French coin of very small value.

FABLE 19. La Fontaine, livre ii, fable 14. Æsop, 237.

13 21 que faire: what is one to do? a common interrogative form. 13 26 sauraient savoir usually indicates mental ability, pouvoir physical.

14 8 faisait: the omission of the subject (here il) is a poetic license. 149 douteux: anxious, worried; the word is obsolete in this sense, but compare redouter.

14 14 devers: obsolete for vers.

14 15 s'en alla passer: here = passa. The rhymes étang, autant, and camp are not in accordance with the rule stated above, 13 3.

14 16, 17 de sauter, de rentrer: see 9 19.

14 18 j'en fais faire, etc.: I make (others) do as much as some make me do; that is, I make some run away just as some make me do.

14 24 Il n'est: for il n'y a personne.

FABLE 20. La Fontaine, livre ii, fable 15. Æsop, 225, with some variations. Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale" is a version of this story. 15 1 que: for afin que.

153 postes a poste, as a measure of distance, was about five miles. 15 4 Les tiens: your people or relations.

156 y: there, that is, in your affairs.

157 Faites-en les feux light bonfires for it. - dès ce soir: this very evening. Dès with expressions of time is usually merely emphatic.

159 amour: in modern French, masculine in the singular, feminine in the plural. In the seventeenth century the singular could be either masculine or feminine.

15 23 tire ses grègues: prepares to run; lit. “pulls up his breeches” (in order to run faster). — gagne au haut: runs away.

FABLE 21. La Fontaine, livre ii, fable 17. Phædrus, iii, 18.

16 5 est lui seul, etc.: poetic license for et lui seul est. Translate and is itself alone the glory.

16 14 Est-il for y a-t-il ?

...

16 20 le corbeau présage: the croaking of a raven was supposed to forebode evil; hence our word croaker.

16 23 bien: after ou this word may be translated else, or omitted. FABLE 22. La Fontaine, livre ii, fable 19. Æsop, 259; Phædrus, i, II. 16 26 fête may be translated birthday, although in France it is customary to celebrate the day of the saint whose name one bears. Thus a person named John would celebrate the 24th of June, that being St. John's day.

16 31 à la voix de Stentor: with the stentorian voice. Stentor was a warrior in the Iliad whose voice was as loud as that of fifty other men.

171 messer: from Italian messere; probably used here instead of the usual messire for the sake of the meter.

174 intimidés: timid. Les moins intimidés may be translated even the boldest.

17 17 encor que: quoique; for encor, see 12 3.

FABLE 23. La Fontaine, livre iii, fable 3. Probably taken from Verdizotti's version of one of Æsop's fables.

17 20 petite part: but a small share. He had formerly had more. 17 22 s'aider... renard: a figurative expression meaning "to have recourse to cunning," "to play the fox." There is a proverb, Il faut

coudre la peau du renard à celle du lion; that is, il faut joindre la ruse à la force.

17 23 faire un nouveau personnage: assume a new character.

17 26 cornemuse: French shepherds usually have a bagpipe to amuse themselves as well as to call the sheep.

17 29 Guillot: Billy, a common name for a shepherd.

17 30 faite: made up.

187 les laissa faire: let them alone; lit. "let them do (what they were doing)."

18 20 se laissent prendre: after laisser and faire, an active infinitive is generally to be translated by a passive.

18 21 agisse let him act; more fully expressed it might read que celui qui est loup agisse en loup.

FABLE 24. La Fontaine, livre iii, fable 4. Æsop, 76; Phædrus, i, 2. 18 24 état: form of government.

18 26 Jupin: the old French form of Jupiter. It is now used only in colloquial language.

191 s'alla cacher: for alla se cacher; this was the regular position of the pronoun object in La Fontaine's time.

198 de le voir s'aventurant =

s'aventurant pour le voir.

19 15 sire: the usual title of a monarch.

19 16 a la cervelle rompue: lit. has his head split. Their noise made his head ache.

19 21, 22 de se plaindre, de leur dire: see 9 19.

19 24 Vous avez (for auriez) dû garder: you should have kept.

19 26 il vous devait suffire: it ought to have been enough for you; you should have been satisfied. For the position of vous, see note to line 1, above.

FABLE 25. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 10. Æsop, 274; Phædrus, i, 1. 20 1 la meilleure: here means the most successful, on the principle that might makes right.

202 nous l'allons montrer: for the order, see 19 1.

204 onde poetical for eau.

207 Qui: = qu'est-ce qui, what?

20 13 je vas still occasionally used for je vais. The present of aller with a present participle denotes a continued action.

20 23 tiens: see 15 4.

FABLE 26. La Fontaine, livre iii, fable 5. Æsop, 45; Phædrus, iv, 9. 21 2 des plus haut encornés: with very long horns; lit. “(one) of the highest-horned."