75 2 le long âge: advanced age.

75 3 vous: dative.

75 5 le secret . . . en: the secret of it; that is, of this remedy.

75 13, 14 vous (before détruire and nuire): reciprocal; translate each

other.

75 15 se rend chez vous: is returned among you; that is, you requite injuries four times as carefully as benefits.

FABLE 78. La Fontaine, livre v, fable 7. Æsop, 64; Haudent, 22. 75 22 prendre ... dents: means that they ate by putting the dish to their mouths.

75 25 housse: cover, usually for furniture; here probably table-cloth. 76 13 Ne plaise aux dieux: see 62 2.

FABLE 79. La Fontaine, livre viii, fable 15. La Fontaine's source was probably an anonymous fable, "Le Rat et l'Éléphant," published in 1670, although his conclusion is original.

76 17 personnage: notable person.

76 20 françois: an old spelling of français; rhymes with bourgeois. It is to be noted, however, that in français the spelling has changed to conform to the pronunciation, while in bourgeois the pronunciation has conformed to the spelling. See note on étroit, 25 2.

76 22 Espagnols: in the seventeenth century Spaniards were usually represented on the stage as swashbucklers.

76 25 du nôtre: of our own.

76 26 en... autre (orgueil): is well worth another's; that is, is quite as bad, as that of the Spaniards for example.

771 rat: evidently again = souris.

77 2 le marcher: = la marche; see 56 10.

77 5 animal à triple étage: three-story animal; that is, a very big one.

779 s'en allait : see 26 14.

77 14 vous autres hommes: you men. This idiomatic use of autres is very common.

77 16, 17 Nous ne nous prisons pas ... d'un grain moins: we do not value ourselves less by one grain. Grain is here the weight.

FABLE 80. La Fontaine, livre vi, fable 8. Phædrus, i, 15.

77 28 nette: clean (by eating the grass).

77 29 sur l'entrefaite: in the meantime; in modern French, sur ces entrefaites, as at 79 4.

77 31 paillard: lit. "one who sleeps on straw (paille)," but there is here a suggestion of sluggishness; translate sluggard.

78 2 prit le large: ran away. Prendre le large is properly a nautical term meaning "to go to sea."

786 en bon françois: translate in plain English; see 76 20.

FABLE 81. La Fontaine, livre viii, fable 17. Abstemius, 109.

789 sais: supply the subject je. This omission of the pronoun was not uncommon in the seventeenth century.

78 11 par pays: across country.

78 17 pour l'heure: for this time.

78 19, 20 et . . . demeure: lit. and for want of serving this dish a feast rarely remains (uneaten). The meaning is that the absence of thistles rarely prevents a donkey from making a meal. Donkeys are Isaid to be fond of thistles.

78 21 s'en sut ... passer: sut s'en passer, managed to do without

them.

78 25 mot: for pas un mot. -le roussin d'Arcadie: the Arcadian pony. Arcadia (in Greece) was noted for its excellent breed of asses. 79 5 s'en vient: comes along, approaches.

79 10 Que may be translated but or omitted. It is frequently so used before si at the beginning of a sentence.

66.

FABLE 82. La Fontaine, livre viii, fable 23. Abstemius, 9; Haudent,

79 21 un seul supply voyageur.

79 24 n'eut que la peur : had only the fright, nothing worse.

80 3 l'onde noire: the black stream is the Styx, mentioned in the next line, the principal river of the underworld; boire au Styx: drowned.

= to be

80 7 bien . . . nôtres : rivers quite different from ours. The rivers of the infernal regions are meant.

FABLE 83. La Fontaine, livre ix, fable 4. Taken from an old collection of stories.

80 11 aller repeat sans before aller; see also 19 1.

80 12 treuve: see 41 13.

80 14 combien . gros: how large.

80 19 justement l'affaire : just the thing.

80 21 Garo: the name of a peasant in Cyrano de Bergerac's Pédant joué, which was probably popular at the time this was written. -es: in modern French impersonal expressions like c'est dommage are followed by the subjunctive.

80 22 au conseil into the plan or counsel. 80 23 en... mieux the better for it.

FABLE 84. La Fontaine, livre ix, fable 5. The subject of this fable was probably taken from Camerarius, Fabulæ Æsopicæ. Fables i, 19 and iv, 4 are somewhat similar.

81 15 sentait son collège: smacked of the college: that is, he was still a school-boy. In France collège is usually applied to a school of lower grade than with us; compare also sentant son renard, 42 18.

81 21 Pomone: Pomona, the goddess of fruits.

81 25 Flore: Flora, the goddess of flowers.

82 6 de sa grâce: of his own accord, deliberately; now obsolete in this

sense.

82 13 force traits de science: great show of knowledge.

82 18 ne sais : see 78 9.

FABLE 85. La Fontaine, livre ix, fable 6. Avianus, 23; Horace, Satires, i, 8.

839 A la faiblesse, etc.: the poet formerly was scarcely inferior to the sculptor in weakness; that is, he was under the same illusions.

83 10 poète: oè is here a diphthong. In the seventeenth century poète was sometimes pronounced as a dissyllable, sometimes as a trisyllable.

83 23 Pygmalion: a sculptor who fell in love with a statue which he had made, to which Venus, at his request, gave life.

83 24 Vénus: should be Galatée, according to the legend. FABLE 86. La Fontaine, livre ix, fable 9. The poet here simply versified a story current in his time. It is also found in one of Boileau's Epistles.

84 2 y venait d'apporter: for venait d'y apporter.

84 3 se: to each other.

84 4 à l'égard de la dent: with regard to the tooth; that is, as to who should eat it.

84 11 Dieu in this expression Dieu is dative.

84 12 aussi : = non plus, either.

84 16 Perrin Dandin: a humorous name for a judge (or rather referee), taken from Rabelais.

84 22, 23 en coûte, en reste: en with these verbs is better omitted in translating.

84 25 laisser le sac et les quilles : means to take the best part and run away. It doubtless refers to a player who runs away with the stakes, leaving the ninepins and the bag in which they were carried.

FABLE 87. La Fontaine, livre ix, fable 16. Taken from Régnier, Apologi Phædrii, 28. This "fable" is said to be a true story, the owner

of the cat and monkey being Pope Julius II (1503-1513); see Oxford Dictionary under "cat's-foot."

84 28 un très bon plat: a very fine pair. Plat is literally dish, mess. Molière in Le Misanthrope, line 629, speaking of a bore, says: "C'est un fort méchant plat que sa sotte personne."

84 29 y: in it; that is, as a rival in doing mischief.

85 19 puis trois en escroque: arrange, puis en escroque trois.

85 23 Aussi: see 84 12.-le: so; referring to content.

FABLE 88. La Fontaine, livre xi, fable 8. Abstemius, 167.

85 28 Passe encor de bâtir: building may pass; there may be some excuse for building.

862 labeur: poetic for travail.

86 11 Parques: Fates; in mythology, the three sisters who spun the thread of life.

86 17 arrière-neveux: remote posterity. Neveux (Latin nepotes) is here used somewhat in its original sense. "Carpent tua poma nepotes," Virgil, Eclogues, x, 50. — me devront: will be indebted to me for.

86 20 Cela même: that very thing; referring to the thought in the previous line.

86 22 compter l'aurore: count thɩ sun's risings; that is, see the sun rise.

86 25 dès le port: even in the harbor; before leaving the harbor.à l'Amérique: in modern French, en Amérique.

86 27 la république: see 70 25.

86 31 pleurés: mourned for. The sentence is not strictly grammatical since pleurés is not in accord with any word in it.

FABLE 89. La Fontaine, livre xii, fable 14. This was taken either from Débat de Folie et d'Amour, by Louise Labé, or from a Latin poem by Jean Commire, a contemporary of La Fontaine.

87 17 la clarté des cieux: that is, his eyesight.

87 19 Femme . . . cris: translate as if it read il suffit de ses cris pour juger qu'elle est femme et mère. Suffit is here impersonal; it might also réad ses cris suffisent. Venus was the mother of Cupid:

87 21 Némésis: the goddess of vengeance (pronounced néméziss); for the rhyme, see 8 15.

87 28 partie: plaintiff; see 30 30.

FABLE 90. La Fontaine, livre ix, fable 18. Abstemius, 127.

88 4 J'aurai beau les compter: although I count them; see 42 12. 885 Robin: the name of a pet sheep in Rabelais.

88 12 Guillot: see 17 29.

88 18 Foi: see 27.

88 19 terme (Latin terminus): stone, especially a stone used to mark a boundary.

88 22 Chacun... tête: each one answers for it on his head (or life). -en: refers to the statements in lines 20, 21.

88 23 leur fit fête : praised them. Faire fête usually means to welcome, receive kindly.

88 24 devant: = avant.

FABLE 91. La Fontaine, livre vi, fable 5. Abstemius, 67.

89 6 carrière: in general, career; here, free course or a long trip. 89 11 morceau de chair: refers to the comb of the cock.

89 17 venu de l'Amérique: in La Fontaine's time very little was known about America, and "something from America" meant "something strange or marvelous."

903 souris in this fable the author seems to make rat the male and souris the female of the same species.

90 10 fonde sa cuisine: lives. Cuisine here = food, living.

FABLE 92. La Fontaine, livre xi, fable 7. The oldest form of this fable is found in a Spanish work by Guevara (1529), translated into French with the title Marc-Aurèle et l'Horloge des Princes. From this La Fontaine got many of the ideas and some of the expressions of his version.

90 15 l'erreur du souriceau: refers to the preceding fable.

90 18 Socrate, Ésope: both Socrates and Æsop are said to have been very ugly although very wise and good men.

90 19 Marc-Aurèle: Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 A.D. No such story is found in the writings of Marcus Aurelius; it is probably an invention of Guevara's.

90 25 ours mal léché: unlicked bear; he was uncouth in appearance. See also 30 22.

917 veuillent les immortels: may the gods grant.

91 12 Témoin nous nous sommes témoins; témoin at the beginning of a sentence is invariable. romaine avarice: in modern French, ava

rice romaine.

91 21 die see 69 23.

91 33 Celle: refers to inhumanité. - préteurs: pretors, governors (of a province).

925 Grâces: thanks; in modern French, usually grâce in this sense. 92 16 converser: to associate with (Latin conversari). The word conversation always has a similar sense in the English Bible.