P. L.

53. 6. Avette, a pretty word derived from 'apis,' was the favourite Pléiade term for bee instead of 'abeille,' or 'mouche à miel.'

13. Ny='nid.'

55. 2. Premier, for the first time.'

6. Neuvaine trope is an expression characteristic of the weaker side of the Pléiade movement; it means, 'troupe de neuf,'' the band of nine Muses.'

29. This piece and the following are printed in modern spelling, in order that readers may judge whether the Prince of Poets owes his fame to antiquarian partiality only.

57. 19. Férue, in the simple sense of ‘struck,' ' pierced with the share.' 58. 13. An instance of a somewhat unjustifiable attempt to transfer Latin liberty of order in the sentence to French. 'Maigres' goes in sense with ⚫ siècles.'

61. 20. This is a little bit of côterie spite against Marot, who is frequently reflected on in the sequel.

68. 10. Ballans, 'fluttering,'' flitting.'

18. Ravasser = 'revasser'=' rêver.'

71. 7. Filé. It may be well to remind the reader that the use of the accented e for a final syllable ending in a consonant was, until recently, very capricious in French; cf. né for 'nez,' diné for 'dîner,' etc.

74. 11. Pourmener, a common form for 'promener.'

77. 4. Perruque. It is almost needless to say that there is nothing disrespectful in this use of 'wig;' it is simply a case of the changed and limited sense of a word.

78. 5. Entreront en quartier, 'will take up their quarters.'

6. Jà desjà, now already,' an emphatic tautology.

10. Éphémérides, astrological almanacks.'

21. Courans grand'erre, 'running swiftly.'

79. 1. I am indebted for this excellent cento of one of D'Aubigne's finest passages to MM. Darmesteter and Hatzfeld. The author is one of the most unequal in French, and it is seldom that his magnificent Alexandrines hold out for any length of time without something of a breakdown. A careful study of the original has convinced me that it was impossible to do better than follow the writers I have mentioned.

87. 7. Qui rien ne le redoute,' who does not fear him at all.'

8. Ainçois, but, indeed,' 'nay, indeed.'

13. Mauvaitié, or 'mauvaistié,' 'badness.'

23. Morigérée. This more classical form gradually became in French 'morigénée.

P. L.

88. 8. Jaçoit, though it be,' 'although.'

91. 1. Quand et elle, with her.'

94. 1. Spelling modernised. Nearly all the persons here named will be found in chapters two and four of the Second Book of the Short History.

7. This use of cuider is not uncommon at the time. The exact

English equivalent would be 'to melt as I thought.'

24. Etape, in this sense of 'staff,'' stake,' is very rare. It is said to be a Germanism.

31. Supposed to be a covert hit at his wife.

36. Sécher sur pied, or sur le pied' to be worried to death.' An

idiom used as late as Diderot.

99. 5. Plage='plaga,' 'wound.'

100

3. Oratiocina. This, if it be the right reading, is a word of Paré's own coining, on the model of ratiocinari.

may suspect ratiocina,' ' preserved his reason.'

10. Effleuaefflavit,' another classicism.

101. 17. Son nom, Montaigne.

But one

102. 22. Les Grisons, the highway from the north of Europe to Italy

in the sixteenth century.

103. 3. Complexion, in the then technical sense of 'temperament.' 104. 30. Royne, Mary Stuart.

109. 21. Luctueuse, luctuosa,'' sorrowful.'

110. 25. Passons en nos fantaisies de tous deux, let us indulge both our fancies.'

32. Durant, in the time of.'

111. 31. Fust ou, or whether it was,' sc. 'not a wicked quarrel, but.'

113. 21. Fiance, 'confidence.'

115. 28. Aucunement, in some wise,' 'to a certain extent.'

116. 36. Assiette, ' placing.'

117. 9. Voirement = vraiment.'

14. Faire la croix à la cheminée is a phrase signifying to make

a mark,' take notice of some extraordinary event.

21. Chuchetans = chuchotants.'

120. 19. It is necessary, in reading this extract, to remember the singular fashion in which Sully's Memoirs are written, and that 'vous'

is himself.

P. L.

121. 7. Hocqueton, the uniform tunic of the archer guard.

25. De leurs gentils-hommes, 'some of their gentlemen.' 122. 18. La saincte union, the League.

21. Monter à reculons, probably a suggestion of the gallows. 124. 9. Adjourner, 'summons.'

127. 24. This coarse but vigorous version of the origin of Hippocrene, the Fons Caballinus,' (which, however, according to the more graceful classical fable, Pegasus produced by stamping with his feet,) is perhaps one of the 'rimes cyniques' which frightened Boileau. It emphasises Regnier's contempt so forcibly, and is so characteristic, that even in a book of extracts it seems a pity to omit it.

27. Trouver la pie au nid, familiar for making a grand discovery.' 128. 18. Sades, 'neat,' 'elegant.'

22. Piolés, ‘pied,' 'particoloured.'

24. Peautre, chemical' rouge' or 'cosmetic.'

26. Où, whereas.'

131. 6. S'espanist =' s'épanouit.'

134. 9. The person in whose honour this pretty song was composed

is uncertain. It is curious and characteristic of Malherbe that

the idea and almost the words of the first two lines are borrowed from a sonnet of Du Perron's.

142. 13. Brodeau, one of the school of Marot, and a clever rondeau writer. 143. 11. This playful letter was written during a tour which Voiture

made to Spain and the coast of Morocco. It was addressed to Mademoiselle Paulet, a famous member of the côteries of the time, who was surnamed 'La Lionne.' Hence the joke. The lion which accompanied it was of red wax.

144. 2. A couplet very coarse in expression, and not necessary to the context, follows in the original.

146. 22. Words expressive of the clinking of glasses (or perhaps gaming

terms?).

147. 1. This is the rival sonnet to Uranie, pp. 142-3.

149. 22. In the fifth Fable of the Sixth Book, Le cochet, le chat, et

le souriceau.'

152. 10. The versification of the earliest French poems, the Chansons de Gestes, has a careful scansion and a regular cæsura.

13. The exactest rules of ballades and rondeaux are centuries older than Marot.

25. Cf. Regnier, pp. 126-8.

154. 20. The Abbé Cotin, victim not only of Boileau but of Molière, as

Trissotin in the Femmes Savantes.

P. L.

154. 26. Chapelain, see S. H., p. 277.

155. 3. Chapelain is said to have had pensions to the amount of 8000 livres; a very large sum for the time.

14. Bilaine, a bookseller, whose shop was in the Galerie du Palais. 21. Linière, a critic of the day, who had particularly attacked Chapelain.

160. 9. Ami, Chaulieu.

163. 19. This speech is delivered by Genest (who is about to become a martyr) in the character of a Christian on the stage.

165. 14. Cléopatre is the mother of Antiochus, Rodogune his betrothed, and the object of Cléopatre's hatred. Timagène, the brother of Antiochus, and his rival, has been found dead.

169. 4. This vigorous poem, which explains Corneille's character for arrogance, and on which much of that character is founded, dates from just after the Cid quarrel and had reference to it. 178. 1. Cathos and Magdelon are girls of the middle class, but of some wealth, who affect the Précieuse fashion. Their suitors, irritated at their airs and graces, send their valets Jodelet and Mascarille to personate men of rank and fashion; Cathos and Magdelon fall into the snare.

181. 10. Alceste, the honourable and downright, but somewhat churlish lover of Célimène, is present at one of her ordinary receptions where scandal forms the chief subject of conversation. Philinte is Alceste's friend, Eliante Célimène's cousin. Acaste and Clitandre are two of the ordinary marquis'-courtiers of rank, whom Molière was never tired of satirising.

185. 31. This passage, which is perhaps not wholly in place, is a translation of Lucretius. It is understood to be a fragment of a complete version projected or accomplished by Molière. 194. 11. Penchant in the physical sense incline,' 'slope,' instead of as usually now inclination,' in the metaphorical sense.

25. Moitié ville, half town-fashion.'

195. 10. Fourchette would seem to be used here in the sense of the 'forked rest' used by arquebusiers. In that case it is of course an intentional absurdity.

Bas d'attache, long silk stockings.'

28. Prétendois, ' meant.'

196. 23. Possible='possiblement.'

197. 15. Leur gros,' their main body.'

198. 4. Son pillier. Apparently advocates had special places in the hall of the Palais where they were to be found. Such and

such a pillar would be of course an easy direction to clients.

P. L.

198. 10. Bureau d'adresse, a kind of general enquiry office, founded in Paris in 1630 by one Théophile Renaudot.

12. Orviétan, a favourite drug sold in the streets by quacks. With a capital O it would mean a particular seller of it who was well known at the time.

37. Note that he preferred black letter and wooden binding because they were cheap. Times have changed.

199. 26. Glans, 'tassels.'

200. I. Il is the lover who overhears the conversation.

205. 4. Moulineau is the giant, cowardly and brutal. His talking ram is, after the fashion of fairy tales, an enchanted prince.

207. 12. L'Oncle, the Cardinal. Le Neveu, Henri IV.

15. Les religionnaires, the old Huguenots.

212. 3. Cheux here and elsewhere 'chez.'

213. 5. De la bonne, in Retz' curious and incorrect, but graphic fashion of speech, refers to honte. Mazarin was not the man to

be honestly ashamed of anything.'

219. 34. Revêtu in the military sense, 'covered with a revêtement," ' embanked with earth.'

221. 3. Cruel. The duke of Orleans was accused of having poisoned more than one of those who stood between him and the throne. The accusation, which remains on record in the venomous lampoons of Lagrange-Chancel, is destitute of a shadow of proof.

12. Une inépuisable, sc. ressource.

225. 3. Jetez-vous, etc., a lively idiom for 'to give up.'

226. 7. Marée, literally, 'tide,' is also used for what comes with the tide, that is to say, 'fresh fish.'

32. Aux vingt-cinquièmes, a lively exaggeration. Not the king's table nor the second table, but the twenty-fifth.

227. 32. Jeter son bonnet par-dessus les moulins, generally means, to commit extravagances,' 'to defy Mrs. Grundy.' Here, however, it seems to have a somewhat different sense, and to mean to take the risk.'

228. 3. Cousin, M. de Coulanges.

229. 18. Abolition. The technical sense of this word is 'pardon; and, though the joke is not extremely clear, it would seem that the duke referred to the fact that coining was and is a grave offence.

231. 24. Garde-robe in this sense = 'household.'

30. Bouts carrés, either generally trimmings,' or a technical term

of falconry.