29 Sur les dents. Expresses the result of 'abattre,' 'without a leg left to stand on;' 'prostrate,' 'biting the dust.'

38 Tel. Many a one.'

39 Pour. Usually denotes 'purpose,' as 'mourir pour la patrie,' 'reculer pour mieux sauter;' but it also expresses relation of cause and effect, as 'Il a tout perdu pour avoir trop risqué.'

I Ânier. Lat. 'asinarius.' Word revived by La Fontaine from O. Fr. 'asner.'

Sceptre; i.e. son fouet!'

3 Coursier. The poetic word for 'steed,' 'charger.' 4 i.e. stepped out nimbly.'

5 Se faire prier. Familiar phrase for 'to need pressing.' 6 Porter les bouteilles. Proverbial for 'marcher lentement.' 'Crept cautiously,' like one carrying glass with care.

7 Gaillard. Derivative of 'gai;' either 'wag' or 'rogue;' or in a neutral sense, 'fellow.'

Pèlerin. Here epithet = Lat. 'peregrinus,' with no notion of religious 'pilgrimage.'

8 Vaux. Plural of obsolete 'val,' now superseded by 'vallée.' Only used in this phrase, 'aller par monts et par vaux,' ‘up hill and down dale.'

9 Gué. Lat. 'vadum.' Cf. 'gâter,' Lat. 'vastare;'‘gaîne,' Lat. 'vagina.'

10 Empêché usually implies 'hindered' in some action specified. Here it is absolute Gr. &πopos, more naturally expressed

by 'embarassé.'

=

14 En faire à sa tête, and the more common 'faire un coup de tête,' imply a headstrong, self-willed line of action. So 'ne vouloir rien faire qu'à sa tête' = 'to listen to nobody.'

=

17 Nagée. Such participial substantives express the result the action of the verb. This particular word of La Fontaine's coining, 'a stroke' in swimming, though long in common use, was only recognized by the Dictionnaire de l'Académie in the edition of 1835.

21 Epongier. Playfully coined by La Fontaine for 'porteur d'éponges. One of La Fontaine's happy gifts is his art of coining words which at once commend themselves as natural and useful.

22 It is proverbial how a whole flock of sheep will follow exactly where one leads. In colonial sheep-farming, where rivers are broad and shallow, the difficulty is to get the first sheep over. When one is across, the rest are sure to follow.

25 Grison. Cf. Eng. 'grizzle.' It is also the 'gray-bearded' man; Ger. 'greis.'

D'autant (not simply 'autant,' 'as much ') = 'dans la même proportion. Cf. faire de même.' The phrase 'boire d'autant' is used familiarly to imply 'excess,' 'to drink hard.'

26 Faire raison à. To do justice to'a toast; said of men carousing. Here of course they all swallow the same amount of water.

28 Emplir. The old form from Lat. 'implere,' now superseded by the iterative 'remplir.'

32 Il n'importe. Now shortened to the familiar 'n'importe.' 35 In plain words, "This is what I was driving at!"

FABLE XI.

ESOP. 256. Leo et Mus.

N. B. In the original editions, Fables XI. and XII. are printed

as one.

II Affaire.

=

3 Feront foi. Cf. 'fidem facere,' 'to ensure credibility.' 'Avoir affaire à' 'to have business with ;' 'avoir affaire de' (less common) 'to have need of,' like 'avoir besoin de.' In O. Fr. 'besoin,' 'need,' and 'besogne,' 'business,' were one and the same word. Cf. Lat. 'opus.'

=

12 Avint. Now, 'arriva' would be more natural.

Form

' advenir' more common than 'avenir.' Cf. the maxim, "Fais ce que dois, advienne que pourra.

Cf.

16 Maille (Lat. 'macula'). "Stitch' of any woven texture, 'mesh' of a net; and so, metal 'link.' Cf. 'cotte de mailles.' 'Maille' = = 'a small copper coin,' is a different word, from late Lat. 'metallea,' of which 'médaille' is a modern doublet. 'n'avoir ni sou ni maille ;' i.e. 'not to be worth a farthing.' 17 Longueur de temps. Cf. Cicero, De Divinatione: "Nihil est quod longinquitas temporis efficere non possit." 18 Ni. Cf. II. ix. 6.

FABLE XII.

ESOP. 296. Formica et Columba.

3 Fourmis. Originally so written singular as well as plural; but no longer so in La Fontaine's time, who uses it by poetical licence to save the hiatus.

10 Croquant. Term of contempt = 'homme de rien.' The name was given to the peasants of Guienne who revolted under Henri IV., and were finally put down under Louis XIII. in 1638, when La Fontaine was seventeen years old. D'Aubigné derives the name from the insurgent villagers of Croc, in Limousin. De Thou derives it from the peasants' war-cry,

“Aux Croquants !" i.e. “Death to those who devour (‘croquer') the poor!

II Arbalète. Originally 'arbalestre,' from 'arcuballista.' 13 Faire fête à. To welcome warmly.' Cf. I. xvii. 15.

16 Vilain. The single throws doubt on the etymological connection with 'villageois,' &c., and suggests Lat. 'vilis' for root; but both Fr. 'vilain' and Eng. 'villain' are usually referred to Lat. 'villa,' and explained as the serf attached to the estate.

17 Tirer de long. To take a long flight.' neuter, like Ger. 'ziehen.'

'Tirer' here

19 Obole. The smallest copper coin currrent in the Middle Ages, when they reckoned by 'livres, sols, et deniers.' The 'obole' 'half-denier.' 'La dernière obole' we render 'the uttermost farthing,' in Luke xii. 59. Notice the change of gender from oẞoλós. The sense of the line, now become a proverb, is, "No pigeon to be had so cheaply!" Our nearest proverb would be, "Old birds are not to be caught with chaff."

FABLE XIII.

ESOP. 72. Astrologus.

Diogenes Laertius, with his love of petty scandal, tells this story of the wise Thales of Miletus.

1 Choir. O. Fr. for 'tomber;' Lat. 'cadere.'

7 'Out of our whole number on this earth.'

De gens.

pronoun.

Like Lat. 'partitive genitive,' depending on neuter

9 Se plaire de.

To derive pleasure from.' Usually 'se plaire

à,' to take pleasure in.'

'his fellow-poets.'

12 Qu'est-ce, que. The pause-the comma-marks the sense, 'What else is it than chance?' Whereas 'Qu'est-ce que le Hasard?' would be, 'What is chance?'

Parmi. Only with singular noun, if collective in sense.

16 Ni, for 'ou,' as if the principal verb 'aurait tort' were negative.

22 This Fable gives us glimpses of La Fontaine's power as a didactic poet.

23 The usual idiom would be: Pour quelle utilité?' or, 'À quelle fin?' or, 'Dans quel but?'

27 Prévenus. Here 'anticipated,' of blessings. 'Prévenu' usually is applied to persons (1) as 'prepossessed,' (2) as 'forewarned,' (3) as 'put on their trial' for some offence.

28 Devant que would now be 'avant que.'

41 Souffleur. Word much used in La Fontaine's time as dis

paraging expression for 'alchemists ;' 'soufflant dans leurs fourneaux,' searching after the philosopher's stone, which should turn all to gold.

Tout d'un temps; i.e. 'en même temps,' 'à la fois.'

43 S'emporter = 'to be carried away' by strong feeling, anger, indignation.

46 Baillent. In original editions, 'baaillent,' uncontracted; therefore distinct word from 'bailler' to 'lease,' or 'give.' Bailler = 'to yawn,' then 'to gaze vacantly with open mouth' ('bouche béante'). Some authors write the word 'bayer.' Cf. bayer aux corneilles,' 'bayer aux grues,' expressions for 'stargazing.' 'Bayer' is the old form, from late Lat. 'badare,' of which the present participle 'béant' survives.

47 Cependant que would now be 'pendant que,' 'cependant' being now only used as adverb.

FABLE XIV.

ÆSOP. 237. Lepores et Rana.

I Gîte. O. Fr. 'giste,' Lat. 'jacita.' Cf. 'gésir,' from Lat. 'jacere.' Derivative 'gîter.' 'Gîte'='lieu où l'on couche. Here the hare's 'form.' In medieval times, 'Droit de gîte' was the sovereign's right to be lodged free of expense wherever he stopped for the night.

10 Literally true of the hare. The opposite of 'dormir sur les deux oreilles.'

11 Cervelle (Lat. 'cerebellum') is used like cerveau,' of 'the brain;' i.e. the mind;' but 'cerveau' is never used, as 'cervelle' is, for 'the brains' as part of the body. Cf. 'se faire sauter la cervelle.

Sage cervelle

=

'wise-acre.'

16 Faire le guet. 'To keep watch.' The article is rare in verbal phrases.

=

17 Douteux plein de doute,' 'suspicious,' 'nervous;' now only applied to things.

18 Rien (Lat. 'rem'). Originally

'chose.' Soon by asso

ciation with the negative particle ne it gets its negative force. Cf. aucun,' 'personne,' 'jamais.'

Un rien; i.q. une bagatelle.'

22 Devers. Older and more formal than 'vers.' Cf. 'par devers,' in sense Lat. ' coram.'

'den' of any wild beast.

Tanière Originally earth of badger,' Fr. 'taisson,' whence 'taissonière,' gradually contracted to 'tanière.'

24 De sauter. Historic, or predicative infinitive.

26, 27 I make others do as good as I am made to do; i.e. others show as great cowardice as I do.

31 Foudre (Lat. 'fulgur'). Usually feminine (by error from Lat. neuter plural. Cf. 'feuille,' 'voile '), but in poetry often masculine, and always masculine in this figurative sense: 'un foudre de guerre,' 'a doughty warrior.' Cf. Virgil's Æn. vi. 843

66

Scipiades."

duo fulmina belli

32 Il n'est . . . si poltron ; i.e. ‘Il n'y a personne si poltron.'

FABLE XV.

ÆSOP. 225. Canis, Gallus, et Vulpes; also, Canis et Gallus.

I So être en faction, 'to stand sentry.'

2 Matois 'rusé.'

Origin uncertain; probably from 'la mate,' the thieves' quarter at Paris. Derivative 'matoiserie.' 8 Postes stages,' for each of which a traveller would use a fresh relay of post-horses.

9 Vaquer à='have leisure for;' and so 'go about, attend to,' business. Cf. philosophiæ vacare,' Cicero.

12 Faites-en les feux; sc. 'de joie,' 'bonfires,'=' réjouissezvous-en.'

14 Amour. Made feminine in poetry to sound more tender! Usually so in the plural.

17 These short lines well express the hesitation of the answer, while the cock is still casting about for a happy thought. 7 hen he runs on glibly enough.

20 Lévriers. From late Lat. 'leporarius.' Lat. 'leporem.'

'Lièvre,' from

Racine uses it. Usually 'être à'

With re

21 Je m'assure. Then common for 'je crois.' 23 Seront... à nous; i.e. 'auprès de nous.' implies, to be in the power,' 'at the service of.' 24 Entre-baiser. "Kiss each other all round.' flexive verbs the prefix 'entre' (cf. Lat. 'inter se') expresses a mutual or reciprocal act. Sometimes 'entre' expresses a partial act, as 'entrevoir,' 'entr'ouvrir.' 'Baiser,' O. Eng., 'to buss.'

25 Traite. Participial substantive; from 'traire,' Lat. 'trahere.' Cf. draught,' from draw.' (1) 'Stage,' 'journey.' Cf. 'aller tout d'une traite,' 'to go at one stretch, without stopping.' (2) 'Transport of goods,' specially, 'la traite,' 'the slave-trade.' (3) A bill drawn,' 'draft.'

28 Tire ses grègues. Hitches up his breeches,' 'girds up his loins.' 'Grègues '='culottes grecques.' Gagne au haut. Cf. 'gagner le large': of a ship standing out for the open sea.

'se sauver.' Literally,

29 Mal content would now be 'mécontent,' but less expressive. Cf. Lat. 'male' as negative prefix 'male fidus.'