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1 Ce prélat terrible, Claude Auvry, who from 1646 to 1656 had been Bishop of Coutances, was, at the time of the dispute here recorded, treasurer of the SainteChapelle.

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3 Dans une illustre église, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Exerçant son grand cœur : cœur here signifies, courage. 9 Muse, etc., compare Virgil Eneid I. 12: Musa, mihi causas memora, etc.

10 Rompit l'intelligence, disturbed the harmony.

12 Tant de fiel, etc., compare Virg.: Tantæne animis
cœlestibus iræ!

13 Et toi, fameux héros, M. de Lamoignon, at whose in-
stigation Boileau wrote this heroï-comic poem.
16 Et garde-toi de rire, and refrain from laughing.
21 Plus doux que leurs hermines, softer than the fur they
wear. An amess (aumusse) made out of skins of
ermine is the fur vestment worn by canons; it is
intended as a covering for the head but is carried
on the arm. The word hermine was formerly
ermine; it is derived from Lat. armenius, the fur
having been imported originally from Armenia.
For the h prefixed compare huit from octo, huile
from oleum, huître from ostrea, &c.

22 Faisaient chanter matines, got matins sung for them.
24 A des chantres gagés, to paid choristers.

25 Encor toute noire, in poetry encor may be used for encore. Toute, although here an adverb, takes the

fem. termination because it is followed by an adjective beginning with a consonant.

26 Cordeliers, an order of monks founded by SaintFrançois d'Assise; they took this name from the cord they wore round the waist.

26 Minimes, another religious order founded by SaintFrançois de Paule. They took their name from minimus, and affected excessive humility.

28 Au pied de son palais, at the foot of her palace. The Palais de Justice, close to the Sainte-Chapelle.

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9

Coche, public coach, originally a boat; from Lat. concha, a shell.

Le manant, the peasant; from manentem (maneo), one who remains and is attached to the soil.

7 Faire... flotter, wave around Themis her own standards.
Une assiette tranquille, a calm attitude. Assiette,
site, position, is simply the strong part. of asseoir
(assidere); assiette, plate, platter, answers to
assecta (assecare), and means properly the platter
on which meat is cut up.

16 Les vitres, the window panes.
doublet is verre.

18

From vitrum; its

Carmes, monks who derived their name from Mount
Carmel in Palestine. Célestins, an order founded
by Saint-Bernard and remodelled later by Pope
Celestin V.

19 J'aurai fait soutenir un siège aux Augustins, through
me the Augustin monks have sustained a siege.
Observe the dative "aux Augustins." Faire fol-
lowed by an infinitive forms with it a verbal
expression, the sense of which is transitive; if the
infinitive has its own direct object, that of faire
becomes indirect.

23

The siege here alluded to occurred in 1658, when the chapter, refusing to submit to the authority of parliament, resisted the archers sent to force them into obedience. The monks were forced to capitulate; eleven of their number were carried off as hostages; but, a month later, Cardinal Mazarin set them at liberty, and they were conducted back to their monastry triumphantly in the King's carriages.

Qui voudra désormais encenser mes autels? who will
henceforth offer incense at my altars? Compare
En. I. 32: Et quisquam numen Junonis adoret
Præterea, aut supplex aris imponat honorem?

26 Elle peint de bourgeons, she daubs with pimples her
warlike countenance.

27 De ce pas, at once, immediately.

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Dans le réduit, etc., within the dark confines of a

deep recess.

8 Sans bulle, without the pope's bull.

Bulle comes

from the Italian bullare, to seal with the bulla, a seal of lead bearing on one side the image of St. Peter and St. Paul, and on the other the name of the Pope and the year of his Pontificate.

17 Aux dépens de sa vie. Allusion to the popular belief that wasps and bees after stinging remain in a

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state of torpor and often die. Compare Emisso aculeo torpent of Livy, and animasque in vulnere ponunt of Virgil.

22 Courroux, wrath. From Lat. corruptum; properly ruin, overthrow, then indignation, wrath.

23 D'aller au chœur, speaks of going to church even before dinner.

24 Aumônier, almoner, domestic chaplain.

26 Que midi va sonner, that it is on the stroke of twelve (his dinner hour).

33 Est-il donc......? Is it then to-day one of the emberdays or the vigil of a feast-day, that you thus wish to fast?

2 Sortant de fureur, for sortant furieux.

6 Quand le Pygmée altier. Mythology tells us that the Pygmies were dwarfs, one or two feet high, inhabiting Libya; that they went to battle riding on partridges or on goats, and that they often had contests with the cranes which seek for winter retreats in that land. Boileau here assigns to them Thrace and Macedonia as a winter resort, and represents the "haughty Pygmy as having first driven them away from the banks of the two rivers that flow through these countries.

11 Il fait par Gilotin, etc., at his bidding Gilotin brings back the ham.

14 D'un trait, at one draught or gulp.

16

Est abreuvée, has drunk its fill. Abreuver, to give to
drink, to water; from Lat. adbiberare, a compound
of ad and biberare, a deriv. of bibere.

17 La nappe, etc., the table-cloth being removed.
23 Seul à Magnificat. An allusion to that part of the
Service of Vespers when the Magnificat is sung.
23 Je me vois encensé, I see incense offered to me alone.
38 Sidrac was the actual name of an old lay-clerk of the
Sainte-Chapelle.

38 A qui l'âge allonge le chemin, whose pace old age has
slackened.

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Quatre âges, four generations (of canons).

Marguillier, Churchwarden, the relics were entrusted to his keeping.

Chevecier, dean, formerly chefcier, i.e. first (chef) on the wax (cire) tablets on which were inscribed the names of the church dignitaries.

12 Sur ce rang d'ais serrés, on that row of serried planks

that close it in.

13 D'inégale structure, of disproportionate size.

24 J'eus beau......, in vain I accused both heaven and the precentor. Prendre à partie is "to sue."

D

Trois de nous, for trois d'entre nous.
D'un zèle adroit, for avec un zèle adroit.

Aleth, a small episcopal town in the Département de
l'Aude, where Bishop Nicolas Pavillon was de-
servedly celebrated for his virtues.

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27 Altier, proud, haughty; from Lat. altus, which gave haut, and thence haughty.

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Par grâce... les brouille et les ressasse, vouchsafes to mix and shuffle them once more.

Pour sauter au plancher, etc., so as to leap up on the floor (with joy), stepped back a couple of steps. Jusques au souper, poetical for the sake of the measure, instead of jusqu'au souper.

CHANT II.

Prône, proclaims. Prôner is a deriv. of prône, a sermon, from Lat. præconium.

Donnant un frein, antiquated for "mettant un frein," curbing in.

33 Du faîte des maisons, compare Virgil: Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrœ.

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Le faix moins rude, the burden less troublesome;
faix from Lat. fascis.

9 Dans les eaux s'éteignant, sinking beneath the waves.
The sun is here represented as setting at sea.
11 Le pardon sonnant, the bell ringing for the Angelus.
Three times a day, at six in the morning, at mid-
day, and at six in the evening, the church bells
ring to summon the faithful to repeat the Angelus,
that is the prayer which begins with this word.
It is also called the Pardon on account of the
indulgences which are secured through repeating it.
21 L'un et l'autre s'apprête, should now be s'apprêtent ;
formerly a verb in the singular could accompany
l'un et l'autre, as appears from the following sen-
tence said to have been the dying speech of an old
grammarian: Je m'en vais ou je m'en vas, car l'un
et l'autre se dit ou se disent.

29 Citeaux, a celebrated Abbey of the Bernardin monks
who had not yet adopted the reforms introduced
in other monastries.

37 Paroître; the substitution of the sound ai for oi, in the imperf. ind. and the cond. pres. and in a few

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infinitives, began in the 16th century, but the old spelling prevailed till Voltaire set the fashion of discarding it.

7 Fainéants, the idle kings. From the death of Dagobert I. (638) to the end of the Merovingian race (751).

9 D'un maire ou d'un comte. The mayors of the palace exercised great authority under the first kings.

The count was the second officer of the crown and administered justice in the king's name.

21 L'hiver n'a point de glace, neither the summer heat nor the winter cold can deter him. An allusion to the first conquest of the Franche-Comté which Louis XIV. accomplished in the depth of winter (1668). 32 La Trappe. The Trappists had at this time introduced great reforms in their monasteries; so also the monks of Le Carme, le Feuillant, and Clairvaux; but not those of Cîteaux.

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CHANT III.

Les campagnes vineuses, the vine-growing fields. Progné (or Procné), Philomèle, daughters of Pandion I. king of Athens, were metamorphosed, according to Ovid, the former into a swallow, the latter into a nightingale.

33 Dans la fougère, which sparkles in the crystal. The fougère wine glasses are those in the manufacture of which fern ashes are used. Fougère (fern), from Lat. filicaria.

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Célébrer, she sees each in turn celebrate.

Dans mon ombre, for à la faveur de mon ombre.
La grande place, the wide court.

Ribou, a bookseller and publisher who had printed
Hainault's unfavourable criticisms of Boileau's
satires.

17 Un fusil, not here a musket, but the original meaning, a steel to strike flint with.

20-21 The order is: Et bientôt montre une cire allumée à l'aide du soufre au brasier d'une mèche enflammée ; and soon exhibits a wax-taper lighted with the help of a sulphur match at the fire (brasier) of the burning tinder (mèche).

13 D'écoliers libertins, of unruly school-boys.

15 Brelan, a game at cards which can be played by 3, 4, or 5 persons at a time, each drawing three cards.

34 Exploit nouveau, a new writ.