LINE

14. comme..., meaning that there was time for them to get home. 15. écornifleur, an unusual, rather old-fashioned word, applied to persons who 'spunge' upon others, as the fox wished to do on the rats.

à demi-quart de 1., 'half a mile off.'

16. le dos, 'his back,' the pronoun being expressed.` See xiii. 5. 17. mauvais pas, 'stumble'; lit. 'bad step.'

19. qu'on aille . . . Imperative-‘let any one go and

.

XXIII.-LE LION S'EN ALLANT EN GUERRE.

2. prévôts = 'officiers.' 'Prévôt' in this general sense is oldfashioned.

3. fit avertir, lit. 'made to warn.' The French use the active where we should rather use the passive, and say 'made (or caused) to be warned,' i.e. 'sent notice to

4. du dessein, a partitive genitive; 'être de in,' to take part in . . .'

means to share

guise, 'each one after his kind,' i.e. according to his natural fitness.

5. devait, 'was to

The verb 'devoir' must not always be translated 'ought.' Idiomatically it is often used of what one 'is to do,' without much idea of duty, e.g., 'je dois dîner ce soir,' 'I am to dine this evening.'

7. à son ordin.; à = ‘in,' ‘according to.' With 'ordinaire' supply some such word as 'mode,' 'manière.'

8. s'apprêter. . . ménager each infinitive.

...

amuser. Repeat 'devait' before

9. de secrètes prat. Notice that the preposition 'de' is used instead of the partitive article 'des,' because 'pratiques' is preceded by an adjective. On the other hand, see l. 12, des terreurs paniques.' 'Pratiques' = 'schemes,' 'dodges.'

10. amuser, in its original sense of 'delaying,' 'putting off,' 'beguiling.'

12. terreurs pan., 'panics,' sudden and unexpected fits of fear. 'Panique' is now generally used by itself as a noun.

13. je les v. emp. For the order of words, see Gram. Introd. I. vi. 15. n. servant de, 'standing to us ('nous' is dative) in stead of. 'acting as our . . .' (N.B. -se servir de = 'to use, 'to employ.')

trompette, 'trumpeter.' Cp. ix. 6.

20. il n'est = 'il n'y a.'

LINE

20. rien d'inutile.

Notice that after 'rien,' 'quelquechose,'' quoi,' etc., the preposition 'de' precedes the adjective, contrary to the English use, e.g., 'quoi de nouveau,' 'quelquechose de bon.'

XXIV.-LA CHIEN À QUI ON A COUPÉ LES OREILLES.

'Let well alone."

3. bel, for beau, the noun following, which it qualifies, beginning with a vowel. What other adjectives change in the same way?

où me v., in which you see me,' 'in which I am.'

5. rois, etc., i.e. 'men.'

6. Implying, 'How would you like to be treated in the same way?' 7. Mouflar, a name borrowed from Rabelais. See xxviii. 16. It is derived from 'mufle,' 'a snout,' 'muzzle,' and means that the dog had a large head.

jeune dogue, in apposition, no article.

9. ven. de. See vii. 8; lui coupa les or.

10. y, 'by it,' i.e. by the operation.

avec le temps, 'as time went on.'

Cp. xxii. 7.

See xiii. 5.

11. de nature, 'of a nature to . . .,' 'disposed to

12. piller, here 'to worry'; its usual meaning is 'to pillage' or 'plunder.'

13. chez lui, 'home.' 'Chez,' lit. 'at the house of,' is used without a preposition, e.g., 'chez mon père,' etc. It serves to translate the English word 'home,' joined with the pronoun of the same person as the real subject of the phrase, e.g., go home,' 'allez chez vous'; 'I am at home,' 'je suis chez moi'; 'they are at home,' 'ils sont chez eux.'

14. cette partie, i.e. les oreilles.

altérée, 'torn,' 'spoilt.'- An unusual sense of the word. The original meaning is 'changed,' 'altered,' then, 'changed from good to bad.' It is used of change in one's bodily condition, and so comes to mean 'thirsty'; hence 'se désaltérer' is 'to quench one's thirst.'

Notice the omission of the article in

16. Le moins de prise qu'on peut laisser aux ...

18. esclandre, 'a row.' An unusual meaning of the word.

19. gorgerin was a collar or gorget put round the throat, 'la gorge,' and generally armed with iron nails or spikes.

LINE

XXV.-LA BELETTE ENTRÉE DANS UN GRENIER.

1. Damoiselle, 'my lady.'

unmarried gentlewomen.

'Damoiselle' was the title given to

2. étret, the old-fashioned form of 'étroit.'

3. sortait de . . ., i.e. 'was recovering from. . .'

4. à discrétion does not mean 'with discretion,' but 'at her discretion,' 'at her own sweet will.'

5. la galante, 'the festive dame.'

chère lie. The word 'lie,' an adjective meaning 'merry,' cheerful,' only survives in this phrase, which means to have a good time,' 'to be in clover.'

6. la vie et le 1., 'what a life (she led), and what a quantity of bacon perished. . . .' The sentence is rather confused.

9. maflue, an old-fashioned and familiar expression.

10. soûl is really an adjective, and in modern French is confined to excess of drink.

15. depuis . 'five or six days ago.' Not a construction to be imitated. It would now be 'il y a cinq ou six jours.'

16. peine, 'perplexity.'

17. lors= alors.

18. maigre entr., i.e. entrée maigre.

19. bien d'autres, 'many others besides.' The rat means by this that the moral of the fable is applicable to men too, but he will only suggest it.

20. par trop appr., an obsolete construction = 'en approfondissant trop.'

XXVI.-LA CIGALE ET LA FOURMI.

4. bise. The north wind is here used as characteristic of winter. 6. vermisseau. Of course grasshoppers do not eat worms, but La Fontaine was not a man of science, nor particularly careful about being accurate.

7. alla crier. Notice the simple infinitive after a verb of motion. We should say 'went and . . .'

11. la saison n., i.e. the spring.'

13. août. See xiv. 10.

foi d'an., 6 on the word of

.' An elliptic phrase. Cp. 'parole

d'honneur,' on my word of honour.'

16. c', 'that,' i.e. lending. He means that lending is the fault or failing which an ant is least likely to fall into.

LINE

19. à tout ven.

We use the plural 'to all comers,' i.e. to any one who cared to stop and listen.

20. ne v. déplaise, 'by your leave'; lit. let it not displease you,' ¿.e. 'I hope you don't mind.’

21. en, 'of it,' 'to hear it.'

XXVII.-LE LION MALADE ET LE RENARD.

'Look before you leap.'

1. de par = 'par'; an old form used in legal documents.

3. fut fait savoir. 'Proclamation was made'; lit. 'it (notice the omission of the pronoun) was caused (or made) to be known.'

4. en ambass. Take these words after 'envoyât.'

5. envoyât, subjunctive, because of the command implied.

8. foi de lion. Cp. 'foi d'animal,' xxvi. 13.

écrite agrees with 'promesse.'

9. la dent. . . la griffe, i.e. of the lion.

11. s'exécute, 'is carried out.' Notice how French reflexive verbs are often best translated by the English passive.

15. As some one has suggested, the foxes must have looked out of the window to see the footprints.

16. s'en vont = vont.

17. regardent, 'look at,' i.e. are directed towards.'

20. que... dispense; imperative.

sa majesté; in English, 'His majesty.' See note on iii. 5. 21. grand' merci. 'Merci' is generally said when one is declining a thing. It is not unusual to hear the further question— merci oui' ou merci 'non?' 'Merci' is feminine, and so is grand,' though it looks as if it were masculine. It is the old feminine form, and remains in 'grand'mère,' 'grand'route,' etc., where an apostrophe has been put in by grammarians, who fancied that an e' had been dropped.

de, 'for.'

XXVIII.-L'HUÎTRE ET LES PLAIDEURS.

1. Un jour, once upon a time,' the usual words for beginning a story.

3. des yeux, 'with .'; 'se,' 'to one another.'

5. amasser ramasser. 'Amasser' in this sense is obsolete. 7. joie = 'jouissance'; a rare use.

9. gobeur; rather a vulgar, familiar word, like 'gruge,' 1. 17.

le v. faire, 'will look on'; lit. 'will see him do,' i.e. 'eat it.' For this vague use of 'faire,' cp. its use with 'laisser.' 'Laissezmoi faire,' leave it all to me.

10. par là, ‘on those grounds,' i.e. on priority of discovery.

11. l'œil, 'my eyes are good'; for the use of the def. art. see xiii. 5. Dieu merci, 'thank God'; lit. 'by the grace or goodness of God.' 'Dieu' is in the genitive case.

12. aussi, either.' As the sentence is negative, the correct phrase would be 'non plus,' not 'aussi.'

14. moi; for the disjunctive pron. used emphatically cp. xix. 15. 16. Perrin Dandin, 'Justice Lynch.' Like 'Mouflar' in xxiv., this comic name for a judge is borrowed from a writer of the sixteenth century, François Rabelais, one of the greatest of satirical humorists. "Perrin' is a diminutive of 'Pierre,' and is really equivalent to the English Peterkin.'

19. président, a judicial title.

20. tenez, 'here,' 'look here,' a very common colloquial expression. Do not translate it 'hold.' It is merely used to draw a person's attention to something.

21. sans dépens, 'without costs,' i.e. each pay their own, if any. s'en aille. Imperative.

22. mettez = 'comptez' in the next line.

en coûte.. en reste. Here again, as often, 'en' is not translated into English. But it is never entirely redundant; it always conveys a shade of meaning, though difficult to render into English.

25. le sac et les quilles. This proverbial expression probably means to leave the skittles or ninepins and the bag in which they are kept, and to walk off with the 'pool' or the money staked by the players.

XXIX.-LE PETIT POISSON ET LE PÊCHEUR.

'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'

4. pour moi, 'as for me,' 'for my part.'

5. de le rattr. Take these words after certain '; 'that you will catch him again.' 'Il' is neuter.