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Je servis, engagé par mes premiers serments.

Hélas! Quand reviendront de semblables moments?
Faut-il que tant d'objets si doux et si charmants
Me laissent vivre au gré de mon âme inquiète?
Ah! si mon cœur osait encor se renflammer!
Ne sentirai-je plus de charme qui m'arrête?
Ai-je passé le temps d'aimer?

5

DEDICATION.

NOTES

PAGE 1 le Dauphin: Louis, son of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa, born in 1661, died in 1711. He was a little over six years old at this time.

LINE 1 Ésope: Æsop; see Introduction, p. xii.

14 les poissons: an allusion to the proverb muet comme un poisson. 19 faisant fléchir, etc.: about the time this was written, the armies of Louis XIV had gained some important victories.

FABLE 1. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 1. Æsop, 295; Avianus, 34. 1 20 bise: north or north-east wind; here used poetically for winter. 1 22 de mouche ou de vermisseau: La Fontaine doubtless knew that grasshoppers do not eat insects, but he never tried to be scientifically

accurate.

27 oût: harvest; lit. "August," which in France is specially the harvest month. — foi d'animal: elliptical for sur la foi d'un animal, which is a burlesque on such expressions as foi de gentilhomme, etc.

2 10 C'est ... défaut: taken literally this means, "lending is the ant's least fault," whereas the author really means, "lending is the fault of which the ant is least likely to be guilty."

2 14 ne vous déplaise: may it not displease you. This is meant to be an apology for her conduct, as though she said, “I hope you don't object." The expression is elliptical for qu'il ne vous déplaise pas. In certain impersonal constructions the subject il and the negative pas are regularly omitted.

FABLE 2. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 2. Æsop, 204; Phædrus, i, 13. 2 17 Maître as a title, applied chiefly to lawyers. Here used ironically.

2 18 en in modern French, dans.

2 20 lui... langage: addressed him somewhat as follows.

221 monsieur du Corbeau: de before a name usually indicates nobility and may here be ironical, but it is better to regard the particle as a mere connective between the two nouns, as in "un saint homme de chat," 67 27.

2 22 que: how! Note the order of the words. 2 23 Sans mentir: to speak honestly or plainly. 2 25 phénix: phenix, here = wonder, marvel. The phenix was a fabulous bird, supposed to live several centuries. Its body, after being burned, arose rejuvenated from its ashes. There was never more than one existing, and the word thus came to be applied to anything unique or wonderful.

· joie: cannot contain himself for joy; lit. "does not feel

2 26 ne... himself for joy."

3 4 on...

plus: he wouldn't be caught that way again.

FABLE 3. La Fontaine, livre v, fable 13. Æsop, 343. See also Horace, Epistles, i, 10.

3 6-7 Je ne veux que celui: I need only that one; that is, I need but this one example.

37 á: according to.

3 12 s'étant lui-même ôté : having himself deprived himself. The reflexive se is here dative of disadvantage; lui-même might be omitted. 3 16 pour vouloir: by wishing.

FABLE 4. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 20. Phædrus, iii, 12.

Instead of the customary moral, the poet adds a second fable with sentiments and rhymes parallel to the first.

3 19 beau: here used in a colloquial sense; it may be translated very, but is better omitted.

3 22 serait . . . affaire: would suit me much better.

3 27 ducaton: the diminutive of ducat. The ducatoon, or silver ducat, was worth about one dollar.

FABLE 5. La Fontaine, livre iii, fable 11. Esop, 33; Phædrus, iv, 3. 41 Certain before certain the use of the article is optional. -gascon: Gascon, a native of Gascony, a former province in southwestern France. normand: Norman, a native of Normandy, a former province in northwestern France. The Gascons are noted for their boasting, the Normans for their shrewdness.

43 apparemment: not apparently, but evidently.

45 eût fait: plupf. subj. for cond. perfect.

48 Fit-il pas for ne fit-il pas. In La Fontaine's time the omission of ne was quite common, especially in questions. At present this omission is regarded as incorrect.

FABLE 6. La Fontaine, livre v, fable 9. Æsop, 98.

4 10 c'est... le moins: it is the investment that is least likely to fail.

411 laboureur: note that this does not mean laborer, whi

travailleur or ouvrier?

4 13 Gardez-vous: take care not. Se garder de always means “to tho one's guard against."

4 18 oût: see 2 7.

4 21 Le père mort: present as well as past participles are used with nouns and pronouns in an absolute construction resembling the Latin ablative absolute. vous: here the so-called ethical dative; omit in

translating.

4 23 en: for it, or on account of it.

4 24 D'argent, point de caché: for il n'y avait point d'argent caché. FABLE 7. La Fontaine, livre iii, fable 14. Phædrus, i, 21.

59 aucunes: in modern French, aucun is generally used in the plural only with such nouns as have no singular; e.g. sans aucuns frais.

5 12 mais... atteintes: this line might also read mais souffrir tes atteintes, c'est mourir deux fois. The construction is very common; que merely serves to connect the two parts of the sentence and cannot be translated.

FABLE 8. La Fontaine, livre vi, fable 17. Æsop, 233; Phædrus, i, 4. The story is common in the literature of various nations. The first five lines are La Fontaine's introduction to the fable.

5 18 en l'eau: see 2 18.

5 19 pensa: came near, a frequent use of this word.

FABLE 9. La Fontaine, livre iv, fable 17. Phædrus, iii, 9.

5 23 Socrate Socrates, the great Grecian philosopher (470-399 B.C.). - faisant bâtir: was having (a house) built.

5 25 pour . . . mentir: in modern French this would read pour ne point lui mentir; translate to tell him the truth, or to speak plainly. 6 4 Plût au ciel: would to heaven.

68 y: for à eux, that is aux amis; or on it (the profession of friendship).

FABLE 10. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 3. Phædrus, i, 24; Horace, Satires, ii, 3.

6 13 grosse comme un œuf: the common construction would be aussi grosse comme un œuf.

6 18 M'y voici donc : I'm surely there now, am I not?

6 22 les grands seigneurs: these were the higher nobles. The title marquis was not greatly esteemed and was often used in derision. FABLE 11. La Fontaine, livre i, fable 4. Phædrus, ii, 7.

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