NOTES. I 2 4. et Tityre qui soupire, and the plaintive Tityrus (lit. Tityrus who sighs). Tityrus a sorrowful and melodious shepherd. See the first Eclogue of Virgil. d'ambroisie bien choisie, with choice ambrosia (the food of the gods). 3 Hébé la nourrit à part. Hébé (the cupbearer and attendant of the gods, and goddess of youth) feeds her by her self. 5. MADRIGALS. 1 Le Narcisse-the Flower Narcissus. Narcissus was once a Thespian youth of divine origin and great beauty, who seeing his own image reflected in a fountain, loved it, mistaking it for that of a nymph of the locality, and growing desperate from his vain endeavour to meet her, committed suicide, and was changed into a beautiful flower. 6. 2 en mô séjour-in my abode for mon séjour-the spelling maintained as in the old book from which the extract is taken. See above, moy mesme for moi-même. 7. 3 autrefois un soleil me fit perdre la vie. Once a sun cost me my life (caused me to lose my life). Hyacinthus, a very beautiful youth of the mythological period, whom Apollo (the god of the sun) and Zephyrus (the wind god) both loved. He returned the love of Apollo, at which Zephyrus was so jealous, that as Hyacinth and Apollo once played at quoits, Zephyrus blew a quoit thrown by Apollo against Hyacinth's head and killed him. Apollo was so disconsolate, that he changed his favourite's body into a flower. I inverted sentence. 2 8. MALHERBE. "Will the sad expressions, i.e., thoughts, which fatherly affection puts into your mind always increase it?" "is it a maze in which your bewildered reason has lost itself?" 3 notice avecque for avec. See Introductory Notes on Versifica tion. 4 all intreaties are in vain. I 10. CORNEILLE. the count had grossly insulted Rodrigo's father, a very old man, who being too aged to fight, had been avenged by his youthful son. 2 appealed to me while my mind was still all in confusion. 3 abusant-deceiving their minds. 4 jusques for jusque. See "Introduction." 5 alfanges is only another word for cimeterre, not to be met with elsewhere. Scimitars. II. 6 when matters are settled by the sword-have to be settled by arms, by violence. 7 and any one who wishes to do rightly in such times, weighs the means and not the reason. 8 selecting between good and bad actions only detroys, etc., etc. 12. 9 Camilla, a Roman maiden, sister to young Horatius, who has killed her lover Curiatius in the famous engagement between the three Roman and three Alban champions. As she wept for her lover, her brother savagely upbraided her for not rejoicing in every circumstance beneficial to Rome, at which she explodes in the following speech. I 13. LAFONTAINE. au beau premier-to the very first. 15. 2 most generally one cannot tell the number of them. 16. 3 Eschylus, a tragic poet, born in Attica 625 years B.C. 4 poor Eschylus thus (knew how to) managed to hasten his end. 17. 5 what shall my chisel make of it, said he. 6 people found that Jupiter could do everything but speak-ne manquer à quelqu'un que la parole-speech alone to be lacking to some one -a favourite French expression. 18. 7 being quite overcome with struggling and suffering. 8 9 ΙΟ II is there a poorer (of these, of men = man) in the round concern (the earth). creditors and forced labour. La corvée was public labour done on the roads or in the country by the taxed peasantry in days of the old French monarchy. The labour was done for the crown or for the lord of the manor. The corvéables could purchase an exemption. The corvée was abolished in 1789, at the beginning of the French Revolution. 19. there is not one but dies wretchedly in the end. Meure is a subjunctive, governed by the impersonal form il n'en est point qui ne...... 20. were misfortune only good to bring a fool to reason. Quard governs a conditional and makes an idiomatic construction. 21. 12 altering his language-his tone, his way. 13 people must come to blows. 23. 24. 14 often a fate similar to our own happens to you. 15 one half of the children of Japetus (= man) will always provide arms for the other. The Greeks regarded Japetus as the father of mankind. 27. 16 it is folly for earth to think of defrauding heaven. Men cannot deceive the gods. 17 the labyrinth of the heart conceals in its coils...... 30. 18 of what use is it? 31. 19 let himself fall. Choir, an old French verb. Makes the word 22 23 32. de tout temps, from time immemorial. S'étant pris, dis-je, aux branches. Having, 1 said, clung to the branches of (reflexive verb). à contre-temps s'avise, takes it into his head unseasonably. 24 où l'a mis sa sottise, where his silliness has put him. 25 Que les parents......canaille, how unfortunate are parents, always to have to watch over such creatures. Canaille is a collective term of abuse. Qu'il faille, subjunctive of falloir -that it should be necessary. 26 what troubles they have! and how I pity their lot. Observe the construction. 35. 27 I bon homme-good natured. 38. RACINE. Trézène-a town of Peloponesus, the birthplace of Theseus' and one of his places of residence. 2 Mycènes. Mycène, a town in the Peloponesus. 3 voyoit, pronounce voyait, the form in which it is now found. The terminations ais, aise, ait, aient, of the imperfects and conditionals of verbs, and of certain adjectives and nouns for several centuries were spelt ois, oit, oient, oise, and as they rhyme with words ending still in ois, oit, oient, oise, and pronounced according to their spelling, it is presumable that at one time they also were pronounced as they were spelt, but it is very difficult to decide at what period oi ceased to be oi, and was finally pronounced ai. There are at the same time rhymes which seem to prove that oi in words now pronounced as spelt, oi, was formerly pronounced as ei or ai, producing a confusion both ways. Some editors and publishers have ceased to reproduce this old-fashioned form, others maintain it if the authors used it. His haughty steeds, who once were seen, etc., etc. Hippolytus was a great charioteer. 4 Pousse au monstre......sûre. Drives towards the monster, and with unerring spear. The word pousser is a pet word with the French for driving, urging, propelling, uttering. 5 Heaven tears from me an innocent life. He had been falsely accused of a crime by Phodra, the wife of Theseus. 6 Aricia, a lady in his father's, Theseus' court, with whom he was in love, against his father's wish. She was a captive. 41. BOILEAU. I Pyrrhus, a king of Epirus. 2 Prendre du bon temps-enjoy ourselves (id). 3 qui, as frequently the case, means what here, what prevents your laughing. 42. 4 as soon as the peaceful shades of evening cause the shops to be closed with double padlocks. 6 7 8 observe the repetition of the que in the three next lines. when withdrawn in his house; when in the new market. you must surrender; or, no, resist. 9 shatter my window, and burst through my shutter. 10 where many a hungry Greek and eager Argive goes and plunders the Trojan amidst the embers-a figurative image drawn from the end of the Trojan war. II 12 Greeks and Argives have always had the credit of being robbers and plunderers. 43. dont le poil va fleurir-whose beard is beginning to grow. 13 prends-moi le bon parti; take the right course (for me) go the right way to work. The moi is familiar. 14 cent francs au denier cinq combien font-ils ? A hundred francs at one in five (or twenty per cent.), how much does that make? vingt livres-twenty francs; denier cinq, one in five; denier dix, or quinze, one in ten, fifteen, are the old mode of expressing percentage, the denier cinq would be twenty per cent. ; denier dix ten per cent.; denier quinze about six and a half per cent. This passage shows the equal value of the franc and the livre. The poet uses either for his convenience. The expression livre for franc is hardly ever used now. 15 que de biens, etc., etc.! What wealth, what honours are about to shower down upon you! 16 sache......traitants. Learn what province enriches the tax contractor. The people engaged in farming the taxes before |