Images de page
PDF
ePub

PAGE LINE

6. 5. qui celui qui.

9. regaillardir, 'I wish you could put some life into it.' The word is not formed from 're' and 'gaillard,' but from 're' and an obsolete verb 'agaillardir.' Cp. 'ramener, ralentir,' etc.

12. tout à fait joli. M. Jourdain's taste in lyrical poetry is like that of Alceste in the Misanthrope, and that of the poet Malherbe, whom Chapelain found one day singing an old ballad :-' D'où venez-vous Jeanne, Jeanne d'où venez?' 'I had rather,' said Malherbe, 'have written that than all the works of Ronsard.' 25. Que n'est. Notice the use of 'ne' after a comparative

used affirmatively.

27. Le plus joli du monde, ‘exquisitely pretty.' The phrase is equivalent to a strong superlative.

32. comme vous faites; cp. 2, 20.

7. 8. qui me montre, 'Who teaches me.'

'Me' is dative,

and 'montrer' is used absolutely. Cp. Mal. Imag. II. iv.-Votre maître de musique est allé aux champs et voilà une personne qu'il envoie à sa place pour vous montrer.'

j'ai arrêté, 'I have engaged, bespoken.' Cp. M. de Pourceaugnac, I. v.—' Avez-vous arrêté un logis?' 14. Il n'y a rien qui soit si utile . . . In the royal patent granted by Charles IX. in 1570 to establish an Academy of Music, the following sentence occurs:'Là où la musique est désordonnée, là volontiers les mœurs sont dépravez et où elle est bien ordonnée, là sont les hommes bien moriginez.'

16. Il n'y a rien qui soit si nécessaire. . . Cp. 'Un baladin nommé Fauchéri, qui n'étoit point assis avec les autres, vint dire par dessus les épaules que les royaumes se ruinoient faute de la danse. (Aventures du baron de Feneste, by Agrippa d'Aubigné, 1620). Vestris, the great dancer, used to say quite seriously: "There are only three great men in Europe-the king of Prussia, Voltaire, and myself.'

20. ne saurait = ne peut.' The use of the conditional in an assertion generally conveys a certain idea of apology or reservation.

PAGE LINE

=

In

7. 23. pour n'apprendre pas . 'parce que l'on n'apprend pas,' a somewhat irregular construction. such clauses the subject of the infinitive should be the same as that of the principal verb. Cp. 55, 14, Elle me touche assez pour m'en charger moimême,' i.e. 'pour que je m'en charge.'

8.

force

=

27. bévues, ‘blunders.' The prefix 'bé' has a 'pejorative' English 'mis-.' 'Bévue' always implies a certain degree of culpability, méprise' does not; 'erreur' is the general term.

6

politiques, 'statesmen,' 'public men.'

During the religious wars in France the word was applied to the party which wished to set aside sectarian questions and confine themselves to political reform.

28. faute de, 'for want of.' The full phrase was 'à faute de. Here the word 'faute' bears its first etymological meaning of 'want,' 'absence.'

[ocr errors]

3. aux affaires; 'à' is here used for 'dans,' a not unfrequent use in the seventeenth century. Cp. Femmes Sav. IV. iii. 'Nous saurons toutes deux imiter notre mère, Vous aux productions d'esprit et de lumière, Moi dans celles, ma vœur, qui sont de la matière.' On the other hand, dans' and 'en' were occasionally used for 'à.' Indeed, the use of prepositions was not so strictly defined as it is at present, e.g. 'à' is used for 'avec' (Cp. 'De notre sang au leur font d'horribles mélanges-Corn. Cid. IV. iii.) ; for 'par' ('Qu'on se laisse aisément persuader aux personnes qu'on aime'-B. G., 55, 2); for 'pour' (La place m'est heureuse à vous y rencontrer'-Ec. des Femmes, IV. iv.); for ' sur ('Point de soldat au port, point aux murs de la ville'); for 'envers' ('Ces titres aux Chrétiens sont ce des impostures'-Corn. Polyeucte, III. ii.)

[ocr errors]

5. Un tel, so and so.' A common expression. In the plural the article is dropped, e.g. 'On n'a point à louer les vers de messieurs tels, A donner de l'encens à madame une telle, Et de nos francs marquis essuyer la cervelle' (Misanthr. III. viii.)

14. à cette heure = 'maintenant.'

O. Fr. 'asteure,' 'asture' (Montaigne), from the Latin ad ecce-istam horam. Cp. 'alors' = ad illam horam.

PAGE LINE

8. 20. essai, an attempt to represent... sion.

9.

a modest expres

26. Pourquoi toujours des bergers? This passage has
been taken for a hit at the Italian Opera, introduced
by Mazarin in 1645. It is more probably intended
for a popular objection on M. Jourdain's part, followed
by a justification of the practice.

29. il faut bien... qu'on donne dans la bergerie, 'We
can't well avoid going in for the pastoral style.' The
verb 'donner' in such cases is a neuter verb, or rather,
a reflexive verb without its pronoun, and means 'to
fall,' 'to rush in to' (of troops, 'to charge'). Cp.
the Latin se dare, dare se præcipitem in... Cp. Av.
I. v. Vous donnez furieusement dans le marquis'
'You are going in tremendously for playing the lord.'
32. bourgeois, 'ordinary people.'

1. l'amoureux empire, 'beneath Love's sway.'

[blocks in formation]

16. jour, 'life,' the light of day. Cp. the Greek expression, τὸ φῶς ὁρᾶν

= to live.

19. Franchise, 'liberty.' Hence, on the one hand, the meaning of 'independence of character, sincerity,'

on the other, that of civil immunity, privilege, right. Cp. English franchise.'

[ocr errors]

10. 4. pour aimer, 'and learn to love.'

11.

7. rencontrer, interrogative infinitive.

9. Je te veux offrir; cp. for the position of the pronoun, 2, 9.

7. bien troussé, 'neatly arranged, packed together, '— a trivial and familiar expression.

8. dictons, sayings,'-usually of proverbial phrases. 'Dicton' is the medieval pronunciation of the word 'dictum;' cp. rogaton, factoton.

ACT II.-FIRST SCENE.

13. 2. se trémoussent, skip or hop about ;' fig. 'to fidget,' 'be fussy' (e.g. Molière's remark on hearing La Fon

PAGE LINE

taine disparaged-'Nos beaux esprits ont beau se trémousser, ils n'effaceront pas le bonhomme.') The contrast between the high estimate in which the artists hold their respective professions and M. Jourdain's contemptuous ignorance, is a very happy touch. 13. 6. ajusté, 'arranged;' lit. 'to bring into harmony, agreement.'

'Tantôt' is also used 'Tantôt'. . . ‘tan

7. pour tantôt, 'for by and by.'
of the past = 'a moment ago.'
tôt'... 'at one time . . . at another.'

9. céans, 'here,' 'in the house.' 'Céans' (Lat. ecce-hac-
intus), in common use in the seventeenth century, is
now obsolete. There was a corresponding form,
'léans.'

14. chez soi, in modern French 'chez lui.' This use of 'soi,' etymologically more correct, lasted till the seventeenth century. At present it is only used after indefinite adjectives or pronouns — ‘on,' chacun,'

'quiconque,' etc.; or with an indeterminate infinitive-e.g. ' n'aimer que soi,' 'chacun pour soi.'

15. mercredis ou... jeudis. These days were, it seems,
set apart for musical parties, and the Opera, for some
time after its institution, had no performance on
them.

21. Il vous faudra . . . etc., 'You will want three voices,
a treble, a contralto, and a bass, which will be accom-
panied by a bass viol, a theorbo, and a harpsichord
or the sustained basses, together with two first violins
to play the airs.' The 'ritournelles' were the instru-
mental motifs' which preceded or ended the piece,
or came in as an interlude to allow the singer to rest.
Most of these instruments are no longer in use. The
'bass viol' was shaped like a large violin, with seven
strings, and played upon with a bow. The theorbo'
was a kind of lute with two handles, played some-
what like a guitar (cp. R. Browning, The Glove-
'Venienti occurrite morbo !-With which moral I
drop my theorbo).' The 'clavecin' or harpsichord
clavi-cymbalum) has given way to the pianoforte.
27. trompette marine. This was not a trumpet, nor had
it anything to do with the sea, except perhaps in
its sound. It was an instrument like a large mando-

[ocr errors]

PAGE LINE

line, with one thick string, which was pressed with the thumb, while the performer used his bow. It may be noticed that the 'marine trumpet' is perhaps the least harmonious of musical instruments, and has nothing to recommend it but its noisiness.

13. 32. à table.

14.

There are frequent mentions of this custom in the memoirs of the time.

6. les menuets, plural, because equivalent to 'les pas menus,' the small, short steps.

8. ma danse. Notice the emphatic possessive. 17. La jambe droite, 'keep your leg straight.'

20. estropiés, 'crippled.' The word is used figuratively of mutilating or 'murdering' a poem or a language. Like 'trémousser' above, its derivation is purely conjectural.

25. comme. In modern French, 'comment il faut faire.' 35. une révérence en arrière, 'a bow while stepping backwards.'

15. 3. Faites un peu, 'Just show me.'

SECOND SCENE.

8. donner leçon. Notice the omission of any article. In the seventeenth century the rules were far less settled than at present, and the article was frequently omitted where we should use it. Cp. such phrases as 'couper chemin,' 'prendre amitié,' etc.

THIRD SCENE.

10. fleurets, a diminutive of 'fleur.' Probably so called because the button at the end of a foil resembles the bud of a flower.

15. opposite-adjective used substantivally.

18. plus quartée, 'less exposed,' a technical term.

[ocr errors]

A

person's shoulder is said to be 'quartée' when he is en quarte,' i.e. when the adversary's foil is threatening the left shoulder more particularly, which, therefore, should present as little surface as possible.

19. Touchez-moi, etc., 'Touch my foil from "quarte," and

« PrécédentContinuer »