LIBRARY IVE.KSITYOF LlrOWWA VAN DIEGO OF Horace L. Leittr. i c/ 7 THE CONTEMPORARY FRENCH WRITERS SELECTIONS FROM THE FRENCH WRITERS OF THE SECOND PART OF THE IQTH CENTURY - LITERARY NOTICES, AND HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, ETYMOLOGICAL, GRAMMATICAL, AND EXPLANATORY NOTES MADEMOISELLE ROSINE MELLE DIPLOMEE DB L'ACADEMIB DE PARIS ET DE L'UNIVERSITE DE FRANCE BOSTON, U.S.A. GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1894 COPYRIGHT, 1894 BY HDSINE MELLE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION V11 PHILOSOPHERS. HIPPOLYTE TAINE. Literary Notice i Venise Les Figures de Leonard de Vinci 3 ERNEST RENAN. Literary Notice 4 Ma Sceur Henriette 6 Le Martyre de Sainte Blandine II Le Pays Natal 16 NATURALISTS. GUSTAVE FLAUBERT. Literary Notice 18 Le Voile de Tanit 19 EDMOND ET JULES DE GONCOURT. Literary Notice 31 Renee Mauperin : Naissance de Renee 32 Mort de Renee 33 fiMiLE ZOLA. Literary Notice 35 La Debacle .'.' 36 GUY DE MAUPASSANT. Literary Notice 50 Notre Coeur : Portrait d' Andre Mariolle 52 Le Salon de Mme Michele de Burne 54 Pecheuses et Guerrieres 55 ALPHONSE DAUDET. Literary Notice 57 En Camargue : La Cabane 58 Le Vaccares ... .60 IV CONTENTS. PAGE JEAN RICHEPIN. Literary Notice 62 L'homme aux Yeux Pales 63 Croquis de Printemps : Les Lilas 69 CATULLE MENDES. Literary Notice 71 Luscignole 72 RENE MAIZEROY. Literary Notice 78 La Grande Bleue : Chanson de la Mer 78 PSYCHOLOGISTS. PAUL BOURGET. Literary Notice 81 Terre Promise: En Plein Reve 83 Recurrences 88 IDEALISTS AND INDEPENDENTS. ALEXANDRE DUMAS, FILS. Literary Notice 90 Sophie Printemps 91 OCTAVE FEUILLET. Literary Notice 93 Dalila : Conseils a un Artiste 94 JULES CLARETIE. Literary Notice 96 La Tante Annette 97 ANDRE THEURIET. Literary Notice . 101 Paques Fleuries 102 PIERRE LOTI. Literary Notice 105 Kioto, La Ville Sainte: Depart de Kobe 106 Kioto 107 FRANCOIS COPPEE. Literary Notice : 109 Les Sabots du Petit Wolff no GEORGES OHNET. Literary Notice 115 Noir et Rose: Le Chant du Cygne 116 CRITICS AND JOURNALISTS. FRANCISQUE SARCEY. Literary Notice 120 Utilite des Langues Etrangeres 121 CONTENTS. V PAGE JULES LEMAfxRE. Literary Notice 126 Renan 128 Leconte de Lisle , 130 ANATOLE FRANCE. Literary Notice 131 Scenes de la Vie Reelle : Les deux Copains 132 La Messe des Ombres 139 PAUL ARENE. Literary Notice 145 Le Fifre Rouge 146 SMILE BERGERAT. Literary Notice 150 Contes du Temps Passe : Le Chevalier de Frileuse 151 MODERN SPIRIT. GYP. Literary Notice 163 Petit-Bleu 164 EGOTISTS. (Religion du Moi.) MAURICE BARRES. Literary Notice 168 Sous 1'CEil des Barbares : Depart Inquiet 170 Le Jardin de Berenice 171 NOTES 175 INTRODUCTION. IT has been said, with reason, that the literature of a nation is the reflection of its mind. Thus, every century, having its own ideas, religious feelings and political views, has also its special literature. One of the most interesting epochs in the history of humanity will be the nineteenth century, and particularly the second half. Laws of nature hitherto not understood, have been suddenly brought to light, and the greatest scientific discoveries, changing the conditions of daily life and the relations between nations, succeed one another with a rapidity which increases every year. Literature, as well as art and music, was to feel the contre- coup of this sudden development of the scientific spirit, and to find out new ways of expressing the new ideas. France, which has often been at the head of literary revolutions, was the first to respond to the influence, and new literary schools rose up, having, for leaders, men of talent if not genius. It is the evolution of these different schools which we purpose to show the reader, by selecting extracts from the prominent representatives of these schools, and by giving in the notices an idea of the literary position of each writer, his influence, and his characteristics. The great writers of the first part of the nineteenth century, such as Chateaubriand, Mme. de Stae'l, Maistre, etc., being well known, we have thought fit to select only the most noted writers of the last part of this century, and those whose works have had the greatest influence on their contemporaries. The choice has been sometimes difficult, Vlll INTRODUCTION. especially among writers of second rank, of whom there are many. In the wish to give our readers an accurate idea of the present intellectual movement in France, we have chosen the most modern authors, as best illustrating the literary spirit of our day. In order that this period may be better understood, we give a brief account of its development. France is the land of -political, literary and artistic revo- lutions, which succeed one another with rapidity, bringing an enormous amount of life, vigor, and talent often, too, of envy, hate, and scorn. They are, however, proofs of great vitality, and, therefore, interesting to study in all their phases. Balzac was the one to determine the naturalistic evolution. It was hastened by Gustave Flaubert, who is looked upon as the father of the modern novel, and le Maitre. Flaubert is an artist. He enlarged the domain of the novel, rejected elaborate plots and useless rhetoric, and considered form all-important. He spent hours over a sentence to make it perfect, and carried to an extreme his theory of art for art's sake. The brothers Edmond and Jules de Goncourt are the worthy successors of Gustave Flaubert. For the past ten years, Edmond de Goncourt has acquired the great glory of the Master, the Pontiff. The Goncourts have been, as they have said themselves, " apporteurs de neuf." Not that they have enriched literature with new ideas, but their power of observation, their sensi- tiveness, their aesthetic feeling of enjoyment, is new. Their language, too, is new. It is often tourmente, complex and over-artistic. They treat prose as a plastic art, and give form and color to what they describe. Much more than Flaubert, they have enlarged the domain of the novel. Men INTRODUCTION. IX of letters, the life of the circus, of hospitals, even the lowest types of our democracy, are depicted in their writings. fimile Zola has been regarded as the great chief and apostle of naturalism, though its true fathers are, as we have shown, Flaubert and the Goncourts, with Stendhal and Balzac as its psychical precursers. Nevertheless, Zola's position in the school is a high one ; he, too, is an artist, but of very different temperament. His art is broad, strong, vigorous, often brutal, but always powerful. The way he handles masses of humanity is wonderful, and his descrip- tions of landscapes and still life cannot be surpassed. He claims more truth and less conventionality for his novels than can be accorded. In his opinion, naturalism is a kind of impersonal encyclopaedia of material and of minute analysis. Alphonse Daudet and Guy de Maupassant may be re- garded, to a certain extent, as the disciples of Flaubert and the Goncourts. Daudet's chief characteristic is his wonder- ful imagination and love of life. He is a Southerner by temperament as well as 'by birth, and writes delightful stories when not trying to be too much of a psychologist. // voit trap grand to see fairly; the proportions are not always kept. But he has very great charm and personifies the imaginative, picturesque mind of the South of France. Though we have ranged Guy de Maupassant among the disciples of Flaubert and Zola, this robust writer soon got rid of all coteries, and stood apart. He is an artist of the strongest stamp, and an egotist and epicurean. To him life is sad and meaningless : we neither know, nor can know anything ; we are creatures of instinct and circumstances and finally comes death, which ends all. In his early tales Maupassant takes pleasure with the impulsiveness of a young animal ; but as he grows older a new feeling appears in his work. Though ever more and more convinced of the cruelty of nature and the absurdity of man's pride in himself, X INTRODUCTION. pity and sympathy for his fellow "sufferers take the place of his former indifference. He represents the French epicurean of the best type ; robust in his scepticism, broad, strong and calm, he is above all a man, and writes for humanity. Besides the great writers we have just mentioned, appeared, at the same time, some very talented novelists, who, without striking any new paths or forcing any new ideas upon the literary world, wrote works which have pleased the public and have been well spoken of by critics. Among these we shall mention Jules Claretie, the present administrateur of the Comedie Franfaise, who is, at the same time, an historian, a novelist, a dramatist, and a journalist ; he has succeeded in everything he has attempted, without showing any great originality. Pierre Loti does not belong to any school, nor is even what could be called a litterateur ; his vocabulary is often meagre, and his descriptions, though very vivid, somewhat incomplete ; but he possesses great originality, which gives him a place d part among the writers of the last part of this century. He is of sensuous temperament, extremely sensi- tive, and very interesting to be studied, as a type of the man born in the last part of an over-civilized century, belonging to a very old nation, keenly alive to any external sensation, and not able to put aside, even in the most intense emotional experiences or among the most beautiful scenes of nature, that spirit of ennui, satiete which characterizes the refined men of this./?// de siecle. " Let us enjoy life, let us be simple animal creatures," he seems to say in his voluptuous pict- ures ; but the bitterest disillusion, the feeling that every- thing is vain here below, is at the bottom of these most delicious dreams, from which one awakes with renewed pessimism. Elegant dilettanteism and pessimism are the striking feat- ures of the present French literature. These two character- INTRODUCTION. XI istics have been embodied in one of the greatest, broadest, finest French minds, in Renan. The influence of Renan over his contemporaries has been very great, and a new word, " Renanism," has been created to describe the state of the souls of many Frenchmen of intellectual and refined culture ; and, in the past ten years, in fiction, in criticism and journalism, Renanism has been a successful and fashionable attitude. Paul Bourget, in his Essais de Psychologic Contemporaine, finds out three phases of Renanism, which he calls Dilettanteism, Religiosity and Aristocracy. This peculiar Dilettanteism is a kind of refined scepticism, delicately developed, and which becomes an instrument of pleasure. It is the condition of old races, when the faculty of creation has been diminished by degrees and replaced by that of comprehension. The basis of Dilettanteism is the incapacity for absolute and exclusive affirmation, and is thought by the disciples of Renan to be a sign of- superior intelligence and of finer essence than the mental operations of searchers of absolute truth. As for Religiosity, Renan has always remained respectful towards the cult he has forsaken, and the neo-catholic revival may be attributed to his sympathy for the " religious illusions " which have consoled humanity for many centuries. The Aristocracy of Renan is to be seen in his disregard of vulgar opinion, the finished elegance of his style, and his expositions of an aristocratic ideal. A fine French critic has said of Renan : " H pense comme un homme, sent comme une femme et agit comme un enfant." Among the best disciples of Renan, we shall mention Jules Lemaitre and Anatole France, two very able critics. Jules Lemaitre is an interesting specimen of a clever, gifted, artistic, witty, literary Frenchman of our present Xll INTRODUCTION. time. In him the influence of the doctrines of Renan is to be seen at its best. He is, at the same time, a dramatic and literary critic, and a play writer of undoubted talent. He believes in subjective criticism only, and holds that objective criticism is vain and unprofitable. He never seems to conclude nor to give the preference to one point of view over another. But the reason of this apparent or real want of doctrine conies, as he himself has often taken the trouble of stating, from the complexity of his impressions, the illusion of everything, and the dreadful consequences of absolute affirmation. He is the very essence of Dilettanteism, and his writings are most relished by the refined intellectual minority. His elegant, picturesque, and very personal style cannot help being admired by any person of an intellectual turn of mind. As a Conferenrier, his charming way of presenting his ideas, together with a very fine "humor" a quality rather rare in a Frenchman have made him very successful and popular among his auditors at the Odeon, and at the different places where he has lectured. Anatole France, a novelist, critic and poet, as well as an erudite, is, with Jules Lemaitre, one of the most complete literary minds of modern France, and one of the most representative. ^uhtcfax, He, too, believes in mbj Active criticism and regards criti- cism as the most recent of all manifestations of literature, and the best suited to a very civilized, curious, and learned society. With these two men, Jules Lemaitre and Anatole France, and a man of very different temperament, Ferdinand Brune- tiere, criticism has become, in France, one -of the most brilliant forms of literary attainment. In order to prosper, criticism supposes superior culture, and the present French mind seems particularly well adapted to bring it to perfection. INTRODUCTION. Xlll Naturalism reached its apogee towards 1885. A reaction then began to manifest itself, vaguely at first, but becoming stronger little by little. For a time the reaction centered its forces in the psychological novel ; a new school arose, having at its head Paul Bourget. Paul Bourget was known first as a critic, but he even then called himself a psychologist, and his monographies appeared under the titles of Essais de Psychologic Contemporainc, Etudes et Portraits. His aim is to react against materialism and pessimism. For the subject of his literary studies he chooses such writers as have been the introducers of new ideas and new feelings, the apostles of pessimism, such as Renan, Flaubert, Stendhal, the brothers de Goncourt, Alex- andre Dumas, ftls, etc., and in so doing he writes a very interesting and considerable fragment of the moral history of our epoch. As a novelist, Paul Bourget has won the favor of the intellectual public and of the literary- critics. Women are specially fond of this young writer, whose exquisite analyses of feminine character give him a great charm in their eyes. He seems to have plunged deeper than any other novelist into the complex and intricate nature of women, and, though he shows them weak, sometimes deceitful, the delicacy of his touch when he treats of these passionate questions of feminine virtue and failure, the exquisite atmosphere in which he surrounds his heroines, has caused him to be looked upon by the cultivated feminine public as an enlight- ener of conscience, and a consoler of fragile virtue. One of the most interesting and curious products in France of this wonderful and complex decade, is Maurice Barres. How are we to convey an idea of the subtilized mind of this ironical young writer to an Anglo-Saxon reader ! But we, ourselves, have been too much interested in the study of Maurice Barres' personality and works not to try XIV INTRODUCTION. and find out what is at the bottom of his new theories, and to introduce to our readers the talented youth Whose influence over the French jeunessc is so considerable. The French soul is undergoing a transformation so great, so deep, that the like has never been seen since the Renais- sance. All the formulae of life, of thought and of art have been, so to speak, used over and over again, until they are quite worn out, and an ardent desire for refinement of an intellectual and artistic kind has spread among the elite of young France, threatening to upset the literary and artistic theories which have been the basis of literature and art, with more or less modifications, for many centuries. Maurice Barres elaborates a system out of the Renanist theories of dilettanteism ; he sees in men and things emo- tions which are to be assimilated for the augmentation of his Ego, and thus he makes the object of life to be compre- hension, and the cultivation of individualism, in conditions of material independence. Thus, the first thing for a man to do is to defend his personality against the Barbares the Philistines, then to become a free man by the careful cultivation of this personality, and never to put aside the Religion du mot in the midst of the most active life. This doctrine is certainly noble and elevating, and well adapted to young men of intellect. The subtle charm of the unusual, artistic prose of Maurice Barres has not a little contributed to his literary success. Never before had the French language proved an instrument so supple, so elegant, so delicate, so musical, and, at the same time, so vigorous, in carrying home to the reader's mind the truth he wishes to convey. But, as we have already said, such a state of soul as Barres' could only exist in France, and in the last years of a century remarkable for evolutions of all kinds. None but an educated Frenchman, INTRODUCTION. XV and one having lived in the milieu described by Barres, a Parisian, in short, can understand and enjoy the subtle delicacy of the author's mind. Another class of French literateurs, nearly unknown to other nations, is that of Chroniqueurs, who discuss every sujet d' actualite (topics of the day) with a lightness, an airiness, a wit extremely frenchy ; they are all artists, full of talent, and very entertaining. Among them we may cite fimile Bergerat, who writes in the Figaro under the name of " Caliban," and whose sprightly prose, full of life and form, makes the delight of his readers ; Catulle Mendes, a man of great talent, with a delicate, elegant pen ; Paul Arene, of a calmer temperament, but also a writer of fine qualities, whose limpid, clear prose has won him a good reputation ; Paul Desjardins, the apostle of Neo-Christianity ; Octave Mirbeau, a brilliant writer, and, at last, the famous Gyp, Madame la Comtesse de Mirabeau de Marbel de Janville, the witty creator of Paulette, Loulou, and of Bob, the irrespectful, saucy, but very amusing young French boy. Before closing this Introduction, we must not forget to mention some authors who do not shine in the first rank, but whose aims, at least, are honest if not genial. They belong to the idealistic school and write for the average public. Andre' Theuriet, of healthy talent ; his writings are appreciated by young people, they deal with the customs of provincial life and are often relieved by a genuine love of nature; Albert Delpit, George Duruy, of fine talent, and Georges Ohnet, who has justly been called a purveyor of ideal, an educator, a consoler, and an enlightener of mediocre souls. His raison d' etre is that he is a worthy successor of Feuillet and provides the French middle classes with the finest kind of literature they are capable to appreciate. But xvi INTRODUCTION. in the eyes of literary critics he is, as Jules Lemaitre has expressed it in an article which began his fame, an unartistic, vulgar, banal writer of the best banality. V Now a word about our notes. We have been very careful to give the explanation as well as the translation of the idiomatic sentences so frequently to be met in our modern authors, and which could not be understood by the ordinary English reader. All the difficulties of syntax, etymology, and grammar have been fully explained. In the preparation of that part of the notes, we have made use of the best authorities, as Littre's Dictionary, with the more recent philogical discoveries of Messrs. Paul Meyer and Gaston Paris, for the French language ; the Century Dictionary, Murray's, Skeats', for English, etc. To these, grammatical and etymological notes have been added, whenever neces- sary, short historical and geographical notices to help the students to understand fully the epochs and places in which the story happens. Moreover, we have also been careful, in our selections, to give complete stories or anecdotes, or, when this has proved impossible, the selection is preceded by a short outline of the plot. We offer to the English student of French this little book, hoping that it may inspire him with something of the same love for French modern literature and language which impelled us to its preparation. BALTIMORE, April, 1893. CONTEMPORARY FRENCH WRITERS. HIPPOLYTE TAINE. HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE was born in 1828. He was one of the most brilliant pupils of the College Bourbon and of the Ecole Normale. A member of the University, he taught in different Lycees, and afterwards became professor X of art and aesthetics at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His first work, La Fontaine et ses fables, proved the serious and brilliant qualities of his mind. He wrote successively : Essai sur Tite Live, Voyage aux Pyrenees, Les Philosophes franfais du ig c siecle, Essais tie critique el d'/iistoire, JVbtcs sur r Angleterre, L'Ancien Regime, Origines de la ^France contem- poraine. His greatest work is, doubtless, his Histoire de la Litterature anglaise, in which he shows himself the disciple of Sainte-Beuve. The principle of the great critic, to examine carefully the circumstances of his author's time, in order to ascertain their bearing upon him, became, in Taine's hands, a theory which he sometimes carried to extremes. For him, every man is the product of environment, and by examining it the man is necessarily explained. The series of his studies on English literature reveal the faults of his critical method, though they are often acute and always brilliant in style. Taine is a realist in the spirit of Flaubert. He was at one time very famous for his fatalistic and materialistic doctrines. 2 CONTEMPORARY FRENCH WRITERS. His style is correct and pure, sometimes concise in abstract subjects, sometimes graceful, elegant, and brilliant in his artistic studies, his descriptions and his impressions of travels. VENISE. Un vent Idger ride les flaques luisantes et les petites ondulations viennent mourir a chaque instant sur le sable uni. Le soleil couchant pose sur elles des teintes pour- prees que le renflement de 1'eau tantot assombrit, tantot fait chatoyer. Dans ce mouvement continu, tous les tons se transforment et se fondent. Les fonds noiratres ou couverts de briques sont bleuis ou verdis par la mer qui les couvre ; selon les aspects du ciel, 1'eau change elle- meme, et tout cela se mele parmi des ruissellements de lumiere, sous des semis d'or qui paillettent les petits flots, sous des tortillons d'argent qui frangent les cretes de 1'eau tournoyante, sous de larges lueurs et des eclairs subits que la paroi d'un*ondoiement renvoie. Le domaine et les habitudes de 1'oeil sont transformed et renouveles. Le sens de la vision rencontre un autre monde. Au lieu des teintes fortes, nettes, seches des terrains solides, c'est un miroitement, un amollissement, un eclat incessant de teintes fondues qui font un second ciel aussi lumineux, mais plus divers, plus changeant, plus riche et plus intense que 1'autre, forme de tons superposes dont Palliance est une harmonie. On passerait des heures a regarder ces degradations, ces nuances, cette splendeur. Est-ce d'un pareil spectacle contemple tous les jours, est-ce de cette nature acceptee involontairement comme maitresse, est-ce de 1'imagination remplie forcdment par ces dehors ondoyants et voluptueux des choses, qu'est venu le coloris des Venitiens ? CONTEMPORARY FRENCH WRITERS. 3 LES FIGURES DE LEONARD DE VINCI. C'est surtout 1'expression et le sourire qui sont etranges. Quand on s'arrete devant ses figures, il faut un certain temps pour arriver a se mettre en conversation avec elles ; avec presque tous les autres peintres, on y parvient vite ; avec Le'onard, il en est autrement ; non pas que leur senti- ment soit peu marque ; au contraire, il transpire a travers 1'enveloppe ; mais il est trop delie, trop complique, trop en dehors et au dela du commun, insondable et inexplicable ; il est double et triple ; par-dela leur pensee visible on demele confusement un monde d'idees secretes, comme une delicate vegetation inconnue sous la profondeur d'une eau transparente. Leur sourire mysterieux, celui de Sainte Anne, de la Vanite, de Saint Jean, de Monna Lisa, troublent et inquietent vaguement ; sceptiques, licencieux, epicuriens, delicieusement tendres, ardents ou tristes, que de curiosite's, d'aspirations, de decouragement on y decouvre encore ! Oui, quelques homines de cette epoque, et, notamment celui-ci, apres tant de recherches dans toutes les sciences, dans tous les arts, dans tous les plaisirs, rapportent de leur course a travers les choses je ne sais quoi de souffrant, de tourmente', d'etrange et de melancolique. Us vous apparais- sent sous ces differents aspects sans vouloir se livrer tout a fait ; ils restent devant vous avec un demi-sourire ironique et bienveillant, derriere une espece de voile. Si expressive s best stories are " Tales of the arabesque and grotesque." He died at Baltimore on the i7th of October, 1849. LES LILAS. fait assaut de roulades avec le petit serin en cage : vies or rivals with the little canary-bird in his cage in singing trills. Faire assaut, to vie with, to rival in. 1'e'chaude' : echaitde, a kind of very light cake of which birds are very fond. NOTES. hu ho ! dia ! pull on, get up. Words used by teamsters directing their teams to pass further to the left or to the right ; hue, for the right, dia, for the left. II en pique un pompon derriere 1'oreille du limonier : He puts a branch of it behind the ear of his horse, as a tuft. Pompon, tuft, top- knot ; limonier, shaft-horse, thill-horse. chiquenaude : fillip. Origin uncertain. 1'odeur a la mode est agacante : the stylish smell, perfume, is bothering, teasing. le crouton de pain : the crust of bread. gueux : beggar. Le pain du gueux, the bread of the beggar; gueux at first meant cuisinier = cook ; it was another form of queux, cook. Some etymologists think it comes from the Dutch gait, a rascal ; la guerre des gueux was the name given to the civil wars of the 16 th century. Schiller, in his history of the thirty years' war, calls them die Getisen, which would give more probability to the French etymology of queitx. LA GRANDE BLEUE. La Chanson de la Mer. La Grande Bleue is the title of the book written by Rene Maizeroy. It is not a novel, but a collection of pictures, delicate, and dazzling at the same time, of the Grande Bleue or The Sea. La mer vous prend comme une musique : The sea takes hold of you as music does, or, as if it were a music. le rythme geignard : the moaning rhythm. Geignard is an adjective formed from verb geindre, to whine, to moan. The suffix ard generally adds an idea of contempt or sometimes of duration in the act. For instance, grogner, to grumble, has formed grognon, grumbler and grognard, a person who always grumbles, a growler; a vantard means a man who is accustomed to boast, a braggart. en dodelinant de la tete : wagging her head. Dodeliner, to rock, to dandle ; it comes from the root dod, meaning to rock, to doddle. Some etymologists think it comes directly from the Engl. to doddle. le cinglement des lames : the lashing of the waves. Cinglement is a noun formed from the verb cingler, to lash, to switch. Etymology, cingulum, from cingere, to girdle. le clapotement des avirons : the noise of the oars. Clapoter, cla- potement are other instances of onomatopoeia. NOTES. IQI a la derive : drifting along ; dt negative . . . prefix, rive, shore. le Lth : one of the rivers running through Hades in the Grecian mythology. It was the river of forgetfulness ; the souls passing into the Elysian Fields drank of it, that they might lose all recollection of earthly sorrows. sirenes : fog-horns used when the fog is too intense to allow the light of the light-houses to be seen from the sea. The same name is given to the whistle used by the steamboats in leaving or entering the harbor. apeure" : frightened ; you have frightened me. Apeure is a neol- ogism not to be found in the Dictionnaire de FAcadenrie or in Littre's. la grande ourque : a kind of sea-fish. les maisons endeuille'es : the houses in mourning. Endcuille is another neologism, conformed to etymology, but which is not found either in Littre's or the Dictionnaire de F Academic. Our contemporaries are very fond of these new expressions, which are, indeed, very pretty, and often picturesque, such as : envolee, enamouree, endcuillee, etc. LUSCIGNOLE. de longs tuyaux de pipes sans godet a tabac : long tobacco pipe- stems without bowl. ils ne puissent se rompre les pennes : they may not break their feathers. Penne is the beam-feather of a hawk, or the feather of the tail or wing of ordinary birds. From Lat. penna, feather, wing. Mais son cri, rale plutot : But her cry, which was rather like a death-rattle. Rale, rattle, noise produced by the air in passing through mucus. sans le desendormir : without awaking him or it. Desendormir is a very pretty neologism coming from des, for de, negative, endormir, to lull to sleep. un petit bruit gre"sillant : a little noise, as the noise of fire shrinking up something. II lui semblait, presque oiselette: It seemed to her, bird-like creature that she was. Oiselet, oiselette, a little bird. Oiselette is the feminine diminutive of oisel, a bird; oisel is the Old French for oiseau. Elle courait a travers les rues nuite'es de silence, ensilence'es de nuit : //'/. She ran through the streets nighted by silence and silenced NOTES. by night. These expressions nnittes and ensilence'es are neologisms of Catulle Mendes's coinage. They are extremely picturesque. la rossignolante voix : her voice- like the voice of the nightingale. Rossignolantc, adj., is another neologism formed from the noun ros- signol= nightingale. ses affres redoublerent : her terrors redoubled. Affrcs is chiefly used in the plural and generally said of " the terrors of death," les affres de la mort. luscinie : another word for nightingale, from Lat. luscinia rossi- gnol. un poete passant, sur le chemin sans gite : a poet passing along a road without houses. Gite, home, abode, lodging. TERRE PROMISE. This is the title of Paul Bourget's last novel. le souci d'une saute" compromise : the cares of an impaired health. Palerme : with Messine or Messina, the most important city of Sicily, an island situated in the Mediterranean sea, southwest of Italy. des aloes palissants tordaient leurs poignards barbells : fading aloes were twisting their barbed daggers. An allusion to the pointed leaves of the aloes. son masque bistr6 et creuse" : his face tanned and sunken. Bistre, of the color of the bistre, a brown pigment. en Provence : Provence is the name of an old French province, situated on the Mediterranean sea; it is famous for the mildness of its climate and the fertility of its soil. Genes: Genoa, an Italian city on the northwest coast. Christopher Columbus was born at Cogoleto near there. Est-ce qu'on se rend compte? Can one kno%v the reason of it, account for it? A quoi tient-il que nous soyons ici ? What is the reason of our being here? How is it that we are here? or, By what succession of unknown and unforeseen facts are we here ? Tenir forms a great many idiomatic sentences, as : tie tenir qrfa, il ne tient qtCa vous de lid faire grdce, it is in your power alone to grant him his pardon ; je ti'y tiens pas, I don't care for it; /'/ tient de son pere, he takes after his father. NOTES. 193 RECURRENCES. recurrences: recurrences. It is an expression used in anatomy, and means : a running together to a common point of origin. Here it is used in the sense of remembrance. From Lat. recurrere, to run backwards, to go back. Irlande : Ireland, an island belonging to the British empire, situated on the west of England. The capital is Dublin. Its former name was Erin, the green land, on account of the ever fresh appearance of its meadows and fields ; it rains a great deal in Ireland. bastingage : bulwark netting; a nautical expression. Watteau : a famous painter of the 1 8th century, renowned for the grace and delicacy of his pictures. Was member of the French Academy, and became by special favor Peintre des fetes galantes du roi. His great reputation rests on a series of pictures of conventional shepherds and shepherdesses, dancers and comedians, painted with unrivaled freshness, grace, and charm. Marseille : a very important French city and harbor, situated on the Mediterranean sea, the third city in size in France. Was built by the Phoceans in the year 600 D.C. , Malaga : a Spanish city situated in Andalusia, famous for its wines. les Pyre'ne's : a chain of mountains between France and Spain. Its name signifies mountains of fire, on account of the volcanoes, which must have been very numerous there at a time. They have entirely died out. Valence : Valencia, a Spanish city, famous for its oranges, situated on the Mediterranean coast ; it was formerly the capital of the kingdom, and now is the capital of the province of the same name. Its picture- galleries are famous. SOPHIE PRINTEMPS. Vit-elle seulement : Is she really alive. toujours lasse : always weary. Las masc., lasse fem. ses sourcils fins et tire's d'un seul coup de pinceau : her finely penciled eyebrows, i.e. looking as if they had been drawn at one stroke of the brush. 1 94 NOTES. clavecin : a piano. Clavecin, the name of a string instrument resembling our modern pianos ; it is used now in poetry or literary language for piano-forte. un parti pris de poe'sie : a preconceived idea of being poetical. Un parti pris is a set idea, a preconceived or prejudiced idea of any thing ; it means partiality. Juger sans parti pris, to judge freely, fairly, without any prejudice or partiality. CONSEILS A UN ARTISTE. professeur de contre-point : professor of counterpoint. Counter- point is the art of composing in several parts. il a exhausse" ton jeune front pour y mettre deux couronnes : he has raised your young head, in order to place two crowns on it. Exhansser, to raise, to render higher. From ex . . . hausser, to raise. Tu ne fourniras pas ta course : You will not be able to show your worth, you will not be able to run your race, to give to the world the best of yourself. vertu : virtue. From Lat. vir, a man, Sanscrit vira, a hero. The proper sense of the Lat. virtus is moral force, courage. Palestrina : a distinguished musical composer, of the i6th century. In 1551 he was made maestro di capella of the Julian chapel, and com- posed a collection of masses highly approved by Julius II. He is regarded as the first musician who reconciled science with musical art, and his works form an important epoch in the history of music. Beethoven : the celebrated composer, was born at Bonn, in 1770. He wrote the music of the grand opera Fidelia, the first truly German musical work of a dramatic character. His two best works are : Missa Solemnis hi D Minor, and the A T inth Symphony (D minor) with chorus. These works transcend all common laws and forms, and belong to the highest sphere of art. Mozart: born in 1756, one of the greatest musical composers. He began very early in life to show his genius. At the age of thirteen he was appointed director of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg's concerts. He composed the opera of Mithridates in 1770 ; Jdomeneo in 1780, and his master-piece, Don Giovanni, in 1787. Mozart is the first com- poser in whose works all traces of the old tonality disappear ; he is the father of the modern school. NOTES. 195 LA TANTE ANNETTE. Elle s'eprit d'une affection profonde : She felt a deep affection, she became quite fond. S'eprendre, to be smitten with, to become enamored, to fall in love. Voltaire : the greatest French writer of the iSth century, was born in Paris in 1694, died in 1778. He cultivated all kinds of literature. As a historian he wrote : Le Siecle de Louis XIV, Histoire de Charles XII, Histoire de Pierre le Grand. As a dramatist he takes rank as a worthy third with his two great predecessors Corneille and Racine. His most famous poems are the Henriade and La Pucclle. His prose is the perfection of the French language of that time ; it is admirable for grace, clearness, vivacity, and alive like sparkling wine with the particular quality of esprit peculiar to the people and the language of the i8t' 1 century. Voltaire had an immense influence over the minds of his contemporaries, and over all intellectual people of the iS { h cen- tury. He attacked religion with great energy ; his favorite weapon was ridicule, and there was never, perhaps, a greater master of it. Diderot : a celebrated French encyclopaedist and philosophical writer, was born in 1713. His principal work is the Encyclopedic ;' besides revising all the articles, he wrote the departments of history, ancient philosophy, and of mechanical arts. He also wrote art criticisms, which show great readiness in interpreting the meaning of a picture, and a power of interpreting it vividly in words unequaled by any writer of his time. Stoffe a ramages : flowered goods, with large flowers printed on it. galopin : little rogue, imp ; you rogue, you. II ne manquerait plus que cela : That would cap the climax. Tu as les yeux acme's : Your eyes are sunken or surrounded by a blue circle, as when one has been crying. mon pere me prit en croupe : my father took me up behind him on his horse. PAQUES FLEURIES. Paques fleuries : the name given to Palm-Sunday. pays meusien : country through which passes la Mcuse. Andre Theuriet was born in Lorraine, an old French province acquired in 1761, after the death of Stanislas Leszinski, the father-in-law of King Louis NOTES. XV ; a part of it was lost during the last war between France and Germany, 1871. '(Treaty of Frankfort.) les ors : the golden color. Or, gold, generally singular. Les ors is used in heraldry for the yellow color represented, in engraving, by dots spread over the field. Le rouge . . . tranchaient plus vivement avec cette verdure : The red . . . contrasted more sharply with this verdure. L'herbe verte et drue : The thick, green grass. le terroir barrels : the territory about Bar, chef-lieu of the depart- ment of Meitse. La Saint- Jean : La Saint-Jean is a holiday falling on the 24th of June, which peasants celebrate by building up wood-fires in the open air. The young boys of the village jump over these fires, trying to get through unhurt. Servants' engagements, in the country, generally begin on that day. KIOTO, LA VILLE SAINTE. autant dire qu'elle est banalise"e, de'chue, finie : we may as well say that it has become commonplace, is fallen, has lost all its at- tractions. Banal meant, originally, pertaining to compulsory feudal service ; applied specially to mills, wells, ovens, etc., used in com- mon by people of the lower classes ; hence, common, common- place. C'est de Kob6 qu'on peut s'y rendre : Kobe is the place from which to start for there. Se rendre d, means to go to ; se rendre, to sur- render, to give up. quelques rodeurs en quete d'imprevu : a few night-prowlers on the lookout for anything that might come in their way. Imprevu, unfore- seen, anything that may happen by chance. Les bouges s'ouvrent : The public houses open. Bouge meant a closet, a lumber room, at the origin ; then it was applied to a dirty, narrow lodging, and to public houses of the lower order. From Low Lat. bugia, bongia, bougius. La Marseillaise : it is the French national hymn, composed by Rouget de Lisle at the time of the Revolution, and so called because the regiments coming from Marseilles (see note on p. 193) were the first to sing it. Both music and words were written by that young officer, Rouget de Lisle ; it is perhaps the finest national hymn. NOTES. Tous les matelots " permissionnaires " : All the sailors who were on leave of absence. un bibelot : a knickknack. Bibelot from bimbelot, a trousseau (out- fit for a lady about to be married). Ficard bibelots, probably from a radical bimb or bamb, which is to be found in bambiti, a young child. C'est surtout le public des troisiemes qui donne : The third class travelers are the most numerous. This is a modern Gallicism, which cannot be translated literally ; it means the common people, those who usually travel third class, are in greater number. rien ne de"tonne nulle part : nothing jarring anywhere. Detonner, to be out of time, to jar, and dctoner, to detonate, to explode with a loud report. et tout au ras du bord : and quite near the edge. nous passons ventre a terre : we pass along at full speed. C'est un vrai hotel, tout neuf, qu'un Japonais vient de monter a la maniere anglaise : It is a real hotel, quite new, which a Japanese had just opened, and has set up in the English fashion. Monter une manufacture, to set up a manufactory ; monter tine piece de theatre, to rehearse a play ; monter un theatre, to open a theatre. trop joli, trop arrange 1 , trop paysage de potiche : too pretty, too artificial, too much like a landscape on a Japanese or Chinese vase. perron : front steps. Perron, from Prov. peiro, perro, peiron, Low Lat. petronus, Lat. petra, pierre, stone. soixante-quinze sous par jour : about seventy-five cents a day. The sou, or five centimes, is the twentieth part of a franc. on tressaute sur son siege, on fait la paume : one bounces about on his seat, one is tossed about like a tennis ball. La paume is a game similar to tennis. It was called so, because, at first, the balls were sent with the palm of the hand, la paume, in French. This game began to be played in France about the year 1356, and was then called lusus pilte cum palma. et quel immense capharnaiim religieux : a capharnaiim is a place which contains many objects scattered about in disorder. It comes from the name of the town in Judea, Capernaum, often mentioned in the Scriptures. It was a very commercial city. NOTES. LES SABOTS DU PETIT WOLFF. avaricieuse : avaricious. A-vare is the ordinary expression for avaricious; avaricieuse is used specially in the familiar language, and has a stronger meaning than avare. une 6cuelle de soupe : a bowlful of soup. An eciiclle is a small dish containing the share of one person only. From Prov. escudella, Span, escutfila, Port, escttdela, Ital. scodella, Lat. scutella. une verrue : a wart. pour avoir pignon sur rue : for having a house of her own. Pignon, gable. This sentence is idiomatic, and only means to have a house of one's own. magister : master, school-master ; the Latin word itself, but only used in French with a contemptuous sense. l'e"criteau dans le dos : ecriteait, a piece of paper stuck on the back of a child with such words as "Lazy!" "Dunce!" "Liar!" written on it. A punishment used with little children in public schools, and especially in village schools. bourgeois cossus: rich citizens, or rich people belonging to the middle classes. Cossit is a popular expression for rich; it comes from cosse, pod, shell, husk. Un paysan cossu means a peasant having fine crops, thence, wealthy, rich. emmitoufle's : well muffled. From en, in, and monfle, glove; moufle has become mitoitfle by being combined with mitaine, mitten. chaussons de Strasbourg : kind of woolen socks which peasants and children put over their stockings, inside their wooden shoes. sa de'gaine de paysan : his awkward bearing, resembling the bearing of a peasant. reVeillons : reveillon is the name given to the meal taken at Christ- mas Eve after the midnight mass. It is generally a heavy, elegant supper. It is a custom followed by many people, even those who do not go to the midnight mass, to gather together on Christmas Eve and partake of a good supper, with truffles and champagne. la cuisiniere du tabellion : the cook of the notary. Tabellion is the name given to a petty notary. From Lat. tabcllionem, tabella, shelf, diminutive of tabula, table. le petit Noel : Santa Claus. In France little children expect the petit Noel, or the Infant Jesus, to fill up their little boots, which they put in the chimney-corner on Christmas Eve. NOTES. 199 galopins : blackguards, urchins. Galopin means properly an errand- boy ; familiarly used for urchin, street boy, etc. clinquant : tinsel. From Dutch klinken, to resound. le pedagogue : the schoolmaster. Another contemptuous expres- sion for master. un bisaigue: a carpenter's tool. (See p. 180.) a cloche-pied : hopping. Clocher, to hop in walking. From High Germ, klochdn, to beat, to strike. un va-nu-pieds : a poor child, a vagabond. Va-nn-pieds means literally one who goes bare-footed. In this compound noun, pied is the only part which takes the sign of the plural, because va is a verb and nit an adjective, which, placed before pied, fete, bras, orjambe, does not change : nu-tete, but one writes tete XUE, pieds yus. galetas : a pallet ; properly speaking, a garret, a hole. It is sup- posed that galetas comes from Galata, a tower, and a district in Constantinople. n'avaient trouve' que des verges dans leurs souliers : had found nothing but a bundle of sticks in their shoes. It is the custom to put a bundle of sticks in the shoes of naughty children at Christ- mas Eve. Us se signerent : They made the sign of the cross. LE CHANT DU CYGNE. Dieppe : a sea-port town of France, in the department of Seine- Inferieure, at the mouth of the river Arques. It is one of the principal watering-places of France and has a great accession of visitors during the summer months. Its carved articles of horn, bone, and ivory have long been famous. donnait des ordres aux commissaires : gave orders to the stewards of the fete, the gentlemen ushers. le regard rive 1 sur lui : their eyes fixed on him. ses bois s&ulaires : the hundred-year-old woods. Seculaire means centuries old. From Lat. secttlum, a generation, an age. a bout de souffle : having no more breath, breathless, exhausted. jonche'e : a strewing. Jonchee odorantc, the heap of sweet-smelling flowers. 2OO NOTES. UTILITY DES LANGUES ETRANGERES. Vienne : the capital of Austria, a beautiful city built on the Danube. une reflexion . . . qui m'a obsede" : a reflection which has haunted me. on se disqualifiait : one lost something of his dignity, or of his own value. Le proviseur : the head master of a college in France. ont e*te* mis a meme : have been able. les lyce*es et ls colleges : the difference between a lycee and a college is that the lycee belongs to the State, and the college to the city where it stands. 1'universite" le bat en breche : battre en breche, to attack, to assail or ruin (an argument, a person's credit or influence). On met a leur portee : one puts within their reach. Eire a la portee, to be within reach of. obliges de frayer : obliged to enter into relations. Prayer, properly speaking, means to open a way, to trace out a path. pour se tirer d'affaire : to get on easily, to get out of difficulties. un empote" : a slang expression ; it means awkward, uncouth, not knowing what to do. L'enfant . . . aura beau se raidir : It will be in vain for the child to harden himself. Avoir bean, to be in vain. RENAN. a qui 1'on ait prete" plus de dessous et de tre*fonds : this means that Renan has often been thought not to express his thoughts fully, but to keep back part of them, to conceal his thoughts, to veil them. Avoir des dessous means to keep back some secrets, trefonds, underground. Savoir le fonds et le trefonds d'tine affaire, to know the ins and outs of an affair. J'en fais bien mon mea culpa : I regret it, or, repent of it very much indeed. Faire son mea culpa means to be sorry for a thing done. Mea culpa are two Latin words which belong to a prayer called Confiteor, which the penitent recites when he goes to confession. He stops in the NOTES. 2O I middle of the prayer, confesses his sins, and goes on, striking his breast three times, exclaiming: mea culpa, it is my fault, I am really guilty of it. quelque reflexion sur le train brutal et fatal des choses humaines : some reflection on the brutal and fatal course of human things. Train here signifies a series, a succession or consecution of con- nected things. Train enters into many idiomatic expressions as : aller son train, to go on, to get on ; mener un train d'enfer, to lead a wild life, etc. surfaire la vertu : to overrate virtue. Surfaire comes from sur, over, faire, to make. It also means to overcharge, to ask too much for. Surfaire sa marchandise, to ask too much for one's goods. Saint-Sulpice : Saint-Sulpice is the name of a seminary for priests. Renan, who intended to become a priest, had spent some years there, and was going to take orders, when he changed his mind. LECONTE DE LISLE. Leconte de Lisle: (1820), academician, living poet, the author of Poemes Antiqttes, Formes Barbares, Polities et Poesies, Ka'in, etc. He belongs to the school of Theophile Gautier, in which the theory of " art for the sake of art " (Tart pour Vart) is so much thought of. His verse is grand, noble, strong. Andre" Che'nier : (1762-1794), French poet born at Constantinople. He was at heart a Greek. The Idyllists and Anthologists were his masters. From them he learned the exquisite purity of form, the admirable restraint, the chastened vigor of thought and diction, which render him preeminent among modern poets. He wrote some Elegies, UArt a" 'Aimer, Hermes, and La Libertt, a fine idyl which cost him his life. It was at the time of the great Revolution. He had never ceased to oppose and stigmatize the action of the Jacobin section. He was arrested on the 6th of January, 1794, and sent to the scaffold on the 25th of June. In his prison he wrote the beautiful elegy La finite Captive, and some iambics against the Convention. les poetes de la Ple"iade : la Pleiade is the name taken by seven poets of the 1 5th century, Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, Pontus de Thyard, Jodelle, Belleau, Baif, and Dorat. The most important was Ronsard who, with his disciples, especially Joachim du Bellay, en- deavored to reform the French language by adopting all the forms of 202 NOTES. i Greek and Latin poetry and even Greek and Latin expressions. It was to be a renovation of the language through Greek and Latin sources, which they considered as being the only sources of French. They failed in their attempt, though one may say that they enriched the field of poetry. avec plus de parti pris : more intentionally. Idiomatic expression. C'est un parti pris, his mind is made up; tirer parti de tout, to turn everything to account ; se ranger du parti de quelqifun, to side with a person. le romantisme : this name has been given to a new school which pretends to free itself from the rules of composition and style adopted by the classic school. The name Romantic school was first adopted by young poets and critics in Germany, the Schlegels, Novalis, Tieck, who directed their efforts to the overthrow of the artificial rhetoric of the French poetry of that time. The name was adopted in France twenty or thirty years later by a new school, having Victor Hugo at its head, who struggled to get supremacy over the older classic school. . la melancolie de Rene 1 : Rene is the hero of one of the works of Chateaubriand ; he represents the new pessimist element in literature. Jocelyn : name of a beautiful poem written by Lamartine. soit qu'elle s'e"prenne de beaut^ grecque : whether they fall in love with Greek beauty. S'efrendre, to fall in love, to be smitten with. Soit que, conj., whether. LES DEUX COPAINS. (THE TWO CHUMS.) copain or compain : ancient nominative of compagnon, from the Latin cum, with, and panis, bread ; one who shares the bread. rez-de-chausse"e : the ground floor. From res, prep., even with, level with, on a level with. Etymology : Prov. ras, Ital. raso, from Lat. rastts, from radere, to raze. qui encombraient la cour : which blocked up the yard. Etymology : encombre, Prov. encotnbrar, Ital. ingombrare, Low Lat. incombrum, from in and combri or cumbri, a heap of hewed wood. des chaises de paille enfonce'es: straw-bottomed chairs burst open. ses cheveux drus : his thick hair. From the Prov. drut, Genoese druo, dense, thick ; dru probably comes from the Celtic : Kimry drud, NOTES. 2O3 bold, Gaelic druth, willful, Cornish dru, very much, Bas-Breton druz, fat. un saule e'tete' : a willow, the top of which has been cut off. Ety- mology : e for cs, prefix, and tete, head. la banlieue : the outskirts (of a city). From ban and lieue, (league) league of the ban ; that is to say, the limit to which the seigneurial ban extended. Paysan de race : being the offspring of a long generation of peasants. la cre"miere du boulevard Montparnasse : the woman who kept the lunch room. A cremerie is a place where milk, cream, butter, eggs, and cheese are to be found. But in some of these establishments, especially in the Quartier Latin in Paris, one can get a light breakfast, lunch, or even a dinner. They are, of course, cheap places where students in poor circumstances take their meals. qu'il aimait d'un amour narquois : whom he loved with a mocking, sarcastic love. (See note to quelque chose de narquois, p. 179.) un feutre a larges bords : a broad-brimmed felt hat. un pourpoint : a doublet. Etymology : past participle of the old verb pourpoindre, from pour and poindre, to stitch through, the four- point being quilted. qui tait bien mieux dans son g6nie : which was better adapted to his natural disposition. Genie has sometimes in French the meaning of a distinctive character in persons. Enfin Burrhus, Neron decouvre son genie. (RACINE.) 1'atelier deRiesener: Riesener's studio. Riesener was one of the most noted portrait painters of the first Empire. Louis-Philippe : a king of France ; he reigned from 1830 to 1848 ; he was overthrown by the Revolution of 1848 and obliged to take refuge in England. p6piniere : nursery (for plants). Etymology : pcpin, perhaps from the Lat. pepo, a cucumber. But the origin of this word is very un- certain. Velle'da : a famous druidess. Chateaubriand, in his Martyrs, has written a very striking episode of the love of that priestess and the young Roman soldier Eudore. il prit conscience de sa mission : he became conscious of his mission. L'Empire le genait : The Empire, or, the Imperial Government, was in his way. GUner from the noun gene, which comes from gehenne, from 2O4 NOTES. the Hebrew gthintfon^ the valley of Hennon situated near Jerusalem, where the refuse of the city was burnt. II y avail des morceaux qui voulaient etre bons : There were some pieces which might have been good. a la Sirene pres : except the Sirene. chassis vitr6 : a very large glass opening, as is usual in many studios. Chassis is the frame work ; vitre means made of glass ; commonly called " sky-light." sacr bahut : a coarse exclamation without any definite sense. As we shall see, a few lines below, Jean Meusnier meant the sun. Bahut, properly speaking, is a large chest trimmed with leather, the cover of which is slightly rounded in a convex shape. The etymology of that word is not certain. It may come from the Port, bdhul, or Span, battl. This name is sometimes given to any very heavy piece of furniture which happens to be in one's way. This explains, to a certain extent, the exclamation of the artist, who, not being able to find the name of the sun which at this instant was in his way, calls it sacrt bahut, damned. . . . II tape trop dur pour 1' instant : It strikes too hard for the moment. dessinait les trois temps de 1'extraction des cors : drew the series of the three little operations in which the extraction of corns consists. From Lat. cornu, corn, English horn. Les tableaux du maitre, je les voyais au Salon, aux Mirlitons, au Volney : the Salon is the name given to the annual exhibition of arts ; it takes place at the Palais de PIndustrie, in Paris ; les Mirlitons is the name of a club in which private artistic exhibitions are given ; it is situated in the Place Vendome ; le Volney is another club of artists situated rue Volney, which also gives a private exhibition of the works of its members. Le bateau-mouche : a small steamboat which runs along the Seine. Est-ce que je connais ces e"piciers-la, moi ! Do you think that / know these Philistines, these vulgar people ! Epicier, in the general sense, means a grocer. It is often taken in a contemptuous sense for a man of vulgar mind, of unartistic tastes. It is something like bourgeois, with a still more scornful meaning. Us veulent de"naturer ma grande ide'e : They wish to pervert my great idea. De la passerelle du de"barcadere : From the foot-bridge of the landing-place. NOTES. 2O5 Une fluxion de poitrine . . . fichue : the pneumonia ... he is done for. Fichu is a slang expression, extremely coarse, which has different meanings. In this case it only means : " he is absolutely lost." It is a slang word of relatively recent origin, the etymology of which is very uncertain. un lit de sangle : folding-bed of the simplest kind. Sangle means a strap, a band. These beds are composed of a piece of thick canvas resting on straps. From Wallon seink, Prov. singla, Spanish cincha. The true orthography is cengle, which is found in the ancient texts. LA MESSE DES OMBRES. (THE MASS OF THE SHADOWS THE DEPARTED.) Feu mon pauvre pere : My late father. Feu, adjective, only agrees with the noun it qualifies when placed next to this noun. Ma fene mire ; but one writes : feu ma mdre. From a dialect of Berry funt, and also defeu, defeue, It. fri, la fu regina, the dead queen. un revenant : a ghost. It literally means, one who comes back. fiancailles : the betrothing, the affiancing. From the verb fiancer, which means, to promise, to engage one's self. un arbre de Jesse" : a tree of Jesse ; a decorative genealogical tree, representing the genealogy of Christ, the figure of Jesse being the root, and the branches bearing the name, and often representations, of his descendants. Jesse is the name of the father of David, and ancestor of Jesus. Cannes a pommes d'or : walking-sticks with a golden head. It is called pomme in French, i.e. apple, because the heads of sticks are often round. une mouche. au coin de l'03il : a patch on the corner of the eye. So called mouche, fly, because it is made of a small piece of black silk of about the size of the wing of a fly. desservants : officiating priests. Dieu vous ait en sa grace ! May God bestow his favor on you, or, may God have you in his keeping ! L'eau lustrale du Purgatoire : The purifying water of Purgatory. Lat. lustralis, from litstrare, to purify. 2O6 NOTES. Cependant qu'ils parlaient : While they were talking. Archaic form of pendant. e"cus de six livres : pieces of money worth 6 francs. Livres is synonymous with francs in many cases. One still says : // a dix mille livres de rente, He has an income of ten thousand francs. florins : a coin of Florence ; it is a gold or silver coin of different values. ducats et ducatons : ducats, ducatoOns. A ducat is a gold or silver coin; gold ducat = 10 or 12 francs; silver ducat =4 or 5 francs. A ducatoon, a silver coin of Venice or Holland. Jacobus : Jacobus, an old gold coin of England. nobles a la rose : an old gold coin of England and France of the value of 20 or 24 francs. They were coined under the reign of Edward III., and bore the roses of York and Lancaster. un lourd battant de cloche : a heavy clapper of a bell. J'ai beaucoup pratique" les morts : I have associated a great deal with the dead. le suisse de Ste Eulalie : the beadle of Saint Eulalie. LE FIFRE ROUGE. quSrir : to fetch. Querir is an old verb, used now only in the infinitive and with the verbs alter, envoy er, venir. The old infinitive was querre, which is still to be found in La Fontaine. From Lat. qiuzrere, to fetch, Sanscrit cish. e'trennes : Christmas presents, or rather New Year's presents, the custom being in France to give presents on New Year's day rather than on Christmas. From It. strenna, Lat. strena. un liard : an old copper coin which was the fourth of a sou, a little less than a French centime. A sou is about one cent. son dinde : familiar expression for son dindon, turkey. Compte la-dessus ! Depend upon it ! sa mere-grand: familiar expression for sa grand' 1 mere, his grand- mother. cadenette : a long plat of hair which hangs lower down than the rest. The hame comes from Honore d'Albret, lord of Cadenet, brother of M. de Luynes, who lived in the iyth century and introduced the fashion of wearing this long plat of hair. NOTES. 2O7 Le fifre s'entendait a la peche aux grenouilles : The fifer was very clever at fishing for frogs. S 'entendre cl, to understand how to do a thing. Entendre tl, to know something about a thing : /'/ n'entend rien & /a poesie, he is no judge of poetry. S' entendre a, to agree : Us fenten- dent bien, they agree well together. haut-de-chausses : breeches, small-clothes. en drap d'ordonnance : made of regimental cloth. justaucorps : jerkin. Qui est-ce qui m'a fichu un soldat qui pleure? lit. Who has given me a crying soldier ? i.e. How can a soldier cry ? Fichu, vulgar expres- sion used in the sense of dormer, to give. le corps du dlit : the main proof, the main evidence. transes : frights. In Wallon, transs was the name of the tolling bell for the dead ; in Spanish and Portuguese, trance, the hour of death; It. transito, passage from life to death, from Lat. transtttis, passage. une aune de boudin : a yard of black-pudding. Aune is the name of an old measure, about 3 feet 7 inches long. LE CHEVALIER DE FRILEUSE. Mais les plus piquantes s'e"moussaient sur la peau de philosophe qu'il s'e'tait faite: But the sharpest ones blunted themselves against the philosopher's skin which he had acquired. S'emonsser, properly speaking, is generally applied to arms and means : an arm, the edge of which has been taken off or blunted. Etymology : / for es, and mousse, adjective, moss = without moss, rendered less active, less pene- trating, because, in botany, the expression emousse is applied to organs without sharp edges. les neiges m'en ont souvent paru emprunte'es : the whiteness of it has often seemed to me to have been borrowed, i.e. the snow-white color of his hair was artificial. Snmu is taken for the color, white. It is a metonymy frequently used in rhetoric. II tenait extremement a son blason : lie had a great regard for his coat of arms, or, he thought a great deal of his coat of arms. Quand de hautes convenances 1'exigeaient : When decorum or propriety exacted his presence. Leurs grands et petits lits de justice : Their great and little beds of justice. Tenir un lit de justice means, to hold a court of justice, i.e. 2O8 NOTES. to give out judgments. Formerly lit de justice meant a session of the French Parliament, to which the king was present, seated on his throne, which was called /// de justice. maussade : sulky. Etymology : mau for mal = bad, and the old adjective sade, which meant agreeable ; hence, without agreement. Sade conies from Lat. sapidus, savory. Vous avez e'te' assez godiche : You have been such a simpleton. Etymology : it is a popular alteration of the proper name Claude, which is also used in the sense of simpleton. comme il sied : as is proper. Sied, third person singular of the present indicative of seoir, to be becoming, to be proper. Le pere Malebranche : a well-known disciple of Descartes, was born at Paris in 1638. He entered the congregation of the Oratory and became one of the greatest metaphysicians of the I7th century. He wrote Recherche de la Verite, Traite de la Nature et de la Grace, and many other philosophical and religious works. Va me qu6rir ma culotte : Go and fetch my trousers. Querir, an old verb, only used now in the infinitive and with the verbs aller, envoyer, venir. The infinitive of that verb was, at the origin, guerre, which is still to be found in La Fontaine. It is the regular form of the Lat. qucerere. Querir appeared in the I5th century. The regular conjugation was : je quier,je queroie, querant, quis. guilleret : so sprightly, lively. The origin of this word is un- certain. Some think it comes from guilleri, the song of the spar- row. Un bourdon qui venait d'entrer par la fenetre, a cheval sur un rayon de soleil : A drone which had just entered through the window, astride a sunbeam. Venir de, to have just ; a cheval, astride. Et la porte"e du trait : And the strength of its stroke. Gilbert : a French poet of the i8th century, who died at the Hotel- Dieu (a hospital in Paris). His best known poem is : Les Adieux d^un Poete Mourant. Des chapelets d'oiseau s'Sgrenaient sur les bois : Flocks of birds were scattered about in the woods. S'egrener, in the sense of scatter- ing, is a neologism. It means properly, to shell, to fall from the stalk, in speaking of grapes. dpinette : spinet. A kind of musical instrument, like a harpsi- chord. It- is obsolete. It was so called because struck with a spine or pointed quill. From It. spinetta, a sprick, a thorn, Lat. spina, a thorn. NOTES. 2O9 On met ma raison a 1'epreuve de la truffe : My reason is put to the test by means of truffles. Mettre & I'eprenve, to put to the test ; & repreuve dttfeit, fire-proof; a repreuve de /'eau, water-proof. Une auberge sortable : A suitable inn. Sortable, from Lat. sortcm, which is in condition, in state of suiting. au renouveau des bois : the spring-time, when the woods begin to be again in bloom. Renouveau is an archaic expression ; comes from re . . . and noiiveau = again . . . new. j'ai des manies coriaces : I have tough mania. Coriace means tough as leather. From Lat. corium, cuir = leather. a perte de vue : out of sight. Se multipliaicnt a perte de vue, multiplied themselves until they got out of sight. bas les pattes : down with the paws. Je vous rends les armes : I acknowledge myself vanquished. Rendre les armes, properly speaking, is to give up, to surrender one's arms (to a conqueror) ; fig., to avow one's defeat. un peu rodomonts : rather boastful. Rodomont was the name of a personage created by Boiardo and adopted by Ariosto, who was famous for his bravery and his haughty character, in the fictitious wars of Charlemagne and the Saracens of Africa. rbarbatifs : grim looking. Comes from rebarbe, which was used in the i6th century with the sense of rough, repulsive, as a bristly beard. It came from re and bar be (beard), meaning he who opposes beard against beard. dresseur ^meiite : skilled trainer. PETIT-BLEU. Petit-bleu is a nickname given to a little school-girl, the heroine of the story. It was given to her for her having answered candidly, when she was looking from the window, that she was looking at the blue sky. The other school-girls, not accustomed to enjoy nature so naively, laughed at her and called her " Petit-bleu." criaient a tue-tete : were screaming as loud as they could. Tue-tite is composed of the verb tuer, to kill, and tete, head ; lit. it means to scream loud enough to split one's head. les voix aigrelettes : the shrill voices. Aigrelette is a diminutive of aigre, sour, and means sourish. The suffix ette is often used in 2IO NOTES. French as a diminutive, as maison, maisonnette, fille, fillette, mignon, mignonnette ; it often bears with it a sense of caress, as in proper names : Fran9oise, Francette, Jeanne, Jeannette, Laure, Laurette, etc. la salle grouillante : the swarming, crowded room. Grouillant implies the idea of motion. It comes from the verb grouiller, to stir, to move. Diez believes that it comes from High German grubildn or crewelon, to search, to move. But it seems to have come from crouler, which is Old French, and in our days, in some places, means, to stir, to move. Grouiller is a recent term, found in Amyot, and in Marguerite de Navarre, for the first time. une expression confite : an assumed expression of devotion. The expression often assumed by school-girls in convents, as if they were all the time steeped in devotion. brouhaha : uproar. Brouhaha means a confused noise. Nous aliens vous mettre au courant : We will acquaint you with our ways, we will let you know how things go on with us. Eire an courant des affaires, to know all about the business. This dialogue and the next give a very good idea of the prattle of boarding- school-girls ; the expressions are the very same they use ; their petty curiosity is remarkably well depicted, as well as their sly ways of acting whenever they are in fear of being detected. les yeux, d'un vert paillete" de roux : the eyes were green, be- spangled with gold. enfin, 1'ensemble e"trangement heurte" : in a word, her whole body, awkwardly put together. Page ingrat : the ungracious, awkward age. We call I 1 age ingrat the years between twelve and fifteen, during which girls generally grow more or less rapidly, and the body takes on an awkward appearance : long limbs, big feet and hands, short bust. elle est mauvaise comme la gale : she is awfully wicked. Mauvaise comme la gale is a school slang expression. Gale, properly speaking, is a disease, itch, scabies. te voil done coffre'e, aussi, mon pauvre gamin : this is another instance of school slang, which might be translated by : so you, too, are shut in, little gypsy. Gamin often used in speaking about street-boys ; urchin, blackguard ; the feminine is gamine, little girl, little gypsy. The origin of this expression is unknown. It has always been a popular expression, until it made its appearance in the literary language in 1834, in a short pamphlet called Claude Gueux. This is, at least, what Victor Hugo says in his Miserables, Part 3, 1.7. NOTES. 2 I I C'est pas drole ! It is no fun ! Cest pas dr6le, for ce n'eft fas drSle. In familiar language, the ne is often suppressed : c*est pas amu- sa nt ! c*est pas Jolt ! TOUS L'CEIL DES BARBARES. n'etes-vous pas sur le point de vous ennuyer : are you not about to get weary. Ktre sur le point, to be about, to be near doing a thing. et que mon reve matinal : reve. matinal, means, the dream I have made in my youth ; matinal, morning, early, thence, the morning of my life, my youth. LE JARDIN DE BfiRfiNICE. toutes ces Emotions que j'avais e'labore'es dans ce pays : all the emotions which I had worked up in this country, ^laborer, to work a special modification through labor. From Lat. elaborare, from e and laborare, to work. Cette importante veill^e ou je rsumai mon experience d'Aigues- Mortes : This important night in which I summed up my experience of Aigues-Mortes. Resumer, to sum up, from Lat. resumere, from re, a duplicative, and sumere, to take. Aigues-Mortes is the name of a village situated in the department of the Card, which is a part of the old province of Languedoc. Formerly it was a sea-port. Louis IX. embarked there when starting to Egypt in 1248, to begin the 8' h crusade against the Mussulmans. Now it is four kilometres from the sea. Its name signifies dead water, from Lat. aqua, water. J'ai resserr^ autour de Be're'nice tous les movements de ma sensi- bilit : I have drawn around Berenice all the movements of my sensibility ; i.e. Berenice has been the pivot around which my sensi- bility has moved. un raisonnement impeccable : a faultless reasoning. Impeccable, Lat. impeccabilis, from in, a negative, and peccare, to sin. J'y ai manque 1 : I have failed to do it. Manquer a, to fail, fai manqut tomber, I was near falling ; /'/ a manque mourir, he nearly died. Manquer de, to be wanting in, to need. Us manquaient de pain, they had no bread ; Us manquaient tf intelligence, they were wanting in intelligence. 2 1 2 NOTES. dans ce raccourci d'une vie : in this abridgment of a life. A rac- courci is a thing seen, or heard, or told on a smaller scale, or in a smaller proportion. Je suis dans tous cette part qui est froissee par le milieu : I am, in every one, that part of one's self which is wounded, ruffled by the surroundings. Le milieu is a term very often applied in the sense of the surroundings in which one lives ; it is applied also to the elements in which the different animals live. ADVERTISEMENTS 707