MATERIALS

FOR

FRENCH PROSE COMPOSITION;

OR,

SELECTIONS FROM

THE BEST ENGLISH PROSE WRITERS,
TO BE TURNED INTO FRENCH,

WITH IDIOMATIC RENDERINGS OF DIFFICULT PASSAGES, NOTES,

AND PRACTICAL HINTS TO TRANSLATORS.

BY

FERDINAND E. A. GASC, M.A.

AUTHOR OF

THE FIRST FRENCH BOOK," "HISTOIRES AMUSANTES ET INSTRUCTIVES," &c.,

AND FRENCH MASTER OF BRIGHTON COLLEGE.

New Edition.

LONDON:

BELL AND DALDY, FLEET STREET.

1860.

2757. f. 3.

The British Empire

(James's Fables of Esop)

(Lord Chesterfield's Letters)

vii

xii

1

2

4

(Budgell, Spectator)

5

6

(Spectator)

. (Harris)

(Tatler) 10

7

8

11

12

(Lord Chesterfield's Letters)

13

England and Scotland (Sir W. Scott, Tales of a Grandfather)

(J. R. MacCulloch, British Empire)

Description of England. (J. R. MacCulloch, British Empire)

16

18

19

20

.

22

Sir Roger de Coverley

On some Pleasures in Rural Life.

(Wm. Cowper's Letters)

(Addison, Spectator)

29

31

The Comparison of Watches (Edgeworth's Modern Griselda)

Hearers and Doers. . . (S. Clarence, Not a Minute to Spare)

Scene from "The Good-natured Man"

Another Scene from "The Good-natured Man" (O. Goldsmith)

Firmness of Alexander Severus

School-day Anecdotes

(Gibbon's Roman Empire)

(Sir W. Scott, Autobiography)

Page

53

54

(Defoe)

59

62

65

Robinson Crusoe in his Island

Gulliver's Way of Living in the Country of Lilliput. (Swift)

A Travelling Incident . (Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit)
The Literary Snobs (W. M. Thackeray, The Book of Snobs)
Scene from "The School for Scandal"
Lord Byron to Thomas Moore

(Scott, Waverley)

70

(Sheridan)

(Byron's Letters)

72

79

83

(Robertson, History of Charles V.)

(Dodsley, Economy of Human Life)

(Goldsmith)

97

98

Brutus on the Death of Cæsar (Shakspeare, Julius Cæsar)

Scene between the Jews Shylock and Tubal. (Shakspeare)

A Sketch of the Normans (Lord Macaulay, History of England) 100

Influence of the French Language and Literature in the Age

of Louis XIV. (Lord Macaulay, History of England) 104

John Bull

(Washington Irving, Sketch-Book) 106

(Fielding, Tom Jones) 109

A Pretty Quarrel between Master Tom Jones and his Play-

(Sir Walter Scott, Quentin Durward) 123

Sketch of Cæsar's Career and Character.. (George Long)

Fox (Lord Brougham, Statesmen of the Time of George III.) 135

Montaigne. (Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe) 138

The Vicar of Wakefield and his Family

Lady Montagu to Mrs. Thistlethwayte (Lady Montagu's Letters) 157

The Burning of Moscow.

Scene from "The Critic

Swift to Lord Treasurer Oxford

(Scott's History of Napoleon) 164

(Sheridan) 169

(A Letter) 175

Scene from "She Stoops to Conquer".

A Sea-fog and Wreck.

A Highland Revenge.

196

. (Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy) 217

The Widow and her Son. . (Washington Irving, Sketch-Book) 221

An Episode of the late War, 1855. (W. H. Russell, The War) 226

Scene from "The Clandestine Marriage" (Garrick and Colman) 259

(Charles Lamb, Rosamund Gray) 265

The Native Village

On Forming a Taste for Simple Pleasures (Vicesimus Knox)

On the Folly of Inconsistent Expectations

Religion never to be treated with Levity.

Scene from "Money"

.(Sir E. Bulwer Lytton)

269

(Mrs. Barbauld)

(H. Blair)

272

276

277

280

286

(Miss Mitford, Country Stories)

290

Lord Chatham's Speech on the Immediate Removal of the

Troops from Boston, in America .

The Spectre Guest's Coming. (Miss Mitford, Country Stories)

Town versus Country

The Battle of Pharsalia. (O. Goldsmith, History of Rome) 295

The Battle of Otterburn (Sir W. Scott, Tales of a Grandfather) 303

The Defeat of the Spanish Armada.

.(E. S. Creasy) 308

The Battle of Assye (From the Duke of Wellington's Despatches) 313

Memorandum on the Battle of Assye

The Battle of the Alma.

(Id.)

316

(W. H. Russell, The War) 321

b 2