LE NOTAIRE. Mais messieurs, je n'y comprends plus rien. Est-ce qu'elles ne sont pas deux demoiselles qui portent le même nom?

FIGARO. Non, monsieur, elles ne sont qu'une.

BARTHOLO, se désolant? Et moi qui leur ai enlevé l'é- 5 chelle pour que le mariage fût plus sûr! Ah! je me suis perdu faute de soins. paino

FIGARO. Faute de sens. Mais soyons vrais, docteur: quand la jeunesse et l'amour sont d'accord pour tromper un vieillard, tout ce qu'il fait pour l'empêcher peut bien 10 s'appeler à bon droit La Précaution Inutile.

лис

Tacliffe.
first Same 1-5-

NOTES

NOTES

TITLE-PAGE.

Note 1. tombée. Beaumarchais insisted that this mention of the fate of the play on its first night (for which see Introduction, § 111) should be made on the title-page of its printed form, published in the same year, 1775, but not before the Barbier, somewhat modified it is true, had recovered from the failure of the first performance, and had been applauded to the skies. The same vein of mingled pride and satire is discernible in the quotation which Beaumarchais used as an epigraph.

PERSONNAGES.

The detailed instructions which Beaumarchais thought fit to append to his list of dramatis personæ, with regard to the costumes to be worn by each of the actors, are here purposely omitted as purely technical, and adding nothing to the general understanding or interest of the play.

Note 1. vieux. Note the humorous antithesis between the names of the servants and their physical characteristics.

ACT I.

Page 3. I croisées, still used of windows, because of the cross formed by the horizontal and vertical divisions which usually make four or more lights of the total aperture.

2 jalousie, used for a screen or blind, by a not-infrequent transference of meaning from the purpose for which a thing is made to the thing itself. Cf. comfort, i. e. a warm bed-covering designed for comfort, and also such familiar words as a tidy, a cosy, etc. Many

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