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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, § III) 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 persona, 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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houses in Spain have second-story balconies completely surrounded by substantial metal screens that can be either thrown open like gates, or slanted like Venetian blinds. These screens serve the two-fold purpose of protecting those behind them from the sun, and of preventing access to the balconies from outside. Against possible Romeos, the latter use would well serve the cause of jealousy.

3 Isabella of Castile having been born in 1451 and died in 1504, the reference to her has the force of: in the old days of romance and chivalry.

4 Séville. The Parisian's complacent contempt for la province appears in the Count's apology for the desertion of the capital, Madrid, for this provincial town.

5 convenance, often mistranslated convenience, really fitness. Un mariage de convenance is one that makes no pretence to be a lovematch, but in which the pecuniary or social position of the two families is such that their members may with "fitness" be united in marriage.

Page 4. I en bandoulière, lit. like a shoulder-strap, i. e., slung over one shoulder and under the opposite arm. Cf. en sautoir, P. 9, 1. 11, lit. like a neck-strap, used of anything carried round the neck, either like a long watch-chain, or like a knapsack, even though the straps of the latter, instead of going round the neck, are turned down over the shoulders and under both arms.

2 hein! hein! always has an implied interrogation, something like our "eh?" It should be variously translated. Here the force is :... pretty good, isn't it! P. 5, 117: What do you say to that! Cf. Vous viendrez, hein? You'll be there, won't you? The exclamation is purely colloquial.

3 se disputer, to fight for, is a noteworthy expression, the construction of which should be remembered. It takes the dat. of the cpponent, and the acc. of the prize. E. g., Je lui ai disputé la victoire.

4 Dit-on, is it good French to say..? On dit and... se dit, are the two forms by which this meaning is expressed in French. The last words attributed to the celebrated French grammarian Vaugelas (1585-1650) are Je m'en vais ou je m'en vas, car l'un et l'autre se dit ou se disent.

5 opéras comiques. Beaumarchais set but little store by the

light operas of his day, an opinion perhaps influenced by his own failure (see Introd. § 111). In a long preface to the printed edition of this play he states that notre musique dramatique ressemble trop encore à notre musique chansonnière pour en attendre un véritable intérêt ou de la gaieté franche. Y regarder de si près, idiomatic for to be so

very particular.

6 eût. Note the mood, and cf. apprenne, P. 12, l. 4.

7 en terre, always used with words of kneeling. Cf. à terre, to earth where motion to get to the ground is implied, and par terre, on the ground, without any idea of motion.

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Page 5. I J'y suis, lit, I am there. Note that y arriver, "to get there," is irreproachable French. lever la redoute, sans y arriver.

L'ennemi tenta trois fois d'enWith the force of to succeed in,

arriver à can be followed by a verb. E.g., A force de travail on arrive à bien faire.

2 cabale. This first reference to the reason which Figaro is pleased to assign for his failure as a dramatic author, is followed up, P. 8, 1. 16.

Page 6.

I Que voulez-vous, as an exclamation, has the force of: What can you do! The translation must vary with the context. Here: No wonder, my lord: I've seen such hard times!

2 bureaux [du gouvernement.]

3 garçon, assistant.

4 Ah! Ah! Ah well! and a guffaw.

5 laissé, lit. left undone, i. e. failed to.

6 Galiciens, etc.

These races supplied the strongest men. Το this day un Auvergnat is synonymous in French with a water-carrier, i. e., one who carries up and down stairs the heavy buckets of water that supply the portable baths used in many French flats. Similarly the word suisse is now the name for a pew-opener in French churches, because men of that nationality were at one time preferred for the office on account of their fine physique.

Page 7. I After C'est bien lui-même, supply qui m'a quitté.

moi.

2 desservir, here the opposite of servir, i. e., to malign.

3 grâce! for pity's sake!

4 bouquets.

Cf. such expressions as a garland of rhymes, a nosegay of verse. Chloris, an old-world name for the heroine of an idyl, suggests literary gallantry. Translate: occasional verses to the ladies.

5 imprimé tout vif, on the analogy of brûlé vif, écorché vif, etc., humorously expresses that something altogether out of the natural order had happened to him. Perhaps: that I was over head and ears in print would be a kindred metaphor.

6 sujet, here fellow.

7 fussent.

The imperfect tense of the subjunctive should be noted here, as corresponding to the conditional present in a principal clause. This is correct, although less frequent than the other uses of this tense of the subjunctive mood.

Page 8. I de reste, well enough. Cf. J'en ai de reste, I have plenty and to spare, literally: I have some over.

Hence de reste comes to mean with something over, i. e., figuratively, well enough. 2 voulus, exactly our I thought I would...

3 battoirs, properly the flat wooden mallets with which, in France, linen is beaten in the process of washing. As the instrument is not used among us, an equivalent must be resorted to, possibly butterpaddles.

4 sourds, in the sense of dull-sounding, is interesting, because of the transference of meaning from that is deaf to that strikes your ear as though you were deaf.

5 café. In France, even at the present day, much literary and political conversation is carried on at the cafés, or coffee-houses, as used also to be the case in England in the last century. In AngloSaxon countries the club has supplanted the coffee-house.

6 Before tout comme, etc., supply I may claim that ...

7 L'ennui [that you will inflict on them]. Translate: you will take your revenge by boring them to death.

8 Comme je leur en garde! What a rod I have in pickle for them, though! En is here unfavorable, as in en vouloir à quelqu'un, the antecedent understood being du mal. - Morbleu is very strong: upon my soul! unlike parbleu, which is merely to be sure!

9 On n'a que, etc. This now proverbial saying has reference to the limitation of delay, at the Palais de Justice, or Law-Courts, between a sentence and its execution.

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