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Page 9. 1 maringouins, the ill-sounding name of a certain kind of mosquito, used here with pointed allusion to the censor Marin, an enemy of Beaumarchais. Perhaps the context les moustiques, les cousins (gnats), etc., would justify the translation scrawling things. 2 en sautoir, see P. 4, Note 1.

3 blâmé, a transparent allusion to the events of the author's own life, for which see Introduction, § 1.

4 plaire is now usually followed by de before an infinitive.

5 Je me presse, etc.

Mr. Dobson, in his excellent edition of this play, quotes most appositely from Byron, Don Juan, Canto IV., Stanza 4:

And if I laugh at any mortal thing,

'Tis that I may not weep. ·

6 se sauver has almost entirely lost its original sense of; saving one's self by escape, and means simply: to be off.

Page 10. I drame. See Introduction § II. The older generation, in the year of the Barbier, would naturally feel a conservative regret for the old tragédie and contempt for the new drame. To this reason for Bartholo's sneer, Beaumarchais in his foot-note adds a more personal one. Note the playfulness with which the author introduces into his comedy its own sub-title.

2 Euh! Euh! rather with the force of Anyhow than of Tut! Tut! 3 faire or rendre raison de is to give satisfaction (i. e. receive punishment) for injury, insult, etc.

4 After liberté, supply que je prends.

5 attraction, the laws of gravitation, discovered in 1664; tolérantisme, toleration of different religions in the State, a word coined in the eighteenth century; inoculation, introduced into France in 1755; quinquina, chinchona, or feverwood, brought from Peru to France in 1649; l'encyclopédie, the all-embracing philosophical dictionary undertaken by Diderot, d'Alembert and others, in 1751.

6 diable, much weaker in French than in English: drat it! — l'on tient, etc: When you hold a thing, hold it!

Page 11.

I en dedans, supply de l'appartement. 2 bonté, simplicity.

3 en butte à, literally as a butt, or target, to; because targets are frequently set up against a mound of earth, une butte.

Page 12. 1 ingénu and ingénuité, respectively unsophisticated and candor. Ingenious and ingenuity are ingénieux and the modern barbarism ingéniosité.

Page 13. I donner le change is properly to lay a false track in order to put the pursuers off the scent. Prendre le change is: to be deceived by this ruse and to go off on the wrong track. In Le Mariage de Figaro, by the same author, the Count, seeing through an intentional misunderstanding on Figaro's part, says to him: Insidieux valet, n'essaie pas de me donner le change en feignant de le prendre!

2 pupille, the ward of a guardian, may be masc. or fem. according to sex. Note that the pupil of a teacher is un élève, the pupil or apple of the eye, la pupille, and less scientifically la prunelle.

3 J'étais résolu de. Nowadays a difference is observed between the two constructions j'ai résolu de ... and je suis résolu à........., the latter, like the reflexive use of résoudre, at all times implying reluctance.

4 C'est un ... fois. Excellent practice in translation is afforded by the attempt to do this paragraph into equally graphic, rapid and alliterative English.

5 A, here against.

6 Aurais-tu. Note the conditional of polite or doubtful interrogation. Translate: You do not happen to have access ...?

Page 14. 1 Before si, supply Vous demandez. This cannot be si=yes, since there is no negative in the question.

2 piston, the syringe, of which such abuse was formerly made both in medicine and in French comedy.

3 vous, ethical dative, as frequent in French as in English, where however the first person is mostly so used. E. g., Shylock (Merchant of Venice, I., 3) says: Jacob... pilled me certain wands; Petrucchio, (Taming of the Shrew, I., 2) Knock me at this gate, and rap me well,

etc.

4 propos, speech or statement. Menus-propos=gossip, chit-chat. Cf. à propos, by the way, literally: relevantly to this subject.

=

Page 15. 1 Royal Infant in Spain heir apparent in England. 2 entre deux vins, i. e., neither wholly free from, nor wholly under, the influence of liquor.

3 lestement, cavalierly. — Note the anacoluthon mener, as though the sentence began with il faudrait.

4 vos jambes, etc., a little more wine in the legs.

Page 16.

I Note Quel, and not qui.

2 se mêler de implies meddling; se mêler à

to mingle with.

3 v'là, familiar and slipshod for voilà, denoting Figaro's excite

ment.

Page 18.

I en refers to plaisirs in the preceding line. Properly du plaisir is required here instead of the plural.

2 celui-ci, i. e. couplet understood.

3 esprit, of course not spirit, but what a former generation would have called pretty wit. Translate: How clever!

Page 19. I C'en est fait and, more correctly, c'est fait are often followed by de and a substantive: It is all over with ... Lat. actum est de...

2 vous.

Note the sudden and very effective plural address for dignity. The Count, however, cannot sustain it long: his need of Figaro's services is too great.

3 crainte, often used with the preceding de omitted. Not so, however, with de peur, which never omits de.

4 mon art, i. e. that of the barber and medical assistant in one. See above, P.14, ll. 7-10.- fourvoyer, rarely used as here without a reflexive pronoun.

Page 20. I vitrage en plomb, lead casements. trois palettes en l'air. The pallet was a small measure used in bleeding. Figaro is describing the signs and inscriptions outside his shop. Cf. our pawnbrokers' three balls en l'air.

ACT II.

Page 21. Argus, a fabled prince of the royal house of Argos, had a hundred eyes, fifty of which were always open.

2 à point nommé, lit.: at the appointed, and consequently right time. We should put it the other way: just at the wrong time. 3 ne devine, without pas, because the construction only is nega tive, not the sense: he does guess her every intention.

4 toujours has three uses: 1. always; 2. still; 3. anyhow, never● theless.

5 bonhomme, always familiar and generally somewhat contemptuous: the fellow.

Page 22. 1 Espérance, here promise.

2 bien is here used as a predicate, parallel with plein and d'une figure, etc., above. Cf. such expressions as Ce jeune homme est très bien, etc. Translate: nice.

3 vous appartient, by kinship, as Figaro has stated above.

Page 23. mignonne, as a substantive, dear, darling. — furtif, prompt to come and go, like a thief (Lat. fur). Here the word suggests smallness and quick motion, hence tripping or dainty.

2 persuader is rarely used with the accusative of the thing advocated, although frequently with the acc. of the person persuaded. But je l'ai persuadé is never followed by a complement, and therefore means I have convinced him. I persuaded him to come would take the dative of the person : Je lui ai persuadé de venir.

3 quand on ... de la peur.

Who fears to suffer, suffers from fear.

Page 24. I nous is repeated by Figaro, because by the word Rosine betrays the fact that she is already identifying her own interests with those of Lindor.

2 Tudieu, a shortening for Par la vertu Dieu (where Dieu is the old form for the oblique case, dispensing with the preposition de, as in Hôtel-Dieu), is a rare and consequently strong exclamation. from aller.

3 This que requires ce n'est to be understood before it.

Allure,

4 After feu follet, supply pourrait se laisser éteindre de la sorte. Figaro replies to the idea and not to the words. Aye, if his were a mere flitting flame, some will-o'-the wisp.

5 nous. Figaro identifies himself with his client.

6 De is here the usual preposition attendant on the French infinitive, like the English to. Translate by the part. pres.

7 qui n'y ai que voir, lit.: who have not what to see in the matter, i. e., who have no interests to watch, who am totally unconcerned, in the matter. Cf. Je n'ai que faire de..=, I have no use for, I do not want...

Page 25. I Soyez tranquille, not to be confused with restez tranquille. Note that the // are sounded in this word, as always when there is no i after the /or in the Lat. word from which the French one is derived.

2 tambour, the round, drum-shaped frame on which embroidery is worked.

3 tour de main, also tournemain, lit. the time it takes to turn your wrist.

4 After il n'y a pas, etc., understand qui n'ait été écloppée. — Jusqu'à often down to.

5 The place d'armes, or military parade ground, would be large and open, and easy of access. The usual simile is now: on entre ici comme dans un moulin.

Page 26. I de is slightly irregular, since the second clause is parallel with the first, and m'exposer is governed, like craindre, by j'aime mieux, which takes no de. It is due to plutôt understood before que: plutôt que de m'exposer.

2 a plaisir, gratuitously, lit. for the mere pleasure of it.

3 que sais-je ? is rather or anything, than the more literal how can I tell? Similarly, le premier venu, a passer-by.

4 sceller, i. e., to fasten permanently to the wall, so that it [the screen] cannot be opened.

5 inquiétude, here=jalousie.

6 honnêtes, civil.

7 souffler, literally to blow, gets its familiar sense of to spirit away from the conjurer's practice of blowing on an object, or touching it with his wand, when causing it to vanish.

Page 27. I à principes, sneeringly for high-principled.

2 Juifs, merely an opprobrious epithet here.

3 L'Eveillé appears in a state that contrasts humorously with his name. Beaumarchais knew better than to undervalue simple comic effects on the stage.

Page 28. I douloir, from Lat. dolere, now obsolete, although still to be found in the speech of peasants, like many other expressions that have died out of the written language. Cf. the proverb: Ce qu'œil ne voit au cœur ne deult. — Similarly faut bien, purposely slipshod for il faut bien.

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