A Selection from the Comedies of MarivauxMarivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de
General
A Selection from the Comedies of Marivaux
Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de
Comedy plays
[62] AUX TUILERIES. The Cours-la-Reine, in the Champs-Elysees, the
Tuileries gardens, and the Palais-Royal, with its covered galleries and
its garden, were the fashionable resorts of promenaders in the eighteenth
century.
[63] CE QU'IL. The _ce_ is superfluous.
[64] PERCER = _S'apercevoir_.
[65] JE ME REMETS = _J'y suis_.
[66] OUI-DA. See _Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_, note 21.
[67] COMME PASSANT, for _comme en passant_. Compare _les Fausses
Confidences_, note 26.
[68] C'EST AUTANT DE PRIS. See _le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_, note 54.
[69] QU'EST-IL = _Pourquoi est-il_?
[70] PARDI. See _le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_, note 15.
[71] IL LES FAIT COMME IL LES A. Untranslatable, save by an equivalent. It
is a pun on Dubois' remark: "making eyes at her."
[72] PRENEZ TOUJOURS, 'Take note of them nevertheless."
[73] LE. The text of 1758 prints _le_; _ce_ would carry out the sense even
better. See _le Legs_, note 38.
[74] APPAREMMENT, 'Evidently.' This adverb may be used with or without the
conjunction _que_ to introduce a verb.
[75] D'OU VIENT. See _le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_, note 220.
[76] UNE GUENON, 'a fool.'
[77] QUI SE FASSE = _Qu'il y ait_.
[78] LES PETITES-MAISONS. The old Maladrerie de Saint-Germain, which in
1554 became the Hopital Saint-Germain, later known as les Petites-Maisons,
on account of the great number of cells into which it was divided. It was
used to house infirm old men and women, who received a small weekly dole,
lunatics, and patients suffering from loathsome diseases. The name became
synonymous with either a mad-house or a hospital for certain diseases: it
was changed in 1801 to les Petits-Menages, the insane having then been
transferred, the men to Bicetre, the women to La Salpetriere.
[79] BIEN VENANTS, 'Paid regularly.' Marivaux, like the authors of the
preceding century, considered _bien venants_ as an adjective, and hence
declinable: but _livre_ is feminine, and we should expect here the form
_bien venantes_. The Academy has declared the expression indeclinable.
Compare: "Je le voyais avec vingt-huit mille livres de rente bien
venantes" (Mme. de Sevigne, Dec. 28, 1689).
[80] APPAREMMENT. See _les Fausses Confidences_, note 74.
[81] PARDI. See _le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_, note 15.
[82] VOUS N'AVEZ POINT DE GRE A ME SAVOIR. A well-known idiom, better
expressed to-day: _Vous n'avez point a me savoir gre_.
[83] D'AVEC. A shortened form for some such phrase as _d'une conversation
avec. D'avec_ is generally to be translated 'from,' 'in contradiction to.'
[84] A QUEL HOMME EN VEUT-IL? 'For what man is he looking?' Compare _le
Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_, note 68.
[85] A VOUS. _Aupres de vous_ would be the modern expression.
[86] LE FAISANT SORTIR. Note the peculiar use of _le_, which nowadays
would be replaced by the noun to which it refers--_le garcon_.
[87] DONT. Better _que_. See _Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_, note 175.
[88] DESSUS. For _la-dessus_.
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