23. =Bajazet=: a tragedy (1672) by Jean Racine. The scene is in Constantinople. =4=, 5. =ne m’en veut pas de ma franchise=: ‘will pardon my frankness.’ 7. =système des mouches=: ‘custom of wearing bits of taffetas on the face.’ 19. =est d’autant plus piquante=: ‘will excite the greater interest.’ =5=, 10. =Des scrupules... à vous!= ‘_You_ have scruples!’ 16. =Sobieski=: Jean Sobieski, king of Poland; born in Galicia in 1629, died at Warsaw in 1696. He performed important service for Europe by repelling invasions of the Turks. 17. =notre reine.= The queen of France at this time was Marie Leczinska, daughter of Stanislas I Leczinski (1677-1766), king of Poland. 19. =rivale=: i.e. for the love of her husband. =6=, 11. =la Grange-Batelière=: a street in the northern part of Paris, just north of the Boulevard Montmartre. The name was originally “Grange Bataillière,” and is supposed to have designated the site of a _champ de Mars_ or military drill field of the ninth century. In the eighteenth century the rue de la Grange-Batelière was one of the most fashionable in Paris. 19. =le dernier règne=: the Regency. 24. =Régent=: Philippe II, duc d’Orléans. He was regent of France from the death of Louis XIV, in 1715, till the majority of Louis XV, in 1723. The Regency was a period of financial difficulties and immorality. 27. =Il souffle et il cuit=: ‘He blows (with a blowpipe) and melts.’ =7=, 2. =Voltaire= (1694-1778), one of the greatest French authors of the eighteenth century. 3. =le bourgeois gentilhomme.= An allusion to the famous comedy of this name by Molière (1622-1673). 4. =maître de philosophie.= M. Jourdain, the “bourgeois gentilhomme” of Molière, engaged a “master of philosophy” and various other tutors to train him for the aristocratic society which he desired to cultivate. 7. =il n’avait garde d’oublier=: ‘he was careful not to forget.’ 12. me tient au fait de tout: ‘keeps me informed about everything’. 19. =Ce que j’y gagne?= In repeating a question just asked by another person, the French put it in the indirect form. 20. =la petite fille de Sobieski.= See note to page 5, line 16. 26. =une infidélité d’une haute portée et d’un grand rapport=: ‘an infidelity of high import and great advantages.’ =8=, 4. =rien autre chose=: ‘nothing else.’ 6. =Si=: ‘Yes.’ _Si_ is used instead of _oui_ as an affirmation in contradiction to a preceding negation. 11. =vous ne vous en doutez pas=: ‘you do not suspect it.’ 22. =je suis de toutes ses parties=: ‘I join in all his pleasure parties.’ 23. =l’Opéra.= The grand opera house was from 1683 to 1787 at the Palais Royal, later at the Porte St. Martin, and from 1821 to 1874 in the rue Le Peletier. The present splendid edifice, at the Place de l’Opéra, was begun in 1861 and completed in 1874.