Bataille de dames

salon d'été, summer parlor, which of course implies a mansion of some elegance.

plan. French playwrights divide the stage into three or four lateral divisions called plans, and corresponding to similarly designated side-scenes, or pans coupés, between which are passages called coulisses; but those speaking from the coulisses, or addressing persons supposed to be in or behind them, are said to speak à la cantonade. The rear of the stage is called fond, and to this actors are said to remonter while they descendre toward the premier plan, nearest the footlights. These are all the stage terms used in this play that present any difficulty.

madame. French and German usage requires that a title of courtesy be prefixed to designations of adult relatives of the person addressed, as, e.g., madame votre mère, monsieur votre frère, mademoiselle votre soeur; but Charles, as valet, should have said, madame la comtesse alone. The reader should note that from the first his speeches show a refinement which to Léonie seems a surprising presumption. The disguised noble is too courteous to act a menial part successfully.

The letter begins with allusion to the troubles at Lyons, in the environs of which the action is placed. This is the chief city on the Rhône, and was in 1817 the centre of a region seething with political intrigue against the recently restored Bourbon monarchy. That summer a rising had been sternly suppressed, and twenty-eight persons executed by General Canuel, who was recalled in the autumn (cp. p.14 and p.12); but there is no accuracy in details. The last lines of the letter allude to the dissatisfaction of the royalists, who had passed their youth in exile, with the studious moderation and cautious prudence of the new king, who gradually fell under the influence of clerical reactionaries, while many nobles would have preferred a return to the gallant fêtes of the ancien régime.

Ah bien oui! Indeed I would, but nowadays one has no time, etc.

née Kermadio, born a Kermadio, and so, as this name implies to a French ear, a Breton noble, and therefore almost certainly an extreme royalist, and so least likely to be suspected of sheltering a Bonapartist conspirator.

timbrée, post-marked.—pleine Vendée, in the heart of Vendée, in Poitou, noted for the fierce civil war between the French Republic and the local royalists (March-December, 1793), and the scene of frequent royalist outbreaks for many years after.

maître des requêtes, referendary, a minor officer of the Council of State.

avec humeur, out of temper, irritated.

Talleyrand (1754-1838), a politician whose skill in unprincipled intrigue made him a power under every form of government, from the States-General that inaugurated the First Revolution until his death. Many epigrams like this testify to his cynicism, which anticipated remarkably the modern blague, as we find it, for instance, in "Le Gendre de monsieur Poirier."

See preceding note and, for historical details, any biographical dictionary.

The use of the imperfect subjunctive is far more restricted in French conversation than our school grammars would imply. Persons of little education hardly use it at all, and persons of refined culture avoid its ill-sounding forms; while even such classical authors as Voltaire sometimes substitute the present for it. Cp. my note to "Le Gendre de monsieur Poirier," p.29, note 2.

se donner de l'importance, put on airs. She affects to attribute Charles's manner to the democratic tendencies of the age.

tout à l'heure, by and by, but also "just now."

courrier, mail, here.

coup de tête, piece of rashness.

Mon dieu. Wherever Dieu carries any suggestion of deity, it will be printed with a capital. Where, as here, it corresponds to "Dear me," "Oh dear," and the like, I have thought it more reverent to print with d.

de qui tenir, a parent from whom to inherit it.

See p. 2, note 7.

manqué chavirer (capsize), for the more usual manqué de chavirer.

fête, not "birthday" as with us, but baptismal day, or day of her patron saint.

vous ira, will become you.

vous, on you. A colloquial use.

à vous toute seule, i.e., without the rejuvenating effect of my company. For the feminine ending of the adverb toute see any grammar.

I have no skill in that. Ingenuously.

One really cannot be more considerate, pas is emphatic.

petite marquise! you little aristocrat!

s'il est gai, isn't he light-hearted? or, how light-hearted he is!

Cimarosa (1740-1801), Italian composer, noted for the graceful charm of his vocal music, especially in light opera.

bien né, of noble birth, of aristocratic breeding.

bien de sa personne, pleasing in his appearance.

bonne compagnie, good breeding, good society.

me mettent hors de moi, exasperate me.

nous déconsidère, is humiliating or derogatory to us.

Léonie, by thus endeavoring to shield Charles from blame, betrays the dawning of her love.

Du tout, Not at all.

Léonie naïvely mistakes her anger with herself for loving Charles for anger with Charles. This is a true and charming bit of feminine psychology.

méchant enfant, you naughty boy. Affectionately reproachful.

il. She uses the third person singular, as one might in affectionately reproving a child.

il s'agit de vos jours, your life is at stake.

Consulat and Empire, governments of France from 1799 to 1804, and from 1804 to 1814, and for some months in 1815.

n'en pensent mais, equivalent to n'en peuvent mais, can't help it, or, have nothing to do with it. This use of mais (Latin magis) is colloquial.

en verve, on his mettle.

crieurs des rues, newsmongers, men corresponding somewhat to our newsboys.

soeur. Cp. p.11.

A la bonne heure! Well done, here, but with very varied shades of meaning, that must be caught always from the context.

The campaign of 1812-1813 is meant. Its chief events were the burning of Moscow (October, 1812), Napoleon's very disastrous retreat thence, and the defeat of the French at Leipzig in October, 1813.

See p. 2, note 4.

voiture de place, public cab.

Lambert. Curiously enough, the three Lamberts known to the history of this time were all émigrés, and one of them a Russian general during the invasion of France. The name is therefore somewhat unfortunately chosen.

décoration, i.e., the Cross of the Legion of Honor, founded by Napoleon I., and since always regarded as the highest of such distinctions in France. The cross is not usually worn, but in its place a bit of red ribbon in the buttonhole.

n'y serais plus, i.e., should have been already shot.

bien, properly dressed, "all right." Cp. p. 9, note 31.

cravate, neck-band. Part of her riding-habit.

il le croit, he really thinks so, while in fact he would be frightened.

Ah! çà, Come now. Often the phrase indicates impatience or surprise. For instance, p.45.

Bucéphale, Bucephalus, famous horse of Alexander the Great.

par état, by my profession as maître des requêtes.

tiens de, take after, or inherit from.

pointe, like fougueux and enfourcher below, is in this sense (dawns, rises) rhetorical and poetic.