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In prose it would be simply either eh! pourquoi donc ? or eh! pourquoi cela? the former to express surprise, the other to denote displeasure.

à coup sûr, most assuredly. We have already noticed coup, as remarkable for its many shades of meaning, page 54, No. IV., and page 120, VIII. It forms many adverbial expressions besides this, as coup sur coup, repeatedly, without interruption; à tous coups, on every occasion, every moment ; pour le coup, à ce coup, this time; encore un coup, again, once more; après coup, a day after the fair, when it is too late tout d'un coup, all at once; tout à coup, suddenly.

je n'ai point à me plaindre, I have no reason to complain. The a. v. 5, plaindre, to pity, signifies to complain, when refl. Remember this short sentence as a guide: Je vous plains, mais je ne me plains pas de vous, I pity you, but I do not complain of you. But when se plaindre is not followed. by de, it signifies to do without, to deprive one's self of. It est si avare qu'il se plaint les choses les plus nécessaires, he is. so great a miser, that he denies himself the most necessary things.

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en ces lieux, in these places, is a poëtical expression for "here." Remember that les lieux denotes a water-closetbut sur les lieux, on the spot; avoir lieu, to take place, to happen; tenir lieu, to take place, to serve instead of. Si la grande fête que le roi se propose de donner a lieu, ce beau fichu de soie me tiendra lieu de schall. If the great ball which the King intends to give takes place, this beautiful silk handkerchief will serve me as a shawl.

il n'en est point ainsi, it is not thus, this is not the fact. Ainsi, adv. and conj. thus, therefore; ainsi que, as well as. There is in French no pronoun neuter to correspond exactly with the English it; hence arises a great difference between il est ainsi, and il en est ainsi. The former means, he (alluding to some male spoken of before) is thus, it is his way; the latter means, as here, it is thus, the fact is such. The en is a reference to the circumstance mentioned.

Sans retard is an adverbial expression, without delay, immediately. Retard, s. m. delay; (the d is not heard:) être en

retard, to be behind hand, to be in arrears; it denotes also the act of going too slow, speaking of a clock or watch; elle se plaint toujours du retard de sa pendule, she is always complaining that her clock is going too slow.

guères or guère, adv. is always construed with ne before it, as here, and means, "but little, very little, scarcely any;" il n'y a guère que lui qui puisse le faire, there is hardly any man but he who can do it. The pronunciation is the same with la guerre, the war. Il n'y a guère de guerres plus meurtrières que les guerres de religion. A miser said to his friends:

"O mes amis ne mangez guère,

O mes amis, ne mangez pas,

S'il est bon de faire un repas

Il seroit mieux de n'en point faire."

j'ai beau travailler de mon mieux, literally, "I have handsome to labour of my best," means, it is in vain that I do my best; and a few lines farther, vous auriez beau vous plaindre, it would be in vain for you to complain; avoir beau, to do the thing expressed afterwards for no purpose, to do it in vain ; il a beau faire, it is in vain that he acts, that he exerts himself, he will not accomplish his purpose; on a eu beau lui imposer silence, it was in vain that he was ordered to be silent; vous avez beau crier, elle ne vous entend pas; it is in vain that you bawl out to her, she does not hear you; j'ai beau lui parler, il ne m'écoute pas, it is in vain I talk to him, he does not listen to me. See page 5, No. I. De mon mieux. Observe that the French use the genitive. Je ferai de mon mieux, I shall do my best; j'ai fait du mieux que j'ai pu, I have done my best; il fait de son mieux, he does all he can.

quelqu'un s'est-il trompé, if any one has made a mistake. The French are at liberty to omit the conjunction si, if, in the same way as the English do with to have and to be: " had he known it," "were she at home," l'eut-il sú, fût-il à la maison; but always hypothetically, and particularly with the verb devoir; dussiez vous me gronder, though you should scold me.

un bon sujet, a good fellow. Sujet, page 36, No. III. answers the English fellow, when joined to an adj. expressing either a good or a bad quality; un mauvais sujet, a baḍ fellow.

quand vous aviez du bien, when you had wealth. Avoir du bien, to be possessed of wealth; acquérir du bien, to acquire wealth; être sans bien, to have no fortune: sentir son bien, to look proud of one's wealth; faire du bien, to do good, to be beneficent; faire bien, to act rightly; dire du bien, to speak well of; dire bien, to speak correctly, properly. See page 22, No. II., and page 36, No. III. Bien is one of those French words whose shades of meaning depend on the verb with which they are construed. See pages 51, 52, No. IV.

un butor, s. m. a clownish stupid fellow. It was anciently spelt butord, and the f. butorde, though obsolete, is still heard occasionally. All words in or are m. without exception. Un drôle, s. m. a fellow, is always used in a bad sense, for a rascal, a scoundrel, a cunning man who is not to be trusted, unless it be joined to an adj. expressive of a good quality, or to the word corps; c'est un drôle de corps, he is a comical fellow. If used as an apostrophe to an individual, it means an insolent contemptible fellow: vous êtes un drôle. The adj. drôle, always means droll, comical, singular, queer, odd; voilà qui est drôle ! J'aime cet acteur, il est fort drôle. The words in ole require your particular attention; there are 16 masc. and 56 f. among which there are some diminutives, as la gloriole, little empty vanity.

un coquin, s. m. a rogue, a scoundrel. This word occurs three or four times in some old verses by Patris, which were lately inserted in a morning paper, by way of extolling a new French Grammar for its quotations, though these very verses have been known in England better than a century ago, and have often been translated into English. But Comtois justly replies to his master, saying:—

"Dans les Journaux encore on le vante aujourd'hui."

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We subjoin the original and the best version we remember :-

"Je songeois cette nuit que, de maux consumé,
Côte à côte d'un pauvre on m'avoit inhumé,
Et que n'en pouvant point souffrir le voisinage,
En mort de qualité je lui tins ce langage:

Retire toi, coquin, va pourrir loin d'ici ;

H ne t'appartient pas de m'approcher ainsi.
Coquin, ce me dit-il d'une arrogance extrême,
Va chercher tes coquins ailleurs, coquin toi même.
Ici tous sont égaux, je ne te dois plus rien ;
Je suis sur mon fumier comme toi sur le tien."

The English verses run thus

"I dreamt that buried with my fellow clay,
Close by a common beggar's side I lay,
And as so mean an object shock'd my pride,
Thus like a corpse of consequence I cry'd :
Scoundrel! begone, and henceforth touch me not,
More manners learn, and at a distance rot.
Scoundrel! then with a haughtier tone, cried he,
Proud lump of earth! I scorn thy words and thee;
thy case is mine,

Here all are equal, now

This is my rotting place, and that is thine.

Voilà le plus clair de mes gages, this is the clearest of my wages; an idiomatic expression for that part of my wages which never fails me, on which I can best rely, The French call argent clair, money which you may receive whenever you like, which is always at your command. It is in this sense that the adj. clair, is employed here. Commonly it means clear, light, bright, luminous, thin, perspicuous, evident, indisputable, plain. But faire de l'eau claire, to labour in vain.

un souffre-douleur, s. m. a drudge, one who is obliged to bear all the ill will of a family, to do all the drudgery of a house.

vos gendres vous ont soutiré vos richesses, your sons-in-law have got your wealth to themselves by unfair means, they have abstracted, kidnapped it as it were. Soutirer, r. a. 1. properly signifies to draw off; here it is to draw off by underhand dealings; ils ont soutiré, they have drawn off. The French use the preterperfect indefinite, or compound of the present, 1. whenever it is used in English; 2. whenever an event has taken place, or an action has been performed, in a time of which there is still some portion remaining, as this day, this week, this month, this year, this century; and, 3. to denote, in general, that something has been done and is com

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pletely over, without mentioning or having reference to any particular time. Hence it is safest for beginners to employ the preterperfect indefinite, whenever they have any doubt respecting the proper tense. Thus you may say indifferently vit-on jamais? or a-t-on jamais vû? In the first case the ever," relates to a time perfectly past, was there ever seen in former times? In the second case, has one ever seen, the "ever" relates to time past and present, even now. Both expressions are employed in an epigram against three notorious members of the French Convention during the reign of terror, Chabot, Bazire, and Merlin.

"Vit-on jamais rien de plus sot
Que Merlin, Bazire, et Chabot?
A-t-on jamais rien vu de pire
Que Merlin, Chabot, et Bazire ?
Y a-t-il rien de plus coquin

Que Chabot, Bazire, et Merlin:"

The following Ballad was written by G. A. Bürger, the most popular of German poëts, who died at Göttingen in 1794, in his 46th year. His Leonora, which has often been translated into English, would alone insure him immortality. Percy's Relicks was his favourite book.

SCHOEN SUSCHEN.

SCHOEN Suschen kannt'ich lange Zeit,
Schön Suschen war wohl fein ;

Voll Tugend war's und Sittsamkeit;

Das sah'ich klärlich ein.

Ich kam und ging, ich ging und kam,

Wie Ebb' und Fluth zur See.

Ganz wohl mir that es, wann ich kam
Doch, wann ich ging, nicht weh.

Und es geschah, dasz nach der Zeit

Gar andres ich vernahm ;

Da that's mir wann ich schied, so leid,

So wohl mir wann ich kam :

Da hatt'ich keinen Zeitvertreib

Und kein Geschäft, als sie;

Da fühlt ich ganz an Seel und Leib,

Und fühlte nichts, als sie.

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