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_Dedication_ _Gonzague-Privat_ (Louis de): painter, art critic and
novelist, born at Montpellier in 1843. Daudet wrote a preface for his
"Joie perdue" (1893).
_1_ 1 _Tarascon_: a very old city (population 9,000) on the east bank of
the Rhone, opposite Beaucaire (cf. note to _13_28), about fifty miles
northwest of Marseilles. To Daudet the choice of proper names was always
a matter for careful consideration. Tarascon was not the home of the
original Tartarin (see Introduction, p. xxvi), but, as Daudet explains in
"Trente Ans de Paris," p 142, "a pseudonym picked up on the road from
Paris to Marseilles because when rounded out by the southern accent it
vibrated sonorously and triumphed at the conductor's call of stations like
the war-cry of an Apache Indian." On the _Tarasque_ cf. note to _3_25.
_1_ 2 _il y a ... de cela:_ 'that was ... ago,' lit. 'there are ... from
that.'
_1_ 3 _je m'en souviens:_ 'I remember it.' _Se souvenir de quelque chose,_
hence _s'en souvenir (en_ replacing _de_ + a pronoun); cf. _changer de
chanson, en changer_ _7_ 5, _revenir de là-bas, en revenir_ _16_ 12.
_1_ 4 _habitait:_ 'was living in.' Be careful to give the imperfect its
progressive force wherever possible.
_1_ 5 _le chemin d'Avignon:_ 'the Avignon road.' Note that an English noun
used adjectively is usually replaced in French by _de_ + noun, the student
should be careful to translate _une robe de soie_ 'a silk dress' and not
'a dress of silk'; cf. _de petits soldats de plomb_ (_71_ 4) 'little lead
soldiers,' _l'eau de mer_ (_93_26) 'the sea water', _52_25, _79_23. For
_une voix de femme_ (_89_ 5) we cannot say 'a woman voice,' but must say
'the voice of a woman,' 'woman' not being a possible noun-adjective here;
still _voix de femme_ is a noun-phrase modified by _une;_ cf. _une cour de
caravansérail_ (_70_ 21) 'the court of a caravansary,' _un coin de
méchante route_ (_70_ 28) 'the corner of a wretched road'--_Avignon:_ city
on the Rhone, above Tarascon; famous as the residence of the Popes from
1309 to 1377.
_1_ 6: _devant_: adverb, 'in front'; cf. _derrière_ in this sentence,
_dessus_ _24_ 1, _46_ 12, _depuis_ _56_ 32, _autour_ _79_ 15.
_1_ 8: Savoyards: boys and men from Savoy, southeastern France, are seen
throughout the country exercising such trades as those of bootblacks,
chimney-sweeps, charcoal-venders; cf. note to _74_ 27.--Savoyards
... tête ... leurs boîtes: cf. note to _29_ 11.
_1_ 10: _Du dehors ... rien_: 'seen from the outside the house seemed
nothing at all,' 'was in no way remarkable'.
_1_ 12: _coquin de sort_: a characteristic Southern oath, lit. 'rascal of
(a) fate' translate 'heavens and earth!' cf. _monstre de sort_ _63_ 27,
_coquin de bon sort_ _68_ 21. For the construction cf. _coquin de lièvre_
_4_ 24, _diable d'homme_ _9_ 3. The genitive (_de_ + noun) in these
expressions replaces a noun in apposition/ Cf. Engl. "rascal of a man,"
Latin _scelus viri_; "the city New York," "the city of New York."
[Footnote _1_ 16: _du pays_. i.e. 'native' to that part of Europe; cf. _au
pays_ _64_ 27, _du cru_ _26_ 6.]
_1_ 17: _rien que_: 'nothing but'; i.e. _il n'y avait rien que_. Cf. _37_
10, and notes to _13_ 1,_4_ 23.--plantes exotiques: a few lines farther
on, our author explains that these exotic plants were, of course, not of
full natural size. The baobab in its native African home is only 40-70
feet in height, but its trunk is sometimes 30 feet in diameter. In _17_
20-21 we are given to understand that Tartarin's baobab, the most admired
of his botanical rarities, is perhaps after all nothing but a turnip, and
we are led to suspect that some of the others are not what they pretend to
be. If we are gifted with even a small portion of the imagination
possessed by Tartarin and his fellow-townsmen, we can understand how a
turnip may after a while come really to be a baobab; if we have not
sufficient imagination to admit this possibility, we shall not be able to
appreciate the story of the life and adventures of Tartarin de Tarascon.
_2_ 2: _à se croire ... Afrique_: '(enough) to (make one) believe himself
in the very heart of (cf. _5_ 7) Africa.' à = _assez pour_; cf. _c'est à
mourir de rire_, 'it's enough to make you die with laughter'; also _6_ 14,
_21_ 16.
_2_ 3: _bien entendu_: 'of course'; lit. 'well (heard) understood.'
_2_ 5: arbos gigantea: Latin, = _arbre géant_ 'giant tree.'--tenait à
l'aise dans: 'easily found room in.'
_2_ 6: pot de réséda: 'mignonette pot.' _Pot de fleurs_ = 'flower pot'
Logically we should expect, and in a dealer's catalogue we find, _pot à
fleurs_, cf. _une tasse à café_ 'a coffee cup,' _une tasse de café_ 'a cup
of coffee.' Daudet in speaking of this same mignonette pot uses _pot à
réséda_ in "Tartarin sur les Alpes," p. 358.--c'est égal: 'all the same'.
_2_ 7: _déjà_: lit. 'already'; 'anyhow,' 'nevertheless'.
_2_ 8: _s'en retournaient_: cf. _s'en aller_ _17_ 4, _s'en revenir_ _53_
11.
_2_ 10: _je dus éprouver_: 'I must have experienced.' _Devoir_ is
difficult to translate because the corresponding English auxiliaries
(_must_, _ought_) are defective. The following are the most usual
translations:
_je dois aller_ I must go, I ought to go, I should go, I have to go, I am
to go.
_je devais aller_ I had to go, I was to go (cf. _18_ 2) I should have
gone, I must have gone (cf. _16_ 26).
_je dus aller_ I had to go (cf. _67_ 7), I must have gone (cf. _40_ 4).
_je devrai aller_ I shall have to go
_je devrais aller_ I should go, I ought to go, I should have to go.
_j'ai dû aller_ I had to go, I have had to go, I must have gone
Cf. notes to _43_ 20, 29.
_2_ 11: _mirifique_: a mock-heroic synonym for _merveilleux_.--_bien
autre_: _bien_ in its common intensive use, 'quite.' _Bien_ frequently
adds to a passage a shade of meaning which can be rendered in English only
by a complete remodeling of the sentence, e.g. _je veux bien_ 'I have no
objection,' 'I consent.' When _autre_ is preceded by _bien_ or _tout_, it
usually carries the idea of superiority.
_2_ 14: _ouvrant de plain-pied sur le baobab_: 'opening on a level with
the baobab'; there was no step. _Plain_='flat.'
[Footnote _2_ 18: _carabines_: 'rifles.' _carabine_ is the French word for
"rifle", _fusil_ is the general term (gun) and is applied particularly to
the shotgun The English word "rifle" is sometimes used in French for a
rifle having a long barrel. With _carabine_ cf. English "carbine," a
short-barreled rifle. Translate here 'carbines, rifles.']
_2_ 19: _catalans_: Catalonia is in northeastern Spain.
--_couteaux-revolvers_: 'pistol dirks,' pistols with dirks set in their
butts, ordaggers with pistols in their hilts.--_couteaux-poignards_:
'dagger-knives' an ancient form of one-edged dagger, having a long and
heavy blade.--_krish_ (criss, kriss) malais: 'Malay creeses,' daggers with
sinuous edges, famous for deadliness.
_2_ 20: _flèches caraïbes_: 'Carib arrows.' The Caribs are the most
war-like tribe of northern South America, the home of the famous curare
poison and other arrow-poisons.--_casse-tête_: any kind of war-club that
can be wielded by one hand; transl. 'war-clubs' (cf. _59_ 29);
indeclinable.
_2_ 21: _est-ce que je sais!_ lit. 'do I know!' transl. 'and what not.'
_2_ 23: _glaives_: 'swords.' _Glaive_ (cf. Engl. "glaive"), from Latin
_gladius_, is a poetic word for _épée_.
_2_ 24 _vous donner la chair de poule:_ 'make your flesh creep' With the
French _chair de poule_ 'hen flesh' cf. Engl. "goose flesh".
_2_36 _yataganerie._ the _yatagan,_ 'yataghan,' is the saber of the Turks
and the Arabs, from this word Daudet coined _yataganerie_ on the analogy
of _épicerie, papeterie,_ etc, transl. 'paraphernalia of war'.
_2_28 _bonhomme_ a noun used adjectively, transl. 'kindly'.
_2_ 29 _n'y touchez pas_ _Toucher à quelque chose,_ hence _y toucher,_ 'to
touch it,' _y_,' replacing _à_ + a pronoun, cf. _à Shang Hai_ and _y_ _16_
10, and notes to _6_ 14, _7_ 6, _9_ 7, _24_ 7.
_3_3 _Cook:_ Captain James Cook (1728-1779), famous English scientific
explorer, killed by savages in Hawaii.--_Cooper_ James Fenimore Cooper
(1789-1851), the famous American writer of Indian and sea stories
Leatherstocking (_Bas de cuir_) is as well known in France as in
America--_Gustave Aimard_ (1818 1883) spent several years in America
and wrote many tales in the style of Cooper.
_3_ 4 _chasse à l'ours_ 'bear hunting,' but _chasse au faucon_ 'hunting
with the falcon,' 'hawking.'
_3_ 10 _tout en lisant_ 'while reading' _En_ with the present participle
is reinforced by _tout_.
_3_12 _brave:_ cf. _un brave homme_ 'a good, kindly man,' _un homme brave_
'a brave man'.
_3_ 13 _bonasse:_ _bon_ + the pejorative suffix _-asse,_ 'guileless'.
_3_ 19 _midi_ midday,' 'noon,' 'South', Latin _media dies._
_3_ 22 _Vous saurez:_ 'you must know'.
_3_ 25 _Tarasque:_ a monster which, according to the legend, devastated
the country about Tarascon until it was slain by Saint Martha, sister of
Lazarus, who, in company with the three Marys, had come to Provence after
the death of Christ At irregular intervals there is a festival in Tarascon
to celebrate the destruction of the Tarasque. Martha is the patron saint
of Tarascon See "Port-Tarascon," I, iv (pp 73 ff)--_faisait les cent
coups._ 'was playing the hundred tricks,' 'raged.'
_3_ 27 _Il y a beau jour_ '(that was) a long time ago'.
_4_ 1 _tous les dimanches matin:_ 'every Sunday morning ', cf. _tous les
jours_ 'every day' and _le matin_ 'in the morning'_--prend les armes:_
'takes arms' (not "takes its arms "), 'arms itself '.
_4_ 3 _tremblement:_ 'whole lot,' 'noisy throng,' colloquial.
_4_6 _Si ... que_ + subjunctive = 'however ', cf. _67_ 12-13, _78_ 18-19
--_bête:_ a pun on the word _bête,_ which means as a noun 'animal,' as an
adjective 'foolish'--_vous pensez bien:_ 'you can readily imagine', cf.
_7_ 10, _9_ 7, _12_ 3, _23_ 7, _56_ 17.
_4_ 8 _A cinq lieues_: 'within a radius of fîve leagues', cf. _48_ 26.
_4_ 9-10 _le moindre_: 'the least'--_le plus petit_: 'the smallest'.
_4_ 14 _Rhône_ 'Rhone,' the great river of southeastern France, in the
heart of Provence--_diablement_: 'deucedly' _Diable_ and _Dieu_ are used
very freely in French.
_4_ 16 _du poil et de la plume_ 'of fur and feathers'--_est très mal note_
'has a black mark against its name', _noter_= 'to note,' 'to mark,' 'to
make a note of'.
_4_ 19 _Camargue_ a vast marshy delta at the mouth of the Rhone See
Daudet's "En Camargue," in "Lettres de mon moulin".
_4_ 23 _il ne reste plus ... que_: 'there remains nothing now, but'
_Il_ is impersonal, cf. _5_ 23, _8_ 1, _58_ 28 _Ne plus_ = 'no longer,'
_ne que_ = 'only,' the same _ne_ serving for both _plus_ and _que_, cf.
line 30, _23_ 3, 27-28, _ne ... guère que_ _5_ 26, _1_ 17.
_4_ 24 _coquin de lièvre_: cf. note to _1_ 12--_échappe ... aux_: note the
use of _à_ with _échapper_, cf. _88_ 22, and _s'arracher à_ _10_ 14
--_septembrisades_ on September 25, 1792, mobs broke into the Paris
prisons and massacred many political prisoners, hence _septembrisade_
'massacre'.
_4_ 27 _le Rapide_: _le (train) rapide_ 'the express train'.
_4_ 30 _A l'heure qu'il est même_: 'even at the present time'.
_4_ 31 _enragés_ 'stubborn enthusiasts'.
_4_ 32 _deuil_: _faire son deuil d'une chose_ = 'to go into mourning about
a thing,' 'to give it up for lost'.
_5_ 1 _de sa nature_: 'by nature'--_qu'il mange_: _que_ for _bien que_ to
avoid repetition of _6_ 1, _24_ 16, _69_ 9--_hirondelles en salmis_
'stewed swallows' From time immemorial the swallow has been recogmzed as
the friend of man; the superstition that to kill one brings bad luck is
very old and almost umversal. Despite this belief and despite the game
laws, in southern France generally, especially in the Camargue, large
numbers of swallows are killed and eaten. Swallows and other small birds
are usually roasted, cut in small pièces, and stewed with wine (_salmis_).
_5_ 3 _me direz-vous_ 'you [reader] will say to me [author]'.
_5_ 7 _en pleine campagne_: 'into the open country', cf. _2_ 2, _41_ 13.
_5_ 11 _boeuf en daube_ 'stewed beef', properly, stewed with vegetables
and then baked slowly _Dauber_ = _braiser_--_saucissot_: italicized
because a dialectal form, = _saucisson_ 'sausage'.
_5_ 17 _du 5 etc_ 'number 5' etc, sizes of shot.
_5_ 19 _met dans_ 'hits'.
_5_ 20 _en triomphateur_: 'like a conqueror,' 'in triumph'; cf. _en bon
Méridional_ _8_ 13.
_5_ 23 _il se fait:_ 'there is carried on.' Impersonal _il_; cf. note to
_4_ 23. Note the reflexive used for the passive; cf. _cela se fait_ =
'that is done,' lit. 'that does itself,' _ce qui se consomme_ _6_ 13 =
'what is consumed,' _la forte s'ouvre_ _18_ 6 = 'the door opens itself,'
'is opened,' 'opens,' _cela se sait_ _6_ 18 = 'that is known,' _cela se
peut_ = 'that is possible'; cf. also _s'animer_ 'to animate oneself,' 'to
become (be) animated,' _se décourager_ 'to become (be) discouraged.'
_5_ 26 _ne guère que:_ 'scarcely any one besides '; cf. note to _4_ 23.
_5_27 _leur en achète:_ _acheter des casquettes aux chapeliers;_ hence
_leur en achète, leur_ replacing _à eux._
_5_ 29 _il partait:_ 'he used to set out.'
_5_ 32 _Aussi:_ _aussi_ at the beginning of a sentence or phrase is
usually to be rendered 'and so,' 'therefore.' With this _aussi_ (as with
some other adverbs) the word-order is verb--pronoun; hence
_reconnaissent-ils._ Cf. _24_ 12, _41_ 20; _à peine_ _7_ 33, _40_ 14; _en
vain_ _10_ 10; _toujours_ _25_ 9. Note the order with aussi comme...!
_18_ 17.
_6_ 1 _qu'il:_ _que_ replaces _comme;_ cf. note to _5_ 1.
_6_ 3 _birman:_ 'Burman.' Burma is in southeastern Asia.--_ces_: cf. note
to _16_ 13.
_6_ 6 _de trois à quatre:_ 'from three to four (o'clock).'
_6 10_ _qui rendait:_ 'dispensing,' see note to _55_ 7.--_Nemrod doublé de
Salomon:_ 'a Nimrod and a Solomon at the same time.' _Doubler_--'to
line'; _un manteau doublé de fourrure_ 'a fur-lined coat.' For Nimrod,
"a mighty hunter before the Lord," see Genesis x, 8-9; for Solomon as
unerring judge, I Kings iii, 28.
_6_ _chapter heading_ _Nan!_ dialectal form of _non!_ See _8_ 13-14.
_6_ 13 _Ce qui ... de romances:_ lit. 'what ... of ballads'; transl. 'the
number of ballads that ...' Note that _romance_ = 'ballad,' _roman_ =
'novel,' 'romance.' See Engl. dict. for etymology.
_6_ 14 _c'est à n'y pas croire:_ 'it passes belief,' lit. 'it is enough to
not believe it'; cf. note to _2_ 2. _Croire à, y croire,_ cf. note to _2_
29.
_6_ 18 _cela se sait:_ cf. note to _5_ 23.
_6_ 23 _receveur de l'enregistrement:_ 'recorder' (of deeds and various
transactions).
_6_ 24 _si j'étais-t-invisible:_ the non-etymological _t_ is inserted to
avoid hiatus, the _s_ of _étais_ being unpronounced: cf. _Malbrough s'en
va-t-en guerre._ This error is common in the speech of the uneducated
classes.--_n'me_: the _e_ of _ne_ is omitted as in conversational French.
_7_ 3 _on se réunit:_ see next note.--_on se les chante:_ 'they sing them
(the ballads) to one another.' Note _se_ = '(to) one another.' _Nous,
vous,_ _se_, are used as reflexive or reciprocal objects, direct or
indirect ('ourselves' or 'each other,' 'to ourselves' or 'to each other'
etc.), cf. _9_ 21, _16_ 29, _93_ 8. _Se_ is used as a reciprocal pronoun
several times in this paragraph.
_7_ 4 _depuis_ ... _chantent_ 'in all the time that they have been singing
them to one another.' _Chantent_ is present tense with _depuis_.
_7_ 5 _en changer_: cf. note to _1_ 3.
_7_ 6 _n'y touche_: cf. note to _2_ 29.
_7_ 18 _les lui faire chanter_: 'to make him sing them'; _faire chanter à
Tartarin, lui faire chanter_, = 'to make T. sing,' 'to make him sing.'
--_Revenu ... salon_: 'early (in life) surfeited with salon successes'
_Revenu_ = 'returned,' 'satiated,' 'tired of.'
_7_ 21 _cercle_: 'club.' The English word "club" is used in French in
reference to sporting and political clubs.
_7_ 22 _Nîmes_: Daudet's birthplace, an ancient city with remarkable
Roman remains, eighteen miles west of Tarascon.
_7_ 25 _après s'être bien fait prier_: 'after having been begged a long
time'; cf. _je me fais prier, je me suis fait prier_. An active infinitive
after _faire_ is to be translated passively: _faire bâtir une maison_ =
'to cause (some one) to build a house,' 'to have a house built'; cf. _31_
9, _64_ 27, _77_ 25, _81_ 7. _Se faire prier_ = 'to have oneself begged,'
_se faire comprendre (_40_ 26) = 'to make himself understood.' _Se faire
expliquer_ (_24_ 6-7) = 'to have explained to themselves,' _faire
expliquer une leçon_ = 'to have a lesson explained.' The same
constructions are used with _laisser_; cf. _29_ 25, _49_ 14-15, _60_ 13.
_7_ 26 _dire_: 'to say,' 'relate impressively,' 'sing', cf. _24_ 21
--_Robert_ le _Diable_: 'Robert the Devil,' a famous opera by Meyerbeer,
text by Scribe (1832). The story, widespread throughout Europe during the
Middle Ages and later, is concerned with the struggle of a pious mother to
rescue her son from the devil. She is successful Robert saves Rome from
the Saracens and ends his life as a hermit.
_7_ 28 _Pour moi_: 'as for me,' 'as far as I am concerned'--_quand je
vivrais cent ans_: 'even if I should live for a hundred years', note this
meaning of _quand_ with the conditional.
_7_ 29 _s'approchant du_: note _de_ used with _s'approcher, se
rapprocher_, _20_ 25.
_7_ 33 _A peine avait-il_: cf. note to _5_ 32.
_8_ 1 _il allait se passer_: 'there was going to happen'; cf. note to _4_
23.--_quelque chose de grand_: 'something great'; note the _de_ Cf.
_quelque chose d'informe_ _35_ 21, _quelque chose de noir_ _45_ 18.
_8_ 6 _bis_: Latin, 'twice,' indicating that a thing is to be repeated.
_8_ 9 _A vous, Tartarin:_ 'your turn, Tartarin!'
_8_ 13 _en bon Méridional:_ 'like a true Southerner'; cf. note to _5_ 20.
_8_ 18 _de plus belle:_ 'louder than ever'; supply a feminine noun
_(manière, façon_) after _belle;_ of _45_ 15.
_8_ 19 _la chose en restait là:_ 'the thing stopped there'; the so called
redundant _en;_ of _16_ 19-20, _17_ 16, _18_ 32, _28_ 26, _90 30 Cf. the
redundant _y_ (note to _9 7) _En_ and _y_ in these cases cannot easily be
translated, but the student should train himself to recognize their force.
_8_ 25 _clignait de l'oeil:_ cf. _battre des mains_ 'to clap one's hands.'
_8_ 26 _dire d'un ... air:_ 'to say with an ... air'--_Je viens de:_
_venir de faire quelque chose_ = 'to have just done somethmg.' In this
passage the expression has both the figurative and the literal meaning: 'I
come (have come) from the Bézuquets', where I have just sung.'
_9_ 3 _diable d'homme:_ cf. note to _1_ 12.
_9_ 4 _prendre:_ 'to captivate.'
_9_ 7 _lapin:_ lit. 'rabbit'; familiarly, as here, 'a game one.'--_s'y
connaissait en lapins:_ _se connaître à_ or _en_ = 'to be an expert in.'
_Y_ in this passage is redundant: it replaces _à_ + _eux_ (cf. note to
_2_29), which is repeated in _en lapins_, cf. _10_ 30, and the redundant
_en_ (note to _8_ 19).
_9_ 14 _cheval de trompette:_ 'trumpeter's horse,' 'war-horse.'
_Trompette_ = 'trumpet,' 'trumpeter.'
_9_ 16 _gros sous:_ 'ten-centime pieces,' 'two-cent pieces.'
A five-centime piece (one cent) is called _un petit sou._
_9_ 17 _lord Seymour:_ Henry Seymour (1805-1859), an eccentric,
extravagant English lord who spent most of his life in Paris. He was well
known to the Parisian populace.
_9_ 18 _Roi des halles tarasconnaises:_ 'King of the Tarascon
Market-Place.' François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort (1616-1669), fearless,
presumptuous, coarse, was the idol of the rabble, by whom he was surnamed
_Roi des Halles_ (the great market of Paris).
_9_ 20 _bien sanglé ... futaine:_ 'in his tight-fitting fustian
shooting-jacket. _Sangler_= 'to bind with a girth,' 'to strap'; cf. _un
officier sanglé_ 'an officer with a tight-fitting coat on.'
_9_ 21 _se montrant ... ils se disaient:_ cf. note to _7_ 2.
_10_ 4 _pampas:_ 'pampas,' vast plains in Argentina, extending from the
Atlantic to the Andes.
_10_ 5 _faire ... casquette:_ _faire une battue_ = to beat (_battre_) the
woods or bushes for game. Transl. 'to go a-cap-hunting.'
_10_ 7 _A la longue, il y aurait eu_ (conditional anterior of _il y a_)
_de quoi:_ 'in the end there would have been wherewith,' 'if this
existence were continued long, it would have been enough.'
_10_ 10 _en vain s'entourait-il:_ cf. note to _5_ 32.
_10_ 13 _lectures romanesques:_ 'romantic readings.' The French for Engl.
'lecture' is _conférence, causerie. Romanesque_ = 'romantic.' The French
_romantique_ is used in speaking of the Romantic School literary history,
and of landscapes.--_don Quichotte:_ hero of the celebrated novel "Don
Quixote," by Cervantes (1547-1616, cf. note to _39_ 24). Don Quixote, a
Spanish gentleman, has his head turned as a result of excessive reading of
romances, and, attended by his fat, vulgar squire, Sancho Panza, scours
Spain, righting wrongs and rescuing fair damsels, in the fashion of the
knights of old. Don Quixote was ever tireless and fearless, while Sancho
Panza disliked hard knocks and preferred a slothful life of ease and
plenty to the glorious career of privations which was the lot of the
knight errant. Tartarin de Tarascon combined the qualities of Don Quixote
and Sancho Panza; hence a terrible internal conflict of which we shall
read in chapter vi. This disconcerting complexity of character, which is
not confined to a Southerner if we may believe the epigraph of this work
(_En France tout le monde est un peu de Tarascon_), is again elucidated in
"La Défense de Tarascon" (in "Contes du lundi") and in "Tartarin sur les
Alpes," ch. ii, p 35, where the adventurous spirit of warren rabbits
(_lapins de garenne_) clashes with the domesticity of cabbage-garden
rabbits (_lapins de choux_).
_10_ 14 _s'arracher aux:_ cf. note to _4_ 24.
_10_ 22 _par les lourdes après-midi d'été:_ 'during the sultry summer
afternoons.' Note the use of _par_ in statements relating to the weather;
cf. _32_ 1, _63_ 17.--_à lire:_ 'engaged in reading'; cf. _à mener_ _68_
32, and _73_ 30.
_10_ 24 _que de fois:_ 'how many times.'
_10_ 27 _foulard de tête:_ 'kerchief round his head.'
_10_ 30 _Qu'ils y viennent maintenant!_ 'now just let'em come!' _Y_ is
redundant; cf. note to _9_ 7.
_11_ 6 _Touareg:_ cf. note to _40_ 17.--_des Abruzzes:_ 'of the Abruzzi,'
a mountainous district of central Italy, noted for its brigands.
_11_ 9 _avait beau les appeler:_ 'called them in vain'; cf. _28_ 16, _46_
8. _Beau_ is ironical in this expression; cf. Engl. "a fine fellow," "a
pretty mess."
_11_ 10 _Pécaïré_ (Latin _peccator = pécheur_ 'sinner'): sometimes
Gallicized by Daudet under the form _péchère_. A very common Provençal
exclamation, usually denoting pity or resignation. Transl. 'alas,' 'dear
me.'
_11_ 12 _les attendait toujours:_ 'continued to wait for them'; note this
force of _toujours_; cf. _26_ 11, _71_ 20.
_11_ 14 _chevalier du Temple:_ 'Knight Templar.' The order of the knights
of the Temple (i.e. the temple of Solomon) was organized in 1118 for the
purpose of protecting pilgrims on the way to the Holy Land.
_11_ 15 _tigre chinois_ the Chinese soldiers used to be called _tigres de
guerre_ (Littre, Suppl).
_11_ 17 _de pied en cap_ (Lat _caput_) 'from head to foot', of Engl.
'armed cap a pic' _Cap_ = 'head' is obsolete except in this expression
and in a few technical terms.
_11_ 20 _Branle-bas de combat!_ 'clear decks for action!' _Le branle_ is
the word formerly used for the seaman's hammock (now usually _le hamac_),
_branle bas_ = 'down with the hammocks,' get them out of the way.
_11_ 24 _entre drap et flanelle:_ transl. 'under his coat'--_Par exemple_
lit 'for example', a common exclamation of which the translation varies
with the context, here, 'I assure you!'
_11_ 27 _se fendait, tirait:_ 'lunged,' 'thrust,' fencing expressions.
_11_ 29 _à l'anglaise_ (supply _mode_ 'manner'): 'in the English manner,'
i.e. calmly, cf. _à la mode indienne_ _12_ 33.
_12_ 3 _vous pensez:_ cf. note to _4_ 6.
_12_ 6 _fermait la porte à double tour:_ 'double locked the gate', lit.
'with a double turn of the key' In the old lock a single turn of the key
drove the bolt into the socket, a second turn drove it farther.
_12_ 15 _chaussée:_ 'highway,' the middle of a road or street, usually
paved and arched, cf. _88_ 27.
_12_ 21 _cours:_ 'public promenade' "There is all round Tarascon a
promenade (_cours_) lined with trees, which is called in the local
dictionary _le Tour de ville_ Every Sunday afternoon the Tarasconians,
slaves to habit despite their imagination, make their circuit of the town
(_font leur tour de ville_)" "Tartarin sur les Alpes," ch. 11, p 42, cf.
_23_ 10-11.
_12_ 22 _par le plus long:_ supply _chemin_.
_12_ 25 _coupe-gorge_ (plural and singular alike) 'haunts of cutthroats'
_Coupe jarret_ = 'cut throat' (_jarret_ = 'ham string')--_lui tomber sur
le dos_ 'fall upon his back', cf._18_ 33, _20_ 13, _28_ 8, _31_ 6, _65_ 11.
_12_ 27 _jamais, au grand jamais:_ 'never, NEVER'.
_12_ 28 _eut la chance:_ 'had the good luck' Engl. 'chance' = French
Occasion.
_12_ 31 _planté sur place:_ 'rooted to the spot', of _en resta planté_
_44_ 11.
_12_ 32 _prenant le vent:_ 'sniffing the air,' used of hunting dogs, as a
nautical expression = 'sailing near the wind'.
_13_ 1 _Plus de doutes:_ 'no more doubt', cf.1 17 With _plus, pas, jamais,
rien_, and other words of this type _ne_ is omitted when the verb is
omitted, but cf._71_ 8, _88_ 3.
_13_ 3 se ramassait sur lui-même._ 'gathered himself,' 'crouched'_.
_13_ 7 _Té! vé!_ dialectal for tiens, vois, used as exclamations, 'Well,
well!'--_adieu:_ in Southern France occasionally (as here and _64_4) a
greeting ('hello'), though ordinarily, as in Northern France, a parting
salutation ('good-by'). The Southerner prefixes an exclamation which
Daudet writes sometimes _et_ as here and sometimes _hé_, ('hey') as in
_64_ 4.
_13_ 9 _la sienne_ 'his' (ballad), see _6_ 17.
_13_ 13 _de long en large:_ 'up and down'.
_13_ 18_: faire son bezigue:_ 'to play his game of bezique,' a game of
Cards.
_13_ 21_ diable au vert:_ 'far away corners of the globe' The castle of
Vauvert in the suburbs of Paris belonged to King Louis IX. Some
Carthusian monks who desired to gain possession of it pretended that it
was haunted by evil spirits, and it was abandoned to them, hence the
expression _diable Vauvert_ (_Vauvert_ is a genitive, 'the demon of
Vauvert'), which was later corrupted to _diable au vert _. The castle was
far from the center of the city, perhaps it is for this reason that _aller
au diable vauvert, au diable au vert_, means 'to go a long distance'. I
have not seen an article on this locution which appeared in the _Revue du
Midi_, 1911.--_comment diantre:_ 'how the deuce', diantre is a euphemism
for diable.
_13_22 _se trouvait-il_ 'did it happen' _Se trouver_ = 'to find
oneself, itself,' 'to happen,' 'to be'.
_13_26_ Marseille:_ 'Marseilles,' the greatest seaport in France and the
metropolis of the south, only sixty miles from Tarascon.
_13_27 _Provençal_ a native of Provence Provence = Latin _provincia,_
'_the_ province,' comprising that part of Gaul which was first conquered
and organized, later _Gallia Narbonensis_ Properly, Provence is today the
southeastern part of France, but the terms _Provence, Provençal,_ are
frequently used to designate all of southern France (south of the Loire),
the _Midi_--_se paie:_ 'treats himself to', cf. _je me paie un bon dîner_
'I treat myself to a good dinner'--_C'est au plus s'il_ 'at the most
he,' 'scarcely did he'.
_13_28 _Beaucaire:_ a city on the Rhone, opposite Tarascon, to which it is
joined by a long suspension bridge, cf. note to _18_ 11.
_13_ 30 _diable de pont:_ cf. note to _1_ 12.
_14_4 _C'est que:_ 'the fact is that'.
_14_ 5 _Je sens deux hommes en moi_: see Romans vii, Galatians v, 17. One
of the distinctive features of the religion of St Paul was its insistence
upon an internal conflict between the higher and lower impulses of man.
Daudet is probably thinking of the expression of this doctrine in one of
Racine's canticles (III) where the words _Je trouve deux hommes en moi_
appear.
_14_ 6 _Père d'Église_ 'Church Father' Paul was an Apostle, not a Church
Father. The Church Fathers were the early disseminators and expounders of
the Christian faith who continued the work of the apostles--_Il l'eût dit
vrai_ = _il l'aurait dit vrai. Vrai_ is used adverbially, 'truly'.
_14_ 10 _hidalgo_ Spanish, 'nobleman', Latin _filius de aliquo_ 'son of
somebody '--_prétexte de corps_ 'apology for a body'.
_14_ 11 _manquait de prise_ 'had no hold'.
_14_ 14 _brave homme de corps_ 'jolly old body'.
_14_ 16 _le corps ... pattes_ Tartarin's Quixotic mind dwelt in the 'fat
bellied,' 'short legged' body of a Sancho Panza.
_14_ 19 _mauvais ménage_ faire _faire mauvais ménage_ is said of a husband
and wife who do not get along well together.
_14_ 21 _Lucien_ 'Lucian,' the famous Greek satirist of the second century
A.D., author of brilliant "Dialogues of the Gods" and "Dialogues of the
Dead"--_Saint-Évremond_ (1613-1703) man of the world, Epicurean, skeptic,
an unsparing satirist.
_14_ 21 _rifles a deux coups_ = _fusils rayés à doubles canons_ _50_ 7,
'double barreled rifles'.
_15_ 2 _genouillères_ 'knee caps,' flannel or knitted coverings for the
knees, to prevent or ease rheumatism.
_15_ 3 _casquettes à oreillettes_ 'caps with ear laps'.
_15_ 6 _sonnant la bonne_ 'ringing for the maid' Note this use of _sonner_
_15_ 9 _moiré_ 'shimmering,' like watered silks cf. Engl. 'mohair,'
'moire'.
_15_ _chapter heading_ _Shang-Hai_ 'Shanghai,' a seaport in China--_haut
commerce_14_ 5, cf. _haute finance_ 'high finance' transl. Simply.
'commerce'--_Tartares (Tatares_) 'Tartars' ('Tatars'), a generic term for
certain Mongolian tribes The Manchu Tatars were till recently rulers of
China--_serait-il....?_ 'is it possible that he be....?' Note the use of
the conditional to express conjecture or possibility, the future is used
in similar constructions _il aura manque le train_ 'he has probably missed
the train'_ cf. auriez vous l'intention_ (_76_ 8) 'is it possible that you
intend?'
_15_ 13 _avait failli partir_ 'had failed to départ', i.e. 'almost
departed'
_15_ 21 _vous apparaissait d'une hauteur!_ 'was a wonderful thing indeed!'
_Vous_ is the common ethical dative, to be omitted in translation, cf. the
Shakespearean "Knock _me_ that door!" and "There's perfection _for you_!'
"--_D'une hauteur!_ suppression for emphasis far more frequent in French
than in English, cf._30_ 17, _49_ 25 Note the play on the words _haut,
Hauteur_ _14_ 5 _n'entendait_ ... oreille-là i.e. "didn't see it in that
light".
_16_ 7 _Parions que si, parions que non_ 'I'll bet (lit 'let us bet') he
will, I'll bet he won't' _Si_ is used for _oui_ in contradictions _Que_ is
not to be translated, cf._je crois que oui (non)_ 'I think so (not)'.
_16_ 10 _Avoir failli aller_ cf.15 13.
_16_ 11 _c'était tout comme_ colloquial, 'it was just the same'.
_16_ 12 _en revenait_ = _revenait de là bas_, 'was returning from there'.
_16_ 13 _tous ces messieurs_ 'everybody' English has no construction
corresponding to this use of _ce_ It is used deferentially, especially by
servants _Madame prie ces messieurs de l'attendre_ 'Mrs X will see you in
a moment, cf._6_ 3, _53_ 7.
_16_ 19 en arrivait à dire redundant _en_ (cf. note to _8_ 19), 'came to
the point of saying'.
_16_ 26 il devait bien savoir 'he must have known perfectly well'.
_16_ 29 s'entendre 'come to an understanding', lit 'hear each other',
'understand each other' cf. notes to _2_ 3, _7_ 2.
_16_ 32 _Toulouse_ an important city in southwestern France.
_17_ 1 _son mensonge à lui_ _à lui_ repeats the idea expressed by _son_,
thus emphasizing it, cf._20_ 13.
_17_ 4 allez-vous-en dans le Midi 'go (away) into the South' The force
of _s'en_ in _s'en aller_ is sometimes vague, and in colloquial speech
_s'en aller_ often is almost equivalent to the simple aller, e g _je m'en
vais vous dire_ 'I am going to tell you', cf._55_ 10, _63_ 22, _2_ 8, _53_
11.
_17_ 8 _butte Montmartre_ a hill (_butte_) in Paris.
_17_ 9 _Maison carrée_ ('Square House') de Nîmes one of the most beautiful
Roman remains in France It was a Roman temple and is very small a mere
nothing in comparison with Notre Dame--_bijou d'étagère_ 'cabinet gem' The
_étagère_ is used for displaying small articles of value, see "étagère"
and "whatnot" in Engl. Dict.
_17_ 10 _Notre-Dame_ the celebrated cathedral in Paris.
_17_ 14 _Tout au plus une sous-préfecture_ 'at the very most a
subprefecture' Arles (cf._29_ 11) with a population of 29,000, is an
example of a subprefecture Both Athens and Sparta were decidedly larger
than this, cf. note to _80_ 13 The French _départements_ (compare our
'States') are divided into arrondissements (compare our 'counties') A
prefect (_préfet_) presides over a _département_, and a subprefect (_sous
préfet_) over an _arrondissement_ _Sous préfecture_ is synonymous with
arrondissement, or, as here, is used for the city in which the subprefect
has his offices. An _arrondissement_ is divided into _cantons_ and a
_canton_ into _communes_.
_17_ 16 en cf. note to _8_ 19.
_17_ _chapter heading_ _Atlas:_ a mountain range in northwestern Africa.
_17_ 25 _séculaire:_ 'lasting for centuries'(Lat _sæculum_), 'everlasting'
not 'secular' See Engl. dict.
_18_ 2 _devait:_ 'was to', cf._26_ 9, _32_ 10, _39_ 26 See note to _2_ 10.
_18_ 4 _était en train de démontrer:_ 'was in the act of demonstrating';
Transl. simply 'was demonstrating'--_amateur_ 'admirer,' 'lover' The
distinction 'amateur,' 'professional,' is French as well as English, but
in French the word _amateur_ also means 'lover'--not, however, the lover
of a person Tartarin was demonstrating to some 'lovers (of arms)'.
_18_ 5 _fusil à aiguille:_ 'needle gun,' invented in 1836, and used in the
Prussian army in 1841 The cartridge in this gun is exploded by a slender
needle, or pin, which is driven into it.
_18_ 11 _foire de Beaucaire:_ cf._13_ 28 The Beaucaire fair (July 1-28),
instituted in the Middle Ages, is still famous but has in recent years
lost much of its importance.
_18_ 13 _place du château:_ the square in front of the castle.
_18_ 14 _un tas de:_ 'a large number of', lit 'a pile of'.
_18_ 16 _de mémoire d'homme:_ 'within the memory of man', Latin _hominum
Memoria._
_18_ 17 _s'était vue:_ 'had been seen', cf. note to _5_ 23--_comme:_
connect with _fièrement_ in translation.
_18_ 24 _entre ses mains:_ 'in his hands'.
_18_ 25 _à deux pas:_ 'only a step or two away', cf._à dix mille lieues de
Tarascon_ (_2_ 2) 'ten thousand leagues away from Tarascon,' _à combien de
pas _(_24_ 8) 'how many paces away'.
_18_ 27 _premier sujet:_ 'star,' in the company of players.
_18_ 31 _encore!_ 'too!'
_18_ 32 _n'en pouvait supporter:_ on _en_ cf. note to _8_ 19.
_18_ 33 _lui monta au visage:_ 'mounted to his face', cf._12_ 25, _45_ 8.
_19_ 1 _D'un geste:_ 'with a gesture', cf. note to _51_ 20.
_19_ 5 _Hé bé...:_ Provençal for _eh bien!_ 'Well, but....'
_19_ 8 _emboîtant le pas:_ a military expression, 'marching in lock step'_.
_19_ 14 _kabyle:_ cf. note to _40_ 17 The Kabyle woman's dress, which
reaches not quite to the ankles, is loose and held in at the waist, her
feet and arms are bare, she wears bracelets and anklets.
_19 19 _pensionnaires_: 'boarders,' here referring to the animals.
_19_ 20 _jeta un froid:_ 'threw cold water,' 'chilled the enthusiasm'.
_19_ 27 _se trouva:_ 'was', cf. note to _13_ 22.
_20_ 7 _perruque:_ 'wig,' here applied to the lion's mane (_crinière_, _1_
16).
_20_ 10 _soit que ... soit que:_ 'either because ('be it that') or
because'--_donne de l'humeur._ 'made ill-tempered' _Humeur_ usually
means 'ill humor' in French.
_20_ 13 _en leur bâillant an nez à tous:_ cf. note to _12_ 25 _A tous_ is
in apposition with _leur_, hence the dative case, cf._17_ 1-2. When _tous_
is a pronoun the _s_ is sounded, cf. below, _1_ 19.
_20_ 26 _Ça, oui, c'est une chasse:_ 'that, now, that's a hunt worth
while!'
_21_ 10-12 _Et autrement ... au moins:_ 'I say, you surely have heard
the news--That depends What is it? Tartarin's departure, perhaps?' _Et
autrement_ and _au moins_ cannot be translated literally See the
paragraph following in the text.
_21_ 15 _mouain:_ = _moins_ misspelled to indicate a pronuntiation as two
syllables instead of one.
_21_ 16 _à faire trembler:_ cf. note to _2_ 2.
_21_ 19 _ce que c'est que la vanité:_ the construction will be clear if a
second _est_ is supplied after _vanité_, 'what vanity is', cf. note to
_72_ 21.
_21_ 22 _fit:_ = _dit_ There are many examples of this usage in this book.
_21_ 23 _je ne dis pas:_ 'I don't say (that I shan't),' 'I won't commit
Myself'.
_22_ 12 _fit ... effroyable:_ 'gave Tartarin-Quixote a terrible grilling'.
_22_ 16 _éléphantiasis:_ 'elephantiasis,' a disease of the skin which
makes it thick, hard, and fissured like an elephant's hide.
_22_ 21 _feu Cambyse:_ 'the late Cambyses' _feu_ is frequently used, but
only with humorous intent, in speaking of persons long since dead. For the
story of the expedition (525 B.C.) sent by Cambyses, king of Persia, to
plunder the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the desert of Libya, see Herodotus
III Cambyses himself did not perish in this expedition as Daudet
erroneously states.
_22_ 27 _que diable!_ 'hang it all!'
_22_ 30 _Mungo-Park_ (1771-1806, no hyphen in English) Scotch explorer
of the Niger--_Caillé_ (René, 1799-1838) a Frenchman, the first European
to return alive from Timbuktu.
_22_ 31 _Livingstone_ (David, 1813-1873) celebrated Scotch missionary and
traveler--_Duveyrier_(1840-1892) French geographer, and explorer of the
northwestern Sahara.
_23_ 3 _à partir de ce jour-là:_ 'from that day on'--_ne ... plus que:_
cf. note to _4_ 23.
_23_ 10 _faire son tour de ville:_ cf. note to _12_ 21.
_23_ 11 _pas accéléré:_ 'quick time', _pas redoublé_, 'double quick', _pas
gymnastique_, 'run.'
_23_ 13 _selon la mode antique:_ there is no evidence that ancient runners
carried pebbles in their mouths Daudet is perhaps thinking of the well
known story about Demosthenes Modern runners carry something, not usually
pebbles, in their mouths to induce themselves to hold the mouth shut and
breathe through the nose, and also to keep the mouth moist by inciting the
flow of saliva.
_23_ 16 _jusqu'à des dix et onze heures:_ 'even as late as ten and eleven
o'clock' _Des_ and _et_ (instead of _ou_, 'or) lend emphasis to the
Expression.
_23_ 27 _ne battait plus que d'une aile:_ 'was almost dead', lit 'could no
longer flap more than one wing' (like a wounded bird), cf. note to _4_ 23.
_24_ 1 _mouches cantharides:_ 'Spanish flies' These insects, which are
found in southern Europe, are used (crushed) as the chief element in
blistering plasters--_dessus_ adverb, 'on top of it', cf. note to _1_ 6.
_24_ 3 _Il fallait voir:_ 'you should have seen', cf._69_ 4.
_24_ 4 _se l'arrachait:_ for _se_ cf. note to _7_ 2 _Se_ is dative, cf. _4_
24.
_24_ 6 _se faire expliquer:_ cf. note to _7_ 25.
_24_ 7 _comment on s'y prenait:_ 'how you go at it' On y cf. note to _2_
29.
_24_ 8 _à combien de pas:_ cf. note to _18_ 25.
_24_ 11 _Jules Gerard_ (1817-1864) called _le Tueur de lions_, an officer
of spahis (cf. note to _43_ 8) and celebrated lion hunter.
_24_ 12 _Aussi:_ cf. note to _5_ 32.
_24_ 16 _que_ = _quand_ cf. note to _5_ 1.
_24_ 21 _disait:_ cf. note to _7_ 26.
_24_ 22 _laurier-rose:_ 'oleander', all parts of this shrub are poisonous.
_24_ 23 _pluies de sauterelles:_ particularly in Africa and Asia migratory
locusts collect in countless numbers, forming a cloud so dense as to
obscure the sun, and consume every green thing, cf._81_ 25 and note to
_86_ 20 See the pages on "Les Sauterelles" in "Lettres de mon moulin,"
where Daudet describes an invasion of these terrible insects.
_24_ 29 _balle explosible:_ a bullet which explodes on striking an object.
_24_ 30 _pfft!_ the sound of the bullet passing through the air.
_25_ 2 _garçonnets:_ 'urchins,' diminutive of _garçon_, cf. note to _33_
27.
_25_ 3 _grand'peur:_ cf._grand'mère, grand'peine_, etc The Latin
adjectives of two terminations (_grandis, e_) had regularly in French one
form (_grand_) for masculine and feminine An _e_ was added in the feminine
through the influence of other feminine adjectives (_bonne_, from _bona_),
but the old form is retained, with the addition of the apostrophe, in
certain phrases Pronounce as if _grand'_ were masculine.
_25_ _chapter heading_ _pas de_ on the absence of _ne_ cf. note to _13_ 1.
_25_ 9 _Toujours est-il que:_ 'at any rate' On the inversion after
_toujours_ (still ') cf. note to _5_ 32.
_25_ 11 _peut-être ... se figurait-il_ the same inversion as that referred
to in the preceding note. Compare in the next sentence _Peut être qu(e) il
s'imaginait_.
_25_ 18 _le:_ 'it,' that is, _victime,_ omit in translation cf._59_ 13,
_84_ 3.
_25_ 22 _fit fureur:_ 'was all the rage', of _cette piece (de theâtre)
fait fureur_ 'this play is all the rage'.
_26_ 2 _ne faisait plus foi:_ 'was no longer regarded as unimpeachable'.
_26_ 5 _faisait deux doigts de cour a:_ 'courted a little' (two finger
Breadths).
_26_ 6 _langue du cru:_ 'local dialect,' 'vernacular' _Cru_ means
'growth,' 'that which grows in a certain district', _croître_ = 'grow'
_Vin du cru_ ='local wine', _donner une oeuvre de son cru_ = 'to produce a
work of one's own imagination', cf._dame du cru_ _60_ 29, _jurons du cru_
_65_ 4.
_26_ 9 _devait:_ cf. note to _18_ 2.
_26_ 10 _on le chargeait toujours:_ cf. _11_ 12.
_26 12 _l'allusion:_ like Master Gervais's gun, Tartarin never went off,
_partir_ = 'to depart,' 'to go off' (of a gun).
_26 13 _En un tour de main:_ 'in a turning of the hand,' 'like a flash'.
_26_ 16 _Le fusil de maître Gervais--Toujours on le charge, toujours on
le charge--Le fusil de maître Geivais--Toujours on le charge, il ne part
Jamais_.
_26_ 24 _lui glisser dans la main:_ 'slipping in (i.e. out of) his hand'.
_26_ 27 _il fait bon:_ 'it's a pleasant thing'.
_26_ 30 _sa même vie:_ 'the same life as before '--_comme si de rien
n'était_ 'as if it was (all) about nothing,' 'as if it all amounted to
Nothing'.
_27_ 4 _portait toute sa barbe:_ 'wore a full beard'.
_27_ 14 _s'adresser:_ cf. note to _5_ 23--_fouchtras_ transl. rascals'
_Fouchtra_ is an inelegant exclamation, originally peculiar to the
inhabitants of Auvergne (south central France), hence, used as a noun it
means a person from Auvergne Many bootblacks come from Auvergne, so the
word is not inappropriately applied to the little Savoyard bootblacks.
_27_ 16 _tenait bon:_ 'stood its ground firmly', adverbial use of the
adjective cf._sentir bon_ and the corresponding English 'to smell good'.
_27_ 26 _ganté ... oreilles:_ 'with black gloves on, (his coat) buttoned
up to his ears' With _boutonné_ cf._sangle_ _9_ 20.
_27_ 27 _fit:_ cf. note to 21_ 22.
_28_ 8 _il lui prit la main:_ 'he took his hand', cf. note to _12_ 25.
_28_ 12 _Bompard:_ the personages of "Tartarin de Tarascon" appear
in other novels of Daudet. For Bompard see particularly "Numa Roumestan."
_28_ 13 _CAISSE D'ARMES:_ 'WEAPON-CHEST.'
_28_ 18 _toute une cargaison:_ 'a whole cargo', cf._33_ 2-3.
_28_ 19 _pemmican:_ 'pemmican', dried meat, pulverized or shredded, and
mixed with melted fat, for Arctic rather than tropical use.
_28_ 20 _tente-abri:_ a light, easily-handled tent, used particularly by
troops in the field. _Abri_, masculine, = 'shelter.'
_28_ 21 _à la:_ here = 'in a.'
_28_ 24 _vinaigre des quatre-voleurs:_ 'thieves' vinegar,' a kind of
aromatic vinegar, formerly used as a disinfectant. The name is derived
from the fact that this concoction was popularly supposed to have rendered
immune from contagion certain thieves who were pillaging the city of
Toulouse during a severe plague (1720).
_28_ 26 _ce qu'il en faisait:_ on _en_ cf. note to _8_ 19.--_ce n'était
pas pour lui:_ 'it wasn't for him,' i.e. it wasn't for Tartarin-Quixote.
_29_ 10 _grelots ... sonnettes:_ the _grelot_ is sounded by a ball inside,
as in a sleigh bell. _Sonnette_ is a broader term, used for any small
bell. _Une cloche_ is a large bell; cf._31_ 25.
_29_ 11 _Arles:_ an ancient city on the Rhone, nine miles south of
Tarascon. Its women, of a marked Greek type, are famed for their beauty,
which is enhanced by a very picturesque head-dress (_coiffe_).
--_venues en croupe de leur galant:_ 'riding behind their sweethearts.'
Note that _leur galant_ is singular; cf. _ses deux fusils dans leur gaine_
_71_ 25; cf. also note to _92_ 15, and _Savoyards ... la tête ... leurs_
_1 _8. We say 'arms bare to the elbow', cf. _19 _14-15.
_29_ 18 _Mésopotamie:_ 'Mesopotamia,' that part of Asia which lies between
the Tigris and the Euphrates.
_29_ 22 _traçant ... sillons glorieux:_ 'leaving, as it were, glorious
furrows in their wake.' Note the force of _comme_; cf._31_ 19, _34_ 9.
_29_ 25 _laissant voir:_ 'permitting to be seen'; cf. note to _7_ 25.
_30_ 3 _il se fit:_ cf. note to _5_ 23.
_30_ 12 _avait cru de son devoir ... de:_ 'had thought it his duty ... to.'
_30_ 14 _en toile blanche:_ _en_ is used to denote the material of which a
thing is made. _De_ also may be used: _une table d'acajou_, but we find
_des commodes en acajou_ _82_ 7; cf. _un sac de cuir_ _51_ 4, _une
serviette en cuir_ _71_ 14.
_30_ 16 _chéchia:_ the cap worn by the natives of Algeria; as used by
the Algerian sharpshooters of the French army it is somewhat like a fez
(note to _33_ 25), but less close.
_30_ 17 _d'une longueur_: for the suppression cf. note to _15_ 21.
_30_ 22 _venaient là bien à propos_: 'came in quite opportunely.'
_30_ 26 _à quoi s'en tenir sur_: 'what to expect from' _En_ is redundant.
_30_ 29 _son ... chez lui_: 'his ... home'; _mon chez moi_ = 'my home.'
_30_ 30 _ne se voyait pas_: 'was not seen,' 'did not appear', cf. note to
_5_ 23.
_31_ 5 _vieil Africain de 1830_: 'African veteran of 30', cf. note to _40_
17.
_31_ 6 _lui serra la main_: cf. note to _12_ 25.
_31_ 7 _express Paris-Marseille_: 'express from Paris to Marseilles.'
_31_ 9 _fit fermer les grilles_: cf. note to _7_ 25.
_31_ 13 _On s'inscrivait_: _inscrire_ = 'to inscribe,' 'to enter,' as on a
register; _s'inscrire_= 'to enter one's name.'
_31_ 15 _Socrate_: 'Socrates,' famous Athenian philosopher(470-400 B.C.),
convicted of impiety and of corrupting the youth, was condemned to drink
the poisonous hemlock. He conversed calmly with his friends until the end.
See Plato's "Apology", "Crito" and "Phaedo".
_31_ 16 _ciguë_. the diaeresis is written over the _e_ to show that the
_u_ is pronounced, [sigy]; contrast the pronunciation of _figue_.
_31_ 19 _comme_: cf. note to _29_ 22.
_31_ 20 _D'entendre_: 'as a result of hearing,' 'on hearing.'
_31_ 23 _hommes d'équipe_: 'station hands' An _équipe_ is a gang of men
engaged on a particular piece of work.
_31_ 25 _cloche_: the large bell which announced the approach of the
train. On words for 'bell' cf. note to _29_ 10.
_31_ 31 _monta dans un wagon_: 'got into a car' _Monter_ is always
followed by _dans_ when used in this sense, cf. _entrer dans une maison_
'to enter a house' cf. note to _94_ 9.
_31_ 32 _pensèrent mourir_ = _faillirent mourir_ (cf. _15_ 13): 'almost
died.'
_32_ 1 _1er_ =_premier._--par: cf. note to _10_ 22.
_32_ 3 _déboucher_: used of rivers ('empty into'), streets ('terminate
at'), armies ('debouch'). Here used for comic effect; transl. 'debouch.'
--la Canebière: the principal Street of Marseilles, of which the
inhabitants are very proud.
_32_ 5 _s'il en manque ... des Teurs_: _des Teurs_ is anticipated by _en_;
cf. _36_ 19, _38_ 32, _69_ 2.
_32_ 10 _le Zouave_. the corps of French infantry in Algeria called
'zouaves' was organized in 1831. It was at first composed almost entirely
of natives (hence the well-known costume which is still worn), but is now
made up exclusively of Frenchmen.--devait: cf. note to _18_ 2.
_32_ 14 _pour la première fois_: cf. _13_ 26-27.
_32_ 16 _Sinbad le Marin_ 'Sindbad the Sailor,' the hero of a well-known
series of stories in the "Arabian Nights" ("Mille et une nuits")
_32_ 17 _comme il y en a_: 'such as there are', cf._49_ 8.
_32_ 19 _à perte de vue_: 'as far as the eye could reach'.
_32_ 21 _tunisiens_: Tunis was independent when "Tartarin" was written,
and has the flag of an independent state to this day. Note that this
fragmentary list names only the flags less often seen.
_32_ 22 _arrivant sur_: 'projecting over'.
_32_ 23 _Au-dessous/_ (adv, cf._1_ 6) _les naïades ... saintes vierges_:
just below the bowsprit is a figure head representing the naïad (water
nymph), the goddess, or the madonna, whose name is inscribed on both sides
of the bow. _Les saintes vierges_ are images of the Virgin, which are
particularized by specific attitudes, attributes, or localities Read "La
Diligence de Beaucaire", in "Lettres de mon moulin".
_32_ 29 _mousses_: _le mousse_='cabin boy,' _la mousse_='moss,' 'foam'.
_33_ 2 _tout un peuple_: cf. note to _28_ 18.
_33_ 4 _bogheys_: borrowed from the English 'buggy' _Paquebot_ (_32_ 10)
is from Engl. 'packet-boat,' and _redingote_ (_34_ 6) is from Engl.
'riding coat'
_33_ 8 _bric-à-brac_: this word means 'bric-a-brac' (odds and ends), 'a
dealer in bric-a-brac,' or his store, 'curiosity shop,' as here.
_33_ 9 _coulevrines_: 'culverins,' an obsolete form of cannon.
_33_ 11 _Jean Bart_ (1651-1702): a famous sailor and privateer, of low
birth, ennobled by Louis XIV. _Duguay-Trouin_ (1673-1736) privateer and
naval commander.
_33_ 18 _saumons_: 'salmon' (fish), in metallurgy 'pigs' (here, of lead)
A pig is an oblong mass of cast metal, especially iron or lead.
_33_ 19 _caroubes_: 'carob beans,' the sweet pulpy pods, dried, of the
_caroubier_ (_76_ 24), a tree of the countries bordering the
Medditerranean, the "husks" of Luke xv, 16, and sometimes sold as a dainty
at American fruit stands--_colzas_ colza, or rape, is a sort of turnip
with no thick root, raised for the oil of its seeds and for pasturage.
_33_ 20 _de Hollande_: 'Dutch' The hard Edam cheese, made in globular
molds and dyed red on the outside, is familiar to Americans.
_33_ 21 _Génoises_: women of Genoa (_Gênes_), seaport in northern Italy.
_33_ 25 _fez_: 'fez', named from the city of Fez in Morocco, where it is
made a felt or cloth cap, dark red, with a tassel--_a mesure_: 'in
proportion as it fell ', cf. note to _58_ 18.
_33_ 27 _de femmes et d'enfants_: they followed to pick up (glean,
_glaner_) what fell from the carts--_balayette_ dimmutive of _balai_
cf._colline, collinette_ _4_ 11, _garçon, garçonnet_ _25_ 2, _seul,
seulet_ _63_ 18, _seulette_.
_33_ 28 _bassin de carénage_: 'dry dock' _Carénage_ 'careenage' = a place
for, or the act of, careening a ship for the purpose of examining or
repairng its hull or keel (_carène_).
_34_ 3 _Malte_: 'Malta,' an island in the Mediterranean, between Sicily
and Africa, which has belonged to England since 1814.
_34_ 9 _comme en l'air_: 'as if they were sailing in the air', cf. note to
_29_ 22.
_34_ 12 _fort Saint-Jean, fort Saint-Nicolas_: the two forts which guard
the entrance to the harbor of Marseilles.
_34_ 13 _la Major_: the old cathedral of Marseilles (_Sainte Marie
Majeure_).--_Accoules, Saint-Victor_: old churches in Marseilles.
_34_ 14 _mistral_: (Latin _magistralis_ 'masterly') 'mistral,' a violent
north-west wind which sweeps down the Rhône valley.
_35_ 12 _golfe du Lion_: 'Gulf of the Lion,' off southern France.
_36_ 2 _casque à mèche_: used jocosely for 'night cap' _Casque = 'helmet',
_mèche = 'wick,' _mèche de cheveux_ = 'lock of hair.' A helmet with a
flowing crest resembles a night cap with its tassel--_jusqu'aux ...
blême_: 'to the ears of a pale sufferer's head.'
_36_ 10 _comme ... voulu_: _en vouloir à quelqu'un_ means 'to bear a
grudge against a person.' _Il en veut à Jean_ = 'he bears a grudge against
John.' Here 'how angry they would have been with themselves!' 'how they
would have reproached themselves!'
_36_ 13 _courage_: 'energy.' The word _courage_ (ordinarily = English
'courage') is often so used. _Je n'ai pas le courage de travailler
aujourd'hui_ 'I haven't the energy to work (do not feel like working) to
day.' Cf. _50_ 1.
_36_ 15 _cuir_: 'leather (case).'
_36_ 16 _ne cessait_: _pas_ is often omitted with _savoir, pouvoir,
cesser, oser, bouger_, cf. _18_ 32, _86_ 3.
_36_ 18 _Imbécile, va!_: 'what a fool you are!' _Va! allez!_ and _allons!_
(imperatives of _aller_) are common exclamations, the sense varies with
the context. For _allons!_ cf. _56_ 1--_Je te l'avais bien dit_ 'I told
you so.'
_36_ 19 _Eh bien ... l'Afrique!_: 'well now, here's your Africa!' On _té_
see note to _13_ 7. _La_ anticipates _l'Afrique_, cf. _32_ 5.
_36_ 27 _la Mecque_: 'Mecca,' in Arabia, the birthplace of Mohammed;
the Holy City to which every good Mohammedan goes in pilgrimage at least
once.
_36_ 25 _Alcazar_: a music-hall. _Alcazar_ means in Arabic 'the palace.'
_36_ 28 _Ravel, Gil Pérès_: popular comedians in Paris at the time Daudet
was writing.
_36_ 30 _un bon gros vivant de Marseillais:_ a _bon vivant_ is 'a man who
lives well,' 'a jolly fellow' On _de see note to _1_ 12.
_37_ 3 _il se fit:_ cf. note to _5_ 23.
_37_ 7 _Machine en avant! machine en arrière!_ 'Go ahead! back her!'
_Machine_ = 'engine'.
_37_ 9 _Machine, stop!_ 'stop her!' 'The verb _stopper_ (borrowed from
English _stop_) is regularly used of engines. _Stop_ in _machine, stop!_
is an imperative taken directly from the English.
_37_ 10 _plus rien:_ cf. notes to _13_ 1 and _4_ 23--_Rien que:_ cf. _1_
17.
_37_ 19 _Alger la blanche:_ 'Algiers,' capital of Algeria, about 500 miles
from Marseilles. For the epithet _blanche_, see next note.
_37_ 22 _Meudon:_ a town on the Seine between Paris and Versailles. The
white houses of Algiers sloping towards the sea look like the washing of a
laundress spread out on the grassy hill which at Meudon descends to the
Seine. _Étalage_ means a 'spreading out,' as of things for sale; then, by
extension, the objects displayed. Cf. note to _69_ 15.
_37_ 26 _à ses côtés:_ 'at his (Tartarin's) side'; note the plural
_côtés_; cf. _aux flancs du paquebot_ _93_ 19.
_37_ 27 _Casbah:_ the citadel, 400 feet above the sea, crowning the hill
on which the Moorish quarter (la ville haute 'the Upper City e') is built
--_la rue Bab-Azoun:_ lower down, parallel to the shore, the most
important street in Algiers.
_38_ 9 _ILS:_ cf. pages 10-11.
_38_ 18 _Qués aco?_ Provençal for _qu'est ce que c'est que cela?_ 'what's
that?'--_qu'est-ce que vous avez?'_ 'what's the matter with you?'
_38_ 21 _pourquoi faire?_ 'why?' 'what for?' cf. _49_ 1.--boun Diou:_
Provençal for _bon Dieu_.
_38_ 31 _tron de ler:_ more properly _tron de l'er_, a Provençal oath =
_tonnerre de l'air_, 'thunder of the air!' A Provençal newspaper with the
name _Lou Tron de l'Er_ appeared in Marseilles in 1877-1878.
_38_ 32 _longtemps:_ cf. note to _40_ 17.--_en:_ anticipates _des
pirates_; cf. note to _32_ 5.
_39_ 4 _un brave garçon:_ cf. note to _3_ 12.
_39_ 8 _tire-vieille:_ 'man-rope,' one of the side ropes on the gangway
of a ship. _Tire-vieille_ (_tirer_ + _vieille_,' that which helps old
women to mount') is often misspelled _tire-veille_ (_tirer_ + _veille_,
'pull and take care').
_39_ 17 _tourmentait:_ 'tormented,' 'twisted and turned.'
_39_ 23 _barbaresque:_ 'Barbary.' _La Barbarie_ ('Barbary') = _États
barbaresques_ is a general term formerly applied to the North African
states: Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli.
_39_ 24 _Michel Cervantes:_ in 1575 Cervantes was captured by Barbary
pirates and carried to Algiers. His five years of slavery afforded him
materials for "Don Quixote" and other works; cf. note to _10_ 13.
_39_ 20 _sous le bâton de:_ 'under the cudgel used upon.'
_39_ 26 _devait:_ cf. note to _18_ 2.
_40_ 1 _Saavedra:_ upon his return from Algiers in 1580 Cervantes assumed
the additional surname of _Saavedra_ from one of his ancestors, always
signing himself thenceforth _Cervantes Saavedra_.
_40_ 4 _dut tressaillir:_ 'must have leaped', cf. note to _2_ 10.
_40_ 14 _à peine Tartarin eut-il mis:_ cf. note to _5_ 32.
_40_ 17 _Arabes ... M'zabites:_ the aborigines of Algeria, three quarters
of the population even now, are the Berber race, including the Kabyles
(_19_ 14) in the north, the Mzabites, purest Berbers of all, in the south,
and the marauding Tuaregs (_11_ 6) in the Sahara. The Mzabites, the
heretical Puritans of Algerian Mohammedanism, are seen everywhere as
honest petty traders and workers in street industries. The Arab conquest
about 700 A.D. made Arabic the dominant language of all North Africa to
this day--an important fact to remember--and introduced the Arabs as a
permanent population along the north edge of the Sahara. The conquest by
Turkish pirates about 1500 A.D., with subordination to the Sultan of
Turkey till 1669, brought in very few Turks; the pirates were a mixture of
various Mohammedan nations with renegades from the Christian nations. The
"Moors" of to-day in Algeria are their descendants; the ancient Moors were
Berbers. During the centuries of pirate rule, and earlier, negroes were
brought in as slaves; Mohammedan custom favored setting them free in a few
years if they became Mohammedans. The overthrow of the pirates by the
French in 1830, and the French conquest during the next thirty years,
caused most of the few Turks to leave the country, and started an influx
of Europeans from the Mediterranean countries; Daudet notices especially
the Minorcans (_Mahonnais_ from the city of Port Mahon).
_40 22 _charabia:_ borrowed from the Spanish _algarabía_, which means
properly 'Arabic,' then, by extension, any unintelligible 'jargon.' The
French word is usually applied contemptuously to the dialect of Auvergne
(cf. note to _27_ 14).
_40_ 23 _invraisemblables:_ lit. 'unlike the truth,' 'improbable', then
'strange,' 'outlandish', of German _unwahrscheinlich_.
_40_ 26 _se faire comprendre:_ cf. note to _7_ 25.--_barbares:_
'barbarians,' the word used by Greeks and Romans to designate uncivilized
peoples. Not to be confused with barbaresque.
_40_ 28 _du latin de Pourceaugnac:_ 'Pourceaugnac Latin,' meaningless
Latin such as that which Molière introduces into some of his plays.
"Monsieur de Pourceaugnac" is the name of one of Molière's farces, and
there is some Latin in it; but Daudet probably had in mind "Le Médecin
malgré lui," II, 6. He uses the name _Pourceaugnac_ here because he likes
the sound. _Rosa, rosae,_ is the type-noun of the first declension in
French grammars of to-day, where we have ordinarily _mensa_ or _stella_.
In Molière's time, as suggested by the passage of "Le Médecin malgré lui"
referred to, _musa, musae_, was the noun commonly used.
_41_ 2 _Heureusement qu':_ _que_ is redundant, cf. _58_ 23.
_41_ 3 _canne de compagnon:_ 'stout cane.' When the young artisan
(_compagnon_) set out on his travels (_tour de France_) to learn his
trade, he carried a stout cane which is one of the principal attributes of
_compagnonnage_.
_41_ 4 _dieu d'Homère:_ in the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" the gods often
intervene in the affairs of men.
_41_ 11 _tenant le milieu entre:_ 'a cross between.'
_41_ 12 _Zanzibar:_ capital, since 1832, of the Mohammedan power in East
Africa, and place of entry for travelers to Central Africa in the middle
of the nineteenth century; hence here representing the idea of an African
capital, as Constantinople that of a Turkish capital.
_41_ 13 _en plein Tarascon:_ cf. note to _5_ 7.
_41_ 15 _la ligne:_ in the French and English armies the term la _ligne_,
'the line,' is applied ordinarily to the infantry of the regular army as
opposed to the militia, cavalry, artillery, etc. In America _the line_
includes all that part of the regular army whose business is actual
fighting.--_Offenbach:_ Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), born at Cologne, a
naturalized Frenchman, composer of light operas.
_41_ 24 _Crusoé:_ the final _e_ of English proper names terminating in -oe
is ordinarily pronounced in French; cf. _Edgard Poé_ or _Poë_.
_41_ 28 _monter:_ the active use of this verb, 'carry up', cf. promener
_74_ 26.
_42_ 1 _Gouvernement:_ the building in which are the offices of the
provincial government. Cf. _70_ 8.
_42_ 4 _en avait vu de rudes:_ 'had had a hard time of it', with rudes
supply some such noun as _choses_, anticipated by _en_; cf. note to _32_
5.
_42_ 14 _il se fit servir:_ cf. note to _7_ 25.--_grande ouverte:_ 'wide
open'; cf. _51_ 7.
_42_ 15 _Crescia:_ a wine-producing district near Algiers.
_42_ 21 _déjeuner:_ verb.
_42_ 22 _fréter:_ 'to charter,' a nautical term used here
mock-heroically.
_42_ 26 _montait d'un bon pied:_ note the _de_ with expressions of
measure, _haute de cinq doigts_ (_71_ 14) 'five fingers high,' _il est
plus grand_ (_plus âgé_) _de deux pouces_ (_deux ans_) 'he is two inches
(two years) taller (older)'; cf. _95_ 8.
_42_ 28 _enfila:_ _enfiler_ = 'to thread (a needle, pearls, etc.)', then,
'to thread (one's way through arcades, crowded streets, etc).'
_43_ 2 _prit le faubourg:_ 'took the street which leads through the
suburb.' _Faubourg_ meant originally the portion of a city outside the
walled town (_bourg_); then also the street leading through this district.
Cf. note to _49_ 7.--_route de Mustapha:_ 'Mustapha road', cf. note to _1_
5. Mustapha is a suburb of Algiers, on the sea.
_43_ 4 _corricolos:_ _corricolo_ is the Neapolitan word (Latin
'curriculum, 'chariot'; see _curricle_ in Engl. dict.) for a sort of gig.
--_fourgons du train:_ 'army wagons', _train_ = _train des équipages_,
'the train,' an army's equipment for the transportation of provisions and
other necessities.
_43_ 5 _chasseurs d'Afrique:_ French light cavalry serving in Algeria;
transl. 'Africa cavalry.'
_43_ 7 _Alsaciens émigrants:_ 'emigrating Alsatians'; contrast _émigrés
alsaciens_ 'Alsatian emigrants.' After the Franco-Prussian war (1870-871),
as a result of which Alsace became a German province, many Alsatians
emigrated rather than submit to German domination. In 1871 about 11,000
natives of Alsace-Lorraine were granted land in Algeria. Daudet visited
Algeria in 1861, before the Alsatians immigrated in large numbers.
_43_ 8 _spahis:_ 'spahis,' native cavalry in the French service, commanded
by French officers.
_43_ 12-13 _bouchers:_ 'butchers.'--_équarrisseurs:_ 'slaughterers.'
_Équarisseur_, probably because of a falsely imputed connection with Latin
_equus_, is ordinarily used to mean 'horse slaughterer,' 'knacker.' The
root of the word is, however, Latin _quadratus_, French _carré_, and an
_équarisseur_ is properly 'one who cuts a beast into quarters,' one whose
chief interest is in the by-products--hide, bones, fat, etc.
_43_ 20 _ne devaient pas être:_ 'ought not to be,' 'surely were not,'
'could not be', see note to _2_ 10.
_43_ 29 _crut devoir:_ 'thought he had better'; see note to _2_ 10.
_43_ 31 _Et autrement:_ cf. note to _21_ 10.
_44_ 1 _Vous avez tué? ... voyez plutôt:_ 'killed any? Oh, yes
--some--just take a look for yourself.' With _pas mal 'not badly' cf.
_j'ai tué pas mal de bécasses_ 'I killed quite a number of woodcocks.'
4_4_ 7 _c'est des tout petits:_ popular for _ce sont_, cf. _90_ 26.
_44_ 11 _en resta planté:_ 'stood rooted (to the spot)', cf. note to _12_
31 _En_ = _de cela_, 'at all this', cf. note to _8_ 19.
_44_ 15 _se faisaient:_ 'were becoming', cf. note to _5_ 23.
_44_ 28 _Sous ... étoiles:_ 'in the dim starlight'--_leur ombre_ cf. note
to _29_ 11.
_45_ 8 _en 1ui tirant la patte:_ _en tirant la patte au chevreau_, cf.
_lui faisant battre le coeur_ _53_ 16.
_45_ 13 _que le lion l'entendît:_ colloquial omission of _ne_, which is
regularly used with verbs of fearing, avoiding, etc, eg _j'ai peur qu'il
ne vienne_ 'I fear that he may come.'
_45 15 _de plus belle:_ cf. note to _8_ 18.
_45_ 19 _Cela se baissait ... s'arrêtait net:_ an admirable description
_45_ 21 _a n'en pas douter:_ 'no doubt of it!' cf. note to _2_ 2.