Page images
PDF
EPUB

was a whole household, besides those in their employ,1 thrown into distress by that fatal sentence: "I have not a minute to spare." And yet those who caused that distress were not altogether regardless of the forms of religion. They were in the custom of having family prayer,3 ,3 and of reading daily from that word 4 where it is written: "Owe no man any thing.” * 5

2

This gentleman's wife, an hour after her husband's departure, was stopped, as she was leaving the parlour, by her maid, who said, "There is 7 a poor woman who wishes to speak to you."

"Who is she, what is she?" 8

"I don't know, ma'am, but she particularly wishes to see you."

"Tell her, I can't possibly see her now,10 I have 'not a minute to spare,' my children are waiting for me in the nursery."

" 11

"Alas!” thought the poor woman, "I too have 12 children; it is for my child I want to see her." She went heart-broken 13 from that door.

The next day, that lady heard 14 that the poor woman who had called upon her the day before 15 had lost her

de lui, et il n'en obtint point en effet. See page 14, note 13.

1 Voilà donc toute une famille, et avec elle les gens qui étaient à son service. See page 41, note 7.

2 n'étaient pas sans observer jusqu'à un certain point les formes extérieures de la religion; or, ne néglgieaient pas entièrement les pratiques religieuses.

3 de faire leurs prières en famille.

plusieurs passages de ce livre. 5 Ne dois rien à personne; or, Ne sois redevable à personne.

6 Construct so, in French :'An hour after this gentleman's departure, his wife was, as she stopped by,' &c. ; 'stopped,' arrêtée au passage.

was

7 Il y a en bas (or, à la porte). 8 Quel est son nom, son état? 9 elle demande instamment. 10 Dites-lui qu'il (page 1, note 5) m'est tout à fait impossible (page 39, note 3) de m'occuper d'elle d présent.

11 dans leur chambre.

12 moi aussi j'ai. Notice this double use of the pronoun of the same person, in its disjunctive and in its conjunctive form, which is frequent, in French, in the case of emphasis or contradistinction. See the LA FONTAINE, page 6, line 15. 13 Et navrée de douleur, elle s'éloigna.

14 apprit.

15 qui avait passé chez elle (or, qui était venue) la veille.

* Romans xiii. 8.

child; and that the doctor1 had said, the child's life to all appearance might have been saved, had she used 2 the means prescribed. That mother could not;3 she had spent her last shilling, and this was the last application of three calls she had made, and from each house she had been turned away with words to the same effect.4

[ocr errors]

Is it, can it be,5 that a child must be left to die and a mother's best feelings to wither, and by one, too, who so far professes the Christian religion, as to read the Bible in her family that Bible where it is written : Say not unto thy neighbour,8 Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee?'*10 This lady had the habit of giving people the trouble to call twice, when once 11 should have sufficed. She would not put herself out of the way 12 in order to meet the convenience of 13 others. In setting too high a value on 14 her own time,

1 médecin.

2 qu'elle (page 1, note 5) aurait très probablement pu sauver la vie à l'enfant en employant. Notice this turn, sauver la vie à, &c., which is similar to the one pointed out, page 10, note 10.

3 ne le pouvait pas. See page 15, note 9. This French turn, pouvoir quelque chose, is borrowed from the Latin; in English, the verb 'do,' expressed or elliptically understood, is necessary to the sense could not' is here put for 'could not do so.'

et cette demande était la dernière qu'elle eût adressée (page 32, note 4); car elle était allée (page 27, note 13) dans trois maisons, et dans chacune elle avait essuyé (page 32, note 4) la même espèce de refus.-Notice this French (and also Latin) use of the subjunctive eût after dernière (as well as after premier, seul, and superlatives relative). Most of the rules of the French grammar relative to

[blocks in formation]

*Proverbs iii. 28.

she forgot that the time of others was of equal, and often of greater value. Whilst she was finishing a chapter in some interesting book, a pattern in needlework,2 or a note 3 she was writing, she would keep a dressmaker waiting, or send away a tradesman's servant, forgetting that to them "Time is money,' 297 nay their very bread.8 (S. CLARENCE, Not a Minute to Spare.)

SCENE FROM "THE GOOD-NATURED MAN."

MR. HONEYWOOD AND JARVIS.

Hon. Well, Jarvis, what messages from 9 my friends this morning?

Jar. You have no friends.

Hon. Well; from my acquaintances then?

Jar. [Pulling out bills.] 10 A few of our usual cards of compliment, that's 12 all. This bill from your tailor; this from your mercer; and this from the little broker in

1 valait tout autant, sinon davantage; or, avait tout autant, sinon plus de prix. See page 8, note 8, and page 35, note 3.

2 un patron d'ouvrage à l'aiguille.

cou

3 une lettre un billet-sometimes, un mot. See page 1, note 8. 4 elle faisait attendre sa turière. Whenever 'will' and 'would,' in English, are used merely as signs of the present and the past, not of the future and the conditional (and they are so used to express the regular recurrence of an action or state), the student must always translate into French by the present and the past. The expression, it is true, is weakened thereby, but this is inevitable, as the English form does not exist in the French language.

[blocks in formation]

Crooked-lane.

He says he has been at a great deal of trouble to get back 2 the money you borrowed.3 Hon. That I don't know; but I'm sure we were at a great deal of trouble in getting him 5 to lend it. Jar. He has lost all patience.

Hon. Then he has lost a very good thing.

7

Jar. There's that ten guineas you were sending to the poor gentleman and his children in the Fleet. I believe that would stop his mouth, for a while at least.

9

Hon. Ay, 10 Jarvis, but what will fill their mouths 11 in the meantime? Must I be cruel because he happens to be12 importunate; and, to relieve his avarice, leave them to insupportable distress? 13

Jar. S'death! 14 sir, the question now is how 15 to relieve

1 a eu beaucoup de peine de mal (or, bien de la peine du mal).

2 à ravoir; this verb, ravoir, 'to have again,' 'to recover,' 'to get back,' is only used in the present infinitive.

3 Translate here by the preterite indefinite (you have borrowed'), and supply the ellipsis, besides, by using the pronoun understood in English.

4 Je ne sais; mais ce qu'il y a de certain, c'est que. See page 50,

note 8

[blocks in formation]

7 alliez envoyer; or, étiez sur le point d'envoyer.

8 à la famille de ce pauvre monsieur, (or, gentilhomme-obsolete, but still applicable to noblemen, and, by extension, to gentlemen of the olden time) qui est dans la prison pour dettes-or, en prison pour dettes. The former expression, dans la prison, &c., points to a particular place of this kind ('the Fleet,' in the text: in our days, the Queen's prison,' and that of 'Whitecross-street,' in London; and, in Paris, that of the Rue de Clichy, commonly called Clichy').

9 le ferait taire (or, lui ferme

rait la bouche-see p. 10, note 10). 10 Qui-da.

11 les fera vivre.-This play on words, viz. on the one hand, 'to stop the mouth of one,' i. e. 'to reduce him to silence,' and, on the other hand, to fill the mouth of one,' . e. 'to feed, to support, or nourish him,' was to be rendered into French-in order to avoid weakening the meaning-by an equivalent, at least, if the literal translation was found to fail in that purpose. I have rendered it by putting in opposition the expressions fuire taire and faire vivre, which is, I believe, the only way in which it can be managed: fermer la bouche à quelqu'un would have done very well, in the first instance, but, in the second, unfortunately, remplir la bouche à quelqu'un cannot be used figuratively in the English sense mentioned above.

12 il se trouve être; or, il lui arrive (impersonal) d'être.

13 to relieve.' pour subvenir à. 'insupportable distress ;' see page 25, note 16, and page 27, note 8

14 Morbleu! (vulgar.) 15 il s'agit actuellement (or, d cette heure aujourd'hui) de.-'to

yourself. Yourself-hav'n't I reason 1 to be out of my senses,2 when I see things going at sixes and

sevens?

4

5

3

Hon. Whatever reason you may have for being out of your senses, I hope you'll allow that I'm not quite unreasonable for continuing in mine.7

[ocr errors]

Jar. You're the only man alive in your present situation, that could do so.-Everything upon the waste.10 There's Miss Richland and her fine fortune gone already, and upon the point of being given to your rival.

Hon. I'm no man's rival.

Jar. Your uncle in Italy preparing to disinherit you; your own fortune almost spent ; and nothing 11 but pressing creditors, 12 false friends,13 and a pack of drunken servants, that your kindness has made unfit for any other family.

14

Hon. Then they have the more occasion for being 15 in mine.

relieve yourself; see page 38, note 11, and page 37, note 2.

1 Do not forget that avoir lieu (de) means to have reason, or grounds' (to, &c.), whereas avoir raison means 'to be in the right.' See page 39, note 1.

2 d'être hors de moi; or, 'hav'n't I reason to be out,' &c., n'y a-t-il pas de quoi (lit. 'wherewith,' 'occasion for,' 'grounds to,') me faire sortir-me mettre hors-des gonds.

6

3 things,' here, tout chez vous. 4 à la débandade; or, à l'abandon; or, à la diable (familiar). We also say, être sens dessus dessous.

5 motif. We say avoir lieu (to have reason), and also, il y a lieu (there is reason), but we can only use lieu, in this sense, in an indeterminate manner, without any article: thence it follows, in accordance with the same rule, by virtue of which we cannot say un lieu, in this acceptation, that we cannot either say quelque lieu que, 'whatever reason,' any more than quel lieu (what reason). See page 39, note 3.-Re

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »