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soldiers with the sovereignty of Antioch ; and a fourth, the Tancred whose name lives in the great poem of Tasso,2 was celebrated through Christendom as the bravest and most generous of the champions of the Holy Sepulchre.

3

The vicinity of so remarkable a people early began to produce an effect on the public mind of England. Before the Conquest, English princes received their education in Normandy. English sees and English estates were bestowed on Normans. Norman-French was familiarly spoken in the palace of Westminster. The court of Rouen 5 seems to have been to the court of Edward the Confessor what the court of Versailles, long afterwards, was to the court of Charles II.—(T. B. MACAULAY, History of England.)

cident; we never use est and ouest, in this sense, that is, when speaking of those empires or emperors, or of Europe and of the countries that lie eastward of it: thus the Eastern question,' la question d'Orient (but we say vent d'est, d'ouest, east, west, wind,' &c.).

1 fut placé par ses compagnons d'armes à la tête de la souveraineté d'Antioche.

2 que le Tasse a chanté dans son immortel poëme. In imitation of the Italians, the French use the article with the following proper names: le Tasse, l'Arioste, le Corrége, and a few others.

3 Des évêchés et des domaines anglais; or, Des terres et des évêchés anglais. If we use terres instead of domaines, then we must put évêchés last. The grammatical rule is this: when two substantives qualified by an adjective have not the same gender (here terres is fem., and évêchés is masc.), euphony requires the masculine substantive to be used last, if the adjective has a different termination in the feminine and in the

masculine, as anglais (masc.), anglaise (fem.), bon (masc.), bonne (fem.), &c. This rule is sensible enough, for what could sound worse than "des évêchés et des terres anglais?" The student is here supposed to know already---and know well-that, as to anglais, it could not be altered, and that it must be so used in the masculine plural, on account of one of the two nouns (évêchés) being masculine.

4 Le français de Normandie était familier au.

5 This last sentence being a kind of résumé of the preceding details, had better begin so:-En un mot, la cour de Rouen; or, La cour de Rouen enfin.

6 Charles II.-pronounce Charles deux. The cardinal numbers, not the ordinal, are used, in French, before names of sovereigns, except when speaking of the first of a name (as, Charles I., pron. Charles premier, not un); but, in all cases, the French omit the article 'the,' used in English before the numeral following the name of a sovereign.

INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV.

FRANCE united at that period almost every species of ascendency.1 Her military glory was at the height.2 She had vanquished mighty coalitions. She had dictated treaties. She had subjugated great cities and provinces. She had forced the Castilian pride to yield her the precedence.3 She had summoned Italian princes to prostrate themselves at her footstool. Her authority was supreme in all matters of good breeding,5 from a duel to a minuet. In literature

she gave law to the world. The fame of her great writers filled Europe. No other country could produce a tragic poet equal to Racine, a comic poet equal to Molière, a trifler so agreeable as La Fontaine, a rhetorician so skilful9 as Bossuet.

The literary glory of Italy and of Spain had set; that of Germany had not yet dawned.10 The genius, therefore, of the eminent men who adorued 11 Paris shone forth with a splendour which was set off to full advantage by contrast. 12 France, indeed, had at that time an empire over

1 possédait à cette époque la supériorité dans tous les genres. 2 apogée, in this sense.

....

3 le pas. 4 obligé les à s'humilier d ses pieds. en matière de bon ton (or, de bon goût).-'a duel' 'a minuet; use the definite article ('the'), in French, here.

6 faisait la loi; or, donnait des lois.

7 montrer, to avoid ambiguity. 8 un poète badin; 'so,' aussi.

9 un orateur aussi puissant; or, simply, un orateur tel. The word rhétoricien means merely one who knows rhetoric; and as to rhéteur, it either means a teacher of rhetoric, or is taken in a bad sense, signifying a studied and bombastic

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mankind, such as1 even the Roman Republic never attained. For, when Rome was politically dominant, she was in arts and letters the humble pupil of Greece. France had, over the surrounding countries, at once the ascendency which Rome had over Greece, and the ascendency which Greece had over Rome. French was becoming the universal language, the language of fashionable society, the language of diplomacy. At several courts princes and nobles spoke it more accurately and politely than their mother tongue.*

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3

In our island there was less of this servility5 than on the continent. Neither our good nor our bad qualities were those of imitators. Yet even here homage was paid,7 awkwardly indeed, and sullenly, to the literary supremacy of our neighbours. The melodious Tuscan, so familiar to the gallants and ladies of the court of Elizabeth, sank into contempt. New canons 10 of criticism, new models of style, came into fashion.11 The quaint ingenuity which had deformed 12 the verses of Donne, and had been a blemish 13 those of Cowley, disappeared from our poetry. Our prose became less majestic, less artfully involved,14 less

on

1 See page 38, note 1, and page wish, on the contrary, to dwell on 14, note ".

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the continuance or repetition of it, on the habit in which people were, at that period, of 'paying homage,' &c., we must then use the imperfect.

8 quoique bien gauchement et comme à regret (or, et comme à contre-cour).

9

preux, or, chevaliers. 10 règles.

11 devinrent (or, vinrent) à la mode. In the same way we say, être hors de mode, to be out of fashion,' and passer de mode, 'to go out of fashion.' 12 déparé.

13

14

Simply, et entaché.

morns artistement arrondie dans ses périodes (or, simply, arrondie); or, moins artistement périodique dans son style (or, simply, périodique); or, moins artistement contournée. The verb contourner

variously musical,1 than that of an earlier age; 2 but more lucid, more easy, and better fitted for controversy and narrative. In these changes it is impossible not to recognise the influence of French precept and of French example. (T. B. MACAULAY, History of England.)

6

JOHN BULL.

He

JOHN BULL, to all appearance, is a plain, downright, matter-of-fact fellow, with much less of poetry about him than rich prose. There is little of romance in his nature, but a vast deal of strong natural feeling. excels in humour more than in 8 wit; is jolly rather than gay; melancholy rather than morose; can easily be moved to a sudden tear, or surprised into a broad laugh ;9 but he loathes sentiment, and has no turn for 10 light pleasantry. Hell is a boon companion,12 if you allow him to have 13 his humour, and to talk about himself;14 and he will stand by a friend in a quarrel, with life and purse, however soundly he may be cudgelled.

means, literally, 'to give an agreeable turn to;' but contourné more commonly means, when speaking of a phrase, or of style in general, 'forced,' 'unnatural;' here, however, the word artistement, in the context, is sufficient to remove any ambiguity.

I moins variée dans son harmonie.

2 qu'elle ne (page 29, note 22) rétait jadis. The word jadis is growing obsolete, except in poetry and in elevated style: in familiar style we use autrefois, as, 'I was very strong formerly,' j'étais très fort autrefois.

3 Construct so:-'It is impossible not to recognise in these changes.'

4 Selon toutes les apparences,

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en lui,

6 romance,' romanesque; 'nature,' caractère, here.

7 beaucoup de naturel et de force. 8 Il a plus de gaieté que.

9 il n'est ni difficile de l'émouvoir (de le toucher-de l'attendrir) jusqu'aux larmes, ni rare de l'entendre partir tout-à-coup d'un éclat de rire; or, more freely and concisely, on le voit rire et pleurer avec une égale facilité.

10 n'entend rien à; or, n'a pas la moindre idée de.

11 See page 72, note 13.
12 un fort bon vivant.
13 de se livrer à.

14 de lui.

In this last respect, to tell the truth, he has a propensity to be somewhat too ready. He is a busy-minded1 personage, who thinks not merely for 2 himself and family, but for all the country round; and is most generously disposed to be everybody's champion. He is continually volunteering his services to settle his neighbour's affairs; and takes it in great dudgeon3 if they engage in any matter of consequence without asking his advice; though he seldom engages in any friendly office of the kind without finishing by getting into a squabble with all parties, and then railing bitterly at their ingratitude. He unluckily 5 took lessons in his youth in the noble science ® of defence, and having accomplished himselfs in the use of his limbs and his weapons, and become a perfect master at boxing and cudgel-play, he has had a troublesome life of it ever since.10 He cannot hear 11 of a quarrel between the most distant of his neighbours, but he 12 begins incontinently to fumble with the head of13 his cudgel, and consider whether his interest or honour does not require that he should meddle in the broil. Indeed, he has extended his relations of pride and policy so completely over the whole country, that no event can take place, without infringing 14 some of his finely-spun 15 rights and dignities. Couched 16 in his little domain, with 17 these filaments stretching forth in every direction, he is like some choleric, bottle-bellied old spider,18 who has woven his web over a whole 19 chamber, so that a fly cannot buzz, nor a breeze

1 affairé.

3 et s'offense.

4

2 d.

par se mettre mal. 5 Use here the indefinite preterite, he has taken; speaking of a deceased person, however, we should use, in French, as in English, the definite preterite.

6 See page 22, note 7.

7 défense de soi-même; or, défense personnelle.

8 to accomplish oneself,' se perfectionner: translate by, and as he has accomplished,' &c.

9 et qu'il s'est rendu tout à fait familier l'art de boxer et de jouer

9

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