14. =Arma virumque cano=: ‘Arms and the man I sing.’ The beginning of Vergil’s _Æneid_.
18. =C’est de l’Horace ou du Virgile=: Even the abbé appears none too sure in literary questions.
24. =C’est sans réplique=: ‘It cannot be contested.’
=28=, 2. =je m’en rapporte à=: ‘I leave it to.’
10. =que vous vous formez=: ‘that you are improving.’
=30=, 8. =Ayant l’air de chercher=: ‘Apparently trying to recollect.’
8. =Le cardinal-ministre=: Fleury. See note to p. 10, l. 15.
=31=, 25. =tenir au courant=: ‘keep informed.’
=32=, 9. =l’enceinte de Paris=: ‘the Paris walls’: really a circle of fortifications immediately surrounding the city.
=33=, 16. =qui est remontée=: ‘who has gone to the rear of the stage.’
21. =à plusieurs reprises=: ‘repeatedly.’
22. =redescendant le théâtre=: ‘returning to the front of the stage.’
=34=, 2. =la fille du czar.= Probably a reference to the Duchess Anna Ivanova, niece of Peter the Great. She became Czarina in 1730.
=36=, 16. “=Sors vainqueur d’un combat dont Chimène est le prix.=” Quotation from Corneille’s _Le Cid_, Act V, Scene I. It is Chimène herself who speaks these words to Don Rodrigue--the Cid.
=37=, 22. =je tiendrais à savoir=: ‘I am anxious to know.’
25. =Je te saurai cela=: ‘I will find that out for you.’
=38=, 14. =Bajazet=: a play by Jean Racine (1672).
=39=, 7. =C’est impayable=: ‘It is a capital joke.’
9. =Impayable?= Here the word is used in its literal sense: ‘Can’t be paid for.’
18. =pénètre sur le théâtre=: ‘reaches the stage.’
24. =Baron=: Michel Boyron, called Baron, a celebrated French actor and dramatic author (1653-1729). He belonged to the troupe of Molière.
24. =la Champmeslé=: Marie Desmares, a well-known French actress (1642-1698), wife of Charles Champmeslé, also an actor and dramatist. She attained her highest eminence in the tragedies of Racine, in which Racine himself entrusted her with the leading rôles.
27. =Folies amoureuses=: a three-act comedy in verse, by Jean-François Regnard (1655-1709). Regnard excelled in amusing intrigues.
=40=, 4. =Acomat=: grand vizir in _Bajazet_.
5. =Crispin=: name of the valet of Éraste in Regnard’s _Les Folies amoureuses_.
=41=, 12. =me suis mis sur le pied=: ‘have imposed upon myself the task.’
14. =Hippolyte=: hero of Racine’s famous tragedy, _Phèdre_.