' _Serviteur au_ is here used in the sense of _tant pis pour.
Serviteur_ is not infrequently used as a formula of dismissal.
[20] VOUS METTEZ. An inverted order quite common in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, when the second of two imperatives is construed with
an object pronoun. Compare: "Quittez cette chimere, et m'aimez "
(Corneille). "Polissez-le sans cesse et le repolissez" (Boileau, _Art
Poetique_, Chant 1).
[21] DONT. _Que would preferably be used to-day, so as not to repeat the
construction of the antecedent. Compare _le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_,
note 175.
[22] QU'IL VOUS REVIENNE, 'That you like him.'
[23] MONSIEUR PREVIENT EN SA FAVEUR, 'The gentleman's appearance speaks in
his favour.'
[24] GRACES. In modern French the singular is preferred.
[25] EST-CE A VOUS A QUI IL EN VEUT, 'Is it you whom he has come to see?'
See _le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_, note 68; _le Jeu de l'amour et du
hasard_, note 175 and note 176; _le Legs_, note 132, and _le Legs_, note
135.
[26] COMME S'EN ALLANT, for, _comme en s'en allant.
[27] PARTI, 'Position' (Littre, 10 deg.). The idea of 'salary' is conveyed by
the word as used here.
[28] RENVERRAI TOUT. That is to say, _tout ce qui se presentera_; 'I will
dismiss all other applicants.'
[29] PARTI. See note 27.
[30] REPRESENTE, 'call attention, 'set forth'; a form often used in
petitions.
[31] PARDI. See _le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_, note 15.
[32] A VOTRE AISE LE RESTE, 'The rest when you like.'
[33] D'OU VIENT PREFERER CELUI-CI. See _le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard_,
note 220.
[34] ARRETE, for the modern French _engage_ ('engaged').
[35] IL ME TARDE, 'I long.'
[36] EN PASSE, 'In a position to.'
[37] D'ALLER A TOUT. For the more modern expression _d'arriver a tout_,
'to attain any height.'
[38] DEFAITE, 'Excuse' or 'pretext' (Littre", 4 deg., also Diet, de l'Acad.
1878).
[39] ELEVATION. Used here with the unusual meaning of 'desire for social
eminence.'
[40] ELLE S'ENDORT DANS CET ETAT, 'She is satisfied with her condition.'
While already in the seventeenth century the ambition of rich _bourgeois_
to gain admission to the exclusive circles of the nobility had been
sufficiently marked to induce Moliere to attack it in his _Bourgeois
gentilhomme_, it was even more noticeable in the eighteenth, and
_mesalliances_ between noblemen and women of the middle class became much
more frequent.
[41] REFLEXION ROTURIERE. _Rot
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