door; it was twisted and double-twisted so fast with wire,1 there was no getting it open without pulling 2 the cage to pieces. . . . I took both hands to it.3 6 The bird flew to the place where I was attempting his deliverance, and thrusting his head through the trellis, pressed his breast against it, as if impatient. "I fear, poor creature!" said I, “I cannot get thee at liberty." "No," said the starling.... “I can't get out, I can't get out," said the starling. ... 66 8 I vow I never had my affections more tenderly awakened; nor do I remember an incident in my life where 10 the dissipated spirits, to which my reason had been a bubble, were 11 so suddenly called home.12 chanical as 13 the notes were,14 yet so true in tune to Nature syntax and orthography, which are current in England among even well-educated persons, with regard to many French expressions which have been adopted in the English language, and were accepted at first most likely from exceedingly incompetent hands. Thus, coûte qui coûte, instead of coûte que coûte; double entendre, instead of double entente; se battre à l'outrance, instead of se battre à outrance; &c., &c. It is really a very great pity that these mistakes, which are only a small portion of those now current, are so generally in use that they cannot, I am afraid, be easily eradicated. I shall have to notice a few more in the course of this work. 1 elle était entortillée d'un double fil de fer (or, fil d'archal), et si fortement. 2 qu'il n'y avait pas moyen de l'ouvrir sans mettre. 3 Je m'y pris des deux mains. 4 We sometimes deviate, for the sake of emphasis, from the rule given page 27, note 3. 5 flew 'pressed; see page 1, note and page 55, note 8; also page 31, note 1. See page 29, note 12; and others. But we may here translate, as with impatience.' 7 See page 7, note 7. Me 8 said,' here, that is, ejaculated all at once; use the preterite, accordingly, not the imperfect. 9 See page 15, note 2. 10 See page 3, note 18. 11 Translate here by the compound of the present subjunctive (see page 35, note 20). 12 rappelés au logis. The word logis is not often used in this sense, except in the common phrase, la folle du logis, used to designate that very freakish faculty-imágination. 13 Translate here by Quelque. que; and see p. 47, end of n. 4. Quelque, however' or 'whatever,' is spelt in three ways:-1st, before a substantive, in one word, and it agrees with that substantive, as, quelques talents (whatever talents) qu'il ait; 2nd, before an adjective, in one word, but remains invariable, as quelque grands (however great) que soient ses talents-yet, if that adjective should itself be followed by a noun, quelque will agree, as, quelques grands talents qu'il ait; 3rd, before a verb, in two words, the first of which, only, agrees, as, quels que soient ses talents. 14 See page 3, note 3. were they chaunted1 that in one moment they overthrew all my systematical reasoning,2 upon the Bastille, and I heavily walked up stairs,3 unsaying every word1 I had said in going down them. "Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still,5 Slavery !" said I...." still thou art a bitter draught! And though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art no less bitter on that account.... 'Tis thou, thrice sweet and gracious Goddess," addressing myself to LIBERTY, "whom all, in public or in private, worship, whose taste is grateful, and ever will be so, till Nature herself shall change.10 No tint of words can spot thy. snowy mantle, or,11 chymic power turn thy sceptre into iron. With thee to smile upon him 12 as he eats his crust, the swain is happier than the monarch, from whose court 13 thou art exiled. "Gracious 14 Heaven!" cried I, kneeling down upon the last step but one in my ascent,15 "grant me but 16 health, thou great Bestower of it,17 and give me but 18 this fair Goddess as my 19 companion, and shower down thy mitres, if it seems good 20 unto thy divine Providence, upon those heads which are aching for them." 21-(STERNE, Sentimental Journey.) 1 Leave out yet' (page 108, note *).—elles étaient chantées dans un accord si parfait avec la nature; or, elles étaient si conformes à l'accent de la nature. 2 Use the plural. 13 de la cour duquel (or, de qui). When there is a preposition between 'whose' and the noun to which it relates, we must use duquel, de laquelle, desquels, and desquelles, according to the gender 3 l'escalier (singular). See page and number, instead of using dont, 53, note 2. which can never be preceded by a preposition; and, if we speak of persons, de qui may be used as well as duquel, &c. 14 miséricordieux. 15 Simply, sur l'avant-dernière marche. 18 16 seulement; which is more emphatic than ne... que. 17 Translate, 'its great,' &c. ne... que; to avoid an unnecessary repetition. 19 Simply, pour. 20 si bon semble. 21 qui en sèchent d'envie. MR. Fox's eloquence was of a kind which to comprehend you must have heard himself.1 When he got fairly into 2 his subject, was heartily warmed with it, he poured forth words and periods of fire that smote you, and deprived you of all power to reflect and rescue yourself, while he went on to seize3 the faculties of the listener, and carry them captive along with him whithersoever he pleased1 to rush. It is ridiculous to doubt that he was a far closer reasoner, a much more argumentative speaker than Demosthenes; as much more so as Demosthenes would perhaps have been than Fox,7 had he lived in our times 8 and had to address9 an English House 10 of Commons. For it is the kindred mistake of11 those who fancy that the two were like each,12 to imagine that the Grecian's orations are long chains of ratiocination, like Sir William Grant's arguments, or Euclid's demonstrations. They are close to the point; they are full of impressive allusions; they abound in expressions of the adversary's inconsistency; they are loaded with bitter invective; they never lose 1 Turn, 'Mr. Fox had a kind of eloquence which one cannot comprehend without having heard the orator himself.' 2 Quand il entrait en plein dans. 3 tout en s'emparant de. 4 il lui plaisait (literally, 'it pleased to him'). See p. 1, n. 6, p. 55, n. 8, and p. 31, n. 7. The verb plaire is not used, in French, as above in the text; thus je plais, tu plais, &c., 'I please,' &c., are only taken in the sense of 'I give pleasure,' 'I am pleasing, or pleasant,' &c., never in that of 'I am pleased,' &c. 5 Remember that douter governs the subjunctive (without ne, when conjugated affirmatively, and with ne when negatively, which is the reverse with craindre, as seen page 37, note 14). 6 Turn, 'that his reasonings were (subj.) far closer, his speeches much richer in argumentation, than those of." 7 Turn, he was by as muchor simply, as (d'autant, or, simply, aussi) superior to Demosthenes in this double respect (sous... rapport) as Demosthenes would perhaps have been (see p. 19, n. 5, and p. 5, n. 14) to Fox.' 8 temps (singular), or jours (plural). 9 s'adresser à. 18 Chambre. 11 une erreur commune chez (or, particulière à). 12 ces deux orateurs se ressemblent. 13 Elles ne s'écartent (or, ne s'éloignent) jamais de la question; or, Tout y est rigoureusement au fait; or, again, Tout y va droit au but. 3 sight of the subject;1 and they never quit hold of the hearer by the striking appeals they make to his strongest feelings and his favourite recollections: to the heart, or to the quick and immediate sense of inconsistency, they are always addressed, and find their way thither1 by the shortest and surest road; but to the head, to the calm and sober judgment, as pieces of argumentation, they assuredly are not addressed. But Mr. Fox, as he went along, and exposed absurdity, and made inconsistent arguments clash, and laid bare shuffling or hypocrisy, and showered down upon meanness, or upon cruelty, or upon oppression, a pitiless storm of the most fierce invective, was ever forging also the long, and compacted, and massive chain of pure demonstration. 5 11 There was no weapon of argument9 which this great orator more happily or 10 more frequently wielded than wit, the wit which exposes to ridicule the absurdity or inconsistency of an adverse argument. It has been said 11 of him, that he 12 was the wittiest speaker of his times; 13 and they 14 were the times of Sheridan and of Windham. This was Mr. Canning's opinion, and it was also Mr. Pitt's. There was nothing more awful in Mr. Pitt's sarcasm, nothing so vexatious in Mr. Canning's light and galling raillery, as the battering and piercing wit 15 with which Mr. Fox so often interrupted, but always supported, the heavy artillery of his argumentative declamation. In most of the external qualities of oratory,16 Mr. Fox was certainly deficient, being of an unwieldy person,17 without any grace of action, with a voice of little compass, and which, 1 The French construction is, 'they never lose the subject of sight,' or, 'they never lose of sight the subject;' but never ... lose sight of,' &c. 2 captivent jusqu'au bout. 3 Begin so, they are always addressed to the heart,' &c. s'y font jour; or, s'y introduisent. 5 Invert the last part of this proposition, in the same way as in the preceding one (note 3). 6 'tomake clash,' mettre en conflit. 10 See p. 42, n. 7. 11 See p. 8, n. 15. 15 les rudes bordées et les traits perçants de l'esprit. 16 de l'orateur. 17 lourd de sa personne. when pressed1 in the vehemence of his speech, became shrill almost to a cry or squeak;2 yet all this was absolutely forgotten in the moment when the torrent began to pour. Some of the undertones 3 of his voice were peculiarly sweet; and there was even in the shrill and piercing sounds which he uttered, when at the more exalted pitch, a power that thrilled the heart of the hearer. His pronunciation of our language was singularly beautiful, and his use of it1 pure and chaste to severity. As he rejected, from the correctness of his taste, all vicious ornaments, and was most sparing, indeed, in the use of figures at all, so, in his choice of words, he justly shunned foreign idiom, or words borrowed whether from the ancient or modern languages, 10 and affected the pure Saxon tongue,11 the resources of which are unknown to so many who use it, both in writing and in speaking. 12-(LORD BROUGHAM.) 1 See page 29, note 12. 2 se faisait aiguë jusqu'à (or, au point de) ne plus être presque qu'un cri. 3 tons bas. 7 9 8 Turn, 'in the choice of the words' (see page 28, note 3). 9 Use the plural; and see page 101, note 8. 10 Translate as if the English 4 et son expression; or, et l'usage were, from the ancient languages qu'il en faisait. 5 jusqu'à. 6 suite de. par 7 était même très réservé dans l'emploi de figures; or, better, était même fort sobre de figures. or from the modern languages (or, the modern ones)'. 11 le saxon pur. 12 à un si grand nombre de personnes ... &c., tant pour écrire que pour parler. |