[11] QU’IL.  A laquelle would be better than que, in modern French.  The construction of the sentence is somewhat awkward, and betrays the lingering influence of the Latin forms, still so evident in many of the best seventeenth century authors, such as Bossuet, whose use of qui and que is very striking.  In the eighteenth century the language was acquiring greater freedom, but it is not until the nineteenth that it rids itself of much of the old syntax.

[12] PROCUREUR.  See le Legs, note 126.

[13] UNE GRANDE CHARGE DANS LES FINANCES.  Marivaux refers to the ferme generale, a syndicate of capitalists that exploited the taxes levied by the government, and collected by the fermiers generaux and their subordinates.  The business was an exceedingly lucrative one for the members of the syndicate, who made large fortunes out of the profits of their contract with the State.  The comedy of Lesage, Turcaret, turns upon the intrigues and swindles of one of these traitants or partisans, as they were also called.  Dancourt, in his Chevalier a la mode, introduces a pretentious widow, Mme. Patin, of whom her maid says:  “Mme. Patin, la veuve d’un honnete partisan, qui a gagne deux millions de bien au service du roi!” (Act I, Sc. 1).

[14] PEROU.  The gold mines of Peru gave rise to the use of the name as synonymous with wealth.  Compare:  “Madame Thibaut est un petit Perou pour Monsieur de la Brie.” (Dancourt, Femme d’intrigues, I, 2.)

[15] VOUS M’EN DIREZ DES NOUVELLES.  See le jeu de l’amour et du hasard, note 242.

[16] DIANTRE.  See le Legs, note 101.

[17] LA. Dans la tete, with a gesture.

[18] DERANGE.  ‘Disorderly’ or ‘irregular’ (in his affairs).

[19] SERVITEUR AU COLLATERAL, ’Then the collateral heirs will have to go without.’ 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.