ACTE II, SCÈNE VIII
1: sortir: i.e. from their room.
2: Faîtes-moi servir: observe the great politeness that characterizes the Major throughout. He begs the innkeeper to «have a cherry-brandy served him,» not to bring it himself.
3: tout: before en and the present participle, merely emphasizes the fact that the two actions are simultaneous.
4: Vous n'auriez pas: You do not happen to have? This idiomatic use of the conditional present implies that a less favorable answer is expected than if the indicative had been used.
5: Aussi: see acte II, scène IV, note 6.
6: Clichy: the Clichy prison in Paris was the place of confinement for insolvent debtors (like the Marshalsea in London) until 1867, when imprisonment for debt was abolished in France.
7: garçon; the Major thinks an unmarried man is likely to lend a more sympathetic ear to his love affairs.
8: Ne vous gênez pas: Don't mind me! Cf. acte II, scène VII, note 2.
9: voyez-vous: this, like the colloquial, «don't you know,» is not a real question, and therefore does not require a question-mark.
10: du tout: = Pas du tout!
11: pour moi: on my side.