Mademoiselle Augustine Brohan.—Vous vous trompez, mon cher directeur.... A la cour de Napoléon III., on dit maintenant: il a “remercié son boulanger.”—P. Audebrand.
The above conversation, according to the author of Petits Mémoires d’une Stalle d’Orchestre, took place at the Théâtre Français, of which M. Arsène Houssaye was then the manager. To explain this invasion of the Parisian jargon in the house of Molière, it must be said, that it coincided with the publication of a decree by M. Achille Fould, then Secretary of State. Being aware that the idiom of the hulks and gutter was used to an alarming extent on the Parisian stage, his Excellency had declared that the Government, declining to be an accomplice of these literary misdemeanours, had prohibited the use of the degrading lexicology, and had ordered a “commission de censure” (whose functions are somewhat similar, in theatrical matters, to those of the Lord Chamberlain in England) to taboo any play offering such enormities. The injunction had been specially enforced with respect to the Théâtre Français as being the official guardian of the purity of the French language and the leading playhouse. But the offended comedians, in retaliation, began to affect making use of the “langue verte.”
Remettez donc le couvercle (roughs’), a polite invitation to one who has an offensive breath to cease talking.
Remisage, m. (thieves’), place kept by a receiver of stolen property, chiefly vehicles of every description.
Dans les remisages ... vont s’engouffrer tous les camions, voitures, carrioles volés, pendant que les chevaux s’en vont au marché, et que les victimes sont déjà au fond de l’eau!—Mémoires de Monsieur Claude.
Remiser (popular), le fiacre à quelqu’un, to shut one up.
Comme il a voulu faire du pétard, j’y ai salement remisé son fiacre.—G. Courteline.
Remiser son fiacre, to hold one’s tongue; to die. Se faire ——, to get sat upon.
Remiseur, m. (thieves’), a receiver of stolen property, or “fence.”