[421] Another allusion to the disgrace of the Duke de Luxembourg. (See page [195], note 402), which happened from 1679 to 1681.
[422] This new Minister was, according to some, M. Claude le Peletier (see page 54, note 1), appointed contrôleur-général des finances in 1683, and with whom the Duke de Villeroy, afterwards defeated by Marlborough at Ramillies, 1706, claimed relationship, though without any foundation. It seems more likely to have referred to M. de Pontchartrain. (See page [201], note 414.)
[423] Plancus is the Minister for War, Louvois, who died suddenly in 1691, about a year before this paragraph appeared: Tibur stands for Meudon, near Paris. In the ancient Tibur, a town of Latium to the east of Rome, and now called Tivoli, the Latin poet Horace had his country-seat; Plancus, the Consul, was one of his friends.
[424] This is a reference to Psalm cxxxv. 16, 17.
[425] In French certaines livrées, certain liveries. Can this be an allusion to the justaucorps à brevet, or coats only worn by the Kingʼs permission?
[426] The commentators suppose that a certain Abbé de Choisy (1644-1724) is meant, who passed a great part of his life dressed as a woman.
[427] See page [121], note 227.
[428] The original has tout ce qui paraît de nouveau avec les livrées de la faveur. See also page [205], note 425.
[429] The Italian astronomer T. D. Cassini (1625-1712) was the head of the Parisian Observatoire for astronomical studies.
[430] A parhelion is a mock sun or meteor near the sun, sometimes tinged with colours; a parallax is the difference between its position as seen from some point on the earthʼs surface and its position as seen from some other conventional point.