[471] This beginning of every English town-crierʼs oration, pronounced “Oh yes! Oh yes!” is merely the imperative of the defective French verb, ouir, “to hear,” now seldom used, except in the present infinitive and in proverbial phrases.
[472] Aristarchus also refers to the above President, whose liberality, according to public rumour, was somewhat ostentatious.
[473] Another allusion to M. de Harley, whose “wise saws and modern sayings” were proverbial.
[474] A cabinet was a sort of social circle in Paris, where people generally met to exchange small talk and to hear the news or lectures on all subjects.
[476] M. de Harlay (1625-1695), Archbishop of Paris, is said to have been the original of Theognis. (See page [46], § 26.) He was the nephew of the President mentioned on the previous page, note 122.
[477] Pamphilus is the Marquis de Dangeau, of whom we have already spoken (see page [156], note 311), and who made himself ridiculous by his excessive vanity. Saint-Simon, in his Mémoires, calls the Marquis un Pamphile, but our author speaks of les Pamphiles, and describes them at three different times, namely, in 1681, 1691, and 1692.
[478] See page [47], note 127. When this paragraph appeared, the Marquis de Dangeau had been already three years a Knight of the Order of the Holy Ghost. The knights of this order wore a cross hanging from a broad blue ribbon, which were both depicted around their escutcheon.
[479] See page [70], note 171.
[480] Such an official was in our authorʼs time called le premier commis.