[5] Besogne. “The thing that has to be done”—word used still in household service, but impossible to translate; we have no such concentrated one in English. [↑]
[6] The passage is entirely spoiled in Johnes’ translation by the use of the word ‘gallant’ instead of ‘gentle’ for the French ‘gentil.’ The boy was not yet nineteen, (born at Woodstock, June 15, 1330,) and his father thirty-six: fancy how pretty to see the one waiting on the other, with the French knights at his side. [↑]
[7] Sacred fillet, or “diadema,” the noblest, as the most ancient, crown. [↑]
FORS CLAVIGERA.
LETTER XXVI.
Brantwood, Coniston,
3rd January, 1873.
“By St. George,” said the English, “you say true!”
If, by the same oath, the English could still, now-a-days, both say and do true, themselves, it would be a merrier England. I hear from those of my acquaintance who are unhappy enough to be engaged in commercial operations, that their correspondents are “failing in all directions.”
Failing! What business has anybody to fail?