J. A. H. M.

French names ending in s or x should always be followed by ’s when used possessively in English. Thus, it being taken for granted that the French pronunciation is known to the ordinary reader, and using Rabelais = Rabelè, Hanotaux = Hanotō, as examples, the only correct way of writing these names in the possessive in English is Rabelais’s (= Rabelès), Hanotaux’s (= Hanotōs).—H. H.

FOOTNOTES:

[75] See [p. 9] (note).—H. H.

APPENDIX II
WORKS IN THE FRENCH LANGUAGE

The English compositor called upon to set works in the French language will do well, first of all, to make a careful examination of some examples from the best French printing-offices. He will find that French printers act on rules differing in many points from the rules to which the English compositor is accustomed; and he will not be able to escape from his difficulties by the simple expedient of ‘following copy’.

For works in the French language, such as classical text-books for use in schools, the English compositor generally gets reprint copy for text and manuscript for notes. It is, as a rule, safe for him to follow the reprint copy; but there is this difficulty, that when the work forms part of a series it does not always happen that the reprint copy for one book corresponds in typographical style with reprint copy for other works in the same series. Hence he should apply himself diligently to understand the following rules; and should hunt out examples of their application, so that they may remain in his memory.[76]

1. Capital and lower-case letters.—In the names of authors of the seventeenth century, which are preceded by an article, the latter should commence with a capital letter: La Fontaine, La Bruyère.[77] Exceptions are names taken from the Italian, thus: le Tasse, le Dante, le Corrège.[78] As to names of persons, the usage of the individuals themselves should be adopted: de la Bruyère (his signature at the end of a letter), De la Fontaine (end of fable ‘Le Lièvre et la Tortue’), Lamartine, Le Verrier, Maxime Du Camp. In names of places the article should be small: le Mans, le Havre, which the Académie adopts; la Ferté, with no hyphen after the article, but connected by a hyphen with different names of places, as la Ferté-sous-Jouarre.