[185] GUIGNON, 'Bad luck.' From guigner ('to ogle,' 'to peep'), and has some connection with the idea of the evil eye (Littré).
[186] CELA N'EST POINT CONTRAIRE À FAIRE FORTUNE. Cela n'empêche pas de faire fortune is more modern and better French.
[187] IMAGINATION. See note 44.
[188] IL LUI PREND. Il is redundant, and in some of the later editions is omitted.
[189] ACCOMMODONS-NOUS, 'Let us compromise.' Compare: "Le Ciel défend, de vrai, certains contentements; mais on trouve avec lui des accommodements." (Molière, le Tartuffe).
[190] FRIAND, 'Eager.' Primarily friand signified the gift of a delicate taste, and a rare appreciation of dainties. As used by Harlequin it recalls his ragoûtant. Cf. note 132.
[191] HABIT DE CARACTÈRE. Garb which designates, which characterizes any particular profession. As used here, it signifies Harlequin's livery as valet.
[192] GALON DE COULEUR, 'The fact that I wear livery.' The reference is to the braiding on the livery-coats worn by the retainers and domestics of the nobility in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as at the present day. "Après son deuil (the author speaks of Lauzun, who had gone into mourning for the Grande Mademoiselle), il ne voulut pas reprendre sa livrée, et s'en fit une de brun presque noir, avec des galons bleus et blancs" (Saint-Simon, Mémoires, I).
[193] BUFFET, Side-table, on which are placed the dishes destined for table service, and on which they may be left after clearing the table. The servants probably often ate the 'leavings' at this table, which may have given rise to the term buffet for the servants' eating-room, which is the sense in which the word is used here. Compare: "Je suis las d'être bien battu et mal nourri… Je suis las enfin d'avoir de la condescendance pour vos débauches, et de m'enivrer au buffet, pendant que vous vous enivrez à table" (Regnard, Attendez-moi sous l'orme, Sc. l).
[194] SUCCÈS = Résultat.