[235] UN AMOUR DE MA FAÇON, 'A passion inspired by me.'
[236] SUJET À LA CASSE, 'Apt to be thwarted.' Casse—literally 'breakage.'
[237] FRIPERIE, 'Old clothes.' Used colloquially; as in English, 'duds.'
[238] POUSSER MA POINTE, 'Carry out my purpose.'
[239] LA MIENNE. Refers to friperie.
[240] NOUS L'AVONS DANS NOTRE MANCHE. "Avoir une personne dans sa manche, En disposer à son gré" (Dictionnaire de l'Académie française). The expression, no doubt, is derived from the custom of using the full sleeves as a receptacle for all manner of objects to be carried about by the wearer at a time when pockets were not worn. It is still in vogue in certain cases— military officers, for instance, carry their handkerchiefs in their left sleeve. Théophile Gautier, in his Voyage en Italie, speaks of giving to a couple of monks "quelques zwantzigs pour dire des messes à notre intention. Les bons pères prirent l'argent, le glissèrent dans le pli de leur manche."
[241] PÂTE D'HOMME. A familiar expression for 'sort of a man.'
[242] VOUS M'EN DIREZ DES NOUVELLES, 'You will see that I am right.' See Nouvelle, Littré, 1°. Compare: "(Madame Patin) Tu ne sais ce que tu dis. (Lisette) Vous m'en direz des nouvelles" (Dancourt, le Chevalier à la Mode, I, IX).
[243] VOS PETITES MANIÈRES, 'Your rude manners.' By apposition to les belles manières, the manners of a class above one's own.
[244] NOUS VIVRONS BUT À BUT, 'We shall live on the same footing.' To understand Harlequin's impertinent remark, it must be remembered that while he is well aware of the real rank of both Lisette and Silvia, Dorante is still ignorant of it. Harlequin knows his master to be in love with the latter, and to be about to marry her, in spite of the apparently tremendous difference in rank, and allows himself a little sarcasm at the expense of his master. This attitude of the domestic towards his superior is not infrequent in the comedies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.