[13] UNE GRANDE CHARGE DANS LES FINANCES. Marivaux refers to the ferme générale, a syndicate of capitalists that exploited the taxes levied by the government, and collected by the fermiers généraux and their subordinates. The business was an exceedingly lucrative one for the members of the syndicate, who made large fortunes out of the profits of their contract with the State. The comedy of Lesage, Turcaret, turns upon the intrigues and swindles of one of these traitants or partisans, as they were also called. Dancourt, in his Chevalier à la mode, introduces a pretentious widow, Mme. Patin, of whom her maid says: "Mme. Patin, la veuve d'un honnête partisan, qui a gagné deux millions de bien au service du roi!" (Act I, Sc. 1).
[14] PÉROU. The gold mines of Peru gave rise to the use of the name as synonymous with wealth. Compare: "Madame Thibaut est un petit Pérou pour Monsieur de la Brie." (Dancourt, Femme d'intrigues, I, 2.)
[15] VOUS M'EN DIREZ DES NOUVELLES. See le jeu de l'amour et du hasard, note 242.
[16] DIANTRE. See le Legs, note 101.
[17] LÀ. Dans la tête, with a gesture.
[18] DÉRANGÉ. 'Disorderly' or 'irregular' (in his affairs).
[19] SERVITEUR AU COLLATÉRAL, 'Then the collateral heirs will have to go without.' Serviteur au is here used in the sense of tant pis pour. Serviteur is not infrequently used as a formula of dismissal.
[20] VOUS METTEZ. An inverted order quite common in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the second of two imperatives is construed with an object pronoun. Compare: "Quittez cette chimère, et m'aimez " (Corneille). "Polissez-le sans cesse et le repolissez" (Boileau, Art Poétique, Chant 1).
[21] DONT. _Que would preferably be used to-day, so as not to repeat the construction of the antecedent. Compare le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard, note 175.
[22] QU'IL VOUS REVIENNE, 'That you like him.'