36 10 comme ... voulu: en vouloir à quelqu'un means 'to bear a grudge against a person.' Il en veut à Jean = 'he bears a grudge against John.' Here 'how angry they would have been with themselves!' 'how they would have reproached themselves!'
36 13 courage: 'energy.' The word courage (ordinarily = English 'courage') is often so used. Je n'ai pas le courage de travailler aujourd'hui 'I haven't the energy to work (do not feel like working) to day.' Cf. 50 1.
36 16 ne cessait: pas is often omitted with savoir, pouvoir, cesser, oser, bouger, cf. 18 32, 86 3.
36 18 Imbécile, va!: 'what a fool you are!' Va! allez! and allons! (imperatives of aller) are common exclamations, the sense varies with the context. For allons! cf. 56 1--Je te l'avais bien dit 'I told you so.'
36 19 Eh bien ... l'Afrique!: 'well now, here's your Africa!' On té see note to 13 7. La anticipates l'Afrique, cf. 32 5.
36 25 Alcazar: a music-hall. Alcazar means in Arabic 'the palace.'
36 27 la Mecque: 'Mecca,' in Arabia, the birthplace of Mohammed; the Holy City to which every good Mohammedan goes in pilgrimage at least once.
36 28 Ravel, Gil Pérès: popular comedians in Paris at the time Daudet was writing.