4: Loin de moi cette pensée: a very dignified phrase: Perish the thought!
5: ce n'est pas malheureux: and a good thing, too! Cf. acte I, scène VIII, note 2.
6: Mathieu: for the inference from the name, see acte III, scène IX.
7: moustaches: Napoleon III set the fashion, compulsory in the army, of wearing no other hair on the face than a mustache and a small chin tuft called impériale. Of course, an army man might wear none at all, but such a thing was unusual.
8: la Malmaison: a village and pretty park, close to and southwest of Paris.
9: des meubles: this implies that the Major has made it up with Anita, and is about to set up housekeeping.—J'ai bien l'honneur (de vous saluer): a courteous formula of leave-taking: I beg to bid you.
ACTE III, SCÈNE X
1: raide en affaires: mighty peremptory. Lit., «stiff, unbending in your dealings.»
2: à la cheminée: before electric bells came into general use, there was in most parlors a bell-rope hanging on each side of the fireplace, one ringing upstairs, the other ringing in the kitchen.
3: un zouave: the zouaves were originally a troop of natives from the French colony of Algeria, who speedily got a name for fearlessness. The modern zouaves are Frenchmen, but still enjoy the same reputation as dare-devils and fire-eaters. Hence Perrichon's exclamation, semi-humorous because he does not yet fully realize his perilous position.