[125.]--32. j'avais beau revenir. Littré explains this idiom as follows: «Avoir beau, c'est toujours avoir beau champ, beau temps, belle occasion; avoir beau faire, c'est proprement avoir tout favorable pour faire. Voilà le sens ancien et naturel. Par une ironie facile à comprendre, avoir beau a pris le sens d'avoir le champ libre, de pouvoir faire ce qu'on voudra, et, par suite, de se perdre en vains efforts.»
[127.]--13. Pie VII. Pius VII was imprisoned by Napoleon (l'empereur, l. 16) at Fontainebleau from 1812 to 1814; the words comediante... tragediante were used by Napoleon to the Pope and by the Pope to Napoleon.
UN RÉVEILLON DANS LE MARAIS
[130.]--23. vieux, vieux. The .repetition of an adjective for emphasis is much more common in Italian than in French.
[132.>]--3. une Diane... avec un croissant au front. A conventional manner of representing the goddess.
4. triolets. In versification this name (triolet) is given to a poem of eight lines, of which the first is repeated after the third, and both the first and second after the sixth, it is a development of the Old French rondeau; in music, as it is here used, the name is given to a group of three notes which, in a measure of 3/4 time, produces the effect of 6/8 time.
LA VISION DU JUGE DE COLMAR
[134.]--1. l'empereur Guillaume. William I, King of Prussia in 1861 and Emperor of Germany from 1871 to 1888; it was during his reign that the Franco-Prussian War occurred.
17. restez assis. In France the judges hold office for life (magistrature assise), while prosecuting attorneys, etc., may be removed from office by the Minister of Justice (magistrature debout); there is thus a double meaning in restez assis "remain seated" or "remain a judge (for life)"; on condition, of course, that Dollinger renounce his allegiance to France and take the oath of allegiance to Germany.
26. le même grand christ. Used in administering oaths, the person who took the oath raised his right hand toward the crucifix.