Vulgar words in The Ancient Regime (Page 1)
This book at a glance
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~ ~ ~ Sentence 589 ~ ~ ~
He succeeds to the bastard born and dying in his seigniory without leaving a testament or legitimate children.
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Ass., August 7, 1789.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 3,837 ~ ~ ~
In the great crowd of blockheads sprinkled with pedants, there is, says Voltaire, "a small group apart called good society, which, rich, educated and polished, forms, you might say, the flower of humanity; it is for this group that the greatest men have labored; it is this group which accords social recognition.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 5,142 ~ ~ ~
Add to this a continual double sense, the author hidden behind his characters, truth put into the mouth of a clown, malice enveloped in simple utterances, the master duped but saved from being ridiculous by his deportment, the valet rebellious but preserved from acrimony by his gaiety, and you can comprehend how Beaumarchais could have the ancient regime played before its head, put political and social satire on the stage, publicly attach an expression to each wrong so as to become a by-word, and ever making a loud report,[4144] gather up into a few traits the entire polemics of the philosophers against the prisons of the State, against the censorship of literature, against the venality of office, against the privileges of birth, against the arbitrary power of ministers, against the incapacity of people in office, and still better, to sum up in one character every public demand, give the leading part to a commoner, bastard, bohemian and valet, who, by dint of dexterity, courage and good-humor, keeps himself up, swims with the tide, and shoots ahead in his little skiff, avoiding contact with larger craft and even supplanting his master, accompanying each pull on the oar with a shower of wit cast broadside at all his rivals.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 5,331 ~ ~ ~
In their midst Galiani, secretary of the Neapolitan Embassy, a clever dwarf; a genius, "a sort of Plato or Machiavelli with the spirit and action of a harlequin," inexhaustible in stories, an admirable buffoon, and an accomplished skeptic, "having no faith in anything, on anything or about anything,"[4206] not even in the new philosophy, braves the atheists of the drawing-room, beats down their dithyrambs with puns, and, with his perruque in his hand, sitting cross-legged on the chair on which he is perched, proves to them in a comic apologia that they raisonnent (reason) or résonnent (resound or echo) if not as cruches (blockheads) at least as cloches (bells);" in any event almost as poorly as theologians.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 5,796 ~ ~ ~
ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 5,819 ~ ~ ~
ass.
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[Footnote 5207: "Procèx-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 6,987 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5208: "Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,007 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5217: "Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,012 ~ ~ ~
72] [Footnote 5219: "Procés-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,028 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5227: "Procèx-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,033 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5229: "Procèx-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,058 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5240: "Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,070 ~ ~ ~
"Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,077 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5248: "Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,082 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5250: "Procès-verbeaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,088 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5251: Archives nationales, G, 322 (Memorandum on the excise dues of Compiègne and its neighborhood, 1786)] [Footnote 5252: "Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,092 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5253: "Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,107 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5256: "Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,116 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5260: "Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,121 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5262: De Tocqueville, 385.--"Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,132 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5269: "Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,380 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5317: "Procès-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,399 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5324: De Calonne, "Mémoires presentés à l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,434 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5337: "Process-verbaux de l'ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,447 ~ ~ ~
[Footnote 5342: "Procès-verbaux de l'Ass.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 7,779 ~ ~ ~
Right to property of deceased persons without heirs, to that of deceased bastards, the possessions of condemned criminals either to death, to the galleys or to exile, etc., (no profit).