Hello,
granted, this is not a “jolly text” but it’s from Bossuet and it is from his most famous oration. The speaker is there at the peak of his art.
Lastly I can add there’s a weak relationship between this text and the previous one in French: poor Henriette-Anne’s state would have been the combination of a weak health and difficult pregnancies and I recently heard that, in a traditional society (don’t remember which one), they likened deliveries to battles and women who gave births to heroes…
Edit: corrections done.
Another great text for practicing, thank you! These are challenging, but at the same time, the writing is nice, and as an eulogy I expect the best abilities from the author. The last part is coming from Ezekiel in the Bible. As usual, there are some things I have doubts and I marked those as (?) and some that I couldn’t figure out.
Madame se meurt, Madame est morte
Considérez, messieurs, ces grandes puissances que nous regardons de si(?) bas. Pendant que nous tremblons sous leur main, Dieu les frappe pour nous avertir. Leur élévation est en(?) la cause ; et il les épargne si peu qu’il ne craint pas de les sacrifier à l’instruction du reste des hommes. Chrétiens, ne murmurez pas si Madame a été choisie pour nous donner une telle instruction. Il n’y a rien ici de rude pour elle, puisque comme vous le verrez dans la suite, Dieu la sauve par le même(?) coup qui nous instruit. Nous devrions être assez convaincus de notre néant – mais s’il faut des coups de surprise à nos coeurs enchantés de l’amour du monde, celui-ci est assez grand et assez terrible. O nuit désastreuse ! O nuit effroyable, où retentit tout-a-coup comme un éclat de tonnerre(?) cette étonnante nouvelle : Madame se meurt ! Madame est morte ! Qui de nous ne se sentit(?) frappé à ce coup comme si quelque tragique xxxx(?) avoit désolé sa famille ? Au premier bruit d’un mal si étrange, on a couru(?) à Saint-Cloud de toutes parts ; on trouve tout consterné, xxxx(?) le coeur de cette princesse. Partout on entend des cris ; partout on voit la douleur et le désespoir, et l’image de la mort. Le roi, la reine, Madame, toute la Cour, tout le peuple, tout est abattu(?), tout est désespéré et il me semble que je vois l’accomplissement de cette parole du prophète – le roi pleurera, le prince sera désolé, et les mains tomberont au peuple de douleur et d’étonnement.
Here are some things.
Thank you, Carlos, for these corrections… As usual, I don’t realize I make so many mistakes.
So, this is my answer to your remarks:
1. I can see why you think this way for Madame but, still, the form is a simple “m” as stated in par.24 page 8 of the manual;
2. I will blend it.
2a. Leur élévation en est la cause; I thought I already met this blend but no, I can find no trace of it. I will “de-blend” it.
3. Right.
4. The “men” isn’t long enough?! All right.
5. OK.
6. It was blended in my draft, by the way…
7. Alas, I tend to do it too many times.
7a. …si quelque tragique accident avait désolé… It’s a brief form but the “s” is the wrong direction. (par.196 page 101)
7b. On accourut à Saint-Cloud… Indeed the “a” wasn’t big enough.
7c. on trouve tout consterné, excepté le cœur de cette princesse. “Excepter” is a brief form as stated in par.53 page 25. To my knowledge, it is only used in the past participle (as seen in par.58 page 26).
8. All right. Many words beginning by “bat” have forms starting by “bt” but not “battre”. A bit more difficult to write but I admit it’s logical…
9. Right.
10. Why not.
And my last mistake, the one you couldn’t have spotted: “Le Roi, la Reine, Madame, toute la Cour…” It wasn’t Madame but Monsieur. Poor Madame… There was little she could have done.
Thanks again. The copy will be corrected shortly. 🙂
You’re welcome! I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote my comment about madame; it just shows you how often I write that word! 🙂
En est makes sense, yes.
Quelque tragique accident, yes (quelque tragique acceptation didn’t make sense).
About excepté, it makes sense now, except that you wrote it with an f (right s-e-f-e), instead of with a p (left s-e-p-e).
Lastly, accourir, I should have thought about the Spanish acorrer.
First, the oo-hooks and now I also make errors on the direction of the “p”s…
I suppose I need to practise…
Have a nice day/night. 🙂
Now, I think it should be good…
Awesome! We should ask Aymeric to review it, :-).
In the meantime, I’m writing Madame at least 100 times …
Alas I don’t have Aymeric’s email but I’m sure he will be overjoyed when he discovers all the new French texts…
For “Madame”, I’m certain you don’t need to write 100 times… with your memory.