Guesclin: Pages Titres, Chronique de Du Guesclin with French-English Glossary par S. Rhoads en ligne, Collationnee sur L’Edition originale du XVe Siecle, et sur tous les Manuscrits, avec une Notice Bibliographique et des Notes, par M. Fr. Michel: Paris, Bureau de La Bibliotheque Choisie

ALL THE FRENCH WORDS are defined and conjugated — every one, every time. Each word on this page will show their meaning in English, in its context in that phrase, when your mouse hovers over them. In addition, clicking on the underlined words, or the words in the titles, when used in that form, or with that meaning, for the first time only on this page, will take you down to the Page Glossary. All the forms of that word used on this page only will be listed, and the source of the information often. Other forms or variant meanings used elsewhere will be on those pages where they are used in that way. Clicking on the entry word there will take you back up to your place in the text afterward.

All the words and their variant meanings and forms used in the entire book are in the cumulative Glossary at the end of the book.

DU GUESCLIN

DE LA SIGNATURE

DE BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN

The sources for the definitions can be found in Comments belowComments* below.

        About verb classifications: In the slightly older dictionaries, 100 years or so. Nobody I used had heard of the Simple Past or Definite Past, or Historic Past, as such, it is always called the Perfect and so used as such in the following glossary, unless it is a modern French word used in the titles or in the reference by Michel.

        In Chandos and Toynbee sometimes the same spelling of some verbs used in the third person singular were called imperfect in one but perfect in the other. Both are noted.

        Cotgrave uses different tenses like the aorist and other extravagant forms that the first two references mentioned, and my books, don't mention. These other verb forms are rare in Guesclin, so conjugations and their patterns mentioned by the other two are almost always used and noted if they listed that form particularly. If the conjugation says Elf.Ed, then it was mine based on the endings used similarly in the old books and the models used will be credited. If it is a standard Modern French form of the word and not listed by them, there will be no reference note.

        The Conditional was felt to be a separate Mood to these older linguists as well, which is not considered to be the case by some modern linguists.

        When there is no mention of the source, then it is my note and a general mixture of several resources for meanings with expanded synonyms.

        About types of verbs: In Toynbee, verbs are classified as active, neuter, or reflective. In modern dictionaries transitive, intransitive and reflexive are used. Toynbee’s classification is used in this glossary, unless the verb is not used in his dictionary and is only found in Modern French dictionaries, and those classifications are then used.

A : This word has several meanings. It can be a preposition or a verb (from the verb avoir: to have) :

NOTE !!! In modern French this word, used as a preposition, has a grave accent (the reverse of an acute accent): à. This is not always so in older French texts and the accent is never included in this text of Du Guesclin. In that case, differentiating between the preposition and the verb has to be determined by the context.

Here is the first example of the use of small “a” in this text, used as the preposition, à, without the accent.

NOTE !!! Often, in modern French, when the preposition à is capitalized, the accent is not included, as in older French. In that case, too, differentiating between the preposition and the verb has to be determined by the context.

There is a modern example of the use of capital “A” on this site, as the preposition, à, without the accent.

For other forms, meanings and uses of this word, see the Main Glossary entry for A.

In the page titles, it means the English only translation of this page, the Anglaise title, or the interlinear English translation with the French text, the Anglaise-Francaise title link.

Bertrand : masculine proper noun; singular. Bertrand, the same in both languages. The first name of our hero:

(1) La Bibliothèque Choisie : feminine proper name; singular. The Select Library, or The Choice Library. Whether this is a private publishing or printing firm or bookseller, or a governmental office of the 19th century, I cannot discover.

It had three branches: Paris, Méquigonon-Havard, and Bricon, according to the title-pages of the book

(1) : : La Bibliothèque Royale : feminine proper name; singular. The Royal Library. In the French Revolution, the revolting populace seized all the possessions they wanted from the losers. Therefore the private library of the king and many other nobles were stolen and the National Library of France was created from these possessions, according to Wikipedia. That cannot be the whole story, since this book was written many years after the Revolution, in 1830, and it is still referred to as the Royal Library. The Revolution was long over at this point.

Choisie : past participle; feminine; singular of the active verb choisir. Chosen, or selected.

Collationée : past participle; feminine; singular, of the verb collationer. Examined and compared versions, or copies, compiled, collated.

Conservé : past participle — masculine; singular, of the active verb conserver. Conserved, preserved, saved.

Du : masculine; singular contraction of the preposition de + the definite article Le, or De + La. Of the; or from the.

Devant : preposition; singular only. Before, previous. Here, meaning the webpage before this one.

Du : masculine; singular contraction of the preposition de + the definite article Le, or De + La. Of the; or from the.

Édition : feminine noun; singular. Edition. It can also mean the act of editing. There is no plural form, but when this is implied, it can mean the field or work of publishing.

The accent over the E is preserved in capitalization of the letter. Usually most vowels with an accent, don't keep the mark when capitalized.

Et : conjunction; masculine or feminine; singular or plural. And, also, too.

Fr. : abbreviation of Francisque, a masculine proper noun; singular. Francis or Frank. Here, referring to the editor of the manuscript of the Chronique de Du Guesclin, Francisque Xavier Michel.

NOTE. Here, it means the French language, and is not capitalized, outside of titles.

Guesclin : proper noun; masculine; singular. Guesclin, a city or place in Brittany. Bertrand’s family came from there, and so it formed his last name: a common practice in those days.

NOTE! We know it is masculine in gender, because of the use of Du before all its uses.

L’ : This can be either feminine or masculine, singular. It is the elided or shortened form of both La, or Le. It can mean either the definite article, or the pronoun, depending on the context:

This shortened form, of Le, or La, can be feminine or masculine, depending on the noun it modifies but it is always singular.

In L’, the vowel, e or a is dropped. This happens when the word is followed by a noun beginning with a vowel or a silent h. This is done because the French, like some other nations, didn’t like to say 2 vowels together, thinking it sounded awkward and ugly. The word for this process is called elision.

When pronouncing the word, then, you would say both together — Le-di-tion, for L’Édition, etc.

The French adore elision, and do it in all sorts of places, which makes oral French really, really hard to understand to beginning listeners trying to learn the lingo.

Also, the article, whether la, le, les, un, une, or unes, etc., is regularly used in French, not like in English, where it is often omitted.

(1) L’ : As definite article. This can be either feminine or masculine, singular. It is the singular shortened form of both La, or Le. The meaning doesn’t change — it always means The.

Whether feminine or masculine, the meaning doesn’t change — it always means The, since common nouns in English are neuter — so there is no distinction in translation between masculine and feminine forms of articles and nouns in French.

(1) L’ : feminine, singular. Elision of the feminine; singular definite article La: : The.

(1) L’ : masculine, singular. Elision of the masculine; singular definite article Le: : The.

Les : masculine or feminine, definite article, or pronoun. Plural of Le or La.

M. : Abbeviation for Monsieur, masculine; singular title of respect. Mister, in English.

Michel : proper noun; singular. Michel. Here, referring to the Editor of the Chronicle of Du Guesclin. His full name was Francisque Xavier Michel, and he lived 78 years, from 1809-1887. He was a noted French scholar and was one of the first to resurrect older French works. In his work, he traveled to England and Scotland to study the French texts there. See the spot of trouble he got into in England, when he went to study old manuscripts, here.

Notes : feminine noun, plural of Note. Notes, remarks, footnotes, explanations, commments.

This prepostion has many uses and meanings. For more meanings of par see the Glossary.

Paris : masculine proper noun; singular. Paris is the same word in English or French, and other languages, too. Here, the capital of France is meant — not Paris, Kentucky; or Paris the abductor of Helen of Troy.

NOTE!! Some proper names in French do have a gender, but the definite article, La or Le is rarely, if ever, used. Countries, yes, but cities, and individuals, no. La France is correct occasionally, but never Le Paris. L’Allemagne is used, but not Le Bertrand. For more on this see the only book online that addresses this subject intelligently and clearly: French Grammar, by R. Labutte.

NOTE!! In the present text, the article is never used before proper nouns of countries, like France, or proper names of individuals: Robert Canolle [p. 126].

Also, in proper names, like Bertrand du Guesclin and Charles de Bloys, the de and du are not capitalized. But if the definite article is included in the title, it is capitalized: Eustache de La Houssoye; le roi Edoard de l’Angleterre. [p. 44].

The titles of Sir, Count, King, Duchesse, Castle, etc., in proper names are not capitalized and use the article before the title: le roy Charles de France, le chastel Josselin, duc de Lancastre, le duc Charles, messire Guillame Boitel, etc. However, exceptions do occur, as usual, and include: Le Begue , Le Moyne de Betavy [p.126], and Le Baston [p. 115].

See also, the webpage by Prof. T. Daniel Seely, on Notes on Nouns and Noun Phrases. He is less clear on the gender of proper nouns, but more clear on the difference between a proper noun and a proper name. A proper noun is a specific place, person or thing. A proper name is a specific person, place or thing but made up of more than one word, like University of Alaska Southwest. He also points out that a definite article may be a part of a proper name, and capitalized, his example being The Hague, in English, or an example in this text: La Mote de Bron, in French.

Pris : past participle — masculine; singular, of the active, neuter, or reflective verb prendre. Taken.

Suivant : present participle; feminine; singular, of the transitive verb suivre. Next, or following. Here, meaning the next webpage of this online book in French, with a glossary.

Sur : preposition — masculine or feminine; singular or plural. It has several meanings:

Tous : Here, used as a masculine or feminine pronoun, plural. From tout. All, everyone, the whole.

(1) Tout : Here, used as a masculine pronoun; singular; from tout. All, the whole, everyone, each.

(1) Tout : Here, used as a masculine adjective; singular; from tout. All, every, each.

(2) : Tous : Here, used as a masculine or feminine adjective; plural. From tout. All, every, each.

Une : feminine indefinite article or number; singular. From Un. A, an or one.

XV^e : abbreviation for the ordinal number; masculine, or feminine. Fifteenth.

This notation of XV plus ^e makes this the ordinal number abbreviation, for fifteenth. In French, the full word is quinzième. Just as in English, we use 15, or XV, plus ^th, to make 15^th, or XV^th, which stands for fifteenth.

*   The Glossary is newly created for this text. Glossaries used for the Medieval French are from the works of:

        [abbr. as Chandos] — Mildred K. Pope and Eleanor C. Lodge, a work contemporary with that of Guesclin’s anonymous biographer, in the Life of the Black Prince by the Herald of Sir John Chandos, Oxford: Claredon Press; 1910; whose English translation is on this site

        [abbr. as Toynbee] — Paget Toynbee, in Specimens of Old French(IX-XV Centuries), with some contemporary works, Oxford: Clarendon Pres; 1892,

        [abbr. as Cotgrave] — Randall Cotgrave’s Dictionary of the French and English Tongues, published in 16ll, 200 years after this work, were used — thankfully put online by Greg Lindahl.

        [abbr. as Modern] — Occasionally, modern French-English dictionaries and text-books were used if the older references did not contain a word that is used in this text, or for translations of the modern French used by Michel.

        [abbr. as Thayer] — If all that failed, Bill Thayer — an expert in modern French, and not only bilingual, well-read, and wise but kind, very patient, and clear in his explanations, — pitched in with his considered opinion.

        [abbr. as Elf.Ed.] — Last, but not least, if the word in Guesclin has no exact equivalent in any of these resources, a good guess based on similar spellings and conjugations in the above works prevailed. — S. R.

DU GUESCLIN

DE LA SIGNATUREDE BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN

DE LA SIGNATURE

DE BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN