Footnotes

* Queen Christina, when Madame Dacier (then Mademoiselle Le Fèvre) sent her a copy of her edition of Callimachus, wrote in reply; – ‘Mais vous, de qui on m’assure que vous êtes une belle et agréable fille, n’avez vous pas honte de’être si savante?’ [The sentence translates as ‘But you, a handsome and pleasing maid, as I am told, are you not ashamed of being so learned?’]

* The letter to which we allude has this charming little touch;– ‘Je hais comme la mort que les gens de son age puissent croire que j’ai des galanteries. Il semble qu’on leur parait cent ans des qu’on est plus vieille qu’ eux, et ils sont tout propre à s’étonner qu’il y ait encore question des gens.’ [This translates as ‘I hate like death the idea that people of his own age might believe me to have liaisons. To all appearances one is deemed to be a hundred years old the moment one is older than they – and they are all too prone to wonder at there still being men [‘gens’ may be translated in various ways] about one.’ (Editors).]