another mystery quote

[Charles C Doyle]

Those seem like pretty sexy accents.

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 9:52 AM-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E9 is "cruaute" with an acutely accented "e" ;  F9 is "ou" with a gravely
accented "u."

JL

On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 9:26 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: another mystery quote
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've tracked down the original (in fifteenth-century French), and let's say
> that the original is somewhat less vivid  than the English translations.
>
> But for you scholars of Middle French: This sentence gives me pause:
>
> "On pense en soy-meismes : Laisseray-je ad ce tirant oster par sa cruaut=E9
> le bien d'autruy, o=F9 il n'a riens."
>
> "You think to yourself..."   What exactly?  I know what I'd like it to
> mean, but I'm not fluent enough to be sure that it does.
>
> JL

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org