- Joined
- Saturday January 15, 2011
- Location
- Norfolk, England
I always wondered whether my French had deteriorated to a greater extent than I thought since completing my A-level 19 years ago, because it didn't seem familiar to me.The Cruel Sea is where I encountered it, I understood it to be 'Old' French which explained the phrasing (the en and l') and the inadvertent(?) double entendre. I'm not a French scholar though, or even a fluent speaker but I had encountered Balzac's version before, which made me think there was an older origin for it and Balzac was being smart with it. Montserrat's ancestors were French and his mother was called Margueritte but I've no idea whether he even spoke French.
I took a lot of it's meaning from the context in which it was used. Some are givers some are takers in whatever part of life, smutty or otherwise.