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Femme   Listen
noun
Femme  n.  A woman. See Feme, n.
Femme de chambre. A lady's maid; a chambermaid.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Femme" Quotes from Famous Books



... le bon soit toujours camarade du beau Des demain je chercherai femme. Mais comme le divorce entre eux n'est pas nouveau, Et que peu de beaux corps, hotes d'une belle ame, Assemblent l'un et ...
— Amiel's Journal • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... appear on Sundays. At this theatre she lost no time in exhibiting that independence and caprice to which, as much as to her talent, she owes her celebrity. The day after the first representation of a piece by Labiche, "Un Mari qui Lance sa Femme," in which she had undertaken an important part, she stealthily quitted Paris, addressing to the author a letter in which she begged him ...
— Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 8 (of 8) • Various

... day. I am alone in the flat with a "femme de menage" to look after me. A doctor comes to see me sometimes. Miss Logan and Mr. Strickland left this morning. There was a tempest of rain, and I couldn't think of being moved. They were sweet and kind, and felt bad about leaving ...
— My War Experiences in Two Continents • Sarah Macnaughtan

... only one of his many little delusions. You think you will have your way; Gervase thinks he will have his way; I think I will have my way; but as a matter of fact there is only one person in this affair whose 'way' will be absolute, and that person is the Princess Ziska. Ce que femme veut Dieu veut." ...
— Ziska - The Problem of a Wicked Soul • Marie Corelli

... the memoirs of Arnault. At first she plied her suit with fulsome compliment. Bonaparte listened coldly, and the conversation flagged. In despair she blurted out, "General, what woman could you love the most?" "My own," was the stinging reply. ("Quelle femme?" "La mienne.") Woman and wife being the same word in French, Napoleon's retort was a disdainful pun. "Very well; but which would esteem you the highest?" she persisted. "The best housekeeper." "Yes, I understand; ...
— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. III. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane

... which are appended to Les jeux de Mains, a poem in three cantos, published in 1808, and were collected in his Oeuvres Posthumes, 1819; but there is no trace of the original of Byron's translation. Perhaps it is after de Rulhire, who more than once epigrammatizes "Une Vieille Femme."] ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. - Poetry • George Gordon Byron

... gossip within the quarter that your "femme de menage" does not know, and over your morning coffee, which she brings you, she will regale you with the latest news about most of your best friends, including your favorite model, and madame from whom you buy your wine, always concluding ...
— The Real Latin Quarter • F. Berkeley Smith

... ze worst are. Ma foi! Weez ze army I kept through ze wilderness, ze bois, from Canada, and not one unkind or insult did I receef, till I came to where zere were zose of my own sex. Would you beleef it, in Boston ze femme zay even spat at me when I passed zem on ze street. And since from Cambridge we started, when I haf wished for anyzing, my one prayer zat it shall be a man and not a woman I must ask it has been. Ze women, I say ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford

... Marguerite as a type of innocence and virtue? The explanation is, I suppose, that Goethe wrote at a time when it was the convention to regard all women as good. Anything in petticoats was virtuous. If she did wrong it was always somebody else's fault. Cherchez la femme was a later notion. In the days of Goethe it was always Cherchez l'homme. It was the man's fault. It was the devil's fault. It was anybody's fault you liked, ...
— Idle Ideas in 1905 • Jerome K. Jerome

... Louis-Philippe. But the most serious breach of relations between the two resulted from her failure to approve of Balzac's adoration of Madame Hanska. While admitting the extreme beauty of the celebrated Daffinger portrait, she was jealous of his Predilecta. When she saw the bound proofs of La Femme superieure which he had intended for Madame Hanska, she felt that she was being neglected. In the end, he robbed his Chatelaine to the profit of his cara sorella. But when she became impatient at Balzac's prolonged stay at Wierzchownia, he resented it, explaining that ...
— Women in the Life of Balzac • Juanita Helm Floyd

... par le juron qui leur est familier. Ainsi ils diront: 'Diable me brule est bien malade. Nom d'un rat est a la foire. La femme a Diable m'estrangouille est morte. Le garcon a Bon You (Dieu) se marie avec la fille ...
— The Romance of Names • Ernest Weekley

... the study of physiological peculiarities in women, wherever these can be made to tell upon any social or moral relations? Dr. Clarke does not indeed affirm, with Michelet, that women are essentially diseased. "La femme est une malade." Where Michelet leaves to the healthiest women but a single week of every month for normal existence, Dr. Clarke believes that one week out of the month alone requires any special precautions, and that, with decent care ...
— The Education of American Girls • Anna Callender Brackett

... versed in the niceties of the heart, and born with a faculty for willing compromise. The woman must be talented as a woman, and it will not much matter although she is talented in nothing else. She must know HER METIER DE FEMME, and have a fine touch for the affections. And it is more important that a person should be a good gossip, and talk pleasantly and smartly of common friends and the thousand and one nothings of the day and hour, than that she should speak with the tongues ...
— The Pocket R.L.S. - Being Favourite Passages from the Works of Stevenson • Robert Louis Stevenson

... former capital, the alleged reason being promotion to a still higher diplomatic post: there seems, however, to be no reasonable doubt that the practical rupture of relations between the Empires of the West and East is not remotely connected with the eternal maxim, "Cherchez la femme." Much sympathy is expressed with ...
— The Casual Ward - academic and other oddments • A. D. Godley

... largely inspired by Paul Bourget, contains as large an element of 'Notre Coeur' and 'Bel-Ami' as of 'Le Disciple' and 'Coeur de Femme.' In this novel, Andrea Sperelli affords us the type of D'Annunzio's heroes, who, aside from differences due to age and environment, are all essentially the same,—somewhat weak, yet undeniably attractive; containing, all of them, "something of a Don Juan and a Cherubini," ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner

... common miss, such as are turned out in scores from the young-lady-factories, with parchments warranting them accomplished and virtuous,—in case anybody should question the fact. I began to understand her;—and what is so charming as to read the secret of a real femme incomprise?—for such there are, though they are not the ones who think themselves ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... m'arretai, pour l'attendre sur un terte exhausse d'ou l'on decouvre tout le pays. Je contemplais le canton que je dominais, plonge dans une douce reverie. J'en fus tire par des cris et je me retournai vers l'endroit d'ou ils partaient. Je vis M. le Baron d'Holbach environne d'une vieille femme et de deux villageois, l'un vieux comme elle et l'autre jeune. Tous trois, les larmes aux yeux, l'embrassaient hautement. Allez vous-en donc, s'ecrait M. le Baron d'Holbach; laissez moi, on m'attend, ne me suivez pas, adieu; je reviendrai l'annee prochaine. En me voyant arriver vers eux, ...
— Baron d'Holbach • Max Pearson Cushing

... to-day an autograph letter written by Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, not far from the time of the birth of his putative son, now Napoleon III. One passage read as follows: 'J'ai le malheur d'avoir pour femme une Messalene. Elle a des amants partout, et partout ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White

... were various tenants, some with callings, some with none, all apparently needy, and glad of the chance of hiding in so economical a tenement. A list of the occupants was hung on the door, by order of the Convention, and the names of Lestrange, femme, et domestique, duly figured upon it. A common staircase led to all the floors, but I encountered no one as I toiled to the top of all, where stood Biddy, with her finger up, motioning to me to ...
— Kilgorman - A Story of Ireland in 1798 • Talbot Baines Reed

... the contention that "the snake was the snake"—no more (vide post, p. 211), see La Bible enfin Expliquee, etc.; [OE]uvres Completes de Voltaire, Paris, 1837, vi. 338, note. "La conversation de la femme et du serpent n'est point racontee comme une chose surnaturelle et incroyable, comme un miracle, ou conune une allegorie." See, too, Bayle (Hist. and Crit. Dictionary, 1735, ii. 851, art. "Eve," note A), who quotes Josephus, Paracelsus, and "some ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... been so unhappy from fear that I didn't "love her so." She was quite unfemininely frank, you see. Oh, the ecstacy of that hour! The ecstacy of our first kiss! From that time on it was "mon petit mari" and "ma petite femme." The greatest joy in life for me, for us, was to sit together, holding each other's hands, and repeating from time to time, "J' t'aime tant, j' t'aime tant." Now and then we would vary it with a fugue upon our names—"Helene!"—"Paul!"' He laughed. 'Children, with their total lack ...
— Grey Roses • Henry Harland

... resumed: "But for all that, he appears to have been a lively old gentleman to the end, and left us his version of a saying which is considered by some people an improvement on the original, 'Cherchez la femme.' Uncle Marston had it, 'Hunt the other woman.' Don't go too fast with that punch; it isn't as gentle as ...
— Lady Baltimore • Owen Wister

... considering the circumstances. It has hitherto occurred to nobody, however, to doubt the appropriateness of the texts inscribed upon it, in connection with three little French words which Elfrida, in the charmingly apologetic letter which she left for her parents, commanded to be put there—"Pas femme-artiste." Janet, who once paid a visit to the place, hopes in all seriousness that the sleeper underneath is ...
— A Daughter of To-Day • Sara Jeannette Duncan (aka Mrs. Everard Cotes)

... You're no gold brick, Belle, and you know it, even though you do refuse to go to the mirror. But the fellow who drags any femme—" ...
— Dave Darrin's Second Year at Annapolis - Or, Two Midshipmen as Naval Academy "Youngsters" • H. Irving Hancock

... his return home, found his house completely spoilt, as this room occupied the main part of the first floor. However, as the mischief was done, he bore it with the greatest philosophy, venting his feelings with his usual exclamation on such occasions—'Oh, ma femme! ma femme!' ...
— The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope v. I. • A. M. W. Stirling (compiler)

... femme," observed Bertram. "It sounds like perfect foolishness to me; a swollen faced outlander who rules familiar spirits with a wand, and, between investigations in the realms of science, writes a girl's name all over the place like ...
— Average Jones • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... she was asked, that in Locmine she had been followed and insulted with cries: "C'est la femme au foie blanc; elle porte la mort avec elle!''? Nobody had ever said anything of the sort to her, was her sullen answer. A useless denial. There were plenty of witnesses to express their belief in her "white liver'' and to tell of her ...
— She Stands Accused • Victor MacClure

... heather in my native county. No," said Peter, "no. To tell you the truth, it is the usual thing. It is an histoire de femme." ...
— The Cardinal's Snuff-Box • Henry Harland

... turned to him and said, "O my lord, I have that to propose to thee wherein thou must not cross me; and this it is that, when we reach Baghdad, my native city, I offer thee my life as thy handmaiden in holy matrimony, and thou shalt be to me baron and I will be femme to thee." He answered, "I hear and I obey!; thou art my lady and my mistress and whatso thou doest I will not gainsay." Then I turned to my sisters and said, "This is my gain; I content me with this youth and ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... un honnete homme, et n'en faites jamais une honnete femme." (My God, make me an honest man, but never ...
— Life, Letters, and Epicurean Philosophy of Ninon de L'Enclos, - the Celebrated Beauty of the Seventeenth Century • Robinson [and] Overton, ed. and translation.

... dites, Marie, Qui vous vint visiter; Les bourgeois de la ville Vous ont-ils confortee? —Oncque, homme ni femme N'en eut compassion, Non plus ...
— Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan • Clement A. Miles

... a time hath he spoken against thee to my father, saying, Indeed, he is an impostor, a liar! But my sire hearkened not to his say, for that he had sought me in wedlock and I consented not that he be baron and I femme. However, the time grew longsome upon my sire and he became straitened and said to me, Make him confess. So I have made thee confess and that which was covered is discovered. Now my father purposeth ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10 • Richard F. Burton

... of selfish intrigues. The commonest case is, of course, that which has become the staple plot of French novelists, where the interesting young woman is sacrificed to the brutality of a dull husband: that, for example, is the story of the 'Femme de Trente Ans,' of 'Le Lys dans la Vallee,' and of several minor performances; then we have the daughter sacrificed to the avaricious father, as in 'Eugenie Grandet;' the woman sacrificed to the imperious lover in the 'Duchesse de Langeais;' the immoral beauty sacrificed to the ambition ...
— Hours in a Library, Volume I. (of III.) • Leslie Stephen

... Melanie, Delaporte and Victoria (afterwards Victoria-La-fontaine). I squeeze again with my mother, my aunt and my brother into the stuffy baignoire, and I take to my memory in especial Madame de Girardin's Une Femme qui Deteste son Mari; the thrilling story, as I judged it, of an admirable lady who, to save her loyalist husband, during the Revolution, feigns the most Jacobin opinions, represents herself a citoyenne of citoyennes, in order to keep him the more safely ...
— A Small Boy and Others • Henry James

... lui faudrait pour aller ou elle voudrait aller, et si vous l'aviez pris au mot, it aurait suivi la punaise jusqu'au Mexique, sans se soucier d'aller si loin, ni du temps qu'il y perdrait. Une fois la femme du cure Walker fut tres malade pendant longtemps, il semblait qu'on ne la sauverait pas; mai un matin le cure arrive, et Smiley lui demande comment ella va et il dit qu'elle est bien mieux, grace a l'infinie misericorde ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... syl.), wife of Sganarelle. She has a furious quarrel with her husband, who beats her, and she screams. M. Robert, a neighbor, interferes, says to Sganarelle, "Quelle infamie! Peste soit le coquin, de battre ainsi sa femme." The woman snubs him for his impertinence, and says, "Je veux qu'il me battre, moi;" and Sganarelle beats him soundly for meddling with what does not concern him.—Moli['e]re, ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer

... seat after the performance when a "femme de chambre" handed me a note in which I found written ...
— The Merrie Tales Of Jacques Tournebroche - 1909 • Anatole France

... family or families, and with such relations, friends, and other persons within the said city of London, as she at her own will and pleasure, notwithstanding her present coverture, and as if she was a femme sole and unmarried,—shall think fit.—And this Indenture further witnesseth, That for the more effectually carrying of the said covenant into execution, the said Walter Shandy, merchant, doth hereby grant, bargain, sell, release, ...
— The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman • Laurence Sterne

... wardrobe, let it be foreign or domestic, that of prince or plebeian. There were a few among us who spoke of the Duchesse de Berri as our future mistress; but the notion prevailed that we should so soon pass into the hands of a femme de chambre, as to render the selection little desirable. In the end we wisely and philosophically determined to await the result with patience, well knowing that we were altogether in the ...
— Autobiography of a Pocket-Hankerchief • James Fenimore Cooper

... a sad commentary on human nature," Stephen observed. "Yet in all things else I blame the woman. 'Cherchez la femme.'" ...
— The Loyalist - A Story of the American Revolution • James Francis Barrett

... knowing nod. "Of course he is, with such a wife as that—a femme superbe. Madame Ruck is preserved in perfection—a miraculous fraicheur. I like those large, fair, quiet women; they are often, dans l'intimite, the most agreeable. I'll warrant you that at heart Madame Ruck is a ...
— The Pension Beaurepas • Henry James

... du present sont rachetees d'avance par ce splendide avenir: tout est miserable aujourd'hui; qu'il grandisse, et tout sera grand. O poesie! O esperance! ou sont les limites de la pensee maternelle? Moi, je ne suis qu'une femme; mais voici un homme. J'ai donne un homme au monde. Une seule chose l'embarrasse—l'enfant sera-t-il un Bonaparte, un ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 • Various

... la cause de ce changement subit; il hesita, je le pressai, et apres quelque resistance: "Mon ami, dit- il en rougissant, tu sais que ma femme est jalouse, et que cette manie m'a fait passer bien des mauvais moments. Depuis quelques jours, il lui en a pris une crise effroyable, et c'est en voulant lui prouver qu'elle n'a rien perdu de mon affection ...
— The Physiology of Taste • Brillat Savarin

... the morning Mrs. Charmond looked her full age and more. She might almost have been taken for the typical femme de trente ans, though she was really not more than seven or eight and twenty. There being no fire in the room, she came in with a shawl thrown loosely round her shoulders, and obviously without the least suspicion that Melbury had called upon any other errand ...
— The Woodlanders • Thomas Hardy

... sounds better; but wife's the word for wear, depend upon it. It is the great word in which the English and Latin languages conquer the French and the Greek. I hope the French will some day get a word for it, yet, instead of their dreadful "femme." But what do you think it ...
— The Ethics of the Dust • John Ruskin

... but for myself; I like this place, and often come here to sleep. Nothing shall be wanting to make you comfortable, and your femme-de-chambre shall attend you in a quarter of an hour." And ...
— The Queen's Necklace • Alexandre Dumas pere

... whose language it has a different meaning. Among others who have described their rites is M. Sonnerat. In speaking of the mode of marriage called pariam, which, like the jujur, n'est autre chose qu'un achat que le mari fait de sa femme, he says, le mari doit aussi fournir le tali, petit joyau d'or, qu'il attache avec un cordon au col de la fille; c'est la derniere ceremonie; elle donne la sanction au marriage, qui ne peut plus etre rompu des que le tali est attache. ...
— The History of Sumatra - Containing An Account Of The Government, Laws, Customs And - Manners Of The Native Inhabitants • William Marsden

... Ans," a capital tale, full of exquisite fun and sparkling satire: La femme de quarante ans has a husband and THREE lovers; all of whom find out their mutual connection one starry night; for the lady of forty is of a romantic poetical turn, and has given her three admirers A STAR APIECE; saying to one and the other, ...
— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray

... the story is brightly and pleasantly told. The Colonel is a middle-aged Romeo of the most impassioned character, and as it is his heart that is 'on fire,' he may serve as a psychological pendant to La Femme de Quarante Ans. ...
— Reviews • Oscar Wilde

... of masturbation. Adler, in what is in many respects an extremely careful study of sexual phenomena in women (Die Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes, 1904, p. 130), boldly states that they do not have erotic dreams. In 1847, E. Guibout ("Des Pollutions Involontaires chez la Femme," Union Medicale, p. 260) presented the case of a married lady who masturbated from the age of ten, and continued the practice, even after her marriage at twenty-four, and at twenty-nine began to have erotic dreams with emissions every few nights, and later sometimes even several times a night, ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... hardly the temper in which the earlier Revolution could be judiciously investigated. Michelet and Quinet had added to their democratic zeal the passions connected with an anticlerical campaign. The violence of liberalism was displayed in Des Jesuites, and Du Pretre, de la Femme et de la Famille. When the historian returned to the sixteenth century his spirit had undergone a change: he adored the Middle Ages; but was it not the period of the domination of the Church, and how could it be other than evil? He could no longer be a mere historian; he must also be ...
— A History of French Literature - Short Histories of the Literatures of the World: II. • Edward Dowden

... there rather as the European traveller regards the Mousmes of Japan, as playthings, and insisted on one thing only—that they must be pretty. A Frenchman, despite his unusual intellectual power, he was not wholly emancipated from the la petite femme tradition, which will never be outmoded in Paris while Paris hums with life, and, therefore, when he was informed that he was to take in to dinner the tall, solidly built, big-waisted, rugged-faced woman, whom he had been observing from a distance ever since he came into ...
— The Call of the Blood • Robert Smythe Hichens

... residence, with his son, in what is called the Femme Osage district. The Spanish authorities appointed him Commandant of the district, which was an office of both civil and military power. His commission was dated July 11th, 1800. Remote as was this region from the Atlantic States, bold adventurers, ...
— Daniel Boone - The Pioneer of Kentucky • John S. C. Abbott

... that gentleness that used to frighten them in the old days, "it's ignorance. You fellows always say 'Cherchez la femme' when you can't say anything else. Come now," he went on more brightly, "look at the letter. Here's a man, commercially educated, for he has used the usual business formulas, 'on receipt of this,' and 'advices received,' which I won't ...
— The Three Partners • Bret Harte

... among the various public libraries of Paris. The Queen's more important library was at the Tuileries, but at Versailles she had only three books, as the commissioners of the Convention found, when they made an inventory of the property of la femme Capet. Among the three was the "Gerusalemme Liberata," printed, with eighty exquisite designs by Cochin, at the expense of "Monsieur," afterwards Louis XVIII. Books with the arms of Marie Antoinette are very rare in private collections; ...
— The Library • Andrew Lang

... "Une Vie de Femme," a touching account of the life of the Duchesse d'Angouleme, which appeared in the Reformateur in 1832, was partly compiled from the reminiscences of his old master; and when we hear of his ardent defence of the Duchesse de Berry, or that he treasured a tea-service ...
— Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings • Mary F. Sandars

... mon Dieu! non, non! jamais, jamais!" "Are you quite sure a minister ought not to marry? You will recollect St. Peter was a married man." "Oh que, oui, c'est vrai, mais le moment qu'il suivit notre Seigneur on n'entend plus de sa femme." From this we proceeded to various other topics, amongst others to the propriety of renouncing a religion in which we conceived there were erroneous opinions. "Senor, ecoutez," said he, "can that religion be good ...
— Before and after Waterloo - Letters from Edward Stanley, sometime Bishop of Norwich (1802;1814;1814) • Edward Stanley

... endeavour, she told him, to bring about a reconciliation with his wife, and must submit to contend no longer with the opinion of the world. In vain did he quote her own motto to Delphine, "Un homme peut braver, une femme doit se succomber aux opinions du monde;"—her reply was, that all this might be very well to say, but that, in real life, the duty and necessity of yielding belonged also to the man. Her eloquence, in short, so far succeeded, that he was prevailed upon to write ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... only one of the transformations of fashion—the period of her enchantment will soon be at an end, and she will return to her natural character. I should not be at all surprised, if Lady Delacour were to appear at once la femme comme il y ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. III - Belinda • Maria Edgeworth

... Souffle Cheese Souffle Chocolate Souffle Curried Eggs Egg and Cheese Egg & Cheese Fondu Egg and Tomato Sandwiches Egg and Tomato Sauce Egg Salad and Mayonnaise Egg Salmagundi with Jam Egg Savoury Eggs a la Bonne Femme Eggs a la Duchesse Eggs au Gratin Eggs and Cabbage Eggs and Mushrooms Eggs, Poached Eggs, Scalloped Eggs, Scotch Eggs, Stuffed Eggs, Sweet Creamed Eggs, Swiss Eggs, Tarragon Eggs, Tomato Eggs, Water Forcemeat Eggs French Eggs Mushroom Souffle Potato Souffle Ratafia Souffle Rice Souffle Savory ...
— The Allinson Vegetarian Cookery Book • Thomas R. Allinson

... a third-rate opera-writer? Composition in letters may be of no sex. In that Madame Dudevant and your friend Madame de Grantmesnil can beat most men; but the genius of musical composition is homme, and accept it as a compliment when I say that you are essentially femme." ...
— The Parisians, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... is M. de Bellegarde, the pleasure of whose acquaintance I owe to you—have just had words about your humble servant. Very big words too. They can't come off without crossing swords. A duel—that will give me a push!" cried Mademoiselle Noemie clapping her little hands. "C'est ca qui pose une femme!" ...
— The American • Henry James

... what I think of the death of poor Iwan, and of the person who ordered it. You may remember that I often said, she would murder or marry him, or probably both; she has chosen the safest alternative; and has now completed her character of femme forte, above scruples and hesitation. If Machiavel were alive, she would probably be his heroine, as Caesar Borgia was his hero. Women are all so far Machiavelians, that they are never either good or bad by halves; their passions ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield

... know it, Sybil, as well as I. Only yesterday the Comtesse said to me, 'No man could get on so fast unaided. Cherchez la femme, Mr. Shand.' ...
— What Every Woman Knows • James M. Barrie

... suspicion; and I feel sure, if Cunard had brought round one of his splendid steamers to the Thames, and there feasted the Legislature while his obtaining a Government grant was under discussion, he could not have taken a more effectual method to mar his object. La femme de Cesar ne doit pas etre suspecte. Thus, then, as far as we can judge of any advantage to be derived from payment of members, we can see nothing to induce us to adopt such a system; and, if I mistake not, the ...
— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray

... Femme vaillante au coeur sature d'ideal, Puisque tu n'as pas craint notre ciel boreal, Ni redoute nos froids severes. Merci! De l'apre hiver pour longtemps prisonniers, Nous revons a ta vue aux rayons printaniers Qui font ...
— My Double Life - The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt • Sarah Bernhardt

... hiding in New York. It required no great reasoning power to decide that the man's trail would sooner or later cross Wall Street. I believe it has done so—not directly, but indirectly. The trail, I think, has brought me back to the proverbial point of 'CHERCHEZ LA FEMME.' I am delighted," he dwelt on the word to see what would be its effect, "to see in the Graeme Mackenzie case my old ...
— Constance Dunlap • Arthur B. Reeve

... respect which he had held for their professional relations, that precluded his having a more familiar knowledge of his client, through serious questioning or playful gallantry. I am not sure it was not part of the charm to have a rustic femme incomprise as a client. ...
— Openings in the Old Trail • Bret Harte

... world, as it is the last sound which he hears on leaving it. There is a form of prayer which is used at births, and another on the seventh day afterward, when the child's head is shaved. The sage femme remains for forty days with the mother, who on the fortieth day makes the ceremonial purifications and prayers which are customary, and then returns to her ordinary duties. The child, as soon as it can speak, learns to recite prayers and passages from ...
— The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither • Isabella L. Bird (Mrs. Bishop)

... introduction to the great man. Which being given, "Oh, Monsieur von Buelow," she said, "vous connaissez Monsieur Wagner, n'est-ce pas?" Bowing, and without a shade of surprise, BUELOW answered at once, "Mais oui, Madame; c'est le mari de ma femme!" A great man! ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 23, 1914 • Various

... been able to afford any attendance beyond what a neighbouring sage-femme could give, and she came frequently, bringing in with her a little store of gossip, and wonderful tales culled out of her own experience, every time. One day she began to tell me about a great lady in whose service her daughter had lived as scullion, or some such thing. Such a beautiful lady! ...
— Curious, if True - Strange Tales • Elizabeth Gaskell

... incidents, words, actions, intrigues, and scenes of the poet's imagination. I enjoyed as if I had been a boy, recognizing the various characters whose pranks, joys, and sorrows I had followed with so much interest: the wicked "jeune homme a la mode," the bewitching "femme de chambre," the vieux "general sous l'empire," the rich banquier de Paris, the handsome, dangerous guardien, the naughty husband who had exclaimed, "Ciel ma femme!" the jealous lover, the hard-hearted landlord, ...
— The Galaxy - Vol. 23, No. 1 • Various

... "Cherchez la femme—toujours! Why are you doing this?" he asked curiously. "You no longer love me, and your hate should have ...
— The Conqueror • Gertrude Franklin Atherton

... point: 'Car parfois c'est bien choisir de ne choisir pas.' In the same Essay is a piece of King Lear, perhaps; 'De ce mesme papier ou il vient d'escrire l'arrest de condemnation contre un Adultere, le Juge en desrobe un lopin pour en faire un poulet a la femme de son compaignon.' One doesn't talk of such things as of plagiarisms, of course; as if Bacon and Shakespeare couldn't have said much better things themselves; only for the pleasure of tracing where they read, and what they were struck by. I see that 'L'Appetit ...
— Letters of Edward FitzGerald in Two Volumes - Vol. II • Edward FitzGerald

... 11. Pezay, a French translator, strangely mistakes the meaning of the passage, as if it amounted to this, "I have gorged till I am ready to burst;" and he quotes the remark of "une femme charmante," who said that her only reply to such a billet-doux would have been to send the writer an emetic. But the lady might have prescribed a different remedy if she had ...
— The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus • Caius Valerius Catullus

... thing like that said about you. I thought he gave his evidence well; and his wife too. Looks as if this De Levis had got some private spite. Searchy la femme, I said to Mrs Gilman only this ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... a long harangue of Spontini's, he shot an extremely angry glance at his wife. Madame Devrient apologised for her at once by saying that it was she (Madame Devrient) who had been laughing about some lines on a bonbonniere, whereupon Spontini retorted: 'Pourtant je suis sur que c'est ma femme qui a suscite ce rire; je ne veux pas que l'on rie devant moi, je ne rie jamais moi, j'aime le serieux.' In spite of that he sometimes succeeded in being jovial. For instance, it amused him to set us all wondering at the way ...
— My Life, Volume I • Richard Wagner

... cards at all; as she talked in the low music of her voice of European imbrogli, and consols and coupons, for she was a politician and a speculator, or lapsed into a beautifully tinted study of la femme incomprise, when time and scene suited, when the stars were very clear above the terraces without, and the conservatory very solitary, and a touch of Musset or Owen Meredith chimed in well with the light and shade of the oleanders and the brown ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]

... don't care whether we die to-day or to-morrow? Souvent femme varie! Just now you seemed so anxious,—besides, if one belongs to the Cause one knows what to expect." Emile strolled towards the uncomfortable piece of furniture by the window, that purported to be an ...
— The Hippodrome • Rachel Hayward

... mutilated, and many bench-ends destroyed. When Blight wrote his admirable book on the churches of West Cornwall the Miserere seats could be raised; later, they were very stupidly fixed down. On the floor of the tower lies the ancient tomb of "Clarice La Femme Cheffrei De Bolleit," with an inscription in Norman-French characters of the thirteenth century, begging visitors to pray for her soul, and promising a ten days' pardon to those who do so; there can be ...
— The Cornwall Coast • Arthur L. Salmon

... the foolish dream was for a woman to whom his brother refers as having repelled Alfred's homage with harshness, and having called forth from him some short and extremely bitter verses beginning "Oui, femme," and another called "Adieu!" in which there prevails a tone of quiet but deep feeling. This is a sad story: he apparently united the volatility and vagrancy of fancy, the inconstancy of light shallow natures, with the ardor and ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 • Various

... frock-coat of civil life, with a minute disc of some civic decoration in his button hole, and an incredibly tall chimney-pot hat. He came to render his respectueux hommages to the maitresse-femme who had conducted her business within the four corners of the law, "sans avoir maille a partir avec la police ...
— Mrs. Warren's Daughter - A Story of the Woman's Movement • Sir Harry Johnston

... said he was to be permanently Minister of Justice, but he left Montenegro rather suddenly over, it was said, a cherchez la femme affair. He then went to Bulgaria as tutor, I believe, to the young Princes, and afterwards ...
— Twenty Years Of Balkan Tangle • Durham M. Edith

... This property law, if fairly construed, will overturn the whole code relating to woman and property. The right to property implies the right to buy and sell, to will and bequeath, and herein is the dawning of a civil existence for woman, for now the "femme covert" must have the right to make contracts. So, get ready, gentlemen; the "little justice" will be coming to you one day, deed in hand, for your acknowledgment. When he asks you "if you sign without fear or compulsion," say yes, boldly, ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... comprehended nothing, that is clear, even if his amount of energy had been effectual.... Yes, do send me the list of Balzac, after 'Les Miseres de la Vie Conjugale,' I mean. I left him in the midst of 'La Femme de Soixante Ans,' who seemed on the point of turning the heads of all 'la jeunesse' around her; and, after all, she did not strike me as so charming. But Balzac charms me, let him write what he will; he's an inspired man. Tell me, too, exactly what Sue has done after 'Martin.' I ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon

... Femme was a "Miss" or "Mrs." Howard. She followed Louis Napoleon to France in 1848, and lived openly with him as his mistress. In the once famous "Letters of an Englishman" we are told how shortly after the December ...
— Biographical Study of A. W. Kinglake • Rev. W. Tuckwell

... suggested that everyone retire, and directed that if anything of import occurred he should be called. About 4 A.M. the husband of the girl, in great fright, summoned the physician, saying: "Monsieur le Medecin, il y a quelque chose entre les jambes de ma femme," and, to Dr. Case's surprise, he found the head of a child wholly expelled during a profound sleep of the mother. In twenty minutes the secundines followed. The patient, who was only twenty years ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... faculties, I don't suppose I ever shall. As I said, however, the place is very well managed, and I succeed in doing as I please, which, you know, is my most cherished pursuit. Madame de Maisonrouge has a great deal of tact—much more than poor father. She is what they call here a belle femme, which means that she is a tall, ugly woman, with style. She dresses very well, and has a great deal of talk; but, though she is a very good imitation of a lady, I never see her behind the dinner-table, in the evening, smiling and bowing, as the people ...
— A Bundle of Letters • Henry James

... captif, Bertrand, fils de Bretagne, Tous les fuseaux tournaient aussi dans la campagne; Chaque femme apporte son echeveau de lin; Ce fut votre rancon, messire Du Guesclin!" ...
— Brittany & Its Byways • Fanny Bury Palliser

... the hop, the upper class men were busy with their toilets as soon as they returned from supper; or as many of them were as had arranged to "drag a femme" to the hop. This is cadet parlance for escorting a young lady to the dance. However, some upper class men notoriously ...
— Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point • H. Irving Hancock

... Michelet, (Du Pretre, de la Femme, de la Famille,) Chap. III. note. He uses language too violent to be quoted; but excuses Salvator by reference to the savage character of the Thirty Years' War. That this excuse has no validity may be proved by comparing the painter's treatment ...
— Modern Painters Volume II (of V) • John Ruskin

... que je suis la femme la plus laide de France?" (Come, confess, Mr. Wilde, that I am the ugliest ...
— Oscar Wilde, Volume 2 (of 2) - His Life and Confessions • Frank Harris

... est a Rome, Souhz qui doyvent etre tout homme, Me daignoit prendre pour sa femme, Et me faire du monde dame! Si vouldroye-je mieux, dist-elle Et Dieu en tesmoing en appelle, Etre sa Putaine appellee ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... served us both; Glouglou, as aforetime, attending the silent "Grande Suite," where the curtains were once more tightly drawn. Monsieur Rameau dined with his client in her own salon, evidently; at least, Victorine, the femme de chambre, passed to and from the kitchen in that direction, bearing laden trays. When Mr. Percy's cigarette had been lighted, hesitation marked the manner of our maitre d'hotel; plainly he wavered, but finally old custom prevailed; ...
— The Guest of Quesnay • Booth Tarkington

... closing his letter, the marquis said: "Enfin, sire, quand il serait vrai que tout ceci ne fut qu'une bete italienne qui so serait echauffee, et qui aurait pris des chimeres pour des verites, ce qui pourrait encore bien etre, cette femme ne parait rien moins que prudente et tranquille. Je crois, cependant, que la peine qu'on aurait prise de savoir ce qu'elle veut declarer serait si legere, qu'on ne la regretterait pas, quand meme on decouvrirait que cette femme n'est qu'une folle."—"Oeuvres ...
— Frederick The Great and His Family • L. Muhlbach

... matrimony the tomb of love, are the legitimate result of a superficial theory of life and the mutual independence of the sexes thence arising; accordingly we are assured, "C'est surtout entre mari et femme que l'amour a le moins de chance de succs. Ils vieillirent ensemble comme deux portraits de famille, sans aucune intimit, aucun profit pour l'esprit, et arrivs au dernier relais de leur existence, le souvenir n'avait rien ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... not the same word as in wine-cellar. It comes from Fr. saliere, "a salt-seller" (Cotgrave), so that the salt is unnecessary. We speak pleonastically of "dishevelled hair," while Old Fr. deschevele, lit. dis-haired, now replaced by echevele, can only be applied to a person, e.g., une femme toute deschevelee, "discheveled, with all her haire disorderly falling about her eares" (Cotgrave). The word cheer meant in Mid. English "face." Its French original chere scarcely survives except in the phrase faire bonne chere, lit. "make ...
— The Romance of Words (4th ed.) • Ernest Weekley

... well acquainted with everything relating to Josephine, and knew many facts of high interest in her life at this period and subsequently. How happens it too that he makes no mention of Mademoiselle Louise, who might be called her 'demioselle de compagnie' rather than her 'femme de chambre'? At the outset of the journey to Italy she was such a favourite with Josephine that she dressed like her mistress, ate at table with her, and was in all respects her friend ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, v3 • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

... la tendresse d'vne femme enuers son pere et ses enfans; elle est fille d'vn Capitaine, qui est mort fort g, et a est autrefois fort considerable dans le Pas: elle luy peignoit sa cheuelure, elle manioit ses os les vns apres les autres, auec la mesme affection que si elle luy eust ...
— The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century • Francis Parkman

... faire executer les ordres qu'ils avoient eux-memes donnes, de ne point vendre d'eau de vie aux sauvages; et le baron d'Avaugour avoit decerne des peines tres severes contre ceux qui contreviendroient a ses ordonnances sur ce point capital. Il arriva qu'une femme de Quebec fut surprise en y contrevenant, et, sur le champ, conduite en prison. Le P. Lallemant, a la priere de ses amis, crut pouvoir sans consequence interceder pour elle. Il alla trouver le general, qui le recut tres mal, et qui sans faire reflexion ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton

... Ma femme! for the brood beyond us and of us, For those who belong here and those to come, I exultant to be ready for them will now shake out carols stronger and haughtier than have ever yet ...
— Leaves of Grass • Walt Whitman

... a aucun exemple dans l'histoire d'une maison si longtems infortunee. Le premier des Rois d'Ecosse, [ses aieux] qui eut le nom de Jacques, apres avoir ete dix-huit ans prisonnier en Angleterre, mourut assassine, avec sa femme, par la main de ses sujets. Jacques II, son fils, fut tue a vingt-neuf ans en combattant contre les Anglois. Jacques III, mis en prison par son peuple, fut tue ensuite par les revoltes, dans une bataille. Jacques IV, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 • Boswell

... "It was bad shooting. I have taught her better, but the sun was blinding there in the hot, white sand. And after that—I know everything that has happened. Bateese was wrong. I shall scold him for wanting to put you at the bottom of the river—perhaps. Oui, ce que femme veut, Dieu le veut—that is it. A woman must have her way, and my Jeanne's gentle heart was touched because you were a brave and handsome man, M'sieu Carrigan. But I am not jealous. Jealousy is a worm ...
— The Flaming Forest • James Oliver Curwood

... defects,—and supremely timid in all the points where one wants, and has a right to expect, some fruit of all the pretence and George Sandism. These are occasions when one does say, in the phrase of her school, 'que la Femme parle!' or what is better, let her act! and how does Consuelo comfort herself on such an emergency? Why, she bravely lets the uninspired people throw down one by one their dearest prejudices at her feet, and then, like a very actress, picks them up, like so many flowers, returning them to ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett

... exprimer. Que ceux qui y vont trouuent le temps si court a force de plaisir & de contentem[e]t, qu'ils n'en peuuent sortir sans vn merveilleux regret, de maniere qu'il leur tarde infiniment qu'ils n'y reuiennent.—Marie de la Ralde, aagee de vingt huict ans, tres belle femme, depose qu'elle auoit vn singulier plaisir d'aller au sabbat, si bien que quand on la venoit semondre d'y aller elle y alloit comme a nopces: non pas tant pour la liberte & licence qu'on a de s'accointer ensemble (ce que par modestie elle dict n'auoir iamais ...
— The Witch-cult in Western Europe - A Study in Anthropology • Margaret Alice Murray

... l'heure, Je retourne au logis; Ma femme est la qui pleure, Ainsi qu'il m'est aduis, Et me dict en cholere: 'Que fay ie seule au lict? Est il seant ...
— The Book-Collector • William Carew Hazlitt

... mother was talking of, and indeed I had no thought to spare for the subject; I only remember that when the interview was over, she sent for me to her room, and referred with great displeasure to the frequent visits I paid the princess, who was, in her words, une femme capable de tout. I kissed her hand (this was what I always did when I wanted to cut short a conversation) and went off to my room. Zinaida's tears had completely overwhelmed me; I positively did not know what to think, and was ready to cry myself; ...
— The Torrents of Spring • Ivan Turgenev

... de Iesvs Christ crvcifie, envers les Chrestiens. Traduict de vulgaire Italien, en langage Francoys. Plus, Vne Traduction de la huytiesme Homelie de sainct Iean Chrysostome, De la femme Cananee: mise de Latin en Francoys. Venez a moy vous tous qui trauaillez et estes chargez, et ie vous ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 232, April 8, 1854 • Various

... sensitive, when well, is much more so when ill. In such a necessity, a gentle hand is required, accommodated to his sentiment, to scratch him just in the place where he itches, otherwise scratch him not at all. If we stand in need of a wise woman—[midwife, Fr. 'sage femme'.]—to bring us into the world, we have much more need of a still wiser man to help us out of it. Such a one, and a friend to boot, a man ought to purchase at any cost for such an occasion. I am not yet arrived ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne

... maidservant; handmaid; confidente[Fr], lady's maid, abigail, soubrette; amah[obs3], biddy, nurse, bonne[Fr], ayah[obs3]; nursemaid, nursery maid, house maid, parlor maid, waiting maid, chamber maid, kitchen maid, scullery maid; femme de chambre[Fr], femme fille[Fr]; camarista[obs3]; chef de cuisine,cordon bleu[Fr], cook, scullion, Cinderella; potwalloper[obs3]; maid of all work, servant of all work; laundress, bedmaker[obs3]; journeyman, charwoman &c. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... plus une femme," wrote Jules Simon in a burst of despair at the conditions of the Paris workwoman; and he repeated the word as his investigations extended to manufacturing France, and he found everywhere the home in many cases abolished, the creche taking its place till the ...
— Women Wage-Earners - Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future • Helen Campbell

... Sparta, and at Rome. The feudal practices of mediaeval Europe were certainly based upon it, and the Breton peasant of to-day expresses the same idea somewhat bluntly when he says by way of explanation, after the birth of a daughter: Ma femme a fait une fausse couche. Conscious as all must be of this widespread sentiment at the present time, it will not be difficult to imagine what its consequences must have been in so rude a time as the eleventh century, when education could do so little in the ...
— Women of the Romance Countries • John R. Effinger

... with a cynical smile, and said with mock contempt, "So you're the guy who swore you'd never tangle up with a femme! Just a month ago, too. Now look: first you get this Zara woman all het up over you, and now this one's got you all het up over her. ...
— The Copper-Clad World • Harl Vincent

... les mettre en etat de former des troupeaux et de cultiver la terre, et tout cela a ses propres frais, qui se sont montes a des sommes immenses, sans compter l'argent qu'il a donne a chaque chef-de-famille, pour pouvoir a la 25 subsistance de sa femme ...
— De Quincey's Revolt of the Tartars • Thomas De Quincey

... keeper of a working-man's cafe in Rue de la Femme-sans-Tete, under the sign Au Chien de Montargis. Claude Lantier occasionally took his meals ...
— A Zola Dictionary • J. G. Patterson

... will exclaim, no doubt, on looking at the scene depicted above, "Cherchez la femme." It is, however, nothing so serious as you will pardonably suppose. The gentleman is merely an inexperienced "gun" at a shooting-party, who has begun following his bird before it has risen above the head of his loader. This ...
— Perfect Behavior - A Guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in all Social Crises • Donald Ogden Stewart

... Avec Olivia vous m'avez donne bonheur et peine. Bonheur par votre art qui est noble et sincere—peine car je sens tristesse au coeur de voir une belle et genereuse nature de femme, donner son ame a l'art—comme vous le faites—quand c'est la vie meme, votre coeur meme, qui parle tendrement, douleureusement, noblement sous votre jeu. Je ne puis pas me debarrasser d'une certaine tristesse ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol. 31, No. 1, May 1908 • Various

... to make no rash attempt, and it will be my care to see that you have no power to make any that is likely to be effectual. Linen, and all other necessaries for one in your circumstances, are amply provided, Cristal Nixon will act as your valet,—I should rather, perhaps, say, your FEMME DE CHAMBRE. Your travelling dress you may perhaps consider as singular; but it is such as the circumstances require; and, if you object to use the articles prepared for your use, your mode of journeying will be as personally unpleasant as that which conducted you hither.—Adieu—We ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott

... reached Landrecies;[406] the entire suite of the first Prince and Princess of the Blood comprising on this occasion only Messieurs de Rochefort and de Tournay, and Mademoiselle de Certeau, with a valet and a femme-de-chambre, who followed ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe

... penalty. If a woman be celebrated, the world always thinks she must be wicked. If she's wise, she laughs. It is the bitter that you must take with the sweet, as you get the sorrel flavour with the softness of the cream, in your soup a la Bonne Femme. But the cream would clog without it, ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida

... ago. Flint and tiles taken from the surrounding ruins by the builders still exist in the walls; but repeated restorations have almost obliterated the evidences of its antiquity. There are brasses (1) to Thomas Wolvey, an Esquire to Richard II. (d. 1430); (2) to "John Pecok et Maud sa femme" (circa 1340-50); but the monument of paramount interest is that in the recess N. of the chancel, to Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans (d. 9th April, 1626). The great philosopher and Lord Chancellor is represented as sitting in a tall chair, leaning his ...
— Hertfordshire • Herbert W Tompkins

... the spout of the tea-pot. Ante, ii. 403. Dr. J. H. Burton writes of her in his Life of Hume, ii. 213:—'The wits must praise her bad poetry if they frequented her house. "Elle etait d'une figure aimable," says Grimm, "elle est bonne femme; elle est riche; elle pouvait fixer chez elle les gens d'esprit et de bonne compagnie, sans les mettre dans l'embarras de lui parler avec peu de sincerite de sa Colombiade ou de ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell

... was the lawful husband of Bridget Maple, aunt to Samuel Crowe, by a clandestine marriage; which, however, he convinced them he could prove by undeniable evidence. This being the case, she, the said Bridget Maple, alias Ferret, was a covert femme, consequently could not transact any deed of alienation without his concurrence; ergo, the docking of the entail of the estate of Hobby Hole was illegal and of none effect. This was a very agreeable declaration to the whole company, who did not fail to ...
— The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves • Tobias Smollett

... remembrance;—a fine time of day for a man to be bound prentice, when he is past using of his trade; to set up an equipage of noise, when he has most need of quiet; instead of her being under covert-baron, to be under covert-femme myself; to have my body disabled, and my head fortified; and, lastly, to be crowded into a narrow box with a shrill treble, That with one blast through the whole house does bound, And first taught speaking-trumpets how ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 6 (of 18) - Limberham; Oedipus; Troilus and Cressida; The Spanish Friar • John Dryden

... (called the Bloody) that this rule of registering godfathers and godmothers prevailed in England. Henry VIII. introduced the custom of parish registers when in a Protestant humour. By the way, how curiously has Madame de Flamareil (la femme de quarante ans, in Charles de Bernard's novel) anticipated the verdict of Mr. Froude on Henry VIII.! 'On accuse Henri VIII.,' dit Madame de Flamareil, "moi je le comprends, et je l'absous; c'etait un coeur genereux, lorsqu'il ne les aimait plus, il les tuait.'" ...
— Books and Bookmen • Andrew Lang

... la femme belle aucœur subtil Etalant ces bras frais et sa gorge excitante; Il a vaincu l'enfer, il rentre dans sa tente Avec un lourd trophée ...
— Confessions of a Young Man • George Moore

... after long absence and finding his spouse (or betrothed) wedded to another, familiarized to the generality of modern readers by Tennyson's Enoch Arden, occurs in every shape and tongue. No. 69 of Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles is L'Honneste femme a Deux Maris.[4] A more famous exemplar we have in the Decameron, Day IV, Novella 8, whose rubric runs: 'Girolamo ama la Salvestra: va, costretto da' prieghi della madre, a Parigi: torna, e truovala maritata: entrale di nascoso ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume V • Aphra Behn

... hand to you a throat is now inflating itself and joyfully singing. Ma femme! For the brood beyond us and of us, For those who belong here, and those to come, I, exultant, to be ready for them, will now shake out carols stronger and haughtier than have ever ...
— Poems By Walt Whitman • Walt Whitman

... aboriginal loyalty that had made him, for sentimental ends, attach himself to elements, happily encountered, that would remind him most of the old air and the old soil? Why accordingly be in a flutter—Strether could even put it that way—about this unfamiliar phenomenon of the femme du monde? On these terms Mrs. Newsome herself was as much of one. Little Bilham verily had testified that they came out, the ladies of the type, in close quarters; but it was just in these quarters—now comparatively ...
— The Ambassadors • Henry James

... favourite saying. It occurs in the story of Melibeus, 'Trois choses sont qui gettent homme hors de sa maison, c'est assavoir la fumee, la goutiere et la femme mauvaise.'—Ibid., I, p. 195. Compare Chaucer's use of it: 'Men seyn that thre thynges dryven a man out of his hous,—that is to seyn, smoke, droppyng of reyn and wikked ...
— Medieval People • Eileen Edna Power

... honour: reflect upon this, and neglect not to make some reparation to Sir Lyttleton, for the ridicule with which you were pleased to load him. I know not whether he had his information from your femme-de-chambre, but I am very certain that he has sworn he will be revenged, and he is a man that keeps his word; for after all, that you may not be deceived by his look, like that of a Stoic, and his gravity, like that of a judge, I must ...
— The Memoirs of Count Grammont, Complete • Anthony Hamilton

... woman, who exercised such influence and control over him as to completely hypnotize his will. I have always been a convert to that theory, knowing the man as well as I did, and have settled the question as the French would, by saying "Cherchez la femme." ...
— The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier • Charles E. Flandrau

... a wonderful pianist, but a very clever man of the world. He sent me a book written by Wagner about music and wrote on the first page "Voici un livre qui vous interessera. De la part du mari de la femme de l'auteur." Clever, isn't it? You know that Madame Wagner is the daughter of Liszt. She ran away from von Buelow in ...
— The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 • Lillie DeHegermann-Lindencrone

... little cap and put it on her silky black locks, smiling sweetly, and greatly impressing us by her amiability and tact. Then the old lady went down the stairs, and the French girl said with a shrug, "Sometimes she fancies me her maid, sometimes her daughter—la pauvre femme!" ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, September, 1878 • Various

... doubt of the correctness, of the historical exactness of this narrative, I refer him to the "Biographie Universelle" (article Jean sans Terre), which says, "La femme d'un baron auquel on vint demander son fils, repondit, 'Le roi pense-t-il que je confierai mon fils a un homme qui a egorge son neveu de sa propre main?' Jean fit enlever la mere et l'enfant, et la laissa MOURIR DE FAIM ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray

... sabreur Effroyable, trainant apres lui tant d'horreur Qu'il ferait reculer jusqu'a la sombre Hecate, Charme la plus timide et la plus delicate. Sur ce, battez tambours! Ce qui plait a la bouche De la blonde aux yeux doux, c'est le baiser farouche. La femme se fait faire avec joie un enfant, Par l'homme qui tua, sinistre et triomphant. Et c'est la volupte de toutes ces colombes D'ouvrir leur lit a ceux qui font ouvrir ...
— The Paliser case • Edgar Saltus

... proper avenue of knowledge. To exemplify this proposition we have in this particular subject the practical observations and experience of M. Mondat, of Montpellier; in his interesting work on "De la Sterilite de l'Homme et de la Femme," published in 1840, he details some instructive information on the subject of eunuchs, giving some explanation as to why many simply castrated eunuchs are, like the much-prized eunuchs of the Roman matrons, still able to acquit themselves of the copulative function. He mentions ...
— History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present - Moral and Physical Reasons for its Performance • Peter Charles Remondino

... favor, he showed himself an exquisite raconteur, a sharp observer of intimate family life, and a most penetrating analyst. The very gallant sketches, later reunited in 'Monsieur, Madame, et Bebe' (1866), and crowned by the Academy, have gone through many editions. 'Entre nous' (1867) and 'Une Femme genante', are written in the same humorous strain, and procured him many admirers by the vivacious and sparkling representations of bachelor and connubial life. However, Droz knows very well where to draw the line, and has formally disavowed a lascivious novel published in Belgium—'Un Ete ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... de son temps d'engagement le rapatriement sera accorde a l'immigrant pour lui, sa femme, et ses enfants non adultes, a la condition par celui-ci de verser mensuellement a la Caisse d'immigration le dixieme ...
— Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... Rossini, Baked in Tomato Sauce, a la Martin, a la Valenciennes, Fillets, a la Suisse, with Nut-Brown Butter, Timbales, Coquelicot, Suzette, en Cocotte. Steamed in the Shell, Birds' Nests, Eggs en Panade, Egg Pudding, a la Bonne Femme, To Poach Eggs, Eggs Mirabeau, Norwegian, Prescourt, Courtland, Louisiana, Richmond, Hungarian, Nova Scotia, Lakme, Malikoff, Virginia, Japanese, a la Windsor, Buckingham, Poached on Fried Tomatoes, a la Finnois, a la Gretna, a l'Imperatrice, with Chestnuts, a la Regence, a la ...
— Many Ways for Cooking Eggs • Mrs. S.T. Rorer

... syncopes somewhat harder; from tempore, time; from nomine, name, domina, dame; as the French homme, femme, nom, from homine, foemina, nomine. Thus pagina, page; [Greek: poterion], pot; [Greek: kypella], cup; cantharus, can; tentorium, tent; precor, pray; preda, prey; specio, speculor, spy; plico, ply; implico, imply; replico, reply; ...
— A Grammar of the English Tongue • Samuel Johnson

... calcul dominates there at such times. I honour the beautiful practice that is common in votre jeune Amerique; cela rappelle le siecle d'or. Can there be a tableau more delicieux than a couple unis under such circonstances? The happy epoux, a young man perhaps, of forty, and la femme a creature angelique;" here M. Bonnet cast a glance at Miss Emmeline; "une creature angelique, who knows that he adores her, and who says to him, 'mon ami je t'aime, je veux faire ton bonheur,' ...
— Elinor Wyllys - Vol. I • Susan Fenimore Cooper

... Milord, and the compliments paid to her by the old courtier delighted her. She pretended to understand when he said: 'La femme est comme une ombre: si vous la suives, elle vous fuit; si vous fuyez, elle vous poursuit.' A little later the champagne she had drunk set her laughing hysterically, and she begged him to translate (he had just whispered to ...
— Muslin • George Moore

... brushed the rats off his chest and the beetles off his face, turned over and went to sleep. Next morning he wrote a letter to his "god-mother" in Paris ("une petite femme, tres intelligente, vous savez"), and ten days later her parcels came tumbling in. The first night (a Monday) he gave a modest display, red and white rockets bursting into green stars every five minutes. Tuesday night more ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, May 23, 1917 • Various

... unseasonable hours, as if she loved him dearly, and was prepared to make every sacrifice for his sake! Her pride revolted, her whole spirit rose in arms at the reflection. She knew he cared for her too; cared for her in his own way very dearly; and "c'est ce que c'est d'etre femme," I fear she hated him all the more! So long as a woman knows nothing about him, her suspicion that a man likes her is nine points out of ten in his favour; but directly she has fathomed his intellect ...
— M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." • G.J. Whyte-Melville

... l'habit d'une femme Un demon nous donner la loi; Elle sacrifia son Dieu, sa foi, son ame, Pour seduire l'esprit d'un trop ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles

... "Une femme egoiste, non seulement de coeur, mais d'esprit, ne pent pas sortir d'elle-meme. Le moi est indelible chez elle. Une veritable egoiste ne sait meme pas etre ...
— The Clever Woman of the Family • Charlotte M. Yonge

... de poisson Monegasque. Supions en Buisson. Dorade Bonne Femme. Volaille Rotie. Langouste Parisienne. ...
— The Gourmet's Guide to Europe • Algernon Bastard

... Femmes de Chambre de Madame la Comtesse Bertrand. 1 Femme de Chambre de Madame la ...
— The Surrender of Napoleon • Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland

... et la femme de chambre voulaient les lire avant madame et mademoiselle, ce qui est leur manquer de respect ... ...
— Bataille De Dames • Eugene Scribe and Ernest Legouve

... s'il ne peut recueillir tout cet etre moral, toute la vie interieure, il commande du moins qu'on lui en apporte une trace, un jour, un lambeau, une relique. From this theory, this conviction, came that marvellous series of studies in the eighteenth century in France (La Femme au XVIII^e Siecle, Portraits intimes du XVIII^e Siecle, La du Barry, and the others), made entirely out of documents, autograph letters, scraps of costume, engravings, songs, the unconscious self-revelations of the time, forming, as they ...
— Figures of Several Centuries • Arthur Symons

... addressed to his friend Dominic Dziewanowski, which, judging from an allusion to the death of the Princess Vaudemont, [FOOTNOTE: In a necrology contained in the Moniteur of January 6, 1833, she is praised for the justesse de son esprit, and described as naive et vraie comme une femme du peuple, genereuse comme une grande dame. There we find it also recorded that she saved M. de Vitrolles pendant les Cent-jours, et M. de Lavalette sous la Restoration.] must have been written about the second week of January, 1833, gives much interesting ...
— Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician - Volume 1-2, Complete • Frederick Niecks

... friend, one of the greatest sayings which the men of my race have ever perpetrated once more justifies itself—"Cherchez la femme!" Of Monsieur we have no manner of doubt. We have tested him in every way. And to all appearance Madame should also be above suspicion. Yet those things of which I have spoken have happened. For two hours ...
— Peter Ruff and the Double Four • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... belongs to one of the most distinguished families in Germany. Countess Mercy-Argenteau appeared, comet-like, in Paris, and although she is a very beautiful woman, full of musical talent, and calls herself une femme politique, she is not a success. The gentlemen say she lacks charm. At any rate, none of the elegantes are jealous of her, which speaks for itself. She is not as beautiful as Madame de Gallifet, ...
— In the Courts of Memory 1858-1875. • L. de Hegermann-Lindencrone

... master; not the tutored Huron of Voltaire's tale, but the savage of torch and tomahawk. The continent was as yet unexplored. In uncertainty as to motives for man's action the French magistrate always searches for the woman,—"cherchez la femme!" One single allusion in a letter written to Badollet, in 1783, shows that there was a woman in Gallatin's horoscope. Who she was, what her relation to him, or what influence she had upon his actions, nowhere appears. He only says that besides Mademoiselle Pictet there was one friend, "une ...
— Albert Gallatin - American Statesmen Series, Vol. XIII • John Austin Stevens

... Ma femme, accablee de fatigue par la vie que nous venons de mener depuis dix jours! ecrira un peu plus tard a votre Majeste. Tout ce qu'elle a pu faire, est de tracer quelques mots pour notre bien aimee Louise que je recommande a votre bonte. On me presse encore, Madame, ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Vol 2 (of 3), 1844-1853 • Queen Victoria

... said the dear lady, "il n'est pas possible de vous la decrire. Mon Dieu! she can say terrible words, and I have seen a man who ventured some rudeness to me—no, no, mon cher, nothing to anger you; il avait peur de cette femme. He was afraid of her—her and her whip. He was so alarmed that he let her have a great china mandarin for a mere nothing. I think he was glad to see her well out ...
— Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker • S. Weir Mitchell

... using the same machine with the ladies; the bathing-women remonstrated, but monsieur retorted very fairly thus—"Mon dieu I vat is dat vat you tell me about decence. Tromperie—shall I no dip mon femme a sour myself vith quite as much bienseance as dat vulgar brute vat I ...
— The English Spy • Bernard Blackmantle

... no demand for sympathy. When Dion thought of the expression in Rosamund's eyes he realized how far from happiness, and even from serenity, Mrs. Clarke must be, and he could not help pitying her. Yet she never posed as une femme incomprise, or indeed as anything. She was absolutely simple and natural. He had enjoyed talking to her. Despite her gravity she was, he thought, excellent company, a really interesting woman and strongly individual. She seemed totally devoid of the little tiresomenesses ...
— In the Wilderness • Robert Hichens

... a translation of "senorita." In giving an account of his projected marriage with the daughter of Gabriel Salero, Gil Blas says, (9, 1)—"C'etoit un bon bourgeois qui etoit comme nous disons poli hasta porfiar. Il me presenta la Senora Eugenia, sa femme, et la jeune Gabriela, sa fille." Here are three Spanish idioms—"hasta porfiar," which Le Sage thinks it necessary to explain, "la Senora Eugenia," "Gabriela." Diego de la Fuente tells his friend, "J'avois pour maitre de cet instrument un vieux 'senor escudero,' ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844 • Various

... Critical History" (IV. p. 66, note), but it states, perhaps erroneously, that Thevet knew Marguerite only through the Princess of Navarre, whereas that author claims—though his claim is never worth much—that he had the story from the poor woman herself, "La pauvre femme estant arriuvee en France ... et venue en la ville de Nautron, pays de Perigort lors que i'y estois, me feit le discours de ...
— Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic • Thomas Wentworth Higginson

... replied Dick. "I don't believe, when I have no femme to drag to the hops, that it would make me any more popular with the fellows, either. A fellow who pirates at all should drag a ...
— Dick Prescott's Third Year at West Point - Standing Firm for Flag and Honor • H. Irving Hancock

... you the one she chooses. The two most reasonable are keeping a school and keeping a shop. The last is evidently the most healthy, but the most difficult of accomplishment. I have written an account of the earthquakes for Chambers, and intend (now don't remind me of this a year hence, because la femme propose) to write some more. What else I shall do I don't know. I find the writing faculty does not in the least depend on the leisure I have, but much more on the active work I have to do. I write at my novel a little and think of my other book. What this will ...
— Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle • Clement K. Shorter

... ability. A portrait, idealised and etherealised, but a likeness of Mme. de—-(from last year's Salon) in white satin, quantities of lace, a coronet, diamonds and pearls; a striking combination of brilliant silvery tones. A "Femme Sauvage," a naked dusky girl in a wood, with a wonderfully clever pair of shy, passionate eyes. The author is different enough from any of the numerous American artists. They may be producers, but he's a product as well—a product of influences ...
— Italian Hours • Henry James

... where he received a message from the king, informing him that they had put off their journey for four and twenty hours, in consequence of the necessity of concealing the preparations for their departure from a femme de chambre of the queen, a fanatical democrat, who was fully capable of betraying them, and whose duties only terminated on the 19th. His majesty added that the Marquis d'Agoult would not accompany him, because Madame de ...
— History of the Girondists, Volume I - Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution • Alphonse de Lamartine

... reminded her that she had eaten nothing. Helene insisted that she should sup with her. After her meal she showed Helene her bedroom, saying, "Will mademoiselle ring when she requires her femme-de-chambre; for this evening mademoiselle will ...
— The Regent's Daughter • Alexandre Dumas (Pere)

... et chez l'Iberien, En France meme encor chez le Venarnien, Au pays Navarrois, lorsqu'une femme accouche, L'epouse sort du lit et le mari se couche; Et, quoiqu'il soit tres sain et d'esprit et de corps, Contre un mal qu'il n'a point l'art unit ses efforts. On le met au regime, et notre faux malade, Soigne par l'accouchee, en son lit fait couvade: On ferme avec grand ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa



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