“Chez les amis tout s’excuse, tout passe;
Chez les amants tout plaît, tout est parfait;
Chez les époux tout ennuie et tout lasse;
Le devoir nuit: chacun est ainsi fait.”
“’Twixt friends ’tis all excuse and condonation;
’Twixt lovers all delight, all admiration:
Husband and wife are with each other sated;
Duty does harm: thus is mankind created.”
“Chien hargneux a tousiours les oreilles deschirées.”
“You may know the snappish cur by his torn ears.”
“Chloé, belle et poéte, a deux petits travers:
Elle fait son visage et ne fait pas ses vers.”
“Chloe, poetess and beauty, is in two small things perverse;
She makes up her own complexion, but she writes not her own verse.”
“A thing of the commonest and most ordinary is it among mankind to understand, foresee, recognise and predict the misfortunes of others. But oh! how rare a thing to predict, recognise, foresee and understand one’s own misfortunes!”
“Chose qui plaist est à demy vendue.”
“The ware that pleaseth is as good as sold.”
“Chronique scandaieuse.”
“A scandalous tale.”
“Ci faut le livre Maistre Wace;
Qu’in velt avant fere, s’in face.”
“Here endeth Master Wace his book;
Who wanteth more to himself must look.”
“Ci-gît Piron, qui ne fut rien.
Pas meme Académicien.”
“Here lies Piron: a man of naught was he:
Not e’en a member of th’ Academy.”
1 This epigram is often quoted " Eglé, belle et poète," etc.
