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PRINCIPLES OF
Chap. XI.
and is lost in every other language where the same precise idiom does not occur:
On the wretched imitations of the Diable Boiteux of Le Sage:
Le Diable Boiteux est aimable;
Le Sage y triomphe aujourdhui;
Tout ce qu' on a fait après lui
N'a pas valu le Diable.
Le Sage y triomphe aujourdhui;
Tout ce qu' on a fait après lui
N'a pas valu le Diable.
We say in English, "'Tis not worth a fig;" or, "'tis not worth a farthing;" but we cannot say, as the French do, "'Tis not worth the devil;" and therefore the epigram cannot be translated into English.
Somewhat of the same nature are the following lines of Marot; in his Epitre au Roi, where the merit lies in the ludicrous naiveté of the last line,which
