Note 848 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
That translation was not always the means of interpretation is shown by the following passage from Mauger; a stranger questions one of his pupils:
Entendez-vous tout ce que vous lisés? J'en entends une partie. Entendez-vous bien le sens? Fort bien, monsieur.
Probably French was not 'construed' word for word, as Latin was, the clause, on the contrary, being made the starting-point. "Construing word for word is impossible in any language," wrote Joseph Webbe in his Petition to the High Court of Parliament, quoting as an example the "barbarous English of the Frenchman, 'I you pray, sir,' for Je vous prie, monsieur."