I've been reading "Les Trois Mousquetaires" by Alexandre Dumas. I've learned that I should read material in foreign languages by not worrying about the grammatical structure of sentences or the meaning of every word. I get most of the meaning by context. If I think that a word that I don't know is necessary for understanding, then I'll look it up.
This week I looked up an English word in "Les Trois Mousquetaires". Is "toast", as in a drink to the health of another, a French word? It is, but in the time of Louis XIII? I thought "toast" was a word from the Eighteenth Century. One source said "toast" was first used in 1700, but another said it was from the time of Charles II. Let's see, Louis XIII of France lived from 1601 to 1643; this is the time of "Les Trois Mousquetaires". Charles II of England lived from 1630 to 1685; he reigned from 1660 to 1685. I don't think the Three Musketeers would have even heard of it, but Dumas uses it at least three times in "Les Trois Mousquetaires".
This is a problem of writing novels about times before one's own. Think of Mark Twain's "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." How would a king speaking Celtic, Latin, or Anglo-Saxon understand someone speaking Nineteenth-Century American English? Of course, Twain gets around this by implying the whole adventure was a dream.
My own adventure was trying to find exactly where I had read "toast" in "Les Trois Mousquetaires". I read and reread the part where I thought it was, parts before, and parts after. I couldn't find it. Finally I downloaded a PDF file of "Les Trois Mousquetaires" and searched the file for "toast". That's how I know "toast" appeared three times. The other two occurrences I haven't gotten to yet.
So, now I knew that "toast" was first used in "Les Trois Mousquetaires" in the section where d'Artagnan went to find Porthos. How many times did I reread that section without seeing "toast"? D'Artagnan is softening up the inn-keeper by sharing a bottle and drinking to the prosperity of the inn. I can't translate very well d'Artagnan's reply to the innkeeper's thanks, but it is something like "there is more than you think "dans mon toast".
Knowing what the text surrounding "toast" was, I was able to quickly find it in my paperback copy. It was on the left of the page. I think my scan was down the center and to the right! The tricks our minds play.
