[1] Les petites maisons, a group of buildings, used among other things as a lunatic asylum.
[2] As only Duchesses were privileged to sit in the Queen’s presence, to say that some one had le tabouret chez la reine meant that they were a Duchess.
[3] Neuf-germain was notorious as the worst poet of his day.
[4] The great seventeenth century herald.