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Rev

1

I couldn't figure out the meaning at all when I first read it. I was thinking that it was a pun on foie gras (french goose liver) as take a pill in place of eating everything that is French but it didn"t make any sense. Thank you for explaining it so well!
– Mari-Lou A
Commented Apr 3, 2021 at 8:07
2

References to Greek are much older than the teaching of Greek in elite English schools, which enjoyed a rise in status during the Enlightenment (18th Century) and peaked toward the end of the 19th Century. In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1599), Casca says of Cicero's speeches "it was Greek to me".
– JavaLatte
Commented Apr 3, 2021 at 8:15
2

The whole monologue is "patter": fast talk to get someone to buy a product. This is a false statement if you read the story. Heatherlegh, the Doctor, kept, in addition to his regular practice, a hospital on his private account Therefore if he was doing pro bono work he is hardly a Charlatan. The doctor has also just diagnosed indigestion "when I’ve cured you, young man, let this be a lesson to you to steer clear of women and indigestible food till the day of your death.”
– Brad
Commented Apr 4, 2021 at 3:20
1

@Jivan no, that wouldn't work at all. "and all that French for..." would mean (nonsensically) "all that French (language) was used for..." it doesn't make sense. It is only with the is that it does make sense and can be parsed just as this answer explains. Consider the equivalent "Bonjour is French for good morning", you need the is there.
– terdon
Commented Apr 4, 2021 at 23:09
1

@Jivan I think you're not seeing that "all that is French" can be parsed in two different ways, the one you already see ([all] that is French) and the one that was most probably meant ([all that] is French for...).
– Zachiel
Commented Apr 4, 2021 at 23:43

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