English translation: What you took to be a shield was in fact a 2 CV door
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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:
écu de gueule
English translation:
What you took to be a shield was in fact a 2 CV door
French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting
French term or phrase:écu de gueule
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what this sentence might mean, and I believe my problem hinges on "écu de gueule":
Les vertus du châtelain seront d'autant plus remarquables que le seigneur fera de temps à autre la preuve de sa roture ; ce que vous avez pris pour un écu de gueule était une portière de deux-chevaux.
The sentence is from a rather satirical literary novel: my guess is that the author is making an analogy between vertu/écu de gueule and roture/une portière de deux-chevaux, but I still don't get it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
even if "écu de gueule" sounds a bit like "coup de gueule" ;)
A 2 CV door may look like a reversed shield...
And "faire preuve de sa roture" just means the lord is being humble.
Do you have any wider context? Such as the reason for, or actions surrounding, this comment? Is it literally being whisked past something hanging on a wall - i.e. you may have read it as a coat-of-arms or some such, but actually it was the door of my old 2CV, or something more specific/other?
As context, I imagine that the author (or narrator) is escorting a visitor around a castle whose resident "seigneur" is a part-time car mechanic/hobbyist. Doors on old 2CVs were not very large or substantial, so might be taken (at first glance) in such a setting for a shield of some sort. [A 2CV once bumped into me on the sidewalk, resulting in a run in the back of my stocking. True story.]
I read it as the lord of the manor sometimes showing signs of actually being a 'commoner', for instance, what you (the visitor from the outside world, I suppose?) take to be a bit of noble heraldry is actually just the door of an old car (you could use "old car" rather than "2CV" - which is necessarily old - if you want to de-French it). I don't think there necessarily has to be anything more to it, other than a possible use of homonyms, "vertu/écu", which you won't be able to reproduce, but you could find some other pretty words!
coup de gueule, locution
Sens 1 Dispute entre plusieurs personnes [Familier].
Sens 2 Expression d'un mécontentement émise par une seule personne [Familier]. Synonyme protestation
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
7 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
What you took to be a shield was in fact a 2 CV door
Explanation: Gueule in heraldry refers to the color red if I am not mistaken
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 9 mins (2011-10-10 15:06:54 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
roture means non-noble. Un roturier is a commoner.
jmleger Local time: 00:42 Native speaker of: French PRO pts in category: 15
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks for your suggestions so far, but I understand the meaning of the individual terms (roture, ecu de geule, etc.), but I'm having trouble grasping the analogy, or at least, how to render it into something that an English reader would understand.
Asker: Thank you, your comments were the most helpful!
9 mins confidence:
red coat of arms
Explanation: gueule means red
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 11 minutos (2011-10-10 15:09:31 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Explanation: was really the door of his Austin Morris.
B D Finch France Local time: 07:42 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 83 1 corroborated select project in this pair and field
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
