SCENE r
Argument.
The chief Girondins are dining with Madame Roland to celebrate the proclamation of the Republic, Vergniaud is medUating; Madame Roland playfully calls on him to awake for the good of the state. Vergniaud answers that the course of events ivill take ils oivn way^ no matterwhathe can do; he instances the progress ofthe Révolution hitherto eu wholly unexpected, AH drink to the prosperity of the new Republic, Vergniatid however heu misgivings as to the future, Barbaroux, retuming to political matters, urges an immédiate attctck on the Jacobins^ the Commune of Parisy and their three leaderSy Danton^ Robespierre and Marat, Vergniaud advises modération, though he promises to support his friends, Sieyès points out the danger of attacking the yacobins without some material support; he advises his friends to secure the army by gaining Dumouriez, and to win over to their side Dan/on, who is willing to j'oin them, and is coming to tell them so. Danton is announced.
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Stage directions.
la recherche du grec et du romain^ *an attempt to imitate the Greek and Roman styles.'
Pêtion, Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, 1753 — 1794» was a law^ex •&*,
Chartres. He was élected to the States-General of 1789 and became a leader of the revolutionary party. He was chosen Président of the Assembly in 1790. In 1791 he was one of the commissioners who brought back Louis XVI. after his flight to Varennes. He was appointed Mayor of Paris, 1791» and was nicknamed 'Roi Pëtion' (see L 776) by his enemies and * Pétion Vertu ' by his friends. He connived at the mobbing of Louis XVI. in the Tuileries, June 20, 1792, and the massacre of the Swiss guard, Aug. 10, and took no steps to prevent the September massacres. Finally he threw in his lot with the Girondists entirely and attacked Robespierre. After the overthrow of his party, May 31, 1793, he fled to Caen, and afterwards to the Gironde. Hère he wandered about with others of his party till May, 1 794, when his body and that of Buzot were found half-eaten by dogs. The cause of their death is uncertain, but probably they shot themselves.
Roland. Jean Marie Roland de la Platière was born in 1732, and became Inspector-General of Trade. He founded the Courrier de Lyofiy a republican newspaper, and being sent to Paris to the Législative Assembly became a leader of the Girondins, chieBy through the talents and beauty of his wife, whose salon was the centre for the Girondin party. In March, 1792 he became Minister of the Interior; and his sudden dismissal by Louis XVI., in conséquence of a discourteous letter sent to the king, was one of the causes which brought about the insurrection of the loth of August. He was restored to his former post under the Republic, but he became odious to the Jacobins, and was first compelled to resign and then proscribed with the other Girondins. He concealed himself for some time; but on hearing of his wife*s exécution, he committed suicide, Nov. i5th, 1793.
Louvet, Jean Baptiste Louvet de Couvray was born in 1764. He was at first a bookseller's clerk, but acquired famé, if not crédit, by a licentious novel called Les Amours du Chevalier de Faublas in 1787. He edited a journal of republican views, and in 1792 was elected to the Convention for the department of Loiret. In 1793 he accused Robespierre of aiming at the dictatorship, but without effect Proscribed with the rest of the Girondins, he succeeded in evading pursuit till the fall of Robespierre, when he retumed to Paris. He died in 1797.
Buzot, François Nicolas Léonard Buzot was born at Evreux in 1 760. He was a barrister, and sat in the States-General, and afterwards in the Convention. He was one of the chiefs of the Girondins, and joined in their attacks on Robespierre. He went to Caen with othei àepxkùes in 1793; and after the failure of the Norman rising, he fled
with Barbaroux and Pétion to Bordeaux. His body was found with that of Pétion near St. Èmilion.
Sieyès, The Abbë Sieyès (or Siëyès) was bom 1748. He distinguished himself by his political pamphlets in 1789, and proposed that the Tiers Etat in the States-General should déclare itself the National Assembly. He was no orator, but a skilful planner of constitutions. His moderate views and his absence of oratorical talent enabled him to survive the Terror; and after the fall of Robespierre, he was a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He then associated himself with the rising power of Napoléon Bonaparte, and was one of the Consuls appointed in 1799 ut^^^r the new constitution which he had drawn up. He was however eclipsed by Napoléon and retired from afiairs. He was exiled in 1815, retumed to France in 1830 and died 1836.
Madame Roland, Manon Jeanne Phlipon was bom at Paris in 1 754, the daughter of an engraver. Like Charlotte Corday, she was nourished on republican and classical literature, and was 'a Republican before the Révolution.' She married Roland out of esteem for his character. When he became Minister of the Interior, she was the centre of the Girondin party, and was really Minister through her husband. Her known influence on politics drew down on her the hatred and ridicule of the Jacobins. After the 3ist of May, 1793, she was arrested and tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal. She was guillotined on Nov. 8th, 1793, showinggreat courage to the last. Her memoirs and correspondence with her friends are interesting and valuable as contributions to the history of the Révolution.
Vergniaud, Victorin Vergniaud was the greatest orator of the Girondin party, most of whom were good speakers, He was bom in 1759, and was a leading lawyer at Bordeaux. He was sent to the Législative Assembly by the department of the Gironde. Hère his éloquence contributed greatly to overthrow the monarchy; he was président of the Assembly on the loth of August, and on his motion the royal power was suspended. In the Convention, though personally indolent, he followed the other Girondins in attacking the Jacobins, and was denounced by Robespierre as a 'Federalist.* After the overthrow of the Girondins on May 3ist, 1793, Vergniaud was arrested on June 2nd, and guillotined with a number of other Girondins, Oct. 3ist,
Barbaroux, Charles Barbaroux was bom in 1767 at Marseilles.
Like many others of the revolutionary leaders, he was a barrister. He
became influential at Marseilles, and was sent as de\$\s\'^ ^<:i\ Nlssa^. ^>j^ n»
the L^[islative Assembly, where he became one of the leaders of the Girondins. He was remarkably handsome, and was styled Antinous by Madame Roland. He took a leading part in the révolution of the lotli of August, 1792, and also in the attacks on the Jacobins. He was proscribed after the 3ist of May, 1793, and went to Caen, where he met Qiarlotte Corday. There is no foundation for the notion that any attachment was formed between them. From Caen he went to Quimper and embarked for Bordeaux. He remained in hiding with Buzot and Pëtion near Bordeaux, but being tracked out, attempted to shoot himself. He only wounded himself^ however, and was seized and guillotined, June 25, 1794.
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1. 96. la foudre vengeresse* Foudre used poetically for 'the thunderboit of Jove ' would be masculine ; but Madame Roland is not hère improvising classical poetry, and the word takes the usual féminine gender.
1. 98. PronuUe, The subjunctive hère shows that prépare in 1. 96 is also subjunctive. The subjunctive is hère used because the expression il est vrai on which the verb dépends is used interrogatively, See Eve § 239.
à nos Catilinas. Generally a proper name used to dénote a class is used with a plural article or adjective, but is not itself inflected. Hère the s is probably inserted for the rhyme, as again in p. 113,
The historical référence is to Cicero*s great orations against Catiline, B.c. 63, and the subséquent overthrow of the Conspiracy of Catiline. Familiar classical allusions like thèse were the daily bread bf the French revolutionary speakers and writers.
1. 102. jusques au for jusqu'au, an old form only used in poetry.
1. 103. Que de laisser, After a comparative que de is used with the infinitive. See Eve, § 199.
1. 110. tu dors^ tu dors, Brutus, the words used by the conspirators against Caesar to arouse Brutus to join them. See the passage in Shakespeare's yulius Caesar, Act il. Se. i. 'Brutus, thou sleep'st*'
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1. 118. qttel qîCil soit, * whoever he may be.* Quel que is followed bjr the suhjuRCÛwc. Sec Eve, §§ 108, 28a.
L 126. U niveau des droits^ *the equal sway of the law.' Equality of ail citizens before the law was the great conquest of the Révolution, achieved by the abolition of class privilèges and of the local différences of laws.
1. 134. du dix août. On August loth, 1792, the Tuileries were stoimed and the Swiss guards butchered by an armed mob. Louis XVI. took refuge in the L^islative Assembly, and a decree was passed suspending, and practically abolishing the royal power, on the motion of Vergniaud himself.
1. 138. Vous avez dû frémir^ 'you must hâve started.' The past tenses oi devoir take a présent infinitive. See Eve, § 183.
Mirabeau, Gabriel Honoré Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau, was bom in 1749. His early life was dissipated and he was several times imprisoned by wish of his father. His great talents however caused him to be entrusted with a negotiation in Prussia in 1787, and his writings made him well known. In 1789 he was chosen to the States-General, and soon took the lead there in opposing the royal power. His éloquence made him the leader of the party of refonn. After a time, however, he became of the opinion that enough had been done ; he secretly advised the policy of the king, and received money from him. His change of views made him unpopular with the revolutionary party; and his sudden death, April ind, 1791, destroyed ail hope of maintaining the royal power.
Vergniaud sajrs that Mirabeau*s ashes must hâve started at the souiid of the overthrow of the monarchy, since his last days were spent in trying to save Louis XVI.
1. 141. Demain^ 6 compagnons^ âr*c., a free quotation from Horace,
Odes, I. 7
'O fortes pejoraque passi
Mecum saepe viri, nunc vino pellite curas;
Cras ingens iterabimus aequor.'
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1. 148. vingt-deux septembre. Sept. 22, 1792, the date of the proclamation of the Republic by the Convention. French speakers and writers since the Révolution hâve had an irritating habit of alluding to any political event in their history simply by the day of the month, leaving the hearer or reader to fill in the year and the nature of the event from memory. The habit has persisted to our own time, the Révolution of 1830 being known as that of July nierely, and the 2nd qC
December being accepted as a sufficient name to dénote Louis Napoleon's coup (Tétât of 1851. With time and fresh révolutions, the whole almanac may be annexed in this way.
une petite table de service ^ * a little side- table.'
vin de Bordeaux^ ' claret.'
1. 164. Horace, the Roman lyric poet, Quintus Horatius Flaccus.
1. 166. Frappez d'un pied Joyeux âfc, thèse two stanzas are a free rendering of the first few lines of Horace, Odes^ i« 37» a song of triumph for the victory over Antony and Cleopatra.
1. 168. le cécubCf Caecuban wine, from the Caecubus ager^ a district in Latium.
L 161. Une reine, Horace, of course, alludes to Cleopatra, but Madame Roland intends an allusion to Marie Antoinette, queen of France, who was always supposed to be plotting against the Révolution.
