Book 7:
Orrida maestà nel fero aspetto
Terrore accresce, e più superbo il rende;
Rosseggian gli occhi, e di veneno infetto
Come infausta cometa, il guardo splende.
Gli involve il mento, e sull 'irsuto petto.
Ispida e folta la gran barbe scende;
E in guisa di voragine profonda
S'apre la bocca d'atro sangue immonda.
Gerusal. Lib., cant. IV. 7.
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Chapter I:
Qui suis-je, moi qu'on accuse? Un esclave de la Liberte, un
martyr vivant de la République.
-"Discours de Robespierre, 8 Thermidor."
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And now we get into the part of the book that is going to include an awful lot of French. Given I have an especial inability to pronounce French, this is going to be painful, for me to record, and you to listen to. There's nothing for it, it's just a feature of nearly all English-speaking authors of the early 19th century to use lots and lots of French, for some reason. Ugh.
I didn't attempt much in the way of specific voices for these historical figures, nor did I attempt a French accent on them. On top of the existing characters already portrayed, there are too many of these new peeps for me to keep straight any attempts at specific voices.
Lots of footnotes from the author in this one!
I'm not going to document here the people in this chapter, they are all real historical figures of the Revolution that you can look up on your own if you are sufficiently interested.
But some of the mythological imagery on the other hand...
Tithon = Tithonus, a prince of Troy and son of King Laomedon by the naiad Strymo. He was also the lover of Eos, a.k.a. Aurora, the goddess of the dawn. Which is a weird mixing of Greek (Tithon) and Roman (Aurora) by the author here.
"Saturn hath devoured his children" has the footnote: "La Revolution est comme Saturne, elle devorera tous ses enfans." -Vergniaud.
It appears there is no universal agreement on the pronunciation of Moloch, that first 'o' can go several ways, and does depending on the speaker. The hazards of a language that doesn't (or didn't, in ancient times) even have vowels at all in its written form. *boggle*
"amidst the din of the roused Convention, it choked his voice." gets a footnote: "Le sang de Danton t'étouffe!" said Garnier de l'Aube, when on the fatal 9th of Thermidor, Robespierre gasped feebly forth, "Pour la dernière fois, Président des Assassins, je te demande la parôle."
niche apparently has two accepted definitions.
"a beauty almost angelic characterised his features" after which we get this footnote: "Figure d'Ange," says one of his contemporaries, in describing Couthon. The address, drawn up most probably by Payan (Thermidor 9), after the arrest of Robespierre, thus mentions his crippled colleague: "Couthon, ce citoyen vertueux, qui ña que le coeur et la tête de vivants, mais qui les a brûlants de patriotisme."
"which overflowed his affectionate heart." - here we get a very long footnote: This tenderness for some pet animal was by no means peculiar to Couthon; it seems rather a common fashion with the gentle butchers of the Revolution. M. George Duval informs us ("Souvenirs de la Terreur," Vol.III. p.183) that Chaumette had an aviary, to which he devoted his harmless leisure; the murderous Fournier carried, on his shoulders, a pretty little squirrel, attached by a silver chain; Panis bestowed the superfluity of his affections upon two gold pheasants; and Marat, who would not abate one of the three hundred thousand heads he demanded, reared doves! Apropos of the spaniel of Couthon, Duval gives us an amusing anecdote of Sergent, not one of the least relentless agents of the massacre of September. A lady came to implore his protection for one of her relations confined in the Abbaye. He scarcely deigned to speak to her. As she retired in despair, she trod by accident on the paw of his favourite spaniel. Sergent, turning round, enraged and furious, exclaimed, "Madam, have you no humanity!"
"at least, to a susceptible and honest heart!" yields up another footnote: Not to fatigue the reader with annotations, I may here observe that nearly every sentiment ascribed in the text to Robespierre, is to be found expressed in his various discourses.
"Let us strike: the dead alone never return." has the footnote: "Frappons! il ñy a que les morts qui ne revient pas." -Barrère.
One last footnote after the letter to Robespierre there at the very end: See "Papiers inédits trouvés chez Robespierre," &c. - Vol.II. p.155. (No. LX.)
The picture used is "Marat ayant une conversation animée avec Danton et Robespierre" by Alfred Loudet
I couldn't find Robespierre, Danton, and Couthon all in one picture, I could only find two at a time. So I went with this one as it is far more dramatic than the one with Robespierre, Couthon and Saint-Just.
To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2664/2664-h/2664-h.htm#link2HCH0065
