montagnarde1793 | 19 Brumaire CCXVI

So I was looking for a decent recording of "Sull'aria" on iTunes (because I might sing it with someone else in my voice teacher's studio at the recital next spring) when I came across a version of "The Marriage of Figaro" marked "clean," clearly implying that there exists, somewhere, an "explicit" version. This, I would like to see. iTunes, you are a wonder, truly.

In less random news, I've promised to share my findings as to the portrayal of (in this case) Éléonore Duplay, and some Saint-Just I've managed to scrape together as well, in literature. I've decided the best way to accomplish this, will be to post in sections, using different entries in my own LJ, and then copy/pasting them into a singly entry over at

revolution_fr. I apologize in advance for the clutter this will inevitably create.

Then, without further ado, I'll start with the first of these (in chronological order), here. Be warned though, it's rather on the random and absurd side.

I recollect it was on St. Patrick's Day. My lovely friend had procured, from the gardens of the Empress Josephine, at Malmaison (whom we loved a thousand times more than her Austrian successor, a sandy-haired woman, between ourselves, with an odious squint), a quantity of shamrock wherewith to garnish the hotel, and all the Irish in Paris were invited to the national festival.

I and Prince Talleyrand danced a double hornpipe with Pauline Bonaparte and Madame de Staël; Marshal Soult went down a couple of sets with Madame Récamier; and Robespierre's widow—an excellent, gentle creature, quite unlike her husband—stood up with the Austrian ambassador. Besides, the famous artists Baron Gros, David and Nicholas Poussin, and Canova, who was in town making a statue of the Emperor for Leo X., and, in a word, all the celebrities of Paris -- as my gifted countrywoman, the wild Irish girl, calls them -- were assembled in the Marquis's elegant receiving-rooms.