Endless lulz part III
Friday, 18 March 2011 19:02![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I should probably be less surprised by now:
"Robespierre avoit pour sécretaire, à l'époque de sa mort, un jeune homme nommé Duplay, fils de son hôte le menuisier, et dont on prétend qu'il avoit secrètement épousé la soeur."
("Robespierre had for secretary, at the time of his death, a young man named Duplay, the son of his host the cabinetmaker, and whose sister they say he had secretly married.")
To get an idea of the plausibility of the final assertion, you would do well not note that Simon Duplay was not Maurice Duplay's son, but his nephew, and that he wasn't actually (contrary to popular belief) Robespierre's secretary either (more on that later).
"Robespierre avoit pour sécretaire, à l'époque de sa mort, un jeune homme nommé Duplay, fils de son hôte le menuisier, et dont on prétend qu'il avoit secrètement épousé la soeur."
("Robespierre had for secretary, at the time of his death, a young man named Duplay, the son of his host the cabinetmaker, and whose sister they say he had secretly married.")
To get an idea of the plausibility of the final assertion, you would do well not note that Simon Duplay was not Maurice Duplay's son, but his nephew, and that he wasn't actually (contrary to popular belief) Robespierre's secretary either (more on that later).
(no subject)
Date: Sunday, 20 March 2011 14:11 (UTC)So, Simon was not Robespierre's secretary??? I'm waiting for the details O.O
Why I'm so amused for that? :\(no subject)
Date: Sunday, 20 March 2011 21:19 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Sunday, 3 April 2011 05:42 (UTC)And evidently Simon was NOT Maurice Duplay...and the last one would have been too young in order to be Maximilien's secretary.
HanriotFran
(no subject)
Date: Sunday, 3 April 2011 16:15 (UTC)Naturally, like so much of what he wrote, this entire passage is essentially just Nodier showing his ignorance.
(no subject)
Date: Sunday, 3 April 2011 18:28 (UTC)I think I read somewhere that Simon Duplay declared he wasn't Robespierre's secretary. But Maximilien was very criticized at the time he said it, so myabe he was afraid of being put in jail or something...For if he must said he was NOT his secretary, there were already rumors about that possibility. So, maybe the rumors originated before Nodier's memories were published and he just repeated what he had heard.
HanriotFran.
(no subject)
Date: Sunday, 3 April 2011 23:07 (UTC)It's certainly true that at the time Simon Duplay made his declaration he would have good reason to want to distance himself from Robespierre. At the same time, he explicitly states not only that he was not Robespierre's secretary, but that Robespierre didn't have a secretary, which as I say, is borne out by his manuscripts. Certainly, the rumor already existed by the time Simon was questioned in the Year III that he had been Robespierre's secretary, otherwise he wouldn't have been asked about it, but the rumor could have started from something as simple as Simon running an errand or two for Robespierre, or even just from the fact that they lived in the same house and shared similar political views. In any case, there are no pre-Thermidorian sources that I know of that allude to Simon's having been Robespierre's secretary and no one who was really in a position to know mentions anything about it at any point.
In other words, I would chalk it up to an unsubstantiated rumor even without Simon's formal declaration and the manuscript evidence. With them, it seems even more unlikely.