montagnarde1793 | Entries tagged with élisabeth le bas

( In which �lisabeth and Le Bas are finally married. )

[2] National Archives, A. B., XIX, 179 (gift of Le Bas).

[3] National Archives, A. B., XIX, 179 (gift of Le Bas).

[4] Collection Le Bas.

[5] Excerpt from the Minutes of the Convention, XIX, p. 136.

[6] The famous painter.

[7] Among the decisions of the Committee of General Security ordering coercive measures, I have found very few bearing Le Bas’s signature. (See notably National Archives., F⁷4435.)

[8] Louis Blanc: History of the Revolution, IV, page 376.

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: La fiancée alsacienne

( Chapter IX, Part I )

[2] Duquesnoy and Le Bas’s projects have been conserved by the Le Bas family.

[3] In this passage, Duquesnoy affirmed “the cowardice of most officers.”

[4] Duquesnoy ended by these words: “I am not surprised that in an engagement the soldier whose officer is absent, drunk, or cowardly, abandons himself to flight,” and he added another paragraph to say: “It seems that the officers of this army are uniquely destined but to wallow in debauchery…”

[5] More solemn, Duquesnoy had written: “I would be truly guilty in the eyes of the entire nation if I did not use the power which it has delegated to me to punish crimes which would necessarily bring about its ruin.”

[6] Duquesnoy had put “I will discern the penalty of destitution.”

[7] Duquesnoy’s project, still more solemn, added this peroration: “Reflect, citizen officers: glory awaits you, or opprobrium.”

[8] These letters are addressed “to the citoyenne Élisabeth Duplay, at the home of the citoyen Duplay, cabinetmaker, n°366, Rue Saint-Honoré.” (National Archives, AB XIX 179; they were left there, in 1878, by M. Léon Le Bas.)

[9] Id.

[10] V. Charavay: General correspondence of Carnot, II, page 447.

[11] Original handwriting of Le Bas; National Archives AF II, 233, n°270.

[12] Id., n°166.

[13] Id., n°169.

[14] See their letter to the Historical Archives of the Ministry of War (Army of the North, 11 August 1793). It is written in Le Bas’s hand.

See too the decrees of a particular order made by the representatives in the first fifteen days of August, in the National Archives (AF, II, 131, plaquette 1004), notably that secularizing the personnel of the hospital of Bailleul, then composed of “Black Nuns,” and that suspending the general Chalain, and replacing him provisionally by the general Ferrand.

And, in other Le Bas-related news, on Google Books, I found a few more basic facts (which, however, need to be taken with a grain of salt--you'll see why) in Charles Nauroy's Le curieux, vol. 2:

( In French. )

[2] Voir cette note dans la traduction anglaise.

[3] Évidemment, il s’agit d’une confusion avec le tombeau de sa sœur Éléonore, Élisabeth n’étant morte qu’en 1859.

( In English translation. )

[2] Translator’s note: One appreciates the gesture (given whom the baby was obviously named after), but what a place to be born!

[3] Translator’s note: Clearly a confusion with her sister Éléonore’s grave; Élisabeth died in 1859.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Zémire et Azor - Grétry

So last time, as you may or may not remember (it's been so long now, after all), I said I hadn't yet translated chapter six. I lied; not only have I translated it (sometimes badly, admittedly), I already posted it quite some time ago. It can be found through the tag "That Book About Le Bas." I may post a revised version of the chapter some time in the future, if anyone expresses an interest in reading it.

In the meantime, I give you...

( Chapter IV )

[2] Collection Le Bas.

[3] The year is not indicated; it is obvious that this note dates from 1847.

[4] Pushing to the farthest limits exactitude of details, the corrector substitutes, for example (placard 6), for the somewhat summary description of Robespierre’s bed “this room…contained only a bed of blue and white striped serge,” the following indication: “…A walnut bed covered with blue damask with white flowers which came from a dress of Mme Duplay’s.” Lamartine conformed his text to Le Bas’s version, but he suppressed these last words: the poetry bucked before realist accuracy.

Current Mood: thirsty
Current Music: Orphée et Eurydice - Air des Furies

So I just finished typing up that book about Le Bas--yes, that's what I've decided to call it from now on, so mark it well--so I wouldn't have to keep damaging the binding every time I want to look for something in it. Finished, that is, except for Sardou's preface, which I avoided transcribing to begin with... I started it this time, but I just couldn't finish with it. I had really had enough by the point when Sardou started calling Maxime a "monster." Um, no. I feel that I should include it somehow, but I just can't bring myself to type the rest of it. Perhaps I'll figure out a way to scan it without completely killing what's left of the binding...

But is it worth it? I mean, how should one react to the kind of arrogance that assures us that a person--in this case Élisabeth Le Bas--who actually knew another person--in this case Maxime--when he was alive is so blind that she's even wrong about his physical appearance? Naturally, it never occurs to Sardou that it just might be the following description that is fabricated and not Élisabeth's account.

Seriously, look at this:
"Avec le temps, l’image du grand homme s’était idéalisée au point qu’elle le voyait beau. – Sa tête de chat aux pommettes saillantes, couturées de petite vérole ; son teint bilieux, ses yeux verts bordés de rouge, sous ses lunettes bleues ; sa voix aigre, son verbe sec, pédant, hargneux, cassant ; son port de tête hautain, ses gestes convulsifs, tout cela s’était effacé, fondu, transformé en une douce figure d’apôtre, martyr de sa foi pour le salut des hommes !"
"With time, the image of the great man had been idealized to the point that she saw him as handsome. - His cat's head with protruding cheekbones, scarred from smallpox; his bilious coloring, his green eyes rimmed with red beneath his blue spectacles; his harsh boice, his dry, pedantic, agressive, and abrupt speech; how haughtily he carried his head, his convulsive gestures: all of that was erased, melted down, transformed into the mild form of an apostle, a martyr to his faith for the welfare of men!"

And then he has the gall to say "her illusion was quite natural!" Because obviously, she's the one with illusions! I would rather think it the other way around... Think of it: a man reads a few books and thinks he knows more about someone than a person who actually knew him. It's just disgusting and pathetic. It would have been idiotic to expect better from the author of a royalist play--about the Revolution--that excited so much protest in the new Third Republic that it had to be banned after only two performances. But... oh, it just get's worse and worse: "Ah ! que Taine a donc raison de s'écrier que, cent ans après sa mort, il [Robespierre] fait encore des dupes !" ("Ah! how right Taine was to cry that, one hundred years after his death, he [Robespierre] is still making dupes!") D:< And then he goes and cites completely fabricated "evidence" to "prove" that Maxime was a "monster." So. Not. Okay.

*calms down a bit* I know I shouldn't be getting so angry about random 19th century counterrevolutionaries whose writings almost no one reads anymore, but many revisionists have that same characteristic arrogance. There's really nothing that pisses me off more than arrogant ignorance--and there is ignorance in a person who believes everything he reads in the first book or two he ever reads on a subject and then refuses, against all evidence, to believe anything that contradicts that first set of arbitrary beliefs. D:<

...Which actually puts me in mind of an article on the evolution of portrayals of Maxime's appearance and how it relates to the myth metaphorically opposing him and Danton, that I should post....

Current Mood: pissed off
Current Music: Rien du tout - which is actually a song title, somehow

Here's the original version of last part of Élisabeth's memoirs and some miscellaneous notes.

( Part III )

Current Mood: accomplished

This is basically the same thing as last time, a bit late. I should really be studying right now, but I thought I would take a quick break... I'll have the last part posted shortly too. :D

( Part II )

Current Mood: refreshed

...Because I thought I should, for those of you who can read it. (For those who can't, the translation is posted to

revolution_fr.)

( Part I )

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: La Finta Giardiniera - Mozart

And now, since I know how traumatized you all must be after all of that (though I'm afraid it's not yet done), I've decided to regale you with an old drawing of Élisabeth with Philippe fils. Wherein she is in character, and therefore not a crazy psycho bitch. And yes, it really is Le Bas's baby. >__> Though I will admit I sort of failed at drawing it. -__-;

Oh, and something else I wanted to note: I don't remember whether this is mentioned in any of the excerpts or not, but in both A Place of Greater Safety and Jacobin's Daughter, Élisabeth is only seventeen when she marries Le Bas. Which would seem to prove the epic failure of their math skills, as the very least, since she was born in 1773 and married Le Bas in 1793. *facepalm* At least Williamson didn't do anything with it; Mantel seemed to think it further proof of Élisabeth's ebilness. *rolls eyes*

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Sull'aria - Le nozze di Figaro

( Part Fifteen. )

Also,

daughtermestizo, I was actually wrong about La Vie Privée de Robespierre not having anything about Saint-Just (I hadn't actually read the whole thing at the time)... I can type that up too if you're interested...

Current Mood: depressed
Current Location: Paris, 1794
Current Music: None

Citoyenne la traductrice jacobine

Veillons au maintien de nos droits !

Once again, it's time for... That Book About Le Bas!

And still more from That Book About Le Bas

More from That Book About Le Bas!

sighs

Élisabeth Le Bas's Memoirs in the Original French (Part III)

Élisabeth Le Bas's Memoirs in the Original French (Part II)

Élisabeth Le Bas's Memoirs in the Original French (Part I)

Art!

And Fifteen

Profile

October 2014

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags