"Whoever saw the Assembly never gave a second thought to the hall." Hahaha, so much for architecture digression. Back to the namedropping. "Gersonné, who established the supremacy of representatives over generals;" Is this the authority Cimourdain has just been given?
"who was to end as a bookseller in the Palais Royal with Lodoïska behind the counter" This isn’t a metaphor for getting killed, is it? I guess a lot of them are retroactively defined by their deaths, but some of these guys survived the proceedings.
Then we have some talk (especially among the Mountain Men) about the late King Louis. We’d seen before the edicts on how to treat him. Here, we get: the attorney of the Commune, who said: “A dead king is not a man less” <- a king wasn’t even a man (like the priests who have to get melted down?) "Garan-Coulon, who had proudly demanded, when Spain interposed in the trial of Louis XVI., that the Assembly should not condescend to read a letter from a king in behalf of a king" Amar, who said,—
"The whole earth condemns Louis XVI. To whom then shall we appeal for judgment? To the planets?" <- the whole earth, but not Spain. Rouyer, who was opposed to having the cannon fired from the Pont-Neuf the twenty-first of January, saying,—
"A king’s head will not make any more noise in falling than the head of any other man;" <- a king is a man, but no better than any other man.
We also have potential encounters between Robespierre and Marat:
the journalist Robert, the husband of Mademoiselle Kéralio, who wrote: “Neither Robespierre nor Marat come to my house; Robespierre may come whenever he wishes; Marat never” (I don’t know what to make of the quote but I think it’s cool he’s defined by his relationship to a woman)
Tanis, who said to Momoro,—
"I want Marat and Robespierre to embrace each other at my table in my house."
"Where do you live?"
"At Charenton."
"I should have been surprised if it were anywhere else," said Momoro.
(Last chapter we had Danton and Cimourdain as neighbors, so maybe the other two big shots need some friends to visit.)
And then we see them linked by “Collot d’Herbois, that melancholy comedian, wearing over his face the ancient mask with two mouths which said yes and no, approving with one what it blamed with the other, branding Carrier at Nantes and defying Châlier at Lyons, sending Robespierre to the scaffold, and Marat to the Pantheon;” before jumping right back to “Génissieux who demanded the penalty of death for those who wore the medallion, “Louis XVI. martyrisé;" (another interpretation: Louis was definitely not a martyr, and if you say otherwise, we’ll kill you). The rest of the sentence is defined by their professions, contrasting with the sailors’ dismissal of working-class military leaders, and it even ends by mentioning "a prince."
"Tallien, an elegist and cruel, who will cause the ninth Thermidor from love;" Shifts into the future tense here, for a few clauses? There’s a difference in perspective between the republicans of 1793 not knowing what awaits them, while the narrator does, and Hugo in 1874 looking back. But for a little bit, it’s blurred together.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-05-20 05:53 pm (UTC)"Gersonné, who established the supremacy of representatives over generals;" Is this the authority Cimourdain has just been given?
"who was to end as a bookseller in the Palais Royal with Lodoïska behind the counter" This isn’t a metaphor for getting killed, is it? I guess a lot of them are retroactively defined by their deaths, but some of these guys survived the proceedings.
Then we have some talk (especially among the Mountain Men) about the late King Louis. We’d seen before the edicts on how to treat him. Here, we get:
the attorney of the Commune, who said: “A dead king is not a man less” <- a king wasn’t even a man (like the priests who have to get melted down?)
"Garan-Coulon, who had proudly demanded, when Spain interposed in the trial of Louis XVI., that the Assembly should not condescend to read a letter from a king in behalf of a king"
Amar, who said,—
"The whole earth condemns Louis XVI. To whom then shall we appeal for judgment? To the planets?" <- the whole earth, but not Spain.
Rouyer, who was opposed to having the cannon fired from the Pont-Neuf the twenty-first of January, saying,—
"A king’s head will not make any more noise in falling than the head of any other man;" <- a king is a man, but no better than any other man.
We also have potential encounters between Robespierre and Marat:
the journalist Robert, the husband of Mademoiselle Kéralio, who wrote: “Neither Robespierre nor Marat come to my house; Robespierre may come whenever he wishes; Marat never” (I don’t know what to make of the quote but I think it’s cool he’s defined by his relationship to a woman)
Tanis, who said to Momoro,—
"I want Marat and Robespierre to embrace each other at my table in my house."
"Where do you live?"
"At Charenton."
"I should have been surprised if it were anywhere else," said Momoro.
(Last chapter we had Danton and Cimourdain as neighbors, so maybe the other two big shots need some friends to visit.)
And then we see them linked by “Collot d’Herbois, that melancholy comedian, wearing over his face the ancient mask with two mouths which said yes and no, approving with one what it blamed with the other, branding Carrier at Nantes and defying Châlier at Lyons, sending Robespierre to the scaffold, and Marat to the Pantheon;” before jumping right back to “Génissieux who demanded the penalty of death for those who wore the medallion, “Louis XVI. martyrisé;" (another interpretation: Louis was definitely not a martyr, and if you say otherwise, we’ll kill you). The rest of the sentence is defined by their professions, contrasting with the sailors’ dismissal of working-class military leaders, and it even ends by mentioning "a prince."
"Tallien, an elegist and cruel, who will cause the ninth Thermidor from love;" Shifts into the future tense here, for a few clauses? There’s a difference in perspective between the republicans of 1793 not knowing what awaits them, while the narrator does, and Hugo in 1874 looking back. But for a little bit, it’s blurred together.