Revolutionary melodrama

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

So this evening I translated Act I of Pierre Duzéa’s “Camille Desmoulins, Tragédie en cinq actes et en vers” (1894), which I’m still in the process of actually reading. It’s an interesting text as a product of the fin-de-siècle, but no aesthetic achievement; the language is painfully stilted, and I smile to imagine Monsieur Hon-Hon stumbling over those heroic couplets. Other highlights so far include Saint-Just and Camille brandishing pistolets at each other in the Jacobin club (“Par hasard, désires-tu mourir?”).

I haven’t gotten to this yet, but according to Jean-Paul Bertaud we find in Duzéa’s portrayal of Robespierre the “rejected lover” of Lucile, “mad with passion, deception and jealousy”...

I’ve posted my translation of Act I here; apologies for its *meh* quality. If there’s any interest, I’d be willing to translate either the rest of the play or just some choice excerpts (at least for the sake of amusement). I also hope to post some of his letters from the “Correspondance.”

**Update**:  Today I posted the second act on the same site. Highlights:  a weird, condensed version of Revolutionary chronology (e.g., Lucile reports that she has just witnessed the execution of the Brissotins, but isn't the action of the play supposed to take place just before Camille's death?)...the dantonistes extol Charlotte Corday as a super-virgin-killer...first mention of Robespierre as the spurned suitor out for revenge!