revolution_fr | Reenactment Help!

I'm doing a reenactment of some scenes from the French Revolution with my friends in a few weeks, and I was wondering - does anyone have an English translation of Camille Desmoulins' Aux Armes speech on July 12? The "jump on a table, pull out a pistol or two, and get everyone to wear green" speech; I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. ^^

Also, I'm looking for Saint-Just's "Report on the Dantonists" (again, in English - alas, I speak no French).

Anything else you can get me in English, I'd be grateful. Preferably by Robespierre, Desmoulins, Danton, Saint-Just, Marat, etc. All is welcome; presume we know nothing. ^_^

We have a pretty willing group, so if there's anything you'd like to see people in costume performing in front of a camera in Central Park or wherever it ends up being - please, either give me a link or email me at riderriddle@yahoo.com

(Also, if anyone knows a lot about costumes of specific people and can link me to something that has really good images, that would be very helpful! It's the little details, like "What did stockings look like" and "What type of shoes?" and "What do the sleeves look like again?" that really get you...and if you can answer any of those questions, that helps. ^^)

Thanks a lot!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Marat was delighted when Corday said she held a list of traitors. He immediately exclaimed, "They will be guillotined the following day!"

Just a helpful side note.

Thank you! We hadn't really planned on doing Marat's death scene - due to difficulties in bringing a bathtub into Central Park, where we hope to be holding this, - but anything is useful at this point, and maybe we'll figure something out. ^__^

You'd need an old fashioned tin bath - they're actually quite light to carry, and they still make them (or maybe Britain is just backward, but I saw one hanging outside a hardware shop in posh Dulwich, South London last year). I'll try and scan you in some stuff on costume later today, but for starters, from the 1780's on a cravat was made of a piece of linen or muslin 5 feet long by 8 inches wide, folded in half lengthways, then passed front to back, then the ends back round the front and tied in a big girly bow, though by 1800-ish these had evolved into one made from an isoceles triangle 60 inches along the base, 12 inches high in fine muslin, pleated down to 3.5 inches, then centralised at the throat, the ends passed round the back, crossed, and tied in a smaller bow at the front: I don't know for sure, but the second sort looks like the Saint-Just incredibly high but slighly less effeminate neckwear style (he seems to be a neckwear pioneer, as well as giving the world the first Farrah Fawcett hair). These are from an English pattern book, but French fashion was heavily influenced by English at the time.

Yes, I suppose, but keep in mind - we're students. Liberal art students trying to live on NYC prices, no less. Chances are if we're doing Marat's death scene, we're putting him in a cardboard box...this is a reenactment in good humor, after all. ^_^

That's very useful, thank you! Out of curiosity, do you know anything about the stockings of the time? I'm trying to figure out what would work...

My scanner is being totally evil so I haven't managed to scan pics in yet, but the stockings were often pattern-knit or striped: hooray for Emo- it means you can now get vertical and horizontal striped knee-length socks all over the place. (historically, if silk, the silk would have been the knitted silk (I don't know the technical term, but not sheer like 20thc nylons): men would also wear full length tights under culottes (bear in mind elastic wasn't round yet, so stockings were then held up with suspenders at the knee, so I suppose in winter tights were more comfy and warmer). A modern woman's winter tights with a herringbone or more elaborate pattern may do. And culottes/pedal pushers or whatever they're called at the mo: you could stitch three buttons or a buckle to the outside of the knee for a more 18thc look, though some I bought recently from a high-stree shop were like that already (it's the Pirates of the Carribean influence, I suppose).

It was more fashionable to wear long trousers with boots, though. Robespierre's dress was curiously old-fashioned, given his politics: one bitch said he looked like 'an ancien regime tailor', another - a friend - that he wore 'clothes from another age'. Desmoulins and Saint-Just were more up to the minute. I suppose if he's in a bath, your Marat will be wearing nothing but a head towel and a smile (if you drape a white sheet over the cardboard box bathtub it'll look fine (medicinal baths were sometimes lined with a sheet)!

On coats/jackets, an army surplus military greatcoat, the sort that's double breasted so you can fold back the collar into two triangles, if you see what I mean, would look ok - but it'd be heavy, specially for summer. Last winter, in the UK at least, there were a lot of coats with a 1790-1820 look: outsize buttons, double breasted with the top buttons undone and the flaps folded back, and the style was also revived in the late 60's/early 70's (I've got a couple of coats that are pretty well 1790's replicas from the 1970's - very tight fitting, specially the arms.)

If you have it, take a look at A Series of Unfortunate Events: Count Olaf's whole outfit, in the first part of the film, looks suspiciously like Robespierre's striped number!

Ugh, he wasn't so enthusiastic, just to note, she asked "what will you do to them?" and replied "they will be guillotined." and then she took out her knife and stabbed him

ah, i knew he said something to that effect. But I guess history will never know exactly how enthusiastic he was. I could see him being bothered by Corday in the first place. But again, who knows..

I would be interested to know your source on this; in the minutes of Corday's trial, all it says on the subject is this:

"He [Marat] asked this woman several questions about the deputies present in Caen, about their names and those of the muncipal officers; that the above mentioned Corday named them, upon which [declaration] Marat told her it would not be long before they would be punished for their rebellion."

(Qu'il [Marat] fit plusieurs questions à cette femme sur les députés de présents à Caen, sur leurs noms et ceux des officiers municipaux ; que ladite Corday les lui a nommés, sur quoi Marat lui dit qu'ils ne tarderaient pas à être punis de leur rébellion.)

I thought I had remembered reading it in Carlyle's work, but I'm probably wrong. desole.

Doubtless you did read it in Carlyle: it's just that he's less than the most reliable historical source.

Reenactment Help!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject