#danton was really unhinged here…

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

Is there a list of frev figures who claimed to be at the storming of the Bastille? The people I know who said they at least witnessed it is pretty eclectic like Herault, Léon and Saint-Just.

I found all the (official?) ”vainqueurs de la Bastille” listed in alfabethical order here (1889). However, according to Michael J. Sydenham’s Léonard Bourdon: The Career of a Revolutionary, 1754-1807, who’s subject of study claimed to belong to this group, simply holding this title was not a guarantee that you had actually taken part in the storming itself:

The only people found on the list that I myself recognized were those of the dantonist Louis Legendre, the girondin Claude Fauchet and the general Antoine Joseph Santerre. I therefore don’t know if the people claiming to have participated in the storming here below are just lying (saying you played a role in it after all being something that would easily better your patriotic reputation) or if their participation just wasn’t recorded (which doesn’t sound particulary hard to be true either):

Stanislas Fréron claims in a letter to Lucile Desmoulins dated October 18 1793, that both he, Barras and La Poype ”besieged” the Bastille.

Pierre Nicolas Berryer wrote in his memoirs that the Convention deputy Bourdon d’Oise participated in the storming of the Bastille, and still kept the blood stained coat he had worn during it five years later:

At the same time, and as if he felt the need to convince me even more of the strength of his mind, [Bourdon] took out from under his bed an oblong casket, in which was tucked the coat he had worn on the day of the storming of the Bastille… […] He took great care to point out to me that his coat was still covered with stains from the blood he had spilled at the Bastille. 

Albert Mathiez summarized in the article La vie de Héron racontée par lui-même (1925) a memoir the Committee of General Security spy François Héron wrote while imprisoned after thermidor. In it, he would have claimed to have participated in the storming of the Bastille, as well as the women’s march on Versailles, the demonstration of June 20 and the Insurrection of August 10.

According to Dictionnaire des parlementaires français (…) de 1789 à 1889, Jacques-Alexis Thuriot took part in the storming.

Regarding some more well known guys and their Bastille activities, Desmoulins, in a letter written to his father written July 16, leaves a rather detailed description of the storming. Through the following part, he does however indicate that he himself missed it:

Then, the cannon of the French Guards made a breach. Bourgeois, soldiers, everyone rushes forward. An engraver climbs up first, they throw him down and break his legs. A luckier French guard followed him, seized a gunner, defended himself, and the place was stormed in half an hour. I started running at the first cannon shot, but the Bastille was already taken, in two and a half hours, a miracle that is.

Camille also adds that, on July 15, he was among the people who scaled the ruins of the stormed Bastille:

However, I felt even more joy the day before, when I climbed into the breach (montai sur la brèche) of the surrendered Bastille, and the flag of the Guards and the bourgeois militias was raised there. The most zealous patriots were there. We embraced each other, we kissed the hands of the French guards, crying with joy and intoxication.

On July 23 1789, Robespierre wrote a letter to Antoine Buissart telling him he had gotten to see the ”liberated” Bastille, but he had of course not participated in the storming himself:

I’ve seen the Bastille, I was taken there by a detachment of the brave bourgeois militia that had taken it; because after leaving town hall, on the day of the king's trip, the armed citizens took pleasure in escorting out of honor the deputies they met, and they could only march among acclamations from the people. What a delightful abode the Bastille has been since it came into the power of the people, its dungeons are empty and a multitude of workers work tirelessly to demolish this odious monument to tyranny! I could not tear myself away from this place, the sight of which only gives sensations of pleasure and ideas of liberty to all good citizens.

According to Danton: le mythe et l’histoire (2016), Danton did not take part in the actual storming of the Bastille, however, the following day he went to the abandoned prison and took the provisional governor hostage:

Absent from the storming of the Bastille, it was on the night of July 15 to 16 that Danton took action. At the head of a patrol of the bourgeois guard of his district, of which he proclaimed himself captain, he claimed, we do not know in what capacity, to enter the "castle of the Bastille,” placed under the control of the elector Soulès, as provisional governor. Without worrying about his powers, Danton has him kidnapped and taken to City Hall, surrounded by a threatening crowd. But Soulès was released the next day upon the intervention of La Fayette; Danton's initiative was openly disavowed and blamed by the assembly of electors.

According to Clifford D. Connor, Marat wrote the following about his activities on July 14 1789 in number 36 of l’Ami du peuple (12 November 1789):

[major-knighton]

So the main plot is Robespierre's love story with an OC aristocrat, Marie-Anne, who at first came to Paris to murder Robespierre and symbolically Avenge Her Family™. But! In a plot twist that surpassed my expectations, once she gets there she realizes that his ideas are good, gets introduced to a feminist revolutionary club and pretty much becomes a jacobin. They fall in love, though their relationship sours during the Terror, and are reunited just before he dies.

Aside from that, their portrayal of Robespierre is pretty good, except for the Supreme Being part which is a catastrophe, but at least it only lasts one song.

The musical opens on the trial of Louis Capet and ends on Thermidor, Danton is very Dantonesque and there's a pretty clear reference to the dinner scene in Wadja's film except Danton is even more unhinged. The Desmoulins are sweet, Éléonore gets quite little stage time but Maurice Duplay makes a nice paternal figure.

Even if Maximilien is framed as the main architect of the Terror, it is quite clear that he feels bad about the excesses so, not that bad. They take the time to have Danton scream over his wife's corpse, a few direct quotes from more or less every big character. Charlotte is briefly here but Augustin and Couthon are inexplicably not, also Fouché is here and is The Worst. They try to reference Charlotte and Fouché's history but it comes off looking more like harassment tbh.

Overall, not a bad representation even if it slips into a few clichés, and many of the songs are absolute bangers. The media of musical theater is really helpful to convey Robespierre's motivations and ideals.

My main issue is the villainisation of Saint- Just, who reaaaally borders on the obsessively shooting down everyone else that Robespierre likes lmao. Given that he's basically reduced to Robespierre's evil simp I was expecting him to show up during Thermidor but no. The show ends on Marie-Anne getting freed from prison and Robespierre urging her to live and carry on?

Also note : this is a Zuka show, so the cast is all-female.

Do you know the Japanese musical about Robespierre and if not do you want a brief review?

Hmm, I think I heard about one? Never listened to it/watched it myself, so please feel free to educate me!