#fabre d'églantine

[privateandshamefulvices]

Fabre d'Églantine only being in literally one second of La Révolution Française is heartbreaking lmao.

[enlitment]

i am curious about robespierre and camille and “doomed by the narrative”, if you are free i would love to learn some more about them since i only have basic frev knowledge!

- @iron--and--blood

Thank you so much for the ask! ✨

The short version is that they started off as school friends and got separated for a couple of years after finishing their studies. Then the revolution started in 1789 and brought them together again by uniting them in their shared goal, only to completely tear them apart in 1794. And by ‘completely tear them apart’, I mean that Robespierre was one of the people who signed the decree for Camille’s arrest which led to his execution in 1794. Talk about star-crossed…

The answer would not have been possible without this great article by @anothehumaninthisworld btw! Definitely go read it if you haven’t already and are craving more information.

Both Camille Desmoulins and Maximilien Robespierre studied at Lous-le-Grand, the former Jesuit school, in Paris. Camille was 2 years younger than Maximilien, but they definitely knew each other, and there is a strong suggestion that they were friends back then. Later, Robespierre calls Camille his ‘study companion’, ‘college comrade’ and (and this will be important later, so just put a pin in that) ‘a talented young man without mature judgement’. Their favourite topic to discuss with each other was apparently the Roman Republic - because of course it was. I also like to imagine they bonded over their enthusiasm for classical authors!

Although two years is not that much of an age difference, a lot of people (including Przybyszewska, who takes it to the max) picked up on the fact that their dynamic was kind of like this:

picture by @did-slid-skid (hope it’s okay to share it, if not then I’ll take it down. Give it a like here!)

…and it sort of continued to be like that until the bitter end, but let’s not get ahead too much.

Once the revolution kicked off and Camille started publishing his first newspaper, he seems to have tried to capitalise on the fact that he knew Robespierre,whose political career at that time was already gaining significant traction (in a bit of ‘I’m so proud of my famous talented friend! Just look at Robespierre! And have I mentioned he is *my* friend?!’ kind of way). At this point, Camille might have had an incentive to exaggerate their closeness a bit to help his own journalistic career.

But I think it’s fair to say their relationship became closer once again sometime during 1790 since Robespierre was not only a witness at Camille’s wedding to Lucile, but he also became a godfather to Camille’s and Lucile’s son Horace, according to some sources. And if not a godfather, then definitely at least an occasional babysitter.

Also not super relevant from a historical perspective but the wedding scene in La Revolution Francaise is very cute, despite the film's many issues:

Then, around late 1793 and the first half of 1794, things got really messy. I mean, they were always really complex of course, it was the revolution and fractions kept forming and falling in quite a rapid succession. I mean messy specifically in regards to Camille. To put something really complicated as simply as possible, Camille started to be associated with the Indudgents/Dantonists - a name coined for the political fraction which included figures like Georges Danton and Fabre d'Églantine, who was involved in a massive corruption scandal.

Around that time, Camille also started publishing a newspaper – La Vieux Cordellier – which criticised the actions of the Committees and as such, came to be seen as something that was actively undermining the authority and the efforts of the revolutionary government.

There was quite a heated public exchange between Camille and Robespierre in January 1794 at the Jacobin Club. It also marks one of the greatest instances of what I like to call ‘using Rousseau as a weapon”.

Basically, Robespierre ordered Camille to destroy the copies of his journal, to which Camille replied by quoting Rousseau and saying "to burn is not to answer." It's important to know that Rousseau was *the* hero of Robespierre - a fact of which Camille was fully aware - so this was meant to cut deep. It must have stung!

Robespierre then replied “Learn, Camille, that if you were not Camille, one could not have so much indulgence for you”. This to me really illustrates the nature of their relationship at this point in time.

I am not sure how much of this is actually historically accurate and how much is my view based on the interpretations of their relationship in the media, but the sense I get is that Robespierre was quite protective of Camille until he felt like he had no choice but to move against him.

Despite the small age difference, there seemed to have been kind of an older, wiser person in a protective role/younger man led astray (or, if you want to go the Przybyszewka's route, acting like a brat) dynamic. Robespierre is quoted referring to Camille as a ‘spoilt child’. I mean, Camille might have been one of the first people to be called enfant terrible (I swear I saw it somewhere and did not hallucinate it, right?), despite being a man in his 30s.

Camille's whole vibe is somehow 30+ going on 14. Like that's pretty much a historical canon.

But then, in one way or another, the situation reached a point where for Robespierre, the importance of preserving the revolutionary cause outweighed the importance of friendship with Camille - his old college comrade. (DOOMED BY THE NARRATIVE!)

In March 1794, Robespierre, as a member of the Committee of Public Safety, was among the people who signed Camille’s arrest warrant and thus, with a stroke of a pen, sealed his fate.

blood and ink parallel etc etc you get it ~

According to Robespierre’s sister, Charlotte, Maximilien tried to visit his friend in prison. I'm including a longer version of the quote because it is fascinating! Przybyszewska includes this supposed event in her play, The Danton case. It is also something which I may or may not have capitalised on in my own writing. Ahem.

"all I know is that my brother had much love for Camille Desmoulins, with whom he had studied, and that when he learned of his arrest and his incarceration in the Luxembourg he went to that prison in the intention of imploring Camille to return to the true revolutionary principles he had abandoned to ally himself with the aristocrats. Camille did not want to see him; and my brother, who would probably have defended and perhaps saved him, abandoned him to the terrible justice of the Revolutionary Tribunal."

An important question though is whether we can trust Charlotte as a source here… (most likely no?) If it were true though, it just screams doomed by the narrative (and own hubris?) to me.

Lucile Desmoulins, Camille’s wife, meanwhile tried to plea for Camille’s release by writing to Robespierre and trying to remind him of his and Camille’s friendship:

Have you forgotten these ties which Camille can never remember without tenderness? You who prayed for out union, who took our hands into yours, you who have smiled at my son and whom his infantile hands have caressed so many times (…) Even if he (…) hadn’t been as attached to the republic, I figure his attachment to you would have functioned as a substitute for patriotism, and you think that for this we deserve death?

(I’m not crying you’re crying)

Lucile’s letter, however, did not help to change Robespierre’s mind and overturn the decision. On 16 Germinal Year II (5th of April 1794), Camille Desmoulins was executed, along with other Dantonists.

Just one more line that always makes me sad, to really rub it in as a special treat – from Camille’s letter to his wife from prison:

“I have dreamed of a Republic such as all the world would have adored. I could never have believed that men could be so ferocious and so unjust.”

Or, as @anotherhumaninthisworld aptly puts it in the tags, Camille and Maximilien’s relationship essentially boils down to this:

(Really funny, but ouch.)

Their relationship also features prominently in the works by S. Przybyszewska, an early 20th century Polish playwright who very much picks up on the potentially queer vibes of Camile's and Maximilien's dynamic and just runs with it. She's much loved by the French Revolution Tumblr fandom for writing what is essentially a beautiful extremely angsty historical RPF in the 1920s.

[sansterreurnivertu]

Singing Camille in the early 20th century Frev movies

I found Camille is engaged with music in some French Revolution movies made in early 20th century.

In Danton (1921), he sings a song with a guitar that mock Robespierre and Saint-Just, and gets the crowd erupting.

In Napoléon (1927), he was the first to realize how great "La Marseillaise" was. He read the score and found the song to be wonderful.

(with the composer Rouget de Lisle)

In Danton (1931), he performs an original song to celebrate Danton's marriage. This Camille (looks rather like Fabre d'Églantine) is a most devoted friend and I was angry with Danton for almost neglecting him during the film. Far different from the outrageous spoiled brat in Danton (1983). This is an early talkie, so perhaps it was challenging attempt to include a singing scene.

It is interesting to see him associated with music, even if not always historically accurate. Camille enjoying music is fascinating. I wish he could be in future media.

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

Apologies if I’ve asked something similar to this before , but what do primary sources tell us on Danton’s actual role in the indulgent campaign, and specifically Vieux Cordelier? Because we hear a lot about Danton persuading Camille to make this move, but frankly, I think the direct attack on Robespierre and refusal to back down fits more with Camille’s reckless impulsivity than Danton’s more comprising and savvy (and arguably self-interested) political style. Is the idea he was behind it actually supported by evidence outside the notorious trial notes , or was that something invented (or falsely believed) by Robespierre in an attempt to portray his friend as “misled” rather than counter-revolutionary, and Danton as power hungry ?

I still have your ask from like half a year ago and am working on it, there’s just so much interesting stuff to look over (and I would be lying if I didn’t say I’ve taken massive breaks now and then :\ ). But so far, I have yet to find any hard evidence of Danton’s involvement in the Vieux Cordelier.

We have several contemporaries designating Danton as some kind of leader of a moderate faction. His friend Dominique-Joseph Garat did for example in his Memoirs of the revolution; or, an apology for my conduct, in the public employments which I have held (1795) claim that Danton had been deeply moved by the fate of the 22 girondins, to the extent it motivated him to quit politics for a month and retire to Arcis-sur-Aube. When Danton returned to Paris in November 1793, Garat argues it was with a ”conspiracy” in mind, a conspiracy which had as it goal to ”restore for the benefit of all the reign of justice and of the laws, and to extend clemency to his enemies,” and to which Desmoulins belonged:

At Arcis-sur-Aube, the aspects of nature, while it calmed the anxieties of his breath, inspired him with generous and magnanimous resolutions. In the silence of the country and of retreat, he conceived the design of a new and benevolent conspiracy. All his friends entered into it. […] The measures by which Danton proposed to ally his conspiracy into execution, were, to prepare the minds of men for such a change, by means of such papers as those of Camille Desmoulins.

In Histoire générale et impartiale des erreurs, des fautes et des crimes commis pendant la Révolution Française (1797), Desmoulins’ fellow journalist Louis Marie Prudhomme also wrote the following:

Piqued by this despotic pride, which openly reduced them to the role of subordinates, Danton, Lacroix, Camille-Desmoulins, Fabre-d'Églantine, put themselves at the head of a secret party against the emerging authority of the Committee which was their work. It was to overthrow it in public opinion that they undermined its fundamental basis, terror. Camille was charged with this moral attack, and his numbers of Le Vieux Cordelier seemed for a moment to ensure the triumph of the system of clemency.

Finally, Danton’s friend Edme-Bonaventure Courtois wrote in Notes et souvenirs de Courtois de l’Aube, député à la Convention nationale (cited in La Révolution française: revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine (1887), that ”it was in these painful moments that [Desmoulins] put to paper (in his Vieux Cordelier) the reflections that his indignation could no longer contain, and whose acrimony Danton, through his advice, softened in many places.”

But the very first contemporary to make Danton into the leader of an ”indulgent faction” who had proofread the Vieux Cordelier would indeed appear to be Robespierre, who in his notes against the dantonists (dated to around March 1794) has written the following:

Desmoulins; even the title of this pamphlet (the Vieux Cordelier) was destined to conciliate public opinion with the leaders of this coterie who hid their projects under the name of Vieux Cordeliers, of veterans of the Revolution. Danton, in capacity of president of this Vieux Cordelier, corrected the prints of his numbers; he made changes there, by his own admission. One recognizes his influence and his hand in the writings of Philippeaux, and even in the ones of Bourdon.

This was passed on in the report based on the notes written by Saint-Just:

…What shall I say about the confession made by Danton, that he had edited the latest writings of Desmoulins and Philippeaux?

Like you say, it is however hard to say if these charges are to be treated seriously or just as a cheap way to make Danton into the ”spider in the web” (the truth evidently not being that important when it came to French revolutionaries cutting each other’s heads off). I would say Robespierre’s claim is somewhat undermined by the fact he accuses Danton of editing not just Desmoulins’ writings, but those of Philippeaux and Bourdon as well, because while he in the first case did have an opportunity to know more about the work, having himself been involved in its publication by proofreading one or two numbers (this is for example the way the movie La Terreur et la Vertu has him find out it’s Danton who has asked Camille to pick up his pen again), we don’t have anything suggesting that was the case for the latter two. If Robespierre had hard evidence of Danton’s influence over these three writings, it also seems a bit strange he doesn’t elaborate on it a bit more… Furthermore, since Saint-Just’s report was read aloud at the Convention and published in different journals we also can’t entirely rule out the possibility the people who attested to Danton as leader of a faction after the fact to some extent built their testimonies on said report, which of course would make them much weaker.

Of course, all of the things above are still just claims made by contemporaries. Looking over the things Danton and Camille are themselves confirmed to have said and done during Vieux Cordelier’s publication, it’s more foggy. For the former, we more or less only have interventions made by him at the Jacobins and Convention to go on, considering the lack of private papers left behind by him. I have not gone through all of these yet, but some sort of big revelation of Danton’s role in the ”indulgent campaign” is not something I’ve found so far. That there doesn’t exist any place where Danton openly states ”it was I who told Camille to start writing the Vieux Cordelier and I’m the puppet master behind it” is of course not exactly strange, but not very helpful for our question either… I also can’t find the question of who was really responsible for the Vieux Cordelier’s publication posed to Danton or any of the other ”indulgents” anywhere during their trial, so neither that’s of much use. More damning evidence, such as a draft of a number of the journal with Danton’s handwriting/notes on it, I have not heard anything about.

As for Camille, nowhere in the notes he wrote on Saint-Just’s report does he confirm, reject or even bring up the accusation there printed that Danton was the one truly in charge of the Vieux Cordelier, something which I suppose could be read as implying the charge was true, or that he simply ignored it. Similarily, the fact that Robespierre on December 14 is recorded to have said ”[Camille’s] energetic and easy pen can still serve [the revolution] usefully, but, more circumspect in the choice of his friends, he must break all pacts with impiety, that is to say, with the aristocracy,” and that Camille in his very last letter to his wife claims that ”I die as a victim of these jokes [in the Vieux Cordelier] and my friendship to Danton. I’m glad my assassins let me die with him and Philippeaux.” could be interpreted as evidence Danton had a considerate influence over Camille’s actions, but are still too vague to really say anything more concreate. It can be observed that in the first number of Vieux Cordelier, released December 5 1793, Desmoulins designates the session at the Jacobins just two days earlier, during which Robespierre defended Danton after he had been accused of ”moderatism” by Coupé d’Oise, as the event that caused him to return to the journalistic pen: 

Victory is with us because, amid the ruins of so many colossal civic reputations, Robespierre’s in unassailed; because he lent a hand to his competitor in patriotism, our perpetual President of the “Old Cordeliers” […] I learned some things yesterday. I saw how many enemies we have. Their multitude tears me from the Hotel des Invalides and returns me to combat. I must write.

This at least clearly and quickly cements that the journal is sympathetic towards Danton. At the same time, it also implies the founding of the journal was spontanous and not part of some great scheme (though again, if it was part of a scheme, Camille would of course not say that outloud, so…)

When it comes to what historians/biographers have written, Danton (1914) by Louis Madelin claims that ”Danton saw in [Hébert] the man to be killed before everyone else. Against this wretch, he would throw Camille: “Take your pen,” he told him as soon as he returned [from Arcis-sur-Aube] “and ask for mercy!” Desmoulins, to obey him, founded the Vieux Cordelier and took Hébert by the throat.” while Jules Claretie in Camille Desmoulins and his wife; passages from the history of the Dantonists founded upon new and hitherto unpublished documents (1876) argues Camille wrote under the dictation of both Robespierre and Danton. None of them do however cite a real source for this… In the more recent Danton (1978), Norman Hampson writes that ”the question of how far Danton approved of this [”indulgent”] campaign, or even directed it from behind the scenes, merits careful examination,” and that, at least by late December 1793, ”If indulgence was the programme of a dantonist faction, Robespierre looked a better dantonist than [Danton] was,” while Hervé Leuwers in the even more recent Camille et Lucile Desmoulins: un rêve de république (2018) firmly declares that ”[Camille’s] journal is personal, he is writing on the command of neither Danton nor Robespierre, much less under their dictation, as is too often affirmed.”

I definitely don’t think Robespierre would be incapable of wanting to portray someone as just ”misled” rather than ”counter-revolutionary” if said someone was his personal friend (though why that even matters if you’re just gonna kill them anyway can be a question for another day). After all, this same phenomenon of wanting to downplay the actions (alternatively claim they are the effect of ”bad influence”) of someone liked or admired can be observed both in the attitude of Brissot towards Robespierre, Charlotte Robespierre towards her brother and the Desmoulins couple towards Robespierre, so why not the opposite way around?

Finally, out of curiosity, what ”direct attack” on Robespierre is it you’re referring to? Because Camille never attacked Robespierre personally in the Vieux Cordelier as far as I’m aware, there only exists one place in the draft of the seventh and final number where he reproaches Robespierre for going against his former anti-war campaign, that would appear to ultimately have been cut and nevertheless was never released since both Camille and his printer were arrested before it could happen. Are you talking about Camille’s legendary ”to burn is not to answer” rebuttal?

[comite-de-salut-public]

I had very funny dream where my brain conjured up Lin Manuel Miranda's take on the French Revolution starring Jonathan Groff as Robespierre. Why it involved LMM specifically, I know not why

Who are these individuals? I can't say I've heard of them. If they are actors, then perhaps Citizens Collot d'Herbois or Fabre d'Églantine would know?

[major-knighton]

I'm french and I have to say I have no idea what any of these nursery rhymes could be.

In regards to this post : https://www.tumblr.com/major-knighton/743129272535924736/i-love-how-french-nursery-rhymes-are-french?source=share

French Revolution songs : Le bon roi Dagobert is actually about Louis XVI, the use of Dagobert was to avoid censorship. Dansons la capucine is a variation of La Carmagnole, and Il pleut bergère was written by revolutionary deputy and dantonist Fabre d'Églantine

Strange birds : I was thinking of the rossignol in Gentils coquelicots that tells the girls that men ain't shit, but the bird in En passant près d'un petit bois evokes real terror in the Narrator. And ig you can count the rossignol in À la claire fontaine although that's mostly the human projecting her mood on the bird

Specific location : various can apply, was thinking of Le pont d'Avignon and Le palais royal

The protagonists die : Ne pleure pas Jeannette ends on the titular character getting hanged with her lover, I'm like 90% sure Compère Guilleri dies too

Mary ex machina : Il était un petit navire is about a young matelot nearly being killed and eaten by his crewmates, L'enfant au tambour is technically saved by angels but ehhh, and an obscure song called La fille changée en cane is about a girl avoiding being assaulted by a troupe of soldiers by praying Mary changes her into a duck. Which she does.

A whole lot of actually wholesome ones, including Frère Jacques, which I've seen differently ever since learning that the matine bells are actually rung at 3am. You bet I'd be sleeping too if some punk ass abbot tried to get me to go make noise at that time

Give us more candy : explicitly the moral of Dame Tartine and Ah vous dirai-je Maman

Peasant girl marries the prince : Y avait dix filles dans un pré and En passant par la Lorraine, but I'm pretty sure there are more

[edgysaintjust]

On a sad winter day, rainy and gloomy, early in the morning on 24 nivôse (13 January), Fabre d'Eglantine was arrested. Policemen and national guards invaded his house in rue Vilie-l'Evêque, tore him from the arms of the citoyenne Rémy who, that day, forgetting that she was an actress to remember only that she was a woman, did not have the courage of acting and shed real tears. While the unfortunate was led to prison of Luxembourg, the seals were put on his papers, in which no part could be discovered compromising. 

Henri d'Alméras, Fabre d'Églantine

[kaxen]

Duolingo sometimes uses Fabre as a name in exercises and I only know Fabre d'Églantine so that is who I am imagining swimming or some shit

[did-slid-skid]

list of tags under the cut wooooo i enjoy being able to navigate my own blog

most commonly tagged people

Louis Antoine de Saint Just

Maximilien Robespierre

Camille Desmoulins

Lucile Desmoulins

Jean Paul Marat

Georges Danton

Bag of People (tag for when there are a lot of people. kinda inconsistent in usage but I'll clear it up eventually)

less commonly tagged people (for now)

Augustin Robespierre

Charlotte Robespierre

Eleonore Duplay

Fabre d'Églantine

Georges Couthon

Horace Desmoulins

Jacques Louis David

Jean-Lambert Tallien

Joachim Murat

Joseph Fouché

Napoleon Bonaparte

note that there are others who i have tagged sparsely but don't wanna find who they are right now

most plentifully tagged interactions

Robespierre + Camille

Robespierre + Saint Just

Camille + Saint Just

Camille + Danton

Camille + Lucile (note to self: go retag that one post) (note to self: i don't remember what post this is referring to, why did i think being so vague was a good idea?????)

slightly less plentifully tagged interactions

Robespierre + Marat

Robespierre + Danton

Robespierre + Bonbon

Robespierre + David

Robespierre + Camille + Saint Just

Robespierre + Camille + Danton

Saint Just + Charlotte

Charlotte + Eleonore

Camille + Horace

Lucile + Horace

Camille + Lucille + Horace

Camille + Fréron

Lucile + Fréron

Marat + David

Marat + Napoleon

Napoleon + David

Marat + Napoleon + David

Marat + Murat

Bonbon + Napoleon

and other tags

art

my art

untagged stuff

[citizen-card]

french revolution’s biggest loser poll: Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois VS Fabre d'Églantine

[saint-jussy]

WHY IS THERE A FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT FROM FABRE'S POV IN THE CARNAVALET LOOOOOOL

[enlitment]

I hope you're having a good day! It's always a delight seeing your thoughts on my dash. What modern invention do you think would be funniest to give to the French revolutionaries?

Hi, thank you so much for the lovely message! Same here 😊

I personally think it would be really fun to go back and give them a digital camera, along with some means of developing photos. (that's also me being just a tiny bit selfish with my answer, since it would give us a lot of great additional primary sources)

I'd be super curious to see the main events, but also:

I want to see the awkwardly staged group photos of the committee members (I'm picturing the kind where one is hugging the other person around the shoulders while the other is visibly uncomfortable and tries to keep as much distance as physically possible)

I just know Jacques-Louis David would learn to love photography! We'd have all the republican festivals aesthetic photos as well as a moving tribute from Marat's funeral

There would definitely be so many photos of Robespierre circulating throughout Paris. Everyone would want to get them signed. Same for Saint-Just probably.

I'd be really curious to find out who'd be the first one to take a selfie (one of these weird kind of blurry ones, with something cool in the background that you can't really see that much). My bets are on Camille or Bon Bon.

Last but not least, it leaves us with the great opportunity for Fabre d'Églantine to commission a Revolutionary photo calendar. Same pictures, but now with live models (preferably the revolutionaries themselves, or the women of the revolution - they definitely deserve a spotlight!)

[perfectlysweatypanda]

Fabre

Tbh I don't know much about him(the only book on him ive read is the leaders of the frev) but I find him quite interesting

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

did fabre d'églantine ever say anything explicitly anti-war?

I actually had trouble finding Fabre saying anything about war and its pros and cons at all. Searching for the term ”guerre” within the biography Fabre d’Eglantine (1856) by Henri d’Alméras (the only biography I could find on Fabre for free), I did not get any good results. I also can’t find Fabre listed as speaking at the Jacobins anytime during the period the question of war was on the agenda (December 1791 — April 1792). Finally, I also couldn’t find him take a stance on the question within Oeuvres politiques de Fabre d’Églantine (1914) which documents all interventions made by him from September 24 1792 up until his death (but this may not be as surprising considering war had already been raging since months back by then and everyone basically just had to endorse it).

It should be admitted that Fabre on January 3 1793 was elected to the Committee of War, in who’s name he would also deliver reports the following months (March 2 1793, April 4 1793). On October 9 1793 he also voiced his support for the decree of September 7 1793, which ordered all Englishmen on French soil arrested. These interventions perhaps remove the possibility to label him as some kind of pacifist, but then I’m not a Fabre expert, so if anyone knows more about his stance on the question, feel free to share!

[comite-de-salut-public]

You seem to have thoughts on this new calendar system. Do you perchance, have qualms with it yourself?

I actually quite like it. The plants of the day have been very amusing to track, and I'm looking forward to the multiple-day New Year celebration at the autumnal equinox. This seems to be one of the occasional positive things Citizen Fabre d'Églantine has accomplished as of late.

[robespapier]

On the 9th April 2021, the village of Saint-Frichoux (242 residents in 2019) near Carcasonne, inaugured a new square named after Fabre d’Eglantine (born in Carcasonne, 28th July 1750): 

Arlette Mouton, local artist, embellished it with a little Il pleut il pleut bergère fresco (source)