[1] See an elegant exposition of this idea in Schlegel's Dramatic Literature (Standard Library Edition, page 67.).
[2] La Fayette rode a favourite white horse on public occasions during this period.—H. T. R.
[3] "Infamous and contented."—Junius.
[4] "Père Duchesne" was one of the most virulent, gross, and blood-thirsty productions of the Revolution. It was edited by Manuel and Hébert. Its success and profit were so great, that it had many imitators. It was rather a pamphlet than a newspaper, the price fifty sous a month—H. T. R.
[5] It has been generally understood that Voltaire was born at Châtenay, near Paris, in February, 1694.—H. T. R.
[6] Voltaire's residence in Switzerland, where he lived nearly twenty years.—H. T. R.
[7] Qu. Middlesex in 1769?—H. T. R.
[8] This appellation is given to a period of French history extending from 1643 to 1655. By some it is styled an attempt to establish a balanced constitution in the state,—by others, the last essay of expiring feudality. The frondeur leaders were the Duc de Beaufort, Cardinal de Retz, Prince de Conti, Duc de Bouillon, Mareschaux Turenne and de la Motte. On the side of their opponents, called Mazarins, were the Cardinal Mazarin himself, the Prince de Condé, Maréchal de Grammont, and the Duc de Chatillon, while the Duc d'Orleans, a vacillating man, wavered between the two parties. The successes of the rival powers were alternate for a long time; eventually the frondeurs were defeated, and De Retz escaping into Lorraine, Mazarin returned to Paris triumphant in February 1653.—H. T. R.
[9] If M. de Lamartine would convey the idea that Burke was a partisan of the French Revolution, we must combat the assertion by a reference to dates. Talleyrand was ambassador in England in 1792. In October 1791, Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" appeared, to which Tom Paine's "Rights of Man" was one of the replies, and Sir James Mackintosh's "Vindiciæ" another; and previously, in 1789 and 1790, Burke had condemned the tendencies of the Revolution, and the conduct of the Revolutionists.—H. T. R.
———— immedicabile vulnus
Ense recidendum, ne pars sincera trahatur.
[11] Co-editor with Hébert of the disgusting "Père Duchesne."—H. T. R.
[12] "Dux fæmina facti."—Virg.
[14] Foulon was a contractor, who, odious to the populace, was compelled to fly from Paris, but being discovered, was brought back, and eventually murdered by the mob in July 1789. Berthier was his son-in-law, and also incurring the displeasure of the people, was a few days later stabbed by a hundred bayonets whilst on his way to prison.—H. T. R.
[15] See Michelet's History of the French Revolution, vol. i. p.154.—Standard Library.
"Hail mighty triumph!—enter these our walls!
Restore those soldiers, heroes of the day
When fell Désilles, pierced by their murderous balls,
And blood of citizens bedew'd the clay!"
[17] In Michelet's History of the French Revolution, publishing contemporaneously with this work, the author acquits the Duc d'Orleans of any participation in the riots and bloodshed at Versailles, on the 4th and 5th of October; but says, page 280., "Depositions prove that he was seen every where between Paris and Versailles, but that he did nothing. Between eight and nine o'clock in the morning of the 6th, so soon after the massacre that the court of the castle was still stained with blood, he went and showed himself to the people, with an enormous cockade in his hat, laughing, and flourishing a switch in his hand."—Standard Library.—H. T. R.
[18] This passage is somewhat obscure in the original: "Dumouriez se trouva la génie d'une circonstance caché sous l'habit d'un aventurier." We trust we have caught its spirit.—H. T. R.
[19] Madame Du Barry was the favourite mistress of Louis XV., and her brother, as he was called, the Count Jean du Barry, had the king's patronage, and preyed on the public to a great extent, to supply his low habits and expensive tastes.—Translator.
[20] The club of the Feuillants, of which La Fayette was the leading member, was formed after the 17th July, 1791. It consisted principally of Royalists, and was soon dissolved.—H. T. R.
[21] The Marseillais trace their origin to a colony of Phocians in the 1st year of the 43d Olympiad, 599 years b.c. It was the Massilia of the Romans, and called by Cicero the "mistress of Gaul," and by Pliny, the "mistress of education."—H. T. R.
[22] M. Lamartine does not here refer to André Chénier, an admirable lyric poet, from whom he has quoted at page 351.; he was a Royalist, and as such condemned and guillotined in July 1794, in his thirty-second year. He had a brother, Joseph Chénier, his junior by two years, who was an enthusiastic republican, and wrote and brought out, from 1785 to 1795, a great many tragedies, viz. Charles IX., Calas, Henry VIII., Timoleon, Tibère, &c., and was elected member of the legislative assemblies from 1792 to 1802. He fell under Napoleon's displeasure, and he dismissed him from his appointment as inspector-general of public instruction, in 1803. The consul was becoming imperial in his aspirations. Joseph Chénier died in 1811, consistent to the last in his republican notions.—H. T. R.
[23] Editor of the infamous Père Duchesne.—H. T. R.
[24] Furor arma ministrat.—H. T. R.
[25] It was on the 30th July, 1792, that the Marseillais arrived in Paris.—H. T. R.
[26] M. Lamartine has not in his work given the verses 3, 4, and 5; we have therefore supplied them, that "The Marseillaise" may be complete. The Marseillais ruffians entered Paris on the 30th July, 1792, by the Faubourg Saint-Antoine (the St. Giles's of Paris), and headed by Santerre, went to the Champs Elysées, (thus traversing the whole city from south to north,) where a banquet awaited them. Their arrival was marked by riots and bloodshed—Duhamel was murdered. This celebrated song was written by Rouget de Lisle, who also composed the air. On the 18th Nivose, an. iv.(8th January, 1795,) an order of the Directory enjoined that at all theatres and sights the air of the "Marseillaise," and those of "Ça Ira,—Veillons au Salut de l'Empire," and "Le Chant du Depart," should be played. Rouget de Lisle was an officer of engineers in 1790, and in spite of his republican opinions, incarcerated during the reign of terror and only saved by the 9th Thermidor. He would assuredly have been accompanied to the guillotine by his own song.—H. T. R.
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