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The Arcades Project - Operi

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(May 1, 1937), pp. 695-696. <strong>The</strong> Jesuits, like the Assassins, play a role in the<br />

imaginative world of Balzac, as in that of Baudelaire. [V8,!]<br />

"'Ten French regiments, were they to descend into the catacombs, could not have<br />

laid a hand on a single Carbonaro, so many were the turns of those dark and<br />

dismal underground passages, leading to inaccessible retreats. It may be mentioned,<br />

furthermore, that the catacombs were admirably mined in five or six<br />

places, and a spark would have been enough ... to blow up the entire Left Bank."<br />

A. Dumas, Les Mohicans de Paris, vol. 3 (Paris, 1863), p. ll. [V8,2]<br />

<strong>The</strong> conspirators of 1830 were rigorously classical in orientation and bitter foes<br />

of Romanticism. B1anqui remained true to this type throughout his life. [V8,3]<br />

Heine on a meeting of Les Amis du Peuple, at which over 1,500 in attendance<br />

listened to a speech by Blanqui. " <strong>The</strong> meeting had the odor of an old copy-much<br />

perused, greasy, and worn-of Le Moniteur of 1793." Cited in Geffroy, L'Enferme<br />

, vol. 1, p. 59.<br />

[V8,4]<br />

Secret societies after the July Revolution: Ordre et Progres, Union des Condamnes<br />

Politiques, Reclamants de Juillet, Francs Regeneres, Societe des Amis du<br />

Peuple, Societe des Families. [V8,5]<br />

Organization of the Societe des Saisons, successor to the Societe des FamilIes: At<br />

the top, four seasons, of which the chief is spring. Each season has three months,<br />

the chief month being July. <strong>The</strong> month hus four weeks, and their chief is Sunday.-<strong>The</strong><br />

chiefs are not present at the meetings (or are not recognizable). See<br />

Geffroy, L'Ellfe rme , vol. 1, p. 79.<br />

[V8,6]<br />

<strong>The</strong> sections of the Carbonari were known as ventesl2 (the name " Carbonari" goes<br />

back to a conspiracy organized in the house of a chat'coal dealer during the struggle<br />

of the Ghibellines against the Guelphs). Supreme vente, district ventes, local<br />

ventes. Among the founders of the French section was Bazard. [V8,7]<br />

J. J. Weiss on the Club des HaIles: "<strong>The</strong> club met in a little room on t.he second<br />

floor ahove a cafe; it had few members, and these were serious and thoughtful.<br />

Think of the atmosphere of the Comedie Frallf;aise on days when Racine or Corneille<br />

is performed; compare the audience on those days to the crowd that fills a<br />

circus where acrobats are executing perilous leaps, and you will understand the<br />

impression made on someone who ventured into this revolutionary club of Blanqui,<br />

compared with the impression made hy the two clubs in vogue with the party<br />

of order, the club of the Folies-Bergere and that of the Salle Valentino. It was like<br />

a chapel consecrated to the orthodox creed of classical conspiracy, where the<br />

doors were open to all, but where you never felt like returning unless you helieved.<br />

Mter the sullen parade of the oppressed who, every night, would present themselves<br />

at this tribunal in order always to denounce someone or something-the

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