The Arcades Project - Operi

served as pretexts. This type of 'theatrical' presentation completely defied all
control. "-I.'When revolutions break out, one often hears admissions that can be
highly instructive. Here is what was said in Le Mot d'ordre of May 17, 1871, on the
subject of the citizenship cards:2 'The overly assiduous reading of Le Chevalier de
Maison-Rouge and other novels hy Alexandre Dumas certainly inspired the members
of the Commune to come up with this decree. We regret having to inform them
that history is not made hy reading novels. m Victor Hallays-Dahot, La Censu.re
dramatiqlte et Ie theatre, 1850-1870 , pp, 68-69, 55, [Le Mot
d 'ordre is presumably an organ of Rochefort.] [kl,2]
The Commune felt itself to be, in all respects, the heir of 1793. [kl,3]
The passage in HaIlays·Dabot, p. 55 , is very iroportant for the
connection between colportage and revolution. [kl,4]
"At several intersections, our path opened out unexpectedly into vast arched
domes . . . . Surely, each of these clandestine colosseums would provide a useful
stronghold for the concentration of forces in certain eventualities, just as the
infinity of subterranean networks, with its thousand galleries running under every
corner of the capital, provides a ready-made sap from which to attack the city
from helow . . . . The lightning bolt that annihilated the Empire did not leave it
time to act on this conception. It is harder to figure out why the leaders of the
Commune, . . . so resolute in everything, did not make use of this formidahle
means of destruction when faced with the appearance of troops." Nadal', Qltand
j'etais photographe (Paris < 1900» , p. 121 C"Paris souterrain"). Refers to the
"Letter from N- (Paris) to Louis Blanc (Versailles), May 1871," which voices just
such an expectation. [kla,l]
';'If Rimbaud is in fact admirable, it is not for having fallen silent but for having
spoken. If he fell silent, it. was douhtless for lack of a true audience. It was hecause
the societ.y in which he lived could not offer him t.his audience. One ought. to keep
in mind the very simple fact that Arthur Rimhaud came to Paris in 1871, quite
naturally, to join the army of the Commune . ... In the barracks of the Chatcau­
d'Eau, the young Uimhaud did not yet question the utilit.y of writing and singing
about the hands 0(' t.he Wench, of the Jeanne-Marie of the fauhourgs, who is not
the plaster Marianne of the town halls:
They are the hands not of a cousin
But of working women with large forchcads
Burned, in woods stin king of a factory,
By a sun drunk on tar.
They have paled, marvelous,
Under t.he great sun full of love,
On the hronze of mach inc guns ,
Throughout insurgenl Pa risP