#simonne évrard | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aedesluminis · 6 months

Text

Simonne Évrard's speech of 8 August 1793 in the National Convention

"I am not here to ask you the favors of cupidity that claims and craves for indigence. Marat’s widow just needs a grave. Before I get to the relieving end of my tormented life, I come to ask you for justice towards the new attacks committed against the memory of the most intrepid and outraged of the people’s defenders. These monsters, how much gold did they lavish! How many hypocritical pamphleteers were paid to put his name to shame! With such hateful rage, they tried so hard to give him a colossal political existence and a detestable celebrity, in order to dishonor the people’s cause that he proudly defended. This day, still stained by his blood, they persecute him to his grave; some other day, they still dare to murder his memory. They are even trying to depict the monster, who pierced his chest with the parricide iron, as an intriguing heroine. In this circle we see the vilest of them all, the Carra, the Ducos, the Dulaure, the shameless praises in their periodicals to encourage their peers to slaughter what is left of the defenders of liberty. I do not talk about the vile Pétion who, in Caen, during a meeting with his accomplices, dared to say that the murder was a virtue.

Soon enough the foolish treachery of the conspirators, who pretend to honor the civic virtues, will make the infamous publications grow, where the horrible murder is presented in favorable ways and the martyr of the patrie is disfigured by the most hideous convulsions.

But here it is the most wicked of their schemes: They bribed some foolish writers who shamelessly usurp his name and tarnish his principles to immortalize the empires of lies which he was victim of! Cowards! First, they flatter the people’s pain to get their praise, then they speak the language of patriotism and morality so that the people believe to still be listening to Marat; but all of this is just to slander the most zealous defenders who have protected them. It is to preach, in Marat’s name, the exaggerations that his enemies attributed to him.

I denounce two men in particular, Jacques Roux and Leclerc, who claim to carry on his patriotic papers and make his shadow talk to insult his memory and to betray the people. After spouting revolutionary platitudes, they encourage the people to outlaw the government. It is in those occasions that they use his name to stain in blood the day of the 10th of August, because his sensitive soul, devastated by the sight of the crimes of tyranny and the uneasiness of humanity, sometimes let out some rightful curses towards the people’s oppressors and public leeches. They try to preserve the parricide lie that persecuted him and made him look like a foolish apostle of anarchy and chaos. And who are these men that claim his place? It is a priest, who the day after the faithful deputies triumphed over their cowardly enemies, came to insult the National Convention through a seditious and wicked speech. There is another man, no less perverse, who is associated with the mercenary furors of said impostor. What is important to remark is that these two men are the same who had been denounced by him at the Cordeliers’ club just a few days before his death as people paid by our enemies to create public disorder and, on the same occasion, they were also formally expelled from this popular society. What is the aim of this perfidious faction that fuels these criminal intrigues? It is to vilify the people who honor the memory of the one who died for their cause. It is to slander all the friends of the patrie, whom it has designated as Maratists; to deceive all the French people across the whole republic, who gather for the reunion of August the 10th, by presenting them their perfidious writings, in which they preach the teaching of the very people’s representative they slaughtered. It is to cause disturbance in these solemn days through some disastrous catastrophe.

God! What will become of the people? If these men can usurp their trust! What is the deplorable condition of their intrepid defenders if death itself cannot avoid them the fury of their murderers! Legislators, for how long would you endure it if crime insulted virtue? Where does this privilege come from, of English and Austrian emissaries to trap public opinion, to give daggers to the defenders of our laws and to know the founding valor of our raising republic? If you let them go unpunished then I denounce them all here to the French people, to the universe. The memory of the martyrs of liberty and the heritage of the people; that of Marat is the only good deed left to me, I devote to his defense the last days of a languid life. Legislators, avenge the patrie, the honesty, the misfortune and the virtue, striking at the most cowardly of all the enemies.”

Original in French

I personally did the translation in English. Let me know if I made some mistakes or if some parts need revision! Last edit: 31/10/23

#simonne evrard #frev #french revolution #my translations #marat

41 notes · View notes

anotherhumaninthisworld · 8 months

Note

Give me the last words of every figure that had a role in the French revolution

(Maybe it will be to many so you can give a little of if you want)

Louis XVI — on January 22 1793, Suite du Journal de Perlet reported the folllwing about the execution that had taken place the day before:

[Louis] climbs the scaffold, the executioner cuts his hair, this operation makes him flinch a little. He turns towards the people, or rather towards the armed forces which filled the whole place, and with a very loud voice, pronounces these words: “Frenchmen, I die innocent, it is from the top of the scaffold, and ready to appear before God, that I tell this truth; I forgive my enemies, I desire that France…” Here he was interrupted by the noise of the drums, which covered some voices crying for mercy, he himself took off his collar and presented himself to death, his head fell, it was a quarter past ten.

Jean-Paul Marat — several people who came to witness during the trial of Charlotte Corday reported Marat’s last words to have been a cry for help to his fiancée Simonne Évrard:

Laurent Basse, courier, testifies that being on Saturday, July 15 (sic), at Citizen Marat's house, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, busy folding newspapers, he saw the accused come, whom citoyenne Évrard and the portress refused entrance. Nevertheless, citizen Marat, who had received a letter from this woman, heard her insist and ordered her to enter, which she did. A few minutes later, on leaving, he heard a cry: ”Help me, my dear friend, help me!” (À moi, ma chere amie, à moi !). Hearing this, having entered the room where citizen Marat was, he saw blood come out of his bosom in great volumes; at this sight, himself terrified, he cried out for help, and nevertheless, for fear that the woman should make an effort to escape, he barred the door with chairs and struck her in the head with a blow; the owner came and took it out of his hands.

The president challenges the accused to state what she has to answer. I have nothing to answer, the accused says, the fact is true.

Another witness, Jeanne Maréchal, cook, submits the same facts; she adds that Marat, immediately taken from his bathtub and put in his bed, did not stir.

The accused says the fact is true.

Another witness, Marie-Barbe Aubin, portress of the house where citizen Marat lived, testifies that on the morning of July 13, she saw the accused come to the house and ask to speak to citizen Marat, who answered her that it was impossible to speak to him at the moment, attenuated the state where he had been for some time, so she gave a letter to deliver to him. In the evening she came back again, and insisted on speaking to him. Aubin and citoyenne Évrard refused to let her in; she insisted, and Marat, who had just asked who it was, having learned that it was a woman, ordered her to be let in; which happened immediately. A few moments later, she heard a cry: "Help me, my dear friend!” (À moi, ma chere amie !);she entered, and saw Marat, blood streaming from his bosom; frightened, she fell to the floor and shouted with all her might: À la garde! Au secours !

The accused says that everything the witness says is the most exact truth.

Girondins — Number 64 of Bulletin du Tribunal Criminel, written shortly after the execution, reports that, once arrived at Place de la Révolution, the Girondins sang Veillons au Salut de l’Empire together while waiting for their turn to mount the scaffold. Lehardy’s last words are reported to have been Vive la République, ”which was generally heard, thanks to the vigorous lungs nature had provided him with.”

Hébertists — On March 31, a week after the execution, Suite de Journal de Perlet reported the following anecdote, though I’ll let it be unsaid whether it should be taken seriously or not:

Here is an anecdote which can serve to make better known the eighteen conspirators whom the sword of the law has struck. On the day of their execution, several heads had already fallen when General Laumur's turn arrived. Ronsin and Vincent looked at him at the scaffold and said to Hébert: ”Without the clumsiness of this j... f... we would have succeeded.” They were alluding to the indiscretion of Laumur, who would tell anyone who would listen that the Convention had to be destroyed.

In Mémoires sur Carnot par son fils (1861), Carnot’s son also claims that, on the day of the execution, his father got stuck in the crowd witnessing the tumbrils pass on their way to the scaffold, close enough to hear Cloots say: “My friends, please do not confuse me with these rascals.”

Dantonists — the famous idea that Danton’s last words were: ”show my head to the people, it’s worth seeing” is, according to Michel Biard, at best backed by a dubious source — Souvernirs d’un sexagénaire (1833) by Antoine Vincent Arnault:

I found there all the expression of the sentiment which inspired Danton with his last words; terrible words which I could not hear, but which people repeated to each other, quivering with horror and admiration. ”Above all, don't forget,” he said to the executioner with the accent of a Gracque, ”don't forget to show my head to the people; it’s worth seeing.” At the foot of the scaffold he had said another word worthy of being recorded, because it characterizes both the circumstance which inspired it, and the man who uttered it. With his hands tied behind his back, Danton was waiting his turn at the foot of the stairs, when his friend Lacroix, whose turn had come, was brought there. As they rushed towards each other to give each other the farewell kiss, a guard, envying them this painful consolation, threw himself between them and brutally separated them. "At least you won't prevent our heads from kissing each other in the basket," Danton told him with a hideous smile.

Biard does however question how reliant Arnault really is, considering his account partly contradicts what earlier, more reliable ones, had to say about the execution. None of the authentic to somewhat autentic descriptions of the dantonist execution I’ve been able to find mention any recorded last words from Danton or his fellow convicts. That has not hindered authors and historians throughout the centuries to let their imagination run wild with the execution — look for example at how many have had Danton say something menacing about Robespierre on his way to the scaffold. Early Desmoulins biographers often have him be a sobbing mess, saying things like "Citizens! it is your preservers who are being sacrificed. It was I — I, who on July 12th called you first to arms! I first proclaimed liberty… My sole crime has been pity...” (Methley, 1915) or ”Thus, then, the first apostle of Liberty ends!” (Claretie,1876) and for Fabre there exists the claim that he hummed his song Il pleut bergère on his way to the scaffold, or muttered his biggest regret was not being able to finish his vers (verses), to which Danton replied that, within a week, he’ll have more vers (worms) than he can dream of. None of these statements do however appear to be backed by any primary sources. Finally, John Gideon Millingen, twelve years old at the time of the execution, reported in his Recollections of Republican France 1791-1801 (1848) that ”[Danton’s] execution witnessed one of those scenes of levity that seemed to render death to a jocose matter. Lacroix, who was beheaded with him, was a man of colossal stature, and, as he descended from the cart, leaning upon Danton, he observed, ”Do you see that axe, Danton? Well, even when my head is struck off I shall be taller than you!” It does however strike me as unlikely for Milligen to actually have been able to hear anything of what the condemned had to say.

Robespierrists — like with the dantonists, we have several alleged last words from more or less unreliable sources. The apocryphal memoirs of the Sansons does for example report Saint-Just’s last words to have an emotionless ”Adieu” to Robespierre, and for the latter we have a story that his last recorded words were ”Merci Monsieur,” which he said to a man for giving him a handkerchief to wipe away the blood coming out of his shattered jaw with (can you even talk under such conditions?). However, here I have again collected trustworthy descriptions, and none of them record any last words. In this instance it’s not exactly strange either, given the fact many of the condemned had been injured so badly they were more or less unconscious by the time of the execution.

Other alleged final words can be found in this post, among others Madame Roland’s ”Oh Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name” and Bailly’s ”I’m cold.” I will however doubt the authenticity of all of them until someone shows me a serious source for them (the author of the post doesn’t cite any at all). Like I wrote above, I doubt anyone actually stood near enough to hear any eventual last words.

#french revolution #frev #robespierre #danton #brissot #hébert #louis xvi #desmoulins #fabre d’eglantine #ronsin #vincent #ask #the extent actual historians have fictionalized the death of actual people is pretty f:ed up if you ask me #read biard’s la liberté ou la mort: mourir en depute and you’ll see…

29 notes · View notes

sieclesetcieux · 2 years

Text

My Writings and Contributions

Translations of Frev Sources

Media and books influenced by Thermidorian propaganda

Here are some facts we take for granted that revolutionaries didn't know that will blow your mind

Learning to Be a Lawyer in 18thc France

Brief historiography on women, the law, marriage and divorce (scroll down)

Brief overview of the Thermidorian Reaction

On Saint-Just's Personality: An Introduction

Saint-Just in Five (Long) Sentences

Random Sources and References on Saint-Just's Youth (In French)

Louise Michel's Poem on Saint-Just

On Charles Le Bas, Philippe's brother and Élisabeth Duplay's second husband

References on Couthon

Book and article recommendations:

The "short" version

Part 1 - A Note On Objectivity and Two Approaches (introduction) + Culture: Enlightenment and Antiquity

Part 2 - Ideological Stakes

Part 3 - Old Classics and Syntheses

Part 4 - Specific Topics and Areas of Research

Part 5 - Side-related but still important

Part 6 - Highlights and Short Reviews

My Posts In Progress and Eventual Research:

My thoughts and analysis of Saint-Just's unsent letter to Villain d’Aubigny

A (brief?) introduction to Saint-Just’s many faces and myths

Could Saint-Just have been neurodivergent?

Why Enjolras was inspired by Saint-Just: comparing the text of the brick to Saint-Just’s Romantic Myth

An Episode of the Thermidorian Reaction: the Attack on the Club des Jacobins and the Misogynist Targetting of Women

How the pamphlet about the Club infernal locates them in the circle of Wrath and not Treason - the latter would out them as counterrevolutionaries

Can we call the French Revolution a "fandom"? The invention of celebrity culture, etc.

The differences between Thermidorian propaganda and Anglo-American propaganda (and where they overlap)

Other Important Posts

Some primary and secondary sources available online for free (by anotherhumaninthisworld; some additions by myself)

Frev Resources (by iadorepigeons)

Myths and misconceptions about the French Revolution

Anglo American historiography (by saintjustitude and dykespierre)

On the Terror's Death Toll and Donald Greer (by montagnarde1793) More about this topic here and here (by lanterne, anotherhumaninthisworld, frevandrest and radiospierre)

On Robespierre's Black Legend (by rbzpr)

On Thermidorian propaganda (by lanterne)

On Couthon (by iadorepigeons)

Marat Ressource Masterpost (by orpheusmori)

Collaborative Masterpost on Saint-Just (many authors)

Saint-Just Masterpost (by obscurehistoricalinterests)

One myth on Saint-Just (by saintjustitude and frandrest)

Saint-Just as political philosopher and theorist (by saintjustitude)

Élisabeth Lebas corrects Alphonse de Lamartine’s Histoire des Girondins (1847) (by anotherhumaninthisworld)

On Charlotte Robespierre's memoirs (by montagnarde1793 and saintjustitude)

On Simonne Évrard (French and English biography copy-pasted by saintjustitude from the ARBR website)

Regulations for the internal exercises of the College of Louis-le-Grand (by anotherhumaninthisworld)

Were Robespierre and Desmoulins together at Louis-le-Grand? (by robespapier and anotherhumaninthisworld)

Robespierre was not Horace Desmoulins' godfather (by robespapier and anotherhumaninthisworld)

The relationship of Camille Desmoulins and Robespierre in literary works of Przybyszewska (by edgysaintjust)

Last edited: 16/05/2023

Support me!

#masterpost #to be updated #doing this almost killed me -_-;

216 notes · View notes

anotherhumaninthisworld · 1 year

Note

Some info on Simone Évrard? :3

I’m basing the majority of this answer on this great article, so if I’m not citing a source for where I’ve found something, just assume it’s from there.

Simonne was born and baptised on February 6 1764. Here is her baptism record:

Simonne, legitimate daughter of Sr Nicolas Évrard, boat carpenter, and of Dame Catherine Large, her father and mother, was baptized on February 6, 1764 by the vicar of Saint-André, undersigned. The godfather was Sr Jacques Rivaud, and the godmother Dame Simone Rivard who signed with the present father.” Signed: Nicolas Évrard, Jacques Rivaud, Simone Rivard and Fontanel, vicar.

Simonne’s father Nicolas (born May 4 1724) had already been married to one Catherine Baret, with whom he had had a daughter, Philiberte (born February 28 1762). After remarrying Simonne’s mother Catherine Large he had three daughters more, Simonne, Etiennette (born October 4 1766) and Catherine (born September 16 1769). It’s most probable is that they benefited from a certain education at the free school of the hospice of charity of Tournus.

Nicolas Évrard was was a boat worker-carpenter and owned a house located in the Pêcherie district, Saint-André parish, on the Quai du Nord, in Tournus. Catherine Large owned a copse in Charne and another piece of land, of little value, five kilometers from Tournus. In 1774, she died, and two years later, on February 18, her husband did as well. Philiberte was 14, Simonne, 12, Etiennette, 10 and Catherine, 7. According to oral tradition, the girls were then sent to Paris where they worked for a lingerie workshop ran by a woman from Tournus. It’s indicated that Etiennette and Catherine, the two youngest sisters, married Antoine Bezancenot, a cook, and Jean-Antoine Corne, a printer, respectively.

A brochure written by Jacques Roux (Jacques Roux à Marat) in response to an attack made by Marat on July 4 1793, reveals both the adress on which Simonne lived on during the revolution, as well as the fact that she lived with two of her sisters (we know one of these was Catherine, the youngest).

You (Marat) must remember that about fifteen months ago you sent Citizen Fainault, sculptor, to my house to ask me to come and speak to you on important business. You were then staying with the three Hevrard (sic) sisters, rue Saint-Honoré, n. 243, opposite the Café Richard, Maison du Pelletier.

That Marat lived at Simonne's home, was also confirmed by Simonne herself during the unsealing of her apartent on July 26, 1793. Here we also learn that Simonne played an active role in the printing and distribution of Marat’s works:

When citizen Marat came to live with her (Simonne), he was in the greatest distress; to help him with the printing and distribution of his newspaper she consumed the greater part of her fortune in order to serve him and stand up for what she believed right.

When it comes to Simonne’s first meeting with Marat (who was 19 years older than her), we only know it happened before January 1 1792. From that date we have this promise written in Marat’s hand:

The fine qualities of Mademoiselle Simonne Évrard having captivated my heart from which she received the homage, I leave her as a pledge of my faith, during the trip I am going to make to London, the sacred commitment to give her my hand immediately after my return; if all my tenderness were not enough for her to guarantee my fidelity, may the oblivion of this commitment cover me with infamy. Paris, 1 January 1792. Jean-Paul Marat, l’ami du peuple

Marat and Simonne were never officially married, just engaged. According to an article in Journal de la Montagne written ten days after Marat’s death — that is to be taken with some grain of salt — the two had had an unofficial wedding ceremony:

Marat, who did not believe that a vain ceremonial was what formed the engagement of the marriage, wishing nevertheless not to alarm the modesty of citoyenne Évard, called her one fine day at the window of his room; clasping his hand in that of his lover, both prostrate before the face of the Supreme Being, "It is in the vast temple of nature," he said to her, "that I take for witness to the eternal fidelity that I swear to you, the Creator who hears us.

Simonne was present when Marat was murdured. In the interrogation of Charlotte Corday, we can read the following:

I arrived at Marat’s in a carriage around eleven or eleven-thirty.

What did you do when you arrived?

I asked to speak with him

You asked to speak with him?

Having asked to see him in his antechamber, two or three women presented themselves and told me that I would not enter. I insisted and one of the women went to tell Marat that a citoyenne wanted to speak with him. He answered that I couldn't enter. I went back home where I returned around noon.

[…]

I went out seven o’clock in the evening to go home to Marat (again).

Did you find him there?

Yes.

Who introduced you?

The same women that had refused me that morning. The women here are Simonne, her sister Catherine and the portress Marie-Barbe Aubain.

Simonne was later called as a witness to Corday’s trial, during which she said the following:

Citoyenne Évrard deposes that the accused presented herself on the morning of July 13, at citizen Marat’s place, where she, deponent, lived; that on the replies that the deputy was ill and could receive no one, she withdrew, murmuring.

The accused interrupts the testimony of the witness, saying: it was I who killed him.

”Citoyenne Évrard (Simonne) testified that the accused appeared on the morning of July 13 at the home of citizen Marat, where she, the deponent, lived; that she wrote a letter which made him receive her on Saturday at 8 o'clock in the evening; that a cry from the chamber where Marat's bathtub was made her come running; she found the accused standing against a curtain in the antechamber, grabbed her by the head and called for neighbors; these neighbors having come, she ran to Marat who looked at her without saying a word; she helped him out of the bath and he expired without uttering a word.”

Other witnesses were also called, many of which reported Marat’s last words to have been a call for help to Simonne:

”Laurent Basse, courier, testifies that being on Saturday, July 15 (sic), at Citizen Marat's house, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, busy folding newspapers, he saw the accused come, whom citoyenne Évrard and the portress refused entrance. Nevertheless, citizen Marat, who had received a letter from this woman, heard her insist and ordered her to enter, which she did. A few minutes later, on leaving, he heard a cry: Help me, my dear friend, help me! (À moi, ma chere amie, à moi !). Hearing this, having entered the room where citizen Marat was, he saw blood come out of his bosom in great bubbles; at this sight, himself terrified, he cried out for help, and nevertheless, for fear that the woman should make an effort to escape, he barred the door with chairs and struck her in the head with a blow; the owner came and took it out of his hands.

The president challenges the accused to state what she has to answer.

I have nothing to answer, the fact is true.

One listens to another witness.

Jeanne Maréchal, cook, submits the same facts; she adds that Marat, immediately taken from his bathtub and put in his bed, did not stir.

The accused says the fact is true.

One listens to another witness.

Marie-Barbe Aubin, portress of the house where citizen Marat lived, testifies that on the morning of July 13, she saw the accused come to the house and ask to speak to citizen Marat, who answered her that it was impossible to speak to him at the moment, attenuated the state where he had been for some time, so she gave a letter to deliver to him. In the evening she came back again, and insisted on speaking to him. Aubin and citoyenne Évrard refused to let her in; she insisted, and Marat, who had just asked who it was, having learned that it was a woman, ordered her to be let in; which happened immediately. A few moments later, she heard a cry: "Help me, my dear friend (À moi, ma chere amie !);she entered, and saw Marat, blood streaming from his bosom; frightened, she fell to the floor and shouted with all her might: À la garde! Au secours !

The accused says that everything the witness says is the most exact truth.

Catherine Évrard gives the same story as her sister.

Once again, the accused answers that all the facts are true and she has nothing to respond.

As already mentioned, Simonne was present for the removal of seals of her apartment on July 26 1793, two weeks after the murder:

In front of us appeared citoyenne Simonne Évrard, an adult, residing in the apartment where we currently are [30 rue des Cordeliers] who told us and declared that she is the tenant of said apartment which she rents from citizen de Lafondée, that all its furniture and effects belong to her, with the exception of the mirrors and papers that belong to said de Lafondée and the papers, linens and clothes of the deceased Marat. S. Évrard

On 8 August, less than a month after the death of Marat, Simonne presented herself at the Convention and defended his memory, in her eyes hijacked by the Énrages:

”Citizens, you see before you the widow Marat; I do not come to ask you for favors coveted by cupidity or demanded by poverty. The widow Marat needs only a tomb. Before arriving at this happy end of the torments of my life, I come to ask you for justice for the new attacks committed against the memory of the most intrepid and most outraged defender of the people. These watches, how much gold they lavished! How many hypocritical libellists they have paid to cover his name with opprobrium! With what horrible obstinacy they endeavored to give him a colossal political existence, and a hideous celebrity, with the sole view of dishonoring the cause of the people which he faithfully defended; today all covered with his blood; they pursue him to the bosom of the tomb; every day they still dare to assassinate his memory; they strive at will to paint in the features of an interesting heroine the monster who plunged the parricide blade into his bosom. One sees even in this enclosure the most cowardly of all the folliculars, Carra, Ducos, Dulaure, boasting of it shamelessly in their periodical pamphlets, to encourage their equals to cut the throats of the rest of the defenders of liberty. I am not speaking of that vile Pétion who, at Caen, in the assembly of his accomplices, dared to say, on this occasion, that the assassination was a virtue.

Sometimes the villainous perfidy of the conspirators, pretending to pay homage to his civic virtues, multiplies at great expense infamous engravings, where the execrable assassin is presented under favorable features, and the martyr of the fatherland, disfigured by the most horrible convulsions. But here is the most perfidious of their maneuvers: they have bribed Scelerais writers who impudently usurp his name, and disfigure his principles, to perpetuate the empire of calumny of which he was the victim. The cowards, they flatter first the pain of the people by their praise; they trace some true pictures of the evils of the country; they denounce some traitors dedicated to its contempt; they speak the language of patriotism and morality, so that the people believe they still hear Marat; but it is only to defame afterwards the most zealous defenders whom the patrie has preserved; it is to preach, in the name of Marat, extravagant maxims that his enemies have attributed to him, and that all his conduct disavows.

I denounce to you in particular two men, Jacques Roux and the named Leclerc who claim to continue his patriotic sheets, and to make his shadow speak to outrage his memory and deceive the people: it is there that after having debited revolutionary common places, the people are told that they must proscribe all kinds of government; it is there that we order in his name to bloody the day of August 10, because from his sensitive soul, torn by the spectacle of the crimes of tyranny and the misfortunes of humanity, just anathemas have sometimes come out against public leeches, and against the oppressors of the people; they seek to perpetuate after his death the parricidal calumny which persecuted him, and presented him as a foolish apostle of disorder and anarchy.

And who are these men who claim to replace him? It is a priest wh, the very day after the day when the faithful deputies triumphed over their cowardly enemies, came to insult the National Convention by a perfidious and seditious address: it is another man, no less perverse, associated with the mercenary furies of this impostor.

What is quite remarkable is that these two men are the same as those who were denounced by Marat, a few days before his death, at the Cordeliers club, as people paid by our enemies to disturb the public tranquility, and who, in the same sitting, were solemnly driven from the bosom of this popular society. What is the purpose of the treacherous faction that continues these criminal plots? It is to debase the people who pay homage to the memory of him who died for his cause; it is to defame all the friends of the country, whom she has designated under the name of Maratists; it is to mislead perhaps all the Frenchmen of the entire Republic, who gather for the meeting of August 10, by presenting to them the perfidious writings of which I speak, like the doctrine of the representative of the people whom they slaughtered; it is perhaps to disturb these solemn days by some disastrous catastrophe.

Gods! what would be the destiny of the people, if such men could usurp their confidence! What is the deplorable condition of its intrepid defenders, if death itself cannot save them from the rage of their assassins! Legislators, how long will you allow crime to insult virtue? Whence comes to the emissaries of England and Austria this strange privilege of poisoning public opinion, of devoting the defenders of our laws to daggers, and of undermining the foundations of our nascent Republic? If you leave them unpunished, I denounce them here to the French people, to the universe. The memory of the martyrs of freedom is the patrimony of the people: that of Marat is the only good that remains to me; I dedicate to his defense the last days of a languid life. Legislators, avenge the fatherland, honesty, misfortune and virtue, by striking down the most cowardly of all their enemies.”

A few days after the speech, August 22 1793, Marat’s siblings signed the following decree:

We therefore declare that it is with satisfaction that we fulfill the wishes of our brother by recognizing citoyenne Évrard as our sister, and that we will hold as infamous those of her family members who does not share the feelings of esteem and gratitude that we owe her, and if against our expectation there could be some, we ask that their names be known, as we do not want to share their infamy. Written in Paris, August 22, second year of the republic. Marie-Anne Mara (sic) f. Oliver Albertine Mara (sic) Jean-Pierre Mara (sic)

In her Réponse aux détracteurs de l’Ami du Peuple (1793) Albertine Marat also wrote the following regarding Simonne:

Finding no recourse except in the poor, he would have succumbed to his misfortunes. People, your good genius decided otherwise: he allowed a divine woman, whose soul resembled his own, to consecrate her fortune and her rest to keep you your friend. Heroic woman, receive the homage your virtues deserve: yes, we owe it to you. Inflamed with the divine fire of freedom, you wanted to preserve its most ardent defender. You shared his fate and his tribulations: nothing can stop your zeal, you sacrifice to the Friend of the People, and the fear of your family, and the prejudices of your century. Forced here to circumscribe myself, I would wait for the moment when your virtues will appear in all their brilliance.

Both this extract and the decree cited before would imply that someone(s) in Simonne’s family didn’t appriciate her attachment to Marat/the revolution, although I’ve not found more info regarding it.

On September 15 1794, Robert Lindet, by then president of the committee of public intruction, wrote to Simonne asking her opinion on a republication of Marat’s works — ”Write as soon as possible and make known to what extent you can contribute to the requested edition of the works of Marat. This enterprise must be executed in a way that honors the author and the nation equally.”

But Simonne rejected this invitation, answering in November the same year that she did not want to entrust anyone but herself with this duty. The 15 volumes of Oeuvres politiques de Marat were indeed published with Simonne as the editor. A reedition of Marat’s 1790 work Plan de législation criminelle was also published, but after this the revolution took a swing to the right, during which it no longer needed Marat as a martyr. On February 22 1795 the republishing of his works was ordered to be interrupted.

On December 30 1800, Simonne was briefly taken in and interrogated as ”suspect.”

Your name, your adress, your means of living?

I’m 36 years old, I have a pension, I live with my sister on rue Saint-Jacques, n 674, division of Thermes.

Why have you been arrested?

I don’t know.

Where were you on 3 nivôse (December 24)?

I was at my place the whole day

Who was it you received at your place?

Nobody.

You did however have company in the evening, one saw some people sitting at a table lighted up by three candles.

I soaped the whole day, I wasn’t finished until nine in the evening. My sister had only her lamp, she works at the horology. I only went out to buy a bottle of wine, and I supped with my sister. I haven’t received three people in one décade.

Who are the people you have been seeing since one month?

We only see citoyen Ranus, a watchmaker who lives on rue de la Barillerie who provides work for my sister. There came a citizen from our country who’s name I don’t remember.

Who are your neighbors?

Citoyen Digard, baker and owner, the rest of the house is inhabitated by women.

By refusing to name the people you’re receiving, you make it sound like you’re receiving enemies of the government.

I’ve told you the exact truth. I haven’t received anyone, because I find myself in great distress.

The commissioner sends her off, the case had no consequences.

Simonne came to live together with Marat’s sister Albertine (born 1760), first on rue Saint-Jacques, later on Rue de la Barillerie n. 33 (today boulevard du Palais) until her death in 1824. I’ve not found any primary source mentioning that she died from falling down a staircase, like what is reported on for example wikipedia.

M. Goupil-Louvigny confirmed Albertine’s attachment to Simonne:

I have reason to believe that the widow Marat was not an ordinary woman, because her sister-in-law spoke to me about her with enthusiasm. Albertine religiously kept all that had belonged to her. I was personally charged in the last years of her life, when necessity compelled her to do so, to sell various objects and clothes which came from her, which were of a certain elegance and of great distinction.

We have some descriptions of Simonne’s apperence. An official minute from 1792, shortly after Marat’s death, affirmed the following: “Height: 1m, 62, brown hair and eyebrows, ordinary forehead, aquiline nose, brown eyes, large mouth, oval face.” The minute for her interrogation instead say: “grey eyes, average mouth.”

Finally, we have the following anecdote told by doctor Joseph-Souberbielle:

In the year 1820 I was often called in to attend a woman who was known in the house where she lived as the widow Marat. I am convinced she was only Marat's mistress. She told me in confidence that, since the Restoration, she had been met with such cruel treatment at the hands of the neighbours that she intended to migrate to another part of the town and change her name. She was extremely plain and could never have had any good looks. She assured me that in the whole course of her "married life" Marat had never given her a single cause for contempt; that he had all gentleness and consideration in his home relations, but his fanaticism was so intense that he would cheerfully have sacrificed his life to bring about the triumph of his ideals. I know nothing more of the woman.

Like in the case of Gabrielle and Louise-Sébastienne, I found texts about Simonne that listed more details regarding her (1, 2, 3, 4), but once again, I don’t know if those details are actually legit or just embellishments, since the authors don’t cite any sources.

There actually exists a full biography on Simonne, but 1, I couldn’t find it online for free, and 2, it’s written in Italian which I don’t know a word of.

#stupid tumblr wouldn’t let me post Simonne’s speech as one big paragraph #Simonne évard #marat #jean-Paul marat #albertine marat #albertine and simonne were basically the anti charlotte and éleonore #frev #ask

27 notes · View notes