DANIEL ARASSE THE GUILLOTINE AND THE TERROR ® PENGUIN BOOKS,the opinion of th cole was inert in the coin sytem in {ht ctvings ofthe sub and eet where, moe eect han 1 Reson the People could meet te epee PART III ‘The Theatre of, the Guillotine When ander te inne of he hare) the crate is wansored ed Acme the pope aha set mary hare Veto Hug, iia pipe mes is death wa wrt of cori... Cars bce, sealing, al hind of pean tr mal fora ie of flonan tae. The sare eee Mishel, isis dee Recto from,At the hour when the setting sn left the town wreathed in Shadow. ithe hour when the fmament stained With Fed amid the clatter tf iron and the gallop of the Pores the great serial throng mera onto the place de la Revolution "On the sauare, arora the eminence ofthe guillotine, around the later sue of Liberty already tinged with the fures of bod, Thousands of ced-bonnetd heads undulted like © field of poppies. ‘They watched ne sind al clusters of men clung ont the base of thestatve of Louis NV and watched, fom the ulterior ad Chatnp== pees the pleased classes watched Hung wide, the windows of the GardeeMeuble were watching “The Goncoure’hypesbole steer the degree of spectacle with which the Terror had inested execution by elite ~specticleceriiniy tnd, more precisely, dheapalicg, backdrop, ators anda publica trove present, and’ the exeutsin Was meticulously staged. Con Temporary authors frequently reiterate the point he place de la Rev~ ‘lution ease vast theatre, One of the mest striking eyewitness aout Is the nerve of Danvon's death by Antoine Vincent Aeaaull~ we fan revounize the stylistic rantery of the dramatist whove Marius &| ‘Minthrnrs had been staged in 1994, and in whowe Lacrce (staged 179s) avery republican Brutus had appeared Danton was the ls te appear upon this stage that was running wth the blod af is colleagucr Nap was drawing on. A the foot of the Kidcour statue hove bulk loomed Rage agnnet the sy T aw the form af the sibune stand ike some Dantexta shade: half it the fining hight. he seemed rater to rise from the tom tha realy humoet to enter. Nothing sold as the countenance ofthe athlete tthe Revolution; nothing more formidable than the set of that ple which deed the axe, than the expression upon that hesd Iahich doomed wa fll s0s00n, semed yet fo dictate the In, Hor~ ‘ving du show! The mcinory of is undizamed by tine “The death of Danton, punctuated by epigrams and list words al the move memorable forthe fare that ther author was, apparently, Speechless was one of the most sucessful performances of the place ie Revolution thea, Due the executions of April 1794 formed part of a series of performances which were already excedingy Popula, sad raj pat af whose suceeas was duc to the entirely ve rte played by the machine in this thestee it was no paper= niche meck-up The fourth ue of Le Vieux Corder commented thot shoe who frequented the spectacle’ despised the habitus of perso tragedy wn ste nothing mre than cardboard daggers" and Ere feigning death? The special thing about the theate of the hile wa that he deaths were real and foreach actor there could ‘Shut che singe performance. Camile Desmoulin emphasized how Svactive tothe publ ths revolution intents envention was" Stovot the lose of the Republic that cach day drew so may tothe Face dee Revolution, but tron and he ew play that could have hut a single pesformance.* ‘So sucentul wa the machine that it Became part of the machinery ct tration theatre sugpetshoms 9 guillotine Pa Shino’ and in 179 ook the eating ater ay tobe presented the Thettr du lycée, whose very te wat expeted to attract huge lateaces Le Guilsne d amour ‘Only much oer did the guillotine begin to conceal its work; for the time Beng, was the centre of & popular entertainment celebrating the Republic. One might indeed ay that executions provided the most eequent and popular of revolutionary festivals and 3 major concer forthe organizers nao ntain the quay ofthe spectacle: | wouldn't want you having those rascels accompanied with the aru, Make iva samp; 's «beter wa) to announce the juice bf the people. The gullxine too quick for people vo be really {hiled, you have vw make up for that by the Way you bring the Chemie ofthe people up tothe guillosine, Ks got tobe a srt of Spectacle for them. The singing and dancing have 10 prove tothe ‘bstcras thatthe peopl take nothing but pleasure thet death Miso you have to make sure there's abig crowd of people 0 with ‘hem te the scold” ‘Dis propa defintely wouldnt do. Forth organizers the spectacle did indeed have to he » gon one, bot had abgce al tbe gran, “Thou seme compensation was equted for the speedo The aT tine, tis could only consist in the spectacle of the ejesty of the TNs nit revealed ial? istry. "The series of visual operations