Daily Life During the French Revolution (18 page)

Audiences of all levels were demanding and, if not pleased,
resorted to booing or hissing, and sometimes even to violence, tearing up the
seats and benches in the galleries. A production that was late starting might
provoke the audience to such unruly behavior. For these reasons, weapons were
not permitted in the theater, and police were in attendance to control the
spectators. Sometimes actors were jailed for failing to please the audience.

New plays significantly departed from past dramatic
content: there were now no servants or masters. The stage became an avalanche
of patriotic words, and dramatic interest was replaced by descending goddesses,
conflagrations, combats, and the struggle of the republic, along with the
iconic language of the revolution represented via liberty trees, flags,
cockades, and sans-culotte costumes.

In 1793 and 1794, during the Terror, all plays that did not
conform to the social and moral prescriptions of an egalitarian republic were
purged through new rules of censorship. Buffooneries were now condemned and nobility
banished from the stage. The most vapid plays that relied on social structures
or comic conventions of the old regime were seen to undermine the revolution,
and those who participated in these productions were regarded as preserving the
degrading manners of enslaved men and women. Even the theater itself, with its
seating segregated by price and therefore class, was considered by some to be
counterrevolutionary.

By 1793, the aristocratic
Opéra
had devolved into
republican opera both in repertoire and in audience. A particularly popular
production, the
Siège de Thionville
, first performed on June 13, was
demanded by Parisians even when it was not scheduled. The lyric patriotic opera
in two acts was based on the failed two-month siege of the city by antirevolutionary
émigrés
and Austrians nearly a year before. The Paris commune ordered
that the play be performed gratis for the entertainment of the sans-culottes.

In January 1794, the Surveillance Committee in Paris closed
the
Gaité
and arrested the owner, Nicolet, and also his Harlequin, on a
charge of corrupting the morals of the little-educated but respectable people
who attended the theater. The actor was jailed for his crude gestures, the
owner for tolerating them.

Paris and other large cities were not alone in the
entertainment business. On Sundays and feast days, burlesque and puppet shows,
acrobats, ballad singers, and magicians were all popular in small towns, where
they were presented by itinerant actors.

With the fall of Robespierre and the Jacobins, reaction to
the Terror set in, leading to the production of many new works. A series of
anti-Jacobin plays were popular, including
Les Jacobins aux enfers
(The
Jacobins in Hell), presented in March 1795. Here the devil is reluctant to
accept the Jacobins until Harlequin, the assistant of Pluto (the devil), whose
job is to escort them there, states:

You surely cannot hesitate

Whatever troubles you may fear.

The Jacobins now at your gate

Have earned the right to enter
here,

For all those left on earth agree

That Hell is where they ought to
be.

While a handful of new plays had been produced annually
before the revolution, at least 1,500 new plays, many topical, were produced
between 1789 and 1799. In the last years of the Directory, a relative calm prevailed
over the theaters of Paris. Censorship continued; with a few exceptions,
dramatic plays were uninspiring, and the
Opéra
was producing nothing new
of interest. Bankrupt, the
Opéra
was forced to close for a time, but it
was revived with the aid of permanent government subsidies in 1803.

Theater productions were greatly curtailed by Napoleon, who
permitted them only if they enhanced his own reputation in particular or the
regime in general. His view of the theater was not unlike his view of the
press: if it contributed to his reputation, fine, but it should not be allowed
to pander to the tastes of the common multitudes. By 1807, only eight theaters
enjoyed government sanction. Nevertheless, the average Frenchman was not about
to give up the pleasures of the popular theater. In Paris one could still
attend the reopened
Gaité
or the nearby
L’Ambigu comique
or be
present at some of the scores of private performances staged in homes and even
cellars. Plays were still produced in the provinces, and most major towns had
several theaters. Bordeaux had four, and people waited in line for hours to see
a performance by Talma in one of his tragic roles. Even the emperor himself was
a follower of Mademoiselle Georges, one of the most celebrated actresses of the
time.

By the last quarter of the eighteenth century, there had
developed in major cities permanent attractions that gave the people more
variety in their lives. Street performers with juggling acts were popular, as
were fire and sword swallowers, puppet shows, acrobats, scientific exhibitions,
animal shows, pantomime, and fireworks. Some theaters that specialized in
pantomime kept prices low enough for almost anyone to be able to attend. There
was entertainment, even for the destitute, who could see street performances
and mingle with the crowds.

PUBLIC FESTIVALS

The majority of French people lived in rural surroundings
and enjoyed their traditional festivals and pastimes at village fairs and
popular balls; they enjoyed games of
boules
, dancing the
farandoles
,
and celebrating the towns’ saint days. These activities, if not in the local
church, usually took place in a public field near the village. Some activities
were secular and some religious; among the religious celebrations were
Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, All Saints Day, Saint John the Baptist Day,
Mardi Gras, and the Assumption. Prior to the revolution, 35 holidays were
recognized, not counting particular saints days, which were observed by
parishes and guilds.

Secular festivals were frequent and involved feasting,
dancing, and ribaldry at carnival time, which marked the beginning of Lent.
Other days of celebration might mark a special occasion, such as a royal
marriage or the birth of a royal child. More and more republican processions
were held, taking on a moral-philosophical character, including the
Fête de
la Fédération
, held on July 14, 1790, the anniversary of the storming of
the Bastille, when thousands of National Guardsmen and soldiers from all
quarters of France converged on Paris to take part in the events at the Champ
de Mars, where a large open space was excavated in the middle with the dirt
piled up on the sides, making it into a vast amphitheater. Many able-bodied men
and women of Paris worked on the project along with 12,000 workmen already
employed to complete it in time for the first event.

It was a prodigious ceremony. Everyone, rich and poor, old
and young, clergy and secular, military bands and
fédérés
, marched to
the sound of drums and often broke into song, especially the
ça ira
, a theme
song of the revolution. Some 300,000 people at the Champ de Mars witnessed the
celebration in the rain. A bishop, attended by 300 priests, said Mass in the
center of the amphitheater, and then, to the music of 1,200 musicians, the
Te
Deum
was sung. The bishop blessed the 83 banners of the
fédérés
,
after which cannon boomed and banners waved. The president of the Assembly rose
and swore an oath to be faithful to the nation, and the deputies of the
Convention did the same. All went silent when the king rose, and he too swore
to uphold the constitution decreed by the National Assembly. The queen then
stood, holding her son in her arms and affirming that they too joined in these
sentiments. Thousands of voices greeted these pronouncements with
Vive le
Roi! Vive la Reine!
and
Vive Monsieur le Dauphin!
The rain stopped,
the sun appeared, and festivities continued for two more days, with parades,
balls, fireworks, and banquets. The trees of the avenues were festooned with
colored lights, and crowds danced and sang in the streets all night. Most
people thought that the worst was behind them and that a free, unified France
had burst forth. Far from home, many of the
fédérés
spent a good deal of
time studying the pamphlets of the enterprising publisher that gave the names,
addresses, and prices of potential Parisian playmates.

Life in France was profoundly affected by the new calendar
that replaced the Gregorian one. Introduced by the Convention in October 1793,
it reorganized the timeframe of the entire country, with the purpose of
detaching republicans from what was perceived as religious superstition
embodied in the old calendar. The 12 months were given new names in accordance
with nature. For example, the first month began with the founding of the
republic in late September and was called
Vendémiaire
, since this was
the time for the gathering of the grape, the
vendange
, for wine making.
Each month was divided into three 10-day periods or
décadis
. Days were
renamed
primidi, duodi,
and so on up to
décadi
, the latter being
a day of rest. This meant that there were nine working days before a day of
rest instead of the six of the old calendar. The five days left over (sometimes
six in a leap year) were designated as festival days (see Appendix 2). There
were to be no more Sundays or religious feast days. The new calendar replaced the
Christian holidays with metrically timed secular holidays commemorating Labor,
Reason, Virtue, Genius, Rewards, and, finally, the revolution itself.

Many festivals were now held in Paris, and the provincial
inhabitants wanted similar kinds of entertainment. These celebrations became
such an integral part of daily life that the Convention created more national
festival days celebrating the republic, youth, old age, marriage, agriculture,
and liberty.

MUSIC, SONG, AND DANCE

During the time of Louis XVI (and long before), music, and
especially song, was popular in France. Songs of courtship, of seduction or
rejection, as well as others less stereotyped in their content, such as those
that spoke of freedom in America, of the king’s impotence, or of the wicked
queen, were sold in sheet copies by strolling vendors and were sung in the
cafes of the cities. To the traditional and regional folksongs and ballads of
the popular culture were added the new revolutionary songs.

No first-rate composers appeared during the decade of
disquiet and strife after 1789, but revolutionary songs and chants were
everywhere enjoyed by the people. Some singers were idolized by Parisians and attracted
large audiences. A few songs written at the time became famous.
Ça ira
was
the most popular at the beginning of the revolution. The anti-monarchical
Marseillaise
,
written by Rouget de Lisle, an army engineer, received its name after it was
adopted by the troops from Marseille who took part in the storming of the
Tuileries in Paris. It was designated the national anthem on July 14, 1792, and
remains so to this day.

Even surpassing the enthusiasm for theater was the national
passion for dancing. There was little to dance about during the Terror, but as
it abated, hundreds of dance halls began to open all over Paris. Abandoned
convents, seminaries, ruined chapels, any open garden, not to mention the
hotels and restaurants, were places to dance and relish the moment.

Dance halls were for everyone. Some were luxurious and
expensive, some so cheap that almost anyone could afford to go. Some attracted working-class
couples, and others, adorned with the right kind of girls, brought in the
soldiers. Musicians and dance instructors were making more money than ever
before. Every evening about eight o’clock, the streets filled with women in
white dresses on their way to the dance halls with their companions. Among
popular dances were the
bourrées
and
périgourdines
to which
federal representatives from all 83 administrative regions danced. One of the dances
most enjoyed during the time of the Directory was la
folie du jour.
There
were, of course, many thousands of people in Paris and in rural areas who were
too poor to afford even the cheapest entertainment or to take part at all in
the frenzied life of the capital and other large cities.

PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS

Private exhibitions of the works of painters and sculptors
were often held; in October 1790, Jean-Antoine Houdon exhibited at his own
house a statue that later went to the
Académie des Beaux Arts
.

The most famous artist of the time, Jacques-Louis David,
whose work is austere, simple, and neoclassical in style, became the
pageant-master of the republic. He presented paintings of all the great events
of the period in a manner that combined art and virtue. Having studied in Rome,
David was strongly influenced by Renaissance and classical art, and he
transformed eighteenth-century French painting, rejecting its colorful
frivolity in favor of somber representations—the death of Marat being perhaps
his most famous work.