Valiant Hero of Saint-Merry (original) (raw)
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Friday, July 30, 2010
8:06PM - found my file!
I just found the file of information about Jeanne that Thomas Boucher sent me. This makes me very happy. I'll get the scanned eventually.
Current mood: 
ecstatic
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
11:15PM - news-ish
I don't know if anyone's watching here, but I wanted to let people know that I got my micro-filmed copy of Le Cloître St. Méry out of storage. I checked at the library and they do have a microfilm reader that makes copies AND one that allows the images to be put on a USB drive. Isn't that cool?
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Friday, October 10, 2008
12:26AM - Verlaine, "Des morts."
Ô Cloître Saint-Merry funèbre! sombres rues!
Je ne foule jamais votre morne pavé
Sans frissoner devant les affres apparues.
Toujours ton mur en vain recrépit et lavé,
Ô maison Transnonain, coin maudit, angle infâme,
Saignera, monstrueux, dans mon coeur soulevé.
Quelques-uns d'entre ceux de Juillet, que le blâme
De leurs frères repus ne décourage point,
Trouvent bon de montrer la candeur de leur âme.
Alors dupes? --Eh bien! ils l'étaient à ce point
De mourir pour leur oeuvre incomplète et trahie.
Ils moururent contents, le drapeau rouge au poing.
Mort grotesque d'ailleurs, car la tourbe ébahie
Et pâle des bourgeois, leurs vanqueurs étonnés,
Ne comprit rien du tout à leur cause haïe.
C'était des jeunes gens francs qui riaient au nez
De tout intrigant comme au nez de tout despote,
Et de tout compromis désillusionnés.
Ils ne redoutaient pas pour la France la botte
Et l'éperon d'un Czar absolu, beaucoup plus
Que la molette d'un monarque en redingote.
Ils voulaient le devoir et le droit absolus,
Ils voulaient « la cavale indomptée et rebelle »,
Le soleil sans couchant, l'Océan sans reflux.
La République, ils la voulaient terrible et belle,
Rouge et non tricolore, et devenaient très froids,
Quant à la liberté constitutionnelle...
Ils étaient peu nombreux, tout au plus deux ou trois
Centaines d'écoliers, ayant maîtresse et mère,
Faits hommes par la haine et le dégoût des Rois.
Ils savaient qu'ils allaient mourir pour leur chimère,
Et n'avaient pas l'espoir de vaincre, c'est pourquoi
Un orgueil douloureux crispait leur lèvre amère;
Et c'est pourquoi leurs yeux réverbéraient la foi
Calme ironiquement des martyres stériles,
Quand ils tombèrent sous les balles et la loi.
Et tous, comme à Pharsale et comme aux Thermopyles,
Vendirent cher leur vie et tinrent en échec
Par deux fois les courroux des généraux habiles.
Aussi, quand sous le nombre ils fléchirent, avec
Quelle rage les bons bourgeois de la milice
Tuèrent les blessés indomptés à l'oeil sec!
Et dans le sang sacré des morts où le pied glisse
Barbotèrent, sauveurs tardifs et nasillards
Du nouveau Capitole et du Roi, leur complice.
-- Jeunes morts, qui seriez aujourd'hui des vieillards,
Nous envions, hélas! nous vos fils, nous la France,
Jusqu'au deuil qui suivit vos humbles corbillards.
Votre mort, en dépit des serments d'allégiance,
Fut-elle pas pleurée, admirée et plus tard,
Vengée, et vos vengeurs sont-ils pas sans vengeance?
Ils gisent, vos vengeurs, à Montmartre, à Clamart,
Ou sont devenus fous au soleil de Cayenne,
Ou vivent affamés et pauvres, à l'écart.
Oh! oui, nous envions la fin stoïcienne
De ces calmes héros, et surtout jalousons
Leurs yeux clos, à propos, en une époque ancienne.
Car leurs yeux contemplant de lointains horizons
Se fermèrent parmi des visions sublimes,
Vierges de lâcheté comme de trahison,
Et ne virent jamais, jamais, ce que nous vîmes.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
10:36AM - Is it dead in here?
Likely, because I'm the only one who ever posts.
Random fun I discovered last night.
Some German publisher (Belser wissenschaftlicher Dienst) claims to have a new edition of
_Le cloître Saint-Méry_by Antoine-François-Marius Rey-Dussueil.
It has an ISBN and everything. I stared and stared and stared, then I wrote the publisher.
Some of you may recall that this is the little trash romance that was written in the fall of 1832 that was set at the St. Mery church during the insurrection. It featured a young couple getting married (and the bride's brother) then getting stuck behind the barricades when the fighting started. The character in charge of the barricade wears a National Guard uniform is only called le capitaine. Since this is likely Jeanne, I requested that the University of Kentucky's copy by microfilmed. Right now, Worldcat claims there are four copies of the original edition in the world (not including mine though the microfilmed 2nd copy at UK is because of me), and I know there's at least one in the B
ibliothèque Nationale. There are so few copies, not because it's old, but because it was banned for being political.
I'd love a paper copy of this thing that isn't nearly 200 years old and disintegrating, but I wonder what this does to my hopes of publishing a translation someday.
Also, Google books has a pdf facsimile copy of Louis Blanc's History of Ten Years.
Current mood: excited
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Saturday, June 9, 2007
2:51PM - Some editorials on Barricade Day.
I currently happen to have a copy of Les républicains devant les tribunaux, from that lovely Revolutions du XIXe siècle series, and have been typing up a few of the articles from it: editorials on the 5-6th of June and the trials and how very awesome the writers think Jeanne is. By request, for translation-type purposes, I'm giving the links here. Enjoy!
Des accusés du Cloitre Saint-Méry. (By Armand Marrast, for La Tribune.)
Jeanne. (From Le National.)
-Claire
Current mood: 
accomplished
Thursday, November 24, 2005
11:03AM - Picture
The new boyfriend scanned Charles Jeanne's picture for me.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
10:30AM - Breaking News about Waterloo, the Loire and annoying French words...
Despite assurances that the entire army was there, the jury is still out whether Jeanne was at Waterloo. The issue being there is more than one French army by name. I am trying to figure out the connection between "the army of the North" which was at Waterloo and "the army of the Loire."
Persuing the Loire thing because of mention of Loire and that stupid annoying word "licencié." In this context perhaps the word we were looking for is related to the disbanding of the army of the Loire sometime between Waterloo and the end of 1815. There are numerous literary references to it, but I've yet to pin down an exact "primary source" reference to it. In late June or early July, said army was ordered to give over the tricolour for the Bourbon white cockade and flag. Apparently they did, but it wasn't enough. I get the impression, but have no evidence yet, that this is the remnants of Napoleon's army from Waterloo. (Caudelac, help???? This is more your department than mine.) So the entire French army was disbanded, with the idea a new army would be formed with no Napoleonic influences.
M. Marie's phrasing is annoyingly vague. For us anyway. It is possible that his audience, the officers of the court and the jury, would find his phrasing vague at all. Like us saying "9/11" to mean all sorts of things, depending on context, related to the terrorist attacks that day. Does anyone see where I am going with this?
I've only had 2 1/2 hours sleep, so I'm not very coherent, but am I nuts? Is this the explanation?
Sunday, May 29, 2005
7:41PM - Today's great mysteries about Jeanne
1. Real hair color
His hair is apparently black during the trial, as recorded on the last day of the trial. But during the trial he says that he 'tinted' it to escape notice after the fighting in June.
According to Blanc, Jeanne was not arrested on the barricades. He was allowed a few days freedom to reveal who helped him. So the need for a disguise in June makes sense. However, the questioning in court went like:
Vous aviez les cheveux noirs?
Oui, je m'étais teint ainsi les cheveux pour n'être pas reconnu après les événemens.
If his hair was naturally black, what did he do to it to disguise it? If it wasn't, why is it still black at the end of October?
Later there is some confusion with a witness identifying Jeanne as the man he saw at the barricade. Jeanne admitted to being the short guy in the national guard uniform, but when the witness said the person he remembered had a black mustache, Jeanne said his was red and that (maybe? Claire???) he hadn't worn one at the time for 2 months.
There's a reason the trial transcripts haven't been a breeze to use as information.
2. M. Marie says that Jeanne had to quit his schooling at 14 and volunteered for the (then) Imperial Army. This would have been 1813 or 1814.
Marie says specifically this:
A quatorze ans, Jeanne a quitté le collége: il s'engage alors comme volontaire dans les armées de l'empire. Il est licencié sur la Loire. Plus tard, en 1823, it reprend la carriére des armes, cette carriére convenait à son activité brulante.
Up to 14, Jeanne had been at a lycée imperial in Caen. There is a little confusion about the meaning of "licencié." The machine translator says "dismised" unequivically, which makes some sense without giving me a clue when this happened. But there is another meaning, which is license somewhat like professional school degree or somesuch. Also Claire's first thought was 'stationed.'
I'm concerned about this for a couple of reasons. First, I'd like a coherent timeline for his military experience. It seems an important part of his development. But also, 1814 saw the fall of Napolean's empire and the invasion of Paris. And the Hundred Days and Waterloo were in 1815.
At most Jeanne would have been 16 at the time of Waterloo, morely likely he was 15. I've been looking around and trying to quiz Napoleonic buffs about what portion of the French Army was at Waterloo. Most of them say that all of it was. Jeanne at Waterloo? I can't wrap my head around that. It doesn't make sense to me.
What did the Imperial Army do with half-educated 14 year old volunteers anyway? What could a youngster who would only be 5'5" as an adult do?
Current mood: 
confused
Saturday, May 28, 2005
8:19AM - Books rec. by Thomas Bouchet
-M. Rey-Dussueil, Le cloître Saint-Mery, Paris, Dupont, 1832.
-Mémoires de M. Gisquet, ancien préfet de police, écrits par lui-même,
Paris, Marchand, 1840, 4 vol.
-R. Sayre et M. Löwy, L'insurrection des Misérables. Romantisme et
révolution en juin 1832, Paris, Minard, 1992
-J.C. Vimont, La prison politique en France. Genèse d'un mode
d'incarcération spécifique XVIIIe-XXe siècles, Paris, Anthropos, 1993.
6:55AM - Description of Jeanne
"Cour royale de Paris
Extrait d'arrêt
(...)
Par l'arrêt de la cour d'assises du département de la Seine, en date du trente-et-un octobre 1832, Le nommé Eugène Charles Jeanne âgé de 33 ans né à Paris département de la Seine demeurant audit Paris, passage des Anglais n°5 profession de commis, A été déclaré coupable d'un attentat (etc.)
Follows a series of elements concerning Jeanne: taille 165 centimètres; cheveux noirs; sourcils id.; front plat; yeux gris; nez court et gras; bouche grande; menton rond; visage ovale; marques particulières: portant ordinairement une moustache"
Source: Archives départementales de la Somme (Amiens, France), Y15.
I won't even try to say what the machines did to this. Bouchet also sent me a hard copy of this (which is in storage), but I dug this out of my alternate email account.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
11:47PM - Extremely useful resource
UChicago has put various French dictionaries online in a searchable format. These are actual dictionaries, not French-to-English dictionaries, so one has to know French in order to get anything useful out of them.
However, one is from 1835. Official Académie française dictionnaire from 1835.
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/ARTFL/projects/dicos/
It searches all dictionaries it has, so you can trance linguistic usage across time. Also has a couple from the revolutionary era - one from 1788 and one from 1798, plus an older one from 1694.
I use these all the time in conjunction with French to English dictionary. While the latter can tell me current meanings, I can double-check things that seem off. Plus it's easier to just run a search if I'm already online than it is to go get my dictionary off the shelf or find a different dictionary if I'm not at home.
7:45PM
This is from "Victor Prospert, Entre les Trois Glorieses et le Second Empire" by Thomas Bouchet. pp 59-60. I found it in Ecrire des vies. The translation is cleaned up machine translation from SDL Free Translation, which is noticeably more flexible than Babelfish.
La biographie s'éclairera donc advantage, dans la cas de Prospert tout au moins, par l'observation de lo'individu et la recherche de liaisons souples que par l'inscription dans ensembles bien connus, mais trop rigides pour lui. Les années de prison le montrent: nul doute qu'il y côtoie principalment des condamnés républicains de 1832 et qu'il retrouve parmi eux des expressions de ses sensibilités, mais la solidarité naturelle qui se met en place ne résiste pas longtemps aux animosités qui naissant au fil des mois, aux incompatiblités de caractères, aux divergences politiques, à l'essoufflement des volontés dans l'univers de la prison.
C'est dans ce contexte et par une analyse comparative prenant en compte ses codétenus que Prospert nous révèle certains aspects importants de sa personnalité. Dans un premier temps, le personnage qui domine le groupe des détenus est Charles Jeanne: il a combattu les 5 et 6 juin à la tête de la barricade Saint-Méry, et son héroïsme pendant l'insurrection tout autant que se fermeté au course de son procès font de lui un véritable héros pour les républicains; au fil des mois, pourtant, l'image de Jeanne se détériore tandis que Prospert s'impose. Le premier est soupçonne de détourner de l'argent, de s'entendre avec la directeur de la prison; il rejoint finalement le camp des légitimistes et doit être transféré à la suite de véritables pugilats; le second s'acquitte au mieux de la tâche de redistribution des secours, au point de répartir les sommes qui lui sont spécialement destinées. Son inflexibilité force la respect. Il ne se départit pas pour autant de l'attitude repérée pendant son procès il garde toute son autonomie et s'intègre peu au groupe.
Or, si l'on se réfère uniquement aux écrits républicains de la période, cette évolution essentielle dans les relations entre détenus est à peine perceptible. À l'extérieur de la prison, dans la presse patriote ou dans les documents des sociétés secrètes, Jeanne restera toujours le héros de juin. Bien après sa mort qui survient en 1837, il continue à symboliser juin 1832, à tel point que dans les commémorations de l'insurrection, en juin 1848, son nom seul émerge. C'est pourquoi une biographie de Prospert qui se fonderait sur ce que disent de lui les républicains comporterait une difficulté certaine : l'individu dépeint par les républicains ne ressemble pas au prisonnier du Mont-Saint-Michel ou de Doullens.
(Dans L'Aimable faubourien des 4-8 juin 1848, on peut lire cet éloge : “ Au
souvenir de vos nobles actions notre foi va renaître. Intrépide Jeanne, nous nous rappelons encore ta sublime réponse à ceux qui t'apportaient du pain : " Du
pain ! À quoi bon ? Dans une heure nous serons tous morts ". Héroïque enfant,
les balles de la royauté ne t'exaucèrent pas ; tu mourus dans les cachots. ” La
réponse de Jeanne, qui ne mourut pas dans les cachots, mais à l'hôpital peu de
temps après sa libération, est évidemment apocryphe.)
The biography [of Prospert] will therefore enlighten itself to advantage, in the case of Prospert at least, by individual observation and the research of supple (flexible?) liaisons that by the inscription in well-known bodies (assemblies?), but too rigid for him. The prison years show it: any doubts that he there mixes principally with the condemned republicans of 1832 and that he rediscovers among them the expressions of his (or their?) sensitivenesses, but natural solidarity that puts itself some places does not withstand a long time to the animosities that are born with the passing of the months, to the character incompatibilities, to the political divergences, to the breathlessness of the wills in the prison universe.
This is in this context and by a comparative analysis taking into account his fellow prisoners that Prospert reveals to us certain important aspects of his personality. Previously, the personage that dominates the group of prisoners is Charles Jeanne: he fought the 5 and June 6 at the head of the barricade Saint-Merry, and his heroism during the insurrection all as much as his firmness in the course of his trial made him a true hero for the republicans; with the passing of the months, nevertheless, the picture of Jeanne damages itself while Prospert imposes himself. First he is suspected of diverting money, of having a secret understanding with the prison director; he finally rejoins the legitimist camp and must be transferred following true fights; the second he acquits himself to the better by trying redistribution of the relief, to the point of dividing up the sums that specially are meant for him. His inflexibility forces respect. He does not give up much of the attitude marked during his trial he keeps all his autonomy and his small honesty (upright) to the group.
Now, if one uniquely refers oneself to the republican manuscripts of the period, this essential evolution in the relations between prisoners is at perceptible penalty. In the exterior one prison, in the patriot press or in the documents of the secret organizations, Jeanne will always remain the June hero. Well after his death in 1837, he continues to symbolize June 1832, so much not at all that in the commemorations of the insurrection, in June 1848, his single name emerges. This is the reason a biography of Prospert that would base on this that is said of him by the republicans would require (encounter?) a certain difficulty: the individual depicted by the republicans does not resemble the prisoner of the Mont-Saint-Michel or of Doullens.
Note by Bouchet:
(In "The Nice working-class parisian" of June 4-8 1848, one can read this praise: To The memory of your noble actions our faith will reemerge. Fearless Jeanne, we remember again your sublime response to those that brought you bread: "Bread! Why? In an hour we will be all be dead." Heroic child, the bullets of the royals do not hearken to you; you died in the prisons. The response of Jeanne, he did not die in the prisons, but in the hospital a little while after his liberation, is evidently apocryphal.)
I will not say what I think of the hostility Bouchet seems to feel about Jeanne. Maybe one cannot defend Prospert without feeling it.
Current mood: accomplished
Thursday, April 14, 2005
2:11PM - Premiére Audience (First Session) 23 October 1832
Vingt accusés presèns, deux accusés contumacéc, et le sieur Mo-rel, docteur en medecine, prévenu de simples délits, ont été ren-voyés devant les assises. Voicì les noms des accusés:
Leclerc, tambour dans la 7º légion de la garde nationale (absent);
Jules Jouanne, commis-marchand (absent);
Jeanne, ex-employé;
Louis Rossignol, âgé de 33 ans, ancien négociant;
Jean Goujon, 45, cordonnier, né á Metz (Moselle), demeurant á Paris, rue Neuve-Saint-Méry, nº 24;
Jean Vigouroux, 22, fu-silier au 62º régiment de ligne;
Joseph Fradelle, 19, ébéniste, né á Milan en Italie;
Jérôme Falcy, 23, serru-rier, né en Savoie;
Joseph Rojon, 33, peintre en béti-mens et tambour dans la garde nationale;
Pierre Foucade, 34, commis-marchand;
Alexandre-Charlemagne Métiger, 18, cordonnier;
François Bouley, 26, tailleur de pierres;
François-Félix Conilleau, 20, graveur;
Henrí-François Dumineray, 21, commis-libraire;
Louis-Félix Mulette, 19, bonnetier;
Christophe Maris, 17, ouvrier en boutons;
Paul Renouf, 21, tailleur de pierres;
Alexandre Coiffu, 19, boutonnier;
Lusky-Grinbert, 25, marchand;
François Gentillon, 23;
Charles Fournier, 28, limonadier;
Louise-Antoinette Alexandre, 29, dame de comptoir.
Twenty defendents present, two defendents absent, and the (sieur) Mo-rel, medical doctor, charged with simple offenses were returned before the assises. Here are the names of the defendents:
Leclerc, drummer for the 7th legion of the national guard (absent);
Jules Jouanne, sales clerk (absent);
Jeanne, ex-employee;
Louis Rossignol, 33, antique merchant;
Jean Goujon, 45, shoemaker, born in Metz (Moselle), living in Paris, rue Neuve-Saint-Méry, no. 24;
Jean Vigouroux, 22, fu-silier of the 62nd regiment of the line;
Joseph Fradelle, 19, cabinetmaker, born in Milan,Italy;
Jérôme Falcy, 23, locksmith, born in Savoie;
Joseph Rojon, 33, building painter and drummer for the national guard;
Pierre Foucade, 34, sales clerk;
Alexandre-Charlemagne Métiger, 18, shoemaker;
François Bouley, 26, stonecutter;
François-Félix Conilleau, 20, engraver;
Henrí-François Dumineray, 21, library clerk;
Louis-Félix Mulette, 19, hosier;
Christophe Maris, 17, worker of buttons;
Paul Renouf, 21, stonecutter;
Alexandre Coiffu, 19, button maker;
Lusky-Grinbert, 25, merchant;
François Gentillon, 23;
Charles Fournier, 28, bartender;
Louise-Antoinette Alexandre, 29, counter woman.
1:04PM - Inspiration
Inspired by the sock puppet, (I've always wanted a Jeanne of my very own.) I worked a little last night on the trial thingie. More professions. I'll try to type it this afternoon or tonight.
I am actually quite fond of the names of Jeanne's co-defendents, esp. the young lady who is named last. I believe she was dating Fournier.
*pokes* Are you folks dead? Jeanne has an excuse as he died many years ago of consumption.
Current mood: cheerful
Monday, January 31, 2005
7:46PM - Court
Cour d'Assises de la Seine
Procés des Vingt-Deux Accusés du Cloître Saint-Méry
Président: M. Jacquinot-Godart
Avocat-général: M. Delapame
Jurés:
MM. ESTIENNE, propriétare, rue Coquillière, n. 31,
Husard-Courcier, imprimeur, rue du Jardinet, n. 12,
GROUSSE, avocat, rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, n. 61,
Deneuville, mercier, rue Neuve-Saint-Eustache, n. 2,
CORVISY fils, propriétare, rue N.-Dame-de-Nazareth, n. 24,
Boyer, avocat, rue des Juifs, n. 18,
Bourdin, avocat, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, n. 194,
Rignon, marchand d'etoffes de soie, Palais-Royal, n. 71,
Borne, marchand de meubles, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, n. 20,
Lenoir, marchand de soieries, rue Saint-Denis, n. 118,
Boulay, propriétare, rue de Vaugirard, n. 58,
Pommeret, notaire à Nogent.
Does anyone know what some of these professions are? I'll look into myself too.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
8:34PM
I finally got the book with stuff about Jeanne. I've already read the short bits about him directly. He was in the National Guard, and he died of tuberculosis.
Current mood: 
sad
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