Rousseau and Revolution

56 Rousseau and Revolution
name to Émile; and in April 1794, Bertrand Barère denounced counter-
revolutionaries in Marseille who had destroyed busts of Rousseau and
Voltaire. Perhaps signifi cantly, or merely just coincidentally, a fl urry of theatrical
iconicity took place at the moment of the Great Terror (June–July
1794). Three different plays were staged: L’Enfance de Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(May), Rousseau’s own Pygmalion (June) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau à ses derniers
moments (July) – his entire life cycle from childhood through adult authorship
to decline and death acted out against the backdrop of the guillotine’s
busiest months. Fawning aesthetic tribute was perhaps best exemplifi ed by
Marie-Joseph Chénier’s ‘Hymn to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’ in October 1794,
the same month as the interment in the Pantheon. The chorus cheered:
O Rousseau! Exemplary wise man
Humanity’s benefactor
Accept the tribute of a proud and free people
And defend equality to the depths of the tomb. 6
Iconicity was linked to authority. Rousseau was to be celebrated and revered
as a person. For example, the playwright Charles de Pallisot got in trouble
in September and October 1793 for his play The Philosophes in which a character
alleged to be Rousseau fell on all fours to stuff his mouth with grass.
Pallisot, however, defended himself and had his certifi cat de civisme restored.
Two months later, Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette, brought before the Convention
on counter-revolutionary charges, pleaded his bona fi des by declaring
that a bust of Rousseau rested on his mantel, alongside those of Brutus and
Benjamin Franklin. Citing Rousseau in speeches at the Convention and
Jacobins in 1793–4 was an effective form of authoritative iconicity, his words
lending credence to a speaker’s arguments. And yet, examples of such
appeals were relatively infrequent when one considers the overall profusion
of discourse during the revolution, and he was often invoked on comparatively
tangential issues, given the gravity of the revolutionary crisis of Year II.
For instance, Jean-Marie Collot d’Herbois from the Committee for Public
Safety and Abbé Gregoire from the Committee on Public Instruction both
quoted Rousseau’s barbs against the English. Furthermore, there is considerable
evidence that Émile and not the Social Contract was on revolutionaries’
minds in 1793–4. A speaker at the National Convention in August 1793
cited Rousseau on the education of the poor. In June 1794, Barère noted
Rousseau’s belief that education was the yeast that made men rise. In October
1794, Abbé Gregoire and François Boissel invoked him on the issues of ‘the
social arts’ and public instruction. For many decision makers, ‘Jean-Jacques’
was more a pedagogue than a political theorist. 7