Napoleon's Egypt: Invading The Middle East - Reenactor.ru

THE CONSTANT TRIUMPH OF REASON147they “merited their name . . . because of the education they have received, muchmore extensive than that given other women.” They were, he said, “priestessesof voluptuousness.” The requirements for joining their ranks included a beautifulvoice, “good control over the tongue,” and an ability to compose and chantcouplets on the spot that fit the social circumstances. Captain Say continued:No occasion can take place without these ‘alimas. After having sung, they performsmall pantomime ballets in which the mysteries of love ordinarily furnishthe subject. . . . At the beginning of their dance, they abandon along with theirveils the modesty of their sex. A long robe of very light silk descends to theirheels. A rich belt encircles them loosely. Long black hair, braided and perfumed,floats on their shoulders, and their breasts are barely veiled by a blouse moretransparent than gauze, as though it were a tissue of air. When they begin tomove, it is as though the contours of their bodies successively detach themselves.. . . These are bacchantes in delirium; it is then that, forgetting the crowd,they abandon themselves entirely to the disorder of their senses. At that point apeople little given to delicacy, who like nothing veiled, applaud twice as loudly. 10The French considered recruiting the talents of the dancers as a means of promotinga republican civic culture.Although the titillation of sex had sometimes been evoked by reformist orrevolutionary authors as a way of critiquing the decadence of the Old Regime, itcould also serve revolutionary purposes. The appeal to prurience as an attack onthe monarchy and aristocracy can be seen in Pierre de Laclos’s novel Les liaisonsdangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) about the way the aristocracy toyed heartlesslywith feelings. It is also evident in the pornographic pamphlets that circulatedamong common people and critics of the monarchy in which Queen Marie Antoinettefigured in shocking ways. On the other hand, the disapproval of voluptuousnessby the Church also made it seem revolutionary to libertines. Whethersuch themes were oppressive or liberating for women has been a vexed questionever since. It is not one that preoccupied our male memoirists, since they thoughtof the revolution in fraternal terms and did not consider women, however muchsought after for conversation and company, as public, political persons. 11Although Say wrote that he disapproved of the more sensual aspects of the performancesof the ‘alimas (he had a funny way of showing it, what with the lovingdescriptions of them), they did celebrate love, wine, and life. They represented asecular performance tradition that could be appropriated by Republican theatre.