Fabre d'Églantine

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Fabre d'Églantine
Fabre d'Églantine

Philippe François Nazaire Fabre d'Églantine (commonly known as Fabre d'Églantine; July 28, 1750 – April 5, 1794) was a French actor, dramatist, and politician of the French Revolution.

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[edit] Early life

He was born in Carcassonne. His surname was Fabre, the d'Églantine being added in commemoration of his receiving a silver dog rose (French: églantine) from Clémence Isaure from the academy of the floral games (jeux Floraux) at Toulouse. After travelling in the provinces as an actor, he came to Paris, where he produced an unsuccessful comedy entitled Les Gens de lettres, ou Le provincial à Paris (1787).

A tragedy, Augusta, produced at the Théâtre Français, also proved a failure. Only one of his plays was ever popular: Philinte, ou La suite du Misanthrope (1790), supposed to be a continuation of Molière's Le Misanthrope, but the hero of the piece is a different character from the nominal prototype —a pure and simple egotist. On its publication, the play was introduced by a preface, in which the author satirises L'Optimiste of his rival Jean François Collin d'Harleville, whose Châteaux en Espagne had gained the applause which Fabre's Présomptueux (1789) had failed to win. The character of Philinte had much political significance. Alceste received the highest praise, and stands for the patriot citizen, while Philinte is a dangerous aristocrat in disguise.

[edit] Political activity

Fabre served as president and secretary of the club of the Cordeliers, and belonged also to the Jacobin Club. Georges Danton chose Fabre as his private secretary, and he sat in the National Convention of 1792-1795. D'Églantine voted for the death of King Louis XVI, supporting the maximum and a law which allowed for summary executions, and he was a bitter enemy of the Girondins.

After the death of Jean-Paul Marat (13 July 1793), Fabre published a Portrait de l'Ami du Peuple. On the abolition of the Gregorian Calendar in France he sat on the committee entrusted with the creation of the French Republic's Revolutionary Calendar, and contributed a large part of the new nomenclature (Prairial, Floréal, as well as Primidi and Duodi). The report which he made on the subject, on October 24 1793, adds scientific information.

[edit] Execution and legacy

On 12 January 1794 Fabre was arrested by order of the Committee of Public Safety on a charge of malversation and forgery in connection with the affairs of the French East India Company (documents still existing prove that the charge was altogether groundless). During his trial, Fabre showed the greatest calmness and sang his own well-known song:

Il pleut, il pleut, bergère,
 rentre tes blancs moutons.

Fabre died under the guillotine on 5 April 1794. On his way to the scaffold he distributed his handwritten poems to the people.

According to a popular legend, Fabre complained bitterly about the injustice done to him on the way to the scaffold. Whereupon Danton replied with supreme sarcasm: "Des vers... Avant huit jours, tu en feras plus que tu n'en voudras!" ("Before eight days have passed, you'll make more of them then you would like to"), where "them" (vers) can be understood as either "verses" or "worms".

A posthumous play, Les Précepteurs, using the themes of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile: Or, On Education, was performed on September 17, 1794, and met with an enthusiastic reception. Among Fabre's other plays are the Convalescent de qualité (1791), and L'Intrigue épistolaire (1791, supposedly including a depiction of the painter Jean-Baptiste Greuze). The author's Œuvres mêlées et posthumes were first published at Paris in 1802 in 2 volumes.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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