WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.660 Imagine a historical figure who didn't just witness 00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:06.000 one of the most tumultuous revolutions in history, 00:00:06.139 --> 00:00:08.460 but helped write the script for it. I mean, literally. 00:00:08.619 --> 00:00:11.160 Right. An actor who becomes a powerful politician, 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:15.539 a poet whose words become actual law, a man who 00:00:15.539 --> 00:00:19.089 was. ambitious enough to try and rename time 00:00:19.089 --> 00:00:22.050 itself, and who then dies alongside one of the 00:00:22.050 --> 00:00:24.350 biggest names of the reign of terror. That's 00:00:24.350 --> 00:00:26.070 the radical change we are diving into today. 00:00:26.210 --> 00:00:28.789 We're peeling back the layers on Philippe -Francois 00:00:28.789 --> 00:00:31.510 -Nazaire Fabre d 'Aiglantine, a figure who I 00:00:31.510 --> 00:00:34.270 think just embodies the intoxicating promise 00:00:34.270 --> 00:00:37.329 and, well, the ultimate moral squalor of the 00:00:37.329 --> 00:00:39.469 French Revolution's most intense phase. Okay. 00:00:39.530 --> 00:00:42.030 The mission of this deep dive is to really unpack 00:00:42.030 --> 00:00:44.509 the sources on this multi -talented, complex, 00:00:44.609 --> 00:00:47.210 and ultimately tragic figure. And we want to 00:00:47.210 --> 00:00:50.310 focus intensely on that strange and often contradictory 00:00:50.310 --> 00:00:52.789 intersection of his artistic life and his political 00:00:52.789 --> 00:00:54.630 life. Because for him, they weren't separate 00:00:54.630 --> 00:00:56.829 things at all. Not at all. For Faber, they were 00:00:56.829 --> 00:00:58.829 entirely inseparable. You know, two sides of 00:00:58.829 --> 00:01:00.929 the same rapidly spinning revolutionary coin. 00:01:01.390 --> 00:01:03.090 OK, let's unpack this, because when you look 00:01:03.090 --> 00:01:06.329 at his resume, it's a study in dramatic, almost 00:01:06.329 --> 00:01:09.250 unbelievable extremes. He was a professional 00:01:09.250 --> 00:01:11.709 actor who toured the provinces, a celebrated 00:01:11.709 --> 00:01:15.150 dramatist, a poet and eventually a highly powerful 00:01:15.150 --> 00:01:18.569 Montagnard politician. But the two things he 00:01:18.569 --> 00:01:21.969 is most famous for today seem wildly, almost 00:01:21.969 --> 00:01:25.579 schizophrenically. On one hand, he invented the 00:01:25.579 --> 00:01:28.180 lyrical, nature -based names of the months in 00:01:28.180 --> 00:01:31.060 the French Republican calendar, names like Floreal, 00:01:31.099 --> 00:01:33.680 the month of flowers, and Thermidor, the month 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:35.920 of heat. Beautiful names. Absolutely beautiful. 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:38.480 And on the other hand, he wrote a simple, utterly 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.079 timeless song that remains a popular French nursery 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:44.620 rhyme. Il pleut, il pleut, bergère. It is raining, 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:46.760 it is raining, shepherdess. It's the ultimate 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:49.260 revolutionary contradiction, isn't it? I mean, 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:52.519 here's a figure trying to impose rational, systemic... 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:55.180 radical nature -based change on the entire organization 00:01:55.180 --> 00:01:58.379 of time for a nation. A huge top -down project. 00:01:58.659 --> 00:02:01.239 While also leaving behind a legacy of pure, simple, 00:02:01.299 --> 00:02:03.980 sentimental folk art. The two things just don't 00:02:03.980 --> 00:02:06.239 seem to compute. So what does this all mean? 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:09.180 The core question for us, and for you, the listener, 00:02:09.340 --> 00:02:12.740 is this. How did a touring actor with literary 00:02:12.740 --> 00:02:15.819 aspirations, who initially struggled so mightily 00:02:15.819 --> 00:02:18.360 to find a foothold in the Parisian literary scene, 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:22.099 rise up to become a key political player, Georges 00:02:22.099 --> 00:02:25.639 Denton's private secretary, no less, in the inner 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:28.319 radical circle of the revolution, only to meet 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:31.199 the exact same tragic fate as his powerful allies? 00:02:31.580 --> 00:02:34.419 We're tracing that improbable path from the stage 00:02:34.419 --> 00:02:37.060 lights of a provincial theater to the very real 00:02:37.060 --> 00:02:40.539 scaffold of the guillotine. The trajectory of 00:02:40.539 --> 00:02:43.520 Fabre. We have to recognize that he was driven 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:47.000 by this powerful, almost desperate need for recognition 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:49.340 and fame. It's all about ambition. Completely. 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:51.919 Philippe -Francois Nazaire Fabre was born in 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:54.979 Carcassonne, Ode, in 1750. His original family 00:02:54.979 --> 00:02:56.740 name was just Fabre. He wasn't born into the 00:02:56.740 --> 00:02:59.000 elite. He was a climber, constantly trying to 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.419 escape his provincial roots. And the Deglantines. 00:03:01.870 --> 00:03:04.229 It sounds incredibly grand, almost like a stage 00:03:04.229 --> 00:03:06.909 name, but it actually has a purely literary origin 00:03:06.909 --> 00:03:09.349 story, which I think speaks volumes about his 00:03:09.349 --> 00:03:12.210 priorities from day one. Exactly. The addition 00:03:12.210 --> 00:03:14.830 of Deglantine was a self -styled commemoration. 00:03:15.210 --> 00:03:18.050 He was marking a significant early achievement, 00:03:18.289 --> 00:03:21.310 one that he clearly felt validated his poetic 00:03:21.310 --> 00:03:24.110 ambitions. So what was it? He received a silver 00:03:24.110 --> 00:03:27.080 wild rose. the French word for wild rose being 00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:30.620 Eglantine, as a literary prize from Clémence 00:03:30.620 --> 00:03:34.120 Isor at the Academy of the Jeu Floreau in Toulouse. 00:03:34.620 --> 00:03:37.520 Okay, so the Jeu Floreau, what was that exactly 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:39.240 for people who haven't heard of it? It was a 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:41.300 very prestigious literary competition in the 00:03:41.300 --> 00:03:43.680 south of France, sort of the poetic Olympics 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:46.340 of the region. Winning a prize there was a real 00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:49.000 feather in the cap for a young, ambitious poet. 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:51.280 So it's important to clarify this was not a noble 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:53.800 title, right? He wasn't pretending to be an aristocrat. 00:03:53.939 --> 00:03:56.189 No, not at all. He wasn't claiming aristocracy, 00:03:56.330 --> 00:03:57.889 but you could argue he was claiming intellectual 00:03:57.889 --> 00:04:01.210 aristocracy. He physically adopted a poetic trophy 00:04:01.210 --> 00:04:04.229 as part of his identity. It showed a deep, almost 00:04:04.229 --> 00:04:06.909 over -the -top yearning for literary recognition 00:04:06.909 --> 00:04:09.629 right from the very start. He didn't just want 00:04:09.629 --> 00:04:12.009 to be known, he wanted to be known for his words. 00:04:12.270 --> 00:04:15.430 And that yearning fueled his early career, but 00:04:15.430 --> 00:04:19.389 it definitely did not guarantee success. The 00:04:19.389 --> 00:04:21.230 sources detail his early struggles in Paris. 00:04:21.389 --> 00:04:23.370 Right. After traveling extensively in the provinces 00:04:23.370 --> 00:04:26.029 as an actor, often barely making a living, he 00:04:26.029 --> 00:04:27.850 arrived in the capital determined to conquer 00:04:27.850 --> 00:04:30.389 the Parisian stage, which was the ultimate test 00:04:30.389 --> 00:04:33.629 for any French dramatist. He married Marie Strasburg, 00:04:33.709 --> 00:04:37.129 Nicole Godin in 1778 and continued his writing 00:04:37.129 --> 00:04:39.310 efforts, including a poem called Etude de la 00:04:39.310 --> 00:04:44.129 Nature in 1783. But the establishment. They just 00:04:44.129 --> 00:04:46.649 resisted him. This is crucial context for his 00:04:46.649 --> 00:04:49.329 later political radicalization, isn't it? Because 00:04:49.329 --> 00:04:52.110 rejection is often a powerful engine for revolutionary 00:04:52.110 --> 00:04:55.290 fervor. He tried twice definitively to break 00:04:55.290 --> 00:04:57.730 into the established theater system and failed 00:04:57.730 --> 00:05:00.569 both times. Yes, his comedy, Les Gens de l 'être 00:05:00.569 --> 00:05:03.329 de Provincial à Paris, which he produced in 1787, 00:05:03.529 --> 00:05:06.310 was just. It was unsuccessful. And this was a 00:05:06.310 --> 00:05:08.089 crucial time when Parisian theaters were still 00:05:08.089 --> 00:05:11.189 heavily influenced by old regime tastes and societal 00:05:11.189 --> 00:05:13.149 expectations. So what he was writing didn't fit 00:05:13.149 --> 00:05:16.110 the mold. Exactly. Faber's style, which was already 00:05:16.110 --> 00:05:18.430 beginning to incorporate a sharper, more critical 00:05:18.430 --> 00:05:21.449 eye towards social hypocrisy, simply wasn't what 00:05:21.449 --> 00:05:23.389 the established audience or the critics wanted 00:05:23.389 --> 00:05:25.930 to see. And it wasn't just comedy, right? His 00:05:25.930 --> 00:05:28.949 failure extended to serious drama. The tragedy, 00:05:29.189 --> 00:05:32.899 Augusta. Yes, Augusta. It was produced at the 00:05:32.899 --> 00:05:35.980 highly prestigious, state -backed Théâtre Francais, 00:05:35.980 --> 00:05:39.060 and it also proved to be a failure. This wasn't 00:05:39.060 --> 00:05:42.079 just a bad review. This was a personal and professional 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:44.800 rejection by the central institution of French 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:46.839 dramatic art. You can just feel the bitterness 00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:49.300 building up. Oh, you really see that pattern 00:05:49.300 --> 00:05:51.759 of rejection fueling a deep -seated rivalry. 00:05:52.379 --> 00:05:56.000 He had other works, like Présent 2 in 1789, that 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.600 failed to win audience applause, especially when 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:00.600 you compare it to the success his rival, Jean 00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:02.779 -François Collin de Roliville, was receiving 00:06:02.779 --> 00:06:04.959 for works like Chateau on His Spine. So he's 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:07.220 watching someone else succeed with what he probably 00:06:07.220 --> 00:06:10.519 considers inferior work. Exactly. I mean, imagine 00:06:10.519 --> 00:06:12.720 the psychological toll. You believe you're a 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:16.360 genius. You literally change your name to commemorate 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:19.480 a poetic triumph. And yet you're forced to watch 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:21.899 these other talents succeed while you remain 00:06:21.899 --> 00:06:24.680 an unsuccessful touring actor, basically drowning 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:27.139 in Paris. So he was struggling professionally 00:06:27.139 --> 00:06:29.300 just as the political atmosphere was heating 00:06:29.300 --> 00:06:31.399 up. Here's where the narrative of Fabre de Glontine 00:06:31.399 --> 00:06:34.379 gets really interesting. Despite these early 00:06:34.379 --> 00:06:36.240 struggles, or maybe because of them, because 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:38.519 the existing structures had so completely failed. 00:06:38.569 --> 00:06:41.889 him the sources highlight this major turning 00:06:41.889 --> 00:06:44.389 point the revolution wasn't just a political 00:06:44.389 --> 00:06:47.410 change for him it was a gigantic national stage 00:06:47.410 --> 00:06:50.230 that he couldn't get access to before he transitioned 00:06:50.230 --> 00:06:52.350 almost overnight from being this unsuccessful 00:06:52.350 --> 00:06:55.850 touring actor to being recognized as one of the 00:06:55.850 --> 00:06:57.449 most important playwrights during the French 00:06:57.449 --> 00:07:00.660 Revolution that's the key The old regime rejected 00:07:00.660 --> 00:07:03.439 his art. The revolution validated his ideology. 00:07:03.699 --> 00:07:06.040 The world he was trying to critique through his 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:08.779 drama suddenly became the world he was actively 00:07:08.779 --> 00:07:11.300 trying to tear down and rebuild through politics 00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:14.459 and, well, political theater. That rapid, dramatic 00:07:14.459 --> 00:07:17.120 transition in his career is the defining engine 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:21.120 of his life from 1789 onward. So the moment Faber 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:24.180 truly found literary and theatrical success coincided 00:07:24.180 --> 00:07:26.949 perfectly with the political upheaval. His most 00:07:26.949 --> 00:07:30.050 popular play was Filante, or La Suite de Misanthrope, 00:07:30.149 --> 00:07:33.730 which premiered in 1790. Now, this wasn't just 00:07:33.730 --> 00:07:36.050 a new play. It was marketed as a continuation 00:07:36.050 --> 00:07:39.350 of Molière's 17th century classic, Le Misanthrope. 00:07:39.470 --> 00:07:41.829 Why use Molière? Well, because using Molière 00:07:41.829 --> 00:07:44.610 gave him instant cultural legitimacy while also 00:07:44.610 --> 00:07:46.730 allowing him to subvote tradition. It was a very 00:07:46.730 --> 00:07:49.240 clever move. So he's borrowing brand recognition, 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:51.779 essentially. He is. And what's fascinating here 00:07:51.779 --> 00:07:53.620 is that Fabre didn't just write a simple sequel. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:56.699 He injected revolutionary dogma directly into 00:07:56.699 --> 00:07:58.839 one of the most beloved works of the French canon. 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:01.240 The sources clarify that Fabre fundamentally 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:03.199 shifted the thematic meaning of the original 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:05.620 characters to align with the new political realities. 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:08.550 Okay, so how did he do that? In Faber's version, 00:08:08.709 --> 00:08:12.329 the hero of the piece, Falente, who Moliere had 00:08:12.329 --> 00:08:14.930 painted as the reasonable, balanced man, was 00:08:14.930 --> 00:08:18.470 recast not as reasonable, but as a pure and simple 00:08:18.470 --> 00:08:21.930 egotist. Wow. Okay, so this is where the play 00:08:21.930 --> 00:08:24.329 becomes a political litmus test, a kind of pamphlet 00:08:24.329 --> 00:08:26.610 delivered through dialogue. In the revolutionary 00:08:26.610 --> 00:08:29.290 context, where virtue and political allegiance 00:08:29.290 --> 00:08:32.190 were absolutely everything, Faber made sure the 00:08:32.190 --> 00:08:34.710 audience understood who the villains were. Precisely. 00:08:35.070 --> 00:08:37.690 His character Alceste, who represents the Patriot 00:08:37.690 --> 00:08:40.509 citizen in Faber's sequel, receives the highest 00:08:40.509 --> 00:08:43.580 praise and admiration. Meanwhile... The seemingly 00:08:43.580 --> 00:08:46.700 polite and moderate Filante is explicitly depicted 00:08:46.700 --> 00:08:50.259 as a dangerous aristocrat in disguise. A dangerous 00:08:50.259 --> 00:08:52.480 aristocrat in disguise? I mean, that's not subtle. 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:54.759 There's no subtlety. It's a remarkable example 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:56.779 of how culture was weaponized during this period. 00:08:57.000 --> 00:08:59.639 The stage for Faber was no longer a place for 00:08:59.639 --> 00:09:02.000 mere entertainment or even for gentle satire. 00:09:02.059 --> 00:09:04.120 It was a mechanism for political clarification 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:06.740 and moral instruction. And he used it to settle 00:09:06.740 --> 00:09:09.419 old scores, too, didn't he? Oh, absolutely. He 00:09:09.419 --> 00:09:11.820 even used the preface of the play, which is usually 00:09:11.820 --> 00:09:14.379 a space for artistic reflection, not just to 00:09:14.379 --> 00:09:16.960 explain his choices, but as a space for brutal 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:20.179 political score settling. He specifically used 00:09:20.179 --> 00:09:22.860 it to satirize l 'optimist by his old rival, 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.929 Jean -Francois Collin d 'Orléville. Furrow was 00:09:25.929 --> 00:09:28.549 using his newfound success to solidify his standing 00:09:28.549 --> 00:09:31.710 both as an artist and, crucially, as a true patriot. 00:09:31.990 --> 00:09:34.970 But his ambitions went far beyond just one successful 00:09:34.970 --> 00:09:37.490 play. His dramatic philosophy was revolutionary 00:09:37.490 --> 00:09:40.799 in itself. He believed that the entire old regime 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:43.320 society, and crucially its comedy, which relied 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:46.440 on hidden motives, social games, disguise, were 00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:49.220 utterly bankrupt. Yes. He saw his mission as 00:09:49.220 --> 00:09:51.820 redeeming French drama itself, creating a theater 00:09:51.820 --> 00:09:53.960 worthy of the new republic. Yes. He sought to 00:09:53.960 --> 00:09:56.080 fashion a necessary, a vital place for theater 00:09:56.080 --> 00:09:58.620 within the new revolutionary culture. His approach 00:09:58.620 --> 00:10:01.320 was to develop a new form of drama that actively 00:10:01.320 --> 00:10:04.100 promoted the new social order, founded on equality 00:10:04.100 --> 00:10:06.500 and fraternity. This wasn't passive entertainment. 00:10:06.759 --> 00:10:09.360 This was civic religion, revolutionary instruction. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:11.679 It had to be didactic, moral, and absolutely 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:14.019 unambiguous. And he didn't just pull this idea 00:10:14.019 --> 00:10:16.799 out of thin air. He found his philosophical framework 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:19.440 by building upon one of the most powerful critiques 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:22.539 of the time, Jean -Jacques Rousseau's deep -seated 00:10:22.539 --> 00:10:25.539 critique of theatricality. This is critical. 00:10:25.899 --> 00:10:29.240 Why did Rousseau hate theater, and how did Faber 00:10:29.240 --> 00:10:32.059 twist that rejection into an embrace? That is 00:10:32.059 --> 00:10:33.919 the essential insight here. It's a bit complex, 00:10:34.059 --> 00:10:37.120 but... Rousseau argued that theater, by its very 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:40.620 nature, was immoral and corrupting for a republic 00:10:40.620 --> 00:10:42.519 that was supposed to be based on virtue. Why? 00:10:42.779 --> 00:10:45.919 Because it's fake. Essentially, yes. For Rousseau, 00:10:45.940 --> 00:10:48.580 theater was fundamentally about illusion, about 00:10:48.580 --> 00:10:50.980 characters hiding their true intentions, about 00:10:50.980 --> 00:10:52.960 private interests being celebrated over the public 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:56.200 good. It relied on dissimulation disguise and 00:10:56.200 --> 00:10:58.320 therefore was inherently opposed to the revolutionary 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:01.389 concept of public virtue and transparency. So 00:11:01.389 --> 00:11:03.970 if Rousseau says theater is based on lies and 00:11:03.970 --> 00:11:06.929 therefore poisons the republic, how does Faber, 00:11:06.929 --> 00:11:08.789 a playwright, respond to that? That's a direct 00:11:08.789 --> 00:11:11.210 attack on his entire profession. Well, this is 00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:13.529 the genius of his argument. Faber argued that 00:11:13.529 --> 00:11:15.889 the old regime theater was indeed bankrupt because 00:11:15.889 --> 00:11:18.710 it celebrated those lies and disguises. But he 00:11:18.710 --> 00:11:20.710 proposed that the revolutionary theater could 00:11:20.710 --> 00:11:23.330 be regenerated if it adopted the very principle 00:11:23.330 --> 00:11:25.970 Rousseau demanded of public life, transparency. 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:29.460 That concept of transparency is so central to 00:11:29.460 --> 00:11:32.159 the revolutionary ethos, erasing secrets, eliminating 00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:35.259 disguise, forcing public virtue to be displayed 00:11:35.259 --> 00:11:38.059 openly. For Faber, putting that on stage was 00:11:38.059 --> 00:11:40.379 essential. But how do you create transparent 00:11:40.379 --> 00:11:43.200 theater? Isn't all theater based on some level 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:46.120 of illusion? Faber advocated for a radical shift 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:48.799 in how characters were presented. The playwright, 00:11:48.919 --> 00:11:51.840 he argued, must immediately expose the true moral 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:53.879 and political allegiance of every single character. 00:11:54.350 --> 00:11:56.350 There can be no ambiguity. So the audience is 00:11:56.350 --> 00:11:59.009 in on it from the start. Exactly. In Philanth, 00:11:59.070 --> 00:12:00.990 the audience knows from the first scene that 00:12:00.990 --> 00:12:04.009 Philanth is the dangerous aristocrat in disguise. 00:12:04.830 --> 00:12:07.289 The dramatic tension doesn't come from discovering 00:12:07.289 --> 00:12:10.169 the truth, but from watching the patriot citizen 00:12:10.169 --> 00:12:13.840 Alceste force that truth into the open. The play 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:16.980 becomes a public exercise in rooting out hypocrisy, 00:12:17.080 --> 00:12:19.299 making the audience participants in this act 00:12:19.299 --> 00:12:21.759 of revolutionary purification. So if we connect 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:24.659 this to the bigger picture, Fabre had this profoundly 00:12:24.659 --> 00:12:27.840 regenerative role for theater in mind. He believed 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:30.460 that a regenerated revolutionary theatrical culture 00:12:30.460 --> 00:12:33.100 would redeem the work of art and ultimately generate 00:12:33.100 --> 00:12:37.080 a new, virtuous, revolutionary society. It's 00:12:37.080 --> 00:12:39.059 a profound reversal of typical thinking, isn't 00:12:39.059 --> 00:12:41.019 it? He wasn't waiting for political institutions 00:12:41.019 --> 00:12:43.220 like the National Convention to shape the theater 00:12:43.220 --> 00:12:45.559 through censorship or funding. He thought the 00:12:45.559 --> 00:12:48.500 theater itself, by enforcing transparency and 00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:51.019 promoting virtue, would shape the political institutions 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:53.000 and the moral character of the entire nation. 00:12:53.179 --> 00:12:55.639 It's an incredibly ambitious philosophy for a 00:12:55.639 --> 00:12:58.120 man who, just a few years earlier, had suffered 00:12:58.120 --> 00:13:01.440 the ultimate professional indignity. A tragedy 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:04.200 flopping at the Théâtre Francais. He took his 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:07.679 artistic failure under the old regime. and turned 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:10.120 it into his defining revolutionary principle. 00:13:10.620 --> 00:13:13.480 It's an amazing pivot. Having found his voice 00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:15.600 and his platform through politically charged 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:18.840 drama, Fabio de Glantin's transition into outright 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.360 political leadership was, well, it was rapid 00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:24.519 and absolute. He stepped off the revolutionary 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:27.360 stage and directly into the core engine of the 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:30.029 terror. His political affiliations are impressive, 00:13:30.230 --> 00:13:32.649 and they show he was deeply integrated into the 00:13:32.649 --> 00:13:35.429 most radical wing of the revolution, the Montagnards. 00:13:35.490 --> 00:13:38.330 He served as both president and secretary of 00:13:38.330 --> 00:13:40.470 the powerful club of the Cordilliers. Which was 00:13:40.470 --> 00:13:42.629 Danton's stronghold. Danton's stronghold, exactly. 00:13:42.830 --> 00:13:44.809 And he was also a member of the Jacobin Club, 00:13:44.990 --> 00:13:47.429 the ultimate center of revolutionary power at 00:13:47.429 --> 00:13:49.809 the time. And most critically, Georges Danton, 00:13:50.009 --> 00:13:52.230 one of the three giants of the revolution alongside 00:13:52.230 --> 00:13:55.549 Robespierre and Marat, chose Faberès as his private 00:13:55.549 --> 00:13:58.679 secretary. This association put Faber right in 00:13:58.679 --> 00:14:00.799 the inner circle, moving him from a struggling 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:03.379 artist to a key manipulator of political power. 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:05.740 He secured a seat in the National Convention, 00:14:06.059 --> 00:14:10.659 serving from 1792 to 1794, and his voting record. 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:14.720 It really confirms his radical commitment. When 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:16.679 the question of King Louis VI's fate was put 00:14:16.679 --> 00:14:19.019 to the convention, he voted decisively for the 00:14:19.019 --> 00:14:21.899 king's death. No hesitation. No hesitation. Furthermore, 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:24.600 he supported the maximum legislation. We should 00:14:24.600 --> 00:14:26.299 pause there and provide some context for the 00:14:26.299 --> 00:14:29.860 listener. What was the maximum and why did supporting 00:14:29.860 --> 00:14:32.200 it place him firmly on the extreme left of the 00:14:32.200 --> 00:14:35.559 political spectrum? The maximum was essentially 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:38.000 a revolutionary measure imposing strict price 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.779 controls on essential goods like grain, flour, 00:14:41.019 --> 00:14:42.879 and eventually a wider range of commodities. 00:14:43.379 --> 00:14:45.240 Politically, it was a crucial measure for the 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:47.460 Montagnards, who drew their support from the 00:14:47.460 --> 00:14:49.620 Parisian working class, the Sainte -Colottes, 00:14:49.700 --> 00:14:51.860 who were suffering terribly from wartime inflation 00:14:51.860 --> 00:14:54.740 and food shortages. about keeping the people 00:14:54.740 --> 00:14:58.720 of Paris fed and on their side. Exactly. Supporting 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:00.919 the maximum meant prioritizing the needs of the 00:15:00.919 --> 00:15:03.440 poor and the stability of the state over the 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:06.299 principles of a free market. It was a fiercely 00:15:06.299 --> 00:15:09.240 debated, highly interventionist measure, and 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:11.740 Fabre's support showed his commitment to the 00:15:11.740 --> 00:15:14.649 popular radical cause. And that radical commitment 00:15:14.649 --> 00:15:16.970 extended to judicial measures as well. It did. 00:15:17.149 --> 00:15:19.929 He backed a law that allowed for summary executions, 00:15:20.049 --> 00:15:22.149 which essentially streamlined the process of 00:15:22.149 --> 00:15:24.789 the Revolutionary Tribunal. The sources are absolutely 00:15:24.789 --> 00:15:27.870 clear on this. He was a bitter enemy of the Girondins, 00:15:28.129 --> 00:15:30.549 the slightly more moderate Federalist faction 00:15:30.549 --> 00:15:33.470 whom the Montagnards eventually purged. Farbe 00:15:33.470 --> 00:15:35.830 was actively participating in the machinery of 00:15:35.830 --> 00:15:38.470 the terror. And his literary side never went 00:15:38.470 --> 00:15:40.929 away, even in politics. No, his commitment was 00:15:40.929 --> 00:15:43.720 not just political. It was literary. Following 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:45.759 the assassination of the ultra -radical journalist 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:49.879 Jean -Paul Marat on July 13, 1793, Fabre published 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:52.220 a piece titled Portrait de l 'ami du peuple, 00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:55.200 a eulogy for Marat. He was constantly connecting 00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:57.220 his political actions with his literary identity. 00:15:57.480 --> 00:15:59.159 He was fighting the political fight with the 00:15:59.159 --> 00:16:01.340 pen, just as he had promised the regenerated 00:16:01.340 --> 00:16:03.620 theater would do. But the lasting mark he left 00:16:03.620 --> 00:16:06.039 on the historical record, the thing that literally 00:16:06.039 --> 00:16:08.399 changed the way every French citizen experienced 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:11.379 time, was his involvement in the French Republican 00:16:11.379 --> 00:16:15.159 calendar. This is truly extraordinary. How does 00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:17.840 an actor get tasked with rewriting the universal 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:20.440 concept of time? It's a fascinating reflection 00:16:20.440 --> 00:16:22.759 of the revolution's hubris and its commitment 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:27.070 to total change. In 1793 The Gregorian calendar, 00:16:27.330 --> 00:16:29.529 seen as tainted by its Christian monarchical 00:16:29.529 --> 00:16:33.129 origins, was abolished. Faber sat on the committee, 00:16:33.289 --> 00:16:35.590 entrusted with creating the replacement. Now, 00:16:35.590 --> 00:16:37.149 we need to be careful with attribution here, 00:16:37.190 --> 00:16:39.409 right? He didn't design the whole thing himself. 00:16:39.710 --> 00:16:41.529 That's a key point. The calendar's fundamental 00:16:41.529 --> 00:16:43.490 structure was designed by the politician and 00:16:43.490 --> 00:16:46.250 agronomist Gilbert Rome, but Faber de Gontin 00:16:46.250 --> 00:16:48.230 is usually credited with its fame because he 00:16:48.230 --> 00:16:51.129 invented the magnificent, poetic, nature -based 00:16:51.129 --> 00:16:53.639 names of the months. And the structural changes 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:56.340 were designed not just to be secular, but actively 00:16:56.340 --> 00:16:59.320 anti -religious. The calendar featured a 10 -day 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:01.740 week, known as a decade. Yes, and that was specifically 00:17:01.740 --> 00:17:04.319 designed so that Sunday would be forgotten as 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:06.640 a religious day. That is an immense imposition 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:09.160 on daily life. It's a radical act of cultural 00:17:09.160 --> 00:17:12.039 engineering. Completely. The 10 -day week meant 00:17:12.039 --> 00:17:14.319 that there were three decades in a month. The 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:16.779 10th day, the Dikadi. replaced the Christian 00:17:16.779 --> 00:17:19.359 Sunday as the day of rest and civic celebration. 00:17:19.859 --> 00:17:22.640 The revolutionary government mandated that all 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:24.940 citizens must observe the saccade. This must 00:17:24.940 --> 00:17:27.579 have had a massive impact on workers. A huge 00:17:27.579 --> 00:17:30.200 impact. They effectively worked nine days and 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:32.799 rested one, instead of working six days and resting 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:35.759 one, as under the Gregorian system. It was designed 00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:38.119 to erase seven -day cycles and the religious 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:40.680 memory associated with them. Faber contributed 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:43.259 names not only for the months, but even for the 00:17:43.259 --> 00:17:45.740 days within the decade, like primity, duody, 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:48.640 trity, and so on. So he was literally providing 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:51.380 the new vocabulary for the nation's daily existence. 00:17:51.500 --> 00:17:53.940 But his most famous contribution was the naming 00:17:53.940 --> 00:17:56.140 of the months. What was his philosophy behind 00:17:56.140 --> 00:17:58.799 these conventions? His philosophy was to tie 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:01.259 French society directly back to the land and 00:18:01.259 --> 00:18:03.920 the seasons, moving entirely away from history 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:06.700 or religious figures. The months were named after 00:18:06.700 --> 00:18:09.309 the intrinsic qualities of the seasons. and were 00:18:09.309 --> 00:18:11.890 organized into three groups, autumn, winter, 00:18:12.029 --> 00:18:15.509 and spring -summer. This was a rationalist, agrarian 00:18:15.509 --> 00:18:18.470 rejection of the divine. He formalized this reasoning 00:18:18.470 --> 00:18:20.190 in his report on the subject to the National 00:18:20.190 --> 00:18:24.880 Convention on October 24, 1793. And this report 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:27.779 is perhaps the most eloquent expression of revolutionary 00:18:27.779 --> 00:18:30.920 ideology applied to daily life, replacing abstract 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:33.420 concepts with sensory and natural observation. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:35.839 He stated that the commission's goal was nothing 00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:38.460 less than to substitute for visions of ignorance 00:18:38.460 --> 00:18:41.319 the realities of reason and for sacerdotal prestige 00:18:41.319 --> 00:18:43.980 the truth of nature. They wanted to anchor the 00:18:43.980 --> 00:18:46.420 republic in observable, universal natural law, 00:18:46.539 --> 00:18:49.799 not in superstitious tradition. And the practical 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:51.900 application was specifically designed to exalt 00:18:51.900 --> 00:18:54.819 labor and agriculture. Absolutely. He explicitly 00:18:54.819 --> 00:18:58.519 aimed to exalt the agricultural system by marking 00:18:58.519 --> 00:19:01.480 the days and the divisions of the year with intelligible 00:19:01.480 --> 00:19:04.059 or visible signs taken from agriculture and rural 00:19:04.059 --> 00:19:06.940 life. The idea was that every time a peasant 00:19:06.940 --> 00:19:09.339 or a citizen referred to a month, they would 00:19:09.339 --> 00:19:12.319 be reminded of the specific physical labor or 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:14.539 state of nature appropriate to that time. Let's 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:16.140 go through some of them because they are so evocative. 00:19:16.200 --> 00:19:19.779 We have the autumn months. The month of the grape 00:19:19.779 --> 00:19:23.019 harvest. Then brumaire, the month of mists. And 00:19:23.019 --> 00:19:25.880 frimaire, the month of cold or frost. And the 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:28.960 winter months. Niveaux from snow. Cluvios from 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:32.269 rain. And ventos from wind. These are harsh, 00:19:32.349 --> 00:19:34.789 tangible meteorological conditions. Very real. 00:19:34.950 --> 00:19:36.950 And his spring contributions, the months that 00:19:36.950 --> 00:19:39.849 sound the most poetic to me. Germinal. Germination. 00:19:40.150 --> 00:19:43.349 Floral. Blooming. And prairie. For meadows, often 00:19:43.349 --> 00:19:46.009 associated with the first hay harvest, he was 00:19:46.009 --> 00:19:48.009 translating the French landscape and climate 00:19:48.009 --> 00:19:51.069 into a poetic chronology. This wasn't just poetry. 00:19:51.559 --> 00:19:53.920 It was propaganda aimed at rooting the citizen's 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:56.240 identity in the soil of the republic, making 00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:58.880 time itself a constant reminder of rural productivity 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:01.920 and rationality. He was, in a sense, the poet 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:04.759 laureate of reason. So Father de Galantin had 00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:06.839 reached this pinnacle of ideological influence. 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:10.299 He was Danton's powerful right -hand man, a celebrated 00:20:10.299 --> 00:20:12.680 revolutionary poet, and the architect of the 00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:15.130 rational calendar. And this is the moment in 00:20:15.130 --> 00:20:17.170 the narrative where the fatal flaw, that contradiction 00:20:17.170 --> 00:20:19.349 between the idealist philosopher of transparency 00:20:19.349 --> 00:20:22.150 and the morally weak politician, just violently 00:20:22.150 --> 00:20:24.720 emerges. The sources tell us that his undoing 00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:27.160 was not his radicalism. That was expected, even 00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:30.480 celebrated, but a deeply venal and surprisingly 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:33.640 complex financial fraud known as the East India 00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:36.279 Company scandal. This is where the narrative 00:20:36.279 --> 00:20:39.299 tension needs to peak, because this crime ultimately 00:20:39.299 --> 00:20:42.579 brought down the entire Dantonist faction. This 00:20:42.579 --> 00:20:45.119 is truly the closing act of the tragic comedy 00:20:45.119 --> 00:21:03.589 that was Faber's life. A very noble goal on the 00:21:03.589 --> 00:21:06.170 surface. On the surface. And this liquidation 00:21:06.170 --> 00:21:08.490 was being overseen by a committee of the convention. 00:21:08.769 --> 00:21:11.440 Okay. Let's unpack the scheme step by step, because 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:14.500 it was audacious and required high -level political 00:21:14.500 --> 00:21:17.359 access. The initial decree for liquidation was 00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:20.019 legitimate, but a cabal of convention members, 00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:22.960 including Fabra, forged and inserted a falsified 00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:25.180 article into the decree after it was officially 00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:28.349 voted on and signed. Yes. That's the critical 00:21:28.349 --> 00:21:30.910 part. The forged article altered the details 00:21:30.910 --> 00:21:33.009 of the liquidation process to make it vastly 00:21:33.009 --> 00:21:34.950 more advantageous to the former company directors. 00:21:35.309 --> 00:21:37.910 The scam was brilliant and cynical. The directors 00:21:37.910 --> 00:21:40.230 of the company were then blackmailed by Fabra 00:21:40.230 --> 00:21:42.490 and his co -conspirators. Blackmailed how? They 00:21:42.490 --> 00:21:44.930 were forced to turn over a massive half million 00:21:44.930 --> 00:21:47.789 lever profit, some equivalent to millions today, 00:21:47.890 --> 00:21:51.150 from this manipulated liquidation exercise directly 00:21:51.150 --> 00:21:53.269 to the cabal of convention members responsible 00:21:53.269 --> 00:21:57.019 for the fraud. It was pure high level. corruption 00:21:57.019 --> 00:21:59.720 disguised in bureaucratic procedure. The man 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:01.839 who championed the concept of political transparency 00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:04.839 on the revolutionary stage was caught orchestrating 00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:08.420 a dense financial forgery designed entirely for 00:22:08.420 --> 00:22:11.680 personal secret enrichment. The irony is just 00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:13.940 staggering. And the exposure came not through 00:22:13.940 --> 00:22:16.740 an audit, but through panic and betrayal. The 00:22:16.740 --> 00:22:19.670 whistleblower was Francois Chabot. a Montagnard 00:22:19.670 --> 00:22:22.230 deputy, and a former capuchin friar who was involved 00:22:22.230 --> 00:22:24.910 in the conspiracy, but whose nerve broke under 00:22:24.910 --> 00:22:27.190 the escalating atmosphere of the terror. You 00:22:27.190 --> 00:22:29.150 can just picture the scene. Dramatize that moment 00:22:29.150 --> 00:22:31.230 for us. This happened the morning of November 00:22:31.230 --> 00:22:34.509 14, 1793. Chabot decides the only way to save 00:22:34.509 --> 00:22:36.609 himself from the guillotine is to confess. But 00:22:36.609 --> 00:22:38.430 he doesn't go to the police. He goes straight 00:22:38.430 --> 00:22:41.430 to the ultimate symbol of revolutionary incorruptibility. 00:22:41.950 --> 00:22:44.849 Chabot literally burst into Maximilien Robespierre's 00:22:44.849 --> 00:22:47.470 bedroom, dragging the incorruptible leader from 00:22:47.470 --> 00:22:50.569 his bed in the pre -dawn hours. He was frantic, 00:22:50.710 --> 00:22:53.589 waving a hundred thousand livres in his signet 00:22:53.589 --> 00:22:56.690 notes, the revolutionary paper currency, which 00:22:56.690 --> 00:22:59.329 he claimed proved a royalist plot. He's trying 00:22:59.329 --> 00:23:01.829 to frame it as something else. He is. He confessed 00:23:01.829 --> 00:23:03.809 that this money was given to him by royalist 00:23:03.809 --> 00:23:06.990 plotters specifically to buy Faber -Deglantin's 00:23:06.990 --> 00:23:09.829 vote, along with the votes of others, to facilitate 00:23:09.829 --> 00:23:12.559 the stock liquidation. It's an unbelievable scene, 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:15.920 a former friar panicking, weaving a massive wad 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:17.819 of cash in the face of the one man who preached 00:23:17.819 --> 00:23:21.079 virtue above all else, and he's blaming his conspirator 00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:23.559 Faber for bringing him into the plot. Chabot 00:23:23.559 --> 00:23:26.119 tried to paint himself as an unwitting dupe corrupted 00:23:26.119 --> 00:23:28.859 by monarchist gold, but his ultimate goal was 00:23:28.859 --> 00:23:31.460 to sacrifice Faber and save his own skin. And 00:23:31.460 --> 00:23:34.000 Robespierre, well, Robespierre was the personification 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:36.740 of revolutionary virtue. He viewed financial 00:23:36.740 --> 00:23:38.799 criminality, especially when masked by political 00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:43.000 zeal, as the absolute worst crime. In 1794, once 00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:45.539 Robespierre gained sufficient evidence, he publicly 00:23:45.539 --> 00:23:47.960 denounced Fab. And what was his language? He 00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:50.500 specifically targeted Faber for what he viewed 00:23:50.500 --> 00:23:54.099 as a particular heinous crime, calling it criminality 00:23:54.099 --> 00:23:57.460 disguised by patriotism. Criminality disguised 00:23:57.460 --> 00:24:00.940 by patriotism. That phrase, criminality disguised, 00:24:00.940 --> 00:24:03.660 perfectly inverted Faber's own philosophy of 00:24:03.660 --> 00:24:07.000 theatrical transparency. The man who wanted no 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:09.380 masks in theater was found wearing the most dangerous 00:24:09.380 --> 00:24:12.880 mask of all in politics, the mask of the patriot. 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:15.680 The political fallout was immediate and devastating, 00:24:15.900 --> 00:24:18.980 far beyond just Faber's reputation. Faber was 00:24:18.980 --> 00:24:22.359 arrested on January 12, 1794, by order of the 00:24:22.359 --> 00:24:25.039 Committee of Public Safety, charged with a malversation 00:24:25.039 --> 00:24:27.700 and forgery related to the East India Company. 00:24:28.170 --> 00:24:30.089 And this arrest wasn't just about him. It had 00:24:30.089 --> 00:24:32.309 wider implications. It was critical because it 00:24:32.309 --> 00:24:34.450 was the beginning of the end for the entire moderate 00:24:34.450 --> 00:24:36.650 wing of the Montagnards, the Dantonist faction. 00:24:37.069 --> 00:24:39.390 The sources note that this arrest struck a hard 00:24:39.390 --> 00:24:40.990 blow to the Montagnards and sent them on their 00:24:40.990 --> 00:24:43.390 way to extinction in the convention. Faber's 00:24:43.390 --> 00:24:45.490 crime exposed deep -seated corruption at the 00:24:45.490 --> 00:24:47.890 heart of the ruling faction, providing the moral 00:24:47.890 --> 00:24:50.369 pretext Robespierre needed to launch his final 00:24:50.369 --> 00:24:52.809 push for political purity, a push that would 00:24:52.809 --> 00:24:55.630 ultimately devour Danton himself just weeks later. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:58.559 During his trial, the dramatist tried one final 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:01.299 performance, attempting to twist the facts around, 00:25:01.480 --> 00:25:03.940 accusing other people, desperately trying to 00:25:03.940 --> 00:25:06.779 shift blame to Chabot and others, but he was 00:25:06.779 --> 00:25:10.140 unsuccessful. No. His theatrical tricks and his 00:25:10.140 --> 00:25:12.579 ability to spin a narrative could not save him 00:25:12.579 --> 00:25:15.180 from the unforgiving logic of the Revolutionary 00:25:15.180 --> 00:25:17.319 Tribunal. And so he died under the guillotine 00:25:17.319 --> 00:25:21.200 on April 5, 1794, alongside his mentor, Georges 00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:24.039 Danton, and the other Dantonists. But even facing 00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:26.200 the scaffold, the actor in him couldn't help 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:28.839 but add some dramatic flair to his final scene. 00:25:29.059 --> 00:25:31.140 This is where the story becomes folklore, really. 00:25:31.619 --> 00:25:33.900 According to the popular account, Fabre showed 00:25:33.900 --> 00:25:36.480 the greatest calmness right up to the end. And 00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:38.720 what did he do? He sang his own well -known song, 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:41.460 that simple nursery rhyme. Il pleut, il pleut, 00:25:41.460 --> 00:25:44.599 berger, rentre tes blancs moutons. He even distributed 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:46.779 his handwritten poems to the people lining the 00:25:46.779 --> 00:25:49.500 route on his way to the scaffold. A final, beautiful, 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:52.839 simple literary effort, contrasting so starkly 00:25:52.839 --> 00:25:54.720 with the revolutionary dogma he had espoused. 00:25:54.920 --> 00:25:57.619 But the sources also provide a very dark piece 00:25:57.619 --> 00:26:00.200 of dialogue regarding his final moments with 00:26:00.200 --> 00:26:02.839 Danton, a conversation that encapsulates the 00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:05.819 entire tragedy of their shared ambition. Legend 00:26:05.819 --> 00:26:08.660 has it that Fabre was complaining bitterly about 00:26:08.660 --> 00:26:12.079 the injustice done to him, the irony of the revolutionary 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:14.720 poet being undone by a simple financial crime, 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:17.440 as they rode in the cart to the scaffold. And 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:20.619 this prompted Danton's supreme biting sarcasm. 00:26:20.660 --> 00:26:23.640 What did Danton say? Danton looked at the complaining 00:26:23.640 --> 00:26:25.900 poet, who was so obsessed with his own injustice 00:26:25.900 --> 00:26:28.619 and his final verses, and supposedly replied, 00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:35.299 That's devastating, and we need to clarify the 00:26:35.299 --> 00:26:37.519 language for anyone listening. For non -French 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:39.900 speakers, ver is the word that creates the entire 00:26:39.900 --> 00:26:43.160 dark joke. It can mean either verses the poem's 00:26:43.160 --> 00:26:44.819 fob was so desperately trying to distribute. 00:26:45.099 --> 00:26:47.859 Or it can mean worms. It's the ultimate revolutionary 00:26:47.859 --> 00:26:51.680 mic drop. It really is. Danton, facing his own 00:26:51.680 --> 00:26:54.019 end, was reminding the poet that in less than 00:26:54.019 --> 00:26:56.420 a week, he would be providing far more poetry, 00:26:56.579 --> 00:26:58.980 or far more likely, being consumed by a greater 00:26:58.980 --> 00:27:02.799 number of worms than he desired. It was a truly 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:05.420 fitting, dark and cynical joke for the ultimate 00:27:05.420 --> 00:27:08.319 revolutionary ending, contracting the grand aspirations 00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:11.220 of the mind with the brutal reality of physical 00:27:11.220 --> 00:27:13.700 dissolution. Despite the ignoble circumstances 00:27:13.700 --> 00:27:17.359 of his death, executed as a corrupt forger, Faber 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:19.980 de Glantin's artistic ideas about revolutionary 00:27:19.980 --> 00:27:22.660 regeneration didn't immediately vanish, which 00:27:22.660 --> 00:27:25.400 is kind of surprising. No, they didn't. The immediate 00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:27.660 aftermath of his death, though completely overshadowed 00:27:27.660 --> 00:27:29.900 by the subsequent fall of Robespierre, ironically 00:27:29.900 --> 00:27:32.740 led to a brief literary resurgence for him. His 00:27:32.740 --> 00:27:35.220 posthumous play, Les Plécepteurs, which means 00:27:35.220 --> 00:27:37.380 The Tudors, was performed just a few months after 00:27:37.380 --> 00:27:40.980 his execution on September 17, 1794. And how 00:27:40.980 --> 00:27:43.079 was it received? It met with an enthusiastic 00:27:43.079 --> 00:27:45.640 reception. The enthusiasm might have been due 00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:48.160 to its thematic content, right? As it drew heavily 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:50.460 on the ideas of Jean -Jacques Rousseau's famous 00:27:50.460 --> 00:27:54.700 work, Emile, or on education. So it seems his 00:27:54.700 --> 00:27:56.579 final work carried forward that revolutionary 00:27:56.579 --> 00:27:59.339 ideal of a regenerated society and education 00:27:59.339 --> 00:28:02.150 that he had championed earlier. That literary 00:28:02.150 --> 00:28:05.210 success confirms that even if his political legacy 00:28:05.210 --> 00:28:08.049 ended in corruption and execution, his dramatic 00:28:08.049 --> 00:28:11.250 philosophy that theater should be a moral instrument 00:28:11.250 --> 00:28:14.609 for education and regeneration was genuine and 00:28:14.609 --> 00:28:16.589 resonated with the culture he helped to create. 00:28:16.730 --> 00:28:19.230 He was attempting to leave a lasting blueprint 00:28:19.230 --> 00:28:22.210 for a moral citizenry. Other plays are also notable 00:28:22.210 --> 00:28:24.450 footnotes in his career, cementing his position 00:28:24.450 --> 00:28:27.089 as a fixture in revolutionary theater. These 00:28:27.089 --> 00:28:29.710 include Le Convalescent de Qualité, or The Distinguished 00:28:29.710 --> 00:28:33.309 Invalid, from 1791, and L 'Entrigue Epistolaire, 00:28:33.390 --> 00:28:36.549 The Epistolary Plot, also from 1791. And it's 00:28:36.549 --> 00:28:38.349 interesting to note that L 'Entrigue Epistolaire 00:28:38.349 --> 00:28:40.390 supposedly included a depiction of the famous 00:28:40.390 --> 00:28:43.210 painter Jean -Baptiste Cruz, who was highly regarded 00:28:43.210 --> 00:28:46.109 for his moral and sentimental scenes. This further 00:28:46.109 --> 00:28:48.490 links Fabre's dramatic output to the era's obsession 00:28:48.490 --> 00:28:51.200 with morality and virtue. Even as he was engaging 00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:53.759 in the backroom political machinations that would 00:28:53.759 --> 00:28:56.799 destroy him, the contradiction is always there. 00:28:56.960 --> 00:28:59.339 It's always there. And his literary work wasn't 00:28:59.339 --> 00:29:02.480 entirely lost to time. His collected works, the 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:04.920 oeuvre, melee, et posthume, miscellaneous, and 00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:07.259 posthumous works, were first published in Paris 00:29:07.259 --> 00:29:10.240 in 1802 across two volumes. Which is significant. 00:29:10.359 --> 00:29:12.460 I mean, he went from being a failed playwright, 00:29:12.539 --> 00:29:15.880 rejected by the old regime, to having his collected, 00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:18.259 edited works published shortly after his death. 00:29:19.440 --> 00:29:20.819 He suggests his contribution to revolutionary 00:29:20.819 --> 00:29:23.299 culture was taken seriously by subsequent generations 00:29:23.299 --> 00:29:26.599 of writers. And his dramatic life, the struggle, 00:29:26.740 --> 00:29:29.640 the sudden political rise, the corruption and 00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:32.539 the tragic swift death has naturally lent itself 00:29:32.539 --> 00:29:35.259 to fiction. His complexity makes him a perfect 00:29:35.259 --> 00:29:37.279 foil for exploring the contradictions of the 00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:40.079 revolution. Absolutely. He appears as a major 00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:42.339 character in Hilary Mantel's acclaimed novel 00:29:42.339 --> 00:29:44.680 about the French Revolution, A Place of Greater 00:29:44.680 --> 00:29:47.640 Safety. Right, a key figure in that book. And 00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:50.220 he also pops up as a secondary character in Emma 00:29:50.220 --> 00:29:52.700 Ordsey's novel, The Way of the Scarlet Pimpernel, 00:29:52.839 --> 00:29:55.279 suggesting that even in the popular imagination 00:29:55.279 --> 00:29:58.480 a century later, his persona was still viewed 00:29:58.480 --> 00:30:02.299 as a quintessential, if flawed, figure of the 00:30:02.299 --> 00:30:04.920 terror. He became a literary figure of the very 00:30:04.920 --> 00:30:07.450 history he tried to rename. He is remembered 00:30:07.450 --> 00:30:10.109 less for his rational calendar and more for the 00:30:10.109 --> 00:30:13.410 dramatic, emotional and corrupt choices he made. 00:30:13.589 --> 00:30:16.829 So we have traced the improbable journey of Philippe 00:30:16.829 --> 00:30:19.529 -Francois Nazaire, Fabre de Glantine. It's a 00:30:19.529 --> 00:30:21.869 story that started with a silver wild rose prize 00:30:21.869 --> 00:30:25.390 and ended with a dark joke about worms. He was 00:30:25.390 --> 00:30:27.730 a man who sought to revolutionize both the aesthetic 00:30:27.730 --> 00:30:29.509 of the theater and the fundamental structure 00:30:29.509 --> 00:30:32.329 of the calendar, ultimately embodying the explosive 00:30:32.329 --> 00:30:35.150 ambition and the cynical, fatal corruption of 00:30:35.150 --> 00:30:38.390 the French Revolution. The contrast is truly 00:30:38.390 --> 00:30:40.849 stark, isn't it? On one side, you have the idealist 00:30:40.849 --> 00:30:42.849 Fab, the one who penned the calendar report, 00:30:43.069 --> 00:30:45.509 exalting the agricultural system, attempting 00:30:45.509 --> 00:30:48.349 to replace sacerdotal prestige with the truth 00:30:48.349 --> 00:30:51.210 of nature. A structure designed to be pure, rational 00:30:51.210 --> 00:30:53.970 and transparent. Exactly. And on the other, you 00:30:53.970 --> 00:30:56.750 have the politician Faber, whose undoing was 00:30:56.750 --> 00:30:59.569 the ignoble crime of malversation and forgery 00:30:59.569 --> 00:31:02.589 related to corporate fraud, a crime built on 00:31:02.589 --> 00:31:05.519 secrecy, illusion and greed. It's the purity 00:31:05.519 --> 00:31:08.079 of ideology betrayed instantly by the squalor 00:31:08.079 --> 00:31:10.559 of human greed. Which Robespierre correctly identified 00:31:10.559 --> 00:31:13.900 as criminality disguised by patriotism. That's 00:31:13.900 --> 00:31:16.039 the perfect epitaph for him. He tried to etch 00:31:16.039 --> 00:31:18.339 his name into the very fabric of time by creating 00:31:18.339 --> 00:31:21.640 a rational, nature -based calendar designed to 00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:23.660 force the French people to forget the religious 00:31:23.660 --> 00:31:26.960 past by erasing Sundays and marking time by seasons. 00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:29.759 Yet decades later, when the calendar was itself 00:31:29.759 --> 00:31:32.700 abolished, we chiefly remember him for one simple, 00:31:32.980 --> 00:31:36.039 enduring children. rhyme, Il pleut, Il pleut, 00:31:36.039 --> 00:31:39.220 Bergère, a song of pure, simple sentimentality 00:31:39.220 --> 00:31:41.680 and the political crime that swiftly and dramatically 00:31:41.680 --> 00:31:43.880 erased his future. Which raises an important 00:31:43.880 --> 00:31:45.619 question, something for you to mull over long 00:31:45.619 --> 00:31:47.920 after this deep dive concludes. What does this 00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:50.019 reversal say about the enduring power of simple, 00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:53.279 emotional, relatable art versus ambitious, often 00:31:53.279 --> 00:31:56.000 oppressive, imposed political systems? Favre 00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:58.599 tried to legislate virtue and rename the seasons 00:31:58.599 --> 00:32:01.460 of the year, but his most reliable legacy survives 00:32:01.460 --> 00:32:04.230 in a four -line song. about a shepherdess and 00:32:04.230 --> 00:32:06.509 her sheep, a song that requires no political 00:32:06.509 --> 00:32:08.990 context or philosophical understanding to endure. 00:32:09.650 --> 00:32:11.809 Perhaps in the end, the simple, honest verse 00:32:11.809 --> 00:32:13.809 is more revolutionary than the calendar designed 00:32:13.809 --> 00:32:14.670 to change the world.