The Sublime and Revolutionary Oratory: Themes and Myths of the Restoration and July Monarchy

Orators of the French Revolution provided a means for French Romantics to project onto historical figures their ambivalence toward the political dilemmas of the Restoration and July Monarchy. Mirabeau and Vergniaud figure in early historiography of the Revolution so that a series of myths develops about them in the public consciousness. A complex concept of the sublime is present in these narratives. Revolutionary orators were sublime because speech was action for them. A cultural and textual analysis shows that the sublime in this context derives from a tradition in rhetoric and drama that includes Marmontel, La Harpe, Blair, Larive, and Lemercier. Texts by Hugo, Nodier, and Lamartine summarize this tradition. (PAW)