THE FOURTEENTH OF JULY
A monologue from the
play by Romain Rolland
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from The Fourteenth of July and Danton. Trans. Barrett
H. Clark. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1918. |
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- OLD WOMAN SHOPKEEPER: What do you mean with your talk
all the time of burning and hanging and stirring things up? What'll
it bring you? I know well enough you'll not do a blessed thing
about it. Then why talk so much? Will it make your soup taste
better if you cook a few aristocrats? They'll run off with all
their money and we'll be more miserable than ever. You see, you've
got to take things as they come, and not believe those liars
that tell you you can change things by shouting. D'ye know what
I think? We're wasting our time here. Nothing's going to happen,
nothing can happen. You're threatened with famine, war--the
whole Apocalypse. I tell you, it's all invented by the newspapers
that haven't anything else to print, and by spies who want to
stir things up. There's just a misunderstanding with the king,
but it'll be all right if we go about out business. We have a
good king: he's promised to keep our good M. Necker, who's going
to give us a Constitution. Why don't you believe it? Isn't that
good common sense? Why isn't it, eh? I believe what they say,
and I was just as foolish as you: I wasted four hours here. I'm
going now to sell my turnips.
MORE
MONOLOGUES BY ROMAIN ROLLAND |
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