DANTON
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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- ROBESPIERRE: I trust no man. I can read lies in their
faces, I see intrigue in their protestations. Their eyes, their
mouths, their hands, their whole body lies. Suspicion poisons
every thought I have. I was intended for a quieter existence.
I love men, and I wish to believe in them. But how can I, when
I see them perjure themselves ten times a day, sell themselves,
their friends, their armies, their Patrie, for motives
of fear, or ambition, or viciousness, or malevolence pure and
simple? I have seen Mirabeau, Lafayette, Dumouriez, Custine,
the king, the aristocrats, the Girondins, the Hérésists--all
of them betrayed one after the other. The soldiers would have
surrendered the nation twenty times had they not feared the guillotine
awaiting them. Three-fourths of the members are conspiring against
the Convention. Vice is curbed under the heroic discipline imposed
by the Revolution. Its allies dare not attack the forces of virtue
in broad daylight; they hide under masks of piety and mercy,
in order to influence public opinion, and deflect it in favor
of rogues, inciting them against the true patriots. But I will
tear their masks from their faces, and force the Assembly to
see what is beneath: the hideous face of treason. I will force
the disguised accomplices of the conspirators to condemn them,
or else die with them myself. The Republic will be victorious.
But, oh God, in the midst of what devastation! Vice is like the
Hydra: every drop of blood that falls to the ground will grow
up into another monster. The best men have fallen into its clutches;
they fall as if stricken with the plague: the day before yesterday
it was Philippeaux; yesterday, Danton; today, Desmoulins--Desmoulins,
my friend from childhood, my brother! Who will be the next traitor?
MORE
MONOLOGUES BY ROMAIN ROLLAND |
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