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| '''Jean-Paul Marat''' (24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793), was a Swiss-born French ], philosopher, political theorist and scientist best known as a radical journalist and politician from the ]. His journalism was renowned for its fiery character and uncompromising stance towards the new government, "enemies of the revolution" and basic reforms for the poorest members of society. His persistent persecution, consistent voice, high intelligence and uncanny predictive powers brought him the trust of the people and made him the main bridge between them and the radical ] group that came to power in June 1793. For two short months, leading up to the downfall of the ] faction in June, he was one of the three most important men in France, alongside ] and ]. He was stabbed to death in his ] by the Girondin sympathizer ]. Marat coined the modern usage of the phrase "enemy of the people" and published extensive lists of such enemies in his newspaper, calling for them to be executed. The term "enemy of the people" was later adopted by the Soviet Union during the ] in the 1930s to label people accused of counter-revolutionary activities and crimes against the Soviet State. | '''Jean-Paul Marat''' (24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793), was a Swiss-born French ], philosopher, political theorist and scientist best known as a radical journalist and politician from the ]. His journalism was renowned for its fiery character and uncompromising stance towards the new government, "enemies of the revolution" and basic reforms for the poorest members of society. His persistent persecution, consistent voice, high intelligence and uncanny predictive powers brought him the trust of the people and made him the main bridge between them and the radical ] group that came to power in June 1793. For two short months, leading up to the downfall of the ] faction in June, he was one of the three most important men in France, alongside ] and ]. He was stabbed to death in his ] by the Girondin sympathizer ]. Marat coined the modern usage of the phrase "enemy of the people" and published extensive lists of such enemies in his newspaper, calling for them to be executed. The term "enemy of the people" was later adopted by the Soviet Union during the ] in the 1930s to label people accused of counter-revolutionary activities and crimes against the Soviet State. | ||
| I'M RICK JAMES, B!TCH! Hi Capricorn42!:) | |||
| ==Scientist and physician== | |||
| Jean-Paul Marat (Mara) was born in Switzerland, at ] in the principality of ], on 24 May 1743, the eldest child of Jean Marat (''Giovanni Mara''), a native of ] in ], and Louise Cabrol from Castres in France. His father was a ] "commendator" and religious refugee who converted to Calvinism in Geneva; his mother was a ]. At the age of 16, aware of the limited opportunities for outsiders (his highly educated father was turned down for several teaching posts), Marat set off on his travels. Nobody knows exactly where and when he settled during ten years. Possible locations include Bordeaux, Paris, or London. <ref> Oeuvres de Jean-Paul Marat, 10 vols ed. J de Cock & C Goetz, 1995, Editions Pole du Nord.</ref> | |||
| His first published work, written in English and later published in his native French in Amsterdam, was a ''Philosophical Essay on Man'' (1772), which demonstrates extensive knowledge of English, French, German, Italian and Spanish philosophers. His essay attacked the materialist philosopher ], who in his ''De l'Esprit'' ("On the Mind", 1758) reduced all Man's faculties to physical sensation alone and his actions as motivated by self-interest alone. His professed belief that philosophy had no need for science was refuted by Marat who argued that a knowledge of ] could solve the eternal problem of the mind-body connection and the location of the soul, which he argued was found in the ]. ]'s sharp critique (in defense of his friend Helvétius) brought the young Marat to wider attention for the first time and only helped reinforce Marat's growing sense of division between the materialists, grouped around Voltaire on one side, and their opponents, grouped around ] on the other. <ref>, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Eleventh Edition, 1911. Accessed online 2 July 2006.</ref> | |||
| After London, Marat came in 1770 to ]. Marat's first overtly political work ''Chains of Slavery'' published in Newcastle in 1774, was probably written there. By his own highly-coloured account, Marat had lived on black coffee and slept only two hours a night before completing the 65 chapters in three months - and had then slept for 13 days. The book is in English, which Marat knew well, though it relies heavily on earlier works. It purports to be "A work in which the clandestine and villainous attempts of Princes to ruin Liberty are pointed out, and the dreadful scenes of Despotism disclosed". It earned him honorary membership of the patriotic societies of ], ] and Newcastle. The ] possesses a copy, and ] holds three presented to various of the Newcastle guilds. | |||
| An essay on gleets (]) probably helped him to secure an honorary medical degree from ] in 1775. On his return to London he published an ''Enquiry into the Nature, Cause, and Cure of a Singular Disease of the Eyes''. | |||
| In 1776, he moved to Paris via a brief stopover in Geneva to visit his family. Here his reputation as a highly effective doctor, along with the patronage of the Marquis de l'Aubespine, husband of one of Marat's patients, the Marquise, secured him a position as physician to the bodyguard of the comte d'Artois (afterwards ]) in 1777, which paid 2,000 ] a year plus allowances. | |||
| Marat was soon in great demand as a court doctor among the aristocracy and he used his new-found wealth to set up a laboratory in his mistress's house. Soon he was publishing works on fire/heat, electricity and light. Even ], in his ''Mémoires'', admitted Marat's influence in the scientific world of Paris. However, when he presented his scientific researches to the '']'', they were not approved and he failed to be accepted as a member. In particular, the academicians were appalled by his temerity in disagreeing with the great (and hitherto uncriticized) ]. Marat wrote to ] who visited him on several occasions. ] always regarded his rejection by the academy as a glaring example of scientific despotism. | |||
| In 1780 Marat published a ''Plan de législation criminelle''. In April 1786 he resigned his court appointment and, over the next few years, completed a new translation of Newton's '']'' (1787) and ''Mémoires académiques, ou nouvelles découvertes sur la lumière.'' ("Academic memoirs, or new discoveries about light," 1788), a collection of essays including a study on the effect of light on soap bubbles. | |||
| ==The Friend of the People== | ==The Friend of the People== | ||
Revision as of 04:50, 13 January 2009
| Jean-Paul Marat | |
|---|---|
| File:IH189029.jpg | |
| Born | 24 May 1743 Boudry, Neuchâtel, Switzerland |
| Died | 13 July 1793 |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Occupation(s) | Scientist, Physician |
| Parent(s) | Jean Mara, Louise Cabrol |
Jean-Paul Marat (24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793), was a Swiss-born French physician, philosopher, political theorist and scientist best known as a radical journalist and politician from the French Revolution. His journalism was renowned for its fiery character and uncompromising stance towards the new government, "enemies of the revolution" and basic reforms for the poorest members of society. His persistent persecution, consistent voice, high intelligence and uncanny predictive powers brought him the trust of the people and made him the main bridge between them and the radical Jacobin group that came to power in June 1793. For two short months, leading up to the downfall of the Girondin faction in June, he was one of the three most important men in France, alongside Danton and Robespierre. He was stabbed to death in his bathtub by the Girondin sympathizer Charlotte Corday. Marat coined the modern usage of the phrase "enemy of the people" and published extensive lists of such enemies in his newspaper, calling for them to be executed. The term "enemy of the people" was later adopted by the Soviet Union during the Great Purge in the 1930s to label people accused of counter-revolutionary activities and crimes against the Soviet State.
I'M RICK JAMES, B!TCH! Hi Capricorn42!:)
The Friend of the People
On the eve of the French Revolution, Marat placed his career as a scientist and doctor behind him and took up his pen on behalf of the Third Estate. After 1788, when the Parlement of Paris and other Notables advised the assembling of the Estates-General for the first time in 175 years, Marat devoted himself entirely to politics. His Offrande à la patrie ("Offering to the Nation") dwelt on much the same points as the Abbé Sieyès' famous "Qu'est-ce que le Tiers État?" ("What is the Third Estate?") When the Estates-General met, in June 1789, he published a supplement to his Offrande, followed in July by La constitution ("The Constitution") and in September by the Tableau des vices de la constitution d'Angleterre ("Tableau of the flaws of the English constitution") intended to influence the structure of a constitution for France. The latter work was presented to the National Constituent Assembly and was an anti-oligarchic dissent from the anglomania that was gripping that body.
In September 1789, Marat began his own paper, which was at first called Moniteur patriote ("Patriotic Watch"), changed four days later to Publiciste parisien, and then finally L'Ami du peuple ("The Friend of the People"). From this position, he expressed suspicion of all those in power, and dubbed them "enemies of the people". Although Marat never joined a specific faction during the Revolution, he condemned several sides in his L'Ami du peuple, and reported their alleged disloyalties (until he was proven wrong or they were proven guilty).
Marat often attacked the most influential and powerful groups in France, including the Corps Municipal, the Constituent Assembly, the ministers, and the Cour du Châtelet. In January 1790, he moved to the radical Cordeliers section, then under the leadership of the up-and-coming lawyer Danton, and was nearly arrested for his aggressive campaign against the Marquis de La Fayette, and was forced to flee to London, where he wrote his Denonciation contre Necker ("Denunciation of Jacques Necker"), an attack on Louis XVI's popular Finance Minister. In May he returned to Paris to continue the publication of L'Ami du peuple, and attacked many of France's most powerful citizens. Fearing reprisal, Marat was forced to hide in the Catacombs, where he almost certainly aggravated a debilitating chronic skin disease (scrofula).
Marat, long a supporter of the abolition of the Bourbon Monarchy, subsequently attacked more moderate revolutionary leaders. In July 1790, he wrote:
Five or six hundred heads cut off would have assured your repose, freedom and happiness. A false humanity has held your arms and suspended your blows; because of this, millions of your brothers will lose their lives.
Events
Marat placed his hopes in the Constituent Assembly, but lost faith in the actions of the Legislative Assembly.
Around March 1792, he married 27 year old Simone Évrard, the sister-in-law of Jean Antoine Corne, the typographer of L'Ami du peuple.
During that time, Marat was frequently criticized, and went into hiding until The 10 August Insurrection, when the Tuileries Palace was besieged and the Royal Family sheltered with the Legislative Assembly. This was partly caused by the proclamation by Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg which called for the crushing of the Revolution, and served to inflame sentiments in Paris.
The National Convention
Although still without party affiliation, Marat was elected to the National Convention in September 1792 to represent the people of France. When France was declared a Republic on 22 September, Marat stopped printing L'Ami du peuple, and, three days later, began the Journal de la république française ("Journal of the French Republic"). Much like L’Ami du peuple, it criticized many of France's political figures, and made Marat unpopular with his fellow members of the Convention.
His stance during the trial of the deposed king Louis XVI was unique. He declared it unfair to accuse Louis for anything before his acceptance of the French Constitution of 1791, and, although implacably believing that the monarch's death would be good for the people, he did not allow Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, the king's counsel, to be attacked in his paper, and spoke of him as a "sage et respectable vieillard" (wise and respectable old man).
On 21 January 1793, King Louis was guillotined, which caused political turmoil. From January to May, Marat fought bitterly with the Girondins, whom he believed to be covert enemies of republicanism. The Girondins won the first round when the Convention ordered that Marat should be tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal. However, their plans were scuppered when Marat was acquitted and returned to the Convention with an enhanced public profile and considerable popular support.
Marat's death
See also: Charlotte Corday
The fall of the Girondins on 2 June, provoked by the actions of François Hanriot, became one of Marat's last achievements. His letters to the convention received no attention, now that the Montagnards no longer needed his support against the Girondins. Marat had all but vanished from the political scene after his victory and Robespierre and other political leaders began to separate themselves from him now that he seemed to have outlived his usefulness, and accordingly, his influence. His skin disease was worsening, and his last resort for alleviating the discomfort was to soak in a medicinal bath. Marat was in his bathtub on 13 July 1793, when a young woman, Charlotte Corday, claiming to be a messenger from Caen (where escaped Girondins were trying to gain a Normandy base) asked to be admitted to his quarters.
When she entered, he asked her to name offending deputies, and after recording their names said "They shall all be guillotined." Corday then drew a knife, purchased earlier that day at a shop, and stabbed him in the chest. He called out, "À moi, ma chère amie!" ("Help me, my dear friend!"), and died. Corday was a Girondin. She came from a royalist family — her brothers were émigrés who had left to fight with the exiled French princes. From her own account, and those of witnesses, it is clear that she had been inspired by Girondin speeches to hatred of the Montagnards by their excesses. Marat's assassination provoked reprisals in which thousands of the Jacobins' adversaries – both royalists and Girondins – were executed on supposed charges of treason. She was guillotined on 17 July 1793 for the murder. During her four-day trial, she had testified that she had carried out the assassination alone, saying "I killed one man to save 100,000."
Marat's memory in the Revolution
Marat's assassination led to his apotheosis. The painter Jacques-Louis David was called in to organise a grand funeral. David took up the task of immortalizing Marat, beautifying the skin that was discoloured and scabbed from his chronic skin disease in an attempt to create antique virtue. The entire National Convention attended Marat's funeral and he was buried in the Couvent des Cordeliers. His heart was embalmed separately and placed in an urn on the ceiling of the Cordeliers Club. His remains were transferred to the Panthéon on 25 November 1793 and his near messianic role in the Revolution was confirmed with the elegy: Like Jesus, Marat loved ardently the people, and only them. Like Jesus, Marat hated kings, nobles, priests, rogues and, like Jesus, he never stopped fighting against these plagues of the people. His eulogy was written by the Marquis de Sade, then a left-wing member of the National Convention and a Jacobin. De Sade would later resign as member of the Convention and other public posts due to his disgust with the Reign of Terror.
On the 19 of November, the town of Le Hâvre de Grâce changed its name to Hâvre de Marat and then Hâvre-Marat. When the Jacobins started their Dechristianisation campaign to set up the Cult of Reason of Hébert and Chaumette and Cult of the Supreme Being of Robespierre), Marat was made a quasi-saint, and his bust often replaced crucifixes in the former churches of Paris.
By early 1795, however, Marat's memory had become tarnished. On 13 January 1795, Hâvre-Marat became simply Le Havre, the name it bears today. In February, his coffin was removed from the Panthéon and his busts and sculptures were destroyed. His final resting place is the cemetery of the Church Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.
His memory lived on in the Soviet Union. Marat became a common name and the Russian battleship Petropavlovsk was renamed Marat in 1921. A street in the centre of Sevastopol was named after Marat on 3 January 1921, shortly after the Soviets took over the city.
Marat's skin disease
Described during his time as a man "short in stature, deformed in person, and hideous in face," Marat has long been noted for physical irregularities. The nature of Marat's debilitating skin disease in particular has been an object of ongoing medical interest. Dr. Josef E Jelinek noted that his skin disease was intensely pruritic, blistering, began in the perianal region, and was associated with weight loss leading to emaciation. He was sick with it for the three years prior to his assassination, and spent most of this time in his bathtub. Jelinek's diagnosis is dermatitis herpetiformis.
Marat's bathtub
After Marat's death, Simone Évrard, Marat's wife, may have sold his bathtub to her journalist neighbour, as it was included in an inventory of his possessions after his own death. The royalist de Sainte-Hilaire bought the tub, taking it to Sarzeau, Morbihan in Brittany. His daughter, Capriole de Sainte-Hilaire inherited it when he died in 1805 and she passed it on to the Sarzeau curé when she died in 1862.
A journalist for Le Figaro tracked down the tub in 1885. The curé then discovered that selling the tub could earn money for the parish, yet the Musée Carnavalet turned it down due to its lack of provenance as well as the high price. The curé approached Madame Tussaud's waxworks, who agreed to purchase Marat's bathtub for 100,000 francs; however, the curé's acceptance was lost in the mail. After rejecting other offers, including one from Phineas Barnum, the curé sold the tub for 5,000 francs to the Musée Grévin, where it remains today.
Marat's works
Besides the works mentioned above, Marat wrote:
- Recherches physiques sur l'électricité, &c. (1782)
- Recherches sur l'électricité médicale (1783)
- Notions élémentaires d'optique (1784)
- Lettres de l'observateur Bon Sens a M. de M sur la fatale catastrophe des infortunes Pilatre de Rozier et Ronzain, les aéronautes et l'aérostation (1785)
- Observations de M. l'amateur Avec a M. labb Sans . . . &c., (1785)
- Éloge de Montesquieu (1785), published 1883 by M. de Bresetz
- Les Charlatans modernes, on lettres sur le charlatanisme academique (1791)
- Les Aventures du comte Potowski (published in 1847 by Paul Lacroix, the bibliophile Jacob)
- Lettres polonaises (published in English only; disputed by French authorities)
Artistic and theatrical representations
- The Marquis de Sade wrote an admiring eulogy for Marat.
- The Death of Marat is a famous painting by Jacques-Louis David.
- Peter Weiss wrote a play titled The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, as performed by the inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the direction of the Marquis de Sade, (1963) also known as Marat/Sade. A motion picture based on Weiss' play was produced in 1964 (US 1966) under the direction of Peter Brook, and featured performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- A fictional book by A. Dima, Marat's Son, features a retelling of Marat's life.
- In Victor Hugo's book, Quatrevingt-treize, he is featured in one chapter, where he's quarreling with Robespierre and Danton.
- The opera Il piccolo Marat by Pietro Mascagni and Giovacchino Forzano (1921) features the main character who poses as a revolutionary dedicated to Marat's principles, and is dubbed "Little Marat."
- Rock group R.E.M.'s song "We Walk" from their 1983 album Murmur features a lyrical reference to "Marat's bathing."
Quotations
- "Nothing superfluous can belong to us legitimately so long as others lack necessities."
- "To ensure public tranquility, two hundred and seventy thousand heads more should fall."
- "Man has the right to deal with his oppressors by devouring their palpitating hearts."
References
- "His scientific life was now over, his political life was to begin; in the notoriety of that political life his great scientific and philosophical knowledge was to be forgotten…" Marat, Jean-Paul, Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, 1911. Accessed online 2 July 2006.
- Louis Gottschalk, Jean-Paul Marat: A Study in Radicalism. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1967), 185.
- David Andress, The Terror: The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France. (New York: SFG Books, 2005), 189.
- David Andress, The Terror: The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France. (New York: SFG Books, 2005), 191.
- Template:Ru icon Streets of Sevastopol - Marat Street
- Adolphus, John. Biographical Anecdotes of the Founders of the French Republic. London: R. Phillips, 1799. p 232.
- Jelinek, J.E., "Jean-Paul Marat: The differential diagnosis of his skin disease", American Journal of Dermatopathology (1979) 1:251-2. PMID 396805.
- Ransom, Teresa, Madame Tussaud: A Life and a Time, (2003) p. 252-253.
- Durant, Will and Ariel. The Age of Napoleon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975. pg. 21
- Taine, Hippolyte. The French Revolution, Volume 3. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. pg. 118
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Marat, Jean-Paul". [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|Encyclopædia Britannica]] (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, in turn, gives the following references:
- A. Vermorel, Jean Paul Marat (1880)
- François Chèvremont, Marat: esprit politique, accomp. de sa vie (2 vols., 1880)
- Auguste Cabanès, Marat inconnu (1891)
- A. Bougeart, Marat, l'ami du peuple (2 vols., 1865)
- Jean Maurice Tourneux, Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la revolution francaise (vol. ii., 1894; vol. iv., 1906)
- Ernest Belfort Bax, J. P. Marat (1900)
- The Correspondance de Marat has been edited with notes by C. Vellay (2006)
Edited by Pôle Nord - Brussels:
1) 1989-1995 : Jean-Paul Marat, Œuvres Politiques (ten volumes 1789-1793 - Text: 6.600 p. - Guide: 2.200 p.)
2) Collection "Chantiers Marat":
1997: Conner, Clifford D., "Jean Paul Marat: Scientist and Revolutionary" (Humanity Books)
2001: "Marat en famille - La saga des Mara(t)" (2 volumes) - New approach of Marat's family.
2006: "Plume de Marat - Plumes sur Marat" (2 volumes) : Bibliography (3.000 references of books and articles of and on Marat)
See also
External links
- http://www.metavolution.org/modx/les-publications-sur-jean-paul-marat.html Summaries of the princeps edition's 10 volumes.
- http://www.revolution-francaise.net
- Jean-Paul Marat in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- 1743 births
- 1793 deaths
- Assassinated French politicians
- Burials at the Panthéon
- Deputies to the French National Convention
- French newspaper founders
- French physicians
- French people of Swiss descent
- People of the French Revolution
- Newspaper editors of the French Revolution
- People from the Canton of Neuchâtel
- Regicides of Louis XVI
- People murdered in France