At Citoyenne Tussauds by Victor Plarr

This is a poem about the French revolution and Madame la Guillotine During the Reign of Terror, there were many forms of execution. The most widely utilized form was the guillotine. The guillotine was a killing machine used to enforce capital punishment by decapitation. It was introduced to France in 1792 during the revolution. The French doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814) was credited with the invention of the guillotine. However, a machine similar to the guillotine had already been used in other countries including Germany, England, Italy, Scotland, and Persia. The machine used in other countries was mainly used to humanely kill farm animals. Guillotin saw these machines and developed an idea for a more humane method of capital punishment. Ironically, he intended this machine to be used for private executions, so that the condemned could die with dignity. Unfortunatly, the guillotine became a tool used for quick, effeicent murders. When Dr. Guillotin realized this, he was horrified and tried to disassociate himself from it. Since it was named after him, his claims that he had nothing to do with the guillotine were not believed.

Victor Gustave Plarr 1863 - 1929 was born near Strasbourg France of a French father and English mother he was brought to live in England aged six as a esult of the Franco-Prussian war.

He became the librarian at the Royal College of surgeons in central London and from the 1890's was a member of the celebrated poetry circle "The Rhymers club"....

This elegant poem by him surely bemoans the agonies of a memory of a very tragic period in the history of his country of birth..

The French revolution that took place during 1789 - 1792 and gave rise to one of the bloodiest periods in Frances history known as the "reign of terror"

During this time of popular rebellion against the high taxes imposed by the old feudal system mass executions by guillotine of royals and anybody accused of conspiring against the revolution were a regular public event....

Jacques RenE HEbert[zhAk runA쨈 Aber, 1757–94, French journalist and revolutionary. An ardent supporter of the French Revolution, he gained the support of the working classes through his virulent paper Le PEre Duchesne and was prominent in the Cordeliers. He became one of the leaders of the Commune of Paris, and, as such, his power was a counterforce to that of Maximilien Robespierre. He was largely responsible for the tightening of the maximum price laws during the Reign of Terror and for the Law of Suspects. An atheist, he and Pierre Chaumette were the founders of the cult of the worship of Reason. HEbert's policies and his power over the commune threatened the government and aroused Robespierre's opposition. When HEbert and his followers began preparing for a possible popular insurrection, they were arrested (Mar., 1794), tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal, and guillotined....

The founder of London's world famous waxworks museum Madam Tussuad had made wax effigies (death masks) of many of the notable victims of the guillotine before relocating her museum in England to escape the inherent dangers of the revolution of becoming one of the accused herself....

Regards..

Jim Clark

Copyright of this sound recording reserved Jim Clark hyperbolelad@hotmail.com