Great debates of the French Revolution: A study and evaluation of the oratory of the Constituent Assembly (May 1789-September 1791) with especial regard to those speeches commonly attributed to Mirabeau

Abstract

This thesis sets out to evaluate the oratory of the Constituent Assembly and, in particular, the contribution of Mirabeau. After an introductory chapter on oratory in France before the Revolution, the Constituent Assembly is surveyed. First the circumstances are outlined and then the oratory reviewed. The general characteristics of this oratory are described, and then the work of the more important orators, in particular the Abbe Maury, Cazales and Barnave, is analysed and assessed. The second and larger half of the thesis deals with Mirabeau's contribution to this eloquence. An account of his early life and that of his role in the Constituent Assembly covers two chapters. But, before one can consider Mirabeau's oratory as literature, it is essential to establish the authorship of his speeches. An account of the extensive help given to Mirabeau by six or seven collaborators is given. The multiplication of authors makes it necessary to appraise the literary worth of the eloquence of each collaborator separately. Only after this can Mirabeau's own personal contribution be gauged. This contribution is relatively small, but, even if the honour of writing most of his speeches does not belong to Mirabeau, he had the undisputed power of swaying the whole Assembly on important issues not only by his amazingly powerful delivery (the function of an actor rather than an orator), but by his outbursts of spontaneous eloquence. An attempt to characterize and evaluate this eloquence and to place it within the context of French oratory as a whole is made in the final chapter.