Death of a Terrorist
ON July 13th, '179a, Jean-Paul Marat Was • assassinated by Charlotte Corday. The motive of the assassination was political. Charlotte Corday believed that Marat was the leading figure in the Jacobin Terror, and that with his removal the monstrous reign of evil would come to an end. Marat was not the leading figure ; his murder only increased the rigour of the Terrorists. In any case he was a dying man. Four days after the assassination Charlotte Corday was guillotined. These are the bare facts. One might add that Charlotte Corday was only twenty-five years old ; that she was physically beautiful, and of great personal courage and dignity. She NyEW of Norman family, and a descendant of Corneille. Lamartine called her l'ange de rassassinat. One may accept the phrase, yet one must also remember that Charlotte Corday herself was typical of the " exaltation " of the revolutionary period, and that the arguments by which she justified her act were those very arguments which the Terrorists, including Marat, were using to justify the regime which they• thought necessary to save the achievements a the Revolution.
This story has all the elements of a tragedy ; it summarizes
the tragic elements of the Revolution—the conflict of right with right. Unfortunately Mr: Shearer's book misses the real element of• tragedy, and concentrates upon the easier and less tragic element, the conflict of right with wrong. The tragedy thus .becomes a melodrama, and offends one by the emphasis upon sheer horror and the exploitation of the reader's sense of pity. There is little more to be said. This main criticism covers other faults of the book—an irritating style, a poor choice of words, and the use of cheap effects.
E. L. WOODWARD.
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