Farandoles

The International magazine, July 1, 1850: "A Mock GUILLOTINE.bDELIRIUM
TREMENS ON THE STAGE.bIt is stated in Galignanibs Messenger that at
the end of the late carnival two married women of Vidauban Department
of the Var manufactured a lay figure, entirely in white, and, after
attaching a chain round its neck, placed it in a small cart. Many of
the inhabitants then paraded it through the village in solemn
procession, accompanied by a crowd of men carrying axes, &c., and
singing revolutionary songs. After a while they formed a sort of
revolutionary tribunal, and the figure, which was called 'Blanc,' was
gravely tried, and, by the majority of the votes of the crowd,
condemned to death, the principal judge, a man named Arnaud, saying,
'Blanc! you prevent us from dancing farandoles, and therefore we
condemn you to death !' Thereupon, a man seized the figure, placed it
on a plank, and at one blow with his axe severed the head from the
body. A bottle of wine had been placed in the neck of the figure, and,
this having been broken by the blow, a resemblance of blood was
produced. The head was then cast into the crowd and torn to pieces by
them. This scandalous scene created a most painful impression
throughout the department. A few days afterward, four men who played a
principal part in the affair, and the two women who made the figure,
were brought to trial on the charge of exciting citizens to hatred of
each other. The men pleaded drunkenness as an excusebthe women
declared that they had only intended to amuse their children. Four of
the accused were acquitted, and the other two, who had acted as judge
and executioner, were condemned to four and three months'
imprisonment. It is a pity that by the application of some such law,
the disgustingly vulgar and brutalizing piece called The Drunkard,
which has lately been played with 'immense success' at Barnumbs
Theatre, (and in which the chief characters appear in all the stages
of degradation until one of them is nearly dead with the delirium
tremens), cannot supressed. With all its pretensions to mornlity, the
play is irredeemably bad and base."