all sorts of modifications and corruptions of text in the transmission.
Of the chansons populaires révolutionnaires which have come down to the present from the Great Revolution, the Marseillaise, a true chanson de propagande in its time, well called by Lamartine “ the fire-water of the Revolution, ” is not in favour with the orthodox anarchists, because it is essentially patriotic and uses the offensive word citoyen. The “ Ça Ira ” is still sung by the anarchists, but not always to its original words. The Père Duchêne, a part of which dates from the Directoire, is sung mainly by the coal-miners of the region of the Loire. The Carmagnole alone — the saucy, rollicking, explosive, diabolic Carmagnole ! — has held its own against all new-comers, changing, but losing nothing of its sauciness, its explosiveness, and its diabolism as it has passed from the versions of 1792-93 through its seven clearly defined texts to the version of the memorable strike of Montceau-les-Mines in 1883.
After the execution of Ravachol[1] the airs of the “ Ça Ira ” and the Carmagnole were combined into a chanson called La Ravachole, which, in spite of this hybrid origin, may fairly be classed as the latest and by far the most vindictive version of the Carmagnole.
LA RAVACHOLE
Dans la grande ville de Paris (bis)
Il y a des bourgeois bien nourris, (bis)
Il y a les miséreux
Qui ont le ventre creux.
Ceux-là ont les dents longues,
Vive le son, vive le son,
Ceux-là ont les dents longues,
Vive le son
D’ l’explosion.
- ↑ Ravachol was convicted of several overt acts, among them the dynamiting of the house of the judges Benoit and Bulot.
