Word: rouget
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...idea of bowdlerizing the ferocious lyrics composed in 1792 by Claude- Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a young captain of the engineers who penned the words on a single, inspired April night, first surfaced three years ago. French human-rights advocate Abbe Pierre called for the song to be altered from "words of hate to a message of love." The abbe's appeal for a kinder, gentler version received only lukewarm support until last month, when the image of an innocent 10-year-old girl warbling "Aux armes, citoyens!" at the Olympic Games struck a note of incongruity that...
Nevertheless, the Marseillaise revisionists claim that they are particularly offended by Rouget de Lisle's xenophobic reference to standards encrusted in the blood of retreating foreigners -- an image, ironically, that members of the ultra-right National Front must actually find quite appealing. But less ideological traditionalists are now rallying against the Milquetoast meddlers, denouncing the notion of tampering with the song that rang through the torchlit streets of revolutionary France as nothing short of traitorous. Sure, the Marseillaise "is ridiculous," concedes novelist Michel Tournier, "but we should leave it alone because, like old furniture, it gains in value over...
...peewee French officer, Rouget, in one chanceful, inspired evening composed The Marseillaise, which rang through the torchlit streets of Revolutionary France. But soon he became a counterRevolutionary, escaped with his life to live 40 dismal years...
...Baldwin to speak at a dance given for new Conservative voters. When Mr. Smithers arrived, Conservative couples were revolving on the floor to the strains of "Sonny Boy" Suddenly inspired, Mr. Smithers stepped to the platform, asked the bandmaster to repeat the selection. Then-even as the French patriot, Rouget de Lisle, is supposed to have improvised the "Marseillaise"; upon a cafe table top-Mr. Smithers is supposed to have improvised verses, of which the following is a sample: When there are grey skies We don't mind the grey skies, You make them blue, Stanley Boy. Though foes...
...Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836) author of La Marseillaise employed similar tactics when arraigned before a French jury on a capital charge. "Frenchmen!" he cried, "Hear my defense: I am guilty, but I am the author of La Marseillaise...