Revolution

Use in the book

The sensitivity fragment points to the revolution as a field of examples for opinions turning nervous responsiveness toward cruelty. It does not name those examples or supply the missing object of “make fit.” The later maxim says changing revolutions’ motives changes their nature, direction and effects. Motivation is not merely an excuse attached after the outcome; it enters the account of what kind of event the revolution is. The editor’s expanded variant remains separate evidence.

Places to read

1. I, p. 347, entry 9, ¶1Political upheaval is cited as evidence of morally redirected sensitivity.
2. II, p. 873, entry 3, ¶1Motives alter the kind, direction and effects of revolutions.

Translation in this edition

The English translation preserves the unfilled grammatical object, the imperative form of change and all three consequent terms. It does not convert an undetailed allusion into a catalog of revolutionary episodes. The lexical family also has nonpolitical uses elsewhere, so raw counts require sense checking.

Use in the book

Mon cœur mis à nu XXX begins with ‘my intoxication’ in 1848, then asks what kind it was. The answers are motives rather than programmes. Literary intoxication suggests that previous reading supplied scripts for experience. The horrors of June implicate people and bourgeoisie together; the remembered fury at the later coup gives way to questions about the ruler's right and providential character.

Mon cœur mis à nu XXXI calls 1848 charming through its excess of ridiculousness. Such aesthetic appraisal can demote convictions to entertaining performances, but Mon cœur mis à nu XXXIII also reserves a higher sense in which convictions remain. The notebook oscillates between participation, embarrassment, and judgment rather than narrating a clean conversion.

Mon cœur mis à nu LXVI interprets Napoleon Fusées III's success through seizure of communication systems and accommodation to national stupidity. Mon cœur mis à nu LXXXVI offers another explanation: rulers inherit generations shaped by earlier governments. Its qualifications about influence and chronology are unusually cautious beside the coup fragment's contempt. Political causality remains plural: passion, institutions, collective consent, and inherited habits all appear.

Places to read

1. Mon cœur mis à nu XXIXquelque chose qui tient de l’infidélité et du déménagement. — Historical change is compared with private disloyalty and relocation.
2. Mon cœur mis à nu XXXIvresse littéraire ; souvenir des lectures. — Memory of reading is proposed as a political motive.
3. Mon cœur mis à nu LXVIen s’emparant du télégraphe et de l’Imprimerie nationale — Control of communication replaces heroic legitimacy.
4. Mon cœur mis à nu LXXXVIOn ne peut pas marquer exactement où finit une influence — Generational explanation acknowledges uncertain boundaries.

Translation in this edition

The edition's ‘came under’ rifle fire does not claim that Baudelaire was wounded. Its notes distinguish the events of 1848 from the coup of December 1851 and the subsequent imperial title. ‘Providential character’ preserves a theological question, not praise for lucky success. ‘Castles in the air’ translates châteaux en Espagne idiomatically, while ‘moving house’ keeps déménagement concrete.