Page:Rolland - People's Theater.djvu/91

Rh divided the sum of 100,000 livres among the twenty theaters of Paris which,

"according to the decree of August 2 have each given four performances for and by the people."

On the 12th of Pluviôse of the same year (Jan. 31, 1794) the Committee of General Surety recommended to the directors of the various theaters of Paris

"that they make their theaters schools of manners and decency … adding to their patriotic plays … others in which individual virtue should be set forth in all its grandeur."

Boissy d'Anglas, in a written appeal to the Convention and the Committee of Instruction, dated the 25th of Pluviôse (Feb. 13), asked that

"plays should be made the vehicle of public appreciation, and that through them the prestige of the great men who had fallen should be emphasized, by showing their great deeds, which ought to be preserved for posterity. … In considering the theater as one of the properest instruments for furthering the development of society and rendering men more virtuous and more enlightened, you will, I am sure, not allow it to become solely an object of financial speculation, but make it a national enterprise. … Let this be one of the principal