French Revolutions

-0357598-5076469″>Shakespeare Goes to Paris” in the Telegraph:

It may be argued with perfect seriousness that one of the reasons France had revolutions in 1789 and 1848 and Britain did not, is that they had Racine and we had Shakespeare. In London popular theatre provided a safety valve for popular opinion, whereas in Paris the drama of class confrontation was acted out on the streets with real blood.

My own contribution to this particular meme: in France they had artistic revolutions, like surrealism, overturning the old order but ending up, as with all revolutions, in merely substituting for the old a newer even less tolerant order. Not for nothing was Andre Breton known as the pope of surrealism, ejecting from the movement those like Dali who were insufficiently committed to the cause. The British on the other hand had no need for such revolutions, having a sense of humour instead.