Hearing Joseph's words, Armand became complacent instead, "What's there to be afraid of? Isn't it just a ban on the show? Corneille's "El Cid" was also banned. It could be as banned as El Cid and that's just ... Why change it? No! Even if the show is banned, even if I'm thrown under the bus for it, it's worth it! You must know that this is the immortal laurel of the god Apollo!"
"Then the play will only be performed for a scene or two before the top reacts." Joseph said.
"No, it won't." Napoleon suddenly interjected, "Like El Cid, it was banned for a while, but it will be played again someday. And once it's re-enacted, it's played often."
"I love that." Armand laughed, "Napoleon, I drink to you!"
With those words, Armand raised his arm and poured a large glass of brandy into his mouth. When Napoleon saw this, he tried to follow his example with a mouthful. However, his arm had only just been raised when Joseph stopped him.
"Armand is a heavy drinker and drinks like water. You don't want to drink as much as he does, or you'll be down before you can say two words, and that's no fun. When we used to drink with him, it was all about him drinking as much as he wanted and us taking a lick with him."
Napoleon glanced at Joseph and then at the skinny-looking Armand and seemed a little less than convinced, but he listened to Joseph and took just a tiny sip.
"Right, that's just fine." Armand said, "I was hoping you'd be sober enough to give me more advice. Well, how does your drinking compare to Joseph's?"
"Not as good as me." Joseph said.
"Not too far off." Napoleon replied almost simultaneously.
"Ah, then you've had a little too much of each drink. This guy Joseph, at best two brandies would make him count one plus one as three. Since you're about the same, you drink slower." Armand laughed.
"Mr. Lavoisier, I have an idea." Napoleon said.
"Ah, just call me Armand like Joseph, 'Mr. Lavoisier' or whatever is too formal and makes people uncomfortable all over. Well, what does our Alexander have in mind?"
"I think that since the play is already this intense, so intense that it's mostly, well, it should be a sure thing that it will be banned, why don't we just be a little bit more sarcastic?" Napoleon said.
"Napoleon, you're really looking at the big picture. In that case, the fate of the play would be whether it was banned first and then unbanned. Instead, it's going to become a cycle of banning the show, then unbanning the show, then banning the show, then unbanning the show. And Armand would be in real danger of being thrown under the Bastille and fed to the rats." Joseph said as he gently sipped the brandy in his hand.
"That's even better!" Armand said, "That would be more than Corneille! As for being thrown into the Bastille, compared to such an achievement, what is the guillotine, not to mention the Bastille? Well, Napoleon, tell me how it could be a little more intense."
Napoleon thought for a moment, "You know, Armand, that after the battle of Apulia, where Spartacus was killed in action, Pompey crucified all six thousand of the captured rebel warriors. We'll just end up putting the image of a crucified rebel warriors on stage and just make it look like the Jesus one ... What do you think?"
"Ah, that's a good idea! It'll piss off those goddamned people!" Armand laughed.
"It could also be arranged for the three crucified rebel warriors to have a conversation, like the one Jesus had in the Bible when he was crucified, with the two robbers who were also crucified." Napoleon came to his feet and went on.
"Ah, good idea, good idea!" Armand said, "My previous ending was too sad and downbeat, so this is a good change to add a bit of brightness to the ending. Well, I'll let Spartacus' aides, on the cross, inspire the other warriors who were crucified together by saying, 'We are indeed going to die, but we are going to die as freedom fighters, not as slaves and dolls to be driven and toyed with. The fame and cause of Spartacus shall be immortalized!' Hmmm, maybe I should do a major overhaul and resurrect the ancient Greek troupe. At the end, let the Spartacus' aides call out to the other crucified warriors: 'Let us sing our battle-song for the most part!' Then first a few of the warriors sing it, then the whole band of singers joins in to form a chorus, and the whole drama ends in that chorus - it's fantastic! Napoleon, you are a genius! Much better than Joseph, really!"
Joseph grimaced slightly at that but didn't say anything. As for Napoleon, he couldn't help but look up at Joseph in triumph.
"The lyrics to the song aren't a problem, you can write them yourself. But can you find a composer good enough to help you with the song? Even if you find a good enough composer, he's not going to be able to write the right tune all the time. And there's the worry of whether he's willing to risk going to the Bastille to write this." Joseph said, "If this is altered, the song becomes the soul of the whole play. The whole drama is crippled when you can't find the right song. But it's not easy to find such a song. You were supposed to have this play almost immediately, but with this change, I'm afraid I don't know how long it will be delayed again."
There were actually quite a few good composers of the era, like Papa Haydn or Mozart. But they were not in France, and they might not have been willing to write such a defiant and "blasphemous" song for a play that glorified the revolt of the slaves. Perhaps only Beethoven would have dared to write such a thing in this era, but at this point in time, Beethoven was still a big teenage kid who hadn't had a chance to make a name for himself. He's not going to mature until about 1803. There were, of course, French musicians, even revolutionary-leaning ones, such as François-Joseph Gossec. But compared to other countries, especially compared to Austria, France's musical achievements are much more bleak. So much so that in 1878, during a trip to Paris, Mozart wrote to his friend: "As far as music is concerned, I am in the midst of barbarians ... Ask anyone who is not a Frenchman, and if he knows a little about it, he will say the same thing ... If I can get out of this in one piece, it will be thanks to God Almighty ..." So, it wasn't easy for Armand to find a songwriter to create a song that met his requirements.
"It's fine." Armand said, "It's worth it to wait more for the perfect drama. Come on, let's drink to flawless tragedy ... Ah, I'll drink, you guys feel free ... hahaha ..."
"A flawless tragedy" was originally Aristotle's praise for Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus Rex, and now Armand's words can be said to reveal his own ambitions in no uncertain terms.
But the "flawless tragedy" did seem to be a tragedy, and for some days afterward, Armand used to come to Joseph with his hair in disarray to discuss with him some of the changes that needed to be made in the tragedy. Unlike the ambitiousness of this visit, Armand began to be all kinds of dissatisfied with this tragedy, always feeling that something was wrong here too and that many things needed to be adjusted, even majorly. After tweaking things, it doesn't take long before Armand feels as if it's not as good as what he had before and still needs to be tweaked ...
Of course, the most troubling thing was the war song. Nowadays, this war song becomes more important in the play, and in this play, it must appear at least three times: once when Spartacus and the others revolt and break out of the prison, once when they are let down through the grapevine by night from the cliffs of Vesuvius and rout the Roman officials who are besieging them; and once at the time of the final crucifixion. It even occurs to Armand that both the first and second time, only the first verse appears, and it's not until the last time that the song is sung in its entirety. The song, however, doesn't even have lyrics yet, not to mention the music score. Armand wrote at least a dozen versions of the lyrics, but they were all shot down without hesitation by himself.
Joseph's "research" was going quite well, and in the meantime, he had published several valuable papers. The collaboration with Lavoisier had gone well, and while nitroglycerin was still dangerous, the technology for preparing it on-site in larger quantities had largely matured and had even been used in the mines of the Orleans family. The productivity of the mines of the Orleans family was greatly increased depending on this thing, which also allowed Duke Phillips to make some small money. His Royal Highness the Duke would only have made more money if the industrial development of France had been like that of England.
Since His Highness the Duke had made money, it was only natural that Lavoisier followed suit and gained even more fame. Of course, Joseph, who was a key contributor to this creation, got a small share of the money and had the gratitude and support of Lavoisier. Today, Lavoisier is already proposing to give Joseph an alternate membership in the French Academy of Sciences.
This proposal was not only supported by Lavoisier but also endorsed by His Royal Highness the Duke, so although there were some people who did not quite agree with it from the bottom of their hearts, they also knew that, as far as the current performance was concerned, sooner or later, Joseph would be able to obtain a position in the French Academy of Sciences, and that even if there were even more vehement opposition, they would at most only be able to delay the matter for a year or two. Such a delay would not serve any decisive purpose and would only offend people in vain, so even those who opposed it were not too vehement in their opposition. So, if nothing else, then in a few months, or at most by next spring, Joseph should have an alternate membership in the French Academy of Sciences.