Robespierre

4010

Robinson

Othello in England, and has made concert
tours throughout Europe and America. He
was received with enthusiasm in Moscow in
1934, but the broadcasting of one of his spiri-
tuals caused the dismissal of six Soviet wire-
less officials.

Robespierre, Maximilien Marie Isidore
(1758-94), French revolutionist, was a law-
yer of Irish origin, born at Arras, who early
accepted the views of Rousseau. During 1790
Robespierre gained great popularity and in-
fluence in the Jacobin Club, and on the death
of Mirabeau (April 2, 1791) he was recog-
nized as a revolutionary leader. On May 10,
1791, he carried his famous but fatal motion
that no member of the Constituent Assembly
should be elected to the forthcoming Legisla-
tive Assembly. He urged the execution of
Louis X\T:. as a matter of policy, and on Dec.
1, 1792, spoke against granting the king a

Lord Roberts of Kandahar.

trial. On the triumph of the Mountain he
became the leading man in France, and on
July 27, 1793, was elected a member of the
Great Committee of Public Safety. The next
scenes in the great drama of Revolution were
the dark intrigues and desperate struggles that
sent Eebert and his friends to the scaffold on
March 24, 1794, and Danton and Robespi-
erre's schoolfellow, Camille Desmoulins, on
April 5. The next three months Robespierre
reigned supreme, but his supremacy prepared
the way for his inevitable fall. On July 26

(8th Thermidor), after about a month's ab-
sence, the Dictator delivered a long harangue
complaining that he was being accused of
crimes unjustly. Next day, neither he nor
Saint-Just could be heard, and an unknown
deputy named Louchet proposed that Robes-
pierre should be arrested. At the fatal words
his power crumbled into ruins, and he was
put under arrest. Next day (July 28; roth
Thermidor, i794)» the miserable, trembling
wretch died with Saint-Just, Couthon, and
nineteen others by the guillotine.

Robin, American, the most common and
familiar of North American thrushes, more
or less resident throughout the United States.
It is named for its ruddy breast, which re-
sembles that of the English robin, and is
noted for its boldness and gayety, its attrac-
tive plumage, and its virile song.

Robin Goodfellow. See Puck.

Robin Hood, the predominant figure in
a series of English ballads, plays, and tales,
popularly regarded as the leader of a band of
outlaws who ranged through the forest of
Sherwood in Nottinghamshire and South
Yorkshire. He was reputed an excellent arch-
er and skilful with the quarter-staff; while
his characteristic of plundering the rich only,
and giving of his surplus to the poor, has
endeared him to the popular imagination.

Robinia, a genus of North American hardy
trees and shrubs belonging to the order Legu-
minosse, R. pseudacacia is the common locust,
bearing fragrant, drooping racemes of white
flowers.

Robins, Benjamin (1707-51), English
mathematician, was born in Bath. He in-
vented the ballistic pendulum.

Robinson, Charles (1818-94), American
legislator, was born in Hardwick, Mass. In
1854 he went to Kansas as confidential agent
of the New England Emigrants' Aid Society,
and settled in Lawrence. He became the
leader of the Free-State party, and in 1855
was a membek of the Topeka Convention,
which drew up a constitution prohibiting
slavery for the projected State. In the elec-
tion that followed he was chosen governor.

Robinson, Edward (1858-1931), Ameri-
can archaeologist, was born in Boston, Mass.
In 1906 he became assistant director, and in
1910 director, of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York City. He was an author-
ity on classical art and antiquities, and has
contributed archaeological articles to various
periodicals.

Robinson, Edwin Arlington (1869-