ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how The Scarlet Pimpernel drew on British stage tradition in using French Revolutionary history to project a nationalist message. It examines the dramatic role of the sans-culottes and links with the discourse of Orientalism in the characterisation of the savage' French mob versus the civilised' English. The idea of the savage' sans-culottes, so graphically illustrated by Gillray, became a theatrical staple in successive plays about the French Revolution. The novel version of the play published with Sardou's sanction ends with Robespierre being taken on the tumbrils to the guillotine. The Christ-like figure of the self-sacrificing Englishman was a key part of the success of The Only Way. Orczy's ingrained habit of self-censorship, acquired while writing for Pearson publications, as well as the play's genre meant that no major cuts were required of The Scarlet Pimpernel. The term melodrama' as used by reviewers carried a package of associations.
