Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre, 107-43 = "A Bourgeois Puts His World in Order."

Identify: procession générale, honnête homme.

1. What and who is a bourgeois? What is his place in society? How does the bourgeois of Montepellier "put his world in order"? Consider his analysis of the Three Estates.

2. What does the procession in Montpellier say about Old Regime society? How does this essay relate to Muir's Ritual in Early Modern Europe?

3. What prejudices are implicit in the account of the bourgeois of Montpellier?

4. What do Darnton's essay and the primary document at the end of the essay tell us about the Old Regime? Was it healthy and strong? Was it in decline?