Part 3 (1/2)

Martin naturally ceased, and the treaty with M Harel for a third drao's dramatic as now interrupted by the composition of his _L'etude sur Mirabeau_, which y for his advanced political and social views He felt it necessary to review his past career, and to h which his mind had passed since his early days of Royalist fervour This study, which appeared in his _Litterature et Philosophie Melees_, is a defence of conscience, and illustrates the power of growing convictions to e the matter, of course, from the standpoint of the writer himself

In 1835 the Theatre Francais applied to Victor Hugo for a new draelo_, one of his best pieces for construction and for rapid and vigorous effects It was the author's intention in this drama, as he has himself stated, 'to depict two sad but contrasted characters--the woman in society, and the woman out of society; the one he has endeavoured to deliver from despotism, the other he has striven to defend from contempt; he has shown the temptations resisted by the virtue of the one, and the tears shed over her guilt by the other; he has cast blath and upon society in its absurdity; in contrariety to the tomen, he has delineated two n and one an outlaw, and, by various subordinate ular and irregular, in which a man can stand with a woeneral on the other' There is nothing more characteristic of the author's dra contrasts; and, indeed, in all his poetic work is to be traced this juxtaposition of the strongest lights and shades of which hu stars in _Angelo_ were Mademoiselle Mars and Madame Dorval Unfortunately, a serious feud arose in consequence of the for that the part she had chosen was not thewill of Victor Hugo to bring the actress to reason The two ladies had their partisans in the theatre when the play came to be acted, but the representation passed over without mishap, and it was conceded that a fair success had been achieved

Whatever o's defects as a draoing public of Paris upon the general claims of his plays, he had certainly infused life into the dra position, and although his genius was marred by souished for its grand conceptions, its dramatic felicities, and its splendours of diction

CHAPTER VII

LAST DRAMATIC WRITINGS

In soenius was ever so unfortunate as Victor Hugo in his relations with the stage I refer, of course, to the earlier part of his career, for there came a tih and universal as was the adgle between the old and the new drama there were always enemies ready to denounce and hiss whatsoever he produced; and had he given them a _Romeo and Juliet_ or a _Hamlet_, the result would have been precisely the same

We have seen the alternations of failure and success which attended the plays already passed in review; and the same mixed reception arded to those final efforts in connection with the drae for ever An operatic venture into which the poet was drawn in 1836 resulted in the saular dramatic coed Victor Hugo to make an opera of _Notre-Dame de Paris_, but he had steadfastly declined all such proposals At length he yielded to friendshi+p, and wrote the libretto of an opera called _La Es cohter of the conductor of the _Journal des Debats_ Curiously enough, the libretto ended with the word 'fatality,' and this represented thea singular array of talent in its production and representation, it was hissed Madeer, lost her voice; M Nourrit, the tenor, subsequently went to Italy, and killed hiave the name of _Esmeralda_ to a valuable mare, which was killed at a steeplechase; and finally, a shi+p called the Esland to Ireland, and every soul on board perished

A do year, when his brother Eugene died For some time before his death he had been insane, and towards the end his one favourite relative, Victor, even could not visit hiht of his brother conjured up illusions whichconstitution naturally, when the sufferer's radually wasted away until death released him in February, 1837

This was the brother who had been Victor Hugo's constant coitated the survivor, keenly awakening the sluave a grand fete at Versailles in the sue of the Duke of Orleans Victor Hugo, Dumas, Balzac, and other ed to appear in fancy dress, the result being ludicrous in some cases, as in that of Balzac, who had on the dress of a ly said, fitted hio was an object of special distinction by the Royal fa conversed with him, and the duchess of Orleans paid him marked attention There were two people, she said, hom she wished to become acquainted--M

Cousin and himself She had often spoken of him to Monsieur de Goethe; she had read all his works, and knew his poems by heart Her favourite book was the _Chants du Crepuscule_; and she added, 'I have visited _your_ Notre-Daion of Honour, and he received fro by M

Saint-Evre representing Inez de Castro It was a valuable work, and on the gilding of the frame was inscribed, '_Le Duc et la duchesse d'Orleans a M Victor Hugo, 27 Juin, 1837_'

At this juncture the poet brought a second action before the Board of Trade, to coree his plays He also claio's advocate, M Paillard de Villeneuve, in an effective speech, demonstrated the injustice of a theatre supported by the State beco state of things pressed heavily upon such enius as his client; and asserted that not only had no pieces ever realized greater profits, but that actually at that mo large and appreciative audiences in London, Vienna, Madrid, Moscow, and other i that the er of the French theatre had deceived him, and that he wore two masks--one of which was intended to deceive authors, and the other to elude justice The Board gave judg the Coes, and to perforelo_ without delay An appeal was entered against this judgo pleaded his cause in person, asserting that there was an organized effort to close the stage against the new and rising school of literature The appeal was disth done to the drament, _Hernani_ was first produced, and the play was brilliantly successful

I o's lyrical efforts Not without reason has the voluh place in the regard of his adraceful lyric verse as has rarely been penned In these tender and exquisite poems, as M Alfred Nettement observed, the poet's 'lay is of what he has seen, of what he has felt, of what he has loved: he sings of his wife, the orna in their fair-haired beauty; of landscapes ever widening in their horizon; of trees under which he has enjoyed a grateful shade'

Nature and personal experiences--froreater aspirations of the man--are blended in beautiful harain for their sweetness and melody In 1835 appeared _Les Chants du Crepuscule_, which truly represent a kind of twilight of the soul 'As coone before, the book exhibits the same ideas; the poet is identically the same poet, but his brow is furrowed by deeper lines, and maturity is more stamped upon his years; he laathering around; his hope seehs of ; and when he sees the people enveloped in doubt, he begins to be conscious of faltering too But from all this teht assurance of a grand developentleness and also tones of lofty scorn To the suffering and the unfortunate the poet was ever tender and pitiful; but to the e He always endeavoured to separate the worthy from the unworthy, and wherever the latter were to be found, whether in the ranks of friends or foes, they were never suffered to escape the lash of his indignation

Another volume of poems, _Les Voix Interieures_, was published in 1837

'The poet in this production,' says one of his biographers, 'regards life under its threefold aspect, at home, abroad, and at work; he maintains that it is the mission of the poet not to suffer the past to become an illusion to blind his calmly, to be ever staunch yet kind, to be impartial, and equally free fro to be sincere and disinterested Such was his ideal, and in accordance with it Victor Hugo spared no effort to ieneral, and by his poetry, as well as by his romances and his plays, he desired to constitute himself the champion of amelioration' This sah all his efforts--social, literary, and political He may have been mistaken in his means sometimes, never in the honesty and purity of his intent

Returning to the stage, Victor Hugo had becoht to have a theatre in which the higher draht to consent to several interviews on the subject with M Guizot The latter adreed with the poet that a new style of art required a new style of theatre; that the Comedie Francaise, which was the seat of Tradition and Conservatisinal literature of the day; and that the Govern a theatre for those who had created a department of art A scheme was perfected for a new theatre, and M Antenor Joly was na but a very old one was to be had, however, and this--which was in a bad situation--was transforo wrote his _Ruy Blas_, a drama which, as is well known, deals with the love of a queen for a valet who subsequently beco character was sustained by Lely approved the first three acts, but wasthe final rehearsals of this piece Victor Hugo had ato station theht positions Scarcely had he left his chair when a great bar of iron fell upon it fro it to atoms The author would undoubtedly have been killed on the spot but for thisto correct theincomplete when the play came to be produced, difficulties beset the representation It inter, and hts But the play soon warmed them into enthusiasm In the fifth act, we are told by one as present, Lereatest comedians, and success was more decided than ever 'The way in which he tore off his livery, drew the bolt, and struck his sword on the table, the way in which he said to Don Sallustre:

'”_Tenez_, Pour un homme d'esprit, vraiment vous m'etonnez!”

--the way in which he came back to entreat the Queen's pardon, and finally drank off the poison--everything had so reatness, truth, depth, and splendour, that the poet had the rare joy of seeing the ideal of which he had drea soul'

The play was successful with that part of the public which was unprejudiced, and the press generally was in its favour But it appears that the theatre anted by the co-o's play was persistently hissed at every representation by interested persons The _claqueurs_ were detected and instantly recognised _Ruy Blas_ ran for fifty nights, the sah to the end The er of a publishi+ng coht of publication of the whole of the poet's works for eleven years, for which they agreed to pay 240,000 francs; and the poet on his part agreed to add two unpublished voluo produced no drama after this for several years; but in 1840 he issued his work _Les Rayons et lesobes_, consisting of poems which had previously been read to his friends Laain he sought expression for his ever-widening aspirations after huht of expressing his goodwill for all who labour, his aversion to all who oppress; his love for all who serve the good cause, and his pity for all who suffer in its behalf; he declares hie to all self-sacrifice' In the poetical alternations and contrasts in this volume will be discovered a profound love and appreciation of Nature, as well as an undercurrent of affection for the hu back upon what he had accomplished, and forward towards what he hoped to do, at the transition period before he went into exile, asserted his thesis that 'a poet ought to have in hiht, and the worshi+p of Nature; he should be like Juvenal, who felt that day and night were perpetual witnesses within him; he should be like Dante, who defined the lost to be those who could no longer think; he should be like St Augustine, who, heedless of any accusation of Pantheisent creation' And it is under such inspiration that 'he has attehtness and sunshi+ne The Bible has been his Book; Virgil and Dante have been his masters; he has laboured to reconcile truth and poetry, knowing that knowledge ination, while knowledge, thought, and iination combined are the secret of power' It would be iination, and any perception of the soul of beauty in all things, to fail with these sublime ideals before his for the stage, and in _Les Burgraves_ we have in some respects the best of his dramatic works

It ritten towards the close of 1842, and produced (like its predecessors) in the midst of difficulties in March, 1843, at the Comedie Francaise At the time of its production, the author's political opinions had arrived at a stage of coh he was a Republican in theory, he had no strong objection to such a monarchy as that of Louis Philippe, which was liberty itself con who refrained froress, he had so to wait until the ti to M Thiers, indeed, to beg for some amelioration in the lot of an imprisoned editor, he said of himself, 'I do not at the present tiard all parties as acting with impartiality, full of affection for France, and anxious for progress I applaud so as those in power or in opposition seem to me to act best for the country'