The Battle of Hernani
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"It is not yet sixty years since the Romanticists and the Classicists first met in battle-array; and it is but little more than fifty years since Hernani sounded his trumpet, and the hollow walls of Classicism fell with a final crash. This half-century is a period of no slight importance in the history of the drama : it is one of the two epochs when the plays of France have been conspicuously and incomparably superior to the plays of any other country."--French Dramatists of the 19th Century (1881) Brander Matthews |
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The bataille d'Hernani (the battle of Hernani) is the name given to a polemic surrounding the opening night performance on February 25, 1830 of the romantic theatrical piece Hernani by Victor Hugo. As such it was an episode in the eternal quarrel of the ancients and moderns.
Alexandre Dumas has given a fine account of the events in his memoires, citing amongst other things, the quarrel between Hugo and the principal lady Mademoiselle Mars who did not whish to recite the lines "Vous êtes mon lion, superbe et généreux" which she wished to replace by "Vous êtes Monseigneur vaillant et généreux". This animal metaphor was unheard of in classical theatre.
Hugo had invited his clique Les Jeunes France and the performance ended in a physical battle.
