The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-03-03

Hugo was born 1G0 years ago. On
memorial tablet in the quaint old town
of Besancon, sleeping among the
NOsges mountains. the date is record
ed: Victor Hugo, Feb IS, 1902.
To the house on which that tablet
IS affixed, and to the Pantheon, IN
Paris. where Hugo is buried, ana TO
the Church of NOtre Dame. which his
fiction has immortalized, pilgrimages
Vii be made next Wednesday, ana
there win be bonfires ana decorations
and flag wavings and commemorative
services AMI theatrical performances
all over France. and almost every
country in the world will make some
contribution 10 the festivities.
The people wkO take part in them
viii pay this tribute TO Hugo, not only
because they consider him the greatest
Poet. the greatest novelist and the
greatest dramatist of the past CEN
fury, but also because they believe that
the lght he waged against envy, igno-
rance and stupidity was the sternest
and most brilliant of which history has
record.
We are not much concerned today
with the feuds of Classics and Ro-
mantics. But we are very much con-
cerned to see a man of letters take up
a cause which he knows TO be right
and belabor it's enemies till the world
acclaims his victory. The sporting
blood Is just as strong in us today as
when the battle of Hermann was won
at the Theatre Francois.
1 think it sufficiently describes the
condition of French literature in 1880
to say that it was simply tiresome and
dull. The French academy, largely
composed of heavy witted writers, had
persuaded the people that no humOr or
fancy no depth of thought no flight
OF imagination, could save a novel or
play from condemnation il il disobeyed
certain technical laws of composition.
s. - .
Hugo defied the academy. When
little more than a school boy he had
written 'Bug-Jargal," the story of
Saa Domingo slave who loved his mas
ter's daughter, and Hans of Iceland,
the tale of a monster who drank sea
water and blood out of his sons skull.
and the critics had excoriated him.
They scorned his early poems, collect
ed as "Odes ct Ballades;" they decided
that his exquisite verses, Les Orien-
tales were garish and vulgar, and
when he put forth his closet drama,
Cromwell. the staid old Gazette de
France committed itself TO this re-
maTkable opinion: 1.-The author has no
sort of vocation for the theatre; no
knowledge whatever of dramatic eff
fects.
Exasperated by attacks, Hugo, on
June l. 1929, set to work on Marion
Delorme,' the tragedy or a fallen wO-
man. He finished it in a month. To
hear it read his friends gathered the
literary celebrities of the day, includ-
ing Alexandra Dumas, BalZac, Alfred
de Musset and Prosper Merimee. SO
powerful was the effect produced by
the reading that N. Harel. the man
ager, inscribed on the first page, ''Ac-
cepted at the Theatre dc POdeOn.' - NJ.
CrOsnier. superintendent of the Porte
St, Martin, wrote his name under
meath. in case his rival of the OdeOn
should miss the prize. And finally VI.
Taylor of the Theatre Francois car
ried it off.
Thus Victor Hugo had his chance OF
cOnf0unding his enemies aud proving
hat was in him. When the censors
of his majesty, King. Charles X, sent
word to Nj. Taylor that the play was
interdicted. they alleged that it repre-
scented King Louis XI as a ridiculOusly
weak prince and thereby disparaged
the reigning monarch.
So Hugo wrote Hermann and NJ.
Taylor accepted it in place Of Marion
Delorme. -
THE first performance of Hermann"
says the chTonicler, was fixed for Feb.
Is, 1S30-a day that viii ever be mem
Orable in theatrical annals as the oc-
casiOn of a battle which, in its own
way, may be compared in Importance
with MarengO or Austerlitz."
Both the classics and the Romantics
knew that their fate hung on the sue
cess Of this play. Seven academicians
sent a petition to the king, asking that
the Coincide Franchise be closed to it.
The actors were bTibed to reveal their
parts. and the scenes thus picked up
were burlesqued in the coffee houses
amid rOars of laughter. One Of the
censors, betraying his professional Sc
CTeCy. abused the drama and its author
in public. The body to which he be-
lOnged sent back the manuscript with
this Endorsement: 1T is wise policy TO
have it performed without the omis-
sion of a word. Then the public can
Judge the lengths to which the human
mind can go when freed from all re-
straint and all sense of decency."
The Romantics, on their side, organ
lied bands of young men, mostly au-
thOrs and painters. who from an early
hour gathered at the pit entrance Of
the Theatre Francois, eager to ap
plaud the new tragedy and terrify its
opponents. Conspicuous among them
was TheOphile Gautier, Is years old,
with his long hair streaming over a
doublet of rose cOlOred satin. They
took possession Of galleries and pit.
jeeTed at critics and academicians as
they entered, and got ready for a
stormy night. They Lad it. Never was
such riot known in a theatre. Every
line was vigorously h. ssed or frantical-
Iy applauded. A cTOssfire of inveCtive
accompanied each scene.
The present generation" wrote
Theophile Gautier, long afterward,
can never understand the efforts
which were made to liberate them from
the long established bonds of fOolery."
Who won the battle? Nobody knows.
Both sides claimed the victory. With
the exception of the Journal des De
bats. no newspaper had a good word
to say for the play. The most eminent
critics did not scTUple to GenOunce the
Romantics as rascals, drunkards and
madmon, and to declare that ''HeTnani''
was utterly foul and abominabie. The
Kissing was renewed at every per
Torrance: and finally, on the plea that
Mademoiselle Mars. the chief actress.
had TO leave. the play was shelved for
many years.
o % 3
But a literary revolution had come
to pass.
The eensors withdrew their objections
20 Marion DelOrme. N. Crosnier Of
the Porte St Martin produced it. To
Alexandra Dumas, who missed the per
Torrance, the reviewer of the Debats
Hugo's only friend, remarked; You
have not lost much The audience re-
eeived it very colby. As poetry it is
weaker than Hermann; and as for the
plot, it is boldly stolen from Alfred de
NignV's romance
And then came lie Roi s'Amuse, 50