Hernani (drama)
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| Title: | Hernani or the Castilian honor |
| Original title: | Hernani, ou l'Honneur castillan |
| Genus: | Romantic drama |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Victor Hugo |
| Publishing year: | 1830 |
| Premiere: | February 25, 1830 |
| Place of premiere: | Comédie-Française |
| Place and time of the action: | Spain , February to April 1519 |
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Hernani or the Castilian Honor is a drama by Victor Hugo published in 1830 and premiered on February 25 of that year in the Comédie-Française .
Hernani is one of the most important stage works by Victor Hugo , the performance of which triggered the " Battle for Hernani " and founded the romantic drama.
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Preface
Hugo confirms his statements from the preface to Cromwell : The rules of classical theater must be broken and the new generation, the generation of romantics, should strive for a new aesthetic. It also and above all demands the appreciation of the audience, because only this can make the works unforgettable.
The action, which runs from February to April 1519, is set in Spain .
Act 1: The King
At night the Spanish King Don Carlos invades Doña Sol's bedchamber, with which he is secretly in love. Hidden in a closet, he witnesses the encounter between Doña Sol and an outlaw, Hernani. Hernani, son of someone beheaded on the orders of Don Carlos' father, has sworn revenge. Doña Sol loves Hernani, but has already been engaged to her uncle Don Ruy Gomez de Silva.
Don Carlos leaves his hiding place and the two opponents prepare to fight - but they are surprised by the duke. Don Ruy Gomez de Silva is outraged by the presence of the two men in his niece's apartment. Don Carlos then gives up his disguise and introduces himself; He describes Hernani as part of his following. He justifies his nocturnal appearance with a serious incident: the German ruler has died and he seeks the advice of his loyal companion, Don Ruy Gomez, with whom he wants to decide whether he should recommend himself as a candidate for the successor. Hernani, who is now facing Don Carlos, is left alone and again swears revenge for the murder of his father.
Act 2: The Bandit
The next day at midnight, Don Carlos waits in the courtyard of the palace at Doña Sol's window. He wants to forestall Hernani, whose identity he now knows, with a kidnapping. Deceived by the darkness, Doña Sol follows him. Hernani, whom Doña Sol has called for help, appears. He provokes a duel, but once again there is no argument and Hernani has the opportunity to reciprocate by protecting the king from his band of robbers. Hernani and Doña Sol are left alone and confess their love. However, the king's troops are already pursuing them and Hernani leaves Doña Sol to return to his gang.
3rd act: the old man
The wedding of the old Duke Don Ruy Gomez de Silva and his young niece Doña Sol is being prepared. Don Ruy Gomez notes with benevolence when he is told of the likely death of Hernani. On the day of the wedding, a pilgrim appears at the Castle da Silvas.
When the guest discovers Doña Sol in her wedding dress, he tears off the pilgrim's disguise to reveal his identity: It is Hernani.
Although a large sum of money is suspended on Hernani's head, Don Ruy Gomez de Silva's duty to protect his guest weighs more heavily and he has the lock locked.
Hernani and Doña Sol are left alone and clear up any misunderstandings. Doña Sol shows Hernani the dagger she stole from the king, and the two confess their love again. Don Ruy Gomez appears and condemns Hernani's behavior, but the honor forbids him to betray his guest. The king's arrival is announced and Don Ruy Gomez hides Hernani.
The king appears and furiously accepts the news that Don Ruy Gomez is hiding Hernani and gives the duke the choice of either extraditing Hernani or capturing Doña Sol instead. The duke hesitates, but decides against the extradition of Hernani and has to watch the kidnapping of Doña Sol helplessly. After his departure, Hernani and Don Ruy Gomez join forces against the king in order to kill him together. Don Ruy lets Hernani live to give him the opportunity to kill Don Carlos; once this act of revenge has been accomplished, he must commit suicide at the sound of Don Ruy Gomez's horn.
4th act: the grave
In Aix-la-Chapelle , Don Carlos waits for the decision to be made emperor and foils the plot of his conspirators, who include Hernani and Don Ruy Gomez. Hernani is chosen to kill the king and turns down Don Ruy's offer to release him from the oath. Hernani could have saved his life otherwise, but then Don Ruy could have committed the murder and Doña Sol could have won. The now elected emperor shows mercy by forgiving the conspirators and announcing the marriage of Doña Sol and Hernani. This takes on his true identity again as Jean d'Aragon (from the Spanish nobility) and gives up his plans for revenge.
5th act: the wedding
Doña Sol and Hernani get married in Saragossa, but the relentless Don Ruy Gomez sounds the horn and reminds Hernani of his oath that obliges him to kill himself. Doña Sol and Hernani poison each other, and finally the desperate Don Ruy Gomez stabs himself as well.
The romantic drama
Hernani must always be seen in connection with his genre, the romantic drama. In the 1820s, Stendhal ( Racine and Shakespeare ) and Manzoni , among others, contributed to the emergence of a new aesthetic (on the stage). The young Victor Hugo , who wants to conquer the Parisian theater scene after the conclusion of the unplayable drama Cromwell , rejects the classical tragedy, which in his opinion is too far removed from the reality of the audience; Social concerns should always be reflected in his works.
The creation of the work
After writing the preface to Cromwell in 1827 in which Hugo the need for the rules of classical theater emphasized to break, he returned with odes and ballads (the protection of the king assured him) and Orientalia for poetry back. Hugo always wanted to challenge the followers of the classical music in their preferred field, on the stage, and made numerous attempts, among which were failures like Amy Robsart (1828). The success of his friend Alexandre Dumas with Henri III et sa cour (1829) reaffirmed Hugo and he began a historical drama in Spain: Hernani (subjects related to French reality such as Marion de Lorme were systematically censored by the king).
Hugo wrote the work between August 19 and September 24, 1829 and shortly afterwards presented it to his friends in the discussion group of romantic writers, the Cénacle, who almost without exception gave him their approval. Hugo initially received permission to perform his play in the Théâtre Français, although the censors wanted to destroy it for good; a new lecture to the members of the Comédie-Française, however, met with enthusiasm and the play came on stage.
The performances turned out to be relatively difficult: Mademoiselle Mars , the experienced leader of the troupe and actress of Doña Sol, wanted to support Hugo in his efforts, but embodied more of the classic type and proved unsuitable for the representation of romantic passion; other actors like Firmin, a rather inconspicuous and pale Hernani or Michelot, an elegant but less energetic Don Carlos feared above all the future conflict. There were, however, a few exceptions such as Joanny, a former soldier under the Napoleonic General Hugo, who wanted to pay tribute to the young son Victor Hugo with the portrayal of Don Ruy Gomez and who enthusiastically broke away from the constraints of classical theater.
The censors scrutinized the manuscript of the play (which was also delayed by the success of de Vigny's Othello and Shakespeare) until January 1830 and deleted some passages - the stylistic lapses were not changed, however, in hope that this bad taste would finally discredit the author. Meanwhile, the press formed a plot to defame the new work, citing the "classics", which ultimately only strengthened Hernani in his position as a manifesto of the new generation. Hugo wanted to renew the theater, which was spared from romanticism as the last bastion of classical music due to its allegiance to tradition and censorship.
This "offensive" took place in three phases:
- The preface to Cromwell in 1827 provided the theoretical basis for breaking with the classical rules and the freedom of the arts as well as the modern ideal of beauty of the grotesque.
- In 1829 Charles X forbids Marion De Lorme for treason against the royal majesty; Hugo breaks with the regime
- In 1830, Hernani finally came on stage and the conspicuously decorated, vocal supporters of romanticism , led by Gautier and Dumas, met the gray eminence of the classics. The scandal ends in a triumph for the romantics and a victory for the new theater.
Reactions
The first performance of the piece sparked violent reactions (“ Battle for Hernani ”) - and a dispute between the supporters of the classical music , who wanted to nip the protest movement of the new generation in the bud, and the romantics, who wanted to support their leader Hugo.
As the battle continued, the play became a great success and Hugo was immediately offered a contract with a publisher. The subsequent performances heated the discussion even further, but Hernani had found his audience and the success did not die down. The effect of the piece on the younger generation was probably comparable to that of Le Cid on Corneille's contemporaries . Meanwhile, despite the relentless criticism of classics such as Charles Maurice, Saint-Beuve and Jean Vinnet, Hugo also received support from the older generation of writers such as Victor Pavie or Chateaubriand .
In 1838, the play was resumed despite resistance from the July monarchy , who did not want romantic pieces in the Comédie-Française . Hugo broke away from imperial power in the future. During the Second Empire , Napoléon III banned all the writer's works. It was not until 1877 that Hernani was rediscovered and first performed in the full and uncensored version. In 1952 there were 906 performances in the Comédie-Française.
Although Hugo and Hernani emerged victorious from the theater battle, the play lost importance over time; today Hernani is performed less often and is less well known than Hugos Ruy Blas or de Mussets Lorenzaccio .
Analyzes
swell
Victor Hugo made use of various sources to fill the legend of Spanish chivalry with life; Corneilles Le Cid is an inspiration , a work to which Hugo traces the romantic endeavors of his generation back
According to Hugo, his statements are based on a passage from an old Spanish report. The local Spanish flavor can also be traced back to his own memories of life on the Iberian Peninsula, where he spent some time during the Napoleonic campaigns; he also refers to contemporary reports of local history. The following authors and works may have given him further inspiration: Calderon with Die Andacht zum Kreuz , Alarcon, but also non-Romanesque sources such as pieces by Lalor Sheil, Egmont by Goethe or The Robbers by Schiller .
Subject and structure
Despite the classic subdivision into five acts of twelve-silver and although intrigues comparable to those of the great classics Racines and Corneilles serve as themes, the piece is definitely for innovations. It differs significantly from the classical principles and in some places ties in with Shakespeare's tradition, as Hugo had already indicated in the preface to Cromwell. In this way, the author mixes youthful fire and situational comedy with the dark tragedy and passion and also allowed himself to let people die on stage, thereby destroying the roles of confidants and harbingers of bad luck in classical theater. Hugo also attaches great importance to the visual effects, which is reflected in the elaborate choice of costumes. With Hugo, each act can be understood as a unit to which a title belongs, whereas classical theater is linear. In addition, the author breaks two of the three classic rules of unity:
- Choice of a place (Hugo, however, chooses one place per act)
- Plot within a day (the plot in Hernani extends over several months)
Hugo maintains the unity of the plot, even if it extends to the main and sub-plot. In the foreword to Cromwell , which is considered the manifesto of French Romanticism, explains the meaningfulness of this unity. For Hugo, unity of action does not mean simplicity of action. There may be subplots, only these must be based on the main plot and always strive towards the main plot.
A new aesthetic
Victor Hugo loosens the rhythm of the verse to draw the audience's attention to the content of the piece. In his lyrical works he glorifies youth, love and the peculiarities of life.
Hernani, the hero obsessed with the fire of passion, and Don Carlos, who after his coronation had democratic intentions, represent the model heroes of the young generation of 1830. The performance of Hernani is the birth of romantic theater; pieces by de Musset, de Vigny, Gautier and later Rostand followed.
Adaptations
Hernani was processed by Verdi in 1844 into an opera entitled Ernani .
