Act IV
Scene—A terrace by the palace of Aragon. It is midnight, and the guests are departing from the marriage feast of Hernani and Doña Sol.
Doña Sol: At last, my husband, we are left alone.
How glad I am the feast and noise is done—
Are over.
Hernani: I, too, am weary of the loud, wild joy.
Happiness is a deep and quiet thing,
As deep and grave and quiet as true love.
Doña Sol: Yes, happiness and love are like a strain
Of calm and lovely music. Hernani,
Listen! (The sound of a mountain horn floats on the air.)
It is some mountaineer that plays
Upon your silver horn. [Hernani staggers back.
Hernani: The tiger comes!
The old, grey tiger! Look! In the shadows there!
Doña Sol: What is it frightens you?
[The horn sounds again.
Hernani: He wants my blood! I cannot!
[Don Ruy Gomez enters, playing on the horn like a madman.
Don Ruy Gomez: So you have not kept your word.
"My life belongs to you. At any time
You wish to take it, sound upon this horn
And I will kill myself." You are forsworn!
Hernani: I have no weapon on me.
Don Ruy Gomez (offering a dagger and a phial):
Which of these
Do you prefer?
Hernani: The poison.
Doña Sol: Are you mad?
Hernani: He saved my life at Aragon. I gave
My word of honour I would kill myself
When he desired.
[He raises the phial to his lips, but his wife wrests it from him.
Doña Sol (to her guardian): Why do you desire
To kill my husband?
Don Ruy Gomez: I have sworn no man
Shall marry you but me. I keep my oath!
[With a wild gesture Doña Sol drinks half of the poison, and hands Hernani the rest.
Doña Sol: You are two cruel men. Drink, Hernani,
And let us go to sleep!
Hernani (emptying the phial): Kiss me, my sweet.
It is our bridal night.
Doña Sol (falling beside him on the ground): Fold me, my love,
Close in your arms. [They die.
Don Ruy Gomez: Oh, I am a lost soul!
[He kills himself.
FOOTNOTES:
[I] Victor Hugo (see Vol. V, p. 122) occupies an anomalous position among the great dramatists of the world. He is really a poet with a splendid lyrical inspiration; but he combines this in his plays with an acquired but effective talent for stage-craft. "Hernani" is the most famous play in the European literature of the nineteenth century. This is partly due to the fact that it was the first great romantic drama given on the French stage. When it was produced, on February 25, 1830, there was a fierce battle in the theatre between the followers of the new movement and the adherents of the classic school of French playwriting. Little of the play itself was heard on the first night. The voices of the players were drowned in a storm of denunciations from the classicists, and counter-cheers from the romanticists. The admirers of Victor Hugo won. "Hernani" is certainly the most romantic of romantic dramas. The plot is striking, and full of swift and astonishing changes, but the characters are not always true to life. Nevertheless, "Hernani" is a fine, interesting, poetic melodrama, with a rather weak last act. The gloomy scene with which it closes lacks the inevitability of true tragedy. Had the play ended happily it would undoubtedly have retained its popularity.
[Marion de Lorme][J]
Persons in the Drama
Marion de Lorme | ||
Didier | ||
Louis XIII. | ||
The Marquis de Saverny | ||
The Marquis de Nangis | ||
The Comte de Gasse | ||
Brichanteau | ||
L'Angely, the King's Jester | ||
Rochebaron | Laffemas | |
Town Crier | Headsman | Two Workmen |
Soldiers, Officials, and a crowd of people | ||