[80] Anténor Joly, Manager of the Théâtre de la Renaissance. He had intended to produce Juliette in a musical comedy.
[81] Victor Hugo had already submitted himself three times as a candidate for the Académie and was elected the fourth time, that is to say, the day Juliette wrote this letter. His chief adversary in the Académie was one of his former rivals, the Vaudevilliste, Dupaty.
[82] Victor Hugo was received into the Académie by Monsieur de Salvandy on June 3rd, 1841.
[83] The poet’s children.
[84] Victor Hugo had been elected Chancellor of the Académie Française on the preceding June 24th. Charles Nodier was the President.
[85] François Victor Hugo, whose childhood was extremely delicate.
[86] This is an allusion to the recent death of the Duc d’Orléans, the friend and protector of Victor Hugo.
[87] Rehearsals of Burgraves at the Comédie Française.
[88] An allusion to the disagreement of the poet with Mdlle. Maxime, to whom the Comédie Française wished to allot the part of Guachumara, and whom he was afterwards able to replace by Mdlle. Théodorine (Mme. Melingue).
[89] This letter is written after the catastrophe at Villequier on September 4th, 1847, in which the eldest daughter and the son-in-law of the poet perished.