Elle retourne la figure d'Hernani.
Mon amour, tiens-toi vers moi tourné.
Plus près… plus près encor…
Elle retombe.
DON RUY GOMEZ.
Morte!—Oh! je suis damné.
Il se tue.
NOTES.
PREFACE.
1: poëte mort. In the volume entitled «Littérature et Philosophie mêlées» of the édition définitive, Hugo has an article «sur M. Dovalle», which contains this quotation. Charles Dovalle, born 1807, killed in a duel 1829, was the author of a volume of poetry, «Le Sylphe», which appeared in 1830, with a preface by Hugo.
2: censure. During the Revolution all restrictions upon the liberty of the press were removed, but in 1810 a directorship was established. The charter of Louis XVIII in 1814 restored full liberty, but restrictions were presently imposed, nevertheless. In 1819 the censorship gave place to a system of sureties. An ordinance of St. Cloud, in 1830, suspending the liberty of the press was one of the causes of the revolution in that year, and the restrictions were temporarily removed. Since then a limited censorship has generally been maintained, but chiefly in regard to politics and criminal processes.
3: règles de d'Aubignac. François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac (1604-1676), was an authoritative literary critic, champion of Aristotle and the three unities, author of a prose tragedy, Zénobie, composed according to these rules and very stupid, and of a «Pratique du Théâtre». He was a bitter opponent of Corneille.
4: Cujas (1522-1590), a celebrated jurist of Toulouse, who interpreted the Roman law in a more historical and less practical sense than had been usual in France. His name thus stands for legal pedantry. Coutumes means legal usages, unwritten law.