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_