at the end of which they elect - by ballot - the man who is to murder the king. Hernani's name comes forth from the voting urn; the aged duke implores him to let him take his place, he even offers to give him back along with his horn the terrible promise he once made, but Hernani holds vengeance dearer than life itself, and refuses. Thereupon all the conspirators swear on the duke's sword to take Hernani's place and avenge him, if he should fall without having accomplished his purpose. Just at this moment is heard the report of a gun; the door of the vault opens halfway and the king appears on the threshold; another report is heard, the king comes out further; a third, and throwing open the door, the monarch greets his would-be murderers with the following words: Messieurs, allez plus loin! l'empereur vous entend. In the twinkling of an eye the torches are all put out, but king Charles strikes the iron key on the bronze-door of the vault, and at the sound the crypt fills with soldiers carrying torches, who crowd in on every side. Charles V cries: Accourez, mes faucons, j'ai le nid, j'ai la proie! However, he does not wish to punish any but the leaders of the conspiracy, and says to his guards: Ne prenez que ce qui peut être duc ou comte; Le reste! When she hears these words, doña Sol, who has been brought to the crypt by order of the king, fancies that her lover is safe; but Castilian honour forbids. ACTE IV, SCÈNE IV. HERNANI (sortant du groupe des conjurés). (A don Carlos.) Je prétends qu'on me compte! Puisqu'il s'agit de hache ici, que Hernani, Pâtre obscur, sous tes pieds passerait impuni, Puisque son front n'est plus au niveau de ton glaive, (Aux autres conjurés.) Couvrons-nous, grands d'Espagne! This is an imitation of the familiar expression: Cet homme ne connaît pas sa fortune, meaning that he is excessively wealthy. Hernani is so noble that he does not even know all his titles. (Tous les Espagnols se couvrent.) Oui, nos têtes, ô roi, Ont le droit de tomber couvertes devant toi! (Aux prisonniers.) Silva! Haro! Lara! gens de titre et de race, Place à Jean d'Aragon! ducs et comtes, ma place! (Aux courtisans et aux gardes.) Je suis Jean d'Aragon, roi, bourreaux et valets! (Il vient se joindre au groupe des seigneurs prisonniers.) DOÑA SOL. Ciel! DON CARLOS. En effet, j'avais oublié cette histoire. HERNANI. Celui dont le flanc saigne a meilleure mémoire. L'affront que l'offenseur oublie en insensé Vit et toujours remue au cœur de l'offensé! DON CARLOS. Donc je suis, c'est un titre à n'en point vouloir d'autres, Fils de pères qui font choir la tête des vôtres! DONA SOL (se jetant à genoux devant l'empereur). Sire, pardon! pitié! sire, soyez clément! Ou frappez-nous tous deux, car il est mon amant, Mon époux! en lui seul je respire. Oh! je tremble, Sire, ayez la pitié de nous tuer ensemble! Majesté! je me traîne à vos sacrés genoux! Je l'aime! il est à moi, comme l'empire à vous! Oh! grâce! (Don Carlos la regarde immobile.) Quel penser sinistre vous absorbe? DON CARLOS. Allons, relevez-vous, duchesse de Ségorbe, Comtesse Albatera, marquise de Monroy. . . . . (A Hernani.) Tes autres noms, don Juan? HERNANI. Qui parle ainsi? le roi? DON CARLOS. Non, l'empereur. DONA SOL (se relevant). Grand Dieu! DON CARLOS (la montrant à Hernani). Duc, voilà ton épouse! Thus the emperor inaugurates his reign in Germany by a noble act of generous forgiveness, which is all the more meritorious, as he was himself in love with doña Sol. The fifth act, called La Noce, shows us the lovers in the enjoy ment of their happiness on the evening of the wedding-day. They are renewing their vows of eternal love and constancy in a number of very beautiful lines, when suddenly they hear the sound of a horn. Hernani knows it, and a shudder runs through his limbs as he recalls his promise and remembers that the blast of that horn means death. Doña Sol falls down at the feet of the old duke and piteously begs him to spare her husband, but her entreaties are of no avail, and the old lord remains unmoved. Hernani wavers, but when don Ruy Gomez says: Puisque je n'ai céans affaire qu'à deux femmes, Don Juan, il faut qu'ailleurs j'aille chercher des âmes; Tu fais de beaux serments par le sang dont tu sors, he remembers his duty as a Castilian gentleman. Both he and doña Sol drink the deadly poison, which the duke has carefully brought with him in a flask, and breathe their last in each other's arms. Having thus sated his desire for revenge, the duke drains the rest of the fatal cup and dies. O souvenirs! printemps! aurore! Doux rayon triste et réchauffant! Lorsqu'elle était petite encore, Que sa sœur était tout enfant... Connaissez-vous sur la colline Entre un bois sombre et le ciel bleu ? The date of the death of the poet's daughter. V. page 594, note 1. SAINTE-BEUVE. SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS. CHARLES-AUGUSTIN SAINTE-BEUVE was born in 1804 at Boulogne-sur-Mer, where his father was controller-general of the taxes.2 His mother, an educated and accomplished woman, was of English extraction and at an early age instilled into the boy's mind a knowledge and taste for English literature. Sainte-Beuve received a classical education at the collége Charlemagne at Paris, and then in spite of the strong impulse he felt to become a poet, began to study medicine as his profession, though at the same time he contributed historical and critical articles to the Globe. The appearance of Victor Hugo's Odes and Ballads proved the turning-point of his career; they caused him to abandon his professional studies and devote himself entirely to literature; he espoused the cause of romanticism and became a member of the Cenacle. In 1828 he published his Tableau historique et critique de la poésie du XVIe siècle, one of the best critical works of our day. This was followed by the Poésies de Joseph Delorme, which were not so favourably received, and the Consolations, a series of poems devoted chiefly to self-contemplation. After the revolution of 1830, Sainte-Beuve became for a short time a follower of the Saint-Simonians but he soon left them, as he found no satisfaction in the tenets of the socialist faith. From that time he worked for the press, in particular the Revue des Deux Mondes, in which he continued the series of remarkable Literary Portraits begun in 1829. In 1837 Sainte-Beuve went on a tour to Switzerland; there he conceived the idea of writing a History of Port-Royal, a work which occupied him till 1848. In 1840 he was appointed by M. Thiers curator of the Mazarine Library and in 1845 he became a member of the French Academy. In 1850 Sainte-Beuve took up again in the Constitutionnel under the name Causeries du Lundi his series of Literary portraits, which were afterwards collected in a volume. Between 1857 and 1861 he filled the post of lecturer at the École normale and then returned to his duties as a regular contributor to the Constitutionnel. In 1865 he was nominated a member of the Senate. He died at Paris in 1869. Sainte-Beuve has made himself especially famous by his critiques. It is true that he has successively been an admirer of the most opposite kinds of literary beauty; but he possesses such marvellous skill in seasoning his criticism with pleasant biographical anecdotes, and displays such originality in the manner in which he dissects a writer's productions, that we always read his articles with pleasure and profit to ourselves. His style is always piquant and original, though at times somewhat laboured; it presents the vigorous expressions of the 16th century side by side with the vaguer phraseology of the 19th. We have followed Vapereau, Dictionnaire des contemporains. 2 Of the droits réunis, those taxes which are now called contributions indirectes. 3 V. page 592 (Victor Hugo). * V. page 534, note 4. 5 V. page 54 (Pascal), page 164 (Racine), and page 500 (Victor Cousin). V. page 502, note 2. 6 |