Paris, Mame et Delaunay-Vallée, 1830.
8vo [225 x 139 mm] of I/ (2) ll., vii pp., (1) p. of characters, 154 pp., 12 pp. Red straight-grained quarter morocco, flat spine fully decorated, untrimmed, beige printed wrappers bound in. Binding signed by Mercier, successor of Cuzin.
First edition of this work “uncommon and much sought-after” (Clouzot, 144).
Carteret, I, 399 ; Vicaire, IV, 251-252.
Copy of the first edition with page 80 numbered 78 and the 12 pages of the publisher’s catalogue.
“It is, with ‘Ruy Blas’, one of the best plays of the author in the repertoire of the Comédie-Française.” (Carteret).
“Hernani is entirely based on the fatality of passion and on the respect of chivalric laws. This drama, clearly inspired by the Romantic tradition, that of Corneille’s “Cid” and Schiller’s “Brigands”, possesses an undeniable poetic force capable of delighting and moving the reader. The magic of the word makes the most extraordinary situations acceptable. In the famous dialogues between doña Sol and Hernani, the passion of love finds imperishable accents. It was because “Marion Delorme” had been banned in 829 that the poet had to replace it at the Comédie-Française with this work, which he wrote in a month. At the first performance, the young romantics, led by Théophile Gautier, attacked the bourgeois public still attached to traditional forms. The legendary evening was narrated by Théophile Gautier himself in his “Histoire du Romantisme”. Violent polemics followed this uproar, which became known as the “Battle of Hernani”, the first great battle of the new Romantic theatre. ”
Beautiful copy with full margins (hauteur: 225 mm) from the Meeus library, with engraved ex libris, finely binded by Mercier, with the wrappers bound in.
Ex libris Aimé Laurent.
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