Word: hugo
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Dates: during 1890-1899
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...fifth lecture yesterday afternoon, M. Doumic spoke of the plays of Victor Hugo as follows...
Romanticism was most successful in lyric poetry; naturally it was least so on the stage. Classic tragedy was dead. Shakespeare and Schiller were used as models. Mme. de Stael wrote "L'Allemagne," Stendhal wrote "Racine et Shakespeare." Victor Hugo in his "Preface de Cromwell" defined the drama as a mixture of the tragic and the comic with an historic stage setting and with out the three unities. But these are not the real signs of the romantic drama. In fact there was a style of play which was increasing in popular favor as tragedy declined; this was the melodrama. Romantic...
...find in Victor Hugo's plays all the stage setting and accessories of melodrama, grey cloaks, daggers and assorted poisons. We notice in his plays...
Second, history for Victor Hugo is merely stage setting. For neither his facts nor his sentiments are exact. But this use of history allows the poet to vary his scenes and costumes. And there is plenty of physical suffering in his plays...
Third, the feeling of revolt against the authorities of history, especially of French history, revolt against the social order of the present time. All Victor Hugo's heroes are drawn from the outcasts of society, banditti, illegitimate children and courtizans...