eplied wittily that he claimed no
right in the matter beyond his place in the parterre. The first
representation of Hernani took place the 25th of February, 1830, and
the author, decorated, pensioned, encouraged by Charles X., did not
lose the royal favor, when, on the 9th of March following, he wrote in
the preface of his work: "Romanticism, so often ill-defined, is
nothing, taking it all in all--and this is its true definition, if only
its militant side be regarded--but liberalism in literature. The
principle of literary liberty, already understood by the thinking and
reading world, is not less completely adopted by that immense crowd,
eager for the pure emotions of art, that throngs the theatres of Paris
every night. That lofty and puissant voice of the people, which is like
that of God, writes that poetry henceforth shall have the same matter
as politics! Toleration and liberty!"

The first representation of a work that was a great step forward for
the romantic school, Henri III et sa Cour, by Alexandre Dumas, had
already taken place at the Francais, February 11, 1829. The 30th of
March, 1830, the Odeon gave Christine de Suede, by the same author.

In 1829, Alfred de Vigny had represented at the Francais his
translation in verse of Othello. It was from 1824 to 1826 that the poet
published his principal poems. It was in 1826 that his romance of
Cinq-Mars appeared. Victor Hugo published Les Orientates in 1829;
Alfred de Musset, Les Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie in 1830. It may be
said then that before the Revolution of 1830, romanticism had reached
its complete expansion.

Note, also, that the government of Charles X. always respected the
independence of writers and artists, and never asked for eulogies in
exchange for the pensions and encouragement it accorded them with
generous delicacy. It named Michelet Maitre de Conferences at the Ecole
Normale in 1826. It pensioned Casimir Delavigne, so well known for his
liberal opinions, and Augustin Thierry, a writer of the Opposition,
when that great historian, having lost his eyesight, was without
resources. It ordered of Horace Vernet the portraits of the King, the
Duke of Berry, and the Duke of Angouleme, as well as a picture
representing a "Review by Charles X. at the Champ-de-Mars," and named
the painter of the battles of the Revolution and the Empire director of
the School of Rome.

From the point of view of painting as well as of letters, the
Eestoration was a gra