An Exemplary French Romantic Production: Alfred De Vigny's Chatterton

Abstract

The production of Alfred de Vigny's Chatterton at the Comédie-Française, 12 February 1835, comes toward the end of the middle period of French Romantic drama. After the success of Hugo's Hernani in 1830 the French Romantics abandoned and were abandoned by the official theatre. Between 1830–1835, most of the works of Dumas, Hugo, and Vigny were produced at the Odéon or the Porte-Saint-Martin—with the notable exception of the fiasco of Hugo's Le Roi s'amuse at the Comédie in 1832. The conventions and tastes of the popular theatre audiences had not been favorable to the literary concerns of the Romantics. Dumas especially, and Hugo, to some extent, compromised their principles, while Vigny chose to remain silent. In 1835, however, Hugo and Vigny, with Angelo and Chatterton, were to return to the more literary atmosphere of the Comédie-Française. After these productions, both successes, the history of the Romantic drama in France moves into its final period with a series of failures which would culminate in the production of Hugo's Les Burgraves at the Comédie-Française in 1843, generally considered to be the terminal date in the study of French Romantic drama.