2 The premiére of Victor Hugo's play (1830), which flouted the rules of classical French drama, caused such controversy that there were rhetorical feuds in the newspapers—and at least one brawl—between Romantics and the defenders of classicism. Seen as a manifesto of Romanticism, the play greatly offended conservatives, like those of the Académie Francaise.
Chapter Ten: Queen Marguerite
such things." He resumed their walk. "But it's not exactly by strength of character that one shines, in this household. Mademoiselle de La Mole has enough of that for the whole lot of them, and leads them around by their noses. Today is the thirtieth of April!" And he stopped, once more, looking at Julien and smiling ironically. Julien smiled as knowingly as he could. "But what connection can there possibly be," he said to himself, "between making marionettes out of everyone in the house, and wearing a black dress, and the thirtieth of April? I must be even denser than I'd supposed." "I confess..." he told the academician, pursuing the question with the look in his eyes. "Let's walk in the garden," said the academician, delighted, sensing the opportunity for telling a long, elegant tale. "Really! Is it actually possible you don't know what happened on the thirtieth of April, in 1574?"3 "Where?" asked Julien, amazed. "In the Place de Grève." Julien was so perplexed that the name meant nothing to him. Curiosity, and the prospect of a fine tragic story—so deeply in harmony with his own nature—made his eyes sparkle in exactly the way a storyteller loves to see, in his listener's expression. Delighted to have found a virgin ear, the academician unwound a long tale about how, on the thirtieth of April, 1574, the handsomest young man of that time, Boniface de La Mole,4 along with Annibal de Coconasso, a gentleman of Piedmont, and de La Mole's friend, had been beheaded in the Place de Grève. De La Mole had been the adored lover of Queen Marguerite de Navarre—"and note," added the academician, "that Mademoiselle de La Mole's name is Mathilde-Marguerite. Young de La Mole was also the Duke d'Alençon's5 favorite, and the King of Navarre's close friend—his mistress's husband, afterward Henry IV. On the day of Mardi Gras, in 1574, the royal court was at Saint-Germain, with poor King Charles IX, who was dying. De La Mole wanted to rescue his friends, the royal princes, held captive at the court by Queen Catherine de Médici. He brought two hundred horsemen to the very walls of Saint-Germain, the Duke d'Alençon was frightened, and de La Mole was thrown to the executioner. "But what so deeply touches Mademoiselle de La Mole, as she told me herself, seven or eight years ago, when she was twelve—because she has a mind, a mind!..." And the academician raised his eyes toward heaven. "What struck her the most, about this political