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.
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