Hernani by Victor Hugo, premiered on February 25, 1830. The historical significance of the play, its popularity throughout the 19th century as a mainstay of French theatre, and even its influence on opera. First translating the play in 1978, my adaptation has been read by many drama students, giving them a clear view of Hugo’s mind in 1830.
Set in 16th-century Spain, the play has four protagonists – Hernani, the outlaw, Don Carlos, a king, Don Ruy Gomez, a decrepit old man, and his niece, Dona Sol. The play is about relationships, generational conflict, personal codes, and love. Hugo is best known for Les Miserables and Notre-Dame de Paris (known as the Hunchback of Notre-Dame).
Hernani made his bones with Hernani. Written in 1830, it was a product of a twenty-eight year old Victor Hugo, thrust into a huge controversy with the established theater community in Paris. La battaille d’Hernani is still studied today.
In 1978, I returned from a year abroad in Poitiers, France as part of the University of California’s Education Abroad Program (EAP). Back in San Diego, I took a class taught by Jonathan Saville, who was also the longtime theater critic for the San Diego Reader. The class was deadly – – I was beyond bored and underwhelmed, especially after a year of studying and drinking.
The first thing we read was Hernani. Rather than sitting through the class, I offered to translate it to English for credit, rather than sit in the seminar. I thought it would take a quarter to do. Two quarters later, I had completed seven drafts, all typewritten, all without a word processor.
The manuscript sat in my file cabinet in the garage for almost twenty years until I scanned it and made it available on bedard.com. Since then, the translation has been used by a host of university drama departments studying 19th-century French Theater.
Buy the pdf version from bedard.com
Buy the kindle from amazon.com
Buy the printed version exclusively available at Shakespeare and Company, Paris, France
Buy the iBooks version from the Apple Bookstore.
