Hernani

About “Hernani”

This dramatic work was written by Victor Hugo. The author wrote recently about a poet who died before his time, asking whether one should pity those who die or those who fight. It is sad to see a twenty-year-old poet leave, a lyre broken, an future lost. But is not rest also something? Those surrounded by constant lies, insults, hatred, jealousy, secret plots, and betrayals—loyal men who wage an unfaithful war, devoted men who wish only to give the country more freedom, the freedom of art and intelligence—hardworking men who quietly pursue their work of conscience, caught between the vileness of censorship and police and the ingratitude of minds for which they work—should they not sometimes look back with envy at those who have fallen behind them and now sleep in the grave? "Invido," said Luther in the cemetery of Worms, "invido, quia quiescunt."