Henri III: A Play in Five Acts

Dumas wrote and staged Henri III (1829) before Hugo weighed in with the more famous Hernani (1831). It was the opening salvo in the war between The Romantics and the Classicists. Dumas' play was less controversial and more successful than Hugo's play. Dumas' hero, Saint Megrin, a fiery opponent of the Duke of Guise and a favorite of Henry III is also in love with the Duke's wife. Saint Megrin's partiality for the King also has brought him into conflict with Henry's unscrupulous mother Catherine de Medici, who decides to rid herself of both Guise and Saint Megrin by fostering the thus-far Platonic relationship between the Duchess de Guise and her would be lover. This she manages with the aid of the Astrologer Ruggieri, and brings about the ruin of Saint Megrin. All set against the background of magic, superstition, and religious fanatacism preceding The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre. It also makes interesting reading when read against Dumas' later dramatization of his novel La Reine Margot (Queen Margot), also published by Borgo/Wildside.