The Evening Tribune

HUGO'S COMEDY

Henri Rochefort Tells Why It Was Never Put on the Stage.

Victor Hugo spent his evenings in conversation with us, remounting the stream of his glorious past, while the others played cards in the next room. One evening, after a strictly family dinner not followed by the visits of strangers, he took me to one side to read a one act comedy he had written for the Gymnase.

"Listen to it and tell me conscientiously what chances of success you think it has."

This flattering request for my opinion placed me in an uncomfortable position. I could not be other than sincere in my appreciation, because I had not the right to advise my host to risk a failure. I sat down anxiously, and he unrolled a manuscript entitled "Zut."

Zut was the type of youngster he was always conjuring up and had presented to the world in the characters of Jean Frollo and Gavroche. I listened to the play and confess that I was not taken with it. Zut, noisy and satirical, was insolent toward everybody and ended by saving everybody. The intrigue struck me as old fashioned and the virtuous Arab scarcely typical of the age in which we lived. The comical element was forced, and, do what I could, I could not laugh at it. Victor Hugo plainly saw the chilling impression his act had produced on me. Nevertheless he said as he rerolled his manuscript:

"Supposing you were a theater director and I a young author who had been allowed to read his play to you, what would you do?"

"I should point out to you," I replied, "that there already exists a play on the same lines by Bayard and Van der Burgh. It is called the 'Gamin de Paris' and was performed some hundreds of times by Bouffe and Dejazet, and it is always dangerous to go back on so exhausted a theme. Scribe was smart enough to work up pieces that had failed, but he never touched those that had succeeded."

"Nothing is more true," interrupted Victor Hugo. "I hadn't thought of the 'Gamin de Paris.'"

Then we talked on other subjects. As the clock struck 10 he went to bed, and "Zut" was never mentioned again. Did he destroy it? Was it found among his papers after his death? I cannot say, but I believe that I was the only person to hear this unpublished effort from the lips of its illustrious author. —Henri Rochefort's Memoirs.