Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/58

 tion was fixed for February 10th, 1829, and rehearsals went forward more or less smoothly. Firmin (the leading actor since Talma's death) and Mdlle. Mars were to play the chief parts, and Dumas was full of joy and hope and pride, when news came to him that his mother was dying.

Madame Dumas had never possessed the buoyant spirits, the hopeful temperament, the love of daring which characterised her quadroon son. She would probably have borne the anxieties which his ambitions caused her—for she loved him and believed in him—if her friends and neighbours had not aggravated her trouble with their croaking, spiteful tongues. On the eve of the production of her son's play, the poor widow, coming away after a more or less trying interview of this nature, fell down in an apoplectic fit. Alexandre, struck with despair, rendered his mother all the help which devotion and intelligence could give, but the fateful night came, and found her still unconscious and in danger.

Of all "first nights" on record, probably that of "Henri III." was the most eventful and strange. As an epoch-making event, as a triumph, it was greater even than "Hernani" a year later, and "Antony," which afterwards made such a sensational début. The accounts of those who witnessed this première have assured us that the author's description does the scene no more than justice.