Among the romantic poets the thinker was Vigny. But it is not by its philosophical symbolism that his _Chatterton_ lives; it is by virtue of its comparative strength of construction, by what is sincere in its passion, what is genuine in its pathos, and by the character of its heroine, Kitty Bell. In the instincts of a dramaturgist both Vigny and Hugo fell far short of ALEXANDRE DUMAS (1803-70). Before the battle of _Hernani_ he had unfolded the romantic banner in his _Henri III. et sa Cour_ (1829); it dazzled by its theatrical inventions, its striking situations, its ever-changing display of the stage properties of historical romance. His _Antony_, of two years later, parent of a numerous progeny, is a domestic tragedy of modern life, exhaling Byronic passion, misanthropy, crime, with a bastard, a seducer, a murderer for its hero, and for its ornaments all those atrocities which fascinate a crowd whose nerves can bear to be agreeably shattered. Something of abounding vitality, of tingling energy, of impetuosity, of effrontery, secured a career for _Antony_, the _Tour de Nesle_, and his other plays. The trade in horrors lost its gallant freebooting airs and grew industriously commercial in the hands of Frederic Soulie. When in 1843--the year of Hugo's unsuccessful _Les Burgraves_--a pseudo-classical tragedy, the _Lucrece_ of Ponsard, was presented on the stage, the enthusiasm was great; youth and romance, if they had not vanished, were less militant than in the days of _Hernani_; it seemed as if good sense had returned to the theatre.[2] [Footnote 2: The influence of the great actress Rachel helped to restore to favour the classical theatre of Racine and Corneille.]