It has been the destiny of the Comédie Française during the past hundred years to salute a number of different governments and dynasties. That they conscientiously kicked against the Republic in its most aggravated form has already been shown. They had no reason for being dissatisfied with Napoleon; and after the destruction of the Imperial power it was perfectly natural that they should do homage to that house of Bourbon under which they had first been established, and which for so long a period had kept them beneath its peculiar patronage. They now resumed their ancient title of "Comédiens Ordinaires du Roi," and the direction of the establishment was handed over to the Intendant of the Royal Theatres. The Comédie Française has often been charged with too strict an adherence to classical ideas. Yet it was at this theatre that a dramatic work by Victor Hugo, round which rallied the whole of the so-called romantic school, was first placed before the public. The two most interesting events in the history of the Comédie Française are the first production of _The Marriage of Figaro_ in 1784, of which an account has already been given in connection with Beaumarchais and his residence on the boulevard bearing his name, and the first production of _Hernani_ forty-six years afterwards. _Hernani_ was the third play that Victor Hugo had written, but the first that was represented. There seems never to have been any intention of bringing out _Cromwell_, published in 1827, and known to this day chiefly by its preface. _Marion Delorme_, Victor Hugo's second dramatic work, was submitted to the Théâtre Français, but rejected, not by the management, but by the Censorship, and, indeed, by Charles X. himself, with whom Victor Hugo had a personal interview on the subject. "The picture of Louis XIII.'s reign," says a writer on this subject, "was not agreeable to his descendant; and the last of the Bourbon kings is said to have been particularly annoyed at the omnipotent part assigned in Victor Hugo's drama to the great Cardinal de Richelieu."