PARIS had not been consoled for the half-completed revolution.
Like Dumas, the capital was holding aloof from the regime.
Every evening, between the Gymnase and the Ambigu, street-
urchins threw stones at the police. The theatre-public remained
extremely nervous. The founders of the romantic school had lost much
of their earlier unity. Lamartine had taken to politics; Sainte-Beuve
and Hugo were no longer on speaking-terms. In 1830, Hugo, Vigny
and Dumas had formed a dramatic triumvirate. But no triumvirate
endures. One day, Hugo said indignantly to Dumas: 'Would you
believe it, here's a wretched scribbler who claims that Vigny invented the historical drama!'

'The fool!' replied Dumas: 'as though everyone didn't know that
it was I!'

The outstanding success of Antony had 'caused a rift between the
young men who, until then, had followed one single flag, who,
together, had opened a breach with Henri III, and moved to the assault
with Hernani. They were now divided into two groups -- the adherents
of Monsieur Victor Hugo, and those of Monsieur Alexandre Dumas.
They no longer presented a compact mass to the enemy, and even
sniped at one another'. ¹ Dumas's relations with his fellow-writers, in
spite of his unfailing good-humour, were becoming less and less easy.
Many were jealous of his rapid rise to fame. More than one of them
declared that he did not deserve his success. His 'tilbury' and his
'tiger' caused more annoyance than amusement. Little red-haired
Sainte-Beuve, a critic of refined and exacting taste, said: ' Dumas?
His ideal is the eternal schoolboy's idea of a good tuck-in. Christine?
-- a second-rate affair -- as inferior to Hernani as hyssop is to the cedar.'
This judgment was all the harsher because Sainte-Beuve was not really
an admirer even of Hernani. But it was Dumas who had opened
the breach and, in any case, Antony owed nothing to Hernani. 'A
good tuck-in, eh?' growled Dumas. 'Let me do the cooking, and I'll
show 'em!'

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