VICTOR HUGO AS A SCENE PAINTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2322, 28 May 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

VICTOR HUGO AS A SCENE PAINTER.

The following anecdote of Victor Hugo is interesting as showing the many-sided-ness of his genius. V ictor Hugo's talent ,-md fondness for art are famous; his drawing of a castle of the middle ages which he made for the frontispiece of " Quivtie vingt treizo." for instance, hvis been widely reproduced. It is not so well-known, however, that on one occasion the illustrious poet and novelist figured as a scene painter. This was when " Lucreco Borgia" was being mounted. The manager had given instructions to produce a mise-en-srsene such as had never before been attempted on the. French stag 6. The scene in the second act represents, it will be remembered, a room in the ducal palace of JFerrara, fur-, nished in the sumptuous style of the fifteenth century. By some accident or other, when the day of the representation came round, this scene was still unfinished. Victor Hugo, as was his custom, went behind the scenes shortly before the curtain drew up, to see that all was right. What was his disgust to perceive that by a foolish oversight the secret door by which Lucrece Borgia lets Gennaro escape was as large and conspicuous as if it had been the main entrance. Victor Hugo asks for the scenepainter. He is nowhere to be found. The curtain would be drawn up in a moment or two. " Quick," cries Hugo, " a brush and a paint-pot! " and with the same hand that wrote the play he set to work to repaint the scene. This he did so quickly and cleverly that no one who was not in the secret would ever have guessed that the scene had been in the least retouched. It is useful to be a man of universal knowledge sometimes.