CLAUDE BERNARD AS A DRAMATIST* By J. M. D. OLMSTED, PH.D.

BERKELEY, CALIF. UST one hundred years ago seen there had inspired him to try his a provincial youth, barely own hand, and he had written a twenty-one, armed with the “vaudeville” which was actually put manuscript of a tragedy in five on with success at the theatre des acts, set out from the small FrenchCelestins during the year 1833. This Jvillage where he was born to storm the success and the hundred francs it literary heights of the great capital, brought seemed to him to seal his Paris. Before the end of his life he did fate; destiny had intended him to be attain the highest honors his country not a pharmacist but a playwright. could bestow, but in a field so far He now began a serious work, a removed from the drama that the tragedy in five acts. This was too story of his youthful excursion into much for his employer, and Bernard literature clung to him and cropped returned home. A year of enforced up every now and then as one of those idleness during which he finished his anecdotes which are humorous to play made him long for recognition others, but rather irritating to the such as could be found only in Paris. person about whom they are told. A lady in Villeneuve, where he had The young dramatist was Claude attended the Jesuit college, gave him a Bernard who became the greatest letter to M. Vatout, at that time friend physiologist of the nineteenth century. and librarian to the Bourgeois king, The future Professor of Medicine at Louis Philippe, and in November, the College de France, member of the 1834, Bernard took the diligence for French Academy, honorary fellow of the capital. the Royal Society of London, etc., M. Vatout received the young pro- received all his early schooling from vincial with kindness, and procured parish priests and Jesuit fathers. for him an introduction to M. Saint- Family reverses forced him to leave Marc Girardin, Professor of Literature school in his teens and earn his board at the Sorbonne, then at the height of and lodging as pharmacist’s apprentice his fame as a critic. M. Girardin read in a suburb of Lyons. He was not the manuscript, then said firmly, destined to hold this position long, for “Vous avez fait de la pharmacie, we find the worthy proprietor writing faites de la medecine. Vous n’avez pas to Bernard’s parents in Saint-Julien to le temperament dramatique.” The send for their son. He complained that blow was severe, but the advice was the boy had lost interest in rolling taken. Bernard entered the medical pills and compounding drugs, and school and became the glory of French spent too much of his time dreaming. science. One is reminded of that other The apprentice had been allowed one Frenchman, born about the time that night off a month, and it seems that this incident took place, Victorien he spent these precious free hours at Sardou, whose case was just the re- the theatre. What he had heard and verse of Bernard’s, for Sardou began * Read before the California Medical History Seminar, April 14, 1934. his career with the idea of being a his forte, that he had better turn his doctor and ended by being a dramatist. attention elsewhere. Claude Bernard Did one of Sardou’s instructors in dis- obeyed and thought no more of Charles vi. One of his friends, a doctor who went mad, had the courage and innocence to learn the famous tragedy by heart. He carried it with him to the grave. There is no other copy. We shall see as we proceed how inac- curate was the journalist’s account of the incident. It is true that Bernard himself would never have this early effort published—he referred to it as “this tragedy with which I am reproached” —but shortly before his death he presented the yellowed sheets to the son of an old friend, M. Georges Barral, with the express stipulation that if M. Barral wished to publish it he might, but not until at least five years after the author’s death, and that it must bear the statement that it had been read and refused after numerous corrections by M. Saint- Marc Girardin in 1834. M. Barral waited nine years before publishing the drama, and kept the original section at the old Necker Hospital manuscript in an iron coffer like a perhaps say to him, “You have not precious relic. Because a certain para- the temperament of a physician; try graph in his preface offended the writing plays!”? surviving members of Bernard’s family Yet the story of the rejected manu- —he had referred to the fact that script clung to Bernard. Forty-four Mme. Bernard and her two daughters years later, almost at the moment had left the scientist when he was old that the Chamber of Deputies was and ill—it was withdrawn from circula- voting on a law, till then unexampled tion. The book is now a rarity, indeed in the history of France, to give a great a collector’s piece. Copies are to be scientist a public funeral at the na- found, however, in certain of the tion’s expense, the newspaper, le great European libraries, for instance, Figaro, was informing its readers: in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, Claude Bernard entered Paris empty of and in the Bibliotheque Royale at purse, but with a manuscript, a tragedy Brussels, but not in the British in verse about Charles vi, composed Museum. while compounding medicines. It was The play turns out to be a typical detestable. M. Saint-Marc Girardin told romantic drama characteristic of the the young man that literature was not period, somewhat immature, some- what pedestrian, but by no means heart, heard Arthur’s last cry. Faith- an unworthy effort. Its title is “Arthur ful old des Roches falls dead at his de Bretagne,” and it deals with the daughter’s feet, and Marie with a cry, struggle of young Arthur in 1202 “Oh la mort! a moi aussi la mort!” against his wicked uncle, King John, falls in a faint as the curtain is rung who had not only usurped from him down on the fifth act. the throne of England, but was The years 1833-34 in which Claude planning to deprive him of his French Bernard was writing his play came in provinces as well. The play opens in the midst of the upward swing of the Brittany at the manor-house of des romantic movement. Classic tragedy Roches, for whose young daughter, in its old age had become set, in- Marie, the boy Arthur has conceived a elastic; in fact, Bernard might later deep attachment. Des Roches urges have described it as having been in an Arthur to fight for his rights, and advanced state of arteriosclerosis and the lords of the provinces also urge its demise imminent. The theatre him to defend them. He promises, needed rebirth and Victor Hugo took but the fighting goes against him. upon himself the task of fathering King John proposes peace, but a the new movement. In the preface dishonorable peace, since he demands to his “Oliver Cromwell,” written that Arthur renounce his claims both in 1827, he announced the principles to the English throne and to the which were to guide the new school of French provinces. Arthur refuses; he romantic drama. Away with the old has pledged his word and will not go unities! Away with all rules! Give back on his oath. He is captured and the audience a glimpse of real life. imprisoned. At John’s orders the Introduce historical characters in au- governor of the prison prepares to thentic settings. Refer to actual his- burn Arthur’s eyes out with red-hot torical events. irons, but desists at the victim’s Just about this time Shakespeare pleadings. Des Roches plans for Ar- was discovered by the French. English thur’s escape; the bars of the tower companies were giving performances window have been sawn through; on the Parisian stage with phenomenal Arthur is to lower himself by a rope success. French authors began to when he hears the hymn to the Virgin. borrow freely from Shakespeare. In The song is sung, Arthur disappears fact, de Vigny’s “Le More de Venice” through the window and Marie (who is merely a transcript of “Othello,” as a result of Bernard’s ingenious and Delavigne’s “Les Enfants d’Edou- dramatic construction has penetrated ard,” produced the very year that to her lover’s prison) is left behind Bernard was writing “Arthur de in the dungeon tower. Suddenly her Bretagne,” owes much to “Richard father, covered with blood, together n.” It is no matter for astonishment with the Dauphin of France and a that the young Bernard took as crowd of soldiers, bursts into the his theme the story that Shakespeare room. Treachery! John has learned had already used in “King John.” of the plot through his spies. Des Latourneur’s translation of Shake- Roches gasps out that he saw John speare was available to Bernard, as take his nephew away in a boat, saw there was a complete set in the public him plunge his dagger into the boy’s library of Lyons at this time. That Bernard was familiar with from Shakespeare the idea that the “King John” is suggested by several provinces should choose for them- pieces of internal evidence in his selves between Arthur and John, own play, the most striking of which for the French histories of 1830 is the blinding scene. In Shakespeare’s do not mention such a proposal play, when the jailor, Hubert, pre- (v. King John 11, 1.: Arth. de Bret, in, pares to put out Arthur’s eyes with 7; iv, 7.). red-hot irons, Arthur pleads with It is also perhaps more than a him, and in the end Hubert relents. coincidence that Marie in Bernard’s The “pretty child’’shall “sleep doubt- play says to Arthur, “ In the provinces less and serene.” But there are spies as inz Brittany the women devote about; therefore John shall be in- themselves to your cause.” This refer- formed that his nephew is dead. ence to the part played by women Hubert later confesses to John that in a campaign sounds like a reminis- he has not harmed Arthur. Bernard cence of Shakespeare’s more elaborate in his scene has Guillaume de Brausse, rendering of the same idea: the governor of the prison, come to For your own ladies and pale-visaged maids interview Arthur. The substitution Like Amazons come tripping after drums, of Guillaume for Hubert is historically Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change, accurate. Guillaume, like Hubert, has Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts been an old family retainer and he To fierce and bloody inclination. and Arthur talk together of the old One may conclude that Bernard days. John has ordered that Arthur’s followed the literary fashion of his “eyes are to be burned out with a day in making use of Shakespeare red-hot iron.” In response to Arthur’s as a source, but it is important also pleadings Guillaume relents. “These to notice his independence in adapting orders are frightful. I will not give the material to his own conception of them. Now there is no lack of spies; the story. The titles of the two they will see that you have your two plays correctly indicate where lies eyes and will denounce me to King the chief interest in each: in Shake- John. Mount the stair and await speare it is the uncle, and Arthur me in the small room.” No sooner is only a pawn to be moved about is Arthur hid than John enters and and lost long before death takes asks for the prisoner. Guillaume re- King John; in Bernard the interest plies, “Arthur is dead!” John storms, centers in the nephew—John is only “You shall be hanged! I ordered the wicked cause of all Arthur’s you to threaten him, not to kill or troubles and the play ends naturally mutilate him!” “Heaven be praised, with Arthur’s murder. In Shakespeare he still lives!” says Guillaume. In Arthur is a mere child. Pembroke none of the narrative histories avail- speaks of able to Bernard at this time, which . . . the inheritance of this poor child, I have been able to consult, has His little kingdom of a forced grave. there been mention of an attempt to That blood which owed the breadth of all this put out Arthur’s eyes. We must isle, assume, therefore, that Bernard bor- Three foot of it doth hold. rowed this incident from Shakespeare. Bernard’s Arthur, on the contrary, Bernard seems also to have taken is a youth in his teens, inexperienced, but no longer a child—“so young, career as they are recorded in the and already understanding so well histories of his day. It has already his rights and his duties,” “a prince been mentioned that he corrects worthy to command.” In this Bernard Shakespeare with regard to Arthur’s is accurate. Arthur was sixteen at age and the name of his jailor. He the time of his death. In Shakespeare, is careful to give us the exact date, Arthur’s mother, Constance, and his 1202; he names aright the English notorious grandmother, Eleanor, play provinces on the continent whose very important roles; neither one allegiance was in dispute, namely, appears in Bernard’s play. In Shake- Anjou, Poitou, Maine, and Touraine; speare there is only a very meagre he is correct in having Arthur attack love story and it concerns the Dauphin Poitiers, and in having the comte of France and Blanche of Castille. de la Marche fight on Arthur’s side; In Bernard the love story of Arthur he also lets the audience know that and Marie is all important to the he is aware that Arthur’s grand- plot and runs all through the play. mother, Eleanor, was in the besieged Bernard has portrayed King John town; he describes the relations of as the basest of mortals, the worst both John and Philip to Arthur king imaginable, capable of the whole with historical accuracy; among the gamut of wickedness from lechery crimes of John are mentioned the to murder, and he follows the French trouble he made for Richard when tradition in having John kill Arthur the latter was away on the crusades, with his own hand. Shakespeare’s and, above all, his affair with Isabelle, John is, of course, a more ambitious wife of the comte de la Marche; piece of characterization, no mere finally, he has Arthur die in the assassin. He gives orders that Arthur manner accepted by tradition. He shall be made away with, but does also follows the rule that the author not propose to do the deed himself. should bring into the dialogue bits In fact, Arthur’s death in Shakespeare which have the savor of historical comes about in a way which does documents. Des Roches has a long not involve John directly. Arthur speech on the political situation of appears on a high wall disguised as 1202 which reads like a paraphrase a ship’s boy. He is afraid of the height, of pages 97 seqq. of volume iv of yet leaps from the wall, and as he Augustin Thierry’s “Histoire de la dies from his injuries he exclaims: Conquete de I’Angleterre.” In one very important particular O me! my uncle’s spirit is in these stones: Bernard deviates from the historical Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones! accounts; he represents Arthur as in love with Marie, daughter of des Indebtedness to Shakespeare is, Roches, who is of good, but not of however, only one aspect of Bernard’s royal blood. The plot hinges on acquiescence in the habits of his the unsuitability of such an alliance. contemporaries. His adherence to the Thierry, like other historians of the rules of supposedly ruleless romantic time, states clearly that when Philip drama is strict. He has followed armed Arthur with two hundred men scrupulously the narrative of the and sent him against Poitiers, he historical events related to Arthur’s promised him in marriage his small daughter, Marie, then five years of In “Hernani” we have all the trap- age. Bernard, to show us that he knew pings of melodrama, the punctilious perfectly well what he was doing in regard for historical detail and the making Marie the daughter of des extravagance of language which are Roches, has the Dauphin say to characteristic of the period. The open- Arthur, “I have a sister of your age; ing scene is typical. Don Carlos, you know the noble child; she is not afterwards Charles v, cap over eyes, without esteem for the due de Bret- mantle under nose, “in the rich agne. Arthur, remain today our friend, costume of 1519”—mark, nothing so tomorrow, perhaps, you will be my indefinite as “early xvith century”— brother.” It is evident that Bernard makes his way through a window into deliberately took liberties with the a lady’s chamber. He seizes Dona situation in order to introduce a Josepha’s arm and hisses, “Two words proper love story. It is interesting more, duenna, and you are a dead that he should have retained the woman!” The play is full of duels, name, Marie, for his heroine, and also alarms, shoutings, and sounds of fight- that he should have changed the age ing. Daggers appear at every turn. of Louis’ sister to one more suitable for There are ancestral portraits, one of a damsel contemplating matrimony. which comes away from the wall to It is curious in view of what seems disclose a secret hiding place. At the to be the obvious influence of the liter- end the hero and heroine both take ary tendencies of the eighteen-thirties poison and die slowly. The heroine’s on Bernard’s play to find that towards late fiance, incidentally her aged the end of his life the great physiolo- uncle, when he sees the lady dead gist complained, “Nevertheless my exclaims, “Morte! Oh! je suis damne!” tragedy was classic. It was composed Then he kills himself as the curtain of five acts in which I observed the slowly falls. One wonders that the rules laid down by Aristotle for unity spectators can refrain from joining (of action), of time and of place, and in the cry with Gomez, “Oh! je suis I fell into the midst of romanticism damne!” which did not respect any sort of “Arthur de Bretagne” never, per- unity.” Whatever may have been haps, quite achieves the fine frenzy Bernard’s intentions with regard to of extravagance exemplified in “Her- structure, a casual reading of some nani,” but, making allowances for of the French romantic dramas of Bernard’s lack of “temperament,” this period is as useful a commentary one may say that it has its moments. upon his style as is a consideration There are no portraits, and we miss of “King John” upon his choice of the poison; but we have excursions incident. and alarms, daggers and disguises, This is particularly true of Victor and the final curtain goes down on a Hugo’s famous “Hernani,” famous stage strewn with prostrate bodies. because at its first performance classi- In Act 11 of “Hernani” we see cists and romanticists were so vio- at once the source of Bernard’s idea lently aroused against each other that for his big scene between Marie and they indulged in a battle royal in the King John. In “Hernani” the king, theatre. Victor Hugo’s play is, how- Don Carlos, tempts Dona Sol, who ever, in verse, Bernard’s in prose. although affianced to her uncle, an elderly gentleman past sixty, is in Hower drooping under the kisses of love with Hernani, the bandit. Don the dawn.” Then breakfast is brought Carlos tells of his position in the up, “un vin genereux, Ie gateau de world. He will make Dona Sol a pur froment, la bisque friande, la duchess if she will consent to his dragee parfumee.” The rest of the wishes. Dona Sol recoils, “There can day passes in the pleasures of the be nothing between us, Don Carlos. chase, the intoxication of the tourna- I am a noble daughter of jealous ment, in feasting and dalliance, until blood—too much for a concubine, too the evening stars shed their discreet little for a wife.” Don Carlos will radiance down upon the silence “de make her a princess. “No!” He will I’am our et de la nuit!” Marie replies even go the length of offering her his chastely, “Pure pleasures are the name and throne. Dona Sol still only true pleasures.” John proceeds refuses. She snatches the dagger from to the advantages of riches. Marie his belt. “Come one step nearer and replies that she would be afraid of I will kill you and kill myself.” She too many riches. “What charity one calls loudly, “Hernani!” “Hold your must have to be adequate to riches!” tongue,” hisses Don Carlos. John tries her out on position, on In the third act of Bernard’s “Ar- rank; but Marie says piously, “God thur de Bretagne” a table has been alone should be adored.” Exasperated, prepared for two in a room in the John attempts to embrace her, but fortress at Poitiers. The gentle Marie Marie eludes him, and he takes refuge enters the presence of King John in rather sheepish apologies, “I have begging mercy—she hesitates to say offended you. Don’t be inflexible. for Arthur—“for the companions of The fatigues of the day, this repast my father.” John says that he will eaten so hastily, and above all, your hear her after he has had a drink; he beauty!” Bernard was evidently not has had a hard day’s fighting and unaware, even at this early age, of wants relaxation. He leads Marie to the reputed physiological effects of the table but she refuses to partake. alcohol and the action of internal The stage directions thereupon inform secretions, a term which later he was us that John eats and drinks enough the first to employ. for two. He finds Marie both young M. Barral in his preface to “Arthur and beautiful; youth and beauty de Bretagne” justifies his publication should not be buried in the country. of the play on the ground that in it The passages that follow can only be are revealed “the future qualities of described as the purple patches of the great investigator.” He leaves the drama. John outlines the pleasures the reader to ferret out such revela- of the court, the chief of which would tions for himself, however, without appear to be the licence to lie abed in even a hint as to the passages where the morning (doubtless in contrast they may be found. It is true that to the hours of an apothecary’s ap- certain aspects of the play seem to be prentice). “The sun is already high rather personal to the youthful Ber- in the sky when softly extended on nard of the time when it was written. your couch you are still cradled in The hero, Arthur, if not a self-portrait, sweetest dreams.” In her awakening is at least an expression of boyish languor the lady will be like “a dewy idealism. The emphasis laid upon Arthur’s high sense of duty and his tions, beings to protect. . . . The freedom from personal ambition is lover gives place to the father of a consistent with the character of family.” There is assuredly nothing Claude Bernard as it developed in of “flaming youth” in the love story later life. Bernard’s ambition was of “Arthur de Bretagne”; on the never merely personal. This is proved contrary, there is a saving touch of by his devotion to an unremunerative delicacy and sensibility which it is and purely scientific career as opposed fair to regard as the personal con- to an exploitation of his great skill tribution of Bernard. in a lucrative medical practice. His But where are the evidences of high sense of duty appears in his the future qualities of a great investi- assumption of his father’s debts at gator? Given the rules and pro- the latter’s death and the herculean vided with models, Bernard followed efforts to discharge them that oc- instructions to the letter and turned cupied most of the rest of his life. out an honest piece of work. His is a There is no evidence that Bernard good workman’s performance, nothing in later life had any active interest skimped, no shoddy materials, no in religion; certainly he was not in loose ends; a thorough, if an unin- sympathy with what has been called spired job. The future investigator the bigotry of his wife and daughters, may perhaps be seen in the thorough- but the frequent references to religious ness with which he accomplished his devotion in the play seem to be self-set task. There is, however, an- derived very directly from the instruc- other characteristic of the play which tion which Bernard would naturally was later to stand Bernard in good have received from parish priests stead. He attempted little so-called and Jesuit fathers. The little song to fine writing; with the exception of the Virgin, his one lapse into verse, the little canticle, he wrote in prose, might be an echo of the days when and it was clear and straight-forward he was “enfant de choeur” in the prose. The purple patches were iso- little village of Saint-Julien. The occa- lated in the late supper scene. Thirty- sional naiveties in the love story of the play may be put down either to four years later, on his reception the youthfulness of the hero and into the French Academy, it was heroine or to that of the author. his style, as exhibited in his scientific Bernard’s romanticism is not only works, which impressed the academi- less robust than that of Victor Hugo, cians so strongly. It was praised for but it is well anchored in bourgeois its perfect simplicity, its freedom from conventionalism. Arthur’s most pas- exclamatory or interrogative move- sionate speech is an aside: “Angel ment, its sparing use of periods, of purity! Oh! let us not inject into its unforced quality. “Arthur de her soul the fire which burns and Bretagne” is adorned with these natu- consumes my own.” Later he explains ral graces, but neither they nor Ber- to his prospective father-in-law that nard’s admirable industry have made “there comes a time when a man it more than a literary curiosity, the is no longer content to be loved or to unsuccessful attempt to find himself love only with a sterile love. He must of a youth who was to become have more masculine (Fr. male) affec- famous in another field.