New insights into Sainte-Beuve and Gustave Planche’s reception of Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo’s play Le roi s’amuse was first performed on November 22, 1832, then officially banned the next day. Hugo did, at least, manage to get the text published: it came off the press of the publisher Renduel on December 2, with a preface by Hugo written in response to the ban. But in such a context, the author needed more than ever the support of his “friends” to take on the authorities. This article draws on two unpublished letters to Hugo, and shows that both Sainte-Beuve and Gustave Planche were minded, on this occasion, to equivocate and let the author of Le roi s’amuse stand alone. It was a moment that would definitively change Hugo’s relations with the two critics. This article also offers, in an appendix, a report on the first four editions printed in France of Le roi s’amuse.