ABSTRACT
The Romantic Bohemians began to gather outside the Théàtre Français as early as one o’clock in the afternoon that chilly February day in 1830. They were supposed to be admitted early, at Monsieur Hugo's own request, so that they could seat themselves strategically before the paying—and presumably hostile—audience arrived. They came at one, but they were not actually admitted to the theater until three. For two hours, therefore, a crowd of several hundred of the author's special friends from the Left Bank milled about in the rue de Richelieu, blowing on their hands, laughing and joking—and creating a spectacle that was the talk of Paris long before the next day's papers were out.
