Editing Ernani (section)

=== The idea for ''Hernani'' ===
The ''Cromwell'' libretto arrived from Piave in pieces, and Verdi put it away until he had the complete version to work from. However, when the composer and La Fenice's president met in Venice in late August, Verdi expressed some dissatisfaction at how the libretto had turned out. Then Mocenigo's casual reference to Hugo's successful 1830 drama ''Hernani'' as an idea for a libretto caught Verdi's imagination, as seen in a letter which the latter wrote to Mocenigo in early September which expressed concerns about ''Allan Cameron'' and the way it had turned out, though noting that this was "the fault of the subject and not the poet".<ref name="VtoM">Verdi to Mocenigo, in Budden (1984), pp. 141–142</ref> He continues:

<blockquote>But oh, if only we could do ''Hernani'' instead that would be tremendous. I know that it would mean a great deal of trouble for the poet but my first task would be to try and compensate him... all he would have to do would be to condense and tighten up; the action is already there ready made, and it's all immensely good theatre. Tomorrow I'll write at length to Piave setting out all the scenes from ''Hernani'' which seem to me suitable.<ref name="VtoM"/></blockquote>

At this point he continues with suggestions for the poet. For Verdi, the appeal of Hugo's work – which the latter described as "Romanticism or the Liberalism in literature" – was "the struggle between love and honour", and Budden sums up this appeal as "Within Hugo's scheme each illogical action follows logically from the one that precedes it, giving Verdi the pace, the eventfulness and above all the dramatic unity that he has been looking for."<ref>Budden (1984), p. 142</ref>