The scene is laid in Madrid at the Spanish Court at the close of the seventeenth century. Victor Hugo, as he himself states in his preface to the play, intended it to be in a measure symbolic of those troublesome times, when the throne was held by a weakling, a defective, the last of a long line of degenerate rulers, and the kingdom itself was a prey to the cupidity of the nobles. The three leading male characters Victor Hugo meant to personify were the three contending forces in the tottering kingdom: Don Sallusto, the unprincipled covetous element; Don Caesar, the adventurous but still chivalrous element; and Ruy Blas, the People, who still revered the Crown. As for the story of the play itself, it may he briefly stated. Ruy Blas is a poet reduced by poverty to the position of lackey to the unscrupulous Don Sallusto, who, at the opening of the play, is banished by the Queen for refusing to marry a serving-maid whom he had betrayed. Ruy Blas is secretly in love with the Queen, and Don Sallusto on learning this, wishing to be avenged for his disgrace at Court, palms off on the nobles, the Queen and Ruy Blas, his servant, who is disguised as the adventurer Don Caesar de Bazan, a cousin who returns unexpectedly to Madrid, and with whom be surreptitiously makes away. The ruse succeeds so well, against the wishes of the noble-hearted Ruy Blas, that he becomes the Queen's favorite and her Prime Minister. At the moment when he reaches the limit of his power Don Sallusto returns, relieves him of his office and takes his vengeance on the Queen by disclosing to her the fact that her favorite is none other than his lackey. Ruy Blas resents this insult to the Queen and kills his master. The Queen refuses to pardon the luckless poet for the part he has played in this deception, and Ruy Blas takes his life. At the last moment the Queen relents and pardons him, and he dies happy in the knowledge that the Queen loved him and has forgiven him.