Hernani, poetic tragedy in five acts by French author Victor Hugo, first performed and published in 1830. Because it renounced the unities of time and place, Hernani was in the vanguard of the new, more naturalistic Romantic drama. The story is set in 16th-century Spain and extols the Romantic hero in the form of a noble outlaw at war with society, dedicated to a passionate love and driven by inexorable fate.