Three Musketeers (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (6 page)

 

Dedicated to Wallace, my one for all.

1. The most recent edition of the play is Alexandre Dumas,
“La Jeunesse des Mousquetaires” suivi de “Les Mousquetaires”
(edited by Jean-Baptiste Goureau; Paris: La Table Ronde, 1994). See, too, Michel Autrand,
“Les Trois Mousquetaires
au théâtre
—La jeunesse des Mousquetaires,”
in
“Les Trois Mousquetaires,
”
“Le Comte de Monte-Cristo”: Cent cinquante ans après
(edited by Fernande Bassan and Claude Schopp; Marly-le-Roi, France: Editions Champflour, 1995, pp. 9-20).

2. For more information on the films and literary works based on Dumas’s novel, see Daniel Compere,
D‘Artagnan &
Cie: “Les
Trois Mousquetaires” d’Alexandre Dumas, un roman a suivre
(Paris: Encrage, 2002). The Internet Movie Database (
www.imdb.com
) provides a partial list of film adaptations. See also “Inspired by The Three
Musketeers”
on p. 709 of this edition.

3. Publisher and bookseller Jules Baudry published the first bound edition of
The Three Musketeers
in Paris in 1844.

4. See, for example, the following passages: “Then, as if to render an account to herself of the changes she could place upon her countenance, so mobile and so expressive, she made it take all expressions from that of passionate anger, which convulsed her features, to that of the most sweet, most affectionate, and most seducing smile” (p. 558) and “A light appeared under the door; this light announced the return of her jailers. Milady, who had arisen, threw herself quickly into the armchair, her head thrown back, her beautiful hair unbound and disheveled, her bosom half bare beneath her crumpled lace, one hand on her heart, and the other hanging down” (p. 559).

5. Indeed, in a number of French Romantic dramas, the term
journée
(day), which figures in the titles of chapters 52-56 here, was used as a substitute for the word “act.”

6. Consider chapter 52, which begins in the following, engaging manner:

7. The representation of life as a journey, a path to maturity that is fraught with endless dangers and opportunities, is an ancient literary trope that dates back at least to the story of Telemachus in Homer’s
Odyssey.
In eighteenth-century France, such tales existed in memoir or epistolary form (for example, Prévost’s
Manon Lescaut
or Choderlos de Laclos’s
Dangerous Liaisons)
with a particular emphasis on sexual initiation. Balzac
(Old Goriot, Lost Illusions, Wild Ass’s Skin,
etc.), Stendhal
(The Red and the Black, The Charterhouse of Parma),
and other authors of French realist fiction transformed the Bildungsroman in the nineteenth century, using the genre to explore social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of initiation into adulthood in a richly described setting.

8. Note the mock-heroic tenor of the narrator’s comments when, shortly thereafter, D‘Artagnan threatens to skewer the host, hostess, and servants at the Jolly Miller inn with his sword: “Unfortunately, there was one circumstance which created a powerful obstacle to the accomplishment of this threat; which was, as we have related, that his sword had been in his first conflict broken in two.... Hence it resulted that when D’Artagnan proceeded to draw his sword in earnest, he found himself purely and simply armed with a stump of a sword about eight or ten inches in length, which the host [earlier] had carefully placed in the scabbard. As to the rest of the blade, the master [of the inn] had slyly put that on one side to make himself a larding pin” (p. 24). The impulsiveness the young man displays here will slowly disappear over time and by the end of the novel he will act with greater maturity and more careful reflection.

9. Because England and France were often at war with one another, the queen’s affection for Buckingham would be viewed as treasonous as well as adulterous.

10. For more on this episode, see the article by Ora Avni, ‘The Semiotics of Transactions: Mauss, Lacan, and
The Three Musketeers“
(MLN 100:4 [September 1985]: pp. 728-757).

11. The classic study of Scott’s influence in France is Louis Maigron, Le Roman
historique à l’époque romantique; essai sur [‘influence de Walter
Scott (Paris: Hachette, 1912). For information on how Scott’s novels were received in France, see Klaus Massmann,
Die Rezeption der historichen Romane Sir Walter Scott in Frankreich (1816-1832)
(Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1972).

12. The text of this play was published for the first time in Alexandre Dumas,
Théâtre complet
(edited by Fernande Bassan; Paris: Lettres Modernes/Minard, 1974, vol. 1, pp. 73-144). Composer Hector Berlioz’s
Waverly
Overture offers another, more famous example of Scott’s popularity in France.

13. For more detail on Dumas’s sources, correspondence related to the novel, and the text of a surviving fragment of Maquet’s draft of part of the novel, see Claude Schopp’s preface to Dumas’s
Les Trois Mousquetaires/Vingt
Ans aprés (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1991, pp. iii-xxiii, and the documents section, pp. 1,281—1,364).

14. See, for example, the statement the narrator makes regarding the battle between French and English forces over the Ile de Ré (situated opposite the port city of La Rochelle), ”As it is not our intention to give a journal of the siege, but on the contrary only to describe such of the events of it as are connected with the story we are relating, we will content ourselves with saying in two words that the expedition succeeded, to the great astonishment of the king and the great glory of the cardinal“ (p. 468). Some critics have made much of Dumas’s chronological and historical inaccuracies. While it is true that Dumas does not always respect fact in this novel, he does seem to have captured the spirit of the age and, for his purposes, that is surely more important.

15. Since
The Three Musketeers
is a serial novel, the temporary deferral of the explanation of the event underway and the lengthy flashback that takes its place has economic as well as literary value. On the one hand, the inserted material provides important background information about the young man and, by diverting attention from the initial narrative thread, creates suspense. On the other hand, it also allows for the physical expansion of the text and thus helps the author to satisfy his contractual obligation to provide a specified quantity of words or lines of text.

16. On several occasions in the novel, Dumas indicates that minor events and/or private conflicts can have a significant impact on national or international affairs.

17. Christophe Miller has studied the role of inns in his article ”Les Auberges dans la trilogie des
Mousquetaires”
in
“Les Trois Mousquetaires”,
“
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo”:
Cent
cinquante
ans
après
(edited by Fernande Bassan and Claude Schopp; Marly-le-Roi, France: Editions Champflour, 1995, pp. 45—49)- It is important to note that until late in the book, D’Artagnan is not yet a Musketeer and would not necessarily serve alongside his friends. Meals are an occasion on which they could plausibly meet.

18.
See Dumas on Food: Selections from “Le Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine”
(translated by A. and J. Davidson; Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1987). The most recent French edition is Alexandre Dumas,
Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine
(Paris: Phébus, 2000).

19. See Alexandre Dumas,
Pauline
(edited by Anne-Marie Callet-Bianco; Paris: Editions Gallimard, 2002).

20. Consider the following description:

21. One recent exploration of this topic can be found in the article by Jacques Goimard, “La Bande des farceurs: l’humour dans Les
Trois Mousquetaires,”
in
“Les Trois Mousquetaires, ” “Le Comte
de
Monte-Cristo”:
Cent
cinquante
ans après (edited by Fernande Bassan and Claude Schopp; Marly-le-Roi, France: Editions Champflour, 1995, pp. 67-73).

22. . Indeed, Grimaud’s behavior here strikes me as reminiscent of that of the alternately brave and timorous servant, Sosie, in Molière’s play
Amphitryon
(1668).

23. “After the soup the maid brought a boiled fowl—a piece of magnificence which caused the eyes of the [other] diners to dilate in such a manner that they seemed ready to burst.... The poor fowl was thin, and covered with one of those thick, bristly skins through which the teeth cannot penetrate with all their efforts. The fowl must have been sought for a long time on the perch, to which it had retired to die of old age.

24. His
mea culpa
is expressed in terms that would be perfectly suited to the confessional (“I admit my patience failed me”), but are rather amusing coming from a man who, whatever his future plans, is currently a Musketeer. Note that the phrases ”throwing himself upon me” and “he let [my sword] pass through his body” grammatically diminish Aramis’s moral responsibility for wounding and/or killing his opponent. This would seem to be an attempt to cast his actions as a venial sin.

25. One of the most biased and racist critics was Eugène de Mire-court,
Fabrique de romans: Maison Alexandre Dumas & Cie
(Paris: Tous les marchands de nouveautés, 1845). Bernard Fillaire, in
Alexandre Dumas et associés
(Paris: Bartillat, 2002) follows in his footsteps. Gustave Simon, in
Histoire d‘une collaboration: Alexandre Dumas et Auguste Maguet
(Paris: G. Crès, 1919) gives an overly generous view of Maquet’s contributions. On Dumas’s father, see John G. Gallaher,
General Alexandre Dumas: Soldier of the French Revolution
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997) and Claude Ribbe,
Alexandre Dumas, le dragon de la
reine (Monaco: Editions du Rocher, 2002).

26. Milady is described as “that invincible power of evil” on page 556 of the novel. Like many other nineteenth-century French writers, Dumas often condemns women in positions of power. On this and related subjects, see Lise Quefflélec, ”Inscription romanesque de la femme au XIXe siècle: Le Cas du roman-feuilleton sous la monarchie de Juillet“
(Revue d’Histoire Littéraire de la France
86:2 [1986], pp. 189-206) and Odile Krakovitch,
Peurs et obsessions du XIXe siècle
(forthcoming).

27. In fact, the image of the woman who loses consciousness in such cases is so well established that, in
Madame Bovary
(1857), where Flaubert routinely ironizes Romantic clichés, Emma Bovary feels faint after reading the letter Rodolphe Boulanger has sent her to announce the end of their adulterous relationship.

28. Indeed, the plan Milady adopts in chapter 36—she makes love to D’Artagnan in the hope that he will agree to punish “De Wardes” for insulting her—seems to link Milady to another famously strong-willed literary villainess: Choderlos de Laclos’s Madame de Merteuil
(Dangerous Liaisons,
1782). In that book, Merteuil uses the naive and inexperienced Chevalier Danceny as an instrument of vengeance against a former lover.

29. The panther image returns in chapter 50 when, chastising his prisoner, Lord de Winter

30. For a summary of the numerous reasons Milady will have to hate our hero, see pages 556-557. For similar scenes where Milady’s prostration is followed by resolve, see page 536 and page 558.

31. The name is a homonym of
mordant,
the present participle of the verb
mordre,
“to bite.” When used as an adjective, the participle can also mean caustic, corrosive, bitingly critical, or sarcastic. The name describes the man’s character as well as his actions.