Three Musketeers (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

by Alexandre Dumas

  Endnotes

  1 (p. 7) Louis XIV: Also known as the Sun King, Louis XIV (1638-1715) brought the French absolutist monarchy to its apogee of power and influence in Europe. His reign, the longest of any French king (1643-1715), saw the consolidation of power in his hands at the expense of the nobility. At the time of the action in The Three Musketeers, he has yet to be born.

  2 (p. 7) they will not find the likeness of Louis XIII, Anne of Austria, Richelieu, Mazarin, and the courtiers of the period, less faithful than in the history of M. Anquetil: Louis XIII (1601-1643) became king of France upon the assassination of his father, Henri IV, in 1610; his mother, Marie de Médicis, was named his regent until he came of age but continued to exert considerable influence over him. Louis was married to Anne of Austria, daughter of King Philip III of Spain, in 1615, when he was just fourteen. Theirs was an unhappy marriage, in part because of her love for the English Duke of Buckingham and her incessant political intrigues. Upon the death of Louis XIII, Anne became regent for her son, Louis XIV She directed much of her energy to undermining the influence of Armand-Jean du Plessis, cardinal et duc de Richelieu, best known as Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642); the goals of this influential prime minister for Louis XIII were to safeguard royal authority, generally at the expense of the nobility, and to establish French power in Europe. In The Three Musketeers, Richelieu leads the siege of La Rochelle and tries to compromise the Queen’s reputation. Giulio Mazarini (1602-1661), an ally of Anne, succeeded Cardinal Richelieu as prime minister; Dumas mentions Mazarini here in the preface, but he does not otherwise appear in The Three Musketeers. Louis-Pierre Anquetil wrote Histoire de France depuis les Gaules jusqu ’a la fin de la monarchie (The History of France from the Gauls until the Fall of the Monarchy, 1805), a major source for The Three Musketeers.

  3 (p. 7) M. de Treville: Arnaud-jean de Peyer, comte de Troisvilles, was the captain-lieutenant of the first company of musketeers of the King’s Guard from 1634 to 1646. At the royal court Troisvilles was pronounced “Tréville.”

  4 (p. 11) the market town of Meung. Meung-sur-Loire is a small city on the Loire River where D‘Artagnan meets the “man from Meung” (Monsieur de Rochefort), whom he will pursue throughout the novel.

  5 (p. 11) the author of the Romance of the Rose: This long poetic allegory on the “art of love” belongs to the genre of courtly love poetry and dates from the thirteenth century. Guillaume de Lorris wrote the first half in a platonic, idealized style; Jean de Meun, to whom Dumas is referring, wrote the second part, which is considered to be more realistic but also more misogynistic.

  6 (p. 11) Don Quixote. He is the idealistic and impractical protagonist of Miguel de Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote de la Mancha (part 1, 1605; part 2, 1615).

  7 (p. 12) an infallible sign by which a Gascon may always be detected: Gascony is a historical region in southwestern France that encompasses such modern French departéments as the Gers, Landes, and Hautes-Pyrénées. The capital of Gascony was Auch; other important Gascon cities include Biarritz, Lourdes, and Tarbes. Gascons are stereotypically known for their courage and quick tempers.

  8 (p. 13) “Fight the more for duels being forbidden”: A royal edict of Louis XIII forbad dueling, under penalty of death. The edict was largely meant to impose the king’s power on the rebellious nobility, who resisted the power of the monarchy and for whom dueling was a part of a code of honor that was above the law.

  9 (p. 21) “as soon as the duke leaves London”: The reference is to George Villiers, duke of Buckingham (1592-1628). As a favorite of King Charles I of England, the Duke enjoyed great power and influence. His passionate love of Queen Anne of Austria, wife of French king Louis XIII, led him to take risks to see her, even to the point of entering the Louvre disguised as a Musketeer. In The Three Musketeers, Queen Anne gives the duke twelve diamond studs that she received from Louis for her birthday. The duke was an exceedingly handsome man, as can be seen in the well-known portrait of him by the Flemish painter Peter-Paul Rubens. He was, however, extremely unpopular because of his inept handling of military and foreign-policy matters; he was assassinated by navy lieutenant John Felton in 1628.

  10 (p. 26) to the gate of St. Antoine at Paris: The gate of St. Antoine was once one of the entry points into Paris, which was encircled by walls at the time of the novel. The other Paris gates (portes) were the Porte St.-Martin, the Porte St.-Jacques, and the Porte St.-Michel.

  11 (p. 61) Thus spoke and acted the gallant knights of the time of Charlemagne. Charlemagne (c.742-814) unified much of western Europe as the Holy Roman Empire in 800, when he was consecrated emperor by Pope Leo III. Charlemagne and his knights were renowned for their valor and honor.

  12 (p. 70) Mademoiselle de Chemerault A lady in waiting to Queen Anne of Austria, Mademoiselle de Chemerault was in fact a spy for Cardinal Richelieu. Disgraced in 1639, she was forced to leave the Queen’s service.

  13 (p. 71) “Yes, sire; as complete as that of the Bridge of Cé”: The bridge was the site of King Louis XIII’s military victory over the armies of his mother and former regent, Marie de Médicis, during one of the several revolts she led against the King, who repeatedly banished her.

  14 (p. 81) St.-Simon: Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon (1607-1693), was a favorite of King Louis XIII, who made him a duke and peer. St.-Simon eventually fell out of favor and retired to Blaye. His son, Louis de Rouvroy (1675-1755), was one of France’s great memoirists; his Memoires provide a close look at life in the court of King Louis XIV

  15 (p. 83) “That it is only the Pope who is infallible”: The doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope in matters of faith and morals was a major issue at the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Though considered part of Catholic dogma from the beginning of the Church of Christ, the infallibility of the Pope was questioned at the time of the Protestant Reformation. The Vatican Council of 1870 formulated the dogma of the Pope’s infallibility, attributing it only to his ex cathedra decrees or teachings.

  16 (p. 110) “on the day when he scattered his pearls”: Dumas recounts an incident in which the Duke of Buckingham, while courting Anne of Austria in 1625, undid a strand of pearls and scattered them to the courtiers, who willingly ran after them. No doubt impressed by this aristocratic generosity, Dumas mentions it here, as well as in Louis XIV et son siècle (Louis XIV and His Century) and in Dix Ans plus tard ou le Vicomte de Bragelonne (Ten Years Later; or, The Vicomte de Bragelonne, also known in English translation as The Man in the Iron Mask) .

  17 (p. 110) “in the garden at Amiens, into which Monsieur Putange ... introduced me”: In a celebrated encounter in a garden in the city of Amiens, Queen Anne of Austria (wife of French king Louis XIII) and the Duke of Buckingham became separated from their party during an evening walk. Taking advantage of the situation, the Duke spoke passionately of love to the Queen, and attempted to hold and caress her. Monsieur de Putange, the Queen’s royal squire, intervened and led the Duke away. This incident provoked a scandal in France and England, and increased Louis’s distrust of Anne. Following this event, the King banished Madame de Vernet, a member of the Queen’s household, as well as Putange; he also exiled Madame de Chevreuse, the Queen’s friend, in whose house she had had another meeting with the Duke of Buckingham, to her properties in the Poitou (Dumas has her banished to la Touraine; see also page 148).

  18 (p. 148) this expedition to Ré: The He de Ré is an island off the Atlantic coast of France, near the mainland port of La Rochelle. In 1627 the Duke of Buckingham organized an invasion force to come to the relief of French Protestants, known as Huguenots, who had taken refuge in La Rochelle and come under attack by the armies of Louis XIII. The Duke and his army were forced to withdraw after four months. One hypothesis suggests that the Duke undertook this ill-fated invasion for the love of Queen Anne rather than to assist the Huguenots.

  19 (p. 153) Rue des Fossoyeurs, No. 14: According to Dumas biographer and scholar Claude Schopp, street numbers were not affixed to houses before 1775; this anachronis
m is one of the few errors Dumas makes regarding Parisian topography or geography. In his critical edition of Les Trois mousquetaires, Schopp lists the address as number 11.

  20 (p. 171) Men of the Robe and Men of the Sword: In the Ancien Regime there were two major categories of nobility. The most prestigious and ancient was the nobility of the sword, who were descended from great warriors. Characters in the The Three Musketeers who were members of this class include the Duc de la Trémouille and Madame de Chevreuse. Men and women of the robe were recently ennobled parliamentarians and their families or other high-placed commoners.

  21 (p. 299) “There is a proposition almost like it in the Augustinius of the heresiarch jansenius, whose book will sooner or later be burned by the hands of the executioner”: Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), a Flemish theologian whose Latinized name is Jansenius, was the father of the Jansenist movement, which called for religious revival and renewal within the Catholic Church. The Jansenists came into direct conflict with the Jesuits on theological grounds; they believed that Catholics received the gift of grace from God without regard to their actions, while the Jesuits insisted that believers had to earn the grace of God. The Jansenist movement was at its inception in 1625, the time of the action in The Three Musketeers; the Augustinius that Dumas mentions is Jansenius’s controversial treatise on the teachings of Saint Augustine, published posthumously in 1640. The Inquisition condemned the Augustinius in 1641, and Pope Urban VII condemned it in 1642. At the time, the King could condemn a book and order copies to be seized and publicly burned by the executioner, who normally beheaded or hanged condemned criminals.

  22 (p. 299) “the insinuations of the Pelagians and the demi-Pelagians”: These are references to a monk named Pelagius (c.360-c.422), who denied the existence of original sin and affirmed man’s free will. These teachings contradicted those of Saint Augustine, and several church councils held between 411 and 431 declared Pelagius a heretic.

  23 (p. 326) “A fleur-de-lis.... She was branded!”: The fleur-de-lis (literally, the lily flower) is the symbol of the French monarchy. Branding with a fleur-de-lis on the shoulder was the punishment for prostitutes as well as for other criminals, including violators of canon law.

  24 (p. 343) Equipments: Soldiers, especially those in regiments like the Musketeers, were expected to provide their own military equipment. The process of outfitting for a military campaign included procuring everything from horse and saddle to money for rations. Only the lowliest foot soldier received his equipment and rations from his commander, and both were generally inadequate and of poor quality.

  25 (p. 446) The Siege of La Rochelle. The Edict of Nantes, signed by King Henri IV in 1598, gave French protestants (known as Huguenots) several safe havens, including the city of La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast, in which to practice their Calvinist version of Christianity. However, Huguenots continued to be persecuted in France, and in 1627 the armies of King Louis XIII tried to take La Rochelle. The Duke of Buckingham led an English expedition to come to the assistance of the city, but his troops met stiff resistance from the French. Under Cardinal Richelieu, the French used a system of earthwork defenses to cut the city off from the ocean, stopping all maritime traffic and denying the English access. The long siege deprived the citizens of all supplies, including food, and after months of starvation La Rochelle capitulated in October 1628.

  26 (p. 447) Bassompierre. François de Bassompierre (1579-1646), a soldier and diplomat, was named field marshal of France in 1622. He and two other noblemen disputed the leadership role at the Siege of La Rochelle. The others who argued over precedence were the Duc d’Angoulême and the Comte de Schomberg, who had been named field marshal of the French armies in 1625. Because the situation was so ambiguous and because the arguments over precedence and command were sapping the armies arrayed against La Rochelle, King Louis XIII appointed Cardinal Richelieu as supreme commander of this siege. Each nobleman commanded his own men, whom he outfitted and paid for; each or all could have gone home if he or they felt ill treated. Thus the King had to give plums to each to keep them in the war. The King could command their obedience but not their diligence, and he had no authority over their purses.

  27 (p. 447) the preface to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes: Promulgated by King Henri IV to bring an end to the religious wars that had devastated parts of France during the sixteenth century, the Edict of Nantes guaranteed French Protestants (Huguenots) equal justice, the freedom to practice their faith, and several safe havens throughout the country. Dumas’s reference here prefigures the revocation of this edict in 1685 by Louis XIV, which led to a return to the brutal repression and forced conversions of Huguenots. Many fled to Germany, Holland, and the New World.

  28 (p. 546) would resemble too closely, in 1628, the massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572: The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day was provoked by Catherine de Médicis, the mother of King Charles IX, and the Duke of Guise, a Roman Catholic; the massacre was an attempt to thwart the power of French Protestants, known as Huguenots. In Paris alone more than 3,000 French Protestants were killed by Catholic fanatics and the general populace on August 23 and 24, 1572, and the bloodshed extended to the provinces, where killings continued into October.

  29 (p. 547) Louis XI: King of France from 1461 to 1483, Louis XI ruthlessly advanced royal authority by undermining the feudal system. He appropriated a number of provinces and dukedoms that had been independent domains, including Burgundy, Picardy, Anjou, and Provence, and began a process of consolidation that Cardinal Richelieu would greatly advance under Louis XIII. The absolutist monarchy reached its apogee under Louis XIV

  30 (p. 547) “Divide in order to reign”: Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (1758-1794) led France into the period of the French Revolution known as the Reign of Terror (1792 and September 1793-July 1794), and is reputed to have followed the axiom “Divide in order to reign” as a political strategy by which he maintained his hold on the government. For example, he sent other members of the Committee of Public Safety to missions to the French frontiers, removing them from the daily exercise of power. Though known as the “incorruptible” or the “uncorrupted one,” Robespierre promoted espionage, fear, abrogation of civil rights, and torture, and ordered the guillotining of about 1,285 French citizens, including members of the nobility and the royal family. Eventually, Robespierre was himself guillotined.

  Inspired by

  The Three Musketeers

  Alexandre Dumas’s tale of the swashbuckling Musketeers never seems to tire, and two centuries after publication the novel continues to inspire interpretations and sequels.

  Dumas himself wrote two sequels to The Three Musketeers: Twenty Years After (1845) and The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847), creating a trilogy sometimes known as the D‘Artagnan romances. Twenty Years After takes place in 1648, two decades following the close of The Three Musketeers. Charles I, the king of England, is on the verge of losing his throne to the revolutionary Oliver Cromwell, and D’Artagnan convinces his now-retired colleagues that their services are needed to protect the purity of the throne. Meanwhile, Mordaunt, the son of Milady, is determined to foil the efforts of those who killed his mother.

  The Vicomte de Bragelonne, also known as The Man in the Iron Mask, joins Aramis, Athos, Porthos, and D’Artagnan as they plan to free a prisoner, known only as Philippe, from the infamous Bastille. Philippe has suffered for eight years in an oppressive iron mask, all the while kept ignorant of his crime. By an incredible twist, the release of the prisoner helps further the true goal of the Musketeers: dethroning Louis XIV, who has become corrupt.

  Numerous authors, attempting to capitalize on the fame of The Three Musketeers, have written spurious sequels. The True Memories of D‘Artagnan the Musketeer, by Emile Desbeaux, appeared in 1874, immediately following Dumas’s death. In 1883 Paul Mahalin published Son of Porthos, which he falsely claimed was a novelization of a lost play by Dumas. Henry Llewellyn Williams, a prolific translator of Dumas, also f
alsely claimed that his 1901 D’Artagnan the King-Maker was a novelized version of a Dumas play.

  Another icon of French literature, Cyrano de Bergerac, appears with D‘Artagnan in a delightfully inventive series by Paul Féval fils and M. Lassez. Cyrano, the title character in the famous play by Edmond Rostand, is first an enemy, in D’Artagnan Contre Cyrano de Bergerac (D’Artagnan Against Cyrano de Bergerac, 1925), a novel in four volumes. After numerous adventures the two resolve their differences and become great friends, as recorded in D Artagnan et Cyrano Reconcilies (D Artagnan and Cyrano Reconciled, 1928), a novel in three volumes. English translations of the novels and their individual volumes have appeared under a variety of titles.

  A recent sequel, the 1993 Le Dernier Amour d’Aramis (The Last Love of Aramis) by Jean-Pierre Dufreigne, is a memoir told from the point of view of Aramis; it received considerable literary acclaim, but to date no English translation has appeared.

  Rudyard Kipling, celebrated author of Kim and The Jungle Book, used “The Three Musketeers” as the name of his series of eighteen stories about three soldiers, inspired by Kipling’s association with British regiments in India. Each of the men—an Irishman, a Yorkshire native, and a Cockney—speak in their own dialect, which Kipling captures with unflinching accuracy.

  FILM

  More than a dozen movie adaptations of The Three Musketeers appeared in the twentieth century, many bringing together some of Hollywood’s brightest stars. Douglas Fairbanks, well-loved star of early cinema, starred as D‘Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (1921), directed by Fred Niblo. In a light-hearted 1948 production directed by George Sidney, Gene Kelly plays D’Artagnan and uses his dancing moves in numerous fencing scenes, while Lana Turner plays Milady and Angela Lansbury takes the part of Queen Anne.