The three Musketeers

Summary

I. The Arrival in Paris

The first Monday of April 1625 , the village of Meung sees the young d’Artagnan , Cadet of Gascony en route to Paris to enter the company of the musketeers of King Louis XIII , to be humiliated by two unknown, which he ignores that they are agents of the Cardinal de Richelieu : Count de Rochefort and Milady de Winter . Rochefort steals the letter of recommendation written by his father for Mr. de Tréville, captain of the king’s musketeers. In Paris d’Artagnan still presents himself to M. de Treville, who can not promise him a place in his company. Leaving the hotel, while trying to catch up with Rochefort, D’Artagnan provokes, despite himself, the three musketeers in a duel, striking Athos ‘ s injured shoulder , taking his feet in the cloak of Porthos and picking up a compromising handkerchief from Aramis .

Duels are forbidden by Cardinal Richelieu. Too happy to catch the king’s musketeers in default, the cardinal’s guards intervened as d’Artagnan prepared to cross the iron. The musketeers refuse to surrender and d’Artagnan then ranks on the side of his former adversaries to lend a hand. After a tough fight in which the guards of the Cardinal are defeated, the four young people swear friendship. Received by Louis XIII, D’Artagnan is offered 40 pistoles from the king’s hand; he enters as a cadet in the care of M. des Essarts.

II. Ferrets of the Queen

The young man falls in love with the wife of his owner, Constance Bonacieux , the maid of Queen Anne of Austria , kidnapped by Rochefort . The young woman, rescued by D’Artagnan, reveals that Richelieu sought to compromise the queen revealing the friendly relationship that it maintains with the Duke of Buckingham , favorite of King Charles I ^st of England . The queen, through Constance, sends d’Artagnan to London to recover the ferretswhich she imprudently offered to the Duke. Indeed, pushed by the cardinal, the king asked the queen to appear with these studs at the next Bal des Échevins. To be certain that the queen will not be able to obey, Richelieu instructed Milady de Winter to steal two of the ferrets that are in Buckingham’s possession. D’Artagnan leaves for Englandwith his companions and their lackeys. He leaves Porthos on the road, grappling with a drunkard, Aramis, wounded in the arm, and finally Athos, accused of being a counterfeiter. He finally rejoins England with a pass stolen from Count de Wardes (the lover of Milady). He sees the Duke of Buckingham agreeing to give him the studs and orders his personal jeweler to make two more ferrets to replace those stolen by Milady. D’Artagnan returns to Paris just in time to save the queen.

III. The headquarters of La Rochelle

Constance disappears, kidnapped by order of Richelieu who made sure of the neutrality of her husband. D’Artagnan goes in search of his friends before going to look for him. He finds Porthos ankle injury and his pride, Aramis ready to take orders (what it deters through a letter from M ^me Chevreuse ) and finally Athos still locked in a cellar . They return to Paris where M. de Tréville teaches them that they must prepare to join the headquarters of La Rochelle. M. de Treville announced to D’Artagnan that the King would grant him a place among the musketeers after the siege. During his preparations, d’Artagnan met Milady and his brother-in-law, Lord de Winter, whom he provoked into a duel. Winner, d’Artagnan gives thanks to Lord de Winter, and in return he gets an interview with Milady, whom he is going to court. D’Artagnan gets his favors and discovers that his shoulder is branded with a fleur-de-lis , an infamous sign for him as a thief. Furious at being unmasked, Milady twice attempted to assassinate d’Artagnan.

In La Rochelle, Athos, Porthos and Aramis meet the cardinal at nightfall and agree to escort him to an inn. Intrigued, the musketeers linger and discover that he expects Milady. He charged her to kill the Duke of Buckingham, and in exchange he would give him a blank check to assassinate D’Artagnan without risking the Bastille. Athos recognizes in Milady his ex-wife, Anne de Breuil, and steals the white-seign.

IV. The End of Milady

To escape the surveillance of the Cardinal’s agents, the musketeers attempt a heroic action by going to defend an advanced bastion where they find themselves alone under the fire of the enemy with Grimaud, one of their lackeys; Once the Gascon is informed of the danger he runs, they decide to write to Lord de Winter to reveal the truth about Milady. Then they will ask the Queen, through M ^me Chevreuse where Constance Bonacieux is. Their plans thus arrested in the greatest secrecy, the musketeers leave the bastion and return to the camp where they are welcomed as heroes.

Back in England, Milady is held captive by her brother-in-law. She seduces her jailer, John Felton , convinces him to murder the Duke of Buckingham, and returns to France . There, she takes refuge in the convent of the Carmelites of Bethune, where Constance also hides. Discovering the bonds between the young woman and D’Artagnan, she kills him by poisoning him at the very moment when D’Artagnan arrives with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Aided by Lord de Winter and the executioner of Lille – brother of a former victim of Milady – the musketeers seize the murderer in Armentièresand make him a mock trial. The verdict is unanimous: guilty, she deserves the death penalty and she is beheaded. The musketeers return to Paris, where d’Artagnan is promoted lieutenant of the musketeers by the cardinal with whom he is reconciled. He fights a duel with Rochefort and also ends up being reconciled with him. Athos left the company of musketeers to live in his native campaign, Porthos, to marry his procurator widow, and Aramis to become a priest among the lazarists .

Historical context

The historical context of the Three Musketeers is closely related to the literary context: the Memoirs of the Duke of La Rochefoucauld (first part: 1624-1642) are at the source of the case of the stalls directed by Alexandre Dumas. The author, a historian who called himself a “whistle-blower,” had worked assiduously with the Classical Memorialists, without whom it would be futile to attempt to clarify the historical context of Alexandre Dumas’s “historical” novels.

In 1625, Louis XIII reigns over France with his prime minister, Cardinal de Richelieu . His wife is Queen Anne of Austria . Too inexperienced to manage state affairs, the king has no choice but to rely on his prime minister, Cardinal Richelieu, whose political and strategic genius ensures the cohesion and security of the kingdom.

Dumas highlights the feeling of distrust and the clash of influence that constantly occupy both men. In the novel, they clash secretly through their personal guard. Dumas also exploited the hostility known between the queen and the cardinal to make it one of the mainsprings of the case of the ferrets.

Characters

Historical characters

• The Cardinal Richelieu : insisting on the private side of the character as much as his public side, detailing its ability to weave intrigues to achieve his personal, but especially by making him antagonist imbued hero chivalrous values Dumas helped develop the black legend of a Machiavellian and devious autocrat.
• Louis XIII : Dumas can not attach himself to this character whose qualities, sobriety, piety, chastity were not to seduce this amateur of good food and women. The king appears as a weak husband (and jealous), in the shadow of his minister. He admires, however, the heroism of the musketeers, which makes him very indulgent towards them. Moreover, he is not unhappy to let them take care of the cardinal’s pride by thrashing his guards.
• The Duke of Buckingham : Alexander Dumas assumes the lover of the Queen of France Anne of Austria, and gives him the build of a romantic character, suffering from an impossible love.
• Queen Anne of Austria : Dumas kept the historical figure the victim of a political marriage, under the harassment of the cardinal. It is about this period of the life of the queen where, having failed to give an heir to Louis XIII, she is going through a difficult period in her marriage. Dumas idealizes her beauty, her sense of honor, while lending her love feelings that make her both more touching and more human. Here she plays the role of the Queen of Chivalry, capable of inspiring heroic exploits to the brave.
• M. de Treville, captain of the King’s Musketeers, Jean-Armand du Peyrer, Count of Treville ;
• M ^me Chevreuse ;
• D’Artagnan: Charles de Batz of Castelmore d’Artagnan was thirteen years old in 1625, when Dumas placed the beginning of the novel. He would have been 15 years old at the time of the siege of La Rochelle , which seems hardly credible. Nevertheless his maternal uncle, Jean de Montesquiou d’Artagnan , teaches at the French Guards and appreciated the king, had been killed during the siege of La Rochelle in 1628. Charles de Batz having borrowed from the family of his mother the name of Artagnan for to serve in the Musketeers, it is possible that Dumas used the confusion to expand the biography of his hero. Confusion still maintained by the fact that d’Artagnan finished marshal of France in the Viscount of Bragelonne, unlike Charles de Batz who died in 1673 at the seat of Maastricht , but as his cousin Pierre de Montesquiou d’Artagnan .
• Athos: Armand de Sillègue of Athos d’Autevielle who takes his name from the village of Athos-Aspis ;
• Porthos: Isaac de Portau born in Pau ;
• Aramis : based on Henri d’Aramitz , who was cousin of the Earl of Tréville also Béarnais;
• The guards of the Cardinal;
• The musketeers of the king;
• John Felton , the murderer of Buckingham.

Fictional characters

• Constance Bonacieux, wife of the bourgeois Bonacieux, the queen’s maid, courted by d’Artagnan; character of a young bourgeois borrowed from the theater;

• Rochefort, gentleman, agent of the cardinal;

• M. Bonacieux, a stereotype of the petty bourgeois who is greedy for profit, cowardly and jealous;
• Milady (nee Anne de Breuil, also called Milady de Clarick and Milady de Winter), former wife of Athos, widow of the former Lord de Winter; she is the archetype of the femme fatale .

• Lord de Winter, brother-in-law of Milady; Gentleman’s character.
• Planchet: valet D’Artagnan, resource man;

• Carabiner: valet de Porthos, whose greed he shares;
• Bazin, valet of Aramis, whom he tries in vain to incite to enter into religion;
• Grimaud, the valet of Athos, is distinguished by his taciturnity;
• Kitty: maid of Milady, then M ^me Chevreuse love of D’Artagnan;
• Jussac: officer of the guards of the cardinal: d’Artagnan wounds him in a duel during the battle which seals his friendship with Athos, Porthos and Aramis.

Sources of the novel

The hero of the Three Musketeers is inspired by the historical figure of Charles de Batz d’Artagnan Castelmore regiment of Cadets de Gascogne of Louis XIII . His name is mentioned in the memoirs and correspondences of the time, notably at Madame de Sévigné’s . Dumas had as sources of M. d’Artagnan’s Memoirsof Gatien de Sandras Courtilz written in 1700 , 27 years after the death of D’Artagnan ² . Dumas draws a lot of details, which he rewrites in a very personal style. So this passage of Courtilz

“My parents were so poor that they could give me a bidet of twenty-two francs, with ten crowns in my pocket, to make my trip. But if they did not give me much money, they gave me as a reward a good deal of advice. “

– Memoirs of M. d’Artagnan , Chapter I ^st

… becomes under the pen of Dumas:

“Such a beast was worth at least twenty pounds: it is true that the words of which the present had been accompanied were priceless. “

– The Three Musketeers , Chapter I ^st

The project is originally an idea of Auguste Maquet , with whom Dumas collaborates in the writing of the novel ³ .

The memories of that time give him a windfall of intrigue, including the episode of the studs of the queen as for example La Rochefoucauld says in the first chapter of his memoirs ⁴ .

Title

The original title was Athos, Porthos and Aramis , but on a proposal by Desnoyers, in charge of the soap opera in the Century (according to which this title evoked readers the three Parques ), to adopt The Three Musketeers , Dumas accepted this last title noting that its absurdity (as the heroes are four in number) contribute to the success of the work ⁵ .

Posterity

Suites

The success of the novel was such that Dumas himself adapted it for the theater, and two other novels followed him, repeating the four main heroes to form the trilogy of the musketeers. This is Twenty years later , published in 1845 , and The Vicomte de Bragelonne released from 1847 to 1850 .

Life of the novel

The novel also enjoyed great success outside France and was translated into English in three different versions in 1846 . That of William Barrow still authoritative ⁶ .

The Three Musketeers inspired rapidly number of authors who invented them suites, new episodes, or pastichèrent the more or less verve ⁷ . A website has identified more than one hundred and ^eight . Even during Dumas’ lifetime, dramatic authors and novelists seized the musketeers. In 1845, the comedy Porthos in search of an equipment of Anicet Bourgeois and Dumanoir staged an episode of Twenty years after ⁹ . In 1858 appeared Les Amours de D’Artagnan , by Auguste Blanquet, who took advantage of the hiatus of twenty years between The Three Musketeers andTwenty years later to imagine the continuation of the adventures of D’Artagnan under the Fronde(1648-1653) ¹⁰ . With the death of Dumas, Albert Maurin tried to capitalize on the popularity of the still intact Gascon The True Memoirs of D’Artagnan (1874) fictionalized version banal memories Courtilz of Sandras ¹¹ .

The infatuation with The Three Musketeers continues more than a century after the publication of Dumas’ novel, with for example the D’Artagnan in love with Roger Nimier ¹² , adapted in 1970 for television by Yannick Andrei, or The Return of the Three Musketeers of a certain Nicolas Harin in 1997 ¹³ . Recently, Martin Winckler has written a novel, Les Trois Médecins (2006), whose plot is traced back to that of Dumas’ novel and Gérard Delteil published Speculator ( 2010).), a modern remake in the form of a thriller, in which the musketeers have become agents of a security society and evolve in the world of finance. Delteil also meant it justice Milady and explains himself by criticizing the sexism of the Dumas novel in an afterword ¹⁴ .

If d’Artagnan proves to be the favorite of these adaptations, the other characters of the novel have also inspired several authors: in 1886, the Theater L’Ambigu gave The Son of Porthos , whose action takes place in the period before the revocation of the edict of Nantes and features the young and fiery Joel Breton, son of Porthos, faced with Machiavellian cunning Aramis, the only survivor musketeer ¹⁵ . In Milady, my love (1986), the author, Yak Rivais, embarrassed by some aspects of the novel become repugnant to modern sensibilities, for example the episode of Milady’s execution, rewrote the story with more than¹⁶ .

With The Three Musketeers , Dumas and Maquet managed to achieve the paradox of popularizing the historical novel by making it a cape and sword novel and giving the novel of action its nobility by drawing on history. He had created a new positive hero, the impecunious Gascon, still close to the picaro , but noble and heroic, fine and chivalrous blade while remaining human in his weaknesses: the irascibility of D’Artagnan, the vanity of Porthos, ambivalence from Aramis torn between Eros and Agapo, the melancholy and alcoholism of Athos prevent the musketeers from being “perfect” heroes as Raoul de Bragelonne will be, but these weaknesses are their literary strength. The young man, these matamores , Capitan and other Captain Fracasse of the Commedia dell’arte and the comic theater in general ( Pistol or Parolles at Shakespeare ) and the hero of the novels of chivalry. He began his career under the comical features of a young Don Quixote , and in a few chapters metamorphoses into a new Achilles . This is mid-comic character mid-heroic than found in Le Capitaine Fracasse by Theophile Gautier (1863), or Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (1897).

He had also popularized a type of narrative where duels, political intrigue, overlapping, abductions, dramatic and comical passages alternate. The formula will make the fortune of the novels-feuilletons where will excel authors like Paul Féval ( Le Bossu , 1857) or Michel Zévaco ( Pardaillan , 1905-1918). Paul Féval Jr. will also make a specialty of exploiting the rich veins invented by his predecessors with titles like D’Artagnan against Cyrano de Bergerac , D’Artagnan and Cyrano reconciled , or The Son of D’Artagnan .

But the posterity of the Three Musketeers , the “One for all! All for one ! “- apocryphal motto – ¹⁷ goes far beyond the scope of literature. For André Roussin , speaking to the members of the French Academy in 1980, it is “the myth of friendship between men who, under the double seal of loyalty and courage, become invincible” , and he adds”It’s a big myth for the youth of a country. In the time of the underground, we have seen how much suffering and sacrifices he has led thousands of young people, who have died sometimes in atrocious ways, for not having given away the names of their network mates. Many of them had perhaps read at twelve The Three Musketeers and had retained this reading, the sense of the sacred brotherhood ” ¹⁸ . And the academician then evokes the quartet of French tennis of the 1920s, Henri Cochet , Jacques Brugnon , Rene Lacoste and Jean Borotrawho, by his youth, embodies the friendship between his members and his apparent invincibility, an ideal so close to the heroes of Dumas that they are nicknamed The Four Musketeers .

In 1974, a major distributor, Intermarché , will also want to take advantage of this positive image by choosing a logo where appear the musketeers, supposed to embody “equality and the fight led by the sign for the defense of purchasing power. In war against the expensive life … ” ¹⁹ .