Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers: Chapter 21
100 Days of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers June 1 - August 31, 2024
UPDATED
100 Days of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers
June 1 - August 31, 2024
All for One and One for All: "The Three Musketeers" at 180
July 3
Chapter 21
Just finished writing my July article - dedicated to France and Richelieu, of course!!! Will post it here on Friday when it is published!!! I was planning on writing about my journey through Europe this month - but decided to wait till August. Europe - and especially the two countries we are reading about - France and UK - are having quite a week this week!!! As the brilliant Dumas pointed out in this chapter:
“D'Artagnan wondered at the fragile and unknown threads from which the fates of nations and the lives of men are sometimes hung.”
Plus - I enjoyed a hearty chuckle at names such as Patrick, Mr. Jackson, and Mr. O'Reilly in our thoroughly French novel!!! Perhaps we should read an English novel one of these years!!!
Updated section:
Yes, when I said “English” novel - I meant written in English - something that I thought about a great deal while we were struggling with the Fathers and Sons translation issues and I was reaching for the fifth translation in hope of finding something that communicated the genius of the original!!! Reading in English would eliminate all the translation issues for the English readers in our group!!! Three cheers for the great Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott!!! As a matter of fact, the courage and daring of Scotland are referenced in this chapter:
"'Proud as a Scot,' we say," murmured Buckingham.
"And we say: 'Proud as a Gascon,'" replied d'Artagnan.
"The Gascons are the Scots of France."
Walter Scott birthed the historical novel and influenced not just Dumas, but Flaubert, Hugo, Fenimore Cooper - whom I mention in my July article - and all the 19th century history novel writers!!!
I actually was considering offering James Joyce’s Ulysses as a tutorial in the spring of 2022 to commemorate its centennial - but COVID altered my plans… Then again, some consider that it is NOT written in English!!!
We can go back all the way into the 18th century and acquaint ourselves with Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne, and Samuel Richardson (the favorite of Tatyana’s mother in Eugene Onegin) - or stay in the 19th century with Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens, or my favourite George Eliot - the pen name of Mary Anne Evans!!! And of course there is Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad!!! AND James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, AND Herman Melville - I am a HUGE fan of Moby-Dick!!!
The amusing thing is - now that my mom had her eye surgeries - she can read much better - and is almost done with the pile of 30-35 books I purchased for her at a Brighton Beach Russian bookstore in Brooklyn, NY in May!!! She wanted to reread Jack London, Earnest Hemingway, and Theodore Dreiser - in Russian translations, since Russian is her first language!!! So while I was commenting on Turgenev is English - she was enjoying the Russian translations of A Moveable Feast and Men without Women and The Sun Also Rises!!! So yes, there is also Hemingway, and Henry James, AND Edith Wharton!!!
But I digress!!! We have FIVE YEARS of Dumas, and Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy - AND two amazing surprises - in 2025 and 2026!!! THEN in 2029 we make a new list!!!
The exchange between Buckingham and d'Artagnan is masterfully written - and filled with gallant bravado of this sort: “he had managed to get off with the sword stroke that had pierced the queen's letter…”
Buckingham respects the young Gascon for his youthful courage and quick mind:
“The duke looked at the young man from time to time with an astonished air, as if he could not understand how so much prudence, courage, and devotion could combine with a face that indicated something less than twenty years of age.”
Ah, the gallop to London:
“D'Artagnan had thought that, on reaching town, the duke would slow his horse's pace, but that was not so: he continued on his way at full tilt, little concerned with knocking over those who were in his way. Indeed, as they crossed the city, two or three accidents of that sort occurred, but Buckingham did not even turn his head to see what had become of those he had overturned. D'Artagnan followed him amidst shouts that strongly resembled curses.”
The Three Musketeers was published in 1844 - in his 1859 A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens describes a French aristocrat who gallops with little concern for the lives of his French compatriots - a crucial plot element that intertwines the lives of all the main characters in the novel…
The Buckingham Palace d'Artagnan visits - and which is described as a “miracle of taste and opulence” - is not the London Royal Residence we are familiar with today - which was constructed in 1703 as Buckingham House by a later Lord Buckingham - then purchased by King George III (referenced in the US today since he is the once who lost the War of Independence) - and turned into a royal residence by Queen Victoria!!!
Dumas describes a miraculous room in the 17th century Buckingham Palace - which is portrayed incredibly accurately in the 1973 Richard Lester Three Musketeers!!! A note on this adaptation - yes, all the plot elements we encountered so far are accurately depicted in this film - which has two parts - I will let you know when it’s time to watch Part One - Part Two takes us all the way to the end of the novel!!!
“The two then found themselves in a small chapel all hung with Persian silk and gold brocade, brightly lit by a great number of candles. Above a sort of altar, and beneath a blue velvet canopy topped with white and red plumes, was a life-size portrait of Anne d'Autriche, of such perfect likeness that d'Artagnan cried out in surprise: one would have thought the queen was about to speak. On the altar, and beneath the portrait, was the box containing the diamond pendants.”
But what happened to two of the diamonds?!?!?! The countess de Winter - who is one of the most crucial characters of the novel - the mysterious woman we encountered in Chapter One!!!
But how to make sure Milady can’t make it to Paris with the stolen diamonds?!?!?! Sever all travel and trade exchanges and all diplomatic relationships between England and France!!! Which means WAR!!!
"In that case, he should say to the king that I have decided on war, and that this measure is my first act of hostility against France."
Our hero, with his uncanny precocity, realizes that at this point he is standing in front of France’s enemy and conducting a treasonous exchange:
“He saw that the duke was seeking a way to make him accept something, and the idea that the blood of his companions and his own was going to be paid for in English gold was strangely repugnant to him.”
But what is treason if the love of a lady is at stake!!!
“What's more, I would perhaps have done none of it, if it were not a question of gratifying someone who is my own lady, as the queen is yours."
When these two meet again - it may be on the battlefield - with all the resulting consequences…
“I must confess that I see Your Grace only as an Englishman, and consequently as an enemy whom I would be still more delighted to meet on the battlefield than in the park at Windsor or the corridors of the Louvre…”
D'Artagnan accepts the gift of all the travel arrangements which help him cover “sixty leagues in twelve hours” - unprecedented speed in the 17th century!!!
"Now, your hand, young man. Perhaps we will meet soon on the battlefield, but in the meantime we part as good friends, I hope."
"Yes, Milord, but with the hope of soon becoming enemies."
The missing diamonds are forged at a staggering price - and delivered to Paris at breakneck speed… But it’s the geopolitical observations of this chapter that leave me breathless!!! Let me quote this passage yet again:
“D'Artagnan wondered at the fragile and unknown threads from which the fates of nations and the lives of men are sometimes hung.”
And the following statement - which is superbly consequential - the personal emotions of a politician influencing the national policy he advocates…
“Anne d'Autriche is my true queen. On a word from her, I would betray my country, I would betray my king, I would betray my God. She has asked me not to send the Protestants of La Rochelle the help I promised them, and I have not done so.”
Are we actually headed to war in The Three Musketeers?!?!?! Not yet… But soon…
First, we must get INSIDE the Louvre - or the Hôtel de Ville as the case may be - to deliver the missing diamonds and save the Queen!!! But how?!?!?!
Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Buckingham, 1625, by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Flemish, Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
From the Kimbell Art Museum website:
“Peter Paul Rubens was a towering figure in the age of the Baroque, and his influence on later generations of artists was immense. His special position as both painter and diplomat brought him commissions from princely patrons, high-ranking statesmen, and noblemen.
On a visit to Paris in 1625, Rubens met George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham and favorite of King Charles I. The occasion was Charles’s marriage-by-proxy to Henrietta Maria, sister of the king of France. One of the chief collectors of his time, Buckingham commissioned a grand equestrian portrait of himself from Rubens. The Kimbell painting was the sketch for that work, which was destroyed by fire in 1949.
The elegance and bravura that captivated Buckingham’s admirers—and inspired Alexander Dumas’ romantic depiction of him in The Three Musketeers—are evident in Rubens’s portrait. As Lord High Admiral of the Navy, the duke lifts his baton as his horse rears on command. Beneath him, the sea god Neptune and a naiad adorned with pearls indicate the duke’s dominion over the sea. Overhead, a winged allegory of Fame signals victory with a trumpet in hand.
Privately Rubens noted Buckingham’s “arrogance and caprice” and predicted that he was “heading for the precipice.” History proved him correct.”