SOURCE: "Some Additional Sources of Dumas's Les trois mousquetaires," in Modern Philology, Vol. XLII, No. 1, August, 1944, pp. 34-40.

[In the following essay, Parker discusses a number of works that influenced Les trois mousquetaires, most notably the memoirs of the Comte de Brienne.]

From the time of the publication of Les trois mousquetaires in 1844, when the author in his preface tried to throw his readers off the trail by his reference to the nonexistent folio manuscript No. 4772 or 4773 (he was uncertain which!), there has been a merry chase in tracking down the sources of Dumas's masterpiece. With the feigned naïveté of the ingenious literary plunderer that he was, he slyly admits having used the Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan.¹ And, indeed, out of the first volume of this work, the only one of the three that he seems to have consulted, Dumas² derived the account of D'Artagnan's departure from Gascony on his famous nag; his encounter with Rochefort ("Rosnay" in the Mémoires); his arrival in Paris and meeting with Porthos, Athos, and Aramis; the story of the gold-embroidered belt with the false back; the affair with the innkeeper's wife, i.e., the beautiful Mme Bonacieux; the intrigue with the perfidious Milady (whose role is vastly developed by Dumas); the almost incredible tale of D'Artagnan's masquerading as the Comte de Wardes; the rivalry between the King's Musketeers and the Cardinal's Guards, etc. In short, most of the picturesque background and many of the characteristic incidents were taken by Dumas from this early example of the realistic novel with historical setting.³ It must be observed, however, that Dumas's handling of the material lends a movement, a sharpness of character, a verisimilitude, a dramatic element—in fine, an interest—which the memoirs of the contemporary Courtilz fail to attain.⁴

Though whole books have been written on the origins of D'Artagnan,⁵ most writers give as Dumas's sole source the Mémoires of Courtilz.⁶ Woodbridge,⁷ however, points to Dumas's use of the Mémoires de M. L. C. D. R. (Comte de Rochefort) for the dramatic incident of the discovery of the fleur de lys branded on Milady's shoulder. For the famous story of the diamond pendants⁸ given by Anne of Austria to Buckingham, a number of commentators have categorically asserted that Dumas alone is responsible. Samaran, judged by many to have done the most reliable work on D'Artagnan, writes:

Les lecteurs des Trois Mousquetaires… s'étonneront peut-être de ne pas trouver dans les pages qui vont suivre les renseignements qu'ils attendent sur le beau Buckingham, les amours d'Anne d'Autriche… . Il faut done … les prévenir qu'Alexandre Dumas a un peu abusé de leur complaisance quand il leur a montré le jeune d'Artagnan se taillant sa part—et quelle part!—dans ces subtiles intrigues et ces mirifiques exploits.⁹

Lloyd Sanders, though he is acquainted with the La Rochefoucauld source (which I shall consider later), is provoked that we should know nothing "about the ball at which Anne of Austria confounded the Cardinal by appearing with the diamonds on her. That is pure Dumas."¹⁰ Likewise, Charles Sellier declares that the diamond-necklace incident "is due entirely to the imagination of the romancer."¹¹

On the other hand, Lenotre¹² claims as the source for this story Roederer's comedy Les Aiguillettes d'Anne d'Autriche.¹³ Roederer, basing his plot on seventeenth-century memoirs, has further complicated the story by having Buckingham and a valet in the service of the Duchess of Carlisle ("Mme de Winter" in Dumas) each cut off two pendants from the Queen's string of twelve. This duplication of the theft, I take it, was rendered necessary by the playwright's adherence to the unities of time and place; for by this device he saved the time needed for manufacturing the stolen pendants and also eliminated a trip to England. Moreover, one of the three acts of the play is devoted to the efforts of the Queen to induce the Cardinal, ridiculously garbed, to perform a dance before her. These modifications change the story so fundamentally that I am inclined to believe that, at the most, the play could have served only to call Dumas's attention to the dramatic possibilities of the tale.

The primary sources for the story of Buckingham's infatuation for Anne of Austria are, in reality, to be found in the memoirs of La Porte,¹⁴ La Rochefoucauld,¹⁵ Mme de Motteville,¹⁶ and the Comte de Brienne.¹⁷ The first three of these relate the opening incident of the intrigue, when the Duke of Buckingham, in the garden at Amiens, overstepping the bounds of convention, attempted to seize the Queen in his arms so ardently that she was forced to call her retinue. He later turned back from his homeward trip and appeared unexpectedly at Anne's very bedside, from which he had fairly to be driven.

A comparison of these three accounts will serve to show Dumas's indebtedness to each. The point of view of the memorialists is quite different. La Porte, the valet de chambre of the Queen and later of Louis XIV, apparently not in the close confidence of any of the principals, saw events almost as an outsider. Though he played a role as messenger between Mme de Chevreuse and Anne of Austria, he seems to have been unaware of what was going on, and he paid for his obtuseness with his dismissal by the jealous Louis XIII.¹⁸ In Dumas's novel he is depicted as having much more astuteness, and he enjoys the complete confidence of the Queen. Moreover, he is closely woven into the story by being the godfather of Mme de Bonacieux. Mme de Motteville, who was really much more intimate with the Queen and had the story directly from her, though at a later date, is intent only upon preserving the reputation of her mistress and proving her guileless innocence. According to Mme de Motteville, it is to the evil influence and machinations of Mme de Chevreuse that the whole unfortunate incident is due. Dumas pays little attention to this apologia of Mme de Motteville and pictures the Queen as being swept along by the ardor of the gallant Englishman. La Rochefoucauld, who may very well have heard the story from the originator of the intrigue, Mme de Chevreuse, with whom he was long infatuated, tells the anecdote like a sophisticated and skeptical man of the world, making the Queen and Buckingham equally culpable.¹⁹

Dumas makes use of this tale rather by indirection when he has the Duke of Buckingham, pleading his love in a passionate secret interview with Anne, recall to her his daring declaration in the garden at Amiens.²⁰ The incident, as related by Dumas, follows La Porte and La Rochefoucauld in that it takes place at night, whereas Mme de Motteville does not mention the time. He follows Mme de Motteville and La Porte in laying the scene outdoors, while La Rochefoucauld has it take place in a private room of the Queen. The Duke's unexpected return to see the Queen is related by all three authors as taking place on the next day and in Amiens; but Dumas places the second meeting a week later and in Paris, thus bringing the historical personages in contact with his own characters. The result of this affair, according to Dumas, was the dismissal of Mme de Vernet and Putange, the Queen's squire, and the fall from favor of Mme de Chevreuse. La Rochefoucauld makes no mention of these repercussions, but Mme de Motteville includes La Porte himself among those dismissed. Since Dumas was reserving an important role for the Queen's confidential valet, he ignores this detail. La Rochefoucauld, however, is the only one to mention the ambitious and romanesque scheme of the Duchess of Chevreuse and the Comte de Hollande to duplicate their own love affair by bringing Anne of Austria and the Duke of Buckingham together in the same relation. Dumas has the Duke support his suit by the example of this lesser love. Although Dumas is indebted to all three of these memoirs, he follows much more closely the spirit of La Rochefoucauld's account.

An interesting borrowing of Dumas from Mme de Motteville is Buckingham's explanation of his purpose in seeking war in order to further his love suir. Here is her analysis of the Duke's motives:

Cet homme [Buckingham] brouilla les deux couronnes pour revenir en France, par la nécessité d'un traité de paix, lorsque, selon ses intentions, il aurait fait éclater sa réputation par les victoires qu'il prétendoit remporter sur notre nation.²¹

Dumas has Buckingham say:

Quel but pensez-vous qu'aient eu cette expédition de Ré et cette ligue avec les protestants de La Rochelle que je projette? Le plaisir de vous voir! … Cette guerre pourra amener une paix, cette paix nécessitera un négociateur, ce négociateur ce sera moi.²²

What is particularly interesting here is that this nicely illustrates the chief principle of Dumas's philosophy of history, namely, that little causes bring about important events.

The second incident in this plot is the affair of the diamond pendants, first given by Louis XIII to his spouse and then presented by her to the fascinating Englishman. For private or official reasons, Mme de Motteville and La Porte did not see fit to record this part of the intrigue that so compromises the Queen. However, it is related with some gusto by La Rochefoucauld,²³ and with more verve and greater detail by the Comte de Brienne.²⁴ The tenor of the story is the same in Dumas and the two sources. Anne of Austria presents a string of twelve diamond pendants to the Duke of Buckingham as a token of her affection. An agent of the Cardinal succeeds in cutting off two of these pendants, whereupon Buckingham closes the ports of England to all departures of ships, has two identical stones cut, and sends the present back to the Queen of France in time to foil Richelieu's plot to dishonor her in the eyes of the King. For the sake of comparison and better comprehension I will enumerate the principal details of the intrigue as they are recorded in Dumas and the Comte de Brienne.

1. Dumas:

Anne herself presents the pendants to Buckingham.

Brienne:

Gift of pendants conveyed by Mme de Chevreuse.

2. Dumas:

Mme Lannoy learns of the present.

Brienne:

As in Dumas, but without lengthy questioning.

3. Dumas:

Letter of Richelieu to Milady bidding her steal two pendants.

Brienne:

Richelieu sends letter to Countess of Clarik.²⁵

4. Dumas:

Richelieu suggests that the King give a ball.

Brienne:

As in Dumas.

5. Dumas:

Milady writes to Richelieu that she has the diamonds.

Brienne:

No answer to Cardinal's letter.

6. Dumas:

Queen sends D'Artagnan to England for the jewels.

Brienne:

The Duke divines the Queen's danger on discovering his loss.

7. Dumas:

Buckingham discovers his loss on arrival of D'Artagnan.

Brienne:

His valets inform Buckingham of theft on return from ball.

8. Dumas:

Buckingham places an embargo on all ships leaving England.

Brienne:

The same.

9. Dumas:

This will be interpreted by the French as an act of war.

Brienne:

It is so interpreted.

It will be seen that in most of the essential details there is agreement between Dumas and the Comte de Brienne. I have not added the account of La Rochefoucauld, for in no case is there agreement with him when the incident is not mentioned by the Comte de Brienne. Moreover, the only changes made by Dumas in Brienne's account are obviously to give a place for his own character D'Artagnan. I conclude, therefore, that the Mémoires of the Comte de Brienne served Dumas for the construction of this part of his plot and that he had no need of recourse to the scanty narrative of La Rochefoucauld.

The denouement of the whole intrigue occurs at the King's ball, when the Queen confounds the Cardinal by appearing dressed in all twelve pendants, which have arrived just in time through the heroic efforts of D'Artagnan and his comrades.²⁶ Though the idea of having this highly dramatic scene take place at a spectacular ball is due to the genius of Dumas, he is indebted exclusively to the Mémoires of Brienne for the description of the setting.²⁷ For this Dumas went to the Eclaircissemens of the same volume he had been using, where he found, ready at hand, the full account of a fete given at the Hôtel de Ville on February 24, 1626, for the King and Queen. In some places Dumas has followed this description to the letter.

Preparations for this event had been going on for two weeks (not one, as Dumas's time shrinkage requires him to state). The city authorities had erected stages for the seats of the ladies, procured hundreds of wax tapers, ordered a large quantity of food, and invited the bourgeois of Paris to attend. Dumas follows closely these details, adding a comment here and there and mentioning the hiring of musicians at double the ordinary wage. Then he falls back upon almost a word-for-word description out of the Comte de Brienne:

Brienne:

Et le mardi 24 dudit mois, jour de caresme prenant, sur les dix heures du matin, seroit venu audit Hostel-de-Ville le sieur Delacoste, enseigne des gardes-du-corps du Roy, suivy de deux exempts et de nombre d'archers du corps, qui ont demandé audit sieur Clément toutes les clefs des portes, chambres et bureaux dudit Hostel-de-Ville, qu'il leur a à l'instant baillées avec un billet attaché à chacune clef pour la reconnoître; et se sont, lesdits gardes, saisis de toutes lesdites portes et avenues dudit Hostel-de-Ville.²⁸

Dumas:

A dix heures du matin, le sieur de La Coste, enseigne des gardes du roi, suivi de deux exempts et de plusieurs archers du corps, vint demander au greffier de la Ville nommé Clément, toutes les clés des portes, des chambres et bureaux de l'hôtel. Ces clés lui furent remises à l'instant même; chacune d'elles portait un billet qui devait servir à la faire reconnaître, et à partir de ce moment le sieur de La Coste fut chargé de la garde de toutes les portes et de toutes les avenues.²⁹

Various later arrivals are then enumerated by Dumas almost as they actually occurred, except that the novelist makes the "bon nombre d'archers" into the specific "cinquante" and omits references to the town officials and their dinner. Then he continues his reproduction of Brienne, this time interpolating the reference to M. des Essarts, who is the commanding officer of D'Artagnan:

Brienne:

Sur les trois heures de relevée sont venues deux compagnies des gardes dans la Grève, l'une françoise, l'autre suisse, le tambour sonnant.³⁰

Dumas:

A trois heures, arrivèrent deux compagnies des gardes, l'une française, l'autre suisse. La compagnie des gardes-françaises était composée moitié des hommes de M. Duhallier, moitié des hommes de M. des Essarts.³¹

Dumas here neatly adds his own character to M. Duhallier, whose arrival had already been mentioned by Brienne.

Other unimportant guests are described by Brienne but are dismissed in a sentence by Dumas. Now the romancer begins to cut down on the time elapsed. Note also his explanatory details:

Brienne:

Sur les onze heures du soir y est venue madame la première président, qui a esté reçue par mesdits sieurs de la ville, et placée à la première place.
Sur la [sic] minuit, l'on a dressé la collation des confitures pour le Roy, dans la petite salle du costé de l'église Saint-Jean, où a esté aussi dressé le buffet d'argent de la ville, gardé par quatre archers… .³²

Dumas:

A neuf heures arriva madame la première président. Comme c'était, après la reine, la personne la plus considérable de la fête, elle fut resçue par Messieurs de la Ville et placée dans la loge en face de celle que devait occuper la reine.
A dix heures on dressa la collation des confitures pour le roi, dans la petite salle du côté de l'église Saint-Jean, et cela en face du buffet d'argent de la ville, qui était gardé par quatre archers.³³

Dumas passes over the description of the three tables full of fried fish. And the lateness of the hour seems to have startled the modern writer, for he forbears mentioning the fact that the musicians played all night for the crowd of bourgeois until the arrival of the royal party at four o'clock. In Dumas the King arrives at midnight but excuses himself, even as in the real account, for his tardiness. Dumas alters the excuse nicely to suit his needs:

Brienne:

Laquelle Majesté s'est excusée de ce qu'elle venoit si tard, que ce n'étoit pas sa faute, ains des ouvriers qui n'avoient pas achevé assez tost les préparatifs.³⁴

Dumas:

Sa Majesté répondit en s'excusant d'être venue si tard, mais en rejetant la faute sur M. le cardinal, lequel l'avait retenu jusqu'à onze heures pour parler des affaires de 1'Etat.³⁵

The King and Queen and their suite immediately upon their arrival repair to their dressing-rooms to don their costumes for the ballet.³⁶ The names of all twelve participants in the ballet are listed by Dumas exactly as they are found in the Comte de Brienne. The King's role, which in the actual ballet was that of a "gentilhomme persan lettré" in Part II and a Spanish guitar-player in Part III, is changed to that of a hunter—a change be it noted, that is entirely in conformity with Louis's real character. From this point on, Dumas goes quickly into the denouement, narrating the opportune return of the jewels by D'Artagnan and the discomfiture of the Cardinal. This part of the plot is wholly Dumas's. It is perhaps surprising that Dumas did not use the riotous scene that followed, when the crowd, as in a President Jackson reception, overturned the tables in their eagerness to devour as much food as possible. The comedy element, however, would not have suited the high seriousness of the revenge motif.

In reproducing Brienne's account, Dumas has shortened the narrative considerably; made the details more specific; modernized the spelling and language; advanced the time to fit into his story; interpolated references to his own fictional characters; introduced an extensive account of the Queen; and brought in the Cardinal, who was actually not present. Though we see that Dumas lifted whole paragraphs from the Mémoires of Brienne, we must observe that the narrative—vivid, fast-moving, and dramatic—is wholly his; and the borrowed descriptions have become an integral part of the picture of the past that is, as has been frequently pointed out, more realistic than his very sources. And it is this extraordinary facility of Alexandre Dumas for turning dry-as-dust memoirs into living, thrilling tales that has caused The three musketeers to be read as avidly now as when it was first published one hundred years ago.

Notes

¹ Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras, Mémoires de Mr. d'Artagnan, capitaine lieutenant de la première compagnie des mousquetaires du roi, contenant quantité de choses particulières et secrèttes qui se sont passées sous le regne de Louis le Grand (3 vols.; Cologne: Pierre Marteau, 1700). Later editions appeared at Amsterdam in 1704 and 1715.

² I shall not enter into the complicated question of the real authorship of the works signed by Dumas—a question which three court cases and a prison sentence for Mirecourt (Jacquot), compiler of the notorious Fabrique de romans: maison d'Alexandre Dumas et compagnie, only partially settled. Although August Maquet, to whom Dumas himself sent a copy of Les trois mousquetaires with the dedication "Cui pars magna fuit," had an important role as historical investigator and preparer of the first drafts of various chapters, neither he nor any of the other employees of "Dumas and Company" ever published alone anything of merit. Consequently, it is perfectly just to speak, as I shall do, of the work as by Dumas. For able presentations of both sides of this question, cf. articles by Gustave Simon in Revue de Paris, May-June, 1919, pp. 98-112, and by G. Lenotre in Revue des deux mondes, XLIX (1919), 862-88.

³ B. M. Woodbridge, Gatien de Courtilz, sieur du Verger: étude sur un précurseur du roman réaliste en France (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1925). He gives an analysis of the Mémoires, including a brief comparison with Les trois mousquetaires, and classifies the work as a realistic novel rather than a bona fide memoir.

⁴ Cf. H. Parigot, Alexandre Dumas, père (Paris: Hachette, 1902), p. 122. The author declares of Dumas: "Nul n'a mieux restitué la manière et le sentiment de ce 17^e siècle."

⁵ Eugène d'Auriac, D'Artagnan, capitaine-lieutenant des mousquetaires (Paris: Baudry, 1846); Jean de Jourgain, Troisvilles, D 'Artagnan et les trois mousquetaires: études biographiques et héraldiques (Paris: Champion, 1910); Charles Samaran, D'Artagnan, capitaine des mousquetaires du roi: histoire véridique d'un héros de roman (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1912). Other less-informed writers have written more popular articles in the literary magazines. These latter and the recent general biographies in English by A. F. Davidson, P. H. Fitzgerald, H. S. Gorman, F. H. Gribble, G. Pearce, and H. A. Spurr offer nothing new in the way of sources of Les trois mousquetaires.

⁶ E.g., J.-M. Quérard, Les Supercheries littéraires dévoilées (Paris: Paul Daffis, 1869-70), I, 387. He devotes considerable space to a rather malevolent enquête on Dumas's works, affirming that "il est aujour-d'hui bien prouvé que l'auteur des Trois mousquetaires en a puisé la pensée dans le premier volume de Mémoires de d'Artagnan"; see likewise I, 1106. So also C. Glinel (Alexandre Dumas et son œuvre [Rheims: F. Michaud, 1884], p. 386) declares: "L'idée de ce roman a été puisée dans les Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan."

⁷ P. 49.

⁸ I.e., the ferrets or aiguillettes de diamants (cf. Les trois mousquetaires, Vol. I, chaps. viii-xxii passim).

⁹ Pp. 83-84.

¹⁰ "D'Artagnan and Milady," Cornhill magazine, XLIX, 224.

¹¹ "The real d'Artagnan," Harper's, CV, 278-81.

¹²Revue des deux mondes, XLIX, 869.

¹³ In Antoine-Marie Roederer, Intrigues politiques et galantes de la cour de France sous Charles IX, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, le Régent et Louis XV, mises en comédies (Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1832).

¹⁴Mémoires de P. de La Porte, premier valet de chambre de Louis XIV, contenant plusieurs particularitiés des règnes de Louis XIII et de Louis XIV ("Collection des mémoires relatifs à l'histoire de France," ed. A. Petitot and Monmerqué, Ser. II, Vol. LIX [Paris: Foucault, 1827]), pp. 297-99.

¹⁵(Œuvres de La Rochefoucauld, nouvelle edition … par M. D. L. Gilbert et J. Gourdault (Paris: Hachette, 1874), I, 7-13.

¹⁶Mémoires de Madame de Motteville ("Collection des mémoires relatifs à l'histoire de France," ed. Petitot [Paris: Foucault, 1824], Vol. XXXVI), pp. 342-49. This source, unmentioned by any commentator, should have been the most obvious, for Dumas cites Mme de Motteville's Mémoires directly to testify to her impecuniousness (Les trois mousquetaires [Paris: Calmann-Lévy, n.d.], I, 205).

¹⁷Mémoires inédits de Louis-Henri de Loménie, Comte de Brienne, secrétaire d'état sous Louis XIV (Paris: Ponthieu, 1828), I, 331-45.

¹⁸ La Porte, p. 298.

¹⁹ Cardinal Richelieu, who could certainly have added some piquant details to this intrigue, dismisses the subject in a few noncommittal sentences describing the official acts of Buckingham's embassy (cf. Mémoires du cardinal de Richelieu, publiés d'après les manuscrits originaux pour la Société de l'Histoire de France [Paris; 1921], V, 98-99). Retz merely mentions, in passing, the Duke's love of the Queen and her favorable response (cf. Mémoires du cardinal de Retz … [Paris: Ledoux, 1820], II, 496).

²⁰ Dumas, I, 152-54.

²¹ Mme de Motteville, I, 248.

²² I, 154.

²³ I, 11-13.

²⁴ I, 331-36.

²⁵ Milady bears the name of the Countess of Clarik in Brienne and the Countess of Carlille in La Rochefoucauld. The lack of certainty in the name of this agent of the Cardinal gives an excellent opening for Dumas to take possession of the role for his infamous Countess de Winter (Milady).

²⁶ Dumas, Vol. I, chap. xxii.

²⁷ I, 336-45.

²⁸ I, 339.

²⁹ I, 257.

³⁰ I, 339.

³¹ I, 257.

³² I, 340.

³³ I, 257.

³⁴ I, 341.

³⁵ I, 258.

³⁶ This ballet, which Dumas called the Ballet de la Merlaison, was really entitled Grand bal de la douairière de Billebahaut, and the descriptive verse to accompany the various entrées was published by Mathurin Hénault in 1626.