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THE
LIFE
AND WRITINGS
OF
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
(1802-1870)
BY
HARRY
A.
SPURR
IN ARCADIA,
"
ETC,
COMPANY
'^Wlf^n
flOOI/l
Copyright,
1902,
By
harry
a.
SPURR.
I'liblisheil
ill
October, 190*
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
TO
HER
21658
PREFACE
The
centenary of the birth of Alexandre
in
"
pere occurred
factory " Life
Dumas As no satisexists in
Frenchman
his
moment
and
whom
romances are so
character,
to the
popular, an account of
writings,
Dumas's
life,
ordinary reader,
reference.
and
the
trustworthy as
book of
tell
The
general reader
the
man
who Dumas
his confrh'es
critics
One
way
or two points
may
of anticipating
obvious
The
first
MM.
It is
of these o-entlemen
is
and
in
them
in detail.
now over
sixty years
made
admitted enmity,
; ;
VI 11
PREFACE
Dumas
ignored them
;
contemptible.
in the higher
his colleagues
his
without de-
manding
to
"
imprisonment
but
their improbability
falseness.
When
the
allegations
made "on
to dictate
"
M. de
them of having
;
Dumas
"
their denials
when he
in
proved
Dumas's
illiteracy,
in
by an anecdote
man promptly gave the libeller the lie! We make no apology for dwelling on
for
this point,
the
charges of
this
the gentleman
in
with obvious
Larousse
stantly,
his
"
Dictionnaire
and
Mr
Fitzgerald
Mr
is
Henley's
article in
Chambers's
"
Encyclopaedia"
Dumas
which
trustworthy.
That
by
Mr
Fitzgerald.
Of M. Ouerard, who in his "Supercheries " proves to his own satisfaction that with one or two insignificant exceptions Dumas never wrote anything at
all,
it
is
he considered
PREFACE
that
ix
thouehts of others."
**
When
issued,
at
Supercheries
"
was
of
M.
Ouerard,
tinued,
which stopped
formally
critic.
They
hinted
that
first
work in its entirety prevented them from dealing with M. Ouerard's accusations. We have referred to Mr Fitzgerald. His " Life and Adventures of Alexander Dumas " was written
shortly after the novelist's death,
is
now
forgotten,
and
in
is
probably out of
"
"
print.
Mr Lang
in in
Essays
in
Little,"
in his
French Novelists,"
Century,
the
"
Nineteenth
Mr Mr W. H. Pollock Mr A. B. Walkley
all
Brander Matthews
con-
demned
taken place
of
Dumas
and
in
it
is
our aim to
convey
opinion to the
reader.
made
above,
we
Dumas
PREFACE
of the
The ex-employee
dignitary
Duke
of Orleans
is
accused
when he became
of
king.
We
prefer to take
allegations
the
responsibility
suppressing
the
and
his nature.
Another
omission
requires
explanation.
far as
We
they
we have touched on
them book
at
in
;
general
terms
in
all
The
general
reader of
the
English-speaking public
plays,
does not
know Dumas's
cannot
or
of
one
hope
to interest
him
in
them
its
and
proper proportion
fully.
by Calmann-Levy. There is a general confusion in books of reference As Glinel concerning the year of Dumas's birth.
shows, by reproducing the certificate of birth, the
in
1S02.
The
make
his
book as accurate
difficult,
as no
exists,
Dumas
PREFACE
even
in
xi
French.
He
will
therefore be grateful to
any
critic,
friendly or otherwise,
fact in the text.
who
will point
out
any errors of
Note.
Jils for
My
Madame Dumas
to
to
M. D'Hauterive, her
;
Mr
Lang-,
Mr
W. M.
replies
Rossetti
to
and
;
inquiries
to
M.M. Calmann-Levy
F.
given
to
Mr
M. Duncan
for his
photographs of
Library
;
Museum
the
and
to
W.
E.
Roch, secretary of
CONTENTS
Dedicatio.v
Prefack
Vll
List ok iLLusxRAiiONS
I'ART
I.
HIS LIFE
Birth,
AND CHARACTER
(1802-30)
40
94
(1848-70)
Character
PART
His Writings
II.
HIS WRITINGS
.
183
PART
III.
HIS c;enius
A Defence A Counterclaim
Xlll
273
309
XIV
CONTENTS
APPENDICES
PAGE
A.
B. C.
a Comparison
.
351
355 357
Index
......
373
577
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Alexandre Dumas
House
in
pere
Frontispiece
8
Dumas
'D'^y^^w)
...
. .
30 36 86
108
185
Historique
Alexandre
"
DuMAS_/f/y
.....
"
.
"
D'Artagnan
" (/r<7w///^
DoRE statue,
Paris).
.
209
342
by Dore, Paris
PART
HIS LIFE
Birth,
AND CHARACTER
(1S02-30)
The Rlign
and Death
OF
(
I
S4S-70) Character
l-RO.M
BlRTII TO ^IaXIIOOD
\\\ like
Defoe,
we were about
Louise of
more
we should be tempted
"
to pre-
Dumas
Robinson Crusoe
"
delighted.
this
in
fashion,
one, which of
''
to prepare
The life and adventures of Alexandre Dumas of the World, loho i^^as both a blaekand
a lohite
man
a Royalist
and
a Republiean,
;
loho took
part
in three revolutions,
;
and made
or dead,
three
books
different reputations
man
who
Monte Cristas f one of which fortune and the other of which ; who enriched the world and was
life
;
4
Before
LIFE
this
Alexander entered the world he was about to conquer, much was already his own by inheritance. He was born into the atmosphere
of fiery light
and
fierce heat
had
left
behind
it.
He was
Alexandre Davy de
man,
self-exiled to
Pailleterie, a
French noble-
mother
Dumas.
full
of interesting
The
son of this
the
his mother's
had
Times and
cir-
and portentous
790 the swarthy young Republican Hercules, being stationed at Villers-Cotterets, a little town on
In
1
fell in
love with
heron
Thus when
Alexandre was born, ten years later (on the 24th July, 1802, to be exact), he was a quadroon, and
dowered at birth with many of the characteristics, good and bad, of the African race the ardent.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Impulsive
soul
a
the
host
of
qualities
which were
enemies
in
after-life
all
native
full
the
existent in
vigour.
life
Dumas was
made
descent
execrable taste,
calves of the
gibes.
"
the
crisp
hair
and
quadroon the subject of innumerable Blackwood " tells us that a person more
correct
romancer
rather
closely
concerning his
genea-
logical tree.
"You
"
I
are a quadroon,
sir,"
]\I.
am,
replied the
enough not
not conceal.
"
to be
ashamed
?
your father
a mulatto."
."
"
negro,"
answered
patience was
waning
fast
too
And may
was
"
?
father
"
An
ape, sir
"
an
6
ape,
sir.
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
pedigree commences where yours
My
"
!
terminates
Dumas's
that he
his
title
of
was asserted
because
was not
truly
"
De
la
Pailleterie,"
Mr. Fitzgerald
''
but M. Parigot
. .
refutes
it.
avait
cpousc une
negresse Marie-Cessette
{^sic)
Amerique, a
death,
Guinodee, en
title
Dumas
it
;
publicly to
nified,
Pailleteries,
and proved
them to be indisputably noble, Dumas said simply, " I knew it." His son for his part said, " I did not know it." Such was the pride of the father and the
son.
But to return.
first
The
of
three
Alexanders
"
Mr.
A.
B.
"
Walkley has dubbed him Alexandre the greatest was a true Frenchman, an ardent Republican, a The son, who brilliant soldier, and an honest man. was apt, at times, to decorate his facts with a gorgeous edge of appropriate fiction, seems to have
*
Alexandre
Dumas
I'.crivains
Fran^ais
").
ALKXANDilE DUMAS
clone
no more than
justice
to
liis
father, in tlie
in his "
Memoires."
who
General
kept the
Dumas
the Austrians
an act which
name
Cenis,
of "
or the story
Mont
when the General led three hundred soldiers " Every man who falls," up an ice-wall. said Dumas curtl)-, "must understand beforehand that
he he
is
a dead man,
that
nothing can
save him.
b)'
It will
and
fall
so doing
may
our chances."
;
did
and
their
moan
him
not a
not
When
ambition,
he turned
sail
for France.
Tarentum, and
prison.
into
The
strucrcrle
who
is
tried to poison
a terribly en-
"
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
inclines
all
thralling one,
for
it is
and
one to believe
in heredity,
told with
we
are as uncon-
Charles
II.
accom-
and we
will therefore
Dumas
to his brother
am
glad to
tell
you that
my
yesterday morning to
a fine boy,
pounds, and
that
if
is
eighteen inches
he continues to grow
in the
in the inner,
But a
in a
sad, brief
proud parent.
tion,
the soldier's
constitution.
He took a journey to
and
Paris to consult
to
specialist,
work
to
the
future widow.
The
little
three-year-old
went
sword of Marshal
At
last
,\
>-
ALEXANDRE DUxMAS
of the
shadow
"My
father,"
he wrote
after years,
room
me
all
more sadly on
his knees."
Then
redress
the broken-hearted
General, refused
by his old colleague the Emperor, died, suffering, and in poverty, and greatly troubling for The widow, in spite of her those he left behind.
prayers and tears,
in spite of
as
brilliant
colleagues
Dumas's
own
friends
and
failed to obtain
a pension
from the
Not a sou would Napoleon grant, to keep from starvation the widow of the man who had once dared to foresee and condemn the ambitiEmperor.
ous Emperor,
in
And now
a
life
of
cruel
time
humiliation
Of these
which he
Madame
an illustrated copy of
and
of
treasures, a big
10
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
park, both ot which the youthful
heart.
;
Bible and a
little
boy had a
childish passion
his
and
geography.
years of age,
"And
I
so,"
when
five or six
possessed
superior
degree,
I
fact
which
a
made me
little
wondrously conceited.
the
jacket, taking part,
can
still
cotton
in
the
conversation
of
tributing thereto
my
of
and sacred."
The memory
these
was
alwa)-s
books.
He
tell
roundings, people
and events of these days all influence on his writings and character,
to pursue the subject will find
in "
Ange
The
in
the
Memoires," are
full
of delicate
humour and
lifelike
charm.
its
Dumas
tells
us of the old
chateau, and
and draws a
M. Deviolaine, a man
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
That gentleman's
daughter,
Ceciha,
il
was one of Dumas, then as the boy's favourite playmates. always, had a great tendency to vertigo, and the mischievous girl delighted in trapping him into some
such
ful
peril.
Once during
fell
their
Alexandre
:
into a pond,
risk of
drowning
the
occasion
prompted
first
mot,
showed the tells an amusing lad's story of an adventure which befell him about this time. He and a companion were fighting outside a grocer's shop, and Dumas was unluckily pushed into a tub of honey. The grocer, who was busy work inside, with a knife in his hand, ran after at
which
the terrified
boy,
who imagined
that
something
fate
was about
and
care-
happen
to him.
The
trousers.
Alexandre's
one.
first
day
at school
was an eventful
jokes of a
According
to the brutal
he was subject
the
to a series of practical
The
new boy
crying,
punished
Alexandre
school was
foresaw a
over,
warm
his
reception outside
when
and
heart
He
12
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
determined to face the situation, since there was no help for it, and assuming a boldness which he
boy he met and challenged him to fight. Young Dumas's impetuosity soon carried all before it his opponent was thoroughly beaten, and ever after that little Alexandre was respected and let alone.
certainly did not feel, he accosted the
first
;
communion, and there naturally followed him a period of religious exaltation. He tells us that when the time came he swooned from excess of emotion. But Dumas was never one
his
for
first
on
whom
religion
in
the
morbid
of ultra-piety.
More
lasting
He
was
friendly with
at last
all
when
did a
little
sly shooting
on
his
own
account.
His
and
his
by Dumas with much gaiety and relish, character-sketches of his companions are
drawn to the life. Alexandre was not by any means a studious boy, and he watched with anxiety the various vain efforts made to get him into colleges set apart for the
sons of
officers.
When
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Seminary of Soissons, he saw himself
tion
''tin
13
in
imaginaraillery
pre t re
inalgrc
hiV and
him
in
the
to
of the
fair
Cecilia
prompted
hide
away
a bird-catcher's
;
He
was
forgiven, of course
some
sort of teachino- at
and the
bluff,
worldly
Fortier,
struggled hopelessly to
instil
He
were
It
These
peaceful
lessons
interrupted
by
idol
was now
Paris.
1814,
and the
Allies
were approaching
"
Madame
Dumas
bogey-cry, "
and as a consequence her son got a sight of the young king of Rome, who, on the abdication of the Emperor, was acclaimed as his father's successor by fickle and
!
The Cossacks
enthusiastic
Paris.
The
by Dumas.
was
self,
that his
mother
laid before
being a
Davy de
The
14
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
new monarchy
of Louis
to him.
"
child,"
who was
ing.
to
be
A certain
his pupil
M.
who
strove
gave
throughout his
a beautiful writing-hand.
it,
The
first
first
promptings towards
visit to Villers-Cotterets
a youth
in
named Auguste Lafarge, who was a clerk This city -mouse stirred the deep but Paris.
his departure, the
and when, on
young
visitor left
Dumas was
also.
" to
fired
However,
complete,
"
bout-rimes
quenched the
Then came the thrilling drama of the " Hundred Dumas had the good fortune to see the Days," Emperor pass through the little town of VillersCotterets on his way to Waterloo, and on his
return from that fatal
field,
and
two episodes
is
most
vivid.
he
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
always remained, a Bonapartist
vidualist
15
is
that
an
indi-
in
sentiment and
fiction,
though a staunch
Republican
in practice
and
politics.
He
period.
was
says.
rather
"
I
good-looking
long,
young
hair,
monkey," he
which
fell
had
curling
over
I
my
was
crispen until
which are
still
my
face,
a straight
nose, small
lips,
Lastly,
add a
pale complexion,
which turned
crisp."
my
hair
became
out -door
He was
without
a lad of
spirit, "
fear,"
and
his
roving,
was
At
" finishinof
He was
Paris.
two somewhat
from
who came on
visit
At
and the
girls
and
his
anxious to
attire,
made "show
the
On
one occasion,
wide
larly
ditch.
The
feat
impressive
for the
16
LIFE
AND WHITINGS OF
effort.
breeches in the
to
he
upon the scene an imdrama of Dumas's life. Our hero was at this time only the junior clerk of M. Mennesson, the notary, with little more than clerkly prospects and ambitions, when there came to VillersCotterets an elegant young aristocrat, the Vicomte Adolphe Ribbing de Leuven by name. De Leuven dazzled his young friend completely. He could make amorous verse he had written plays, he had
portant actor in the
;
And now
London what The young and .aspiring heart does not know summons that was at first a whisper became to the soul of the ardent young Alexandre a call, ever louder and more imperative and now, a day's holicall
The
to
Paris
the
call
to
it.'*
Dumas
It
was Shakespeare
diluted
by Ducis,
entered
is
true,
;
"
Hamlet
provincial,
who
raptured
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
was
excitlnor
17
the
comrade,
Amedee de
coming
by teaching him ItaHan, so that he might read Dante and Ariosto in the original, and German, enough to read Schiller. Better still, he gave him this priceless advice, " Be sure that which Dumas gratefully records
for the
fight,
:
Dumas
there
is
something else
sport, dancing,
and
:
all
There
is
Work
learn to
work
learn, that
is,
to
be
happy."
Dumas's blood
be remembered
is
and
parentage
;
had important
Even
young Dumas could, as it were, feel the hot breath The literary-political of Romanticism on his brow. a moderate was then commencing revolution " like Casimir Delavigne was conquer" Romantic
:
Beranger
was
thrilling
France
with his
songs
Bourbons
modified
expressed
the
now
itself
greedily,
and the seed fell on fertile ground. Furthermore, de Leuven condescended to collaborate with the young clerk in some vaudevilles and other plays,
18
Paris,
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
him.
The months
headquarters
Parisian
to
the
would - be
The
to their
own
best interests.
At
it
this
juncture
Dumas was
promoted
entered,
to a clerkship
commonly
guilty,
comrade named
to
in
was
recommended themselves
out to do the forty or
to
Dumas.
Two
clerks,
themselves
hours
!
in
the
city,
and return
in
seventy-two
problem.
But Dumas's ingenuity was equal to the Paillet had a horse, and the two youths
alternately.
used
it
That halved
the
walking
distance.
The one on
and
way was to pay the game Whenever they sighted for their food in Paris. a keeper, one rode off with the game and gun, the
that they shot on the
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
to propitiate and,
if
19
the keeper,
Englishmen
food, lodging
spending a sou
for the
exchange
game.
this plan was young Alexandre's. At Paris the first ambition of the budding author was realised for, thanks to his friend de Leuven, he saw Talma, the tragedian, in " Sylla," and had the
Needless to say,
Dumas was
and had
"
duly questioned
to confess, with
deep
humiliation, that he
was
"
You need
kindly actor.
was an
attorney's clerk.
brilliant
!"
company, "let
laid his
"
me
hand on Dumas's
I
Alexandre Dumas,
name
if
go back
to
your
office,
and
call,
such
benediction,
the
moment when
Dumas
; ;
20
in Paris
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
time, and, to the ardent
!
young man's mind, the sooner the better The opportunity came sooner. M. Lefevre had returned to Crepy before his truant clerk, and Dumas answered the inevitable reproof with a rash
resignation.
to
This
fertile
grow
its first
crop of ideas.
The
notary's clerk
He
tune
moment,
for
his
mother's
francs.
resources
had
Nevertheless,
;
Dumas
contrived to
sell
some
old engravings
won
his coach-fare to
posting-house,
by means of
at billiards
to
letters
written
General
Dumas by
Victor,
Marshals Jourdan,
Sebastiani,
and the
rest
tokens
had
first
which he
knelt
fears
he
He
and and
many
him go on
At
there
this
is
point in the
of Alexandre
Until
life,
a sharp dividing-line.
without ambition
He
all
:
which a
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
I
21
at
ball,
;
and
and
pistol
could
His kindly
freed himself
to live,
make
him
;
a musician, a priest, a
notary, or a scholar of
now he
from
all
restraining influences,
and began
think, plan,
and work
for
himself
The
change, as
we
shall see,
worked wonders.
is
he
made many)
love
for
never
mother.
doubted
"
I
Dumas's
passionate
was a man, woman depended on me. now," he writes, I was going to repay my mother in some degree Truly, he for all the care she had lavished on me." was a man, in two senses he had reached the age of a man, and he acted with all a man's courage
his " for a
:
and sense of
responsibility.
Of
to
all
his long
and adventurous
struggles
;
of Dumas's
early
is
the
most familiar
life,
the general
reader
however
so that we,
in turn,
will allow.
On
his
arrival
in
Paris
Dumas went
to each
Jourdan, Victor,
on
son
22
LIFE
in
AND WRITINGS OF
influence.
was poor
money and
General Foy,
found the
Nevertheless,
however, received
Dumas
kindly, but
young
his address.
When
clerk's exquisite
We
are saved
"
I
"Why?"
You write Dumas felt
"
"
!
profoundly humiliated.
He
resolved
then and there to earn his living one day, not by his
This
skill in
man a clerkship in the Secretary's department of the Duke of Orleans, with a salary of about
ing young
fifty
pounds a
year.
Fifty
pounds a year
!
It
was
the riches of
full
Monte
into
his
"
!
Cristo
Dumas
hurried
home
of joy, reached
Villers-Cotterets at midnight,
and rushed
"
mother's bedroom,
shouting
first
Victory
!
Victory
He
blood
des
Once
installed in his
Pate
Italiens,
Dumas
noble
himself to study.
The
days were
till
his
master's,
to
ten every evening he returned to the bureau but half the night he spent reading work
;
graphy and
physioloG^y.
He
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
certain
curiosity
;
23
period
si)le,
no
So
knew
he
Meanwhile the Romantics, like a crowd without leaders, growled and threatened inarticulately.
Their growing power was greatly augmented by
the stupidity of the Government,
that
who
persecuted
Royalist
rival.
The
already
and
political.
poetry, with
the
;
"
Odes and
the
and
the
Nodier had
romances.
Then came
"
of pictures of a
of
Gaston
de
Foix,"
Death Massacre of
the
his
Chios,"
cents."
'
and
of
Inno-
Gericault, too,
was
at
work on
fan
famous
Wreck of the Medtisar From abroad came winds to Byron, who died in this year, was
the future author of "
the
flames.
deeply impressing
;
Antony
"
Scott,
who was
24
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
men
of the rising generation,
ideas of romance in had revolutionised the general, and Dumas's notions in particular and
old
in the
country of
home
for
romances of the
prairies.
young
collaborators, de
Leuven
and Dumas, had not been idle. In spite of his content with his modest salary, young Alexandre
had spent more than double that income, during the
first
year,
and
gone.
At
this
a third
a clever
play
"
which
resulted
and the
et
little
"
La Chasse
lAmour
though
rejected at the Theatre Gymnase, was accepted at the Ambigu, and played with success in 1S25. This lightened the poverty which was weighing upon the author's household, and thus emboldened, Dumas put together three little stories which he had written, and persuaded a foolish publisher to go halves with
him
in
the risk
of producing
them.
This
little
which we
was published
was not a success. Dumas tells us variously that four and again that six copies only were sold. It was favourably reviewed, however, by Etienne Arago, and proved a species of letter-of1826, but
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
introduction to Buloz,
25
when
Deux
Mondes came
possibilities
into existence.
for
Le
named Lassagne, in the fortunes of a second play called " La Noce et I'Enterrement "
colleague
blow
fell
upon him.
News
of this employee's
encourage such
evil
the
future.
Dumas was
superior,
M. Oudard,
in his den.
That
official, it
he strove to emulate
Delavigne
thing
but
Dumas
if
replied, with
more honesty
what M.
there
the
and
his
ambitions.
answer was
From
this
which
end cost
less in
the youth his salary, and nearly lost him his place.
Whilst
Dumas was
struggling on,
more or
26
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
own
James
II.
on
but he
political-literary
and
obnoxious
threat
was withdrawn.
actors.
arrival in Paris of
Shakespearean
moment
dramatised on
all
hands
Byron was a literary Dumas was even more prepared to welfashion. come Shakespeare than were the majority of his
cation to French politics, and
fellow-Romantics.
electrified him.
He
saw
"
Hamlet,"
and
it
He knew
he
"
saw light"
But
on
let
him speak
for
him-
''Ah, this
this
last!
was what
I
was what
at
Here were
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
acting"
27
life,
here
was mock
art;
life
become
real
by
the
power of
of speech and
action,
and weaknesses,
read
nay, devoured
I
came
world
to
in the real
all
recognised, in short,
after
God."
"
I
From
moment my
to
career
is
was decided
sent to every
felt
which
;
me, then
failed
felt
a confidence
I
me.
Nevertheless
special study,
and
that, to
first
living
life, I
should
laid their
works
probed
with scalpel
in
them
life.
28
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
that
Dumas had
of Schiller,
filled his
new
No
was im-
murder of Monaldeschi by order of Queen Christine of Sweden. Dumas seized upon the incident
then and there as a subject for a poetic drama
,
in
an
article
the
" unities,"
it
in form.
"What,
infant,
then,
was
? "
the
Academy
Dumas asked
himself.
The
Comedie Fran^aise, a State-endowed theatre, ruled by the Government and a committee of its actors, and bound by tradition to the classic school of Corneille and Racine, would not be likely to tolerate
any suspicion of vulgarity, in the shape of plays But this very cast in the mould of Shakespeare.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
to obtain,
29
by
right, at least
a hearing.
There was,
Dumas
learnt,
an
official
would probably be a year before he got down to " Christine," so great were his arrears of work
;
give
attention
to
in
more favoured
obtaining
it
candidates.
Dumas
succeeded
an
appointment
was for seven in the morning the only time the overworked official Very droll is the young dramatist's could spare. account of Baron Taylor in his bath, groaning
with the Baron, though
At
reading
the
and poor
Dumas
became
come again
to begin his
he
was applauded
of remark that
his sorrowing
loudly,
worthy
to delight
lost the
on the way,
and
it
that night.
MS. He knew
of
every line of
by heart
appointed
to
The gentleman
Comedie Franqaise
on
behalf
the
30
of the
LIFE
classic
AND WRITINGS OF
school,
young
there.
iconoclast
go back
desk
and
stay
Yet again the play was more set aside for revision and
;
read,
this
and once
time
Dumas
Poor
her
No
in
new
and
social intrigues
forced
Dumas
its
postpone-
ment of
was
path.
far
of the subject by a
more
influential writer.
But he
rence
set
One day
Dumas
As
some.
fell
on a book
It
was a volume of
Duke de
trick
quence.
The
seemed so dramatic that it excited Dumas's interest, and he sought for and read the story of the murder of St Megrin, and of Bussy dAmboise in the " Memoires d'Estoile." From
incident
DIMAS
IN
1828.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
these, he tells us,
31
"
Henri
Trois et sa Cour."
"
I
"
my
Let
to the
and submit
will
;
it
he
find
in the
in
the
matter
since,
have written
is
fifty
dramas
more
skilfully
constructed."
boastful
if
The young
for
author's superiors
They
should
piled the
that
he
use
away
to
his salary,
and
his
Dumas had
the
borrow from
he and
the
Lafitte,
famous
banker and
from our
politician,
Finally,
Duke
of Orleans withheld
author the
staff.
But
was read
privately,
was read before the Comedie Francaise, and accepted by acclamation. Soon the news got about that a new play a play which would revolutionise the French staQfe had been written by an obscure young man. and little
by
little
The
produc-
32
tion
LIFE
was
AND WRITINGS OF
for
fixed
February
loth,
less
1829,
and
rehearsals
smoothly.
Mars were to play the chief parts, and Dumas was full of joy and hope and pride, when news came to him that his mother was dying.
Mdlle.
She would
him
if
her friends
trouble
vated
her
croaking,
spiteful
tongues.
play, the
less
On
down
in
an apoplectic
and
night
unconscious and
in
danger.
Of
"Henri
III."
As an epoch-making
greater even
was
than
"Hernani" a year
accounts of those
later,
and
The
who
witnessed
author's
justice.
more than
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
*
33
my
mother's bed-
side,"
he says.
"
She was
I
still
unconscious.
At
box
a quarter to eight
left
her,
and entered
my
was received complacently, although the exposition of the plot was long, stiff and tedious.
first
"The
act
As
"
the curtain
fell I
I
my
mother."
On my
return
to cast a glance
sented.
what a magnificent coup dceil it preThe first tier was crowded with men
the whole aristocracy was massed
on
their breasts
diamonds."
in
the midst
From
the third
act, to
:
was a growing delirium. Everyone applauded, even the women and amongst them Madame Malibran, leaning far out of a box and clinging with both hands to a column to keep
no longer a success
it
;
Then, w^hen Firmin came forward to name the author, the enthusiasm was so unanimous that the Duke of Orleans himself rose and listened, standc
34
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
ing, to the
name.
letter of congratulation,
who
his salary
successful
young playwright's
sold the
Dumas had
that
"Henri Trois
Interior.
"
was
Happily,
Dumas
order,
the
young author
success.
He began immediately to pay for his An anonymous attack in one of the papers
a challenge from the
greater honour
still
!
brought
fiery
young
author,
and
seven
playwrights
drew up a pompous him to save the national theatre from " despicable mountebanks," and to keep to the orthodox writers
that
other
is,
themselves.
as
Frenchmen had, and could not interfere. About this time Nodier, of whom we have spoken, was holding his salon at the Arsenal, and Dumas had the eood fortune to be admitted to that brilliant
literary circle.
Nodier,
tells
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
amusing story of Dumas's
Arsenal.
first
35
introduction to the
The
librarian
was
constantly
pestered
by poorer literary brethren, who called to sponge on him. Therefore, when one day Marie begged her father to receive a handsome young " man of
wary bibliophile flatly called refused. laughed, went away, and again. Marie was much taken with the gay, goodyoung fellow, and Nodier at last grumblingly looking
letters "
called, the
He
received
Dumas,
ingly as
first
Needless to say,
money was
and a literary encourageHere ment and education which was invaluable. the young author met Hugo, De Vigny, Sainte
he gave him a
social
life,
Beuve,
De
young
"
Sunday
here in
due course,
friendship
affectionate
Alexandre
was brought.
The
close,
and unalterable, until the elder man's death. Fame now came swiftly to the author of the Dumas was appointed first great romantic play.
36
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Duke
of Orleans, under
assistant-librarian to the
^loo a
year!
of "Henri Trois" was the lion of Paris for the winter of 1829; Deveria made an engraving- of him David of Angers a medallion. " Nothing was wanting to my glory," says Dumas
The
author
frankly,
" not
even that
little
which
always
stories
accompanies
reputations."
Wild
were repeated
in
"classic" circles, of
how they
had danced about a bust of Racine, crying exultantly how they were callthat they had " done for him " ing for the heads of the Academicians on chargers,
;
and so
the
*'
forth.
No
King
Henri Trois," indeed, was a revelation and a
It
was a romance drawn from French history its characters were real in origin, and true instead of dull to life in their words and deeds declamatory couplets, and a tawdry, meaningless plot, the audience was enthralled by the rapid,
revolution.
;
human
passion.
The
the
and
his
of the French
court
the
which develop
AL,EXANDRE DUMAS.
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS
tion
37
his wife to
make
all
this
was so
the
so congenial, so startling,
talked of nothinof else.
characteristic tact,
that for
determined to
follow
this success
possibly could.
He
Comedie Francaise, where it was receiving lukewarm treatment, and took it to the Odeon. He had reconstructed the play, "to make it more modern and more dramatic " and for this purpose had taken coach to Havre and back, working out
;
coach
But
this
taken by surprise.
The
then,
when
was withdrawn and the rehearsals went forward, an opposition was organised. Fortunately the young "romantics" rallied round Dumas; his friendly rival Soulie brought in a number of his workmen to form a claque, and the forces were aljout On March 30th, 1830, the battle of the equal. The theatre resounded alterOdeon was fought nately with applause and "hissing"; roars of delight
the mandate
other.
This
terrible
"
Ten
times overthrown,
its
feet after
it
two
in the
morning
finished,
knees!"
38
"
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Yet the success of" Christine " was still undecided when the curtain fell, and Dumas and his backers
retired
to
supper,
jubilant
but exhausted.
The
many
how was it possible for the host of that joyous company to find the time to do the work? Hugo and Alfred de Vigny grasped
actors next
morning
but
came
to
the
rescue.
Bidding
Dumas
room and wrought at the play for the rest of the night, and at dawn walked away, arm-in-arm, leaving the revised MS. on the mantelpiece in the room where the revellers were snoring. With the change consequent on his achievement
of fame and (in a less degree) of fortune, closed
Dumas
took
a chapter
in
his
life
When
he
first
He
hero
qu'on est bien
h.
Dans
line grenier,
vingt ans
The handsome
stress,
lad
had
for
neighbour one
Madame
INTarie-Catherine Lebay, a
brightened the
ALEXANDRE
Madame Dumas
born of
this
DUJSIAS
fell in
39
love.
When
1824.
When
little
worldly
by
little lost
rivalry
and of a struggle
Dumas grew up
two
and
position,
As
and
sad
was repaid
life.
true to his
it
What Dumas might have been, had he remained first love, we can only conjecture. That
for the
good of
doubt.
Although
at
first
there
between them
through
lover,
life
after
the separation,
she remained
him.
Her death
in
of the old
his end.
40
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
of
The Reign
The
successful
Dumas
(1830- 1848)
visit Algiers,
young dramatist was preparing to which had just been captured by the
instinct
which he
anxious to
developed
in
later
years,
Dumas was
when
1830 broke
It
is
out.
crisis
which led to the downfall of Charles X., and the accession of the younger branch of the Bourbons in the person of Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans,
but sufficient must be told to explain the part which
in the
strange tragic-farce.
by
his auto-
On
to
be issued, "putting
an end to the freedom of the press, already largely curtailed, appointing a new mode of election, and
dissolving
the
recently-elected
chamber."
Once
watch-words were
appeared
;
re-
the
roll
The
revolutionaries, to
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
which party the son of the General
41
belonged,
of the
Dumas
rise .out
of
"
"the
days
of
July"
is
told
M.
his
Parigot,
commenting on
:
this
description,
in
If
all
brains at that
moment
are
you
Volume
described,
There
well as
the
different
means
make the throne of Charles Turn over the leaves of Louis Blanc X. totter. Dumas is a magician for demonand compare.
ments, which united to
strating
the
picturesque.
The
ever-growing
Vive
la
Charte
! '
who wished
' ;
to
'
avenge Waterloo
of
the
excitement
the
young
Hall
collegians,
Lafayette
all
domiciled at the
this
Town
and
alonor with
the
opposition
the
Provisional
who
has a fine
sense of spectacular
effect.
42
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
to lash the
'combut
They kept
movement,
securely indoors,
to take
during the
fray,
after the
danger.
He
denounced the
moment when
the people
were triumphing."
Alexandre's share in the Revolution was chiefly
confined to two exploits
the
of
saving of precious
fetching
This
latter
was a
first
days
at
but
city
Dumas
heard Lafayette
(who was informally the Minister of War of the if the King advanced on Paris the revolutionaries would have no powder
to defend themselves
;
wherewith
and he
at
once
some
sixty miles
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
away,
43
where,
as
and
the
in
his
native
department,
ammunition back.
at
;
was laughed
mendation
to
Dumas
and with these credentials (which he boldly took upon himself to strengthen by interpolation) he prepared
the
people of Soissons
The
Bard.
named
On
pace of the
young
horse
adventurer's
blank cartridge at
in
affright.
Dumas fired a the man, who fell from the Young Alexandre promptly
impatience,
donned the posting-boots and took the coach forward himself. At his own beloved Villers-Cotterets
and having
young
in
mother lived
the morning.
make a
which
was
to
float
from the
flagstaff of
the
cathedral
that morning.
set out to
smuggle
44
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
for
repubhcan
and Dumas
until
himself Hngered
had waved.
pavilion,
where a minute before the Royalist flag Then he climbed the wall of the
with his
and dropping into the garden, confronted gun two soldiers who were peacefully
and announced
his errand.
After
indoors,
and behave as
to
neutrals, until
some
more
decisive order
off
Dumas went
difficult
Commandant
charge
of
the depot
at Soissons, found himself that morning confronted by a swarthy and very earnest young man with a gun, who demanded the ammunition in his keeping.
He
scoffed
at
the youth
magazine.
Dumas
and on was reinforced by his return found that three other officers, and therefore still more scornful
of the truth or untruth of this statement,
Liniers
and incredulous.
Dumas
must
act
did
not
hesitate,
for
he saw that he
"
I
prompdy, or he was
lost.
had gone
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
too far to
45
withdraw,"
he says
"
was almost
new
government.
for me."
pistols,
It
was a question of
life
or death
He
for
the powder
five
seconds, he would
!
blow
moment
rushed
in,
band
way,
to yield.
if
Liniers
was now
his
Dumas
took
assemble
in
outside,
Liniers sat
Then
f
mayor and other authorities. At last Dumas in anger broke open the magazine himself, procured carts and loaded them with the powder, and at fi[ve o'clock the adventurous little band were on their way back to Paris. At nine next morning
the
Dumas
de
the
Birt
Dumas was
gloriously,
"bluffing"
the
Soissons
cause
of Republicanism
Between
"
46
the
LIFE
alternatives
AND WRITINGS OF
of
Charles
X.
and
;
an elected
the
made and
entered
-
Duke
pro-
King and
Paris,
mised
all
things
democratic,
and
was presently chosen lieutenant general of the kingdom, and then " monarch by the will of the
people."
"
moderate
"
party,
who
believed
in
constitutional
government,
acting
with
the very
away
had fought and died for and Louis Philippe began to reign, the revolution
having made a distinction The new ruler, all affability,
without
difference.
ing, "
You
The
public
affair
affairs
our
susceptible
in
Dumas.
had been
to
for
moment
the
La Vendee,
Royalist
and
let
upon France the horrors of civil war. Dumas, knowing that the late king had renounced the throne Henri V." (the Comte de in favour of his grandson Chambord) whose mother, the Duchesse de Berri, was a woman of much courage and determination, suggested that to prevent the possibility of any future rising, a national guard should be organised in the Royalist department, and that he should
loose
'*
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
responsible officials upon the subject.
47
Except that by
coiner
his intercession a
poor wretch of a
was saved from the galleys, Dumas did nothing and notable during his six weeks in La Vendee
;
when on
his return
envoy declared very frankly that it was useless to attempt to organise the national guard in La Vendee
;
but that
if
the
up,
by means
between
this
all
of hieh-roads, so
parts of
it
that communication
would
us
if
The "poet"
though a
offered.
so
he
tells
another,
occasion
less
La Vendee,
Chouans
"
Indeed,
only
two years
rising
later,
the Duchesse
once
Vendean
on behalf
You
are a poet
to kings
"Sire," answered
their poets
"
'
called
seers,'
dramatist
in
Dumas was
still
subservient
48
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
when he wrote his next play "Napoleon," which, if we may believe the
to the would-be politician,
"
cir-
cumstances.
the
Odeon
theatre,
to write
him a play on
this subject
One
night, after a
Dumas and
several other
Mademoiselle Georges led the unsuspecting playwright into another room, "to show him something."
On
their return
Dumas
disappeared, and the smiling Harel informed his coy young author that he was a prisoner. Dumas was startled, but took his imprisonment in good part. He was fed sumptuously and treated like a lord all
;
to consult
were
it is
at his
a bad
piece of
work
upon him,
for with
him
work depended entirely upon his which in turn was a matter of his own
"
One
as a
work of
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
of his famous play, " Antony."
British admirers
49
To
the bulk of
title
of
Dumas
the very
will
be
strange
known,
He
him
"
tells
at the time
when
was temporarily
forbidden.
was pacing the boulevards ... I stopped suddenly, and said to myself, A man who, when surprised by the husband of his mistress, should kill her, saying that she had resisted him, and who should die on the scaffold in consequence, would save the honour of that woman, and expiate
I
*
One day
his crime.'
The
idea of 'Antony'
was found:
six
weeks afterwards the play was written." " When I was writing Antony,' " says Dumas
'
elsewhere, "
I
was
in love
:
with a
woman
of
whom
was
terribly jealous
(in
a husband, an officer
'
'
in
the
army.
Read
Antony he will tell you what I suffered then." M. Parigot, in his study " Le Drame dAlexandre Dumas," throws further lio^ht on this subject. A number of unpublished letters from the
:
critic's
hands,
and
he
has
quoted
from
to
them
exhaustively.
50
LIFE
,
AND WRITINGS OF
presented (as he
")
W
in
to
tells
us in "
Le Testament de M. Chauvelin
at the
The
some pretentions to learning evidently flattered " there was something of the young man's vanity the air of Villers-Cotterets about him still " and the young lover vowed, cursed, adored, despaired, and rhapsodised for three years. Then " Antony " was written the intimacy had unconsciously fulfilled its purpose, and came to an end accordingly. Meanwhile this amorous heart, overflowing with passion, had found opportunity to fall in love with another
of
The need
for love
had
It
for the
with a fever.
was of
this
experlment-in-love,
in
which he
these
Dumas was
thinking
verses, with
which he prefaced
Que de fois tu m'as dit, aux heures du delire, Quand mon front tout h. coup devenait souci eux
" Sur ta bouche pourquoi cet effrayant souriie? Pourquoi ces larmes dans tes yeux?"
Pourquoi
? Cast que mon coeur, au milieu des delices, D'un souvenir jaloux constamment oppresse, Froid au bonheur prdsent, va chercher ses supplices,
Dans
I'avenir et le passd.
51
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Jusque dans
tes baiscrs je retrouve des pcines
:
m'accables d'amour I'amour, je m'en soiiviens, Pour la premiere fois s'est glisse dans tes veines, Sous d'autres baisers que les miens.
Tu
Du
vainement tu m'enivres
Combien pour un beau jour de tristes lendemains Ces chamies qu'ii mes mains en palpitant tu livres,
I'alpiteront sous d'autre mains.
Et
je
ma
fureur jalouse,
!
De
reserver le prix
Quelques mots a I'autel t'ont faite son dpouse, Et te sauvent de mon mepris.
Car ces mots pour toujours ont vendu tes caresses, L'amour ne les doit plus donner ni recevoir L'usages des ^poux a regie les tendresses Et leurs baisers sont un devoir
;
!
Malheur?
A jetc comme
A moi
Souffrir
longtemps sans
ma douleur me venger.
profonde
Car une voix qui n'a rien de la terra " Pour ton bonheur c'est sa mort qu'il te faut ;" Et cette voix m'a fait comprendre le mystcre
!
Malheur
Ma dit
Et du meurtre
Viens, done,
et
de I'echafaud.
la voix
me
convie
vie,
Car
il
je te voyais,
ma
si j'y
croyais
Years
that
Memoires,"
Dumas
confessed
the
affected,
verses were poor, the sentiment was and the blasphemy w^as a wanton one
52
LIFE
Once
set at
AND WRITINGS OF
liberty
by the tyrannical
Harel,
Dumas
"
hearsal.
Antony
in
re-
time,
more orthodox roles than those Adele, and Antony, the masterful Ishmael-of-society and the Comedie Fran9aise itself, as our author confesses, was not The two artists, the frame for such a picture.
of the
fascinated
;
losing faith
in
much
to the
author,
pretext.
Firmin with
of the theatre.
It
so happened that
M.
when
that
stifling
freer air
The young
dramatist,
although
pro-
born,
went forthwith
naive,
to
and
full
nervous energy.
He
tive intelligence at
piece.
She shut
young author
into a room,
to
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
53
;
in its original
form
St
and next
The
the
manager
;
of
the
Porte
Martin
to
and
the
accepted
but
it
author's vanity
when M. Crosnier
politely struggled
comfortably
the
fifth
fourth,
the
At length
delivery,
had given
its
parent
that
much
anxiety.
For
once
Dumas had
lost
But
if
the
moment
for
inopportune
appearing
with
a
as
the
atmosphere
was
die
itself.
charged
story
feverish
electricity,
which
to
of
"Antony"
is
attracted
irresistibly
How
social
win
man
in
high
society
how
is
ment which society has erected ? By will-power by the strength of an unscrupulous individuality! For such a story of power and passion the Parisian of that day was fully ripe.
As
the
play progressed,
the
emotion
of
the
54
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
The
first
;
ended in applause and the second was as warmly received. In the midst of the play the
unconsciously copying
author,
Goldsmith,
rushed
The
hung
and
for a
:
moment
the fate
suspense
The
hundred
cried
the scene-shifters,
"if the
goes up again
the
fifth
"
And
act
commenced
We
That "hero," surprised by the husband, stabs Adele, and throws the dagger at the wronged man's feet, saying, " She resisted me and I killed
;
" Antony."
her
*
"
tells
a story respecting this famous " tag " which we cannot some years later, the prompter, through ignorance, rang down the curtam immediately Antony had stabbed Adcle. The public, furious at being cheated of the famous line, clamoured " Le dt'no2ie//ie/:t ! le denouement I" Bocage sulked in his but Marie Dorval gooddressing-room, and would not return naturedly remained on the stage, and the curtain was rung up again, in the hope that Antony would feel obliged to return. Adcle was discovered, dead, in her chair. There was a silence. At last Dorval rose slowly, and coming down to the footlights, remarked pleasantly, "Gentlemen, I resisted him, and he killed me." Then she made her best bow, and retired, amidst frantic applause.
Dumas
omit.
At a
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
The
recalls
55
patience
followed.
demanded a sight of the author. Calls and Dumas, in rushing behind the
he was recognised, and chased by a
his coat
was torn
Antony
It
"
excited
sition.
stined to
was a daring, provocative play, deset the fashion in French society dramas
When
later,
it
was about
time
at
to
be revived,
three
years
this
the
Comedie Fran^aise, one of the many journals hostile to Dumas attacked " Antony " for its immorality. The denunciation came from such a powerful quarter that Thiers, who had arranged not only for the revival, but for new plays from its author's pen, was forced to forbid the performance. Dumas went to law, and obtained ^400 damages, and an order that
the piece should be produced within a certain time.
failed
to bring
its
author
things political
were the public preoccupied by and to avoid the unsettling atmofor a holiday to
sphere of Paris,
ville,
little
Dumas went
seaside
Trou-
which
in
Normandy
for
As
usual with
here
his
most
56
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
ac-
poetical play,
knowledges, by
De
to
Mussel's
"
Marrons au
feu,"
and
Here also one him with the prologue of a play which afterwards became " Richard Darlington." It was on our author's return from Trouville, to witness the first night of Hugo's " Marion Delorme,"
by
"
The Cid
"
M. Beudin came
that that
Dumas
who
told
him was
he was too
The
critic-friend
from the
lips of the
When Dumas
"
had
an
finished,
air
shrug-pfed
of profound amazement.
confrere !
"
he
said.
Further words
failed him.
"
"Charles
*'
VII.,"
like
"Henri
Trois
and
a
Antony," was,
a challenge
regime
ful
movement
a power-
plea
individuality.
This
Dumas
himself
his
first
declared,
"
the
lines
which he prefixed to
dramatique
in " (the
Comme
je devins auteur
draft of his
"
"Memoires")
1833
Un jour
on connaitra quelle
lutte obstin^e
;
A fait sous mon genou plier la destince A quelle source amere en mon ame j'ai
pris
Tout ce qu'elle contient de haine et de mcpris : Quel orage peut faire, en passant sur la tcte, Qu'on prenne pour le jour I'eclair d'un tempete,
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Et ce que I'homme souffre en ses convulsions, Quand au volcan du cceur grondent les passions. Je ne cacherai plus oil ma plume tidcle
57
trouve d'Antony le type et le modcle, Et je dirai tout haut ii quels foyers brulants Yaquoub et Saint Megrin puiserent leurs elans.
'
."
failure,
or at best a
stcccds
Dumas fits
has told us
how
sadly he and
;
walked homeward
its
for the
author's
most conscious
all
and most
fact that
literary
life
his
many
successes in
never compensated
in
Dumas
for the
he was not
poet,
from himself.
"
Christine,"
drama-proper
was
his
more
conq-enial mcHier.
Richard Darlinsf-
of "
author's favourite
this occasion
In spite of this
Dumas, who on
his
name
to be
even
as
"
part-author.
will
all
Unfortunately
Richard
Darlington
is
;
be read
by English
England, and
people
if it
read at
with
is
more amusement
it
than respect
laid in
which
offers
have
all
The "hero"
of "Charles VII."
"
58
LIFE
An
AND WRITINGS OF
we
find in the "
incident which
Memoires
skill
and knowledge of stage-craft. Whilst Dumas was busy writing " Richard Darlington " with Goubaud,
he stopped short at one
It
was
at the crisis
when
the
ambitious Richard,
may marry
if
make away
stairs
;
with her.
Someone
is
is
the newcomer,
thrown.
The
throw
below.
Jenny out of the window into the rushing torrent This is where the skilled dramatist diswould revolt the audience
for life
to
see
woman
to
struggling
way
that
window
in
it
the husband,
lifting
his victim to
idea
came,
and
Dumas
like
and made
stand, thus
He
with his
fist,
they
fly
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
alone.
59
when he was
"one
his
of
my
worst,"
and "Angele,"
to
Dumas gave
invite
famous
ball.
As he wished
three
in
rooms
suite
eventful night,
Dumas
empty rooms
all
to deco-
friends of
young author, this was at once an economy, an With the same object of attraction, and a novelty. saving expense, Dumas took some friends out of town, and they shot their own game for the feast. It was a brilliant affair, for it was a costume ball, and all Bohemia-in- Paris gathered in the little rooms, which by midnight were crowded with dazzling dresses, and filled with laughter and music. Here, among others, came Lafayette, Rossini, De Musset,
the
him in two or three hours M. Tissot, of the Academy, went "made up" as a sick man, whereupon Jadin followed him as a long-faced, funereal-looking undercroix
allotted to
!
"
60
taker,
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
other's footsteps, croaking out
you
"
!
The
party broke up at
And now
change
in
Dumas's
under
life.
So
far,
the
author of
" Antony,"
the
influence
of
Goethe
and
Mephistopheles
laugh
cynic
had
affected
deny,
and
disdain,
But one
friend
its
for his
author with a stupefied air. " Well," he said, " this is comical! "
"
What
"
is ?
"
wit
I
"
Why
shouldn't
Envious fellow!
first
"
!
'*
man
of five feet
who has ever been witty Dumas has himself defined and own gaiety. " Some folk," he says,
nine
described
" are
his
gay be-
have nothing
to
worry about
is
that
is
the ordinary
gaiety.
But mine
through
disturbing
through
troubles,
through danger
itself"
The young
writer
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
existence of this unfashionable quahty
;
61 but
first
it
was
his
destined
to
show
itself
henceforth
in
books of
travel,
;
and afterwards
in his
comedies and
everything
romances
and, in short,
more or
less in
he wrote or spoke.
not, perhaps,
call
it
appear
in his
romance
if
we
of
can
his
little
so
of " Isabel de
Baviere."
Four
friends
had
previously
scraped together a
world - famous
Revue
des
Deux
Mondes,
"
and
to assist the
new-born with
his pen.
des Dues de Bourgoyne of Barante made a powerful impression upon him at this time, "finishing," he says, "the work begun by Scott."
Still,
to
young author did not feel strong enough write an entirely original romance and he therethe
;
and
into dialogue,
first
called
This decided
hardly credible
and
yet
Dumas
it
confesses to
his
by the aid of
En
I'an quatre-cent-vingt,
Pharamond, premier
la salique loi."
. .
ro3,
62
LIFE
novelist
AND WRITINGS OF
was delivered from this school-book thraldom by a more learned friend, and introduced History to Thierry's " Conquete des Normands."
The
became a passion with him, and the days of that tremendous historic-romance-cycle grew nearer and
nearer.
the
cemeteries,
and carrying
it
everywhere.
Nevertheless
could
not
he wrote the
"
Le Mari de
Veuve
"
for
a benefit, and
Every night a group *'We of friends forgathered in Dumas's rooms. chatted sometimes Hugo decided to recite us some of his poetry Liszt thumped hard on a wretched piano, and the evening passed by without one of us thinking any more of the cholera than if it had been at Pekin." But one evening, immediately after Dumas had watched his joyous friends depart, he himself was seized with the cholera. For five or six days he was prostrate and in great danger, but his wondernovelty to put on the
;
;
ful
disease.
The
The
first
person to greet
Harel,
convalescence
was
Odeon.
cholera,
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
"gone away without even making
its
63
expenses,"
and he pressed the fever-ridden author to set about a new play. This was destined to be " La Tour de The plot of that drama was common proNesle."
perty
;
all
known
Queen Marguerite
were found
Seine next
is
morning.
It
may be added
that there
not a
which
The
words of Mr Walter Herries Pollock "It seems to me that no one who devotes a moderate attention to his dramatic works can
reasonably doubt that
in
the
'
celebrated
quarrel
Tour de
Nesle,' right
was on the side of Dumas. This quarrel is worth some attention. The story takes up some four chapters of Dumas's 'Memoires'; but briefly, the
main
facts
were these
theatrical
manager, had
re-
named
stuff in
Gaillardet.
it
;
He
caj|ital
was written it was quite unfitted for stage representation on account of the author's inexperience. Jules Janin had tried to do something
but as
it
64
with
it,
LIFE
and had
AND WRITINGS OF
failed.
who, according to
of the
stage.
his
own
account, which
it,
for
it
one one
and made of
most impressive melodramas ever put on the He had previously written a somewhat
letter to the
imprudently self-effacing
young
author,
was furious at having, as he said, a collaborator thrust upon him, and ended by writing to the papers to assert that he was the
who, instead of being
grateful,
"
The
all
kinds of intricacies
;
into which it would be tedious to go but the last word which ought to be said about it is found in a letter written by Gaillardet in 1861 to the manager of
The
letter
in
runs thus
"*A
1832 decreed
Tour de Nesle " should be printed and announced under my name alone and this was
;
done up
"
to the date of
in
its
censorship
*
185
i.
Now
I
that
to put
it
on the stage
more,
again,
you
nay,
to join to
my name
I
that of Alexandre
beg Dumas,
I I
my
collaborator.
remember
which
the
had
in
the success of
"Tourde
Nesle."'"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
The
"
65
Antony."
Dumas was
determined
a quarrel developed
for
between was
re-
and
a duel was
no serious
scrape
results.
this
There was a
of
Republican
during
the
funeral
General
Dumas
in
took part
in the riot
and next
day he read,
taken
with
martialled,
arms
his
hand,
and shot
"The
stantial,
"was
my
the information
I
source, that
felt
myself
all
over
"
Nodier wrote
to say that
he had
would not prevent him from dining with a few friends on the morrow. The other replied that he
it
was not
at all sure
not,
but
that either in
body or in spirit he would come to dinner. He added that, as he had eaten nothing for six weeks there would probably be more of his spirit than his body present.
r.
66
LIFE
But
if
AND WRITINGS OF
and him, Dumas was
shot,
if
the cholera
in
had
failed
still
some
danger.
One
literary politician
arrest
Accordingly
Dumas
set
This
public
tour,
its
the
by
and picturesque
style,
With
true
Dumas
called
on Chateaubriand,
from the
first
ascent of
Mont Blanc
inn.
by the score stopped at that inn and called for bearsteak, and the unhappy landlord, quite unable to
satisfy the guests either with
his explanations or
name
of
Dumas.
The most
de Voyage en Suisse," from a serious point of view, is tl;ie account of Dumas's interview at Arenenburg with Hortense Bonaparte, ex-Queen of Holland,
and mother of Louis Napoleon, afterwards Napoleon III. The young Republican philosopher did not hold
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
force, or
67
alone.
by the power of the Napoleonic tradition In reply to a request from the queen for
Dumas
;
replied
would say
;
your exile
to
buy a home in France cause yourself be elected deputy and try by force of your talent
;
of
it
chosen king
Napoleon followed
success
is
this
a matter of history.
The Swiss holiday was followed by a brief visit to England in 1833, and a tour in the South of France, which was much more lengthy. The following year
Dumas
as a
and
He was
it
arrested at Naples
was only when he produced papers proving that he was entrusted with a private mission by the French Government that he was released. In November of the following year the traveller was privileged to have an interview with Pope Gregory XVI. after which he was arrested
dangerous
" red,"
and
a second time
The
ful
next year or two passed in the most delight way; Dumas enjoyed himself like a schoolboy
holiday-time,
sailing
In
round
Sicily,
exploiting
68
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
On
Juan
"
his
return
"
"
"
Catherine
Howard,"
"
Don
years.
Kean were produced in successive and " Kean," as played by Frederick Lemaitre,
others,
is
so
French
about
naive
in
spirit
of humour.
this
Thackeray,
period,
who was
terribly
visiting
Paris
was
shocked by the
of
and earnest
In
irreverence
his " Paris
"Don Juan"
"
and
" Calieula."
Sketch-book
he
style,
so cheap, yet
Dumas had been on familiar terms with the young Duke of Chartres, who succeeded to the " (which corresponded title of " Duke of Orleans to our " Prince of Wales "), when his father obtained the throne.
when
were
the heir
was
married
in
1837,
and
fetes
held
at
honour of the occasion, four crosses of the Legion of Honour were placed at the disDumas received one posal of the young prince.
Versailles in
of
them
the
a
at
knight's
cross.
Seven years
Louis
before,
on
morrow
his
of
" Christine,"
Philippe
for
himself,
son's
request,
had asked
the
ALEXANDRE DU:MAS
cross for his
69
young employee from Charles X., but had been refused. Dumas's name was on this occasion removed from the list by the King's own order upon which Hugo, who was about to re;
in-
The
on the
offending
list,
name was
it
accordingly
re-entered
and
the
it
arm-in-arm.
But
late.
Alexandre
felt
that
Instead of fastening
it
to his button-hole,
he put
in his fob.
By
that,
this
time
so
famous
and
and the
most
of
like.
His
at
it
was produced
costly
that the
the
;
fashion
actors,
who were
he could to
1838
life.
do
all
damn
the piece
In
of his
Dumas
suffered
to
the great
misfortune
His mother,
whom
he had been
Friends
70
LIFE
fatal.
AND WRITINGS OF
this
the sufferer,
diately
and
open her eyes and look on her son once more and that was all. With a choking heart Dumas
young patron, and an hour later the kindly duke was at the street The mourner ran out, at door in his carriage. this sign of friendly sympathy, and kneeling at the prince's feet, burst into tears. There was resent
to his
in this
passion of regret
was passing away in the room above, for although Alexandre had usually visited his mother constantly, and shown her every loving mark of affection, there had also been periods of
the
life
that
now he
regretted only
At
Dumas
mon Dieu Dans ce monde ou toute bouche chacun foule aux pieds les Tables de la Loi, Vous m'avez entendu, pendant son agonie, Prier h. deux genoux, le coeur ardent de foi.
Vous m'avez
Oil la
vu,
mon Dieu, sur la funebre route, courbait devant un crucifix, Et vous avez comptc les pleurs qui, goutte h. goutte, Ruisselaient de mes yeux aux pieds de Votre Fils.
mort
me
Je demandais,
mon
Vous retardiez I'instant de son dernier adieu Pour racheter ses jours je vous offrais ma vie Vous n'avez pas voulu soyez beni, mon Dieu
:
'."^
("
Oh,
my
God,
in this world,
feet of
men
where all men deny Thee, where the Thy Laws, Thou hast heard me, as I
ALEXAINDRE DUMAS
It
71
was
in
Dumas,
in
seem destined
in
to out-
his
the
future
the
sole
support
reputation
as
a playwright.
These were
Mademoiselle de
Belle-Isle," "
"
Un
Manage
selles
sous
Les Demoiare
in
de
St Cyr."
These
plays,
which sparkle
still
interest,
Comedie Francaise.
The
the responsible
the
Home
for the
in
Secretary ordering a
Mr Grundy
and sent
Lyceum
!),
was written
to
the
theatre.
On
the
him
Dumas
play
it,
it
or
they didn't.
Tableau
led a roving
life.
;
Dumas now
visited
In 1838 he had
two years
later
full
of
Thou hast seen me, oh God, go with her on that last sad journey, when Death's hand bowed my back and bent my gaze on the crucifix, and Thou didst count the tears that one by one streamed from my eyes on the feet of Thy Son. I asked, oh God, that Thou
wouldst delay for a while, however brief, the last parting of mother and son. To purchase life for her I would have sold my own. It was not Thy will be Thou blest, oh my God
''')
:
I
"
72
LIFE
1842.
AND WRITINGS OF
1841 and again
he went to
in
a fascinating
woman
who
appeared
gula,"
in
and other subsequent plays. The marriage was a very ill-advised one, and finally extravagance and irreconcilable differences of character combined caused the lady to leave her husband and go to She never returned to France, live in Florence. and died in Italy in 1859. The " Comtesse Dash," an intimate friend of Dumas and his wife, has given us, if not the real
excuse for his "immorality," at least the true explanation of
"
it
loved him enough him as he wished to be loved (she writes in her " Memoires dAutres "), a woman who would have had the tact to close her eyes to his pranks, and make home comfortable, so that he could invite and above all, who zuoic/d not his friends there have disturbed him in his work that woman would have been perfectly and eternally happy with him."
to love
;
The
clearly
character
of us
Madame Dumas
has
"
been
Ida
drawn
for
was a
with
beautiful
woman
of mediocre abilities
and
a jealous,
tolerated
She
little
ALEXANDRE
father bore him.
DU.AIAS
73
by
stealth,
for
the
The two were obh'g-ed to meet young- man was not allowed In
"
the house.
forced
talents
As Dumas
were
the actress
to
Mademoiselle Ferrier
parts
to
"
gi^e
equal
;
her
as
which
her
not
mistress
she was
jokes
of
doubtful
taste
Dumas
constant
work,
seemed necessary to her existence but soon after the pair were married the connection came to Its inevitable end.
quarrel which
Whilst
at
Dumas was
Florence, early in
Jerome Bonaparte
returning
Napoleon,
who was
just
from
Wurtemburg, for a cruise, with the object of "teaching him France." The nephew of the great
Emperor
Corsica
;
Elba and
that
and
it
was during
of
this
trip
the
travellers
insignificant
IMonte
It,
Cristo.
Curiosity
so
prompted them
to
visit
and
Dumas was
Its
much
little
spot
that
he resolved to use
name
as
the
It
title
was one of Dumas's laughing complaints that Scribe was considered a " moral " writer, whilst he
74
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Therefore,
when
tical
the opportunity
came
to
him
in
to play a pracresist.
Whilst
this
Dumas was
staying-
Florence about
named Doligny, came to him and asked permission to play some of his best-known dramas. The author gfave his
time an actor-friend of
his,
to perform.
When
friend
Doligny
he
confessed
that
his
was
by
" that
the censor had rejected the plays immoral writer" but Dumas came
right
to
the rescue.
office of
He
took
new covers
was very
for
the
:
plays
in
question.
It
simple
was printed "Ambition, or the Executioner's Son, by Eugene Scribe." In place of " Angele, by A. Dumas," was printed "A Ladder of Petticoats, by Eugene Scribe." Instead of "Antony, by A. Dumas," was printed " Love's Victim, by Eugene Scribe." "Instead of "La Tour de Nesle, by MM. Gaillardet and A. Dumas," was printed "Adultery
Punished, by
Eugene
Scribe."
The
believe
new
coats
Dumas
duly
if
we may
passed
the
censor without
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
comment
of
;
75
improving-
and
the
grand-duke
Dumas heard of the sudden and shocking death of the young Duke
In July of the same year
of Orleans,
through his
jured.
to
was thrown from his carriage, horses taking fright, and mortally in\vho
just in time
for
Paris,
and arrived
the funeral
ceremonies,
and
the
interment
at
Dreux.
His
no reason
for
doubting the
sincerity,
was
his
enemies
ample scope
mockery.
Dumas,
to
like
be judged
and had
Academy, and
in particular to the
was rewhose orthodoxy was shocked jected by the Forty, by the audacious methods of this wicked " Romantic." On one occasion Hugo would have nominated Dumas
But
1S43, as on previous occasions, he
for
a vacant
chair,
only thirteen
Dumas
consoled himself
the
"forty-first
with
the
fact
that he occupied
76
fauteuil "
LIFE
in
AND WRITINGS OF
good company, and recollecting the treatment which the Academy had meted out to great Frenchmen, from Corneille and Moliere, downward. Repulsed once more, he returned
to
Florence,
saying to himself,
" Je
demande a
etre le qnaranticme,
faire
mais
("
I
il
parait qu'on
to
me
faire
quarantaijie
"
ask
be
made
the
in
fortieth,
but
!
it
me
quarantine
")
The
the
life
Dumas.
"
and Monte Cristo " both appeared at that time, and were welcomed enthusiastically by the public.
During
their
"
progress
in feitilleton
form,
people
the
men were
alive,
and known
to
everybody
tells
as,
indeed,
they were.
Villemessant
us
how he woke
the grip
obtained on the
imagination
Parisian public.
Dumas had
preface
to
Alexandre
written.
Dumas yf/^
"
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
house (No.
chairs,
22
77
plainly
Rue de
Rivoli), his
rooms
a few books on
the
mantelpiece, and an
iron bedstead,
where he
slept for a
the evening-'s
the night.
the parasites
who
incessantly
besieged
that
door which
Clothed
in
you
your
the
shoulder,
to
your
collar
unfastened,
you
sat
down
work
it
at seven in the
kept at
"
until
came
to
Sometimes
little
it.
the
table
placed
whilst
we
found your lunch untouched, on I by your side, where the servant had You had forgotten to eat it. Then, dined and dined well, on the dishes
by way of
had
done
during
the
day,
and
rejoiced
in
the
morrow.
age
to
This lasted
for
some months.
!
happy days
forty-two,
We
were both of an
!
you were
his
Monte
78
Cristo,"
LIFE
In
AND
AVRITINGS OF
on
the
fifteenth
his
presence,
page.
Not
new
It will
bo7i-
hoviie
social popularity
was
whose
stories
of
us
the
When
he spoke,
In
were
of the
silent,
when he
the beauty
life
men and
for the
this
women
all
that
makes
joy of
one man.
for
He
was
really
the King of
Paris, sovereign
by virtue
a whole
classes
all
the
only
man
himself adored by
of society."
Duke
An
old diplomat,
was astonished
to see there a
man
whom
with
their ears,
and the
asked
enjoyment.
He
who
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
^'
79
Pardic2i,''
answered
else
Alexandre
"
Dumas
who
do you think
would be ?
Pitre-Chevalier, being
all
Dumas
known
night
it
!
when
it
was
Paris "
Dumas
will
be
at So-and-so's toif
on
the nicjht of
premiere,
the
company stood up
his
as he entered,
and
his
journey towards
triumphal procession.
Asked
by a
with
"
friend
]\I.
Lyon-Hunter,
I
Dumas
replied,
if it
Well,
for
hadn't
been
myself!
At one
of these soirees
Dumas was
wearinof the
made
upon
"
it.
My
is
wretched colour
One would
!
think
it
was your
"
"
"
80
LIFE
"Oh
no,
AND WRITINGS OF
dear d'E
,"
;
my
replied
Dumas
with
:
a
is
mistaken
it's
it
Dumas why
a certain bete
don't
know you
!
don't
know either
Ah, but
do,
though
!
Then, tell me
"
becausehe hadn't
that
one!
This
is
"few escape
that distinction."
at
Writing furiously
for that
much
as possible, and
"
St Germain
but even
found
it
necessary to
move
further afield.
which
seemed
to
him
to be an ideal one
own
he
was
He
arranged
in peace.
But as he discussed
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
the
plans,
81
his
the
expanded
francs,
from a few
hundred
owing tens
his guests to
Dumas
or
of thousands.
July he gave a
meet him
see his
new home.
As Mr
From
this
period
in particular,
which so
some years, and of much too much has been made. The editors who urged this ardent, insoiiciant worker to undertake twice or three times as much as any
could produce, were the
"
first
ordinary mortal
to
workshop
to call them.
Inevitably
Dumas,
the
was shadow
young gentleman of
a kitchen-rogue,
"),
name
dubbed himself
to
Eugene de Mirecourt
Societe des
choosing
consider
himself offended
the "
brought before
Gens de
Lettres," a
82
LIFE
" setting
AND WRITINGS OF
for
condemning him
for
keeping
up as a C07yphde of shame " and hand on Reputation, that white-winged "laying his maiden, dragging her through the mire, and violating her before the public gaze," with
to the
for
much more
himself,
same
effect.
Unfortunately
Dumas
process
and when he
left,
after a fierce
encounter
with his circle of enemies, they passed a mild, emasculated resolution which,
a body, had
little effect.
Theodore de Banville, in his " Odes Funambulesques," has some amusing but quite untranslatable
verse on this episode.
Dumas
foulest
its
is
passing by,
when
"
mirecourt
"
the great
man
manner.
After the
thing
replies.
has exhausted
bag of
spleen,
Dumas
Docile au mirecourt, il lui laissa tout dire, puis, avec un sourire, Pencha son front reveur
. . .
Fit
'
?
'
Thwarted
"
venomous
Maison Dumas et Cie," by which he pamphlet, There was a hall-truth got little credit or profit.
in this
lie,
and
if
it
had been
told with
moderation
it
might
a sunle,
Dumas
its
his thoughtful
crc;..are
and
aslvcd
wuh
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
have had a salutary
effect.
it
83
As
it
One
of the
"workmen"
at
slanderer,
who,
the
instance
Dumas, was
sentenced to
fits
fifteen
days' imprisonment.
Dumas
quot also
characteristic
cowardice, shirked
encounter.
Yet
this
con-
for
in
whether
be
1S46
the
Duke
of
Montpensier,
younger
brother of the
ill-fated
ment
act
Dumas
to
as
official
histriographer
occasion.
Further, he
was
and
incisive
way,
France
all
about
its
new
colony.
had sprung up between the young Duke and Dumas, and the arrangement was a
friendship
all
parties.
The
by the commission, accepted, although at the very shortest notice, and without for a moment
considering the consequences to himself.
84
LIFE
The Royal
AND WRITINGS OF
in
October
received
Dumas
auspicious
ceremony.
In
due course he
visited
Le
Vdloce,
called at
took an
honourable share
some French-
make a long
Bugeaud
sailed
stay
at
failed to
Dumas
series of
of ancient Carthage,
his adventures in
two
"
De
Paris
Cadix,"
and
"
Le
was wormwood to Dumas's enemies In Paris, and they were numerous and Influential. On his return his travels were made the subject of a savage attack on the Government and their envoy, in the press, and in the Chamber of Deputies. Now, although M. Salvandy had expressly charged Dumas with the mission to Algiers, and although M. Guizot, the Foreign Minister, had given the
All' this
made
called,
connection with
and to pacify
enemies
Is
at the
expense
of Dumas's reputation.
pleasant,
by way of
ALEXANDRE DUiMAS
contrast, to read
85
Madame
"gentlemen" who had insuked the man of genius. For, when Dumas and Maquet sent challenges to
the depuiies sheltered
The
following
)ear was a
for
busy one
for
the
returned "envoy,"
no
less
One
in particular
for the
impulsive writer, in
of the young
in
IVIontpensier,
had
left
what
is
known
was
English as
"The Memoirs
for the culprit
of a Physician" in
The
trial
an amusing one,
resume
a day
Memoirs
"
^4
He
fined
was threatened
with imprisonment
too great
;
became
for
and
in addition
was
^120
each
more was heard of the fines, and the whole affair was naturally a splendid testimony to the author's
popularity.
Dumas
86
LIFE
Comedie
AND WRITINGS OF
in particular
with
Fran^aise
he
"
gives
an
amusing
Odyssey
to
"Souvenirs Dramatiques";
fortune
him he determined, with his usual magnificence of ideas, to have not only his own chateau, but also his own theatre, where no jealousies should come between his genius and the
had come
success of his plays.
of Mont-
new
theatre,
which was
"
;
Montpensier
the
new
its
theatre rose
a splendid buildDuke
it is
and dedicated by
Europe.
at
Louis Philippe,
said
withdrew
this
On
the
first
suite
being
dramatised version of
There
is
is
an anecdote told
which
and
author respectively.
'48,
When,
after the
Revolution of
religiously
the
Duke went
box was
THK
''L'HKAIKK H 1S1(
)Kl(.>ri;,"'
JSoUi.KVAKl)
DK TKMPI.K^
I'AIUS.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
had
long- since
87
Dumas
learnt
his tickets,
was wont
to
out
"
;
price to
pay
making a prince
laugh.
Dumas, according
to
his
gave a magnificent reception to six hundred guests, as a house-warming for his new palace of " Monte Cristo." The scheme had rapidly out-
grown
ful
the
first
modest
plan,
and
"
had
been
beautiin in
Its
scale.
half-villa,
had risen
the
meantime," says
Fitzgerald,
"
embowered
with
trees,
and
in
the centre of a
walls
wild garden.
white
stone
were covered
exquisite
traceries
and sculptures copied from those of Jean Goujon at the Louvre, and executed by Choistat, conspicuous in the centre being Dumas's arms,
with the motto 'Jaime qui in'aime.'
walls were decorated from designs
Inside,
the
;
by Klagmann
the
while
the
'
Arabian
chamber,'
after
pattern
was a marvel of Eastern gorgeThe gardens were charmousness and decoration. On the little island in ing, all leafy and shaded.
of the Alhambra,
88
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
little
Norman
building,
by Mansson, a decoraBlended with the sound tor of great eminence. for an artificial torrent had been of falline waters contrived, that tumbled over rocks as artificially arranged was heard the chattering of monkeys, and the screaming of parrots, while huge barbaric
carvings, the designs being
dogs of strange shapes and colour ranged through Such was Monte Cristo,' which was the groves.
*
now
was princely, unlimited. "At his Abbotsford 'Monte Cristo,'" Mr Lang reminds us, "the gates were open to everybody His dog asked other dogs to come but bailiffs. and stay twelve came, making thirteen in all. The old butler wanted to turn them adrift, and Dumas
Here Dumas's
'there are
position
ill-luck
some expenses
receive
which a man's
social
from
don't believe these I heaven force upon him. But, in the dogs ruin me. Let them bide.
interests
of their
own good
luck,
"'Monsieur,
I'll
drive one of
them away.'
.
.
"'No, no, Michel; let a fourteenth come. These dogs cost me some ^3 a month,'
said
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Dumas.
'
89
would say
my
my
The owner
and roamed
It
at will
will
readily
irresistible
influence
new
place
it
was
filled
with
life
and
gaiety.
Dumas
rented
company
of actors, and
produced the
]\Ieurice
which
that
Indeed,
so
transformed
Philippe,
;
was
this
suburb
told,
of
Paris,
Louis
we
are
wondered
to
at
the
change
to
be applied
was certainly dull enough. However, when it was suggested to him by Montalivet that Dumas should be brought to Versailles, the king turned his back on the malaVersailles,
droit courtier
In
1847
Louis Philippe
concerning this Revolution, and Vandam tells us would discuss it. It is the opinion of the author of "An Englishman in Paris" that the romancer was a trifle ashamed of the Republican intriguers of that time.
Dumas
is
silent
that he never
90
fled
LIFE
to
AND
;
AVIUTINGS OF
Louis
England
in
and French
185
1,
Napoleon became
President of the
self
Republic,
making himonward,
the
Emperor,
coup dUtat.
And
from
epoch
star to
meteoric brilliance of
Dumas's
be^an
to fade.
this
sudden and
was,
overwhelming change of
as Ferry says, a
fortune.
Our author
manifested
man
of independence of character
this
and
in
opinion,
"
and
opinion
it
itself
an originality as rare as
was
disinterested.
had known a prince in private life, or in exile, he broke with him as soon as he became King or Emperor," as in the cases of
When Dumas
Louis
Philippe and
Napoleon
III.
"Misfortune
;
and
exile
found
Dumas
commencing the
a
in
;
agitation
of
1847,
he
acted
i^Le
with
Hlois)
difference.
He
give
founded
a journal
order
to
publicity to his
political
views
Duke
of Orleans
(Louis Philippe's
ful
son) as a
further,
act.
He
went
his
and
by the time that the elections came on, Dumas had achieved the reputation of being an Orleanist
Still,
he decided to
offer
himself as a
candi-
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
date
for
91
for
the
Chamber
of
Deputies
not
his
exploit,
for
he was considered
St Germain, because
his
command
Paris,
of
the
national
guard
the
there,
by
a
It
la
Marseillaise,
to
help of the
was suggested to him that the department of Yonne would be sure to acclaim him, and accordingly he went off to Lower Burgundy.
people.
When
chances
it
was too
in
late
Dumas
were
this
district
"
compromised
"
!
because of his
Royalist
at
in
sympathies
the street.
He was
thousand
sup-
mobbed, and
harangued
Yonnais,
porters
;
fired
In vain he
hostile
crowd
of
three
into
and
he
converted
them
ardent
was not
years
la
elected
perhaps
in
because
twenty-two
"
later
although
which
of
"
his
chant
in-
Mourir pour
into
Patrie,"
Dumas had
Chevalier
troduced
his
play
Le
de
its
Maison Rouge," he had given the Paris mob " Marseillaise." (He had previously refused
write a
to
"national
ment.)
place
desired
in
anthem" to suit the GovernDumas was destined never to achieve a French politics, however ardently he
it.
92
In
is
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
of our author there
we wish we
could repro-
duce
a certain
M. du
Chaffault, with
novelist's electoral
campaign.
lived at Sens,
us,
Du
devil
"
Chaffault,
who
one morning, he
tells
to
find a
standing by his
bedside.
The
apparition
young man was " a good and would be of use to him It Joigny.
that this
his
Dumas changed
young
left
worn boots
for a
new
show
pair of his
"
friend's,
those
he
are
now
my
library.
them
for
Alexandre Dumas."
Joigny the
pair
old
friends,
and
Dumas's chat
fully.
en route
made
At
Du
Chaffault
duly entered
note-book, "Alexandre
Dumas,
twenty francs."
The same
where everyone came to the young man for money and as Dumas invited everyone who accosted him
to dine with
them
hundred
francs
which
Du
Chaffault
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
were gone by the following morning-.
to Sens,"
"
I
93
returned
he
says, "
my
heart
full of
I
joy at having
still
man
of genius.
recall to
preserve
paid,
which
*
me my two
I
days
Monte
Cristo.'
regret
that
my
pocket, so that
incomparable experi-
Of course
this
political
failure
brought
social
The
more
which
fciiillctons,
and the
"
Theatre Historique,"
terribly
bad business, and eventually closed its doors. It was afterwards pulled down to make room for one of the boulevards of the Second Empire. Meanwhile
at first
"
Monte
Cristo
it,
"
maintain
and
will
easily
be understood that
store for
was obliged
finished
his
in
the end to
creditors.
was a
like
cruel
;
man's
He had
Philippe,
his
employer Louis
94
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Dumas had
not given
his ill-fated had produced " theatre, and tried the extraordinary experiment of playing it, half one night and the other half the
He
struggle.
next
In
1849, ^t
Historique, he
play of "
in
Comte Hermann,"
"
;
the tone
which
is
"Antony" and
contains
"
Richard Darlington
and
its
preface
themes of "twenty years before." In the same year Dumas attended the wedding of the Prince
of Oranofeat
to a council
others, seven in
all,
censorship.
cussion.
It
was probably owing to his increasing embarrassments that when poor Marie Dorval died, during this year, her old friend was able to do
little
more than
struorgfle
to
collect
from others
In
fell,
to
we have already said, the Republic 1 85 1, as and buried Dumas's future in the ruins. He fled Brussels, whither Hugo had already gone, and
from December 1851 to January 1853, the
there,
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
novelist lived
at
95
No.
'J2),
Rue de Waterloo.
ing-
of course,
Hugo was
some
of
them
would stay until two or three in round the tea-table, chatting and laughing, w^hilst the host worked on above-stairs, now and then
the morning, sitting
his
company.
task
of
fifty
volumes, for
whom
At
'
they
made
so much.
'
Monte
Cristo
would indulge
in his
in
an evening's gaiety.
is
One
described by Emile
Deschanel
volume
eleven
of travels, "
Pied et en
Wasron." From
in
till
dawn the
ofuests revelled
plays acted on a lilliputian stage by celebrated performers, Spanish singers and dancers, the gayest
and most
brilliant
conversation
all
in
beautifully
the
armorial escut-
and
Dumas
himself.
Such
experiences always
His
faithful
Maquet had
left
him
in
185
1.
Charles
9C
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
is
probably the
:
most
"
truthful, as
if I
it is
Dumas,
understand
used to treat
Dumas
fell
arrears which,
if
had been to be
;
consulted,
would have been paid to the centime but unfortunately he had other creditors, who inIn short, the situation
was so desperate that Maquet had no course open to him but to withdraw from the connection he did so, leaving 130,000 francs behind him say ^5,200."
;
In 1856-8 Maquet brought an Dumas, but although his share of of several of the most famous declared, the court awarded him no a significant
In
Paris
fact.
action
against
the authorship
romances
was
further funds
down, and as
issued
full
by
"
his
Dumas
At
the
in
returned to Paris
the establishment
of a
new enthusiasm.
Maison D'Or,"
to
of the
Rue
man,
Lafitte,
rooms
were
allotted
the great
and a paper
was issued under his editorship. This was the Moiisquetairc, which started with the most brilliant
prospects.
The circulation
and
his
name,
and
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
his kindly
97
principles,
Dumas
;
in
was goodwill, confusion, gaiety and improvidence. The " staff " were innumerable and the noise of the many journalists crowded into the little rooms of the " Maison D'Or" was alarming. Audebrand tells us that the neighbour on one side would cry to his valet, " They must be strangling some one next door " and the neighbour on the other side would overhear the remark, and laughingly reply, " There must be a woman in labour in " the house In the same volume are some amusing stories of the great man's menage how he had a triple
this respect
all
;
! !
defence
in
the
shape of three
servants,
who
certain
German, however,
one day, sat down on the step and would not leave and Dumas was eventually aroused
;
It
ended
would
fifty
man was "starving" and if M. Dumas on him. The great man pushed
the beggar's hands
and
found
98
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
four pieces were produced in
at the
1854,
idle.
No less than
"
"
;
Comedie
a comedy,
Fran^aise
full
of Moliere
love
Marie de
a
Mancini (played
at the
Brussels)
"
;
Le Marbrier,"
"
Conscience,"
moral,
Odeon.
It
Hugo.
was a daring
but
Dumas was
others.
all
To M.
Blaze de Bury
we
sketch of "
Dumas
"You
passed," he writes,
of
death to the
brilliant light of
to loud voices
!
The and all the stir and bustle of a manufactory with voices in debate you trampled air was filled upon bon mots, in the progress of your conversaThen, in the brief intervals of silence, 3^ou tion. heard a pen quietly, lightly, scratch the paper it was
; :
Without pausing Dumas, in his writing, he held out his left hand to you No tumult disturbed him and a with a smile. word thrown into the discourse here and there told you that he was taking part in it."
seated at his daily work.
;
"
Twenty times
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Villemessant, " twenty times he took up his
just
99
work
where he had
left
it,
an actress or a director
of another
book
but, as
for us an account
Dumas's day's work, with less rhetoric but more detail. " He rises at six before him are
paper of the largest
writes,
in a
till
size
he takes up
his pen,
and
hand that
eleven.
;
At
re-
meal
his spirits
pe-n,
never
flag.
it
sumes the
evening.
not to quit
the
The
at breakfast.
filled
the allotted
number
he steals
later,
Queen visited Paris, in 1855, the actors of the Comedie Fran^aise gave a performance of the " Demoiselles de St Cyr " at Her Majesty's request,
the
for she
When
in
so pleased with
"
again.
Two
'
100
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
I
ran against
Dumas
I
in
the
Chaussee d'Antin.
"
*
Well, you
ought to be pleased,*
said
'
;
it
in
London,
it
first,'
it is
Yes,
'
;
more
I
But
still
more than
it
my
play
to
see
me
!
also
Honestly,
would have amused me too " Then why did you not ask for an audience ? have been granted,' I reI am certain it would
'
marked, because
I felt
convinced that
Her Majesty
would have been only too pleased .to confer an honour upon such a man. "'Well, I did think of it,' came the reply; *a
woman
as remarkable as she
first
is,
who
!
will
probably
woman of the century, ought to It is a pity, have met the greatest man in France
remain the
for she
go away without having seen the Alexandre, King of the best sight in France
will
world of Romance
^
'
Then
Dumas
Dumas
le
savant."
Done," laughed
Dumas
rignorant."
Note by
A. V.
ALEXAIVDRE DUMAS
The romancer was
mental.
of the
still full
101
of energy, physical
and
M. About,
Dumas
trative of this,
which we give
in
Mr
Lang's words
met the great man at Marseilles. Dumas picked up M. About, literally lifted him in his embrace, and carried him off to see a play which he
"
He
The
till
M. About was almost asleep as he walked home, but Dumas was as fresh as if he had just got out of
bed.
"*Go
only
'I,
who am
which must be posted to-morrow. If I have time I shall knock up a little piece for Montigny the idea is running in my head.' So next morning M. About saw the \\\xq.q. feuilletons made up for the post, and another packet addressed to M. Montigny it was
fifty-five,
have
the play
'
"^
!
The
Dumas
lines,
at
once
same
called
Mofite Crista.
Causeries,"
an account of
The
1
Dumas
102
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
On
the Tuesvisited
Madame
XVI. about
Hyde
Park.
Then
down
and
saddening
the
Haymarket
Epsom
to witness Blinkbonny's
Derby.
Lord
Justice
Nicholson,"
at the
the
'''poses
plastiques
and
mock-trial,
Coal-hole.
On
the
Channel to
The
brief papers
full
of gaiety
and shrewd observation, and we can only regret that this prince of travellers did not " do " England on a larger scale, and make it the subject of " Impressions
de Voyage
" in
several volumes.
When
duce the
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
country,
it is
103
any signs of accuracy and appreciation. Dumas was not a Chauvinist his liberal principles and
,
the breadth of
travel
gave
which
ordinary
Darling-
Dumas
off-
it
produced some
that
is,
that
it
But
days
romance has yet achieved he could see something to admire in each of the two great
that
;
War and
;
in "
it
San Felice
is
"
In
that
judicious
and
he
true.
Dumas
to
;
Waterloo
is
which
foolish
Napoleon
right
at St Helena, in
which he
is
undoubtedly
The conception of the Englishman which Dumas formed is largely that which Jules Verne
is
be said
for
it
the
the
type has
"
many
of
we
Sir
John Tanlay
in
Compagnons de
reproduction of
faithful
104
the
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
who
travelled Europe,
first
following
in the track of
century
but certainly he
may
further be pointed
out,
that
Dumas
re-
Shake-
he
fully
and
gratefully admired.
"
Whenever he
" he considered
his particular
Shakespeare and
made fun many may think legitimate fun of some of our English characteristics and customs, he has at least known how to admire our beautiful women. The sight of
has
Dumas
a bevy of
fair
girls
in
in
Rotten Row, he
tells
us,
of Shakespeare,
which
until
that
understood.
his "
chapters on
Eng-
The
(I
English, the
'
and most
industrial
say
industrial,'
by
force of industry."
find
women
But
is
in
whole world.
glance
to for
do the Englishmen
first
ALEXANDRE DUxMAS
desire."
. . .
105
"The
title
thing
is,
the greater
is."
"
England
if
fully de-
serves the
greatness."
of a great nation,
is
power implies
..." Everything
;
forbidden in England
on a Sunday
after
sennuie
London on a Sunday gives one an idea of what the kingdom of the Sleeping Beauty was like before the Princess was awakened." ..." The Englishman generally has the spleen in November. You may
fancy that that
is
because of the
fog,
which com-
mences
May.
November and doesn't go away until They have the spleen because Not at all
in
!
You may ask me what the English make their fogs Of coal, I suppose, but that is a detail. It was not the good God who made the fog, it was the
of."*
English."
" Posterity
commences
sadly.
at the frontier."
So
said
Dumas,
little
"The
old
order" had
its
old favourite.
had cooled
down
after
the
Revolution
Partly
analytic fiction
warm
his genius
Dumas
In the
106
LIFE
AND
AVRITINGS OF
abandonment of
friends,
his
and
his
as given
by
M. Ferry, Home,
and with
and
is
very curious
and
characteristic.
the spirituahst,
who was
at
then in Paris,
that
time very
was about to marry the lady's sister the wedding was to take place in St Petersburg and the count and his wife percountess.
Home
Dumas
to leave
Paris with
them in five days, to be " best man." Such a tour had been one of the dreams of his life, and was to
prove one of
his pleasantest
memories.
He
hunted
wolves
explored Finland
in
he encountered a burning
which
of Nijni
Novgorod;
his journey;
in
officers at Kaliasine,
who broke
Caucasus,
him on
the
though
crossed
true,
;
he
a tarantass, and
returned via
having
wonder,
And
no
his
excited
"
107
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
flattery
and
ten
hospitality
everywhere.
spent
He
only
was
his
absent
francs,
months,
and yet
12,000
welcome of
in
But the
social miseries
which he saw
the
life
Dumas.
is still
Although
much
of the following
it
too true,
and
was
"
written, be
is
what
is,
below
it.
And
what
is
more curious
Emperor
in
But as soon
Russia,
on an abuse
what
is
is
it
turn,
make
is
And
future
"
:
this
There
is
Hun,
finds
in this race of
it
the
canons of
will
and
intelligence.
:
One
written
day Russia
in the
take Constantinople
it
is
book of
fate.
108
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
:
Then
break,
It
is
not
into
two
parts,
but into
...
If
if
it it
hand
itself
it
will
break
holds
its
its
prey too
loosely,
will
be forced to open
fingers
and
release
its
charge."
In 1859
Dumas made
woman,"
as
charming
partly
her,
Emilie
Cordier, better
known
in those
days as "L'Amiral,"
accustomed to dress en
romancer during
following year.
1864.
If
his
The intimacy, indeed, lasted until we may say so without being misunderwas something paternal
the
in the
stood, there
love of
affection for
young girl, something filial in her and yet a child was born of this The news of the liaison, at the close of i860. event drew from Dumas two charming letters, which
for
Dumas
him
of the
from
pen
"
are extant.
In his
introduction
to
"
Un
Gil
Bias
en Californie" he
man who
On
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
FILS.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
lOO
Voyage
are
form and
:
spirit.
The
"
first letter is
to the
mother
to thee,
my
dear love of a
child, for
me
my
little
Micaella has
come
mother
"
is
going on
well.
You know, my
I
dear
little
one, that
I
girl.
will
tell
;
you why.
I
love Alexandre
whilst
that
wish.
So
will
all
fall
for
Marie
I
now
I
to the share of
my
little
Micaella.
little
fancy
by the
side of her
mother,
I
whom I forbid to get up and go out before come. I am arranging to be in Paris about the 12th it will be impossible for me to be there sooner, in spite of my eagerness. " If I tell thee one thing, my dear love, thou may St well believe it true. In an hour my heart
has grown
love
bigger,
to
make room
for
this
new
"If
to
for the
we
will
take a
little
house at
island in
Naples, and
will
the spring
no
through
:
LIFE
child.
AND WRITINGS OF
rely
in short,
on
me
to cherish mother
and
^^
Att revoir,
ma
petite
cherie
is
embrace
will
for
me
the
Donna
Micaella,
who
toi et
thumb, so
hers by
Madame
de C. writes.
answer
as your mother's,
whom
"
(the
embrace.
A
I
a r enfant.
"Alex. Dumas."
To
think that
letter
to-day
1st),
Je faime
"
The second
"
letter is to the
baby
MoN Cher Beb^, As thy good grandmother whom thou must love dearly, as well as thy little
mother
"
writes me
1
that you
send thee
I
shall try to
hamper of
to
who
"
I
brings
it.
loves thee,
We
make no apology
is
for
which have no
subject
their
so far as our
author,
with
his
large-heartedness,
his
ir-
111
to
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
reverence (which
sSrieux),
it
would be
all,
foolisli
take
ati
and above
is
his
gaiety, to be omitted.
The
"
first
to
Charles
Nodier,
and
is
dated
My Good
Charles,
My great
himself
idler,
my
illus-
trious
confrere,
God
don't speak of
humiliate
Him
too
much
I
be good
enough
to tell
me who
this
and
didn't
know what
Charles,
to
replied that
I
I
had
my
who knew
him.
would write
will
"Ten
that
"
lines,
beg,
for
my good
me
Nodier;
come
see
them on Sunday
rid of
next.
You
I
easily
love you
as a brother,
son.
"Alex. Dumas."
The second
and
"
letter,
dated 1849,
is
:
to the
critic
Mv Dear
litde
Janin,
You
We
a
know
have
of the death of
poor
Maillet?
buried
her
a
this
morning.
child.
She leaves
Is Z"].
mother
and
young
your
"
The mother
Help us
to the best of
112
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
tlieatrical benefits, etc.
power
with subscriptions,
I
"As
forward
take charge of
it
myself.
only
three years old, and it doesn't eat much yet. I will work an hour a day longer, and that will be all right. A V02CS, "Alex. Dumas."
The
third,
which
is in
our possession,
is
is
no more
It
interesting as
bears no date
**
My
dear M^ry,
Rue
take no excuse.
Yours,
" Al.
Dumas."
Hugo.^
Lacroix.
Janin.
Charles.
Brohan.
Toto.
De
Leuven.
Meurice.
Vaquerie.
Person.
Moi.
On
^
his return
literature," as
The
;
guests include Mery, the invited, a Marseilles poet-author, Victor Hugo Paul Lacroix, the
;
;
Paul Meurice, Dumas's collaborator Auguste Vaquerie, the auliior and dramatist Charles Hugo Dumas Melingue, the comedian, and his wife ; (kiyons and his wife Ji/s
; ; ; ;
;
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Feelinof the desire to travel
113
more,
Dumas
determined on a tour
all
the Mediter-
his
previous ex-
In a
little
of
Such an
life.
But
built,
no
sooner
was
the
little
schooner
left
Enwia
Marseilles
in April
abandoned.
his
Dumas's hopes of pleasure, his holiday, money, his safety even, were sacrificed without a
or a thought, to
murmur
The
and vigour
rule of Ferdinand.
strangers.
met the
Dumas
tells
So loudly (says Blaze de Bury) had Dumas proclaimed the skill and valour of that other "force of nature" Garibaldi, that a certain
it wise to report the existence of this unknown person to headquarters. But when he confessed the source of his information, the consul was curtly forbidden to trouble his superiors with the idle talk of a romancer
114
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Dumas
set sail
band of " redshirts," marched across the island with them and shared their fortunes. After his conquering journey along the north of Sicily from west
to east, Garibaldi prepared to cross
Messina
at
Straits
;
and begin
join him.
his
Reggio
who
flocked to
Dumas had
to
the
He
his
of a Royalist ship,
to
At Naples he acted
king
for his
as Garibaldi's envoy,
stimulating
by
"
the
'
seditious
conduct.
Everywhere" (says Maxime du Camp, who was with Garibaldi's staff as a volunteer), " he gave the
to
prepare for
When
he made
arts^
Dumas
involving the
man
government.
He was
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
now
installed
in
115
little
all
but the
Neapolitans,
learning
that
waxed
indignant.
it,
This "job," as
elegantly calls
Dumas,
in
was hooted and mobbed by the people for whom he had worked so hard. For a time, the ingratitude of
the populace stunned him, and he was undisguisedly
pained
This
fresh in
Dumas's mind
when,
on
that
the
occasion
of
Victor
Emmanuel's
Du
the the
Camp
there
were
no
Garibaldians
fact
in
procession.
(As a matter of
''
we know how
le bicn
II jmU faire
dtuie
fafon abstraite^ et ne jamais penser d la recompense" was our author's philosophic comment.
Nevertheless he stayed
in
Naples
^"to have
a chat," as he laughingly
tells
us.
was continually
officials,
and
1864 ^^
116
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
same as ever," says Ferry, " big, powerful, robust, and yet so well-proportioned that he could not be accused of stoutness. His head, so firmly set upon that massive neck, was crowned with a forest of crisp, grey hair the face,
just the
;
He
was
with with
its
mouth, shone
humour,
spirits
shown themselves
human
expressive fidelity."
The summer
of that year
was spent
at the Villa
Madame
were the
de Girardin.
talk of
Un-
and
his "
Sundays
"
On
the servants,
all
after a
quarrel
departed summarily,
famous a cook as a
unsuspecting
guests
writer,
his
crowd
and
of
dish
and
gigantic
which
entirely
satisfied
appetites
palates.
" In 1864," the
Martins
of
tell
us in their interesting
book
"The
Stones
Paris,"
"the
American
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Minister to France,
117
with
Dumas
at
Mr
was
he had a notion of going to the United States as War Correspondent for French papers, and to make
another book, of course."
not go,
It
is
was about
North
in
sum
of
money
When
widows of the slain abolitionists. acknowledging the gift, the President sugfor
the
gested that
Dumas
The
author duly
forwarded
graph.
a hundred
These were
great
writer
sold in the
United States
at
600
francs each.
The
could
old.
He
no
longer
;
work
fourteen,
sixteen
to the
hours a day
and
his efforts
were unequal
his
Yet neither
Porte
St
dramatic
The
directorate of the
Martin became
left
bankrupt,
and
the
company was
in
stranded.
Dumas had
had
a
play
just
announced
dramatisation
^ladame
de
118
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
for
Chamblay "
ready
production
but
not
Some
of
end
for
employment, appealed to
Dumas
them the manuscript, as they had hired the Theatre Ventadour, and wished to open with a new play. No sooner had he lent the drama to
to give
the
Comedie Fran^aise
him.
itself,
came
:
to
open
negotiations with
Dumas
refused
he had
although
in spite
The
when revived
of the press.
later on,
it
proved a success
Dumas's enemies were now gaining the upper hand of their old antagonist, and they did not spare
him.
his
He
old
had occasion
at this
trip
time to write to
to
companion of the
and
in
Monte
is
Cristo.
One
the
France there
or
was
no
He
limit to the
power.
wrote a public
that this
plays
or books
and that on almost was a revival of the play which was condemned, and not a new play at all The
!
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Still
119
man that of
into
which were
this
deserved to be.
It
was probably
ing ambitions, for early in the next year he eneaijed the " Grand-Theatre Parisiens
"
in
the
Rue
Blum
" there.
Dumas's
of
secretary,
who was
nominally the
lessee
the
came
to naught.^
In
of
their
fathers,
the
dramatist
appealed to his
"unknown
new
"
Theatre
The very
slight
and
Dumas, owing
his
company
arrears of salary,
met the
situation in
a characteristic and ingenious way. He gave the members collectively the right to play the piece, and promised that whenever it was performed within reach of Paris, he would attend if duly notified. On one occasion the author missed his train, and did not reach the theatre till the second act. The audience, who before his arrival had been too uproarious and distracted to follow the play, insisted, as soon as their darling appeared and peace was restored, that the actors should begin all over again which they were obliged to do
!
120
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
In
broke
and Dumas,
ursfinof
and of
travel both
study the
crisis
Prussia in mid
warm
was
"
filled
battlefields
campaign.
The
result
La Terreur
Prussian predomin-
above
all.
money as best he could, Dumas went down to the Havre Exhibition of 1868, and lectured there, and at Caen, Rouen and other towns, on his way back. Two or three of his plays were
Forced
to earn
spirit
of hostility
to
critics,
who managed
wound
he was
lor
the
now
enfeebled playwright.
To
felt
the last
ridiculed,
Lamartine,
a 'warm
whom
worn out with the struggle against his debts and his enemies and the news saddened Dumas, for it gave him a foreboding of
admiration, died In 1869,
;
his
own
end.
This
ing
brilliant
and
to
illustrious life
was
itself
draw-
very
near
close,
amidst
humiliating
ALEXANDRE
poverty,
oblivion
DUJNIAS
Spongers
121
and
suffering.
and
care,
was not jealously guarded for him and which the gay heart had so long kept at bay,
that
;
stole
in
fireside.
The
father
:
had always
Not
hint
very bread was lacking, not until the pawnvisited, did the older
man send
Again,
that fact
when
disease crept
also,
and
for
was not
man's
came
Alexandre
the cares of
and assert
that
himself.
From
least,
moment
money matters
at
were over.
Dumas was
until
taken to FInisterre,
and
lastly, to
his son's
where he remained
lonof
watched over,
been strange
to him.
But now another care haunted the great man and day and night his clouding mind brooded upon
live
It
after
hlm.^
One day
his
to himself no longer,
"
that
am
122
LIFE
as
AND WRITINGS OF
of a
monument which
based
though
it
were
on
shifting
sands."
"
Be
at peace,"
answered
his son
is
well built,
will
stand firm."
The dying
the two
drew
his son
was the cry of the soul doubting its own genius the agony of doubt which seized Keats when he bade them write as his epitaph, " Here lies one whose name
a silent embrace.
;
met
was writ
In
his
taires,"
in water."
introduction
to
"
Dumas
1870
to
his
fils
tells
anecdote,
and
that
adds,
by way of supporting
1893
father's
his
prophecy,
from
no
less
than
2,840,000
in
volumes of
trated parts.
illus-
everything.
it
The
world,
had promised
Such an age of agitation, he prophesied, would end in an era And truly for France the outof disillusionment. look was dark, for the Prussians had overthrown In his Napoleon and were invading France. had seen the Prussians at the early days Dumas in his last days he would have gates of Paris
and
social,
of the mid-century.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
But
him.
"
all
123
such
news
was
mercifully
kept
from
One
dropped
Like his
own
Dumas
stifling
All
if,
and almost
all
and
fingers
the
weapon with which he had once wrought such wonders fell from his nerveless finders. Excess of labour, far more than excess of pleasure, had made the brain mute at last. In his brief moments of ViQ-ht Dumas would play with his son's children, or would sit where his nurses placed him on the beach, gazing,
motionless,
thoucjhts.
at
the
sea,
thinking
long,
long
On
the morning of
for.
December
5th,
1870, a priest
was sent
He
opened
his eyes.
He
He
died
that afternoon
124
LIFE
years
AND WRITINGS OF
when
the
Two
parted,
father
later,
Prussians
able
to
Alexandre
Dumas was
host
home
to
lie.
to
Villers-Cotterets,
where he had
authors
wished
of distinguished
When
it,
the
arrived
with
in
the the
coffin,
the
to
people were
greet
quietly
waiting
old
for
streets
and
young and
the
pressed
bearers
lost,
of their of
dear friend.
whom whom he
of
life,
he
was
so
with
lies,
the
in
mother
the
little
so tenderly loved, he
set
out on
the
pilgrimage
back.
man whom he
reverenced
most,
" After
life's fitful
fever,
he sleeps well."
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
His Character.
"
125
the
The man
great
of
eater,
much and
man
of
is
R. L. Stevenson.
"
He
still
may
not
it
will
That
is
quite true,
but in trying to sketch Dumas's character according to the ideal Stevenson has given us,
to
we hope
show
wrongly
him,
him)
less black,
deemed
for
we seem
passage from
"
Memories and
Portraits."
Happily we cannot mistake our starting-point, for it is obviously best to commence one's journey
round a character with that which
is
the subject's
first
most
those
characteristic
quality,
and which
strikes
who
presence.
left
score of
emphasis on
his
"
'
126
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
an
unclouded
self-con-
magnificent
constitution,
fidence, a kind,
brilliant social,
^^
dramatic,
enfant^'
"
and
successes.
Hercules bon
:
Maxime Du Camp called him, adding Like a giant who knows his strength and
advantage of
it,
fears
to take
he was gentle.
of impatience.
original
have
will
movement
the
to
man was
lovable, in
is
'
sense of the
that
word, that
made
be loved,'
Dumas was
it
man. ...
He
to
one who
He
seems
were, an atmoall
who
" L'Ecolier
shown Wishing to
he picked up his
this quatrain
friend's account-book,
:
and wrote
depense,
"
!
Tout ce
depense
d'esprit
Many
Dumas
;
naturally
Dumas
has writ
say,
'
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
relate
to
127
the
theatre,
of which
he was such an
habitue,
master.
(says
and the drama, of which he was such a " Before telHng one of the best of these," H. Pollock), "it
is
Mr W.
necessary to re-
member
another playwright
the
no
relation of his
who
bore
name
is
of
Dumas.
which
of
its
the obscure
Dumas came
said
Dumas and
"
'
Ah
'
head to foot
him from
irre-
adieu,
Thomas
"
!
'
The
sistibly
"
occurs
when one remembers the Master's wit and improvidence. There is somethe
mind,
thing very
like
the
author of the
" School
for
Scandal
"
One
Dumas saw
during the
128
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
"
!
The next day a comedy of Dumas's was played, and the author was present. Suddenly Soumet
tapped his friend's shoulder, and
pointed out a
gentleman asleep
sweet accents
:
in the orchestra,
saying in bitter-
"You
just the
see,
my
falls
asleep
same when
"That?
Why
that
the gentleman
who went
!
to sleep yesterday,
"
re-
Dumas was
just as
much
at
home
in the boulevards,
and the populace, who loved him and whom he He was walking loved, as with the wits and peers. one day with his secretary Pifteau, and looking for
a cab, when a post-office mail-omnibus rolled by.
"Stop!" he cried to the driver, "give us a " We're men of letters, too The postman grinned as he whipped up
!
lift.
his
horses.
The
mots uttered by
were numberless.
him.
attributed to
''tout passe,
him
toict
The
the flavour,
"
jests.
man
the
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
years mankind
129
young man," he wrote to Beranger, "always makes his entry into public life with an old woman on his
has been
hissing it"
ari:i,
"
and
into the
in
thought
his
head.
One needs
to
have much
"When
the
son
he had not
"
re-
"
have been
my
child-
hood
my
:
)Outh.
shall
There
is
no room here
desprit^
spoken or written,
too; in the
Dumas
for
One
is
of
j\I.
de Sesmaisons,
so stout that
man
in
in politics,"
who was
he found
occasion
it
necessary
when he
travelled to reserve
two places
On
one
when he took
he discovered
130
that his
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
for
him one
seat in the
The
Colonel Bro's
the episode of
at that officer's
and seeing a yellow red and blue macaw on its perch, he went up to it familiarly and commenced
to scratch
its
head.
The
bird,
it
appeared, was in
vile
visitor a
finger,
murderous peck.
Dumas withdrew
his
the bird,
wrung
its
out of
sifjht
body Later on
he
left
Some weeks
Reference was
Dumas
the
made
to
habits
of elephants,
who
kneel to say
their"
prayers,
"As
"it
to
must be common to
she added,
animals."
"
Then
turning
Dumas
"You remember my
beautiful
to
dead,
and would
it
you
in
a corner
That proves
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
that this
to all
131
is
an instinct
common
animals
creation,
parrots
have
just as
the forest."
Dumas
Here
"
is
Take, with
I\Ir
and
wit,
Dumas's
vanity.
reproach
:
call
They
Dumas
vain
he had reason to be
will
vain,
be
shocked by
frank, his
and
artless enjoy-
adventures.
Oddly
call
who
'
are
vanity
in
the great.
is
Dumas's delight
'
in
himself
and
his doings
existence,
and
in his
Memoires,' at
least,
it
is
as
Porthos
it
is
a kind of
radiance,
in
which
others, too,
enjoy themselves.
And
yet
it
is
own
chill
There is an amusing story told of how this vanity was very neatly snubbed on one occasion. Dumas was giving evidence in a trial, at Rouen, and was
asked his profession.
"
I
should say
'
dramatic author,'
if
were not
he answered.
132
"
LIFE
Oh,
AND WRITINGS OF
replied
M'sieu,"
the
judge,
" there
are
degrees."
...
resist
We
his
cannot
quoting here
revenge on the
his plays.
"One
'
day," he says,
"a
Neapolitan boasted to
me
'
Barbiere
and
'
Desdemona.'
"'That must be true,' I answered, 'because Rossini and Malibran boast, on their part, of having been hissed by the Neapolitans. So I
boast of
being hissed
by the
'
Rouenese.
The
Rouen
to
people,'
he added,
"
hiss
me
?
because they
object to me.
Why
!
'
shouldn't they
They
objected
Joan of Arc
just
"was a
rise,
part of his
until
it
as a balloon
air."
cannot
is
with
"
The
public,"
adds
not to
Du Camp,
to
they expect a
man
have
it."
know
Dumas's
artless self-admiration
"he
is
to
get
up behind
this
his
own coach
its
to
make
We
we
speech to
source, but
said
it,
Dumas
There
/i/s
is,
without
however, a story
is
by
Mr W.
H.
Pollock, which
more
pro-
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
bably authentic, beini;
spirituel.
in
133
better
taste
and more
Dumas
son,
pcre
is
collaborate.
son
to
do
adding,
"
it
you
me
would only
have
of
to
make
I
objections, to contradict
me
the
in
the
subjects
proposed,
and
to
give
germs
your
the
ideas
which
would
develop
without
help.")
On
this
occasion
Dumas
he
disliked
collaboration,
to
am
more sorry
refuse
me
because
my my
"
for
He
believed in himself,
it
it
is
Du
do
Camp, "and
so
;
him
to
but he believed
"
People
"
'
Mr
Lang,
who may
'
be requested
to
vain
and
just as
much
Dumas had
no jealousy,"
Scott.
Mr Lang
As he
crois
Je ne
inconitu,
moi'
but was
134
LIFE
gall
AND WRITINGS OF
had Dumas in his disposition that he found ability everywhere he praised heartily, gladly. His good-nature often led him to fancy
So
little
that there
"
I
was
talent in people
who possessed
none.
to
make out what Mallefille lacks, in be a man of talent," he said one day. " Perhaps he lacks the talent," some one
can't
"
order
sug"
I
gested.
By Jove
all
That's
it
answered
Dumas
ingenuously.
With
his failings
due time
Dumas
and
we
will
admit them
in
He was
charity
itself.
"
a voice of
like
He was
Du Camp.
"Half,
if
Another great
money he earned he gave away." writer has told us how Dumas would
sit
in
to the suffering,
was
sick
and ye
visited
We
Alexandre
Dumas which
Chaffault were
One
ALJiXANDllE
ging
for help.
DUMAS
was shown
in,
135
beg-
The author
My
;
friend,"
he
said, "
am no
I
are
man who
in
want.
Take
;
down one
and
sell
it,
go
and leave
poor
"
me
for relief."
Theodore de
Souvenirs
how
of
in despair,
when
the thought
Dumas came
to
him
the
like
an inspiration from
heaven.
He
found
great
man
deserted
all
but
the host
own
a
hands a
It is
the
on the dishes as
beaminor with
as he
delioht and
with laufrhter,
things.
is
and happily
Dumas had
generosity.
and greater
Maquet,
Of such was
136
LIFE
first
AND WRITINGS OF
Dumas
the artist of
on the
that
Maquet was
collaboration,
and
the
henchman
had
no
But
Melingue,
the famous
"
"D'Artagnan" came forward and named Messieurs Alexandre Dumas and August Maquet." Maquet gave a cry of joy and pride, and fell sobbing
his master's neck.
on
Dumas.
One day
a favour.
man
Would he
agreed.
listen
to
play
in
verse?
Dumas,
whose time was golden, nevertheless good-naturedly After the first act the great man remarked
thoughtlessly
:
"My
poetry."
"
in
^
boy,
your verses
are
not
very
rich
in
Not
rich
."
the
young
man exclaimed
fall
dismay,
letting
the
manuscript
from his
hands.
Dumas, regretting
to a beginner, picked
it
back
thing,
my
is
French
as
appropriate, and
more comprehensible.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
boy.
137
it
Your
is
true
but but
time
that
Mousthe
the
Indcpendance Beige, at
old
know how
editor,
which
work,
was necessary
famous
motives,
to his plot.
He
own
and the
rest,
and
sat
then,
having rapidly
the
con-
grasped the
situation,
chapter himself.
Asseline
Dumas
never
made known
pupil.
the service
There was a
his
on plays by three of
He
discovered,
by
was personal pique which had provoked his judgments on others, and not a lofty desire to defend his art. He cried shame on
self-analysis,
that
himself,
published
his
self-condemnation
criticisms.
"
to
I
the
more
What
had
done," he says,
the point
was by no means
138
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
art."
to
his
kindness.
One
day he found an old friend who was in needy circumstances, and bore him off to dinner. As they
parted the host said casually
:
"Thou
The
knowest,
old
comrade
expect thee
and
At
for
last,
ten or twelve
overcome with
he would not
moment. You can do me a great service," he " Go to the Pont Neuf every day length.
thouo^ht a
"
at noon, ther-
mometer
oblige
for
me.
That
is
very important,
in
con-
Will you
me } "
The
and
was saved."
once more.
Dumas, without waitino- to hear of his particular need, drew fifteen francs from a drawer. It appeared that the caller was collecting
to raise funds to
sheriff's officer.)
"To
bury a huissier
cried
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
those gentry
139
are
only too
well.
"Here
here
"
!
go and
bur)- another
The many
shifts to get
stories
money, and of
some
them amusing, but most of them untrustworthy. himself was conscious of his failing, but was " When my hand never able to cure himself of it.
of
He
closes
*'
on anything
through
it
Ah
"
!
money
is
so smooth,
't
my
fingers
his theatrical
com"
followed by a supper.
Ah
"
cried
"
actress,
and
shall,"
be diso'uised
In
later
"
?
years,
when
Dumas was
giving,
instance,
when
Porcher,
play,
the great
man
to " tutoyer
"
him.
second-person-singular
implies,
familiarity in friendliness.
140
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Dumas,
amused
at
fifty
me
Porcher?"
**
"
to
him than
side
the cloakfor
room with an
his paletot
archi-millionaire who, in
fifty
exchange
gave
servant.
The
note.
"
shame
drew out
his purse
Pardon,
sir,
No,
no, friend,"
dis-
"
it
is
the other
cfentleman
who
has
made
the mistake."
Dumas's extravagance, so far as his own pleasure and glorification were concerned, has been
But
the palace of
ourselves, that
neither so big,
Maxime du Camp
lived in
Dumas
the great
man worked
"
is
furnished.
because slander
need of
fools."
ALEXANDl^E DUMAS
" Thougli for forty years," says
"
141
"
Vandam,
less
Alex-
andre
per
Dumas
; ;
than ^S,ooo
annum
gambled
the
though
the
mania
for cooking,
previous
it
day,
writs
grilled,
favourite
rained
No
station,
back to the
a
the
I
fare
Truly
Dumas had
purse
!
"If
all
haven't
made
the holes in
my
topic,
with which
intimately, deals
There are no parasites worse than rapacious women, and to these Dumas gave way as long as
he
lived.
As one
left
another entered.
disgraced
locate
The
place
favourite,
herself some-
away with
even
cried
to furniture.
tlie
all,
! '
"Take
dismantling; "take
me
at least
my
genius
142
LIFE
on
AND WRITINGS OF
it is
impossible to judge
Dumas
general
principles
and
to
by
let
ordinary
British
standards,
and
distort
still
more
unfair
prejudice
our judgment.
connection
with
his
Except
for
women
in
never
Dumas's
of his
which
it
many
for
contemporaries,
De
Musset,
for
example.
He
was
too
sane-minded
that.
felt
But
the
his
ardent,
semi-tropical
temperament
feminine
fair
over-
whelming
gallantry,
need
of
society
and
the
women
type
of
possess.
His
good
nature,
and
siren
artless vanity
rendered
him
prey to
the
womanhood
he
could
other sex,
for
although
we
have
his
ample
proof
that
of the
witness
honest,
friendly
admiration
Madame
chivalric
way
in
which
(as
we
see
in
"
Une
Aventure
charming
We
"
Dumas
They
know
of no two characters
AT.KXANDRK DUMAS
Alexandre's and
"
niinc," said
143
the
fatlicr
one day,
and
yet
they
go
together
excellently.
We
certainly
far
away from each other, but I fancy we are never happier than when we are together." They loved each other madly, and yet lived such
different
lives
that
other.
lost
sight of each
At
these periods,
if
the old
Uumas saw
and hold out
"
frier.d,
his hand,
What
him?
Do
you ever
see
For
say
my
'
part
except to
funerals."
good-day
"
when
I
meet him
added
at
On
another occasion
he
half-
bitterly, half-jestingly,
Perhaps
shan't
meet him
again until
my own The passionate love between Dumas pcre and Dumas yf/s- began with the birth of the one and did
!
"
not
end with
tells
the
Blaze de
deeply:
Bury
"
how
One day
:
the
young Alexandre
fell
of the staircase.
serious
The
accident
seemed
him dead, was quite overcome. She sent at once for Dumas, who was out on guard, and also for the
doctor,
who
arrived
first.
The
child,
however, had
144
faint,
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
in this state
he
fainted too
"
The
sisted strongly.
The
father implored
and besought
that
'
it
should
Oh, very
them on yourself, and then I will let Dumas conthem put them on me afterwards.' sented, and put the leeches in the hollow of his left
hand."
After the
first
natural
At the
"
of one
of the
father
successful
plays of
Dumas
the proud
"
He
took
is
hand,"
best
Villemessant, "saying,
'He
my my
was Dumas's reply, on a similar occasion, to a friend who remarked that the play was so good, it was surprising the father " Oh, but I had," said the had no share in it. " veteran dramatist, "the author is by me The light-hearted gaiety of the father and the
work
'
"
Even
wittier
marked
^
to
be missed by the
has
left
wits.
" Alexandre
is
a very charming account of his father's attitude aux Caiiielias." He did not think it would dramatise, but catching the guilty youth with the MS. under his arm, he insisted on hearing it. The elder dramatist became interested, absorbed, moved, delighted, enraptured
latter
The
towards " La
Dame
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Dumas yf/y,
never
will
"
145
/t'r^
but you
)0u
be
"
!
the
Cam^Has
to the great
man.
"He
in
born when
seemed
to
provoke wit
trees in the
the other.
who had
said
where the
light.
"
let
Dumas,
"
"
and
fresh air
Ji/s
By
this
kindness of
Madam Dumas
"
we
are en-
in connection
with
is
son.
The
most
first
Dumas pcres
the
when
censor
famous
play
*'
:
I
declare,
on
'
experience, that
and on
the
my
'
literary
Camelias forbidden
Censorship,
to
by
is
that
stupid
institution
called
I
have a right
I
have written
in
safely
be included
young
Paris, 4th
October 1851.
"
A. Dumas.
The
on
other
is
little
to translate.
It is
New
Year's day
146
*'
LIFE
MoN Cher
t'aime,
AND WRITINGS OF
que je
"
reste,
pourrons.
i*""
Janvier.
toi,
'
''
A. Dumas."
We
our author
his
energy.
Henley
tells
us that at
and
it is
a brain
so
greedy of
work.
rest except
"Dumas," says Blaze de Bury, "would never when fatigued consequently a curious phenomenon came upon him. Almost every year
;
a fever seized
him
for
he was
this,
not simply
ill,
he was vanquished.
;
Knowing
and then
and
gave himself up
This was
crisis
his violent
manner of
takinof
The
lasted
about
Dumas
arose and
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
returned
insisted
to
147
work.
upon a
halt."
M. Edmond About
can
still
first
draft of the
Compagnons de
writin^j
Jehu.'
It
was a
thick
witli
and covered
a neat
little
an
excellent rou^^h
sketch
the
it
drawn up by a
his
skilled
assistant according to
Dumas worked
each
little
at
in
own manner
through
of white
Dumas
it is
that "panting
Time
toiled after
him
in vain,"
he was ever
"
toilino- in
To
be continued
at
in
our next
classic
it
was the
In
his
warning cry
confesses
the
feast.
amusing preface
to Grisier's
"Arms and
the Duel,"
Dumas
forcibly
that
there
unless
detached from
his
regular
work.
This
pressure
ridicule,
on
his
time,
coupled
with a dislike of
made
guard-room
"
imprisonment due
Monpeou
the
148
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
He
learnt,
moreover, that
Dumas
by sleeping in different houses, entering by side-doors, and departing by windows, " as if he wanted to be a fairy, and
was dodging
his
military pursuers
part."
Monpeou,
(It
for his
own
the
led
to
appeared that
Dumas
trades-
had aggravated
gave
by an answer which he
of his
to a superior officer
!
men
that
one
;
own
culture, declared
it
terrible" for
him
to
be obliged to arrest
Dumas
"
to
man promptly
be painful and
replied,
terriful
wouldn't
Monpeou
begged that Dumas should have a private room to work in, and a piano, and when the prisoner arrived
to
undergo
his
opera
The
last
result
was
" Piquillo."
One
of his
"Dumas
labours
inordinate quantities.
"
Mr
Dumas.
Albert Vandam,
in
his
Englishman
in
which he
made on
his friend
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
"
"
*
'
149
Is
Monsieur
is
at
home
'
He
in his study,
in.'
I
Monsieur can go
"At
"
'
that
moment
said
until
Monsieur's visitors
are gone.'
"
'
Monsieur has
visitors
he
is
'
working,'
remarked the
servant
with
smile.
Monsieur
Dumas
" It
was true enough the novelist was alone, or rather in company with one of his characters, at whose sallies he was simply roaring." That Dumas lived to work rather than worked to
live,
is
obvious to
all
who
to
fertility,
and devotion
desk.
M. de Bury
in
which he
to his
books
for
am
my
books
is
a passage
full
of a deep and
him.
'
Every
line
to
is
me
day
all
and all the same people who were there, in the days gone by. Alas already the best part of my life is
!
"
AND
;
WRITINIiS OF
like
150
in
LIFE
my
memories
am
one of those
at
trees,
foliage,
which
noon
is full
of
wake up towards
day.
my
they
and with
songs
will enliven
hand upon
falling,
their hospitable
home
and the
tree, in
frightens
is
away
all
which each
It is this
simply an hour of
my
"
life.'
as an idler!
same of him.
over
him,
He
the
tells
neighbours
:
shaking
their
heads
muttering
"See the
anything
"
I
!
idler;
He
will
never do
don't
know
but
!
that
I
our
author, "
know
"
"Truly,
this
up volume on volume,
land,
if
At any
rate
my
own, to-day."
"
Bah
Have
good God
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
the
fields,
151
nature
the
air,
to those
I
who do
"
see
intuitive
intellectual
is
quality which
Dumas
known
as the
first
"dramatic
instinct."
life
He
to
have seen
point of view.
As
lad,
collaborating with
La Chasse
performed
interesting
his plays
was
a
and
characteristic.
I
"When
occupies
all
work which
feel
I
"
the need
;
of narrating
at the
aloud
in reciting thus
invent
and
find
some
it
is
completed.
But
method of working
I
that
kept
is
have finished
the plot
'
is
In this
in
way
Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle
my
head
for nearly
five years."
was not read, but described to the committee of the Comedie Francaise, and at the end of Dumas's vivid recital, was accepted by acclamation The fact was, it was
that finally the piece
!
We
may add
152
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
it
already composed;
paper.
An
anecdote told
in "
Trois Mousquetaires
his public,
shows
and trusted
"we had
to
six
tableaux.
Do
No,
?
'
asked
my
father.
*'
*
it's
went
in
search of the
:
said
Why
'
are
you
listening
to
the
piece
"
'
me
as
much
as
the others.'
" This reply
was enough
for
my
father
;
he went
off
he took
opened
sat
shirt, just
as he did
when he
down
tore
"
'
to
work
at
was given
'
to him,
and he
up and threw
What on
cried Beraud.
"
ALEXANDRE
"
it.
'
DUJNIAS
:
153
It didn't
I
amuse
the fireman
have destroyed
But
"
see exactly
what
it
wants.'
And he
rewrote
before
at the
it,
there
and then."
The day
"
the
Hahfax,"
dress-rehearsal,
Dumas
decided
told
needed a prologue.
He
:
the
actors that
if
he would write
They were
willing
the pro-
*'
Read
it,"
is
first
night
piece
La Jeune
Vieillesse."
it
The
was a shocking
muttered
failure,
and as
proceeded dolorhisses,
and
is!
Dumas
"What
from
a fool the
man
He
has eone
I'll
And
this
germ grew
"
author's later
Whenever he
he
tells
felt his
dramatic enerofles
flaarsrino-,
us,
random, to refresh
and revive
his
powers by reading.
But the
was
sufficient
and
set
it
in action.
make
it
thirty,"
he
said,
"then
I'll
go
154
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
sleep
;
I'm
tired, I've
done
"He
towards
o'clock,
his
at
way
five
he was
Whatever
'
?
'
"
"
"
'
'
There
is
such an abominable
uproar
"
'
farm,
sheep,
Then
'
all
this
thumbs ?
"
"
'
have written a play in one act.* As a matter of fact he had just written Romulus,' which he amused himself by getting Regnier to
No,
I
'
'
a young,
unknown
brac
"
writer.'
It
The
father's
analysis
"
of
the
his
son's
play
"
La
Dame aux
Camelias
shows
knowledge of stageelder
craft in a striking^
liLrht.
The
Dumas added
to his criticism
his
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
immoral by heredity.
the soundness of this deduction.
155
Dumas's
his
"
talent
"
on
own
behalf.
How
often," says
Blaze dc Bury,
his confreres
any
credit
for
Dumas
too long.
The
great
man
it
enough.
He
pointed out
The
;
ceived
But
"
"
is
not without
its
disadvantages, as
Dumas
If
At a
is
first
night,"
he mourns,
it is
am
the worst
an imaginative piece
entracte
take
them;
ap-
propriate them.
Instead of their
I
unknown
future
156
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
;
my own
I utilise
composition
their originaHty.
only
it is more than I require to build for them the house of cards in which I instal them, and
ten minutes,
my own
is
is
scarcely ever
it
With
historical pieces
much
worse.
title,
bring
it is
my
upon the
defects
and as
is
written with
my
natural
details,
triple,
that
to say, with
abundance of
quadruple
intrigue
it
is
my
being
This
grreat
is
other people
it is
a source of amusement."
has prompted his
The
lack
of education as a youth
him ignorant. They preAntony " wished to destroy the fame of Corneille and Racine because Dumas's sentiments towara^ the two national poets was a
detractors to pronounce
In
reality
in
literature;
it,
and
ing
as
recognised
and
his
judiciously proclaimed
to
We
;
know him
as yieldin
no
Andrew Lang, no Dumas's sound appreciation of the greatness of Homer; and this
veneration
Shakespeare
testifies
mean
authority,
to
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
passage
jeers
in
157
the "
Memoires
"
gives the He to
-
many
"
comedian
him
Bad Latin
;
scholar as
his
am,
have always
wandering
adored Virgil
exiles, his
compassion
for the
his intuition of
my
had an the melody of his verses the first especial charm for me, and I knew by heart whole
.
.
Dumas
forgot.
"
studied
with
enthusiasm,
and
he
never
Partly
by
diligence, partly
by
divination,
"
Dumas
Having
gap by
received no early education, he set himself deliberately to repair the misfortune, filling in the
from
travel
and
from
reading.
he
read
all,
to
Shakeever
speare,
Goethe,
Scott,
Thackeray,
without
Dickens,
Cooper,
his
admiration of
delighted
little
literature
increasing.
Hugo
influencing
for
attraction
Dumas,
who
As
didn't see
human
view."
will readily
realist
at opposite poles of
158
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
On
one occasion these exBalzac had
in
spoken contemptuously of
as
popularity
to
"a
nigger,"
it.
was a Quaker's meeting, for neither guest spoke until they were both leaving. Then
forget
It
alzac said
"When
dramas."
am
written out,
I'll
take to writing
And Dumas
"
replied
You'd better begin at once, then." Yet Balzac saw that Dumas, they parted. like George Sand, had none of the low jealousy and littlenesses which obscured so many contemporary
And
talents,
preciation of
to the sfrave
in 1850.
when
Pere Goriot
"
died
still
was
Buloz,
Deux
the
" Isabel
de
Baviere
chroniques
were
^aise,
written.
The
"
pair
"
production of
for
Caligula
the
Comedie Fran-
at
that time
his
correspondence with
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
consistently uncomplimentary
159
to
references
letter
Buloz.
For
instance,
he would address a
"To
"
M
letter
"
Havre,
a Buloz."
idiot of
Or
"
again,
would begin a
My
dear Porcher,
You,
all
who
are in
. . .
every
There was a
" friendly
third exception to
Dumas's general
other
relations
with
the
powers."
case are
nificant of
many
Dumas by
a mutual
his
house
to the
fugitive.
In return for
author
benefactor's
expense.
Further,
Le-
way
of
Dumas
best
in
the
When
the great
man was
staying in Florence,
to call once
more on
160
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
required
some particulars concerning Lecomte, and he had given them Dumas's name as a reference. The novelist duly
his old host.
furnished the
officials
with
that
such
facts
about the
to
gentleman
in
question
he
was ordered
Then
The
chatting
precaution was
a wise
one.
As
the rocarriage,
avenue
one day,
Lecomte,
accompanied by a
" backer,"
old patron.
turning
to
his
assailant's
one
Korsakoff, he
declared
that
like
if
companion's quarrel.
to
Dumas
stating that
he had
now
him or
to continue his
acquaintance.
to this incident,
which
failure
on Dumas's success
and
in life.
AT.EXANDIIK
As
good
a
a
rule,
DUMAS
IGl
was not a
hater,
and bore
critic
saying,
a splendid article
"
!
collaborators
annoyed
Dumas
his
his
"
"
!
added, "
You
good one
my
opinion
of col-
general,
in his
is
Souvenirs dramain
The passage
style.
written
his
most
vivacious
But
for
Fiorentino,
one of the
Dumas had a
very real
his
affection.
One day
the
master begged
secretary to
An
hour
after,
then
critic
of
the
Constiit
Dumas opened
I
I
"
Here
man whom
misery," he cried,
trade.
"and whom
his
Well
I
when
at
odd times
It is
ask him to do
a service
... he
never refuses
me
"
!
Dumas 's
of Balzac,
162
Scribe,
LIFE
and
AND WRITINGS OF
Towards Scribe
his attitude
Hugo.
was one of admiration, mingled with a httle goodnatured tolerance the smile of the gay grasshopper,
in his
winter stock.
;
The
the other
fortunes,
and died
his fellow-writers
Dumas was
amongst
his
numbered
Musset,
Nodier,
a
^
George
it
De
in
Heine, Soulie,
With
Janin,
true,
he engaged
wordy
Demoiselles de St Cyr."
that one of the
Mr
"
Swinburne thinks
la
poems
in
Toute
Lyre
"
was
addressed by
reconciliation.
Hugo
to his
two
friends, suggesting
We
Dumas and
1849,
little
and
at
" appre-
of
him,
full
of
sincere
affection
and
admiration.
We
friend-
Dumas's
The
;
fight with
thrust
met on the "field of honour." Janin would not swords (so the story went) because he knew an infallible Dumas refused pistols because he could kill a fly at forty
pair even
paces.
So the
foes
embraced
ALEXANDRE
life,
DUINIAS
163
unhis
although
the
affected
confrere.
by
his
admiration
and
affection
for
It is
one suggested
went no deeper.
met Hugo about the time of the production of "Henri Trois," in a show on the Boulevard du Temple, he tells us! and Hugo
first
Dumas
invited his
new acquaintance
"
reading of "
"
The two young became instant friends, and Dumas Romantics of singing the praises of the poet, who never wearied
Marion Delorme."
his part, although of a less demonstrative nature,
on
seems
to
We
have remained a loyal friend throughout. have referred to Dumas's eulogy of " Marion
the
when
the
Legion of
then
with-
him and
Dumas,
Hueo's wishes, in a journal with which the An attempt poet was known to be connected. was made by ill-advised partisans to set the rival
ao-ainst
dramatists in
opposition
to
each other.
It
may
have been
year
this
to exist
but
in the latter
Madame Dumas
died,
Hugo
to
the
164
"
I
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
You
will see
me
exto
first
glance which
we
know
that
doubt me.
"
You were
right in
counting on me.
is
me.
It is
dMat
The
friend to Brussels,
On
his return
for
Dumas
proclaimed
first
his
admiration
number of his MousqueHugo in the very tai7'e a bold thing to do, when one remembers that the author of " The History of a Crime " was anathema to the soul of " Napoleon the Little."
The
of
"La
I
Conscience" to
Hugo
as
"a proof of a
and which
complipoet's
their
:
friendship
will,
which
has survived
exile,
death."
The
ment
"
is
acknowledged
in
in the fifth
book of the
recalls
Contemplations,"
which
Hugo
Tu
rentras dans ton ceuvre, eclatante, innombrable, Multiple dblouissante, heureuse ou le jour luit, Et moi dans Funite sinistra de la nuit."
When
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS
the exiled poet in the press,
165
Dumas
wrote to the
Comedie Franqaise to demand that the actress who had insulted his friend should not be allowed to
play in his comedies in the future.
to
Hugo
in writini;
I
feel
its
conin-
The
visit
letter
vitation
to
the
poet at Guernsey.
Dumas
1S57), an act
on which Charles Hugo comments admiringly. It was not only brave of him (he says), it was thoughto^reat men reful. The bond between the two o mained unbroken till the end, and Hugo wrote to
the younger
Dumas on
With
music,
design,
all
and
his semiPictures,
plebeian birth,
of taste.
in
bric-a-brac,
all
sculpture
and
was best in the artistic sense, appealed to him. His admiration for architecture was real and ardent, and when during his travels in La Vendee he visited the cathedral at Angers, and
that
"
the church
in spite
by
its
.'his
it
of
"Alas,
make a
"
'
166
LIFE
:
AND WRITINGS OF
It
man
*
a Swiss mercenary in the royalist pay shoots takes six or eight centuries to
:
cathedral
scene,
an
architect
with
it!
'
taste
comes on the
tect scrape the If his
and scrapes
"
Oh, why
Swiss
necessary to claim
in
who chose
be " out
As
tells felt
quality.
"
In
manhood
Mr Lang
us, "
was
to rush at
danger
if
he had to wait he
of peril he
his
Bob
moment
was him-
self again."
His bravery greatly resembled that of Henri Quatre in " Les Ouarante Cinq": it was a
which overmastered any fear of the
in the
fear of feai\
National guard,
Dumas
of
the
at
was summoned
Deputies!
doors
:
to help
to arrest the
Chamber
He
The
test,
The
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
to his superb health and strength.
107
truly
He was
who choked a
knees
it
was
"
who
Chaftlie
mob
fault,
him.
He
Du
and
cried,
! '
'
Beg my pardon,
all
throw you
"
He
fenced admirably, and was an excellent shot, as became an ardent sportsman, for in all the pleasures of Dumas's life sport took a commanding place. As a boy we have seen him companion of keepers and
poachers
as a
man he
the hunting of
stories of his
own
tell
of the
triumphs of
others
everywhere
his
some form
of la chasse; in one
in
is
Charles IX.
of
h.\s
pig it e2i7's.
When
from
Dumas would
Hi::
disappear
friends
at
old
would be rejoicod to see their young friend (he was always " young " to them)
Villers-Cotterets
walk
in
168
hearty,
TFE
AND WRITINGS OF
his dinner
and ordering
even as he shouted
the
jolliest
a greeting!
Then would
follow
of
dinner-parties, everyone
to exchanofe banter
Paris,"
well-met
Cotterets.
It
peasant
in
VillerS-
has been
made a
?
has not been made and which cook use of that way that he knew how
Dumas
"
of his qualities
in
to "
his
is
hare
after
he had caught
in
it.
This prejudice
especially
strong
England,
where
the
word
goicrmet
is
translated to
lived simply,
mean
and
if
"glutton."
cooked,
if
he liked
and
if
he had the
skill
cook
it
himself, there
is
He
it
was not
is
i^pace
in the
sense of eating
true,
much
is
but there
no reason
was
mous amount
a "glutton,"
of
in short,
engrossed
food
;
in his
whatever
him
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
To
those
1G9
who have
and character
it
will
Mr Humanity
from the
fierce sansculottes of
down
the blinds of
poor wretches
whom
doomed
kind
is
to the oruillotine.
And
Dumas
the
charitable
wantinsf.
Sometimes he
sometimes he racked
his wits to
;
was
likely to
end
fatally
some wretch in poverty might benefit by the sale. When "Notre Dame des Arts" was founded,
Fitzgerald
tells
us,
Dumas
little
German
play, shaped
disposed of
it
for
to the charity.
to
monk
journeying from
Palestine,
obtain
who
a
laid the
good man's
columns of a
friendly journal.
No
was
raised,
and the
quest accomplished.
Brunswick,
who provided
170
"
; '
LIFE
share
AND
AVRITINGS OF
"
his
profits
for
300
francs,
to
friend,
who
to
Dumas.
When
the
play
was
written
and
produced,
and proved a
success,
Brunswick hinted
not adequate.
sum was
"
I
The
other replied
my
fancy
dialogue
*
together
in
than
left
out
'
an
ought
'
the
for
your
piece.
It is
worth,
my
dear
The
description given by
last
Dumas
and the
moments
of Marie
Dorval
full
of
The
was not laid in a pauper's grave, and he promised. He had only 200 francs of his own; Hugo and M. Falloux between them supplied another 300 and the "vain fcnxeur'' pawned a cherished
decoration to
make up
to
He
Marie
struggled
vainly
obtain
pardon
for
Capelle
Collard,
(Madame
Lafarge),
whose crime was one of the tragic mysteries of the day. He had better fortune in the case of a
named Bruyant, a native of Villers-Cotterets, who was condemned to death for killing a superior
hussar
ALEXxVNDRE DUMxVS
officer,
171
in
an attempt to desert.
first
By
energetically
attacking
Duke de young Chartres, and then M. Guizot, Dumas obtained a commutation of the sentence, for, as he had foreseen, the man proved to be mad, and was finally
his
patron
the
taken care
In
his
of.
epilogue
author pleaded,
sense,
that
executions
publicly, a
heart of the
to die
unrepentant.
He
in
be carried out
the prison
swiftl\-
and should be
accomplished, more
tricity.
and
painlessly,
by
elec-
to the
full.
As
in
private
life
"In
up
"he never
lost
them-
selves for
it."
Dumas
so
frequent with
faith,
dogmatism, doubt
and a new
172
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
man.
intuition within
a period of reHgious
yet
in
his
youth
when he was
in the
we have
seen,
in-
he would give up to
" if
it
!
his
"
life,
and
he believed
to
in
it
Twenty-four years
**
he wrote
Victor Hugo,
soul."
believe in the
im-
mortality of the
he
a
composed
were
on
his
mother's
he
shows
passionate piety.
uttered
with
they
were
were expressed.
Memoires."
But
Here,
maturer years,
is
given
in the "
after protesting
"a
he continues
"
Never
I
in the in
life
have
life,
I
most wretched hours of that one moment of doubt, one instant's despair.
fe'lt,
the
will not
am
mortality of
for it."
my
soul
will
simply say,
hope
At a
by an opulent
the existence of
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
how people
**
173
general was very scornful on the subject, wonderi nocould trouble to discuss such
part,"
trifles.
For my
*
he added,
"
can't conceive of
whom
they
the
good God.'
at
Dumas
father's
He
In
finds
that
his
father
good
work, to dwell
much on
but believes
blamed
life,
without con-
own
and most
mind
mot
of somelast
Even
in
Dumas was
thing like
brief
intervals,
his
old wit.
We
quote his
When
total
On
his
arriving at
Dumas
on
"
re-
mained
through his
illness.
/
174
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
his
son,
when
his
eye
fell
"A
"
'
when
went
to
Paris,'
he
said,
had a
louis.
I
Why
me
See
"
of prodigality.'*
there
"
it
is
'
And he showed
as he did so."
We
may
add,
by
way
will
of
appendices,
three
character-sketches which
They
present by
way
character,
which
given
as
it
a phrenological
description
and vices
loath
Frank
thinks,
in
the
expression
of
all
that he feels
to
and
he
is
by nature
his
take
his
is
any
the
end:
instinct.
He
;
is
manner
extends
and
itself
his
in
affection
all
is
of that
kind which
in
fact,
directions,
for
being
the
confession
of
his
need
comradeship.
all
This
whom
he meets
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
means
"
175
in
practically
an absence of exclusiveness
affection.
He
ing,
"He
confidence
in
;
himself,
and yet
he has a desire
As one may
see,
such a character
is
subject
to a great
number
subtle
of opposing impulses.
These
on our
is
an
effect
inward
well they
effect,
which
him.
more
his
apparent to
friends,
Dumas
himself
than to any of
however
feels
know
in
"
He
:
loved
this
need
is
elemental
him, and
is
felt
by the
"
He
cible
violent
Also he
is
liable
to
show himself
in
more
often, stubborn,
is
controversy or quarrel.
This obstinacy
prone
to
will
seem
like
vindictiveness,
infuriated
probably be
by
resistance
to
his
desires,
cause of his
"There
is
176
slightly
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
but
present.
indicated,
He
is
generally
inclined to
and
view
all
He
is
The second
is
a portrait of
Dumas
in his thirties,
by a confrere and a contemporary, M. Hippolyte Romand, who looks upon the author from a more
human
point of view
" Passionate
by temperament, subtle by
instinct,
is
a spendthrift by nature.
'
He
'
a veritable
'
'
Antony
:
for love,
almost a
will
DarSen-
lington
tinelli
'
for for
ambition
he never
be a
vengeance.
Superstitious^
writes, sceptical
thinks, religious
when he
in
when he when he
his
speaks,
light
even
his
most
fiery passions,
blood
is
His perhe
a
sonality
as illogical as
it
is
possible to conceive,
;
is
generous, because he
1 The character in " Christine " who, impelled by private hate, kills Monaldeschi, by Queen Christine's order. 2 Pifteau tells us that Dumas had a belief in the "evil eye," and a rooted distrust of monks as harbingers of evil. Vandam tells us that "althoug^h far from being superstitious," the romancer prophesied that the notorious Lola Montes would bring ill-luck to all who joined their
destinies to hers,
and the
proved him
to
be
riffht.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
is
177
friendship,
an
artist
liberal
in
too despotic
love
vain as a
woman,
resolute
He
is
sincere
even
to thoughtlessness, a
taste,
soul,
cosmopolitan by
illusions
and
;
caprices,
in
poor
in
perience
light
spirit,
cutting in speech,
night,
in season, a
Don Juan by
an Alcibiades by
for
his
defects as
good
qualities
We
man
make no apology
It
is
for adding, as
the third
one whose
partiality inspired
frank eulogy.
of critical
to
upon
father,
in
praise
the
and not
:
to extol the
bad ones.
He
speaks
apostrophe
" In
this
century,
all
all,
to
it
devour
things,
you were
in truth the
one
man
duce perpetually.
What
formidable
for which she was forced to prepare was beneath the American sun, and with African
178
blood,
LIFE
that she
AND WRITINGS OF
moulded him of
whom
you were
men
Rome
would have bestowed the honours of a triumph upon him and made him consul France, calmer
:
and more economical, shut the doors of the college upon his son. That son, growing to manhood in
the wide
forests
blue heavens
in
flung himself, one fine day, into the great city, and
marched
"
into
as his father
marched
into the
camp
of the enemy.
Then commenced
that cyclopean
work which
history,
Tragedy, dramas,
all
of
mould of your
fiction
brain,
with
new
The newspaper,
France,
shoulders
you fed
made
arists
;
and copyists
toiled after
you
in vain.
came
to
your hand.
is
The
fire
made
the selection
ALEXANDRE DUIMAS
bronze, what
;
179
was hot yours vanished in smoke. You have turned out some bad worl: thus but on the other hand, how many amongst those who would have remained obscure have been Hghtened and warmed at the forge of your genius and if the
;
what has been taken from you Sometimes you placed your heavy hammer upon
!
your sleeves
turned
back,
to the air.
;
With smiling
at the
face,
you
you gazed
calm
stars,
you rushed
off
upon the
first
you crossed
Then, was always something colossal your lungs filled anew, you returned to your cave. Seeing your big shadow outlined in black against
Etna
it
mob
in
fertility
work, elegance
strength,
genius,
and you
have
fertility,
I
simplicity, elegance
had forgotten, but which has made you a aire for others and poor for yourself.
"
there
came a change
indiffer-
whom
till
now
180
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
;
you had swayed and dominated. They went elseyou had where, wishing to see something fresh
given them too much.
pered,
'
You
even heard
far
it
whis-
declare
the
son has
more
talent.'
You
some ordinary
just as
I
You would have given me all your glory, you used to give me all your money when
idle
was an
boy.
:
Let others of
as they
;
my
time claim
to be your equals
that
after
is
their
own
affair
but
wish those
shall
who come
of this
I
me
to
have
friend,
never
felt
my
father,
my
and
my
teacher
and
that,
thanks to you,
have
Reading
for
this
filial
tribute,
in
the
father's
lost
popularity seems
the writer's
be
sin-
cerely greater
his success,
than
own
pleasure in
Dumas on
all
the death of
That
soul
was capable of
itself,
that of bequeathing
even of surviving
Your
PART
II
HIS WRITINGS
His Writings
Hugo, " that in place of the romance of narrative, and the romance epistolary, a creativ^e brain produced the romance
dramatic,
in
itself
demanded
in
which
?
should be,
"
long drama,
Dumas was
much
Hugo
himself.
He
possessed, in the
skill
;
place,
the constructive,
dramatic
He
found
it
in
but
it
was needful
that he should
who would
reconcile
him
to the task.
is
"What
France
looking
for,
is
the historical
Dumas
France
But
"
!
the
history
of
is
so
dull
and
tedious
dogmatically.
"
184
"
LIFE
Indeed
AND WRITINGS OF
so."
" I've
been told
"
Poor boy
Read
it
yourself,
first,
and then
you'll
Dumas
and a high ambition possessed him. "One day," he tells us, " Lamartine asked me
to
what
"
'
'
Histoire
des Girondins.'
To
the
fact
that
to
the
replied."
and
are
We
believe, that
when
the
"
immense
success of "
called for a
little
more than
skill in selection,
and a change
sa
On
the
other hand,
"
Henri Trois
like
et
cape-
We
fame.
know
that in
Dumas
for
theatrical
vaudeville was
performed, the
stories,
book, a
little
collection of short
said,
appeared.
These, as
we have
"
were
after"
the
"
Nouvelles
Contemporaines
in
of
1826,
wards included
the
"
Souvenirs d'Antony
of
CONTEMPORAINES,
Alex.
DUMAS.
Fils d'un soIdaL, i'airae a cboisit
noes herosdanslesranfsderarmee.
PARIS.
SANSON, LIBRAIRE
DE
S.
A. R. MONSEICNEL'R LE DLC DE
Palais-Roval, galeric
MONTPENSIER,
de
bois, n 25o.
1826.
TITLE PAwE UF ItlMASS lUiST BUUK.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
1S35.
185
As
this
was Dumas's
rarity,
first
book,
it
and
a
is
now a
attention.
great
we may
give
little
"The
entitled
lieu,'
'
first
of these stories," he
'
tells
us,
"was
utterly
Blanche de BeauI
'
have
I
forgotten.
Blanche
'
de Beaulieu
afterwards
the third
utilised in writing
{the one of
I
which
Le Cocher de
third
Cabriolet.' "
We
"
may add
that
the
story
was named
Homage
gratitude."
one
is
love
sold,
Of
in
the
four
(or
six)
copies
now
Esq.,
and the
his permission.
Of
Blanche
is
notelittle
worthy that
story General
in
this
Dumas, the
"
though
in its first
being named,
Le Cocher de
"),
(after-
drama of
differing
its
"
Angele
"
"
is
strongly from
poignancy of
is
companion,
"
Un
in the
is
true
Antony
vein.
This
last,
indeed,
the
"
186
LIFE
play, as
AND WRITINGS OF
it
famous
"
is
The remaining
appeared
in la
story,
Cherubino
of
"
et
Celestini,"
as
one
of
the
title
" Cent-et-un
Nouvelles"
de
1833,
under the
"
Les
").
Enfants
Madone
("The
Foundlings
The main
were told
incidents
to
contained in
local history,
when he
visited
in his
"The
from
Death of
Bizarro."
Tennyson
The
Bandit's Wife."
How
skill
cleverly
its
and how
in-
by the
of the
will
com-
bino et Celestini."
The
years
novelist
his
in
Dumas
lay
dormant
triumphs.
for
nine
period of dramatic
Scott's
Then,
intro-
an acquaintance with
of Barante's
novels, and an
combined
rection to
and gave
di-
One
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS
historian, that
187
the
power
to
rebuild
of his pen, at
call
of a God,
covers them
gay robes of
immense gulf of
call
them by name, to see them instantly raise with their brows the walls of their tombs, part with their hands
the
folds
of their
shrouds,
' :
Lord, here
Thou
with
me ?
"
'
there, a
hand
dead hold
ideal
terrible secrets
"
which have
romance,
his
their bones.'
Dumas's early
although
genius,
career,
is
it
of the historical
also interesting.
At
he wrote
great difficulty
(it
"
The
;
seems to us)
is
to avoid
two errors
done
not to disfigure
as the
romance
does.
The
188
only
will
LIFE
way
to
be, then,
AND WRITINGS OF
clear
steer
of both
these
mistakes
historical epoch,
the
;
at
that time
to
choose from
among
the
principal
personages of
and
to
and temperament, so
that, whilst
making them
may
living
manner
history."
Such was Dumas's view of the romance in the days of " Isabel de Baviere," and " La Comtesse de
Salisbury."
We
most
came
to
be written.
Dumas
and
them.
He
was destined
in
the future to
in
make a
brilliant success
by the way
which he
;
but on
it,
Mr
"
the
There
is
a want of coher-
ALEXANDRE DU.MAS
ence
it
189
in the
book
it
is
is
La Comtesse
is
later, in 1839,
less readable.
An
life.
This
is
the
more
to
III.'s
guilty passion
wife
was a
would
which
more experi-
enced author,
emancipated
from
history,
The
is
preface,
France,
by
far the
most
Absorbed
our
" Pauline,"
in
travel
romancer
neglected
metier.
first
a powerful
little
novel,
in
some
"
in-
dications of which
appeared
his
Impressions
in
de Voyage en
Suisse,"
;
was published
183S,
by the author's travels in Italy, and was coupled with " Pauline " in a volume entitled " La Salle
dArmes."
When Dumas
visit the
produced
his
drama of
went to
" Caligula,"
it is
he said to himself,
tomb."
"
best to
He therefore
Italy,
and also
" read
up
"
190
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
" Acte,"
as well as a drama.
some
respects
it
is
ashamed
city
of them.
Renan would not have been Every step that Dumas takes
on a document
its
Nero's
walls,
games
at
the
whole story
is
and
his death
house of Plancus.
And
facility is this
To
the artist in
Dumas
skill,
he
illusion of his
own
story."
work should in the end drag itself to death in plagiarism and prolixity " but the fact was that Dumas's mother died whilst the
a pity that such excellent
"
;
written,
and
novel
this
probably accounts
so
the
fact
that
the the
varies
markedly
in
merit.
left
Either
writer,
absorbed
it,
his
sorrow,
to finish
or he lost
made use
to
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Sienkiewicz,
101
to
who has
Vadis."
it
studied
Dumas's works
"Acte"
of
the
Quo
The
"
Acte
"
Mr
Westin
bury,
plot,
although
older romance.
"
Le Capitaine
Paul
Jones,
and professes
"
to be a sequel
to
Fenimore
in
"Les makes fun of the sea-terms employed in the story, the comparative non-success of the book is due rather to the fact that Dumas, in his admiration for the American novelist, was working with unfamiliar and uncongenial material. The plot seems to have been suo-o-ested to him. " Dauzats invenit, Dumas sculpsit," he wrote. He was more successful, two years later, with the " Aventures de John Davys," a book somewhat after the manner of Defoe. Thackeray in the Revtie Britainiiqiic for
Cooper's "Pilot."
Guepes
1847 accused
buliez, a
Dumas
it
Cher-
contemporary
critic,
who was
usually severe
on our author, admitted that the book could be numbered amonost the best and most amusinir of
his early works.
in
is
1840 deserve
accessible in
one of them
192
English.
" Maitre
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
many
those
of the admirers
even to
in the
huge
list
of Calmann-
Levy.
first
his
witty epilogue,
lips of
Dumas
a peasant at
Mugnano
life,
assistance of Fiorentino,
Dumas's
Italian assistant.
The
result
is
an admirable
story,
told
in
most
humorous
fashion.
The
trio,
" Maitre
Mr
Yet it was translated by a peer of the realm, and has been issued also for the use of schools. We
stuff"
is
to
be taken
more
literally
than usual
in his
explanation of the
introductory
story's
origin.
Dumas
supplied an
page to
wrote them.
of
"
The
is
is
what follows
title."
the
That
plain enough,
and the
internal evi-
dence proves
it.
The
of a
1825,^
him
^
The
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
the book, and
is
193
not developed, as
Dumas would
may be
Russia
in 1858,
of this year
Le CapiIt
it
Crusoe
in
northern America.
whom
was
written,
and
if
the
entertaining
digres-
The note
first in this
appears
book will be found capital humour in Dumas, which book and in " Maitre Adam," is
of
Yet
it
is
may be
his three
comedies for the Theatre Frangais at this time, and also his " Impressions de Voyage "in the south of France and Mediterranean. At Marseilles, Dumas and his friend Mery enjoyed an experience which
own way. Hayward, in his essay on our author, says, " One of the most amuseach utilised
in his
Dumas
is
'
La Chasse au
and
perils
194
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
is
hurried,
in
Gautier
by one
books
whose advenlips of
tures
Dumas
The two
de Mire-
Dumas
from
Mery is disproved by that writer in the preface to his own version. " Le Chateau d'Eppstein " or " Albine " was the
outcome of a social gathering at Florence in 1841, and was told to Dumas and the company by one That is our author's explanation of the guests. " commentators " declare " Albine " to be a story his of the Rhineland (title and author not given). " Jacquot sans Oreilles " not, one is disappointed
to find, a pillorying of
M.
"
de Mirecourt"
an
officer
similarly "supplied
"
to
Dumas by
his
was whose
which
acquaintance he
in
made during
"
is
Russian travels
"
1858.
The
in
Aventures de Lyderic
appeared
1842,
made
We
Up
to
much
care
Acte
"
except,
to the realisation
We
ALEXANDRE DUiMAS
humour,
skill
195
in
picturesque
narrative,
all
and
his
without any
tells us, to
He had
vowed, he
progress.
we
the
little
At
this
juncture
the
great
man made
The
latter
faith,
wrote a short
mortification of seeing
refused by an editor.
Eighth
Commandment
")
"As Maquet paced the boulevards, met Dumas, who asked him if he had
him.'
smarting, he
nothing
'
by
"
Bonhomme
'
Buvat,"
'
said
Maquet, sorrowfully.
That is a good Come, tell me something about your " Bonhomme." " Maquet glowed, and poured out a part of his
pricked up his ears.
'
'
"
Dumas
he
title,'
said.
story.
That Dumas.
"'
"
will
'
am
Dumas
in
took the
as the
Buvat
it
him, and
all
a few weeks
*
Europe
Chevalier d'Harmental.'
"
"
"And
began that
intellcc-
196
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
which the world owes the most
bril-
tual alliance to
liant
The
as
will
be
remembered by readers
romance (known
also
"The
Conspirators").
a clever piece of
The Cellemare
conspiracy has
This
is
is
stories,
and
Thackeray refers to it Roundabout Papers " and Mr. Saintsbury commends it as the most perfect of its author's novels in form for unhappily Dumas was not always particular about unity and completeness.
not yet fully appreciated.
admiringly
The
of
the
fresh,
innocent
effect.
life
of
Bathilde,
admirable
is
in taste
and
Captain
Roquefinette
venturers
the
first
(off
Du-
He
do
his
Porthos,
" Morgan,''
Une
Fille
lier,"
was published two or three yearslater by the collaborators. It contains one entertaining episode (treating of the Cellamare conspirators, and
same
but
it
is
the
plot
of
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
**
197
D'Harmenthal
still,
"
Worse
Fille
there
Une
du Regent
" is
only for
for intrigue at
its
best.
1843,
is
a
is
probably the work of our author In combination This with some " 'prentice " who knew the colony.
may
or
may
whom
the
credit of the
his veins
the hero,
who
his
allows
short,
Dumas-Antony,"
betrays
origin
unmistakably.
With the
is
chiefly inter-
esting as affording a
be
turned to such
popular was
editions
full
and
in
effective
account.
So
this pathetic
were Issued
few months.
198
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
at least half his
by M. Hippolyte Auger as
It
is
own.
blame
if
any
an account of
authorship
;
its
it
orio^in in
but
may
or
may
he always delighted
It is
in this
form of mystification.
not our author's.
story with
Dumas,
is
was suggested by He the case of his friend Felix Deviolaine, who was consumptive, and who, happily, recovered but
has told us, however, that
it
;
in
the
is
not cured,
and so
one M. Noailles, whose daughter was also suffering from the disease,
tion of the malady's progress that
"Amaury," if Madeleine was meant to die. Th.Qfciu'ilctou was therefore suspended until after the poor girl's death, and the kind-hearted Dumas went
tion of
recovery and happy fate for the poor heroine, for the
especial benefit of the
doomed
girl
One
of the best of
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
as
"
100
interest
is
Beau Tancrede."
but
it
Its
historical
slight,
XIV.
dire
"
Madame de Maintenon.
possesses
h^is
little
many
It
of
told with
much
statue
in the
humour.
at the unveiling of the
M. About,
in Paris, told
a story of M. Sarcey,
same
child
Spanish boy.
The
sleep
"
was homesick he could not eat, he could not he was almost in a decline. You want to see your mother ? " said young
;
Sarcey.
" "
No No
I
she
is
dead."
"
?
Your
:
father, then
"
"
" "
Then why
"
?
to be
back
in
Spain
"To finish a book I began in " And what was its name ? "
"
* !
the holidays."
Los Tres Mosqueteros He was homesick for The Three Musketeers' (says Mr. Lang), "and they cured him easily."
"
'
200
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
That boy would almost seem to have been the young Castelar, the great Spanish orator, statesman, and author, for he has written of the famous story in manner quite as fervent " I can never forget the impression left upon my mind by the reading of that book. The characters are life-like, and stand out in such high relief, that see them, to speak to them, to disI seemed to tinguish their features and manners, and even to compare them with real persons among my acquaintances. So absorbing was my interest in the story, that I watched for each new number with feverish impatience, to read the end of these adventures, as if they were intimately connected with some one
beloved, with
relations,
with
.
my
nearest
That exciting
narrative
that
flashing
;
style
those characters,
so boldly described
woven together
story
all
this
worked upon
my
imagination, and
fictitious
any man who has not read " The Three Musketeers"? It has become one of the world's
Is there
books.
As Mery, Dumas's
fast
friend, jestingly
put
it,
in
any
moment, be sure
that the
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
exile
is
201
'
vvhiling
away
his
solitude
reading
Les
Dumas
has con-
Courtils
in
half-fiction,
although,
fought,
I
of course,
sinned,
of that
name
"
lived,
I
and died
in
those times.
think
best,"
like
DArtagnan
Thackeray.
nor,
if
his
own 'Memoires'
wrote
Mr Lang
To
read
"Memoires" and then the romance is to undergo a revelation. Mingled with this sordid story of closet- intrigue and kitchen-amours, Dumas, with
the
his
keen scent
found excellent
his
and
admirable
utilised,
in
Only one questionable incident has been employed, and that because it has an important bearing on the plot of the
but in what has been omitted.
romance and
a medium, as
delicacy and
its
sequel.
Dumas
good
These chapters about Kitty and Miladi, Sir Merbert Maxwell reminds us, in his article on " The Real DArtagnan," did
taste."
"It
is
told
that
Dumas
in
after-life
expressed
202
LIFE
AND
AVRITINGS OF
said episode
bitter regret
that the
and there
is
evidence
greatly
given by
M.
E.
in
de
taste
Goncourt of how
on these matters
Dumas
differed
from
tells
less scrupulous
French
writers.
M. de Goncourt
from other
us that he once
that,
authors,
Ketty,'
'
ct
de
hd douncr
'of
'Think,'
exclaimed Hugo,
far finer
!
human
to
ddiioiluicnt,
than
not
any
dthioil^ment of the
utmost realism
'
It is
difficult
to
imagine
what
luxuriance
these
M. make
the
"
Dumas
to
themselves
how
the
man
he worked on.
selected,"
Dumas
borrowed, but
Dumas
he adds.
this
We
may supplement
of
comparison
so
our
first,
own.
the
Dumas owes
hero's
life,
"D'Artagnan,"
far
facts
of
'
the
All
as
they concern
history.
these
are
retained,
^
This incident
Dumas's romance.
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS
and
" "
-03
The names
brothers
-
and
war
"
little
else
of
and
the
in
three
the
in
are
to
be
that
found
Memoires."
Athos,
Porthos,
little
Aramis
are
we do
learn of
them there
are
is
They
actually brothers whereas the romancer by making them brothers -in -heart gains enormously
in effect.
in
the
opening
"The man
of Meung,"
whom
the real
DArtagnan had an encounter early in his career, and who figures throughout as a coward, who endeavours to get DArtagnan assassinated. In a later
part of the "
Memoires" a
hint
is
XIII.'s
Chancellor,
Seguier,
once
attempted
to
In "
Queen a letter concealed upon her DArtagnan " the letter was suspected
and
political
;
to be from Spain,
in
Dumas
it
was
the
thought to be from
lover.
Buckingham, Anne's
important
extract
" Miladi,"
secret
The
most
from
"Memoires" concerns
has borrowed freely
with
The
chapters
204
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
and "affair" with the
;
De Wardes,
say,
this,
his subterfuges,
but strange to
Dumas
DArtagnan's greatest "passion." The story is interesting. The musketeer had just
when he was
cerning his
visit.
The
and
this
The
and
fell
straightway
in love.
abuse
The
to
story
of
revenge
is
told
by
Dumas,
sequel.
the incident
whose imagination, however, is due of the fieui'-de-lis, and all the tragic
These detailed comparisons may, perhaps, be more interestingly summed up in a few words.
From
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
day,
205
Dumas
extracted,
process, a stirring
and dramatic
spiteful
and character.
Of the
wanton
;
he
The whole
Buckingham
French
all
by him
"
into the
framework provided
After the
first
for
him by the
which
Memoires."
Dumas
plot begins.
Our
author, too,
makes use
de
in this
and subsequent
" Histoire
romances, of
Madame
la
Fayette's
most scandalous passages. He borrows from La Porte's memoirs the incident of Bonacieux's
;
abduction
he finds the
To Maquet
glory
probably
to
Dumas
and
life
the
of giving
them
colour, shape,
on
206
de M.
for
le
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
la
Comte de
When Dumas
"You know
yourself have
had the
that
retorted,
it
because you
the
said
it
does!"
natural
taires "
;
Indeed,
since
good man's sharpness was the publication of tlie " Mousquefor the
book, by
more
"
!
Mr
is
no central
Professor Carpenter
In
is
'
Les
this,
Mousquetaires
"
the
main problem
his powers,
How
temporal
and spiritual?
Viz.
(i)
How
of the best
three
is
blades in the
at stake
;
(2)
The
time.'*
Queens honour
how
England
U Artagnan
is
fascinated
by Milady
is
how can
fear-f*
his
(4)
and
determined on
s as-
on BtLckinghani
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
sassination
(5)
:
207
catastrophes be averted?
:
Milady
'
a prisoner in England
?
how
(6)
How
brothers
tlie
'
avenge
their
avoid
she
is
?"
it
But
is
adventure as
We do
"Don
Quixote," "Robin-
"
Mousquetaires
"
has his
four.
own
"
particular
hero, in
Of your
I
heroic
heroes,
think
la
our
friend
is
Monseigneur Athos,
favourite.
Count
de
Fere,
my
to
He
"^
.^
Forty
wish, for
my
part, there
tire
of
most graceful
Ah
for
Porthos.
"
If,"
he
by any
sacrifice of
my own
literary
baggage
'
could
clear
the
'
Vicomte de
Bragelonne
"
208
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
may be
sure,
and
in."
should think
half a
dozen more of
Dumas
One
"
was a
What
Are you
ill
.'*
"No."
" Well,
what
is it
then
am miserable." "Why?"
"
I
I
I
killed Porthos
poor Porthos!
my mind
Oh
to
what trouble
!
do it But there must be an end to all things. Yet when I saw him sink beneath the ruins, crying ]t is too heavy, too heavy for me I swear to you
*
!
'
that
cried."
And
dressing-gown.
have glided Insensibly into "Vingt Ans Apres" and the " Vicomte de Bragelonne," for it is
the
We
DArtagnan
his
of this
last
of the series
whom
"
essay
"On
Romance
of
Dumas's
in
:
Memories and
"It
is
Portraits,"
in
we
_^
,.4^mmmMmtlmHltmtm
fc^'.:>.-x.^--^'
1)
akta(tNax.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
must look
of the
for that spirit of morality,
209
is
which
one
chief merits
its
of
the
book,
makes one of
it
perusal,
and
sets
high above
more popular
rivals.
much
and
but
DArtagnan
There
is
man
natural civility
district visitor
is
he
he
;
no
no
all
Wesley or Robespierre
his conscience
;
void of
man
there
good sovereign.
in
do not say
no character as well-drawn
Shakespeare
do say there is none that I love so wholly. I There are many spiritual eyes that seem to spy upon our actions eyes of the dead and the absent, whom we imagine to behold us in our most private hours, and whom we fear and scruple to offend our witnesses and judges. And among these, even if you should think me childish, I must count my
DArtagnan
I
not
the
DArtagnan
of the memoirs,
to prefer
a preference,
Nature's
but
not the
)
DArtagnan
D>
not
210
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
charm of the four musketeers
in the fact that
Is
One
secret of the
perhaps to be found
Says
"
seigneur,' Aramis,
red,
who
make
hides
it
Aramis,
and
the
his
discreet
Aramis,
who
his
reHglon
these
four
Danton and Napoleon were the prototypes of French energy, Dumas, in Les Trois Mousquetaires Is its national historian. His romance is quite as dramatic as theirs, but more pleasant, and with a more continuous charm."
'
'
The
partly
origin of the
Indicated.
said
that
Dumas
fils,
frightened at
task
his father
who
Athos's son,
interest
*'
how
will
Madame
Oh,
answered
will
his
father,
"all
that
his
happened
son.
to
Athos
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
But (not
injustice.
211
Dumas
did himself an
One
" Bragelonne."
as
is
some
yet
"
of improbabilities,"
it
very
faithful
to
the
Dumas are simply Have they never read crammed, make us smile. the history written by Madame de La Fayette.^ And Gulche in the chimney.'^ And the women spies ? And the caskets of Malicorne ? And the
which
these
romances
plots of
de Wardes
"
?
The
is,
after
all,
one great
for
the
love of
this
man
man.
Carpenter
it
has
seen
clearly,
and
expressed
"
well
So
far
as
am
in
concerned there
than
is
no more
in
poignant scene
literature
that
which,
who once
will
hence,
invincible
found
in
the
gloom of
their peers,
How
!
paltry
this
seem
lovers'
quarrels
And
yet there
heroic in
ship.
error,
and
212
ness
LIFE
of the
AND WRITINGS OF
human
tie,
strongest
save
that
of
family."
The same
conscious
are developed
"
writer also
notices
with what
un-
skill
musketeers
author's
These
in
men grow,
not
of
the
set
purpose,
the ordinary
fashion,
according to a
He
men grow in life, naturally. (Dumas) could not have planned it; at the
knew
"
it.
Vicomte de Braqfelonne
Trois
Apres.'
are not
those
of
'
of
Les
Mousquetaires,'
even
Vingt
Ans
it,
except
is
evidently as
we are. They grow, and if they are men they grow better, on stepping-stones of These novels show their own baser selves. more than the growth of man. They represent the
surprised as
honest
slow
development of a race
or
Michelet,
and
nation.
Like
for
Gibbon
history.
III.,
Dumas had
genius
France
under Charles
in
the
Revolution
core.'
faulty,
he
them
to the
his facts
find
flaws
laws he
follows, so far as
can see
ALEXANDRE
Let us
limit ourselves to
JJUJMAS
213
passages from
He
*'
is still
writing of "
:
my
dear
'
Vicomte,' " as he
called
him
What
epic
will,
;
variety
and
all
nobility of incident?
you
impossible;
and yet
with
based
in
human
but
nature
Not
studied
in
the
microscope,
seen
?
largely,
plain
daylight,
What
wit,
able literary
And
end
with
of
commendations, what
more unstrained or a more wholesome There is no quite good book without a morality ? good morality but the world is wide, and so are
a
;
morals.
I
And above
all,
in
this last
It
volume,
find
a singular charm of
spirit.
breathes a
Upon
the crowded,
falls,
noisy
life
of this
long
tale,
evening gradually
and the
lights are
away one by
in
one.
One by one
places,
their departure
the
their
Louis
Ouatorze
swelling
larger
and
shining
broader,
214
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
is
welcome.
To
if
to anticipate experience.
Ah,
fall
only,
when
these
for us in reality
and
we may hope
to face
them with a
death,
mind as
quiet."
One day, about two years before his Dumas 's son found him with a book. * " What are you reading ? " he asked.
"
*
I
I
always promised
myself that
so that
**
would read
it
when
merit."
"
" It
good."
Some
own books
What do you
!
think of
it ?
"
It isn't
Nevertheless
"
Monte
same year
^
It
is
interesting to note
was announced,
in
the
"Mousquetaire" (1853), a romance, " Le Marechal Ferrant," in 4 We know that in those vols., "a sequel to the D'Artagnan Cycle."
was a frequent practice to announce books before they were What would not such an MS. be worth now, if it could be discovered? The so-called "Stories by Dumas" "Monte (Jristo
days
it
written.
and and
his Wife,"
find
"
no place
Calmann-Ldvy's authorised
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
rivals the other in popularity.
215
were
"
in
amusinof
This phenomenon
set
and
them
uttering,
by way of
solution,
old
wonder
into
an im-
The account
These works were flung off by even collaboration of two most inventive and rapid writers. Some of the work was written In almost less time I than a single hand could have transcribed it.
show at Trouville, in a fisherman's cottage, the chamber and table where the pair wrote the first four volumes of Monte Cristo in sixteen
believe they
still
'
'
days.'
According
to the
"
de Mirecourt
Monte
Cristo
"
was written, the first half by Fiorentino, the second by Maquet. "It was so simple to believe I was
the author, that they never even thought of
it,"
says
Dumas
account
banteringly.
He
know
is
has given
of
us
his
in
own
his
of
the
genesis
the
book,
" Causeries."
We
got
its
"local habitation
no
publishers to supply
Towards 1843 Dumas had agreed with a firm them with eight volumes
of of
216
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Paris, the idea
archaeological
and
above
picturesque.
idea and
demanded a
La
The
idiot,
but
it
contained the
germ
The
this
first
outline of the
that
called
a very rich
the
and
Monte Cristo, should render a great service to a young French traveller, and should beg him, when that gentleman desires
Count of
to repay the kindness, to act as the Count's guide
when
should
visit Paris.
Vengeance
to
had inspired
" did "
this thought,
the
French
capital
was
discover
his enemies,
who
had condemned him in his youth to ten years of captivity. His fortune was to furnish the Count with the means of revenge.
At this point Dumas acquainted Maquet (who, as we know, was his literary partner at the time)
'
ALEXANDRE
that
"
DUJNIAS
217
inter-
prologue, in which
years
in
prison.
:
From
that
moment
Paris
the
story
his
developed
text three
Dumas
for
cities
Marseilles, Rome,
"
and
the
Monte
to
Cristo
its
owed
part
of
its
enormous
success
The details were and had, indeed, been studied on most convincing,
verisimilitude.
the spot.
"There
us,
in his
is
one thing
cannot do,"
"
Dumas
tells
preface to the
Compagnons de
'
Jehu,"
"
I
localities
I
have never
write
'
To
'
write
Christine
III.'
I
'
went went
to
;
Fontainebleau
to
to write
Henri
to
went
'
to Blois
Les Trois
Mousquetaires
;
to
write
'
Monte
to
Cristo
d'If.
I
what
seem
to
grow
there,
to think they
in fact, there
are persons
who
industry, but
you go
218
LIFE
AND WHITINGS OF
show you Morel's house on the Cours, Mercedes' house at the Catalans, and the dungeons of Dantes
and Faria
'
at the
Chateau
D'If.
When
brought out
I
Monte
wrote
to
wanted
it
for the
scene-
The
artist
to
whom
him
I
;
only sent
me
more than
had ventured
it:
he wrote underneath
'View
of the
Chateau
flung.'
D'If,
Faria himself."
will
illustrate
which
this
book possesses
The Academy not so long ago quoted an amusing passage from a speech made by Lord Salisbury The Prime Minister at a literary gathering. humorously told how once at Sandringham, he was
surprised by his host, at half-past four one morning,
readino- his favourite
book "Monte
the
Cristo."
The
book
bed
prince
wished
to
know
the
name
of
the
his
Premier
from
Three weeks after he confessed to his guest that the same romance had lured him from his bed that morning half-an-hour earlier still "'Monte Cristo,'" says Mr Lang, "has the best
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
bcL-inninois
219
and
loses
itself
In
:
the sands."
There
in this
some of us believe
that Dumas's reputation suffers rather than gains by being so prominently associated with a romance,
I)arts
Mr
Saintsbury
this,
not
the
perfect
gentleman
creator
his
seems
have
thought
him
and that
yet, there is
a grandeur
of conception about
"Monte
these
than
redeems
it
from
drawbacks.
it
It
is
Dumas's
"
" Miserables,"
is
teaches
is
Vengeance
the
taught
book
it
should
preserve
"
from oblivion
"
is
come.
this
Ascanio
or
year
the
previous
Cellini's
was
suggested
by
Benvenuto two
of
autobiography,
wherein
incidents
one or
the
most
improbable
a hiding-place.
I.,
The
reader
of
is
introduced to
Francois
the
monarch
Pavia,
and
the
Dumas
220
reader.
LIFE
It
AND WRITINGS OF
of a
It
"Causeries"
flattering
and unexpected
of Bourg-en-bresse with an
its
ambition to emulate
until
hero,
that
from
is
artisan
he developed into an
Meurice
Gabriel Lambert
"
is
Dumas
story
is
true,
with
the
"
chief personages.
Lambert"
difference,
recalls
Richard
Darlington,"
of
popular.
The
the
**
forties "
brilliant
and most
In 1845,
productive period of
Dumas
the novelist.
author
produced
"
(in
addition
to
"
Une
Fille
de
Ans Apres," already La Reine Margot," " La Guerre des mentioned) Femmes " (or Nanon "), and " Les Freres Corses." First of the Valois romances as was " La Reine Margot," we must not forget that the success of "Henri Trois et sa Cour" many years before, had
Regent
and
"
Vingt
"
**
The
fatal
passion of St Megrin
is
repeated in the
ALEXANDRE
ill-fated
DUJNIAS
221
devotion of
La Mole.
drawn
boldly,
of character
but how human they are and life! The Charles IX.
is
how
full
of history,
as Parigot testifies,
not
*'
betrayed
"
by the Charles
Medici,
of romance
if
somewhat overdrawn,
The
of the romance
is
full
of absorbinof
interest
Will Henri of Navarre become King of Will Catherine be able to prevent him
France
threads
And
the
with
this,
other
interwoven
Huguenot-Catholic
these
in
^
:
"La
hazard
"
he neither harrows
Mr
Lang,
in
1 We would advise our readers to compare the romance with "The House of the Wolf" or "Count Hannibal" by Weyman, and the "Chronique du Regne de Charles IX." by Merimee.
222
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Dead Authors "
notes this judicious
"In these romances," he says, apostrophising Dumas, " how easy it would have been for you to burn incense to that great goddess,
quality in our author.
Lubricity,
whom
our
critic
have outdone
torture
even present
'
naturalistes.
From
these alcoves of
La Mole on
have
the
turned,
You had
metal to work on
you gave us
and
La
Mole's,
de Montsoreau. You gave us the DArtagnan, the strength of Porthos, the Honour, Chivalry, melancholy nobility of Athos
valour of
Dame
and Friendship."
"
La Guerre
Apres,"
in
is
des
Femmes,"
story
of
the
Fronde,
Ans
romances
bably
it
which
its
Maquet had
But
:
his share.
Proits
owes
La Guerre des
Femmes "
has
many
merits
it
develops rapidly.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
neatly, to its end,
223
like
below those
Musketeers.
Dumas's admiration
the
skill
with
fiction
and
The
little
"
this virtue.
obviously, as
author asserts,
but
is
it is
equally
beyond the
credible
and
actual.
merits to which
Its
It.
popularity In
England would
though much
seem
to
entitle
Dumas
^
himself,
theme.
In the following year, 1846, Dumas's publishers
issued a remarkable advertisement respecting our
author, w4ilch
Mr
ing proof) to
It offers
new shape
See Appendix C.
224
LIFE
at
AND WRITINGS OF
It
and
proclaims the
author as
health
"
;
young and
in
" wonderfully
good
forty
his
all
unceasing flow of
probability
add
volumes a year
There seemed, indeed, every prospect that this The next extraordinary pledge would be fulfilled. few years brought their quota of lengthy and more or less famous romances, and " Le Chevalier de Maison Rouge " dates from 846.
1
to
is
The
raisoii
which
of revolutionary
instance,
for
easily explained
in
feel
this
upheaval, which
was
M. Blaze de Bury
this story,
tells
an anecdote respecting
Dumas
book or a play was nothing to him the conception, form, arrangement, and development of the theme, comprised all the difficulties. These once settled, the hand could go forward by itself.' One day some one avowed the very opposite. The romanclst, who was preparing Maison Rouge at this
'
'
'
AT.EXANDRK DUMAS
time,
225
wagered with
first
his
book in seventy-two hours, inclusive of time for sleep and meals. A bet of a hundred louis was made and recorded to complete the ^ seventy-five great sheets were to volume contain
write the
:
forty-five
lines
of
fifty
letters
each.
his
In
sixty-six
hours
Dumas
filled
them
in
beautiful
hand-
writing, without
on the
specified time."
The
was
that
by the book."
erudite
with
M.
"
;
hero
Gonze de Rougeville, 1761-1814." "If I am not mistaken," he adds, " you will admire the discretion
of our author, no less than his modesty."
M. de
to the characters of
Madame
Dumas
Even more
^
de
In the original editions of Dumas's works, there were at least twice as many volumes as in the present one-franc series hence
226
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Maison Rouge " is the second Valois which appeared the same year " La
romance,
Dame
de
as
Monsoreau,"
commonly
known
in
England
already
Dumas had
in the
made
in-
Due dAlen9on
old chroniclers,
But
in history
;
the
our story-
weaver turned her affections in the other direction, and the romance became at once sympathetic and moving. (A writer has taken the trouble to compile a
book on the
romance.
Dumas knew
Critics
quite
well
when
it
was
spirit
historical
portraits
fiction
than
that
of
Henri HI., the effeminate, superstitious king, devoted to luxury and the most
trivial
pleasures.
The
flot,
monk GorenFor
it
is
probably only
learn that
fair to
We
minor characters of the book) took umbrage at the description of that courtier, and brought an
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
action, to
227
Henri's viignoiis.
rators to be right,
The
even
trial
showed the
collabo-
The closing scene of the book the death of Bussy draws this warm tribute from Mr Lang " I know four crood fifrhts of one arainst a
multitude.
These are the Death of Gretir the Stronof, the Death of Gunnar of Lithend, the Death of Herew^ard the Wake, and the Death of
Bussy D'Amboise."
"
Le
"
Batard
de
Mauleon,"
or
"
The
Half-
Brothers,"'
in
was
written, as
we know by
in
a passage
the
Histoire
de mes Betes,"
the chateau
;
of
Monte Cristo, by Dumas and Maquet and the dog Mouton, a new recruit for the menagerie of the "palace," was woven into the story by his
master.
The
;
scene on
this
occasion
is
laid
in
Du
Prince
comparing the
methods
"
romancists
should read
Dr
Doyle's
White Company," which is of the same period, and into which many of the same characters are
introduced.
for
Froissart's chronicles
story,
Dumas's
is
himself
to
chronicler.
In
however^
Mr
Saintsbury instances
the
Du
Guesclin's
the
negotiations
with
228
battle
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
of Najara
this
Don
the
qualities of its
which,
perhaps,
we may blame
Querard
states that
wholly Maquet's.
for
There remains
which,
forgery,
It
is
Deux
Diane,"
if
Dumas
the
plot
be not a
was
probable,
however,
style
is
"the
said
master's."
The
certainly
not
Dumas's,
is
by
"
Une
Fille Naturelle,"
Our
readers will
remember
that in the
autumn
of this year
Dumas
it
accompanied,
is
true,
pleasure-seeking and
further
the
"Joseph Balsamo " ("The Memoirs of a Physician"), which was appearing serially, suddenly suspended publication,
"Impressions de Voyage."
leaving
young
Gilbert,
the
hero,
lying
and Algeria.
to life
The
unfortunate youth
remained
restored
in this
Dumas
him
on
his
return.
This suspenin
of which
this
story.
He
has
told
us
(in
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
that
229
he experimented
in
mesmerism
"
at the time
that
Balsamo," and
"
that he succeeded
his servants,
" putting
to sleep
one of
who
Howis
ever
much
truth there
"
may be
in
this,
there
no
is
doubt that
Balsamo
powers.
supposed supernatural
For the
less,
is
rest
the
romance,
if
somewhat formvaried
king's
in
full
of
number of
meet
the
intrigues
mistress,
and
interests.
We
Madame
spite of all
opposition, she
We
we The
the
managed to get presented at Court. enjoy once more the witty society of Dumas's
libertine,
in
favourite
the
Due de
in
Richelieu,
whom
met,
earlier
years,
"
Mademoiselle de
\\\xriS^{
Bellisle,"
first
en faniille.
of the
Marat appears on
from
it.
scene
Rousseau
is
is
disappearing
Then
for
there
Tavernay
because
all
mance, which
itself
only a beginning.
Either
Dumas
it
ject, or le^t
to Maqiiet to finish
230
attention
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
closing chapters are dull
"
;
the
but,
on
contains
some
of his best
work.
In 1847
to
"
La Dame de Monsoreau."
lady's
chiefly
of
that
revenge
upon
the
treacherous
Bussy.
The
part
of the
book in which Chicot goes on an embassy to Henri Ouatre is excellent, but the last volume This year, be it remembered, is unsatisfactory. was a stormy one in public affairs, and disastrous
to
Dumas
personally.
He
dictated
ill
the
in bed.
last
Notwithstanding
this
blemish,
the
"
Ouarante-
was a favourite with one of our author's firmest admirers George Sand. M. Victor Borie has told us that he chanced to visit the famous
Cinq
"
novelist
just
before
her her
death,
table.
and
found
the
romance
his
lying
on
He
it
expressed
the
first
wonder
For the
fifth
that she
was reading
for
time.
"
is
first
the
or sixth time
have read
'
Les Quaranteill,
Cinq,'
When
am
anxious,
melancholy,
discouraged,
nothing helps
me
Dumas's."
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS
During the next two years
our
novelist
231
troublous
"
ones for
the
rate
of
production
slackened.
With
Bragelonne,"
and some
portance
the chief
a continuation of the
XVL
So
in
by Carlyle, by Funckthis
famous episode
that there
(still
is
no
need to describe
valuable
it
here.
Dumas
own
with the
assistance of
Maquet)
so,
tells
the story of
fashion, carry-
ing forward, as
he does
the
other
"motifs"
mentioned already.
of this book
left
Is
The comparative
"
non-success
so
little
to the Imagination.
Les Mllle-et-un
" Bibliophile
Fantomes," said
with
by some
to
Paul
Bocage, by
others
It
In
great part a
gruesome debate as to whether a severed head can speak, or retains knowledge of Itself after parting
from the body, and dwells on other similar matters,
being,
Of
a
In short,
make your
flesh creep."
very different
nature was
La Tulipe
This book
"as
232
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
declared enthusiastically
has
known
subject
said to
as a " Century of
French Romance."
historical
The
it
or
at
least
the
part
of
is
to
Dumas by
of Holland.
(The
novelist visited
Orange,
who had
tale,
and with
ance.)
whom
The
Flotow used
to
relate
it,
is
as follows.
When
said
"
"
was
first
royal host
many
brilliant
;
Frenchmen
have
"Your
"
Majesty,
Oh
own
life
tell
you a
And
so the
king related the incidents of 1672 and 1673, of De Witts, and the imprisonment
Cornelius
of
Van
Baerle
all
At
Dumas
exclaimed,
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
"
233
What
novel
"
!
"Write
answered
"
I
it,"
will."
The
the
made
This
is
another case
which EnMish
managers,
who have
skilled instinct of
its
author failed
Olifus," rather
loosely
described
"a
sequel
to
the
'Mille-et-un
trip to
Pantomes,'
Amsterdam
attention
critics.
mentioned
has
above.
It
is
an
extra
much more
hands of
than
it
received
at
the
From
was
letter
with
which
us,
it
Mr W. M.
appears that
Rossetti
the
story
liked
by Dante Gabriel
to particular novels
were raised as
(by
Dumas)
"
I
specially
admired by
*
my
'
brother," he
'
writes,
could mention
'
Monte
I
Cristo,'
Trois
Mousquetaires,'
'
Bragelonne,'
Pere
Olifus,'
'
Ingenue,'
'
Les Ouarante-Cinq,'
think also
La
234
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
He
was
"
Tulipe Noire.'
also vastly
amused with
Dumas's
to
'
Memoires.'
The tale, which purports to have been confided Dumas by Olifus himself, is too strange not to have had some such oricrin. As we read it, it is told with as much reticence as the exiijencies of the
story and the promptings of humour allow but the adventures of the seaman with his " sea-wife " too
;
The
Arabian
Nights" or "Boccaccio,"
next
story
to
recommend
to
For
history,
his
Dumas went
German
patriotic
the
Tugendbund" was
conspiring
off the
French
yoke.
"
who
knew
"
Antony
sufficient
living,
Schiller's
"
Robber," a
best
for
"
whom
to
passion.
Dieu dispose,"
possess great
It tells
which
merit,
Mr
Swinburne
in
considers
was written
Brussels in 1852.
gradually overtakes
the
Nemesis
fails
Dumas
himself rarely
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
to arouse
235
of
1830,
and reward.
"
The Revolution
"
;
freemasonry
agitations connected
are
touched
is
of the story
own
play
of
"
years before.
We
;
story's strength
in
a husband's
La Femme au
Collier de Velours,"
which also
patron,
way
of introduction an
literary
account
of
Dumas's
to
Charles
Nodier,
itself,
at
the Arsenal.
The
tale
to the narrator
by the German
Poe.
Incidentally
Madame Dubarry
This story
is
Paris in '93.
by Calmann-Levy with
the
supernatural
" Le
Testa-
ment de M. Chauvelin."
historically for the protection of his wife
That
and
noble,
who was
will
which he
is
neglects
to
He
dies suddenly,
but
seen
duly
and the
will is found,
is,
completed.
lies
its
chief value
in
236
of the
LIFE
writer's
AND WRITINGS OF
youth,
and
in
the
full
and vivid
destined to
One
been
dates
tired
of the books of
Dumas which
Olympe de
is
in the future
than
it
has
the past,
is
"
It
Cleves," which
from 1852.
to
Brussels,
We,
all
for
begins
if it
begins at
and
dis-
is
taken,
historical material
The charm
of the story
lies
for
once
in
and
of a strolling
company
We
the sentiments of
"
Mr W.
E. Henley,
who
proclaims
Olympe de Cleves" a
as
"
masterpiece.
Ange
"),
Pitou
"
(also
in
known
Taking
the
Bastille
published
abrupdy
all.
fact, it
An
One
day,
it
ALEXANDRE
idea for a
historical
DUJNIAS
be founded on a
Pitou,
237
real
new romance,
character,
rest,
to
Ange
ballad
monger,
Royalist,
and the
to
his
make
researches,
historical
moral and
On
the strength
with publishers
to
write
and
supply
the
story.
Luckily or unluckily,
quarrelled;
;
the
own
imao^ination, locating
him
at Villers-Cotterets, giving
him
his
own
personal
in
requisite length, he
abandoned the
Dumas's own explanation, given in an introduction to " La Comtesse de Charny," is that just
at that time the
Chamber imposed a
tax on every
ftiiil-
and
"
that
De
which
Ange
Pitou
appeared, wrote to
Dumas
Presumably the
was taken
off
soon
after.
238
LIFE
first
AND WRITINGS OF
with the
and
author possess
many
interesting
points of resemblance
and
dissimilarity.
trace,
Here, so
tion
far as
we can
between
Dumas and
is
true that he
;
was
it is
at his best
with
but
none the
less true
and
after him,
Dumas
wrote books
like
the
same
own name.
us in the preface
from
(or
idle.
He
instances "Conscience
Innocent"
"L'Enfant"),
"La Comtesse
''
de Charny," " Le
as the
Memoires
"
it
"
will
one day
my
biographers to dis'
anonymous
"
!
collaborators
who have
was about this time that the novelist turned from the romance of cap-and-sword, and devoted
himself chiefly to semi-pastoral stories, to tales of
life.
In the openthis.
he dwells on
ALEXANDRE
"
DUiMxVS
239
As one
if
gets on In
life,"
he
draws nigh
ties
to the tomb,
it
seems
as
the
invisible
grow stronger and more irresistible. A man's life is divided into two distinct parts the the second years are for hope first thirty-five That is why, instead thirty-five, for memory. of always breaking fresh ground in literary work,
birthplace
: ; . . .
my
sources
of
my
imagination,
ever
seeking
-
new
of situa-
beaten track,
my
see
my
little
feet as
my
life
by
side with
mine
my
eyes
when
We
use, in "
Pitou," of his recollections of childhood. paration of the " Memoires " probably further stimu-
lated
him
life
at Villers-
Therefore,
when he read
little
story
by Hendrik
"
Le Conscrit," in which a young peasant Is "drawn" for the war, is blinded in action, Is brought home by his
Conscience, the Flemish novelist, called
240
LIFE
this
AND WRITINGS OF
Is
sweetheart, and
finally restored to
tells
sight,
Dumas
heart.
saw
brac
in
")
novelette (as he
us in
" Bric-a-
own
He
this story as
readily granted.
debtedness
publicly
to
Dumas gave
hero
of
his
the
Conscience
the
which
original.
is
considerable
elaboration
the
to
Our
author
chancjed
the
little
contemporary
history,
made
gave
to the
Blum," published
It is
in
1854,
had a
lies
said to
have been
its
suQfo-ested
by
in
Iffland's
"Gardes
Forestiers," but
charm
Villers-Cotterets,
and in the simple art with which it is told. There is a pleasant portrait of Abbe Gregoire, one of the boy Alexandre's preceptors. Mr Swinburne tells us that amongst Dumas's minor works he admires chiefly this pair of pastoral pictures, "Conscience" and "Catherine Blum," and we believe that if they were known to the English-
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
confirmed.
241
When
in
"
Dumas was
wait"
La Comtesse de Charny
(1853-5).
critic
gives an
also
:
upon
"He
he had
a marvellous heritage of
akin to him
;
submerged
his
under-consclousness,
own
life
was
rich
and varied
his
On
all
these sources
his.
in that
is
And
Among
:
the
who was
the wrecked
Gilbert,
who
;
men
long down-trodden
links "
and
"
their child,
who was
the
new France."
Ange
"
Pitou
with
the "
Chevalier de Maison
Rouge
is
and and
full
of pic;
it is
242
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
who develops
is
countess* herself,
into
one of Dumas's
transla-
most
life-like
heroines,
not
very engrossing.
We
in
regret
to find
"
that in
to "
some English
La Comtesse de Charny,"
which
In
Ange
brought together,
this cycle
"
omitted.
of revolutionary
romance, which
with "
Le Chevalier de Maison Rouge," there are several unsatisfactory gaps. The reader will find a
consecutive and vivid panorama of the
events of
1792, 1793, ^^d 1794' fron^ the battles of Valmy and Jemappes to the fall of Robespierre, in " Le Docteur Mysterieux and "La Fille du Marquis." These volumes bear evident traces of Dumas's
''
life
head
an
of
(see "
Le
Mille-et-une
Fantomes
").
There
is
interestincr
thread of
fiction,
and a
Juliet"
translation
scenes
from
"Romeo and
tells
curious.
Chincholle
us that
the author in
1869, he
was com-
"Ever
frequent
since 1832,"
Dumas
'
tells
I
us in one of his
have had
which
in
I
my
mind the
Juif errant,' to
shall
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
devote myself at the
first
243
I
leisure
moment
get,
I
and
have
which
will
be one of
my best
may
books.
Indeed,
that
''
In this case,
Parieot
"
is
Tauteur propose,
le censeiir dispose."
when he
writes
commencing Isaac Laquedem,' thought to wTite the romance of the world's history. He soon stopped, as there did not seem sufficient material," The story was interdicted by the censor of the Second Empire, probably as profane. It promised,
says Henley, to
of his
fulfil its
Dumas,
author's pledge,
and be one
best romances.
it
siderable space to
in
in
truth,
orlcrantic
task
undertake
" Isaac
telling
sincerity
him
all
was as powerful as
and
He
much
all
that
we
possess of
" Isaac
Laquedem
" is
a fragment
few scattered
literary edifices
man desiorned to erect. The J\IS. Dumas's own handwriting was presented by
all
his
son to the
town of
Villers-Cotterets.
244
LIFE
last
AND WRITINGS OF
said to
The
d'Ashbourn,"
English source.
On
who
and
gen-
made
considerable researches
the
dates
in its
origins of
uineness and
his
talent,"
merit.
" It reveals
new
are
side to
regret-
he declares.
"
To
it
this
we
fully
unable to subscribe.
" la
Dame
Grise
which
for her
dead
novel
at-
would seem
something
to
Probably
him
to
translate
and transform
it
obviously incomplete as
stands,
its
La Boule
is
told
makes
it
our author's
"conquest."
The
"
Dumas back
"),
in Paris
and
in-
Salteador (or
The Brigand
which appeared
in
man's journal,
the
but,
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
according to a
the
"
245
is
member
of the family,
it
certainly
probably
in
collaboration.
La Princesse de Monaco" was simply recueillihy Dumas; " Une Vie d'Artiste " consists of the story
original
and
stage
DArtagnan, most
and patron.
"
interestingly
retold
by
his friend
Les
Mohicans de
for
Paris,"
another
new
a
the
departure
the
inexhaus-
tible
romancer.
Frequently with
Dumas
we
at
a
;
new
on
assistant
this
meant
new
the
field
of enterprise was,
occasion
'prentice
believe,
Paul
Bocage,
of
and
the
story
was
once
a
the
pioneer
"
detective-story,
'*
and
remin-
The
Mysteries of Paris."
in
it,
appeared
The
detective,
was a
fore-
Dumas was
"
Salvator," which
commenced
is
of
much
Maquet had a share in this work, but unless it was before the rupture between the two men we doubt this. Certainly they would scarcely come together for the purpose of writing this small romance.
^
It is
stated that
commenced
246
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
better quality,
and we are surprised that the EngHsh translations of it have been allowed to [jo out of
print.
We
find ourselves
once more
In the
midst of
being Marat, to
whom
la
The
heroine
is
the daugh-
de
the time
Dumas's
1855
We
Deux Diane " also belongs to Le Page du Due de Savoie," and is obvi-
Meurice, instructed
Jehu."
by
romances
story,
now come
"
Les
Compagnons de
in
This
(as
which appeared
1857,
was suggested
in
in
we
by a page
Nodier's
accord-
Dumas,
amusing account of
the book.
At the time when he set off on the track of the young Royalist highwaymen he was preparing to write a serial to be called " Rene
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS
247
Compagnons
"
Dumas's
toire
table
was probably by
young
'prentice.
skilfully con-
Dumas's romances, and excels most of its more famous rivals in unity and form. Dumas Jils took an interest in the story, and is said to have
structed of
John
Once more,
is
Villers-Cotterets
Le Meneur
trip to
the
moon.
Dumas
;
recalls
how
in
his
childhood
Mocquet told him the tale of Thibaut, the man who became a wolf and the weird adventures of the
loup-garoiL are told engrossingly enough, not to say
enthrallingly.
He
speaks of the
"
is
true,
when
!
one has
finishes
"
on an ^^^ for thirty- two years one by thinking one has laid it one's-self "
sat
Le
Capitaine
of
is
Richard,"
known
as
to
*'
the
last
generation
Captains,"
English
readers
spoilt
The Twin
For
good story
bv
histor)\
248
once
the
LIFE
Dumas
AND WRITINGS OF
attention to
fusing process,
The plot, as we learn in the epilogue, was given to Dumas by Schlegel, the great critic, whom the former met when he was " doins^ the Rhine " in The period of the story is that of the " Trou 1838. de I'Enfer " Napoleon is in Germany and the
; ;
account
of
the
attempted
assassination
of
the
Emperor by
tempted
which
"
Le
Capitaine
Richard
"
was
written,
few pages
We
little
we
" Black,"
and
"
Ammalat Beg"
"),
rewritten
by Dumas from a translation of a story in Russian by Marlinsky.i This was published in 1859, being, of course, the result of Dumas's visit to the Caucasus
^
An
literature,
English version of this story, one of the best known appeared in Blackwood's, 1 843.
in
Russian
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
just previously.
249
We
and
may
Le
the
Chasseur de Sauvagine," a
charming
the
story,
Dumas
friend
collaborator,
Comte de
in
Cherville.
any
It
follows
the fortunes of a
tells
Normandy
sin,
wildfowl-hunter, and
his repentance.
and
The
story
qualities
not
generally
acknowbeing in
marked contrast with his better-known style. " Le Fils du Forcat" (or "Monsieur Coumbes "), published
to
manner.
that of
Monsieur Coumbes,
and
is
simply
Le
Fils
du Format" was published in France not long ago. " Les Louves de Machecoul," a product of 1859,
deserves fuller notice.
This
reader
in
La Vendee
descrip-
more trustworthy because, as we know, the author had not only foreseen the occurrence, but had visited the Royalist West a year or two
250
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Mr
Saintsbury remarks that
*'
Ewan
of Brigglands in
Rob Roy"
romance.
this
;
This
is
somewhat of an exaggeration
it
the incident
is
true,
but
is
retold
in
more graphic
style.
The
character
life
:
of
Jean
is
he
devoted, pious
one
cunning, dogged,
to
La Maison de
Glace,"
known
us
in
the
sixties as
"The
in 1859,
was another outcome of the visit to Russia two years before. It is a romance of the court of the
Empress Anna,
century,
full
eighteenth
incline to
We
a translation.
Another excursion
" L'lle
into
unfamiliar regions
to
was
in
de
Feu,"
known
a past generation
England
is
as "
Doctor
Basilius."
a weird story
of
the
interest
by the people and customs of that semibarbarous spot being heightened by a suggestion "Truly one of the gems of of the supernatural. the collection," writes a deep student of Dumas,
afforded
work."
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
"
251
Le Pcre
la
resembles "
Le Chasseur de Sauvagine,"
Le Fils much
Dumas
It
in
is
once more.
in
"
which, as
powerfully shown.
"Adventures of a Younger Son," made under Dumas's orders, and known as " Un Cadet de Famille," and one of
translation of Trelawney's
known
La Vie au Desert," were also issued in i860, when Dumas set out on that tour which ended in the camp of Garibaldi. For some time
the romancer
as "
Memoires de Garibaldi," his own diary as amateur war correspondent, and the rest and it was not until 1863 that he published another romance of any importance " Madame de Chamthe
"
;
blay."
According
in
to
the
circumstantial
account
given
story
was sent to Dumas by a friend, whom he had met at Compiegne In 1836, when on a visit The novel tells of to the young Due D'Orleans.
a
young
wife,
life
and
252
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
In spite of this
testi-
mony, however,
blay."
Mr
as
Saintsbury beHeves
Octave
Be
that
it
may,
Madame we have
de Chamseen that
with
Dumas.
The
night
in
the
who
is finally
by
It
would be interesting
de
Musset's
play,
compare
this
story
it
with
" Lorenzaccio,"
which
closely resembles.
About
this time
Une Aventure
to
dArnour," which
than
is
Austria in
Incidentally
shows Dumas
woman
in
short
story
"
of a
a sort of
belated
considered
way.
last
This
is
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
long romance
terieux," "
(if
253
and
its
La San
Felice
a word
panorama of the
already aroused
Dumas's
interest.
Pifteau,
who
was the author's secretary at the time the romance was written (and who vouches for its authenticity),
tells
us that
Dumas
known
as the
des Bourbons," or
"
Borboni Napoli,"
for the
the series
too
exciting
"
and extraFelice
"
ordinary to neglect.
Accordingly
La San
was
out,
"
written.
The
254
the
LIFE
now
AND WRITINGS OF
The
one no longer ; with the " Mousquetaires."
is
"pace,"
comparatively slow
swept
The author unfolds his tale deliberately, but with much of his old charm, stepping carefully from
document
to
La San
in
Felice
is
"
was followed
by
"
Emma
Lyonna,"
which
Lady Hamilton's
it
is
supplementary sequel,
appeared
in
Favorite,"
1865.
Lady
Hamilton
"
La San
by
Felice,"
led on
ality to
make
volumes.
year,
written
with
the
Comte de
Chervil le.
The
fact
in
city
cockney
(typified
M. Peluche)
play "
and the
The
taken the
of the author's
first
La
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Chasse
et
255
rAmour,"
for
and a sHght but pretty love-story are the chief attractions of this book, which is one of the best of
that class of novels written
the
slight,
humorous
modern humble
not generally
life
life.
known
years of his
at a
Dumas
tried his
The
reader
comprehensive
list
of
it.
MM.
CalmannLes
Levy
in
1
In the early
editor of
part of
866
so
his
Ferry asserts
the
for
Nouvelles appealed to
Dumas
style,
an
historical
romance
subject
that
in
famous
He
illegitimate
son
of
appeared
so
mysteriously during
of
He
th.e
charm-
La Colombe."
tells us,
The
first
number of
promised an engrossing
romance,
story
but
which flagged.
tive,
He
lost
of long
from other
256
century.
LIFE
It
AND WRITINGS OF
But although the romance a wretched American transla-
not
now
accessible,
Some
of
it,
indeed,
excellent,
notably
is
;
introduced to the
ridicules
of the
day
and Richelieu's
are
Dumas
we know him
best.
The
period of
"
Le Comte de Moret"
" Mousquetaires."
Two
period.^
Les Blancs
la
et les
Bleus" (1S67)
like
the
"
"
by Nodier's
Souvenirs de
Dumas
in ac-
knowledgment introduces
story.
It
is
dramatic
who
et
bar-
of her
father's
life.
Les Blancs
les
in
laid in
Strasbourg
December
1793,
memory
of Nodier, his
"
its
chief interest
historical matter,
and
is
therefore
ALEXANDRE DUIMAS
illustrious friend
257
I
and
" collaborator."
"
have said
another
'collaborator,'"
give themselves a
one,
and
their
time
would
be
wasted."
facts,
The
his
veteran
still
and of
reader; but
Le Huitieme
"
Croisade,"
et
latter part of
Les Blancs
in 1869,
of Acre.
At
*****
And on
that last effort,
made
the
falls.
occasional intervals
children,
")
Dumas
issued books of
tales for
Pamphile
others, "
La
Bouillie
:
Comtesse Berthe
" is
the
most notable
it
is
readers.
("
"
Le Pere
Gigogne
"
La Lievre de mon
Cherville and
grandpere") told to
recounted by him
;
Dumas by de
Mr Lang
writes
him, he thinks
spite of this
In
La Jeunesse
258
LIFE
"
AND WRITINGS OF
tales
de Pierrot."
in
L'Homme
-
aux
is,
Contes
"
" L'Histoire
d'un of
casse
noisette,"
we
know, an
adaptation
Next
come the
originality.
travels
if
gaiety,
in
of
personal
in
short,
they
make
for
'ntdlange,
Dumas
cook
"Im-
produites par
is
Dumas
"
en Voyage," and
;
declares " he
charming thus
though with a
when one
Dumas
we
in
his books."
Of
"
En
those on
"La Midi de la
France
"
and
" "
Les Bords du
Rhin "(1841), the former containing La Chasse au Chastre " and other excellent reading the latter, probably written with the help of Gerard de Nerval, other matter, of Waterloo and tellinof, amonorst
;
of Cologne
cathedral.
Italy
in
Une Ann^e
^ '
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
a Florence" (in 1841), and
followed by
in the
"
259
" "
Lc
Capitaine Arena,"
"
Le Corricolo
the
'
" It
must be
said," admits
Fitzgerald,
Corricolo,'
an account of
both
written by
Dumas's
spirited
"
friend Fiorentin
under
" is
his direction
travc'ls as
are as
can be found."
La
Villa Palmieri
Dumas
set out
Madrid, to be present
following
at the royal
wedding, and
of Spain
the
year his
description
" Spain
was
a Cadix."
it is
had had
little in-
left
us
Frenchman
the author of
;
Monte
Cristo
was received with open arms the French schoolmasters left their work to escort him hither and thither, and the great hidalgos paid him homage of
courtesy."
full
As
is
and the
is
rest.
Le
years
in
later,
description
vessel
^
Dumas's adventures
that
state-
Of
the
"
Le Capitaine Arena"
by the
commanded by
vessel used
that seaman.
Neapohtans
by the
2G0
travels
LIFE
"En
we have
AND WRITINGS OF
"
Russie
Le Cancase
in 1839,
"
(1859)
already spoken,
book remarkable
Dumas
was never
in
volume from
was declared by a Caliph to be the most faithful description of the Holy Land that he had ever read
it
Its author,
we can
believe,
was delighted
to find he
to the Orientals.
We
account of a
Un
Mr
New
York),
if
only because of
assertion,
Dumas had
as
it
visited the
United
seems
in-
credible that a
man who
to leave his
visit
We
know
that
Dumas
wished to
humiliating
Probably,
either
Dumas
his readers
usual, or
else
'prentice
who had had the desired experience. Not yet have we exhausted the catalogue of
this
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
universal writer
!
2G1
Here
teens of volumes
presentment of old
point
of view.
"
from
et
refreshingly
new
Gaule
said, to divert
Its
Dumas's
is
author
quite possible.
On
the
forrii,
Second Republic of fifteen years later with a president, elected by the people for five years, and so forth is quoted by Blaze de
so faithfully prophesy the
Bury
in
full,
political
"
foresight.
Then came
Napoleon" (1839);
Les
Stuarts" {1840)
(1842), which
in
w'hich
"
;
Dumas
"
largely availed
la Pucelle,"
himself of Scott's
is
"Abbot
half a
his
Jehanne
et
son
"
Siecle
"
(1844),
"
important history;
Les
la
Medicis
(1845)
sa Cour
La
Regence
"
and
"Louis XV.
et
" Histoire
de Louis-Philippe" (1852).
"
series of
portraits in undress,
Grands
(1866),
Hommes
but only
en Robe"
de-Chambre,"
(1857),
et
was
'
sketched,
Cesar
"Henri IV."
" if
Richelieu
(1866)
these
appeared.
studies
added Dumas,
meet with
"
262
cess,
LIFE
we
AND WRITINGS OF
go backward as
far as
shall try to
Alex-
Evidently
Of one
anecdote.
of these books
its
author
He was
chatting with a
cilious savant,
You have
repeated
"Yes."
"
You ? "
not?"
!
"Why
"
Pardon
But
it
scholars
"
..."
"
sensation
*'
."
.
people read
it,
that's
all.
It
is
;
make
sensa-
tions
digest
Of
La Route de
Varennes
(i860) and
"La
Terreur Prussienne
was an attempt
flight
Dumas
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
course
of
the
royal
fugitive
2G3
step,
step
by
and
carefully,
testified to
the revision
The "Terreur,"
the spot, and
made on
dis-
of
forebodings, soon to be justifiied. should add here " Les Garibaldiens," Dumas's diary
quieting
We
as
amateur and
volunteer war
correspondent
in
i860
account of the
Sicilian
campaign.
not
the
in
Certainly
writings are
least
attractive
of
Dumas's
those
and
all
that concerns
and
w^ork.
is
Of
and
the
importance
forties,
" ^Nles
Memoires," commenced
"in exile"
in
but written
1S52-54,
when
upon
his early
life.
Dr Garnett speaks
of
them as
incon-
it is
The
end abruptly
But the
"
Swiss
tour, 1S32-33.
Memoires
contain
he chronicles the
Translatiott."]
MY FATHER
My father, who has already been mentioned twice in the foregoing chapter, firstly, a propos of my certificate of birth, and again, in connection with his own marriage-contract, was General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie. He was, as we have shown in the documents cited by us son of the Marquis Antoine-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, Colonel and Commissary-General of Artillery, who owned by inheritance the estate of La Pailleterie, raised to a Marquisate by Louis XIV. in 1707. The arms of the family were " d''aziir a trois aigles cTor, aux vols ^ployes pour deux, et un avec un anneau d'argent place en ca^ur, embrasses par les griffes dextres et senestres des angles du chef, et reposant sur la tete de Vaigle de pointed
:
My father, when enlisting as a simple soldier, or rather, when renouncing both title and coat-of-arms, adopted instead Deus dabit " a device which the simple device " Deus dcdit would have sounded ambitious, if God himself had not counter;
signed
I
it.
do not know what secret discontent or speculative plan determined my grandfather to quit France, about 1760, sell his estate and go off to take up his abode in San Domingo. As a result of this resolution he bought an immense stretch of land situated on the western side of the island near Cape Rose and known as La Guinodce, or the Trou de Jcrcmie. It was there that my father was born, of Louise-Cessette Dumas and the Marquis de la Pailleterie, on March 25th, 1762. The Marquis was then fifty-two years of age, having been born
in 1710.
My father first saw the light in the most beautiful spot in that magnificent island, queen of the gulf in which it is situated, and of which the air is so pure that no venomous reptile can
exist there.
264
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
his
265
famous contemporaries.
stout-hearted
the
to
are
full
of entertainment.
the
The
travel
{i860) contain
chatty
sketches
of
England,
fragments of autobio-
d' esprit.
similar in
nature
"
issued
"
the
are
Propos
d'art,
de cuisine
"
et
de Dumas.
vite
contains appre-
de Musset, Chateau-
briand, Beranger,
and others.
shows us
at
The " Histoire de mes Betes" (1S68) Dumas as he was in the forties, en faniille
Cristo,
Monte
amongst
his dogs,
"
monkeys,
ser-
vants,
and hangers-on.
The
Souvenirs drama-
genial masterhood of
The
tion of Shakespeare,
the
of
art
the
theatre,
excellent
in
matter and
manner.
Dumas's
in
One
i860.
is
the
It
"
Memoires
d' Horace,"
published
was supposed
to
be taken from an
MS.
266
LIFE
orrande
AND WRITINGS OF
and
is,
Ghnel
tells us,
"une
is
fantaisie
sur
Rome
The
ancienne."
"
It
not
now
on
accessible.
Memoires
written
de
Talma,"
the
other
hand,
left
were
by
Dumas
dian,
from memoranda
recognised
to
by Fournel,
J.
Cherbuliez,
others,
be practically a
bio-
graphy of the
in after years.
actor, written
by
his
young admirer,
by
"
itself.
One
This
is
other
"
work
Crimes
Celebres,"
which
appeared
in
1839-40.
The
"
series
Causes
the excellent Gayot de Pithaval material afforded by that industrious person was divested of formality and tediousness, and rewritten with all the animation and dramatic effect for which
Celebres
of
The
records were
com-
pared by
subject,
Dumas
Arnould, Fournier,
for
:
and
Mallefille
were responsible
some
"
Les
Borgia," "
"La
Marquise de
Brinvilliers,"
Les Cenci,"
"
La Marquise de Ganges,"
Grandier."
" Karl
Ludwig Sand"
Vanof
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
the
267
book
is
of course
Voyage."
Dumas
the poet
et
is
"Charles VII.
"Christine";
siderable
ses
but
M. GHnel has
" Psyche."
^
number
in
appeared
indeed,
le
the
They prove
what,
that he
had
mouverneiit, la couleur et
"Although
lacking a sure knowledge of syntax," says Parigot, " and deficient in mastery of form, he sparkled with
gaiety and youth, even in verse.
fifth
act of
'
spirituel
'
couplets
to
L'Alchimiste,' and,
is
above
all,
the prologue
'Caligula'
What,
man
attempt, that he
did not in
forty
some degree achieve ? Of the thirty or poems thus preserved, the elegy on the death
Hugo and
In selecting one of
Dumas's poems
for quotation,
we
^
Dumas
translated a
number
of
now
accessible.
268
It is
LIFE
"La
in the "
AND WRITINGS OF
we
:
meet
Je suis un sylphe, une ombre, un rien, un reve, Hote de I'air, esprit mystdrieux, Lcger parfum, que le zifphir enleve,
Anneau
rhomme
et les
dieux
De mon
du soir Mais je me cache aux regards des profanes, Et Tame seule en songe peut me voir.
Flottent meles k la vapeur
Rasant du lac la nappe dtincelante D'un vol leger j'effleure les roseaux
Et, balance sur
mon
aile brillante,
J'aime
h.
me
de suaves odeurs,
tige,
Sans que mon pied fasse incliner leur e me suspends au calice des fleurs.
Dans vos
ceil clos a demi, J'aime k verser des songes d'innocence Sur le front pur d'un enfant endormi.
Lorsque sur vous la nuit jette son voile Je glisse aux cieux comme un long filet d'or, Et les mortals disent " C'est une ctoile Qui d'un ami vous presage la mort."
We
is
a complete review of
subject.
The
task
is
an
We
submit,
is
however,
that
this
analytical
description
in
in
advance
of
public
knowledge
England
and
ALEXANDRE
America
purpose.
at least,
It has,
DUINIAS
269
and that
it
we
new about
an
has
idea,
ticity
him
however slight, of the nature and authenof other works by our author of which he
never
heard.
probably
We
is
trust
we
shall
to marvel, as
we have
marvelled, at
is
much which
genuine
Dumas,"
remain
untranslated and almost forgotten. A good dozen of the minor romances have been translated into
print.
is
Yet we
plenty
have
shown,
we
think,
that
there
of
One
Our most
integrity
admissions respecting
in
Dumas's
the
course of this
we
declare that
Dumas was
partner,"
in
"predominant
credit.
and
deserves
his
the
is
most
But
cases
where
name
attached,
grave.
it is
man who
issued
270
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
who
sent
it
Like
Goldsmith,
Dumas became a
bondman
them.
to his publishers,
was only
of his
but
we
is
believe that
sifted
when
the wheat
own growing
will
from the
chaff, as
one
day
it
be,
man and
as a writer, will
We
publishers of
reflects
on the present
PART
A Defence A
III
HIS GENIUS
Counterclaim
His Genius:
Defence.
Dumas was once asked for a subscription towards a monument to a man whom everyone had reviled in
the beginning of his career.
"You had
the
stones
that
lifetime.
No monument
you can
in this
raise will
be so
declared
Hayward
than
who had
protest
better reason
Alexandre
Dumas
to
against
the
next ages."
same
comment
"
Poor Dumas
stories
He
who
duced immortal
and immortal
by
If five
generations of Dumas,
novelist
274
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
moonto look at
would manage
"
!
them
all
any of them
It
hastily,
no claim to
criticism.
Dumas,"
adds
Dr
an example of
one time
parallel
it
grade of authorship.
At
to
him with deep thinkers like Balzac, or exquisite artists like George Sand. Monte Cristo' and the Three Musketeers were ranged alon<7 with The Mysteries of Paris and The Wandering Jew,' and the circumstances of their reproduction in England showed that they were expected to appeal to readers of the same class. Yet as time passed, and mere clever melodrama gave place to other clever melodrama but Dumas retained his power and popularity, it became clear that his work really belonged to the domain of literature. In adjusting the relations between Dumas and his critics, it must be remembered that he did not, like some of the literary heroes of his age, take the world by storm But Dumas had with his earliest writings. acquired a good sound reputation as a second-rate romancer before writing Monte Cristo,' and criticism was naturally slow to accept him as a genius."
*
' '
'
'
'
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Wc
"
275
come down
to
1880,
and
find
Mr
\V.
H,
Dumas
rated, in
of his calibre
in his
least,
in
France,
is
when he
kiiown.
writes
"
Dumas
is
popular
he
not
His method of
life
and
his
his
occasional
literary
worthless
books
greatly
usually
yet,
damaged
looked
position.
He
is
upon
and
simply as an
'amuser,'
and
like others,
moments of " Even to be 'amusing,'" as Parigot drily remarks, "is not, when one looks round the world of literature, so commonhis
all."
twenty
critics
or
thirty
years.
The
English
literary
and
see,
we
at
Its
shall
their
larsfe
admiration
remains
Still
the
public
unconverted.
is
thirty )ears
Chambers's Encyclopaedia
**
"
this
276
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Dumas
Is
of a writer like
a portentous phenomenon,
his invariably
immoral
is
devoured
the
That
is
is
Dumas's
his
that
the
biographer has
own books
"
at
all.
We
savage voluptuousness
voluptuousness
"
good), of
and of
"
his
"
sweating
that
system
"
of production.
Need we add
the
"
."^
De
Mirecourt
has
Happily
Itself,
the
its
"Encyclopaedia"
latest
retrieved
and
edition
contains a sketch of
Dumas's
"
life,
Mr W.
E. Henley,
We
his
that
Beau Austin " was contemThere plating a book on Dumas some years ago. is, Indeed, a passage in "Memories and Portraits" which was written at Henley " something about
collaborator
In
"
Dumas
a pity
still
It
Is
truly
that the
never wrote
this
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
an estimation of the
say what should be
Qrreat
277
said,
and
critical
command
and
ence
spite.
is
still
repeat
the
old
story
of prejudice
We
one
have
already
book in English dealing w^ith Dumas's life and WTitings, a work which the We need only critics have heartily condemned.
only
add,
by way of summing up
fitly
their
views, that
it
ought
his
to
be entitled
"
Dumas According
to
Enemies: by One'of Them." In France no adequate biography exists on the one hand there are the "studies" of MM. B. de Bury and Parigot
:
on the other we
biographical
Glinel
;
have
of
the
bibliographical
and
wanting.
The
sixties
;
lover of
Dumas
old-fashioned
utterances
the
he could forget
biography
already forgotten
by the
public.
way
Dumas's
of
literary
merits.
only a few
our
author
words.
as
novelist
in
few
the
the
contemptuous
True,
nobody
reads
how
278
LIFE
is
AND WRITINGS OF
in certain quarters.
wind
blowing
In a recent
work^ M. G.
Pellissier
Dumas
"sacrificed
his
to
the
We
are
Academie."
G.
who
certainly possesses
:
Dumas
e7i
wrote
and
*
then
indiistriel
Industriel'
'
Dumas
if
never
ceased to be
'
;
romantic
he was
;
also,
by the
he
of
but
dramatic
always,
con
ainoi^e,
and
by
right
M. Lanson,
history of
to
in his
French
literature,
acknowledges
Dumas
;
he
ignores
Dumas
These
tant
influence
on
the
ordinary
English
reader,
and we need not concern ourselves with them But unhappily they seem to have furfurther.
nished the sole sources of reference for Professor
Dowden
1
in
"
his
book on P"rench
Littcraire
literature.
This
La Mouvement
au XIX*^ Si^cle."
"
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
famous scholar confesses
only by collaboration.
in
279
his
volume
too
have had
which
critics
my
collaborators
who have
list
written
each a part of
the
my
book."
The
of authorities
the
professor
quotes
includes
three
of any direct
Dumas
find
himself.
Hence
"
we
are
not
surprised
that he
admits
his
action
incredible.
Dumas's work
'
" ceased
to
com-
merce
"...
.
money was
charlatanry
'
recklessly
squan-
dered.'
decayed and
proportions."
grew
at
to
enormous
Half-knowledge,
second hand,
opinions.
It
is
to
be
re-
is
certain to
who have a
ability
confidence
in
the
professor's
and
We
Dr Gamett (in the introduction to the "Black Tulip"), repeats this charge in almost
the
same words. The epithet "charlatan," as applied to a writer, can surely only be taken to imply that he wrote without conscience and lowered his standard of literary production to catch the public This implied charge we believe an impartial reading of taste.
Dumas's works
at
any period
will disprove.
280
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
It
is
honesty of
Professor
Literature
"
purpose.
a relief
to
turn
to
Saintsbury's "
justly
and find our author dealt with more and sympathetically by one who has a fuller and more direct knowledge of his subject. The attitude of -the orthodox French critic towards Dumas is even more severe and contemptuous,
and
this
is
easily
explained.
A man
of
who
led such an
in
irregular
who produced
his
works
such an irregular
the nation
critics of
in that
spectable
stick
one
class
of writing,
litera-
and conform
ture
;
to tradition in that
branch of
if
in
addition
dis-
respectful
witticisms
and
fauteuil
mx^t have
been
his.
He
would
have gained the praise of the conventional and won, if not Immortality, at least an Academic fame.
But he remained^Dumas
tric
himself,
find
and an eccenSainte-Beuve
is
individuality
and so we
writing of
him
he has written
fairly
spoilt
Still,
elsewhere
the
to
say
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
"
281
Quant a M. Dumas,
son
tout le
monJe
son
spirituel,
sait sa
verve
prodigieuse,
entrain
facile,
bonheur de
et
mise-en-scene,
son
dialogue
toujours
jamais
couvre d'immense
son pinceau
ni
toiles
sans
fatiguer
jamais
ni
son lecteur."
Dumas,
in his
It
"easy"
critic,
literature.
characteristic of the
French
this inability
essential
to
to
success.
"form" and which his countrymen profess and demand others have always prevented Dumas, who cared
the
austere
devotion
little
for
honour
from
in
his
own
country -except,
of
course,
the
ignorant public,
The
us,
it
weight of
is
own attempt
to estimate
firstly
which
we must
our
It is
client,
and produce evidence in support. not at all our desire to deny all the accusa-
tions
brought against
Dumas
we
hope, however,
some
things,
and be pardoned
for setting
down naught
in malice.
282
LIFE
Dumas
AND WRITINGS OF
faults
;
We
in
to
be found
re-
man and
a writer
we have
critics.
We
are
is
do
this
we
believe
shoulders of his
talent
Mr Henley
this
how he
Envy The and scandal have done their worst now. make the detectives who libeller has said his say
is
"He
art.
one and
all
the judges
critics
'
of
matter
;
have
of style
the dis-
Nana
has
taken
us
into
on the subject
much
as
was
to
Dumas
particular
is
and
Mr
'
what he
pleased to
nightman's
work
their
'
of
analysing
Antony
'
and
Kean,' and
their
author's
habits,
their
:
manners and customs and character of whose vanity, mendacity, immorality, and a score of improper qualities besides, enough has been
author's
ALEXANDRE
written
result
DUJNIAS
283
to
And
the
of
in
it
that
art
Dumas
for
is
recoofnised for a
force
modern
and
in
may be
the
(ipinion
of
''
place
in
and value
hrom
vsXxv fargettr''
Hugo
I
a thinker
as for myself,
:
am
a populariser.
dream of one,
the other,
I I
and
first
would
being
Intro-
but which
will
duced by me,
This
passage,
of
course,
refers
to
Dumas's
it
may
of his
own
for
worth.
judge
is
himself as
below
or rises above
first
The
attack which
284
LIFE
first
AND WRITINGS OF
we have
"
and the
therefore which
"
to meet,
is
horrible,"
and immoral.
The
be pilloried were
Henri Trois,"
"Antony,"
"Don
and
its
"
La Tour de
the
Each
of these received
rival
due share of
ridicule
school,
classicists.
The
first,
in
which the
fun of the
intrigues of the
Valois court
made
no
"handkerchief"
incident,
(which
doubt
was
Elle prouve aujourd'hui, sans faire de scandale. Que chez un amant, lorsqu'on va le soir
On
Similarly,
set
the
fashion
or
illeo^itimate
heroes,
and heroines
fair
and
voit
frail,
inspired
the
couplet
croire ces
les
MM.
on ne
Que
femmes perdues." ^
The
the
1
slangy word
" Ladies and gentlemen, this play is moral it proves that nowwhen meeting one's lover by night one may without scandal forget one's self, but not one's handkerchief!" (Alluding to the fact that the Duchesse de Guise's handkerchief, left in Ruggieri's rooms where she has met St Megrin, her lover, is found by the Due, and, by arousing his jealousy, leads on to the tragedy.) 2 "If we can believe these gentlemen (Dumas and others of the Romantics) one meets everywhere only women who are "lost "and
a-days,
.
.
children
who
"
ALEXANDRE
la
DUiNIAS
2S5
injurious criticism.
in
Of
"Antony"
of posterity.
Dumas
himself
his
''
own defence
to the
Memoires judgment
makes two palpable hits, firstly, in pointing out that the sinners Antony and Adele do not prosper by their sin, for they live in stress and anofuish and die violent and miserable deaths; and secondly, that in "exploitcertainly
He
ing
"
it in a far more worthy fashion than did Moliere, and we may add, than the Restoration and eight-
With them cuckoldry was a suitable theme for comedy as the fashionable and amusing pastime of le monde ou fon
eenth
century dramatists.
;
senmde.
speare
in
In fact,
Dumas
faithfully follows
"
Shakeabout
" Othello,"
and
Much Ado
Nothing."
It
lishmen,
many
admiration
is
Shakespeare.
no doubt
also
to
blame, but
the
we
are
obviously
playwright.
more
concerned with
those
Elizabethan
the murder
Do
who condemn
286
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
the
of Monaldeschi,
guerite In "
La Tour de
of
"Don Juan"
Dumas
duly studied,
"
Titus Andronlcus," In
"Macbeth,"
In
"Richard
In
III.,"
and other
plays,
In
our
literature.
We
and
social con-
ditions
this
has
Dumas
in
Comte Hermann,"
dramatic
He
had taken
the
In that
war of
of nature
against
poetry of the
literary codes,
Academic,
all
and loudly
folly,
a hero
In
the war
against past
ages."
Why, we may
fairly ask,
should
critics
take eager
when experience
ALEXANDRE
had taught a nature
that Byronic
DUJNIAS
287
mood,
in
which
it
not
Dumas's
side
three
all
"on
the
of
the
angels"; and
"Conscience," " Le
are
Marbrier,"
and
Comte Hermann"
almost
sermons
in
their didactic
We
may
leave
point
in
critic
is
The
horrible
is
morality
an
affair,
No
set
and
he had
and
In
left,
other writers.
reply
cry
of "Thief!
"It
is
men who
his
invent,
individual.
Each
use of
in
turn
and
in
something accomplished by
it
his fore-runners,
dies, after
makes
having
in
the
sum
of
human
for
This he bequeaths
star
in
to his successors,
new
the
Milky Way.
As
the
288
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
I
believe that to
be impossible."
After having quoted Shakespeare and Moliere
in
Dumas
adds
"The man
of his
steal,
he conquers;
own
empire, peoples
his
it
w^'th his
it
own
subjects,
and imposes
as
He
'
extends
to say,
fair
That piece
One
spirit
delightful
sample of
knowledge and
"
with which
is
Dumas was
we know,
tractors
de Baviere
the
first
was, as
published serially in
numbers of Revue des deux Mondes, which was at that time little known and read by few. Bourgeois and Lockroy joined some of the most striking scenes of the chronupLe together and made
them into a play called " Perrinet Leclerc," which At that time Dumas had was very successful. collaborated with Bourgeois in a drama " Le Fils
Emi^rre," which our author confesses to have been
an
"
execrable
"
play.
and not content with this, the journalist emphasised his own fatuity by calling attention to
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
of " Pcrrinet
Leclerc,"
289
Dumas was
was yet
to
come
"
for
when Dumas
de Baviere
for stealing
It
Is
In
book-form the
from
MM.
best
to
recognise
the
charge
of
"plagiarism"
has
been
brought
against
almost
first
were
a
to
full
and Instructive
writers
Shakespeare.- Moliere,
classical
themselves.
In
our view
simply a question
uses
own
talent
upon
it.
Surely
Dumas
did that.
"All
his plagiarisms,
when
...
It
Irks
one to see
Dumas
pilloried
the works
of
other men."
was not raised so loudly or generally against Dumas's romances, and such charges as were brought we have already dealt
cry "plagiarist!"
with.
It
The
was now
"
1
290
LIFE
In
AND WRITINGS OF
;
was heard
the land
and
"
this
La Tour de
of
partly
Dumas 's
earliest
share of Maquet,
later
in
the
productions.
new
charge, therefore,
was
in-
his
enemies.
(!)
He
was represented
as a
prosperous
spider
who
and sucked
Dumas's reply
challenge,
to this terrible
accepted.
He
the
press
was
:
and that therefore the rest of This was their open to them.
they could vindicate themselves,
opportunity
now
and win a reputation that was their own undis" Write a Monte Cristo or a Trois putedly.
'
'
'
Mousquetaires,'
I
"
he
pleaded
in
" don't
wait
until
am
dead
let
me
!
"
Dumas was
his co-worker
always the
may have
asserted
by
all
critics
of any standing.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
moving
is
201
spirit
still,
and the
INIr
actual author of
by
name," says
Saintsbury, "
sufficiently
proved
by the fact that none of his assistants, whose names are in many cases known, and who in
not a few instances subsequently attained eminence
re-
sembled
his
peculiar
Mr
Whereas Dumas whoever his assistants Lang, "could any of his assistants
style."
live,
"
Dumas ?
One mieht
thief
devil
him,
as
make charges
his
"
of
this
kind
ao^ainst
Dumas."
argument,
Theophile
in
Gautier
Histoire de I'Art
"He
borators,"
declare
that
all
when they
separated from
of
Dumas
do
and
them
united
not
much
as
Dumas weighed
injured and
spoilt
The
Dumas
debauched
been ruthlessly
By M. Edmond About. "The master," he declared, " took from them neither their money, for they
are rich, nor their
reputation,
for
they are
cele-
292
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
it
still,
and
in
selves
For the rest, they have never pitied themon the contrary, the proudest of them have
and
it is
good
*school,
greatest of them,
friend."
M. Maquet, speaks of
old
The
justified.
"
Dumas's
first
Mr
to
is
This
out, like
by the contact of
Then
it
the
Dumas, as
took the
life
'
Then Dumas
He
gave
it
he gave
lived
and moved."
testimony of one of the great man's best
is
The
collaborators
valuable
evidence on
et
this point.
:
Comedies
Comediens," writes
How many
all,
who were
above
had only
He
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
293
changed the characters, added or cut down entire acts, and wrote all in his own hand." Thackeray, with 3. i:a;;ia7'adcric a.nd candour, both
of which
this
credit,
his "
Roundabout Papers."
is
The
none the
less
in
a half-jesting
manner.
They
say,"
after a eulogy of
his
Dumas,
works bearing
name
Had
not
Lawrence
like to
for
his
backgrounds
I
dii^
metier,
confess
clerk
for
the
business
is
part
of
my
novels.
Sir Christopher
He
There
in
is
might supply."
We
may venture
to
"
make use
of
it.
The
294
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
recognise the existence of such a
will
surely those
who
work
of
is
naturally
restrained,
fancy
is
deadened,
the
mental
the pre-
trivial,
the formal.
tive,
Reade the
compiler of cuttings-books.
still
Dumas
for
himself offers a
San Felice
ereat
If
the facts
out,
and have written a romance half the length, but with ten times the brilliance and engrossing
points,
charm.
It
frequently proclaimed,
by people Imperfectly
It
moral
In
must be condefiled.
true
if
must
of
necessity
be
themselves
He
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
political, is full of
295
improperly-behaved personages.
We
who wish
nature.
We
Dumas,
and
all
W.
M. Pollock,
common
with
Shakespeare,
and
*
Moliere,
and
such
and Le Saee.
' ;
His
he
of
method was
at
any rate
as the
an honest method
domain of each, and casting a glamour of splendour around corruption." But hear the defendant in his own cause.
"
I
false
had,
thank
God,
a natural
sentiment
six
of
my
hundred
volumes^ there are not four which the most scrupulous mother
may
Dumas
am
as
1864,
twelve years
later,
We
See note,
p.
225
296
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
credit for too
much breadth
Stevenson,
in
is
When
world
more directly with Dumas's reply,adds " his enormous popularity, the widest in the world of letters, owes absolutely nothing to prurience or
dealing
:
curiosity.
air, is
The
air
air,
which he breathes
is
a healthy
the open
and that by
his
own
choice, for
Hayward, again, notices the difference between Dumas and so many other of the French writers with whom he is icrnor" His best antly and indiscriminately classed.
romances,"
Essays," says
the
author
of
"
Biographical
" rarely
trangress
propriety,
and
are
entirely free
list,
so repelling
in
Balzac and
many
French
novelists."
lifts
Professor Carpenter
plane of thought.
"
I
find
it
impossible," he writes,
ideals were low, unfit for common use. honour that he tells most willingly of It is man's honour and the constancy of men to men
Dumas's
of
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
;
297
by force and guile of man's love of woman and the curb it puts on cowardice and sloth and selfishness of man's strength and weakness of a nation's slow progress onward and upward toward order and
; ;
justice.
Dumas was
was prodigal
;
his life
reflection that
books
is
we
shall approve."
that we made one or two experiDumas's books from this point of view. We have asked repeatedly at shops where French novels of the pornographic type have been displayed in large quantities, and have failed to obtain a copy of one of the master's novels. We have found that at free libraries (and at the com-
We
may add
test
ments to
Mrs.
Grundy
is
always
present
fully
in
spirit)
that
and
freely,
where
Defoe,
Zola,
forbidden.
Lastly,
we have
Young
Person,
who
stories,
has frequently
chosen
it
due warm and inofenuous acknowledgment of the pleasure the book has given her. We have already dealt to some extent with the
in
and returned
in
298
^,-
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
In sup-
passages
Civil
in
"
"
relating to our
War
of Charles
together
"
with
the "General
Monk"
episode,
In
Brage-
lonne,"
of the
plays
"Catherine
it
As he has expressed
set
in
a well-known sentence,
history,
Dumas
deliberately violated
purpose to achieve
which rendered
the writer
necessary.
The word
and
little
who
make
own
may
we
romance.
On
when Dumas
and
set
he was
full
of precise detail
historic
all,
And
he was supreme
:
what, after
was
the
essential
he caught and
a power
and a subtle
which no
The
tics in
French
literature
througli-
out
Dumas's prime.
fastened on
whom we
have
spoken,
Dumas
composition."
To
this
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
lurked a good deal of sense and power
"
:
299
When
one
is
it
is
romance
is
as for an apple-tree
it is
This
how
done.
;
One
one
sits
one
writes a
little.
After the
fifty
is
pages,
if
it
to
be a romance
pages
if if
in
in two volumes for four hundred four volumes for eight hundred pages,
in eight
And
after ten or
twenty or forty days, supposing that one writes twenty pages between morning and evening, which
means seven hundred lines, or 38,500 letters daily, the romance is finished. " That is the way I work, say most of the
who are o^ood enousrh to concern themselves about me and these gentlemen only forget one
critics
;
thing.
"It
is
this
the development of a
new romance,
before drawing
writing the
my
title
I
'Chapter
I.,'
300
months,
LIFE
a
I
AND WRITINGS OF
ten
years,
year,
about
I
the
subject
to
this
on which
am
going to write.
owe
way
of
my
intrigue, the
simpHcity of
effects.
is
my
my
it
As a
rule
until
finished."
A women
friend even
"
of talent,
Madame
:
de Girardin,
who
is
from
the
same
an
it is
extreme
obtained by
difficulties
overcome.
:
You
nothing
you laugh at the swiftness of your travelling. But to what do you owe this marvel of transportation ?
To
of
years of daunting
all
toil,
to
money
spent like
water,
day
after
weary day.
You
flash
;
and grown
!
What
plans have been made, and baulked what cares, what struggles has it not cost, to whirl you from this spot to that, so smoothly and easefully, and
"
!
facility
ALEXANDRE
DUINIAS
301
memory, and that power of intuition and divination which was ahnost second-sight.
"
When
detail to dis-
Dumas was never stopped or some other obstacle, by anything. The practice of writing for the stage gave him great fluency in composition add to these gifts sparkling wit, and inexhaustible gaiety, and you
will
man
may
rapidity of production
without sacrificing
in
construction or injuring
The same
shop-made goods
'
books
those
blest
places
of the
earth where
the grain
It is
no
sin to
own
it is
only wrong
to abuse them."
It is difficult for
most people
to
comprehend
;
that
and the
merits does
As
of
fifty
still
held to-day,
we
shall
do
well to quote
Maxime Du Camp's
protest on behalf
302
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Mr
Lang.
writer so
fertile,
serious
'
because you
scamp your
work
dull,
never pedantic,
incapable
you were
to
be censured as
desultory, inaccurate,
and prodigal."
that
Dumas wrote
In theology there
unmentionable
in literature there is
as to be indefinable.
Therefore,
it
all
There
cannot
only one
thing certain
about
this
mysterious
it
quality
that
it
those
elect.
who do
not possess
belong to the
Far be
we Dumas among
:
(for
we must
"
conform
"
to this creed
the
literary
religion)
by putting
forward
the
ALEXANDRE
sufficient
DUISIAS
303
If a
number of
may
symbol of
intellectual sanctity.
Our first witness (we grieve to betray his identity, but we must give chapter and verse), is R. L.
Stevenson, whose manner of composition was the
very
opposite
"style,"
it
of
Dumas's.
truly
He
itself,
is
allowed
to
possess
and
nobly to win
the
quality
ledgment of
"
it.
There
is
no
style so untranslatable
"
(as Dumas's),
he wrote;
silk
;
"light as a whipped
like a village tale
fault,
;
trifle;
strong as
wordy
;
despatch
with every
no
Next we have Mr
fame as scholar and
Lang-,
critic,
In addition to his
was he not the prize That is "stylist" of an "Academy" competition.^ as good as a degree at a University, it is an unofficial election to a fauteuil and Immortality
(with a capital
I).
Then
note with
respect
this
evidence
"
When
sham
304
of
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
'
many modern so-called stylists,' I rejoice Dumas was not one of these. He told a plain
language suited to a plain
. . .
that
tale,
In the
tale,
with abun-
gnaw
that
some word
nobody had ever used in this or that connection before. The right word came to him, the simple
straightforward phrase.
pretty sport, and the
Epithet-himting
bag of the
contain
of st)le war,
needs none of
industry,
and
is
even
spoiled
by inopportune
misguided
still.
diligence."
This
deeply
critic
involves
himself
more
for its
He
praises
Dumas's dialogue
Homeric "In your works we hear the Homeric Muse and even, at again, rejoicing In the clash of steel
;
Look
men of murder, on the Eve of St Bartholomew, who flee in terror from the Queen's
at these
in
a line
of the
'
Odyssey
Wooers.
And
among
ALEXANDllE
blood,' in a passage of the
DLJJNIAS
305
is
Louvre
the picture
We
Balzac
critics
are not,
is
we
confess,
aware whether or no
but at least two
admitted to be a
" stylist,"
rival
and Nisard,
in
spite
of
Dumas
"tells his
story with
more vivacity (than Balzac), in dialogue more witty and natural, and clothed in better words."
Parieot admits that
Dumas
and
theless he
clear
shows
sane
taste
care,
and a choice of
pro-
and
language.
Edmond About
a
phesied
"
that
classic,
thanks
!
Dumas
shall
classic
Yet the
We
be
we
and edited
the fact
is
for
books are constantly being chosen use in schools and colleges, and yet
its
not so puerile as
connection would
for
seem
to
imply.
men
knowledge of French
to maintain.
If
and with
reputations
they find
fit
Dumas's
be put
books
qualities
to
306
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Is
we may
some
suspicion of
all.
We
Mr
its
may
upon by
author's
was
we
fitted
purpose.
Of
art,
" It Is
novel of Incident,
if It
be
was to tell you a story In a way that would enthral you from beginning to end if you stopped to admire
it Is
first."
Quite so
lose
the
narrator had
and
his
an
artistic
for
It.
Stevenson,
this
writing to
one of
his
touched on
point,
and declared
In
"
if
there
Is
two sentences
amateur work."
and as forcibly
It's
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
307
But he added: "Then you will bring me up with Nay, the object of a story is to be old Dumas.
long, to
fill
up
hours
the
story-teller's
art
of
by continual invention, historical and technical, and yet not seem to water seem, on the other hand, to practise that same wit of conspicuous and declaratory condensation which
writing
is
to
water out
is
One
last
word on
not
to
this point.
We
have taken a
to to
solemn vow
blaspheme by attempting
if
style can
in
be said
claim
a writer, and
it
we
for
Dumas.
style
(in
if
it
is
French)
justified
And
narrative by
it
its
artistic
justifies
itself in
the
author.
Unfortunately these
unknown to the general British "In the slightest and loosest work reading public. of his vainest mood or his idlest moment Dumas is
are
practically
at
least unaffected
;
burne
the
best of his
in
high
The
last
count
in
this
lengthy indictment
It
is
is
perhaps the
most
serious.
asserted
that
; ;
308
LIFE
at
for
is
AND WRITINGS OF
in
Dumas,
"wrote This
tinguish.
least
the
latter
part
of
his
Hfe,
money."
a
loose
phrase,
and
in
we must
'*
disIntiall
mate
"
biographies
not
show
to
in
that
private
life
writers
born
affluence
filthy
have valued
lucre
;
the
that they
quite
rightly
the
}
market
which
price
really
for
their
work.
The
of the
questions
subject
touch
the quick
are
Dumas
money?
labours?
Did Did he
:
consciously
and
debase
the
his
abilities
for
his
Was money
prime
object
of
deny all these possible charges. Dumas, like many another artist, Granted, that turned out bad work at times that he spoke
;
We
of his
that
books on occasion
in
commercial
for
terms
he
money,
and
or
obliged
fulfil
satisfy a dun,
man
of genius.
He
science.
score
of examples
of this could be
;
given
or
how he destroyed bad work how he delayed refused to commence work for which he had not
:
found
in his brain
which he had
into doing.
He
never
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
wrote unworthily, or below his own
level.
309
The
greed of money,
for
money's sake,
for
anything that
man
all
Dumas,
as in
shrewd authors
once
artist
way
of telling
it.
If
if
his
work had not been the great enjoyment of his life, the whole story of Dumas's career would have left him open to base suspicion but the more one learns of the man's nature and life-story, the more
;
clearly
one sees
in
him the
artist,
Counterclaim.
In the hope that
we have extenuated
or disproved
guilty
we
shall
modify
lightl)-.
our
metaphor and
it
treat
the
case
more
Believing
we
and proceed
to put in a counter-
claim of as
in
England look
310
upon Dumas simply as a writer of fiction, and are ignorant of his plays, the French regard him almost " This," says Blaze de exclusively as a dramatist. Bury shrewdly, " is because the imperturbable entomological public loves classification, and will only judge a man from one point of view." Unable as we are to prove Dumas's merits as a
playwright by instance and reminder, to readers
unacquainted with
his
stage
triumphs,
we must
high
and as concisely as
possible, the
in
position which
Dumas
the
occupies
world's dramatists.
He
full.
possessed
"dramatic
instinct"
to
is
the
"He
us,
is
he
the
drama incarnate
told
all
"
cried
Fiorentino.
Dumas
has
that
with
pride
which
is
justifiable,
"two
and
and a passion."
In this he
is
held to
as
a craftsman
to
his friend
Victor Hugo.
critic,
as a
dramatic
he was a
man
of piercing insight
where
and
further, a
and
'*
what he says of the two authors, in his letters on the French staee The best tragic poets in France are still I put the Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo.
this is
ALEXANDRE
latter in the
DUiAIAS
311
Dumas
it
Hugo
far
from
but
much further, as resfards the theatre. He has command that prompt, straightforward expression
is
of
he sympathises with
all
and
virtues, daily
;
of his fellow-countrymen
he
is
by turns
enthusiastic,
son of
France,
that
Gascony of Europe.
is
He
understood and
"No
Dumas.
The
theatre
is
he
in
is
all
rnaterials
for
the
drama
nature
very
Journal
In
it
nothing
the poet
may
grasp
and
grab
;
boldly
wherever he finds
appropriate
he
may even
312
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
whole columns, carved capitals and all, so that the temple which they support be magnificent. Goethe
understood this very well, as did Shakespeare long
before him."
Professor Brander Matthews in his consideration
of
our
author
as
playwright
cannot
"
avoid
is
the
There
will
but
stand
Hugo, master as he
is
of
many
things,
is
less
Dumas yf/iand
is
"who was
whose
the
the
stage,
prodigious
points
of our
tragedy,
historic
drama,
dramas of manners, and the comedy of anecdote, whose only fault was to lack solemnity, and to have genius without pride, and fecundity without effort, as he had youth and health and who (to conclude),
;
by
invention,
power and
variety,
approached among
And
*'
:
Professor
allow-
son's opinion
Due
is
Dumas broke
ground," writes
Mr
Henley, "with
and a
... He was
the
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
soundest innuencc
in
313
Sardou
" le
Dumas Dumas
to
have been
premier
has
Jionivie
Castelar
this
passage
on
as
:
a revolutionary
"
To
characters of a
marked
individuality,
descriptions of unartificial
enough
artistic attention."
his
Goethe
young poet
Delavigne
and
in
Beranger, Schiller
activity
;
and
production
talent.
it
bankruptcy of one's
without
is
Whatever
must be
to
terrible
the
fancy,
retaining
pernicious.
Art
if it is
command
of the imagination,
have an outcome
in poetry.
Nothing
taste."
is
more
Whether
was
necessar)-,
be discussed by others.
314
LIFE
;
AND WRITINGS OF
but
and elsewhere
we
Dumas,
our
author's talent,
nor foresaw
tendencies.
Certainly the
drama
for
of passion
and
Intrigue, of
first
great examples,
George Sand saw this, when, in dedicating her play on Moliere to her friend and
be blamed.
confrere,
Illus-
theory,
was
Dumas was
the
"
read them,
listen to
and appreciation
your triumphs.
.
You have
it,
dramatic action
to sacrifice
any desire
for
psychological interest to
abandoned
fore."
this
second essential,
one must be of
La
Dame aux
Camelias
"),
and
in
various
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
showed
that he
315
teller
of a stage story,
manipulator
passion.
of
and
cried
intrigue,
plot
and
an
a
or
"A man?"
like
Michelet,
"no,
element,
greiit
an
inextinguishable
volcano
American
river.
... He
Shakespeare."
modern French drama, M. Parigot has written fully and learnedly in his " Drame dAlexandre Dumas," showing the effect produced in varying ways and degrees by
influence
Of Dumas's
on the
on
He
son,
on Augier, Sandeau,
Halevy,
Sardou,
Daudet,
Lemaitre,
Meilhac and
" exercised
and
others.
the
drama
nineteenth
century,"
adds the
writer,
his verdict
by
in
French dramatic
"
Edmond
"
Rostand,
so closely
Cyrano de Bergerac
"
Mousquetaires
and
Henri Trois."
On
Dumas have
the founder
;
As
drama " he has much to answer for but for our sterile " West-End " fashion plays, and the modern French school which has been evolved
316
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
be held responsible.
fairly
He was
to vivify the
melodrama
in its
higher form,
owes
its
La Tour
recent
de Nesle."
" adapted
years,
predict,
"
and produced
in
London within
;
but without
much
success
and we may
themselves
will
never
us.
we
claim for
Dumas
a supreme
True,
" the
Swinburne goes
further,
"
;
king of story-tellers
and a
many
Calydon
"
Oliver
Madox
:
me on
Thackeray he will hardly hear the name of; George Eliot is vulgarity personified Balzac is
;
melodramatic
dull.
in
is
plot,
conceited, wishy-washy,
and
Dumas
Mr W. M.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
own
testimony.
317
my brother
I
it
may be
said that,
if
whom
ever existed
in
those qualities
?
'
which are
most
Dumas.'
Of
Dumas, had
^
to
as a pattern."
Henley
is
strikes the
same note
Dumas
of narrative in
his
literature,"
:
assertion
thus
"
He was
at
once
in-
original
among
men
right
of what
and what
is
wrong
in art,
and a
are not
in their
way
be paralleled
in the
work
The
'
Another passage in this letter is interesting, in connection with " In my very early years that has been written above. say 1846-7," adds Mr Rossetti, " my brother and I knew more of Dumas as a dramatist than novelist. 'Don Juan de Marana' was our favourite; next might come 'Antony' and 'Caligula.' 'Kean' we used to laugh over, for its amusing travestie of English manners and
much
customs."
318
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
the novelist, as
the case of
Dumas
in
Hugo
In the case of
Dumas
field
the playwright.
The
linked
two names
stance
critic
the
of romance
are
would not admit of any degree of equality between the two. It is no doubt an act of daring
on our part to presume to discuss
merits of the two men, as
seriously
if
the
relative
we
two
Is
venture to submit
writers, as
some
respects, has
been excelled by
our client
his pupil
In
that
for
we own
we should have none of that client's sympathy, Scott, as we have said, was Dumas's teacher, and
eratitude,
and reverence
in his " in
for
"Scott," he wrote
influence on
life."
me
my
literary
"
To
knowledge
popular
specially
acquired
to
his
he
added
that
of
science
of
history
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
319
dowered with archaeological zeal, a quick discerning eye, and the power to reanimate, his genius
conjured into a
all
its
new
manners, interests
and emotions."
of Scott's
weak
"Scott,"
Betes"),
in
says
his
in
his
" HIstoire
de
mes
''had
own way
of creating
interest
his
characters, which,
ceptions
little
This
method was,
often
for
half a
sometimes
for
a whole
his
volume.
characters,
their
traits
But during
of
volume he placed
mental status, of
;
appearance,
of
their
the
well
individuality
one
knew
so
exin
claimed
'
Ah, here's
this
chap
to
Lincoln ofreen
out of this
"
?
'
how
on earth
he
""oino-
eet
And
course
own
of
method of narrative
to
by the
side
of
latter,
Scott's,
the
advantage of the
declaring
that Sir Walter gives you the best dishes last and the worst ones first, so that one rises from
320
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
;
bill
of fare.
But
it
entirely,
when Dumas
two important respects the genius of the younger man broke away from
France
in
romance.
The
t)f
qualities of
qualities,"
he declared.
"Admirable
in
the por-
trayal
completely
'
The
is
'
only
romance of passion
. .
.
amongst
his novels
Kenil-
worth.'
My
me
to see the
to that familiar to us
fidelity to
were more
life-like
these
appeared to
me
be what
we
needed."
In course of time of
his,
Dumas
years
discipline
of play-writing.
The
result
we know.
of Sir Walter's most fervent admirers,
One
implied,
Mr
"
ALKXANDT^E
than the Frenchman, botli as a
DTTISTAS
321
as a writer,
all
man and
that
we
have claimed
he touches
" Speed,
teristics
this point
directness,
are
the
charac-
of
Dumas's
failed,
style,
the
characteristics
which
his
novels
required.
Scott
admit,
often
in
most
;
loyal
admirers
is
may
that
his
these essentials
but
it
rarely
Dumas
best."
qualities
fails,
when he
to
is
himself
that
and
at
We
venture
the
add
these
are
the
which
ideal
*'
story
should
possess.
Further on
we
read:
It is
good
tales
which
dull,
is
never
never stands
still,
but
...
If
Dumas
philosophy
and
Scott's,
kindly
which are
he
is
more
diverting.
He
is
is
not
and keen as an
The
in
qualities
and
it
is
only with
that
particular
quality that
we
Mr
Saints-
322
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Dumas
in
critically,
although treating
sitting
as
becomes one
talent,
set the
Frenchman,
all
his
peculiar
above
Scott and
others.
"His
is
"has
style
The
dramas
plot,
there
is
the
broadest outline.
But the peculiar admixture of incident and dialogue by which Dumas carries on
ing the reader
An American
stitious feeling
in
critic,
blunt and
unmistakable form.
The
And
may
No
other author
Sienkiewicz,
who
match him
for
there.
He
no
is
there are,
dialogues,
as a rule,
no elaborate essays, no
characters,
satisfactory
dull
stupid
only to
talk
;
the
antiquary.
The
characters
act act
and
make
quietly,
the
more
but
telling.
rapidly,
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
without unnecessary haste enjoyed as
it
;
323
is
every scene
is
to
be
passes
and one
impressed throughin
reserve
cHmaxes."
In short, although
in
Dumas
Scott,
was
essentially different.
He
wrote with a
all
lighter,
bolder touch.
He
or
got rid of
the impedimenta
His books
is
no background
;
he
not con-
still-life
Nor do
mind which
:
the
old-fashioned
act.
hero
Take
should
it
as
granted
readable,
seized
that
it
is
story's
first
duty to
be be
and
that
one's
attention
;
as
quickly
in
as
possible
and
into
mind, dip
first
the Scottish and then into the French romance. " Waverley's" first nine chapters are devoted successively to an introduction, the hero's birth, his
from
"
Scottish
horse-quarter," a manor-
house,
You have
324
LIFE
the
AND WRITINGS OF
40,
and
a
to
you
to
Turn
go
with
then
Mousof
quetaires."
You have
which
;
couple
paint
pages
introduction,
the
character
story
of
the
hero
the
-the
Your
plot
begins,
;
and
at
it
the
interest.
sympathies
are
D'Artagnan by the
toward him
Unknown's
is
cruel
behaviour
your curiosity
Unknown,
also
by the
Miladi,
theft
of the letter,
political
The
and
all
Dumas saw
the vitality
was the
life,
of this
of story
the
dramatic
romance.
It
qrained
mind.
Now we
is
an era of
" suoro-estion
tion,
"
;
somethino-
left to
one's imagfinastyle
is
dying out
It
as in
art.
would be
comparison any
further.
of Dumas, and each writer must be judged according to his aims and nature, and the materials at
his
command.
Few
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
their styles are so opposite.
325
To
and
those
outre'
\
who
love
the Scot
Dumas
is
frivolous
to those
who
is
dull
and
sluf^g"ish.
reasonable
doubt as to which
we know
it
indeed.
The
old
school
was
perhaps
marked features. Its pages abounded in description it was not enough we were to be with our hero in his adventures
This
style possessed several very
;
details
by
way
of introduction.
We were
We
with
supreme
sensibility
for tears.
We
followed
As
;
a consequence
we
cultivated a habit of
ness about
the
old-fashioned,
romance.
326
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
or
lack of
all,
died of theirs.
no need, we think,
as to
the
if
romance,
and
mind.
Read
firstly
one of
some
it.
romance of the
of
thirties or
human
the
interest
the
tawdry dreariness of
at the
Then,
let
after half
an hour
" Mousquetaires,"
reader take up
some modern romance, say one of Mr Weyman's, " The Refugees," by Dr Doyle, or Anthony Hope's " Simon Dale." This subject, we are aware, deserves a whole essay, but for
all
practical purposes
will
we have suggested
it.
be
suffi-
We
Dumas
can be
Esmond," the scene of "the breaking of the sword " being suggested by more ihan one like incident in the Frenchman's romances. Of the many authors who have benefited by a study of the great conteur, one has acknowledged his indebtedness. This is Bret Harte, whom one would
traced back as
scarcely have
fluence.
in-
He
to
having
received
"the
burial
whilst
reading
Dumas
the
ALEX^VNDRE DUJNIAS
fully affected
327
the
ap-
him.
"
The grandeur
of effect,
all
simplicity
of the
parent
effort,
caused
me
an
unspeakable
jo)'."
to
this
Dumas.
day,
if
The
spirit
of
author lives
to
Mr
"
A.
E.
W. Mason's
recently published
;
story,
example
is
of
Maxime
Dumas when
Forth-
The
strong
romancer could
awaken emulation
is
proof
power
of
his
talents.
But
the
modern
writer
whom Dumas
in
most
strongly impressed
"The
settled,
debate, before
his
place in literature
is
must rather turn on other points, as whether and egoist or the romantic inventor and narrator was the strong^er in him whether the Montaigne and Pepys elements prethe genial essayist
vailed in his literary composition, or the Scott and
Dumas
elements
a question, indeed,
which among
328
those
issue."
LIFE
who
his
AND WRITINGS OF
him most has always been
fail
care for
at
to
make
his
use of
Dumas
for
own
seem
ends, being a
man
of originality in talent,
we
Frenchman
here,
there,
and everywhere
chivalric
in
his
admirer's
stories
all
the lover of
Dumas.
To
He
wit.
was
"
this
and
its
unapproachable
dialogue
" of
which the
point,
if
most remarkable
Echo-
"dialogue
This
the
gift,
Dumas
made
could write.
... He was
as of
kino^
we have
Paris
seen,
the quadroon
deliofhtful
it
com-
par
excellence in print;
made
of
to
him,
and the
telling
and writer. wit, which is yet so conjunction with it, was Dumas's
ALEXANDRE
also, in
13U.MAS
ignore
it,
329
although most
critics
it.
and
one
particular denies
"
He
had
little
humour,
as
we understand
"
the word,"
Professor Matthews
and what he had was on the surface." declares, To say the least of it, humour is not a quality which
should be hidden very deeply from
observation.
humorous
"
and we regret
we have no means
be.
how
to
The
is
distinction
mirth
aware.
to
we
are
Dumas's wit
in
is
at least quotable,
:
and mostly
be found
dialogue
his
humour
is
is
more
airy
at
its
best in the
a story.
Unluckily
to the
many
of these
tales are
not
is
known
apt to
evaporate
less
process of translation.
Neverthe-
we
are
Dumas's own
edited,
genuine
and
complete writings
are
and
Englished
quality in
still
left
by translators of literary taste, this them will be recognised with delight as another vein of riches in the mine of wealth us by this versatile genius.
remains to be seen whether Dumas's works
last.
It
will
330
LIFE
AND
AVKITINGS OF
His
travels,
million,
have
pendulum swings from romance to at realism and back from realism to romance present Zola and his school prevail in France, and to a great extent throughout Europe and America. Dumas heartily disliked "naturalism." The Gonliterary
;
The
courts
tell
"
us
that
cried,
when
is
he
read
is
"
Madame
all
de Bovary
"
he
"If that
good,
that
worthless!"
But the
adven-
to-day
is,
psychology plays an
increasingly
important
moment, have
little
weight.
In the
are as
Dumas
dead as
last
year's novels
untroubled by ultra-intellectual
As
the stress
grows more
of our natures
in the
obscured
the
complex duties of
more
likely shall
we be
and
gratitude to the
simplicity,
welcome optimism, the refreshing the engrossing charm of the two great
ALEXANDRE DUiMAS
writers,
331
for
our
delight.
It
is
Dumas
b)' his
is
is
one of the
detractors,
who
amuser
is
is
perhaps accounted
Is
"They
four
say
that
generations,"
:
he has
consoled them.
If
it
it
generous than
is,
for that
he has painted
in
own
image."
the
women
called
them against their sadness, and the young men swore by the romances of their poet." "All
our
hospital
patients
recover
or
their
die
with
one
said
of your
father's
books under
pillow,"
surgeon
to
to
Alexandre
the
Dumas
Jils.
"When
of con-
we wish
make them
operation,
forget the
terror of an
approaching
valescence,
tediousness
or the
dread of death,
novels,
we
prescribe
to
one of your
forget."
father's
One
his
332
"
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
For six years," wrote Heine to his confrere, " I have been bed-ridden. During the worst part of the time, when I was suffering the greatest torment, my wife read your romances to me, and that was the only way in which I was enabled to forget my pains. Thus I have devoured them all, and
sometimes during the reading
'
!
have exclaimed
a grand fellow
What an ingenious poet What this Dumas is Certainly after Madame Schariaz, better known
! '
Cervantes and
as
the
sultana
Scheherazade,
teller
I
know.
What
:
fluency
!
what ease
I
and
Truly,
in
you
that
is
!
modesty.
those
You
are too
modest.
Good
gracious
who
accuse you
Nor
their
are these
;
in
charm
there
in
despite of
hour's
critics,
some-
thing
in
entertainment
Dumas's romances.
"
Dumas
first
among
the truly
for
exuberance of
To
.
class
. .
a high
fertility
place.
of invention
and more
particularly
dialogue.
AT.EXANDRE DUMAS
All these merits
333
Dumas
decree
his
invention
of
humanity,
" If
his
characters
imagination
was not
of
the
highest
quality," says
was of almost
unsurpassed
fertility-"
Mr
vaguely
so fleeting in
its
nati^re
Dumas
and
brilliant
dioramas of
them
with really
passion,
less
human
kind.
this,
if
of
He
cannot, as a rule, do
much
and to ask him for anything more is unreasonable, though in rare passages he rises to But he will absorb your a much greater height.
more than
attention
you from care and worry as hardly any other novelist will, and, unlike most
and
rest
'
more
effectual for
purpose than
found
I
thirty,
think there
virtue than
must be something
in
work of such a
334
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
for
ing power
s?.y so.
" in
"
find
effect these
Dumas,
and
in
human
;
material.
He
they
seems to
treat
them
on
puppets
wear
their hearts
their sleeves
more
less successful
folly,
the gracious
Diane de Monsoreau, and the proud Comtesse de But CJiarny, are wonderful types of womanhood.
Aidagnan, Athos, Po7d/ios, men are men. and Aramis Heni'i IV., La Mole, Chicot,
his
;
Coconnas, Bussy
d Aniboise
and
Balsaino, Philippe de
to
not
mention others
imagined as any
the author could
solidly
finely
characters
literature.
How
have produced them we may never cease to wonder but they do exist. He lived a foolish life; and he wrote in haste; but he wrote from his heart, and his heart was by nature clairvoyant.''
;
And
he adds
in
conclusion
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
"
335
Such are the considerations, in my judgment, which raise Dumas above the horde of vulgar
romancers.
His
fame,
critics
hke
his
genius,
is
not
may
praise
worse.
One who
;
another
be a better
man."
beyond the mere power of amusement possessed by Dumas, a philosophy and an ethical influence.
Finally,
sees,
Mr Lang
"In
and
the
the
all
he does, at his
best, as in the
'
Chevalier
His philosophy of
life is
Let us enjoy
movement of the fray, the faces of fair women, let us welcome life like a taste of good wine
;
mistress,
let
with
a jest
death
That his works (his best works) should be even that the still more widely circulated than they are young should read them, and learn frankness, kind;
ness,
generosity
should
and
taste the
is
what we
" qreat,"
desire."
.
A^^^
dubbed Dumas
336
And
yet
To
many
claim.
refusing greatness to
in
Dumas
offers
favour of that
There
says
is
instance,"
little
Dr
the
(We have
"
of Dumas's claim to
" Inferior in intellec-
and pass
to
his
on.)
power
principal
contemporaries,
his
Roughly speaking, great writers may be divided ^those whose work is based on into two classes process of thought, and those whose reason and utterances are prompted by instinct and inspira-
tion.
We
refrain
we may
be higher men,
like
call
the
writers
and the
"spiritual" writers;
in itself
The one
political
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
ticians, theologians,
337
and so forth
and prophets
forms
of
art.
To
it
Dumas
belonged.
in its
He
highest
true
behind that
to
a nature
essentials
a poet's.
Not only do his writings show this, but those who knew him or have studied him have testified He was clairto this fact a^iain and aorain.
''
voya7it "
he divined
;
in
laboriously discover
his
guided
by
him
in place of experi-
ence,
memory and
logical
thought.
We
if
;
have
political foresight.
Such
is
even
Dumas
the soul
to the uttermost
This
power,
mysterious
and
inexplicable,
It
too
had
was an enormous advantage. On a subject which appealed to him he could reason well and Blaze clearly, and grasp both principle and detail. de Bury tells us that the novelist once casually
this
history
relating
to
the
whale's
his
anatomy.
hypothesis
Dumas
;
imperturbably
maintained
the great
savant smiled Y
with good-
338
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
Will
it
natured scorn.
be believed
When
the
would seem
that,
according to
Dr
Garnett,
in some respect, and by virtue some high power. We presume that if Dumas "high on Olympus" he has some right to be
:
there
and
if
his
is
intellect,
must surely
of
brain-
and
there
we
are
content to leave
the
Another
great"
"
is
rank
of
title
may
.
.
be cumulative.
may
rest
on the multiplicity
.
Dumas
will
thus
take
France of the nineteenth century produced." Brander Matthews takes the same view. " Even more remarkable than the range of Dumas's work is its general level of merit. He had at least one element
of greatness
regretfully
:
an inexhaustible fecundity."
"With
his great
He
adds
powers one
feels that
he
ouorht
:
to
have
done somethincr
higher
and
nobler
cavil."
admits of no
appreciate his
All
who
love
Dumas and
"
DUJNIAS
339
ALEXANDRE
work will echo this sentiment. Dr Garnett makes the same point when attributing to the Frenchman "a fecundity rivalled by very few novelists, and a standard of merit equalled by none who have approached Dumas's productiveness."
We
is
in us
"
Dumas
who
is
great,
many great writers have proclaimed if not in so many words, still, unnot simply the ordinary reader
mistakably.
It is
astounded at the
wit
romancer's
" the
charm and
resource,
stalls "
his
day
applauded
and
skill
him
just
as
heartily.
We
For
could wish
Reade
himself.
have an opinion of
;
human
"
I
My
of you
:
!
it
is
a note of exclamation
"He
he
it
was not France's, he was not Europe's, and he was the world's " cried Hugo
! ;
was
who wrote
'*
Ce
qtiil
seme,
cest
lidde
340
LIFE
the
AND WRITINGS OF
has
to
Fra'jifaise"
He
of
"
;
indeed
taught
world.
French
Swin-
and
French
genius
the
whole
"
burne writes
brilliant
Dumas's
for
" excellent
heart
and
Stevenson
chapter of old
Zolas."
Dumas
Blaze de
Bury, a sober
there
was Dumas. Hugo, who imagined that he was descended from the Elizabethan poet in a direct
it
line,
had
far
less
claim
to
Dumas."
The most
illuminating
our
author's genius
the historian.
et
je
V021S
admire, pare e
des forces
de la nature."
This
is
strikingly true
there was
something
great,
and
says
his weaknesses.
colossal,"
Dr
qualities."
The
in
and energy
pere
General
" strain
"
Dumas
a combination of
Dumas
re-
and the
survived to give us a
markable instance of
fils.
intellectual capacity in
Dumas
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Briefly,
341
fear,
or a doubt of
self,
or
possible "others,"
his failures
;
we have laughed
at this
one
for
and measuring
through
the
telescope,
have
middle height. In saying this we feel that we have added another inch or two to our own tall selves. We have reserved for final quotation three very
different estimates of our hero,
whole, be said
platitude.
to
err
on the side of
author,
The first is from Castelar's essay on our and we present it with only one comment
Dumas's
orenius direct
from the
writer's books,
Frenchman's life and conduct throuo^h the medium o of" De Mirecourt" and others, as his article plainly
indicates.
many and
Dumas.
such
qualities
as
Alexandre
deficient
in
342
finish,
LIFE
AND WRITINGS OF
interesting-.
His novels
enchanting.
much
that
is
Had
he taken time
for
reflection,
he would have
produced some
rapidity this
With such great perfect work. His creations are was impossible. meteors when they might have been stars. Here
find a poet of a wonderful imagination, of
fallen
in
we
an
the
extraordinary power,
Parisian
streets
;
the
mire
of
having
con-
sidered
life
of feeling
and eloquence, M.
statue
in
a formal eulogy on
the
Place
Paris,
in
1883.^
M. About, " is that of a great madman, who, into all his good humour and astonishing gaiety, put more true wisdom than there
This statue," said
is
to
be found
in
the hearts of
all
of us here.
It is
^ This monument owed its origin and completion to the loving admiration which the great romancer has so generally inspired. A. M. Villard, a traveller, had cheered so many of his hours of enforced idleness with the company of d'Artagnan and his innumerable comrades, that he set on foot a scheme to recognise publicly and perpetually the author's fame and worth. When the committee representative one, full of illustrious names was still lacking the money for the sculptor's labour, Gustavo Dore, the artist, offered to do the work, literally " for love,"
ALEXANDKE
squandered millions
left,
DIJJMAS
343
in
without knowintr
him
to
it
is
the
portrait of a
man
of pleasure,'
for
all
whose
life
life
of an
his
egoist
children,
who devoted
his
friends,
his
mother,
and
As
summary
human
Mr
and
full
we have
:
Henley's,
own
searchings of heart
and brain
"In
were
be,
life
His morals
man
of colour can
his
literary
offences in
was that of the roniantiques he could and did commit astonishin"taste but his humanity was boundless in
in quality,
he was generous
he
. .
.
is
not
known
is,
to
was a prodigy of gaiety, kindliness, and charm, and a prodigy of temperament and power, and capacity of life and invention and achievement. He talked still better
blow
the fact
that he
than he wrote
tions of style,
affecta-
and with an
of mind, a completeness of
method
344
ible.
LIFE
And
AND WRITINGS OF
is
one
Love,
these
were
his
darling themes
and he
them with a combination of energy and good sense and good feeling, of manliness of mind and beauty of heart, that has ranked him
treated
insight, of
" if
in-
ought to
judge, severely
we
to
silence,,
French
but
harm, and
praise
we
fain
would
speak
to
mouths of
others,
who would do
more
which
piler,"
skilfully,
and be listened
result critics
their
reputations
can command.
We
''
are
aware that as a
or
"book-maker."
or
very dis-
honest.
.We
Dumas's reputation.
"
ALEXANDRE DUiMAS
and to
be done
let
345
choose.
the
captious
it
*'\Vhat matters
"
?
to the
so that the
work
great
Yet we,
grave-side,
late we,
too,
have a word
their
to say.
The
it
too
to
leave
of our
old
friend,
Stevenson has
that
said,
half-stoically,
half-bitterly,
in writing
this
as
only
reward
for
his
work.
If
be
true,
we have
already received
our labours.
and deepened.
"What
this
and
then, "
How
love!" he thought
loved
secret
That,
we
believe,
was the
of
Dumas's
his great-
and of
**
He
who won
that
is,
without
effort.
If
made to be loved, he was that rnan," so wrote one who knew him well end intimately and
;
346
indeed
with
LIFE
all
AND WRITINGS OF
to
speak of him
full
remembrance of the
man.
From
him
Dumas
all,
generously
heart
brain.
''
such as his
outlive
many
a cleverer
Je
he once declared,
in
and some of
his virtues,
were on the
surface,
But
it
would be truer
to say of
him
that his
life
sun of
stone,
was so transparent a nature that the shone through it, and that like a precious
kindliness
;
its
flashes
of joy, gaiety,
and generosity.
is
The
'^
but there
no doubt
this
was a
o^enuine diamond.
in
aimey
:
It
was
in its
wretchedness,
it
hours of
leisure,
giving to
fully
But
those
who have
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS
forget.
in vain.,
347
knew
and
the
the rock of
endure throuijh
asfes of carkinfj
Time, and
all
storms of chancre.
TO MY FATHER
Oh,
my
father,
can
it
be
That naught
will
?
thee free
Must thou ever give thy best To the others who grow wealthy with the riches from thy store, Leaving you not e'en as solace, when the long week's work is o'er.
One
brief seventh
day of rest?
Bow
Not
in the leafy
mountain bow'rs,
sun.
summer
And
Heaven's
gift
to ev'ry
one-
Free to
all
men, but
to thee.
From
see,
alway
When
even,
when
the
own
all
talent,
thou must
and
vain
Thou
Buy a month
348
Be
it
LIFE
so,
AND
AVRITINGS
in the season
;
then
Still
Reap
Be thou
still,
the bright,
light all
men may
share,
Work,
Strive,
and
testify,
coming ages, that shall hold thy days so dear and suffer, like some ancient prophet-seer Thou thy onward course shalt keep
!
Calm and
Let
all
To
thy brink
be
still
as clear
and deep
Work,
then, freely
work unceasing.
will
I
others think
late,
is
me ?
will
I
For
know
Soon or
fame
;
be mine.
father's glory
!
my
place
here
for
Here
to stand, to
and
fair
name,
As
it
{From
the
French of Alexandre
Dumas Jils.)
APPENDICES
APPENDIX
A.
Comparative List showing the: Events in French History covered by the romances of dumas
was Dumas's ambition to write the history of As even he quailed before the task of telhng the story from the days of Ccesar, or of Charlemagne downward, he contented himself with biographies of those heroes, and began his task in the fourteenth century, when literature had so far developed as to afford the novelist some material for his
said,
it
As we have
his
country in romance.
background.
fired the
It was Barante's work deahng with this era which author to attemj)t " Isabel de Baviere," and he saw no
down
Hencehistories
fulfilled
We
have thought
add the
and
show
that
Dumas
one form or another. The task was practically completed with the Napoleonic romances, although one or two intermittent attempts to bring the record up to his own time were made by Dumas. The reign of Louis XI. was probably abandoned by the author because of "Quentin Durward," and the episode of the death of Charles the Bold, Louis's enemy,
his intentions in
because of
"Anne
of Geierstein."
Philip Edward of
III.
"La Comtesse de
bury."
Salis-
crown Anglo-French
1350 John
II.
Wars.
Poitiers
Regency
351
of Charles
"The Dauphin."
APPENDIX A
War
V. Spanish French interposition
Civil
352
1364 Charles
"
Le Batard de Mauleon."
under du Guesclin. His insanity 1389 Charles VI. The feuds of the Burgundians
and Armagnacs. 1415 Agincourt. 1422 Charles VII. and Agnes Sorel,
etc.
"Charles
grands
gedy).
VII.
chez
"
ses
(tra-
Vassaux
la
"Jehanne
Pucelle"
(chronique).
" Charles
le
Temeraire
"
(biography).
"Field
"The
etc.
of the
Refor-
Cloth of Gold
I.
" Ascanio."
War
taken
in
Low
Countries.
II.
1559- 60 Francois
and
Mary
(Queen of
Scots).
"
La Reine Margot."
1574 Death of Charles. 1574 89 Henri III. Assassination Death of of Due D'Anjou HuguenotSt Megrin, etc. Catholic Wars. 1589 1610 Henri IV. The wars of Edict of the Holy League
" La
"Les Quaranteand " Henri Trois Cinq " et Sa Cour " (drama). "Henri IV." (biography).
Nantes,
etc.
APPEXDIX A
1610-2S Louis
" ;
353
Comte
de Moret," Colombe," "Les
Lc
"La
1643-60
Mazarin The war of the Fronde Coland Fouquet The and de loves (De Montespan) The Man
Louis XIV.
bert
king's
la Valliere
'
in
lonne"
1708 Old age of Louis Marriage with Madame de Maintenon Death of Louis XIV.
'
Sylvandire."
17 1 7
The Regency of
D'Orleans.
the
Due
and
''
Une
Fille
du
Regent."
(history).
"LaRegence"
Cleves."
et
1727-29
The youth of Louis XV. 1756 The Seven Years' War Canada won from France by
the English (1760).
"
Sa Cour"
XV.
"Le
of the
Testament
de
M.
The
Chauvelin."
affair
"Le
Collier de la Reine."
Revolution
" (history).
Bastille.
"Ange
Pitou"
("The
Taking of the
Bastille").
APPENDIX A
The Royal
flight
354
]
79
Family's attempted
etc.
"
La Comtesse de Charny,"
from France,
"La
rennes
"
Route
"
de
Va-
(history).
1793 Execution of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette Reign of Terror The Revolution,
Bleus
"
and
"
La San
Felice."
1799-1S00 The
Directoire
Royalist
1
Vendee
Rise
La
" Les
Compagnons
"
de
of Napoleon
Jehu
and
"
Les Blancs
Bleus"
conspiracies.
et les Bleus."
Siege
of
"Les Blancs
(second
"
et les
series).
Cam-
Le Trou de
I'Enfer."
and
181
" Le Capitaine Richard." 2 The Russian Expedition. 1814 Louis XVIIL The "Hundred " Black," " Monte Cristo." Days " Return of Napoleon
from Elba.
1
8 15 Waterloo.
1824 Death of Louis XVIIL and Accession of Charles X. 1S30 The Revolution of July Charles X. flies to England, Louis Philippe, king. Duchesse de Berri's 1832 The " Second Vendee."
APPENDIX
The Chief Events
in
B.
Birth at Villers-Cotterets
Death of
his Father,
General
Dumas
.... ....
.
1806
181
Becomes a Clerk with M. Mennesson, the Notary Becomes a Clerk with M. Lefevre, Crepy Runaway trip to Paris
. . . . .
.
1822
1822
Return to Paris Clerkship in the Orleans Bureau Birth of Alexandre Dumas _/?/$ Production of " La Chasse et 1' Amour " September 22, Publication of " Nouvelles Contemporaines " Kean and the English Shakespeare Company in Paris Production of " Henri Trois," Theatre Frangais Feb. 10 Production of " Christine " at the Odeon March 29 "The Revolution of July"; the Soisson Expedition July 30 and 31, " The Revolution in La Vendee ; as Special Com" missioner August " Production of " Antony Attacked by the Cholera Gaillardet and " La Tour de Nesle" Publication of " Isabel de Baviere"
.
.
.
.....
1829 1830
1830
....
Swiss Travels
Visit to
England
in
Travels
Sicily
.....
the
.
.... ....
South of France,
etc.
Corsica
Death of Durnas's Mother Travels in Belgium and on the Rhine Production of " Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle"
355
356
APPENDIX B
.
.
March 1840
1
Residence in Italy Production of " Una Mariage sous Louis XV." Voyage with Louis Napoleon Production of " Les Demoiselles de St Cyr"
Finally rejected by the
840-1-2
1841
1842
.
.
Academie
Cristo"
........
.
....
Monte
.
.
1843
1843
1844
1846-7
Opening of Dumas's Theatre, the " Historique " February 1847 Opening of the "Palace" of Monte Cristo July 1847 Second Republic Dumas a Candidate for the Chamber
:
of Deputies
1848
leaves Paris for Brussels
. .
Coup
d'etat
Dumas
:
185
Return
Visit to
to Paris
with
Dumas
as Editor
England
1858-9
Return to Paris
Travels in
Austrian
.... ....
by
May
.
i860 1864
1860-64
Germany
(Frankfort), etc.
War
1S66 1868
Taken
.....
his
Son
1869 1S70
December
Son
in
.
5,
1870
187,?
to Villers-Cotterets
by
his
May
4,
the
Statue
Malesherbes, Paris
....
to
Dumas,
the
Place
November
1883
APPENDIX C
List of Books by
Dumas or Attributed to him, with their Approximate Dates of Publication and Remarks on their Authenticity.
almost impossible for any student of
It
is
Dumas
to compile a
and accurate bibliographical list of his works. They were published, some in Paris, some in Brussels, in varying forms and with different titles, and the works of reference available
perfectly exhaustive
for our
Even
complete
of
But
Dumas's works as given by Calmann-Levy, the authorised publishers, with one or two additions,^ and is prepared from the notes afforded by Glinel, Parran and Querard, supplemented by the information supplied in Dumas's various autobiographical writings and in the biographical sketches on Dumas, etc., and by our own researches and information privately supplied For the comments respecting the genuineness or otherto us. wise of the books the writer is, of course, solely responsible, although in most cases his opinion is that of the majority of the impartial critics who have dealt with the subject. For the convenience of readers those books not ordinarily accessible in English are printed in italics, and to facilitate reference the
based on the
list
works
order.
are
given
of the
in
alphabetical
rather
than
chronological
Several
dates
Calmann-Levy.
^ Those books starred thus Calmann-Levy series.
are
not
included
in
the
357
358
APPENDIX C
Romances and Autobiographical Works.
Name OF Book.
Pi.nfi^lTi'!iM
Remarks
re
Authenticity, etc.
Acte
1839
Amaury
1844
Mainly Dumas's, but probably finished by an assistant. Q) Writteti by P. Meurice, probably under Dumas's
supervision.
Ange Pitou
(or
"Talc
1853
book
is
solely
Dumas's.
Ascanio
1843
1862
Dumas,
in
collaboration with
Meurice.
Dumas.
tains
1840
Davys
Aventures de Lyderic
from an
anonymous work.
1842
The
story
of Siegfried.
See
"La
Le Batard de Mauleon
Black Les Blancs Bleus
Bouillie," etc.
1846
1858
who
et
les
1867-8-9?
Dumas's
"The
de
la
La
Bouillie
1844
fairy
tale
for
children.
Com.'esse Berthe
Followed, in Cahnann-Levy,
1853
1
Written by
linsky.
86
Fugitive
graphical
"mems."
Un
Cadet de Famille
i860
APPENDIX C
Name
of Book.
359
re Autiienticitv, etc.
Year of
Publication.
1
Remarks
Le Le
Cajn'faine
Pamphile
Paul
840
Written
by
Dumas
to
for
children's journal.
Capitaine
1832 1858
Dumas's
sequel
Fenimore
(Jones)
Lc Capitaine Richard
Catherine Bliuii
1854
Undoubtedly Dumas. Said to have been suggested by Iffland's "Gardes Forestiers." Dymas. Translation out of
print.
Causeries
i860
collection of autobiographia,
jeux
d'esprit
and
sporting
or Lc Robe de
1S43
1841
Noce
La
Chasse au Chastre
Dumas.
pressions de
Voyage "("Le
Le Chasseur de Sauvagiiie
1859
L.e
Chateau D'JEppsteift
844
Midi de la France"). Probably written by Dumas from a story supplied by the Comte de Cherville. According to Dumas, narrated
to
him
his.
in
1841.
Probably
not
1843
assistance of
"The
1846
1849-50
185
Consi)irators ")
Le
Ditto.
Ditto.
La
Co'ombe
Dumas.
Bound with
le
" Maitre
Adam
Les Compagnons de Jehu Le Comte de Monte
Cristo
Calabrais" (C.L.).
1857
Dumas.
Probably with
Paul
Bocage's assistance.
1844
360
Name
of Book.
APPENDIX C
Year of Publication.
Remarks
re Authenticity,
etc
1866 de
1853-5
Dumas.
Not
available either
La
Conitesse
Dumas
Charny
d'un Medecin."
La
Conitesse de Sails-
1839
1857
the rest a
Iniry
mere
chrojiiqtie
of history.
Les Confessiojis de ia
Marquise
Consciejice
Deffand."
Not by Dumas.
the basis
P Innocent
1853
Written by
Dumas on
''orTEnfafit"
*Crimes Celebres
1839-40
Under the
and
1846
assistance of
Not a
sequel to "
La
Reine Margot."
La Dame
de Volupte
1863
From
the "
Memoires de Mdlle.
Unlikely to be
de Luynes." by Dumas.
1846-7
It
is
said
that
Dumas,
in
a
in
letter written to
Meurice
'
of
this
historical
romance.
the
He
plot,
probably
dictated
1864
1852
The same no doubt applies to " Le Page Ju Due de Savoie." " La Sequel to Dame de
however.
Volupte."
Dieu
dispose
to
"Le Trou
APPENDIX
Name
of Book.
C
re
361
Authenticity, etc.
Year ok
Publication.
Remarks
Le Docteur MystMeux
1872
Dumas.
form
Published
Fille
in
pos.thumously.
book See
"La
Ejnma Lyonna
1865
du Marquis."
Dumas
La Femme au
de Velours
Fcriiande
Collier
is
the work.
1851
Dumas.
Hoffmann.
1844
Not Dumas.
Auger.
Claimed by H.
La
Fille dti
Marquis
1872
Une
Fille
du Regent
1845
Dumas
ance.
with
Maquet's
assist-
Le Fils du Forcat
Les Freres Corses
i860
1845
Dumas
in
collaboration
with
Gabriel Lamberi
1844
Georges
an anonymous assistant. With Undoubtedly Dumas. bound this (in C.-L.) is " Otho I'Archer." Either based on fact as alleged, or on a story supplied to Dumas. Attributed by some to Mallefille. Much more probably
by
Dumas
with
with
Mallefille's
assistance.
Fern-
1845-6
1
Dumas
ance.
Maquet's
assist-
868
Dumas
chatting on
:
pets,
ser-
vants, etc.
with
some
auto-
biographical episodes.
Histoire
Noisette
d'un
Casse-
1844
Hoffmann's name.
book
of
that
362
Name of
Book.
APPENDIX C
Year of
Publication.
L'Homme
aux Contes
1858
L'Horoscope
"
APPENDIX C
XT Name of
T5 Book.
363
re
Year of
Publication.
r F.MARKS
Authenticity, etc.
Ma'ttre
brais
Adam
^
ie
Cala-
1840
"La Colombe."
From
Colla-
borator: Fiorentino.
1850
Dumas.
land.
materials
visit to
ob-
tained during a
Hol-
1861
1856-7
Not by Dumas,
Aveugle
of the "
Les
1847
Marquise." Not by Dumas. Dumas, with Maquet's assistance. (Sequels " Le Collier de la Reine," " Ange Pitou," " La Comtesse de Charny and "Chevalier de Maison:
Rouge."
Le Meneur de Loups
1857
1852-4
Dumas.
terets.
tale of Villers-Cot-
Mes Memoires
* Memoires d'Horace
i860
1849
Bocage.
A
with
on
the
horrible,
1854-5
Dumas
in
collaboration
Bocage.
Translation
now
out of print.
"Salvator."
Followed by
ChateauDuchesse
Sue,
1861
"Appreciations" of
briand, le
Due
etc.,
et
D'Orleans,
Beranger,
De
Une Nuit h
1
Musset,
by Dumas.
Florence
186 1
by the writer
Dumas.
will shortly
translation
be published.
364
Name
of Book.
APPENDIX C
Year of Publication.
Olympe de Clbves
1852
Le Page du Due de
APPENDIX C
Name of
Book.
-
365
re
Year of Publication.
Remarks
Authenticity,
tc
assist-
Quarante
1848
The concluding
por-
1845
" Marguerite
of
This
Valois ")
El Salteador
(In
1854
edition
note
to
this
Dent's
romance
taire,"
"The
Brigand").
Dumas disavows
the
it
authorship.
is
Nevertheless
of his 'prentices.
Salvaior
1855-9
1864-5
Dumas,
Proved
only
*'
Bocage.
See
La
Safi Felice
to
be by Dumas.
long
His by and
Fa-
untranslated
romance.
Followed
Emma
Lyonna "
d'un
" Souvenirs
vorite."
Smivenirs d'Antony
1835
the hero
play,
of
the
famous
in
Antony
them,
figuring
one
''
of
The
de
Le Cocker de
Blanche
"
"
Bcaulieu"
(or
Le
'^
Rose
et
Rouge
"),
*^
Bernard,"
untranslated
ones
is
bino et Cetestini"
important.
866
Name of
Book.
APPENDIX C
Year
publicatic
Remarks
re Authenticity,
etc
1868
dramatic
etc.,
criticisms, essays
on
the State,
"
William
Mon
Odys-
and commission"
ber)
Comedie
censorship.
1865
See
"
Sylvandire
San Fehce" and Lyonna." Dum~^'s version of a Russian story by Marlinsky. Dumas with Maquet's assistance.
"La
Emma
La
Terreur Prussienne
The
of
thread of fiction
is
only
the
slight.
Dumas
treats chiefly
Frankfort
during
Prusso- Austrian
War of 1866.
autobio"
Le Testament de M.
Chauvelin
1861
Dumas,
C.-L.
and
also
partly
graphical.
This volume in
contains
Don
Les Trois
taires
Mousque-
1844
Le Trou
de
TEnfer
1 850-1
Bernardo de Zuniga." Dumas, with Maquet's assistance. Founded on Courtils de Sandraz's " Memoires de D'Artagnan." Sequels "Vingt Ans Apres" and " Le Vicomte de Bragelonne." Dumas, possibly with Gerard de Nerval or some other
'prentice
acquainted
Sequel,
Germany.
alone.
APPENDIX C
Name of
Book.
367
re
Year of
publicai
ion.
Remarks
Authenticity, etc.
assist-
La Tulipe Noire
Le Vicomte de Bragelonne
1850
1848-50
Madame
"Histoire
de
la
Fayette's
Mousquetaires."
Utie Vie d' Artiste
1854
Vingt
Ans ("Twenty
Aprt^s
1845
Dumas's account of the early struggles of the comedian, Melingue, the creator of the stage "D'Artagnan." See Dumas, with Maquet.
" Les Trois Mousquetaires."
Years
After")
History Biography,
Charles
le
etc.
Tcmeraire
1859
1851-2
Historical
sketch
of
Charles
See
"Louis
XIV.
et
Son
"
Siecle."
Mer
1852
Includes
" Boutikoe,"
Capitaine
Marion,"
"
Le La
Junon"
Stories
and
of
other sea-adventures.
Filles,
Lorettes
et
1873
1861
"Les Serpents"
this
is
included in
Courtisanes
voUune.
Les Garibaldie7is
war" during
Gari-
Oaule
et
France
1853
rapid survey of French history from the earliest time, ending with a remarkable
prophecy
as to the future.
368
Name OP
BOOK.
APPENDIX C
pZlZrIcu.
Remarks
re
Authenticity, etc.
Part of a scheme
for
a series
biographies
of
great
men
new
Cesar
1857-S
from the
Henri IV.
Louis
XIII.,
et
1866 1866
1863
1852
point of view.
Originally
Richelieu
written
in
Italian,
"
Louis
"
Philippe
Les
Hommes
de Fer
1867
magne,
Italiens et
etc.
Flamands
1846
Appreciative
painters
Botticelli,
etc., etc.
Andrea
sketches
of
del Sarto,
Diirer,
Holbein,
Jehanne
Louis
Siecle
la Pucelle
et
1842
XIV.
Son
1844-5
The
cal eras"
the
most
work.
Louis Louis
XV.
et sa
Cour
et
1849
1
The
Ditto
:
series
continued
("
La
Regence
" intervening).
XVI.
la
850-1
Revolution
the
series,
Les Medicis
1845
Mimoires de Garibaldi
i860
An
ploits in S.
by Dumas from
^ Mimoires de Talma
1850
Written
by
left
Dumas
by Talma.
from
materials
APrEXDIX c
Name op
Book.
369
370
Name
OP Book.
APPENDIX C
pJ^rc^TToN.
Remarks
re
Authenticity, etc.
Un
1852
fornie
Impressions de Voyage
en Russie
i860
and
'65
Impressions de Voyage
en Suisse
1833
Dumas's
best.
first
book of
travel,
thought by
many
to
be his
840
Classified
by
Calmann-Levy
as " travels."
his
Dumas
edited
friend
Grisier's
impres-
There
is
a slight element of
narrative.
Le Midi de
la France
1841
Followed by " Une Annee a Florence" and "La Villa Palmieri." This book concludes with " La Chasse au
Chastre."
Un Pays
Inconnu
1865 1839
Brazilian
by another hand.
Written by
Le Speronare
1842
Impressions of
Written
Le
Veloce
Sequel to "
De
Paris a
Cadix."
La Vie au Desert
i860
adventures
of
lion
hunter in Africa.
APPENDIX C
Namk
of Book.
371
re
PuuficATioN
Remarks
Authenticity, etc.
La
Villa
Pabnieri
1843
Souvenirs
"
of
"
Florence.
See
Une Annee
Florence."
Contains
Un
Alchimiste
Sicclc."
du Dix-Neuvieme
The
follows
volumes,
or fifteen volumes
:
at
f.
50
c, by
MM.
Calmann-Levy, as
La Chasse Henri IIL sa Cour. Tome IL Napoleon Bonaparte. Antony. Charles VIL chez grands vassaux. Tome IIL Richard Darlington. Teresa. Le Mari de Veuve. Tome IV. La Tour de Nesle. Angele. Catherine Howard. Tome V. Don Juan de Marana. Kean. Tome VI. Paul Jones. Alchimiste. Tome VII. Mademoiselle de Un Mariage sous Louis XV.^Lorenzino. Tome VIII. Halifax. Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr. Louise Bernard. Tome IX. Le Laird de Dumbiki. Une du Regent. Tome X. La Reine Margot. Intrigue Amour. Tome XL Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge. Hamlet. Le Cachemire Monte-Cristo Tome XII. Monte-Cristo Tome XIII. Le Comte de Morcerf de Monte-Cristo). de Monte-Cristo). Tome XIV. La Jeunesse des Mousquetaires. Les MousTome XV. Le Chevalier d'Harmental. Tome XVI. La Guerre des Femmes. Le Comte Hermann. Trois Entr'actes pour r Amour medecin. Tome XVII. Urbain Grandier. Le Vingt-Quatre
Tome Y\ Comment
et je devins auteur dramatique. et I'Enterrement.
I'Amour.
La
Noce
et
Christine.
ses
la
Piquillo.
Caligula.
L'
Belle-Isle.
Fille
et
vert.
(i'^ partie).
(a^partie).
(3^ partie
quetaires.
Catilina.
Fevrier.
La Chasse au
chastre.
372
APPENDIX C
Clichy.
Le Vampire. La Barribre de Romulus. La Jeunesse de Louis XIV. Le Marbrier. La Tour Tome XX. La Conscience. Jacques. Tome XXL Le Verrou de Reine. LTnvitation k Les Tome XXII. L'Honneur Le Roman L'Envers d'une conspiration. Tome XXIII. Le Gentilhomme de Montagne. La Dame de Monsoreau. Tome XXIV. Les Mohicans de Gabriel Lambert. Bleus. Tome XXV. Madame de Chamblay. Les Blancs Simples dramatique.
Tome XVIII. Tome XIX.
L'Orestie.
la
Saint-
la valse.
Forestiers.
est satisfait.
d'EIvire.
la
Paris.
et les
(Maurel adds
is
no record of
APPENDIX
D.
names
Edmond
(see
"Monument
^ A.
Dumas").
Nov.
Audebrand, P., "A. Dumas k la Maison D'Or." Banville, Theodore de, " Mes Souvenirs." " Odes Funambulesques." Beauvoir, Roger de, " Soupeurs de Mon Temps," with preface by A. Dumas.
Blackwood's Magazine, 1835-72 inclusive. " Brown, Oliver Madox," by J. H. Ingram.
Bury,
Henry Blaze
de, " A.
Dumas,
Carpenter, G.
last?"
C, Forum, June
Byron and other Essays " ("Alexandre Dumas." "Chambers's Encyclopaedia," edition of 1868. New edition (article on Dumas /eV^ by W. E, Henley). Chasles, Philarete, Portrait d'A. Dumas. Cherbuliez, Joel, Revue Critique des Livres Nouvelles, 1830-50.
Chincholle,
Claretie,
J.
C,
"
(see "
Conscience, H., " Le Conscrit." " D'Artagnan, Memoirs of," Courtils de Sandraz. " D'Artagnan " E. D'Auriac. Comparison of the romance with
:
the Memoires.
878
374
APPENDIX D
Sir
H. Maxwell,
Bart.
{Blackwood s
Dash, Comtesse, " Memoires d'autres." Deschanel, E., " A pied et en Wagon."
Dowden, Prof. E., " French Literature." Du Camp, Maxime, " Souvenirs Litteraires." Dumas fils, " Le Fils Naturel " (preface) Introductory
;
letter to
" Mes
Dramatiques,"
" Causeries,"
" Bric-k-Brac,"
etc.
Fiorentino, P. A., " Comedies et Comediens." Fitzgerald, P., " Life and Adventures of Alexander
Dumas."
;
Garnett,
Dr Richard, Introduction
;
to
"The
Black Tulip."
Dramatique " " Histoire du Romantisme " "Belles Femmes de Paris." Glinel, C-, "A. Dumas Notes biographique et bibHographique." Goncourt, Edmund and Jules, "Journal." Gordon-Cumming, R. C, "The Adventures of a Lion Hunter in South Africa." Gozlan L., "Almanach Comique," 1848: article on the Chateau
I'art
:
"
Grisier,
le Duel." (Preface by A. Dumas.) Hayward, Abraham, " Biographical Essays." (" A. Dumas.") Heine, H., " Letters on the French Stage." Henley, W. E., "Views and Reviews." Hugo, C, " Les hommes de I'Exil." " Hugo V. au Temoins." Hugo, v., " Les Contemplations."
L'Illustration, 1846-7.
Janin,
J.,
"Alexandre Dumas."
APPENDIX D
Karr, Alphonse, " Les Guepes " (periodical).
;375
in
Little"; "Letters to
Dead Authors."
Communication
Larousse, P.,
to the writer.
la Litteraire
Frangaise."
"Grand Dictionnaire
Frangais."
Matthews, Prof., Brander " Frencli Dramatists." Maurel, A., " Les Trois Dumas."
"
Monument
h.
Alexandre Dumas."
:
Speeches by
MM.
About,
Claretie, etc.
Mousqjietaire, Le, Journal edited by Dumas. Nisard, D., " Histoire de I'Ecole Romantique."
Ecrivains");
"Le
Pifteau, B.,
Romantiques" (Bibliographical notes). Le Mouvement Litteraire au XIX" Siecle." "Dumas en manches de Chemises."
Tixxmsis" {Nineteenth Century, Oct. iSSo).
Pollock,
W. H., "Alex.
"The Eighth Commandment." Romand, H., "A. Dumas" {Revue des Deux Mondes,
W. M. Communication to the writer. Sainte-Beuve, C. A., " Causeries du Lundi."
Rossetti,
Jan. 15,
Litera-
Sand, George
Spectator,
Correspondence.
Homme
de Theatre."
Portraits"; "Letters to his
and
friends."
^ This book gives interesting details respecting Dumas's various residences in Paris, and the localities mentioned in connection wih the leading romances the scene of the quadruple duel in " Les Trois
Mousquetaires,"
etc.
376
APPEISDIX D
Communication
to the writer.
Thackeray,
W.
"Roundabout Papers"
("A
1847.
Peal of Bells
Vandam,
A., "
An Englishman
in Paris."
Walkley, A.
Weiss,
J.
B.,
"Playhouse Impressions."
et les
"
Le Theatre
Mceurs."
INDEX
{For Dumas's dramatic iVorks
see
see " Plays ; "for his other Writings " Works.")
About,
Cherbuliez, J., 191, 266 Cherville, ConUe de, 249, 251, 254 Chincholle, C, 242 Cholera, visitation, 62
Claretie, J., 331
Comedie
P'rani^aise, 28-9, 3' 37> S^j 55. 69, 71, 86, 98-9, 118, 127, 151, 154, 158, 165
B
Balzac, 147, 157-8, 161, 219, 274, 296, 305, 316 Banville, T. de, 82, 135 Barante, 61, 186, 188 Belgium, Dumas's tour in, 71 Beranger, 17, 129, 162, 265,313 Berri, Duchesse de, 46-7
Bocage, P., 231, 233, 245, 247 Brandes, G. 278 Bret Harte, 326 Brohan (Mdlle. A.), 112, 164 Brussels (Dumas's stay in), 94-5 Bryce, Prof., 333
,
Conscience, H. ("Le Conscrit "), 239 Cooper, Fenimore, 24, 157, 191 Corneille, 19, 27-8, 76, 127, 131, 156
D
DameauxCamelias, La,
144-5,154,
314 D'Artagnan, Maxwell on, 201 " D'Artagnan, Memoires de," 201-5 Dash, Comtesse, 72 Davy de la Pailleterie, Marquis A.,
4, 6 Delacroix, 23, 59, 1 19 Delavigne, C, 17, 23, 25, 36, 75, 313 De Leuven, A., 16-7, 19, 24, 112 De Musset, A., 35, 56, 59, 142, 159, 162, 252, 265 Deschanel, E. 95 Dickens, C, 157, 330 Dorval, Marie, 50, 52, 54, 94, 170, 244, 265
,
Buloz, 25, 1589 Bury, B. de, 92, 98, 141, 143, 146, 149. 153-5, 157, 224-5, 243, 261, 275-6, 300, 310, 337, 340
Dowden,
C., 206, 211, 241, 296, 322, 334 Cassagnac, G. de, 163, 282, vii Castelar, E., 200, 2S6, 291, 313, 341 Chaffault, du, 92-3, 134, 167 Chambers's Encyclopaedia, 275-6, viii Charles X., 26, 34, 40, 42, 46, 69
Carpenter, G.
Du Camp, M.,
263, 301
Dumas
^'ils,
39, 57, 72, 76, S3, 109, 121-3, 132-3, 142-6, 152-4, 165, 173. 177-S0, 208, 210, 247,
35,
112,
378
Dumas
INDEX
Grisier, 147, 192
continued General, 4, 6-9, 20, 169, 178, 185, 247. 340 Louise-Cessette, 4, 6 Madame {n^e Labouret), 4, 13, 21, 32, 39, 69-70, 163, 185 Madame {uc'e Ferrier), 72-3, 159
H
Harel, 48, 62-s Hay ward. A., 99,
273, 296, 329, 338 Heine, H., 68, 162, 310, 332 Henley, W. E., 146, 236, 243, 276,
Madame
(/iVj),
145,
and
ded.
viii
Homer, 156, 335 Hugo, C., 112, 165 Hugo, v., 23, 35, 38,
172, 180,
38-9; marriage, 73-3; " Trois "Monte Mousquetaires " and his theatre, 86, Cristo, " 76-8 93-4 his chateau, 80, 87, 93-4 exile in Brussels, 94-5 ; " Le visit to Mousquetaire," 96, 97 England, 101-5 ; with Garibaldi, death, 113-15 ; illness, 120-3 I23 ; burial at Villiers-Cotterets, Statue to, 342 123.
; ;
;
202,
267,
2S3,
" Indipendant"
(Journal), 115
Jacquot ("E. de
Ferry, G.,
255-6
Feuillet, O., 252 Fiorentino, P. A.,
77,
Mirecourt"), 81-3,
125, 194, 215, 276, 341, vii, viii Janin, J., 63, 78, III-2, 162, 331 90, 106, 116,
171, 173,
K
161,
192,
215, 259, 266, 292, 310 Fitzgerald, P., 6, 81, 87, 115, 223, 259, 282, viii, ix
191
Kean, E., 26
Florence (visit to), 73, 76 Foy, General, 22, 267 France, travels in the south Frankfort (visit to), 120
of,
67
Lafayette, Gen., 41-2, 47, 59, 162 La Fayette (Madame de), 205, 2 10- 11
Lamartine, 23, 120, 162, 1S4, 283, 339 Lang, A., 88, loi, 131, 133, 156, 166,
Gaillardet, 63-4
Garibaldi, II3-15, 251 Garnett, Dr, 263, 274, 279, 332, 336, 338-9. 340 Gautier, T., 76, 194, 291 Girardin, Madame de, 85, 1 16, 142, 300 Glinel, C., 108, 155W, 266-7, 277, x Goethe, 27, 60, 157, 295, 312-13 Goncourts, The, 202, 330
"
291-2,
Lanson, G.
278
Lassagne, 25, 183 Lebay, Madame, 38-9 Lecomte, J., 159-60 Lectures (Dumas's), 119-20 Legion of Htmour, Dumas's, 68
Lemaitre 59, 68
Letters (from Dumas), 109-12, 145-6
Louis
XVIIL,
14,
26
INDEX
Louis Philippe
(at first
379
Due d'Orleans),
o
Ori.kans, Duke of
(at first Duke of Chartres), 68, 70, 75, 90, 171, 251
22, 31, 33, 36, 40, 46-7, 68, 83, 86, 89. 90, 93, ix
M
Maison D'Or (Dumas
Mallefille, 134, 197,
at),
97
266
135-6, 195, 205, 215-7, 222, 226-9, 231, 236-8, 245, 290, 292, viii
52, 56, 163
6, 41,49, 190, 202, 210, 211, 221, 225, 236, 243, 258, 259, 267,275-6, 27S, 305.315. X Parran, A., 244 Pellisbier, G., 278 Pifteau, B., 128, I76, 253
Parigot, IL,
Mariinsky, 244, 248 Mars, Mdlle., 16, 32, 52, 59 Matthews, Brander, 287, 289, 305,
312, 32S-9, 33S, ix Maurel, A., 250
60,
176,
185,
284-S,
74, 316,
3I7
Angele, 59, 74, 185 Caligula, 68-9, 72, 158, 189, 267, 284, 3i7 Catherine Howard, 68, 103, 298
Charles ^'II. et ses Grands Vassaux, 56-7, 267
Melingue, 112, 136, 245 Merimee, P., 162, 22 Im Mery, L., 112, 193, 200 Meurice, P., 89, 112, 198, 220, 228, 246
Michelet, J., 241, 315, 340 "^Jirecourt, E. de " (j^(S Jacquot) " Mois, le " (Journal), 90 Moliere, 27, 76, 2S8-9, 295 " Monte Cristo and his wife," 214;/
Cristo, Chateau of, 80-1, 87-9, 93, 94, 140, 265 " Monte Cristo " (Journal), loi Monte Cristo (Visit to Isle of), 73
La Chasse
et
1'
Amour,
24, 151
Monte
Le Comte Hermann,
235, 2S6-7
94,
153, 171
Montpensier,
Duke
85-6-7,
Don Juan
3i7
9 " Mourir pour la patrie" (song), 91 " Mousquetaire, Le," 96, loi, 137, 164, 2I4
Hamlet
Henri
(translation of), 89
III.
et sa Cour, 30-34, 36, 163, 184, 217, 220, 284-5 L'Invitation a la Vake, lOl
N
Naples (Dumas
Napoleon,
14-16, 140 240, 248, 262 III., 66, 73, 90, 118, 122,
at),
1
Kean, 68, 103, 298, 3I7 Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle, 71, 151, 170, 229 Une Mariage sous Louis Quinze,
71
7, 9, 14, 103,
Napoleon
295
HI,
162,
220
380
riays
INDEX
W., 23, 26, 28, 61, 104, 133. 157. 186, 189, 190, 222, 254, 261, 293-4-5, 3^2,, 317-26, 327, 334 Scribe, E., 73-5, 133, 162 Shakespeare, 16, 19, 26, 27-8, 104, 153, 156-7, 209, 223, 265, 285, 287Scott, Sir
.8-9, 295,
continued Romulus, 98, 154 Teresa, 59 La Tour de Nesle, 63-4, 74, 184, 284, 286, 290, 316 Les Trois Mousquetaires, 136, 152 For- full list ofplays see Appendix C. ( Pollock, W. H., 63-4, 127, 132, 275,
295, ix
Sicily
50-1,
56-7,
70,
Sienkiewicz, H., 191, 322 Soissons (Dumas's exploit at), 42-6 "Son of Porthos, The," 214;? Soulie, F., 28, 37, 162 Spain, Dumas's visit to, 83-4 Stevenson, R. L. 125, 168, 207-8, 213, 276, 296, 303, 306, 327, 340,
,
345
16 and app.
ix
Swinburne, A. C, 162, 184, 234, 307, 316, 340 Switzerland, Dumas's travels in, 66
"Sylphe,
La"
(poem), 268
R
Racine,
Reade,
C,
288
273, 294,
339
Talma,
des deux Mondes," 25, 61,
"Revue
158,
Rhine, Dumas's travels on, 71 Romand, H. (on Dumas), 176 Rossetti, D. G., 233, 316-17 Rossetti, W. M., 233, 317 Rossini, 59, 153, 162 Rostand, 315 Rousseau, 129 Russia (Dumas's tour in), 106-8
M., 68, 157, 196, 201, 207, 293, 316, 326 Theatre (Dumas's), 86-7, 93-4, 218
Thierry, A., 62, 184, 186
191,
1
19,
U
United States,
Dumas
and, 116-7
C. a., 35, 267, St Germain, 89 Saintsbury, Prof., 188, 192, 196, 219, 227, 250, 252, 280, 291, 321, 328, 333 Sale of Dumas's work, 122 Sand, George, 142, 158, 162,
Sainte-Beuve,
280
206, 306,
Vandam, A.,
1
89;;,
loo,
141,
14S,
99
230,
344
Villers-Ccttercts, 123, 167, 170, 237, 239, 240, 243, 247, 254 Virgil, 157
Schlegel, A.
W., 248
INDEX
w
W
" Waverley," 323-4 Melanie, 49 Works by Dumas, or him
,
:
381
attributed
to
velours, 235 Fernande, 197 Une Y\\\q du Regent, 196 Le Fils du For9at, 249 Les Freres Corses, 220, 223 Gabriel Lambert, 220 Les Garibaldiens, 263 Gaule et France, 261 Georges, 197 Un Gil- Bias en Californie, 108 Les Grands Hommes en robe de
Chambre
Louis
Xin.
et Richelieu,
261
220, 222
Ilistoire des Bourbons, 253 Ilistoire de Louis I'hilippe, 261 Histoire d'un casse-noisette, 258 Histoire de mes Betes, 227, 265, 319
L'Homme aux contes, 258 L'Horoscope, 248 L'lle de Feu, 250 Impressions de Voyage En Suisse, 189, 258
:
265
Cecile, 197
La Le Le Le Le Le La
Chasse au Chastre, 193, 258 Chasseur de Sauvagine, 249 Chateau d'Eppstein, 194 Chevalier d'Harmental, 195, 335 Chevalier de Maison-Rouge, 224 Collier de la Reine, 231 Colombe, 255 Les Compagnonsde Jehu, 103, 147, 217, 246 Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, 76-8,
2i4-9> 233, 245,274
Le Comte de IMoret, 255 La Comtesse de Charny, 237-8, 241 La Comtesse de Salisbury, 188
Conscience I'Innocent, 10, 238-40 Creation et Redemption (Le Docteur mysterieux et La Fille du Marquis), 242
a Plorence, 259 Les Bords du Rhin, 258 Le Capitaine Arena, 259 Le Caucase, 260 Le Corricolo, 253, 259 Le Midi de la France, 193, 258 De Paris a Cadix, 84, 259 Quinze jours au Sinai', 260 En Russie, 260 Le Speronare, 259 Le Veloce, 84, 259 La Villa Palmieri, 259 Ingenue, 233, 245 Isaac Laquedem, 238, 243 Isabel de Baviere, 61, 158, 186, 188, 288, 2S9 Jacquot sans Oreilles, 194 Jehanne la Pucelie, 261 Louis XIV. et son Siecle, 261 Louis XV. et sa Cour, 261
Une Annee
Crimes Cclebres, 266 La Dame de Monsoreau, 226 Les Deux Diane, 228 Dieu dispose, 234 Le Drame de '93, 261 Emma Lyonna, 254
Louis XVI. et la Revolution, 261 Les Louves de Machecoul, 249 Madame de Chaniblay, 251 La Maison de Glace, 250 Maitre Aclam, le Calabrais, 192-3 Le Maitre d'armes, 192 Les Mariages du Pere Olifus, 233
382
Works contimted
Les Medicis, 261 Mes Memoiics, 10, 41, 48,
INDEX
Works
continued Souvenirs d' Antony, 184-5 Souvenirs d'une Favorite, 254 Souvenirs dramatiques, 86, 161,
265, 314 Les Stuarts, 261 Sultanetta, 248 Sylvandire, 198
51, 58, 63, 85, 129, 131, 157, 172, 234, 288, 318 238, 263, 285, Memoires de Garibaldi, 251
Menioires de Talma, 266 Memoires d'Horace, 265 Memoires d'un Medecin, 85, 228 Le Meneur de loups, 247 Les Mille-et-un P'antomes, 231, 242 I^es Moliicans de Paris, 245 Monte-Cribto {see Comte de) Les Morts vont vite, 265 Napoleon, 261 Nouvelles Contemporaines, 24, 184 Une Nuit a Florence, 252 Olympe de Cleves, 236 Le Page du Due de Savoie, 246 Parisiens et Provinciaux, 254 Le Pasteur d'Ashbourne, 238, 244 Pauline, 189 Pascal Bruno, 189 Un Pays inconnu, 260 Le Pere Gigoone, 238, 257 Le Pere La Ruine, 251 La Princesse de Monaco, 245 Les Quarante-Cinq, 166, 230, 233 La Regence, 261 La Reine Margot, 220-2, 304 La Route de Varennes, 262
La Terreur
211-13,233, 298
Weyman,
in the),
Le
294
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14
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(H5067sl0)476B
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