Three Musketeers (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (108 page)

We are well aware that this term,
milady,
is only properly used when followed by a family name. But we find it thus in the manuscript, and we do not choose to take upon ourselves to alter it. (Translator’s note.)

Reference to the Holy League, a confederation of Catholics active in the late sixteenth century and led by the Duc de Guise; the members at first tried to dethrone Henri III, who granted concessions to Huguenots, as French protestants were known, then opposed the accession of the protestant Henri IV.

Reference to
Gulliver’s
Travels, by Jonathan Swift (1726), in which the hero travels to the land of the giants called the Brobdingnags.

Marie-Aimée de Rohan-Montbazon, widow of the Duc de Luynes who married the Duc de Chevreuse. Her remarriage notwithstanding, she had a series of lovers. In
The Three Musketeers,
she is Aramis’s “Marie Michon,” a pseudonym for her he uses in order to be discreet and avoid compromising her.

A cheap wine, made from the second pressing of the grape. This statement is meant to be insulting.

Before the introduction of smallpox vaccinations in the late eighteenth century, thousands died annually from outbreaks of this highly contagious disease.

Royal palace of the kings of France, begun in 1204 by Philippe II Auguste and transformed over the centuries into the imposing museum on the right bank of the River Seine. Louis XIV rarely used this residence, preferring his palace in Versailles.

The Meadow of the Clerks, grazing land in Saint Germain des Prés, now a fashionable section of Paris; the meadow was the scene of many duels. A neighborhood street, la rue du Pré-aux-Clercs, still bears the name.

Knights of the Order of the Holy Spirit; a chivalric title instituted by King Henri III in 1578.

Out of commission, injured (French).

Oath dating from sixteenth-century France; the approximate meaning is “God’s guts!” It is particularly associated with King Henri IV, who used it frequently.

French unit of currency made of gold. The king’s gift represents a handsome reward to D’Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos.

“By God!” This oath was common in seventeenth-century France.

A watchword (in French,
mot d‘ordre)
by which the Musketeers could recognize each other and participate in assigned duties; the watchword would change daily.

Enamored of Queen Anne, wife of Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu is said to have danced a saraband for her dressed as a clown; the Queen spurned his professions of love.

Haberdasher.

Mémoires pour servir à L‘histoire d ’Anne d Autriche (Memoirs Intended to Serve as the History of Anne of Austria),
by Madame de Motteville, was first published in 1723 in Amsterdam. Charles Petitot included these memoirs in his
Collection des mémoires relatifs à l‘histoire de France (Collection of Memoirs Relating to the History of France)
in 1824.

Bathing in general was not encouraged for fear of becoming chilled or catching a pulmonary illness. According to Dumas biographer and scholar Claude Schopp, bathing in seawater was reserved for patients suffering from rabies; thus the purported reason for D‘Artagnan’s absence becomes ludicrous.

The reader may ask, “How came Planchet here?” when he was left “stiff as a rush” in London. In the intervening time Buckingham perhaps sent him to Paris, as he did the horses.

Construction of the Palais-Cardinal, subsequently the Palais-Royal, began in 1633 and was completed in 1636; Cardinal Richelieu bequeathed the palace to the king in 1639. The reference to this building is an anachronism, for Dumas has Cardinal Richelieu living in the Palais-Cardinal in 1625 and 1626.

In the immensity of the heavens (Latin).

A subject or argument stripped of all ornamentation (Latin).

Vanity of vanities (Latin). The quote is from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:2, and in its entirety is
Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas.
In the King James version of the Bible the passage is rendered as “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”

Young woman, usually of the servant class, who works in an inn or aristocratic residence (French) .

Thou shalt not steal.

Seventeenth-century oath equivalent to “zounds” or “gadzooks” (French).

Alexander the Great’s favorite horse; a reference to D’Artagnan’s fine steed, lost at the gaming table.

In “Blue Beard,” one of the stories in
Contes de ma mère l‘Oye (Mother Goose Stories),
published in 1697 by Charles Perrault, the sister of the seventh wife of Blue Beard looks desperately out the window hoping to see rescuers arrive before the murderous Blue Beard can kill her sister.

Veal roast glazed in its own juices (French).

In English, pounds; this
livre
should not be confused with the English pound, which in French is
la livre sterling.
The value of the French currency varied considerably throughout the ages, and it is replaced by the French franc. At the time of the action in
The Three Musketeers,
one pistole equaled about 1/11 livres; thus the men’s combined resources come to about
₄₇
pistoles.

In act 5 of the play
Phédra
(1677), by Jean Racine, Hippolytus’ horses seemed to reflect their rider’s sad demeanor. Thus the four friends’ lackeys reflect the sadness and worry of their masters.

Claude Schopp indicates that this chapter is entitled “Milady.”
(Les Trois mousquetaires/Vingt Ans apres,
p. 280; see “For Further Reading”).

Servant girl, naturally young, comely, and vivacious (French).

Renamed the Place des Vosges; located in the fourth
arrondissement
of Paris, the Place is one of the landmarks of the neighborhood now known as the Marais.

Bassette
and
lansquenet
are card games;
passe-dix
is a game of dice.

Epul
œ
epulorum
means “banquet of banquets” (Latin). Lucullus, who as a military leader amassed a great fortune, retired to lead a life of luxury and refinement; he is known for his lavish, copious banquets.

Moliere’s play
L’Avare
(
The
Miser, 1668) ridicules Harpagon, the miser, who has let his wealth destroy his happiness; the word Harpagon has entered the French language to connote a miser or a greedy person.

Sorceress who, in Homer’s Odyssey, changes Odysseus’ men into swine but is forced by him to change them back to men.

Pompous blusterer in the play
Don Japhet d ’Arménie,
by Paul Scarron (1652).

According to legend, the tyrannical ruler of the island of Samos (535-522 B.C.) once threw his royal seal into the sea but found it again in a fish that was served to him.

This simple title denoted King Louis XIII’s younger brother, Gaston Jean-Baptiste, duc d’Orléans (1608-1660); as the royal prince, he was next in line for the throne of France until Louis XIII and Anne of Austria gave birth to a son.

The Cardinal seems to be suggesting to Milady that she find a willing conspirator to assassinate the Duke of Buckingham. The “same chance as the emperor” is a reference to the assassination of King Henri IV of France in 1610, just before Henri executed his plan to declare war on the Emperor of Austria.

They are seen in deserted places (Latin).

The convents of the Magdalenes and Repentant Daughters took in young women from good families who had sinned but repented; once under the order’s care a woman did not have the right to leave. The Musketeers are considering this option for Milady.

The Luxembourg Palace, today the seat of the French Senate, was completed in 1625 by the architect Salomon de Brosses for the Queen Mother, Marie de Médicis.

Marion de Lorme and Madame d’Aiguillon were both thought to have been mistresses of Cardinal Richelieu.

Messalina, the third wife of the Roman emperor Claudius, was famous for her debaucheries and intrigues; Claudius had her killed when he learned she had secretly married a lover.

Angel who fell to temptation; Alfred-Victor de Vigny describes her fall in his long, mystical poem “Eloa, ou la soeur des anges” (“Eloa, or Sister of the Angels,” 1824).

Phoenician goddess of fertility and the moon; her cult was widespread in the Middle East. ‡King of Assyria who epitomizes a tyrannical and dissolute ruler; the French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix depicts him in his painting “The Death of Sardanapalus” (1827).

In French the title of this chapter is “Un moyen de la tragédie classique.” The word moyen, translated here as “means,” should be understood as a tactic, a line of attack, or an approach taken from classical tragedy.

Jewish leader, born c.200 B.C., who led armies that successfully repelled invasions by the Seleucids; he was killed in battle in 160 B.C.