The Three Musketeers

AuthorJohn Nicholson and Le Navet Bete with an adaptation the original book by Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas

Born July 24, 1802, Villers-Cotterets, Aisne, France, Dumas was one of the most prolific and most popular French authors of the 19th century. Without ever attaining indisputable literary merit, Dumas succeeded in gaining a great reputation first as a dramatist and then as a historical novelist, especially for such works as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. His memoirs, which, with a mixture of candour, mendacity, and boastfulness, recount the events of his extraordinary life, also provide a unique insight into French literary life during the Romantic period.

Dumas's father, Thomas-Alexandre Davy de La Pailleterie was a general in Napoleon's army. The family fell on hard times, however, especially after General Dumas's death in 1806, and the young Alexandre went to Paris to attempt to make a living as a lawyer. He managed to obtain a post in the household of the Duke d'Orleans, the future King Louis-Philippe, but tried his fortune in the theatre. He made contact with the actor Francois-Joseph Talma and with the young poets who were to lead the Romantic movement.

Dumas's plays, when judged from a modern viewpoint, are crude, brash, and melodramatic, but they were received with rapture in the late 1820s and early 1830s. Henri III et sa cour (1829) portrayed the French Renaissance in garish colours; Napoleon Bonaparte (1831) played its part in making a legend of the recently dead emperor; and in Antony (1831) Dumas brought a contemporary drama of adultery and honour to the stage. Though he continued to write plays, Dumas next turned his attention to the historical novel, often working with collaborators (especially Auguste Maquet). Considerations of probability or historical accuracy generally were ignored, and the psychology of the characters was rudimentary.

Dumas's main interest was the creation of an exciting story set against a colourful background of history, usually the 16th or 17th century. The best known of his works are Les Trois Mousquetaires (published 1844, performed 1845; 'The Three Musketeers'), a romance about four swashbuckling heroes in the age of Cardinal Richelieu; Vingt ans apres (1845; 'Twenty Years After'); Le Comte de Monte Cristo (1844–45; 'The Count of Monte Cristo'); Dix ans plus tard ou le Vicomte de Bragelonne (1848-50; 'Tens Years Later; or The Vicomte de Bragelonne'); and La Tulipe noire (1850; 'The Black Tulip').

When success came, Dumas indulged his extravagant tastes and consequently was forced to write more and more rapidly in order to pay his creditors. He tried to make money by journalism and with travel books but with little success.

He died December 5, 1870, Puys, near Dieppe

The unfinished manuscript of a long-lost novel, Le Chevalier de Sainte- Hermine ('The Last Cavalier'), was discovered in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris in the late 1980s and first published in 2005.

The Real D'Artagnan

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, also known as d'Artagnan and later Count d'Artagnan (c. 1611 – 25 June 1673), was a French Musketeer who served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard. He died at the siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War. A fictionalised account of his life by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras formed the basis for the d’Artagnan Romances of Alexandre Dumas most famously including The Three Musketeers (this show!). The heavily fictionalised version of d'Artagnan is now far more widely known than the real historical figure.

D'Artagnan was born at the Château de Castelmore near Lupiac in south- western France. His father, Bertrand de Batz lord of Castelmore, was the son of a newly ennobled merchant, Arnaud de Batz, who purchased the Chateau de Castelmore. Charles de Batz went to Paris in the 1630s, using the name of his mother Françoise de Montesquiou d'Artagnan. D'Artagnan found a way to enter into the Musketeers in 1632 through the support of his uncle, Henri de Montesquiou d'Artagnan or perhaps thanks to the influence of Henri's friend, Monsieur de Treville (Jean-Armand du Peyrer, Comte de Troisville). D'Artagnan joined the guards in the mid 1630s and served under Captain des Essarts. The regiment saw much action in the early 1640s, taking part in sieges at Arras, Aire-sur-la-Lys, la Bassee and Bapaume in 1640–41 and Collioure and Perpignan in 1642. Whether or not d'Artagnan was personally involved is unclear, but it is likely he took part in some, if not all, of these sieges. While in the Musketeers, d'Artagnan sought the protection of the influential Cardinal Mazarin, France's principal minister since 1643. In 1646, the Musketeers company was dissolved, but d'Artagnan continued to serve his protector Mazarin.

D'Artagnan had a career in espionage for Cardinal Mazarin, in the years after the first Fronde. Due to d'Artagnan's faithful service during this period, Louis XIV entrusted him with many secret and delicate situations that required complete discretion. He followed Mazarin during his exile in 1651 in the face of the hostility of the aristocracy. In 1652, d'Artagnan was promoted to lieutenant in the Gardes Francaises, and fought at the Battle of Stenay in 1654, as well as in sieges at Landrecies and Saint-Ghislaine, then to captain in 1655. In 1658, he became a second lieutenant in the newly reformed Musketeers. This was a promotion, as the Musketeers were far more prestigious than the Gardes-Francaises.

D'Artagnan was famous for his connection with the arrest of Nicolas Fouquet. Fouquet was Louis XIV's finance commissioner and aspired to take the place of Mazarin as the king's advisor. Fouquet was also a lover of grand architecture and employed the greatest architects and artisans in the building of his Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte. He celebrated the completion with a most extravagant feast, at which every guest was given a horse. The king, however, felt upstaged by the grandeur of the home and event and, suspecting that such magnificence could only be explained through Fouquet's pilfering the royal treasury, three weeks later had d'Artagnan arrest Fouquet. To prevent his escape by bribery, d'Artagnan was assigned to guard him for four years until Fouquet was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 1667, d'Artagnan was promoted to captain-lieutenant of the Musketeers, the effective commander as the nominal captain was the king. As befitted his rank and position, he could be identified by his striking burgundy, white, and black livery—the colours of the commanding officer of the Musketeers. Another of d'Artagnan's assignments was the governorship of Lille, which was won in battle by France in 1667. D'Artagnan was an unpopular governor and longed to return to battle. He found his chance when Louis XIV went to war with the Dutch Republic in the Franco-Dutch War. After being recalled to service, d'Artagnan was subsequently killed in battle on 25 June 1673, when a musket ball tore into his throat at the siege of Maastricht.

Le Nevet Bete

One of the UK's leading touring physical comedy theatre companies, they are based in Exeter, Devon UK since 2008. They describe their mission as 'to create and tour hilarious, physical and totally accessible comedy theatre using creative and engaging storytelling for absolutely everyone (ages 4 - 104!) throughout the UK and internationally.' They are Associate Artists at the Exeter Northcott Theatre and Artists in Residence at the Exeter Phoenix.

Making accessible work has been at the centre of their ethos right from the very beginning. This saw them diversify into outdoor performance in 2010, quickly becoming one of the UK's most ridiculously outrageous, much-loved outdoor acts, performing to hundreds of thousands from the circus fields at Glastonbury Festival and the beautiful gardens of the Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover, Germany, to the picturesque Plaza de Armas in Morelia, Mexico, and high up on the side of the Rock of Gibraltar.

As well as performing, they have a widely renowned education programme specialising in physical comedy, performer-audience relationships and play, that they have taught in schools, colleges and universities across the world from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London to the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City.

top of page