The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [319]
20.Buckingham: Alluded to indirectly earlier (see note 7), the duke is finally named. Buckingham and Richelieu were rumored to be rivals for the queen’s love; hence the “scandalous significance” of Aramis’s simple phrase. The queen’s childlessness was blamed either on her sterility or on Louis’s indifference. However, she finally produced an heir in 1638.
21. de Bois-Tracy…: This lady, who is only alluded to by Dumas, is most likely his invention. Not so Marie-Aimée de Rohan-Montbazon, duchesse de Chevreuse (1600–79), who had a long and intricate career at the French court, ran through many lovers, conspired constantly against Richelieu, was exiled and returned to favor a number of times. She, too, never appears in the novel, though she is frequently mentioned.
22.Pharsalia…Pavia: In 48 b.c., Julius Caesar (101–44 b.c.) defeated Pompey the Great (107–48 b.c.) at the battle of Pharsalia in Thessaly. On February 24, 1525, François I (1494–1547) was defeated and taken prisoner by the Spanish at the battle of Pavia in Lombardy.
23.Royal Academy: An institution where young noblemen were taught the proper accomplishments of a gentleman. There were such academies in the provinces as well as in Paris.
24.Carmes-Deschaux: More properly, Carmes-Déchaux (Dumas will also write “Carmes Déchaussés”). Monks from the order of the Barefoot (déchaussés) Carmelites, who followed the reforms of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Ávila, came to Paris from Italy in 1611. In 1613 Marie de Medicis laid the first stone for their church, which still stands on the rue de Vaugirard, not far from the Luxembourg Palace. The monastery is now the Institut Catholique.
25.ferry: In 1550 a rope-drawn ferry was installed on what is now the quai Voltaire, linking the two banks of the Seine, to facilitate construction of the since demolished château des Tuileries. The Pont Royale now stands in its place, and the only vestige of the ferry is the name of the rue du Bac (bac means “ferry”).
26.hôtel d’Aiguillon: This name could not have been given to the hôtel at that time. The hôtel in question is the Petit-Luxembourg, which in 1570 belonged to François de Luxembourg. Marie de Medicis bought it in 1612, and in 1627 gave it to Cardinal Richelieu, who lived there while the Palais Cardinal (later the Palais Royal) was being built for him. In 1639 he gave it in turn to his niece, Mme d’Aiguillon. It is now the house of the president of the Sénat.
27.Solomon: See I Kings 3: When two women claim to be the mother of the same child, Solomon orders the child cut in half and shared between them; the false mother accepts the judgment, but the true mother surrenders the child in order to save its life, and Solomon then restores it to her.
28.Pompey’s soldiers: The episode is recounted in Pharsalia (VII, 575–76, an epic poem on the war between Caesar and Pompey by the Roman poet Lucan (A.>D. 39–65).
29.Pré-aux-clercs: The rue du Pré-aux-clercs (meaning “scholars’ field”) intersects with the rue de l’Université in the area of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The fields there once belonged to the University of Paris, whose students undoubtedly found it a convenient place not only for recreation but also for settling disputes.
30.the Samaritaine: The first machine for drawing water constructed in Paris. Henri IV ordered it from a Flemish hydraulic engineer and had it installed on the newly completed Pont Neuf in 1605. The pump, powered by a waterwheel, raised water to a basin at street level, above which was a building topped by a belfry with a twenty-four-bell carillon and an astronomical clock. The facade was decorated with a bas-relief portraying Christ’s meeting with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well (see John 4: 5–30).
31.Jussac…Cahusac…Biscarat: All three are historical figures, though Dumas only makes use of their resounding names. Claude de Jussac (1620–90) was governor of the duc de Vendôme and five years old at the time of the duel; Jean de Baradat, sieur de Cahusac, was