The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [324]
87.“Proud as a Scot”: In fact, Buckingham cites a popular French saying of the time, Fier comme un Écossais, which is also quoted in French by the Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid (1892–1978) in A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle.
88.the king’s favorite: A ballet in sixteen episodes, imitative of blackbird hunting (the Merlaison of the title, from merle, “blackbird”), and possibly composed by Louis XIII himself, who was a great lover of the sport. According to contemporary sources, it was first danced at Chantilly on March 15, 1635.
89.this solemn evening: For his description of the ballet at the Hôtel de Ville, as Samaran notes (see note 58), Dumas drew on a contemporary account of a ballet that took place there in 1626, quoted in Essai sur les mœurs et usages du dix-septième siècle (“Essay on the mores and customs of the seventeenth century”), edited by F. Barrière (Paris, 1828). The king and queen had to be invited to the Hôtel de Ville, which housed the municipal government of Paris. This fine building, located on the place de Grève, was begun in 1533 and completed in 1628. In 1871, under the Commune, it was doused with oil, set on fire, and completely destroyed. The present Hôtel de Ville is a reconstruction of the original.
90.the sieur de La Coste: Dumas found the name of Delacoste, ensign of the king’s bodyguards, in the same text published by Barrière (see preceding note).
91.Clément…Duhallier: The names of the city clerk and the captain of the guards also come from Barrière’s text. Guillaume Clément was chief clerk of the Hôtel de Ville from 1609 until his death in 1634. François de l’Hôpital, sieur du Hallier, was the brother of Nicolas de l’Hôpital, duc de Vitry (see note 12), and took part with him in the killing of Concini.
92.Mme la Première Présidente: That is, the wife of the Premier Président (“First President”) of the Parliament of Paris.
93.the comte de Soissons…the chevalier de Souveray: Louis de Bourbon, comte de Soissons (1604–41), cousin of the prince de Condé, took part with him in Chalais’s conspiracy against Richelieu. The Grand Prieur was Alexandre de Vendôme (1593–1629), second son of Henri IV and his mistress Gabrielle d’Estrées (1573–99); at the time he was actually imprisoned in the château de Vincennes, where he died. For the duc de Longueville, see note 72. Charles de Lorraine, second duc d’Elbeuf (1596–1657), married the sister of the Grand Prieur; François de Lorraine, comte d’Harcourt, Armagnac, and Brionne (1601–66), was his brother. François de Silly (1586–1628) became the first duc de La Roche-Guyon in 1621. When he died at the siege of La Rochelle, the domain passed to his half-brother, Roger du Plessis-Liancourt (1598–1674), a close friend of Louis XIII, who became duc in 1643. François, chevalier de Baradas or Baradat, once a favorite of the king’s, had been sent away from court before the time of the ballet. Adrien de Monluc, prince de Chabanis, comte de Cramail (1568–1646), was later involved as one of the “dupes” in the journée des Dupes (see note 75) and sent to the Bastille. The identity of the chevalier de Souveray is uncertain; there were several men named Souvré or Souvray associated with the court.
94.M. de Benserade: Isaac de Benserade (1613–91), prolific poet and member of the Académie Française, was of course too young to have recited anything to M. de Tréville at that time.
95.presents: The words are spoken by Laocoön in Virgil’s Aeneid (II, 49). A more literal translation would be: “I fear the Danaans even when they bring gifts.”
96.Scriptures: Delilah pretended to be in love with the Israelite hero Samson and betrayed him to the Philistines (Judges