The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [325]
97.la Conférence: This new customs gate on the right bank of the Seine, at the end of the quai des Tuileries, was built only in 1633 and later took its name from the conferences held for the arranging of Louis XIV’s marriage. It was demolished during the building of the place de la Concorde.
98.M. de Cavois: François d’Oger, sieur de Cavois, was the captain of Richelieu’s guards.
99.Palais-Royal: On becoming prime minister in 1624, Richelieu decided to build himself a palace close to the Louvre. It was first known as the hôtel de Richelieu, then as the Palais-Cardinal. In 1639, he bequeathed it to the king and his direct heirs. Shortly after his death in 1642, Anne d’Autriche left the Louvre with her two sons, Louis and Philippe, aged five and three, and moved into Richelieu’s palace, which only then became known as the Palais-Royal. Elsewhere Dumas correctly refers to it as the Palais-Cardinal.
100.an old procureuse of the Châtelet:s is clear from previous notes (73, 92), French has feminine equivalents of masculine titles. Mme Coquenard is the wife of a procureur, or prosecutor; she is not a “procuress.” The Grand Châtelet, seat of the criminal courts, was one of the most sinister buildings in Paris. It was demolished in 1802.
101.rue aux Ours: This thirteenth-century street, a small section of which still exists between the rue Saint-Martin and the boulevard Sébastopol, was famous for its rotisseries. The ours (“bears”) of its present name were originally roasted oues or oies (“geese”).
102.M. le Prince: Presumably Henri II, prince de Condé (see note 72). The forest of Chantilly belonged to the château, which, however, passed from the family of Montmorency to the Condés only in 1643.
103.the gardens of Armida: Armida is one of the heroines of the epic romantic poem Jerusalem Delivered, by Torquato Tasso (1544–95). She was a sorceress who kept the hero Roland in her enchanted gardens, far from his army of crusaders.
104.lay on your hands…: The battle of the Israelites with the Amalekites, during which Aaron and Hur held up Moses’s hands, is recounted in Exodus 17:12–13. Gospel references to the “laying on of hands” are found in Mark 5:23 and 16:18, and also in Acts 8:19. But the Jesuit’s words are not a quotation.
105.the heresiarch Jansenius: Cornelius Jansen, in Latin Jansenius (1585–1638), was an influential Dutch theologian. His Augustinus, published in 1640 and thus out of place here, gave rise to the doctrine known as Jansenism, based on the concept of “efficient grace,” a doctrine, deriving ultimately from St. Augustine, which says that salvation can be attained only by divine grace and not by human “works.” Jansenism was not declared heretical until in 1713.
106.the Pelagians and the semi-Pelagians: The fifth-century British theologian and heresiarch Pelagius (a.d. 360?–420?) denied the notions of efficient grace and original sin. He was strongly opposed by St. Augustine. Pelagianism (and even semi-Pelagianism) was thus the opposite of the teachings of Jansen. It is not clear whether the confusion is in the mind of the Jesuit or of Dumas himself.
107.M. Voiture: Vincent Voiture (1597–1648) was a poet very much in fashion in the gallant and precious circles of seventeenth-century Paris. He was also an adroit courtier, associated with Monsieur, protected by Richelieu, granted a pension by Anne d’Autriche. Whether he was a “great man” is another question.
108.Master Patru’s pleadings: Olivier Patru (1604–81), lawyer and lexicographer, was famous for the purity and elegance of his style. He was a member of the Académie Française.
109.aves coeli…: The Jesuit summarizes the first verses of the parable of the sower in the Gospel of Matthew (13:3–9), quoting part of verse 4 in Latin after giving it in translation.
110.efficient grace: See note 105.
111.Confess…: A reference to the Epistle of James, 5:16: “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (Revised Standard Version).
112.Judith: The Book of Judith is included among the so-called Apocrypha