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THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 ALEXANDRE DUMAS 
 
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ALEXANDRE DUMAS PERK. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 ALEXANDRE DUMAS 
 
 (1802-1870) 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRY A. SPURR 
 
 AUTHOR OF "a COCKNEV IN ARCADIA, " ETC, 
 
 WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES, COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
'^Wlf^n 
 
 ^ flOOI/l 
 
 Copyright, 1902, 
 By harry a. SPURR. 
 
 I'liblisheil ill October, 190* 
 

 THE OUTCOME OF MANY YEARS OF LOVING STUDY, 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 TO 
 
 MADAME DUMAS yf/^, 
 
 IN (iRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF HER 
 SYMPATHY AND HELP. 
 
 21658 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The centenary of the birth of Alexandre Dumas 
 pere occurred in July of this year. As no satis- 
 factory " Life " of the great Frenchman exists in 
 English, this was thought an appropriate moment 
 for giving the public, with whom his romances are so 
 popular, an account of Dumas's life, character, and 
 writings, which should be both interesting to the 
 ordinary reader, and trustworthy as a book of 
 reference. The author has endeavoured to tell the 
 general reader — " the man in the public library " — 
 who Dumas was, what he did, which books he did 
 write and v/hich he did not write, and finally, what 
 his confrh'es and the great critics have said of him. 
 
 One or two points may be dealt with here, by 
 way of anticipating obvious criticism. The first 
 relates to the omission from the following pages of 
 the spiteful libels of MM. " de Mirecourt," de Cas- 
 sagnac, etc. It is almost impossible at this date for 
 any one, particularly an Englishman, to take the 
 circumstantial alleofations of these o-entlemen and 
 refute them in detail. It is now over sixty years 
 since they were made : they had their source in 
 admitted enmity, and their medium was equally 
 
 vii 
 
VI 11 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 contemptible. Dumas ignored them ; his colleagues 
 in the higher ranks of literature discredited them ; 
 his enemies accepted them willingly, without de- 
 manding proof. " M. de Mirecourt" was sentenced 
 to imprisonment for publishing his statements ; but 
 their improbability is still stronger proof of their 
 falseness. When Dumas's "collaborators" denied 
 the allegations made "on their behalf," " M. de 
 Mirecourt" impudently accused them of having 
 allowed Dumas to dictate their denials ; when he 
 " proved " Dumas's illiteracy, by an anecdote in 
 which he cited M. Maquet in support, that gentle- 
 man promptly gave the libeller the lie! 
 
 We make no apology for dwelling on this point, 
 for the charges of this M. Jacquot have been 
 accepted almost universally as the truth. Ouerard 
 cites the gentleman with obvious complacency ; 
 Larousse in his " Dictionnaire " quotes him con- 
 stantly, and Mr Fitzgerald condemns the man's 
 testimony almost as often as he makes use of it. 
 Mr Henley's article in Chambers's " Encyclopaedia" 
 is probably the only biographical account of Dumas 
 which is trustworthy. That in the ninth edition of 
 the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " is by Mr Fitzgerald. 
 
 Of M. Ouerard, who in his "Supercheries " proves 
 to his own satisfaction that with one or two insig- 
 nificant exceptions Dumas never wrote anything at 
 all, it is sufficient to point out that he considered 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 that author as merely " a clever arranger of the 
 thouehts of others." When a new edition of the 
 ** Supercheries " was issued, the exposds of M. 
 Ouerard, which stopped at 1S4S, were not con- 
 tinued, and the editors formally expressed their 
 recrret that the yireat writer had received such treat- 
 ment from the critic. They further hinted that 
 only a determination to use the material of the first 
 edition of the work in its entirety prevented them 
 from dealing with M. Ouerard's accusations. 
 
 We have referred to Mr Fitzgerald. His " Life 
 and Adventures of Alexander Dumas " was written 
 shortly after the novelist's death, is now forgotten, 
 and is probably out of print. This relieves us from 
 the necessity of saying more than that Mr Lang 
 in his " Essays in Little," Mr Brander Matthews 
 in his " French Novelists," Mr W. H. Pollock in 
 the Nineteenth Century, Mr A. B. Walkley in 
 " Playhouse Impressions," and others, have all con- 
 demned the book as being inaccurate and unworthy 
 of the subject and the writer. A great change has 
 taken place in the literary estimation of Dumas 
 during the past thirty years ; and it is our aim to 
 convey this desirable revolution in opinion to the 
 mind of the ordinary reader. 
 
 Consistent with the declaration made above, we 
 have itrnored the charo-es brouo-ht against Dumas 
 with reference to his attitude toward Louis Philippe 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 The ex-employee of the Duke of Orleans is accused 
 of having alternately abused and fawned upon that 
 dignitary when he became king. We prefer to take 
 the responsibility of suppressing the allegations 
 respecting this episode in Dumas's career as utterly 
 at variance with his practice and his nature. 
 
 Another omission requires explanation. We 
 have dealt with the plays of Dumas, so far as they 
 affected his career, in Part I.; we have touched on 
 them in general terms in other portions of the 
 book ; but have refrained from dealing with them 
 at all extensively. The general reader of the 
 English-speaking public does not know Dumas's 
 plays, and has had no opportunity of seeing them 
 or of reading them, therefore one cannot hope 
 to interest him in them ; and at the risk of throwinsf 
 the subject out of its proper proportion we have 
 omitted to treat them fully. To those who do 
 know and appreciate him as a dramatist, we can 
 recommend " Le Drame clA. Dumas " by M, H. 
 Parigot, published by Calmann-Levy. 
 
 There is a general confusion in books of reference 
 concerning the year of Dumas's birth. As Glinel 
 shows, by reproducing the certificate of birth, the 
 author was born in 1S02. 
 
 The author has tried to make his book as accurate 
 as possible, but the task has been difficult, as no 
 impartial and complete biography of Dumas exists, 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 even in French. He will therefore be grateful to 
 any critic, friendly or otherwise, who will point out 
 any errors of fact in the text. 
 
 Note. — My thanks are due to Madame Dumas 
 Jils for her kind assistance ; to M. D'Hauterive, her 
 son-in-law, for similar kindness ; to Mr Lang-, Mr 
 W. M. Rossetti and Mr Swinburne for courteous 
 replies to inquiries ; to Mr Robert Garnett for 
 valuable advice and help ; to M.M. Calmann-Levy 
 for information given ; to Mr F. M. Duncan for his 
 photographs of illustrations in the British Museum 
 Library ; and to W. E. Roch, secretary of the 
 Villers-Cotterets Centenary Fetes Committee. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Dedicatio.v 
 
 Prefack . 
 
 List ok iLLusxRAiiONS 
 
 Vll 
 
 I'ART I. 
 
 HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 Birth, Manhood and Early Successes (1802-30) 
 The Reign o.f Dumas I. (1830-48) . 
 Wanderings, Decline and Death (1848-70) 
 
 40 
 94 
 
 Character 
 
 His Writings . 
 
 PART II. 
 HIS WRITINGS 
 
 183 
 
 A Defence 
 
 A Counterclaim 
 
 PART III. 
 
 HIS c;enius 
 
 273 
 309 
 
 Xlll 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 A. History and Fiction : a Comparison 
 
 B. Chronology of Dumas's Life . 
 
 C. Tabular Analysis of Dumas's Writings 
 
 D. List of Books Consulted 
 
 Index ...... 
 
 PAGE 
 
 351 
 355 
 
 357 
 373 
 577 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Alexandre Dumas pere . . . Frontispiece 
 
 House in which Dumas was Born, Villers-Cotterets 8 
 
 Dumas IN 1828 {from a drawing •s.w 'D'^y^^w) . . 30 
 
 Portrait of Dumas, after Maurin ... 36 
 
 DuMAS's Theatre, the " Historique " . . . 86 
 
 Alexandre DuMAS_/f/y ..... 108 
 
 Title-Pageof "NouvELLES Contemporaixes " . 185 
 
 " D'Artagnan " (/r<7w///^ DoRE statue, Paris). . 209 
 
 The Dumas Monument by Dore, Paris . . 342 
 
PART I 
 
 HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 Birth, Manhood and Early Successes (1S02-30) — The Rlign 
 OF Dumas I. (1830-48)— Wanderings, Decline and Death 
 ( I S4S-70)— Character 
 
l-RO.M BlRTII TO ^IaXIIOOD AM) FaMH (1802-30) 
 
 \\\ like Defoe, we were about to offer fiction in the 
 Louise of biography, instead of biography in a more 
 or less romantic form, we should be tempted to pre- 
 face the story of Dumas with one of those elaborate 
 sub-titles in which the author of " Robinson Crusoe " 
 delighted. It would probably run somewhat in 
 this fashion, if we allowed ourselves to prepare 
 one, which of course we do not : — 
 
 '' The life and adventures of Alexandre Du- 
 mas of the World, loho i^^as both a blaekand 
 a lohite man ; a Royalist and a Republiean, 
 an aristocrat and a sans-culotte ; loho took 
 part in three revolutions, and made three 
 different reputations ; who wrote more books 
 than any other man livino^ or dead, who 
 ereeted two '' Monte Cristas f one of which 
 made his fortune and the other of which 
 unmade it ; who enriched the world and was 
 poor all his life ; toorther with an account 
 of his exploits as dramatist, romancer, trav- 
 eller, politician, wit, journalist, diplomat ist, 
 soldier, lecturer, cook, historian, poet, etci' 
 
4 LIFE AND WRITINGS t)F 
 
 Before this Alexander entered the world he was 
 about to conquer, much was already his own by 
 inheritance. He was born into the atmosphere 
 of fiery light and fierce heat which the Revolution 
 had left behind it. He was destined to possess a 
 good share of blue and of black blood, for his grand- 
 father was no other than the Marquis Antoine- 
 Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, a French noble- 
 man, self-exiled to San Domingo, and his grand- 
 mother was a negro-woman, Louise-Cessette 
 Dumas. It was a romantically ill-assorted match, 
 full of interesting possibilities. The son of this 
 marriage threw over parentage and aristocracy, 
 enlisted in the French army as a private under 
 his mother's name, and at thirty-one years of age 
 had risen to the rank of general. Times and cir- 
 cumstances were both fruitful and portentous — 
 for they were leading up to the birth of our 
 hero. 
 
 In 1 790 the swarthy young Republican Hercules, 
 being stationed at Villers-Cotterets, a little town on 
 the high road from Paris to Laon, fell in love with 
 an innkeeper's daughter there, and duly married 
 heron the 28th of November, 1792. Thus when 
 Alexandre was born, ten years later (on the 24th 
 July, 1802, to be exact), he was a quadroon, and 
 dowered at birth with many of the characteristics, 
 good and bad, of the African race — the ardent. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 5 
 
 imaj^inative temperament, the levity of nature, the 
 Impulsive soul — a host of qualities which were 
 strange to the comprehension of both friends and 
 enemies in after-life ; because side by side with 
 them were all the native characteristics of the 
 Frenchman, existent in full vigour. 
 
 All his life Dumas was taunted with his negro 
 descent ; the caricaturists and lampooners, with 
 execrable taste, made the crisp hair and lean 
 calves of the quadroon the subject of innumerable 
 gibes. " Blackwood " tells us that a person more 
 remarkable for inquisitiveness than for correct 
 breeding once took the liberty to question the 
 romancer rather closely concerning his genea- 
 logical tree. 
 
 "You are a quadroon, ]\I. Dumas ? " he began. 
 
 " I am, sir," replied the author, who had sense 
 enough not to be ashamed of a descent he could 
 not conceal. 
 
 " And your father ? . . ." 
 
 " Was a mulatto." 
 
 " And your grandfather ?" 
 
 " A negro," hastily answered Dumas, whose 
 patience was waning fast — too fast for him to 
 trouble about accuracy. 
 
 " And may I enquire what your great-grand- 
 father was ? " 
 
 " An ape, sir ! " thundered the great man — " an 
 
6 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 ape, sir. My pedigree commences where yours 
 terminates ! " 
 
 Dumas's title of Marquis was another favourite 
 topic for the malice of his enemies. It was asserted 
 that he was not truly " De la Pailleterie," because 
 his grandparents w^ere not married. Mr. Fitzgerald 
 repeated this assertion ; but M. Parigot '•' refutes it. 
 " Son grandpere paternel . . . avait cpousc une 
 negresse Marie-Cessette {^sic) Dumas, decedee en 
 Amerique, a la Guinodee, en 1772." Although 
 the legitimate holder of the title after his father's 
 death, Dumas never but once in his life alluded 
 publicly to it ; that indiscretion was absurdly mag- 
 nified, and the truth of the statement was doubted. 
 Yet (says Janin) when M. Theodore Anne, in his 
 researches concerning the cross of St. Louis, dis- 
 covered the origin of the La Pailleteries, and proved 
 them to be indisputably noble, Dumas said simply, 
 " I knew it." His son for his part said, " I did not 
 know it." Such was the pride of the father and the 
 son. But to return. 
 
 The first of three Alexanders — Mr. A. B. 
 Walkley has dubbed him " Alexandre the greatest " 
 — was a true Frenchman, an ardent Republican, a 
 brilliant soldier, and an honest man. The son, who 
 was apt, at times, to decorate his facts with a 
 gorgeous edge of appropriate fiction, seems to have 
 
 * Alexandre Dumas Pere f" Les Grands I'.crivains Fran^ais "). 
 
ALKXANDilE DUMAS 7 
 
 clone no more than justice to liis father, in tlie 
 proud appreciations contained in his " Memoires." 
 Tliose who are incredulous respecting the wildly 
 heroic deeds of the four ^lusketeers should read 
 General Dermoncourt's account of how Dumas 
 kept the l^rido^e of Clausen single-handed, against 
 the Austrians — an act which gained that hero the 
 name of " the Horatius of the Tyrol " ; or the story 
 of that terrible night assault of the fort at Mont 
 Cenis, when the General led three hundred soldiers 
 up an ice-wall. " Every man who falls," said 
 Dumas curtl)-, "must understand beforehand that 
 he is a dead man, — that nothing can save him. 
 It will be useless then to cry out — and b)' so doing 
 he may give the alarm, and ruin our chances." 
 Three men, so the son tells us, did fall ; and their 
 bodies dropped into the darkness, bounding from 
 crag to crag. But not a cry was heard — not a 
 moan — not a siofh ! 
 
 When General Dumas's Republicanism brought 
 him into conflict with Bonaparte's ever-increasing 
 ambition, he turned his back on the Egyptian 
 campaign, and set sail for France. Unhappily, 
 the ship was obliged to put into Tarentum, and 
 the Frenchmen were thrown into prison. The 
 General's account of his strucrcrle a^rainst the in- 
 sidious manoeuvres of his jailers, who tried to poison 
 him with food and with medicine, is a terribly en- 
 
8 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 thralling one, and inclines one to believe in heredity, 
 for it is told with all that artless art of which the 
 son, in after years, became such a master. 
 
 Our readers may think that we are as uncon- 
 scionably tedious in getting our hero born, as 
 Charles II. could possibly have been in accom- 
 plishing the opposite process ; and we will therefore 
 hasten to quote the following historic document — 
 a letter written by General Dumas to his brother 
 General, Brune : — 
 
 " I am glad to tell you that my wife gave birth 
 yesterday morning to a fine boy, who weighs nine 
 pounds, and is eighteen inches long. You can guess 
 that if he continues to grow in the outer world in 
 the same proportion as he has done in the inner, 
 he promises to be a good size ! " 
 
 But a sad, brief fatherhood was in store for the 
 proud parent. The effects of his two years' struggle 
 in a Neapolitan prison, against poison and persecu- 
 tion, beean to show themselves in the soldier's 
 constitution. He took a journey to Paris to consult 
 a specialist, and learning his fate, set to work to 
 secure the good-will of his comrades there on behalf 
 of the future widow. The little three-year-old 
 went too, rode cock-horse with the sword of Marshal 
 Brude, whilst wearing the hat of Murat, King of 
 Naples. At last even the boy became conscious 
 
,\ >- 
 
 HOUSE WHEKK DLMAS WAS BoKN, VILLKKS-CUTTEKKTS. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUxMAS 9 
 
 of the shadow that had fallen on the household. 
 "My father," he wrote in after years, "grew very 
 weak, went out less often, niore rarely mounted his 
 horse, kept his room for longer periods, took me 
 more sadly on his knees." 
 
 Then the broken-hearted General, refused all 
 redress by his old colleague the Emperor, died, 
 suffering, and in poverty, and greatly troubling for 
 those he left behind. The widow, in spite of her 
 prayers and tears, in spite of her husband's brilliant 
 services to France, in spite of the intercession of 
 soldiers as brilliant — Dumas's own friends and 
 colleagues — failed to obtain a pension from the 
 Emperor. Not a sou would Napoleon grant, to 
 keep from starvation the widow of the man who 
 had once dared to foresee and condemn the ambiti- 
 ous Emperor, in the " patriot," General Bonaparte. 
 
 And now there began for both widow and son 
 a life of cruel poverty, a time of humiliation 
 sweetened only by the affection of the mother for 
 the son, and the son for the mother. 
 
 The widow went back to her father's house with 
 her children, and Alexandre began his life-educa- 
 tion. Of these early days he has gossipped very 
 pleasantly, telling us of the three houses which he 
 visited, that of Madame Darcourt, where he rejoiced 
 his heart with an illustrated copy of " Buffon," and 
 of M. Collard, who owned two treasures, a big 
 
10 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Bible and a little park, both ot which the youthful 
 Alexandre learnt almost by heart. For mythology, 
 too, the boy had a childish passion ; and " Robinson 
 Crusoe "(!) gave him his geography. "And so," 
 he writes, " when five or six years of age, I possessed 
 these two accomplishments (reading and writing) 
 in a superior degree, a fact which made me 
 wondrously conceited. I can still see myself, about 
 the height of a jack-boot, and in a little cotton 
 jacket, taking part, with the utmost precocity, in 
 the conversation of grown-up people, and con- 
 tributing thereto my store of knowledge, profane 
 and sacred." 
 
 The memory of these early days was alwa)-s 
 dear to our Dumas, and he loved to dwell upon 
 them, and introduce them and reintroduce them 
 into his books. He tell us that the places, sur- 
 roundings, people and events of these days all 
 had their influence on his writings and character, 
 and those who care to pursue the subject will find 
 traces of these times in " Ange Pitou," " Catherine 
 Blum," "Conscience I'Enfant," and other books. 
 
 The descriptions of these early days, as given 
 in the " Memoires," are full of delicate humour and 
 charm. Dumas tells us of the old chateau, and 
 its park, in which he revelled, and draws a lifelike 
 portrait of his august relative M. Deviolaine, a man 
 who had indeed "a stern look but a o-entle heart." 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS il 
 
 That gentleman's daughter, Ceciha, was one of 
 the boy's favourite playmates. Dumas, then as 
 always, had a great tendency to vertigo, and the 
 mischievous girl delighted in trapping him into some 
 such peril. Once during their rompings the youth- 
 ful Alexandre fell into a pond, and ran the risk of 
 drowning : the occasion prompted his first mot, 
 which if it was not very witty, at least showed the 
 lad's coolness and gaiety. He tells an amusing 
 story of an adventure which befell him about this 
 time. He and a companion were fighting outside 
 a grocer's shop, and Dumas was unluckily pushed 
 into a tub of honey. The grocer, who was busy 
 at work inside, with a knife in his hand, ran after 
 the terrified boy, who imagined that something 
 worse than the fate of the blind mice was about 
 to happen to him. The grocer overtook his victim, 
 threw him down, raised his knife . . . and care- 
 fully scraped the honey off the trembling youngster's 
 trousers. 
 
 Alexandre's first day at school was an eventful 
 one. According to the brutal custom of the times 
 he was subject to a series of practical jokes of a 
 rough and painful nature. The schoolmaster found 
 the new boy crying, and guessing the truth, punished 
 the boys for such cruelty to a newcomer. Alexandre 
 foresaw a warm reception outside when school was 
 over, and his heart sank at the prospect. He 
 
12 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 determined to face the situation, since there was 
 no help for it, and assuming a boldness which he 
 certainly did not feel, he accosted the first boy he 
 met and challenged him to fight. Young Dumas's 
 impetuosity soon carried all before it ; his opponent 
 was thoroughly beaten, and ever after that little 
 Alexandre was respected and let alone. 
 
 In due course the boy was prepared to receive 
 his first communion, and there naturally followed 
 for him a period of religious exaltation. He tells 
 us that when the time came he swooned from 
 excess of emotion. But Dumas was never one 
 on whom religion in the narrow sense obtained 
 any hold, and he soon recovered from this morbid 
 state of ultra-piety. More lasting was the love 
 of sport which he acquired in his boyhood. He 
 was friendly with all the keepers and poachers, and 
 — when at last he possessed a gun of his own — 
 did a little sly shooting on his own account. His 
 adventures at the boar-hunts and other sporting 
 expeditions in which he was allowed to take part 
 are told by Dumas with much gaiety and relish, 
 and his character-sketches of his companions are 
 drawn to the life. 
 
 Alexandre was not by any means a studious boy, 
 and he watched with anxiety the various vain efforts 
 made to get him into colleges set apart for the 
 sons of officers. When a vacancy occurred in the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 13 
 
 Seminary of Soissons, he saw himself in imagina- 
 tion ''tin pre t re inalgrc hiV and the raillery 
 of the fair Cecilia prompted him to hide away 
 from his mother for three days, in a bird-catcher's 
 hut. He was forgiven, of course ; and obtained 
 some sort of teachino- at the hands of two Abbes 
 of very opposite types, the gentle, pious Gregoire, 
 and the bluff, worldly Fortier, Three masters 
 struggled hopelessly to instil some notion of mathe- 
 matics into the boy's head. He did not possess 
 that kind of brain at all. 
 
 These peaceful lessons were interrupted by 
 "alarums and excursions" such as Dumas's idol 
 Shakespeare has described. It was now 1814, 
 and the Allies were approaching Paris. Madame 
 Dumas fled thither out of hearino- of that terrible 
 bogey-cry, " The Cossacks ! " and as a consequence 
 her son got a sight of the young king of Rome, 
 who, on the abdication of the Emperor, was ac- 
 claimed as his father's successor by fickle and 
 enthusiastic Paris. The skirmishes in the streets 
 of \Mllers-Cotterets are vividly described by Dumas. 
 It was at this period, according to our author him- 
 self, that his mother laid before him the choice of 
 being a Davy de la Pailleterie, a " Marquis," and an 
 aristocrat, like his grandfather, or a Republican, a 
 simple " Dumas," as his father had been. The lad 
 did not hesitate, althouHi the advantac^es of the 
 
14 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 former career, under the new monarchy of Louis 
 XVIII., were frankly pointed out to him. " 
 
 Other indications of the nature of "the child," 
 who was to be " father of the man," were not want- 
 ing. A certain M. Oblet, one of those who strove 
 vainly to teach the volatile Alexandre mathematics, 
 gave his pupil an accomplishment invaluable to him 
 throughout his life — a beautiful writing-hand. 
 
 The first indication of the boy's future career, the 
 first promptings towards it, were afforded by the 
 visit to Villers-Cotterets of the son of a neighbour, 
 a youth named Auguste Lafarge, who was a clerk 
 in Paris. This city -mouse stirred the deep but 
 slumbering ambitions of his poor "country cousin," 
 and when, on his departure, the young visitor left 
 behind him an epigram, levelled against a cruel 
 inamorata of the neighbourhood, Dumas was fired 
 with a desire to write French verse also. However, 
 his tutor gave him some " bout-rimes " to complete, 
 which, for the moment, effectually quenched the 
 student's ardour. 
 
 Then came the thrilling drama of the " Hundred 
 Days," Dumas had the good fortune to see the 
 Emperor pass through the little town of Villers- 
 Cotterets on his way to Waterloo, and on his 
 return from that fatal field, and his description of the 
 two episodes is most vivid. His passionate admira- 
 tion for will-power and genius made liim then, as he 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 15 
 
 always remained, a Bonapartist — that is an indi- 
 vidualist — in sentiment and fiction, though a staunch 
 Republican in practice and politics. 
 
 He has given us a pen-picture of himself at this 
 period. " I was rather a good-looking young 
 monkey," he says. " I had long, curling hair, 
 which fell over my shoulders, and which did not 
 crispen until I was fifteen. I had big blue eyes, 
 which are still the best feature of my face, a straight 
 nose, small and rather well-shaped, big and mobile 
 lips, and white and rather regular teeth. Lastly, 
 add a startlingly pale complexion, which turned 
 darker at the time that my hair became crisp." 
 
 He was a lad of spirit, " without knowledge and 
 without fear," and his roving, out -door life was 
 building up his frame with the strength to face the 
 enormous life-work before him. 
 
 At sixteen a "calf" love-affair gave a necessary 
 " finishinof touch" to Dumas's education. He was 
 stricken with admiration for one of two somewhat 
 disdainful damsels who came on a visit from Paris. 
 At that time our shabby-genteel hero dressed in 
 rather an antiquated fashion, and the girls and his 
 rivals made sly fun of the boy. On one occasion, 
 anxious to "show off" before the "fair" in his gala 
 attire, the impetuous Alexandre sprang across a 
 wide ditch. The feat was skilful, but not particu- 
 larly impressive — for the jumper split his tight knee- 
 
16 LIFE AND WHITINGS OF 
 
 breeches in the effort. In the end the girls bade 
 the love-sick but gauche young gentleman return to 
 his marbles! But he had learnt somethinsf, for he 
 had loved, and suffered in pride and heart. 
 
 And now there entered upon the scene an im- 
 portant actor in the drama of Dumas's life. Our 
 hero was at this time only the junior clerk of M. 
 Mennesson, the notary, with little more than clerkly 
 prospects and ambitions, when there came to Villers- 
 Cotterets an elegant young aristocrat, the Vicomte 
 Adolphe Ribbing de Leuven by name. De Leuven 
 dazzled his young friend completely. He could 
 make amorous verse ; he had written plays, he had 
 even read one of them, at the Gymnase Theatre, at 
 Paris ; and being admitted behind the scenes of 
 the theatres, could talk airily and familiarly to his 
 envious friend of Mars and of Talma. 
 
 The call to Paris — the call to London — what 
 young and .aspiring heart does not know it.'* The 
 summons that was at first a whisper became to the 
 soul of the ardent young Alexandre a call, ever 
 louder and more imperative ; and now, a day's holi- 
 day at Soissons brought Dumas into contact with 
 Shakespeare. It was Shakespeare diluted by Ducis, 
 it is true, but even Ducis could not entirely spoil 
 " Hamlet ; " and the young provincial, who entered 
 the theatre ignorant of all three names, came out en- 
 raptured — dazzled- — transformed. Whilst de Leuven 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 17 
 
 was excitlnor the ambition of his friend, another 
 comrade, Amedee de la Ponce, assisted to equip 
 Dumas for the coming fight, by teaching him ItaHan, 
 so that he might read Dante and Ariosto in the 
 original, and German, enough to read Schiller. 
 Better still, he gave him this priceless advice, 
 which Dumas gratefully records : — " Be sure that 
 there is something else in life besides pleasure, love, 
 sport, dancing, and all the wild dreams of youth. 
 There is Work : learn to work — learn, that is, to be 
 happy." 
 
 Dumas's blood and parentage had important 
 influences on his character ; and a third factor to 
 be remembered is the atmosphere of the times into 
 which he was born. Even in his village seclusion, 
 young Dumas could, as it were, feel the hot breath 
 of Romanticism on his brow. The literary-political 
 revolution was then commencing : a moderate 
 " Romantic " like Casimir Delavigne was conquer- 
 ing Paris with his " Vepres Siciliennes" ; Beranger 
 was thrilling France with his songs ; and the popular 
 feeling against the Bourbons — the old Republican 
 spirit modified — expressed itself now in songs, plays, 
 squibs and pamphlets. These Dumas read greedily, 
 and the seed fell on fertile ground. Furthermore, 
 de Leuven condescended to collaborate with the 
 young clerk in some vaudevilles and other plays, 
 and when the aristocrat returned with his father to 
 
18 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Paris, he carried Dumas's heart and hopes with 
 him. 
 
 The months passed, and doleful news came from 
 headquarters to the would - be dramatist. The 
 Parisian managers seemed strangely blind to their 
 own best interests. At this juncture Dumas was 
 promoted to a clerkship with one M. Lefevre, a 
 Crepy notary, and it was from this town that he 
 entered, with his accustomed impetuosity, into 
 one of those rash enterprises of which youth is 
 so commonly guilty, and which so often appear 
 afterwards in the light of inspirations. 
 
 A comrade named Paillet came one day to Dumas 
 and proposed that in the absence of M. Lefevre, 
 who was about to pay a three days' visit to Paris, 
 they, too, should take a holiday in that city. It was 
 one of those mad, impossible schemes which always 
 recommended themselves to Dumas. Two clerks, 
 with thirty-five francs between them, were to set 
 out to do the forty or fifty miles to Paris, enjoy 
 themselves in the city, and return — in seventy-two 
 hours ! But Dumas's ingenuity was equal to the 
 problem. Paillet had a horse, and the two youths 
 used it alternately. That halved the walking 
 distance. The one on foot carried the gun, and 
 the game that they shot on the way was to pay 
 for their food in Paris. Whenever they sighted 
 a keeper, one rode off with the game and gun, the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 19 
 
 other stayed behind to demonstrate his innocence, 
 to propitiate and, if necessary, " tip " the keeper, 
 Paillet explained to the landlord of the little hotel 
 they patronised that they had wagered with some 
 Englishmen to visit Paris without spending a sou ; 
 and so persuaded the landlord to supply them with 
 food, lodging and beds, in exchange for the game. 
 Needless to say, this plan was young Alexandre's. 
 
 At Paris the first ambition of the budding author 
 was realised ; for, thanks to his friend de Leuven, he 
 saw Talma, the tragedian, in " Sylla," and had the 
 overwhelming joy of being admitted into the great 
 man's dressing-room. Dumas was duly questioned 
 as to his profession, and had to confess, with deep 
 humiliation, that he was " only a notary's clerk." 
 
 " You need not despair on that account," said the 
 kindly actor. " Corneille was an attorney's clerk. 
 Gentlemen," he went on, turning to the brilliant 
 company, "let me present to you a future Corneille !" 
 Then, at the young man's earnest request. Talma, 
 laid his hand on Dumas's crisp locks, saying — 
 
 " Alexandre Dumas, I baptise thee Poet, in the 
 name of Shakespeare, of Corneille, and of Schiller ! 
 Return to the country — go back to your office, and 
 if you have a true call, the Angel of Poetry will be 
 sure to find you, wherever you are ! " 
 
 After such a benediction, the moment when 
 Dumas should come to close quarters with his fate 
 
20 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 in Paris was but a matter of time, and, to the ardent 
 young man's mind, the sooner the better ! 
 
 The opportunity came sooner. M. Lefevre had 
 returned to Crepy before his truant clerk, and 
 Dumas answered the inevitable reproof with a rash 
 resignation. This fertile brain had already begun 
 to grow its first crop of ideas. The notary's clerk 
 resolved to attack Paris at once. 
 
 He could scarcely have chosen a more Inoppor- 
 tune moment, for his mother's resources had 
 dwindled to a capital of 253 francs. Nevertheless, 
 Dumas contrived to sell some old engravings ; won 
 his coach-fare to Paris from the proprietor of the 
 posting-house, by means of his skill at billiards ; 
 and then, armed with letters written to General 
 Dumas by his father's old friends. Marshals Jourdan, 
 Victor, Sebastiani, and the rest — tokens which he 
 believed to be better than any letters of introduc- 
 tion — he set out for Paris. He had first knelt and 
 prayed with his mother, who, with many fears and 
 sighs, let him go on his audacious quest. 
 
 At this point in the life of Alexandre Dumas 
 there is a sharp dividing-line. Until now he had 
 been a boy, living an aimless life, without ambition 
 and without prospects. He himself has confessed 
 to the imperfect nature of his education, adding, 
 " I possessed, however, all the physical advantages 
 which a rustic life gives : I could ride any horse ; 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 21 
 
 I walked a dozen leagues to dance at a ball, and 
 was pretty smart with the foil and pistol ; I could 
 play tennis like a St Georges, and rarely missed a 
 hare or a partridge at thirty paces." His kindly 
 patrons had tried to make a musician, a priest, a 
 notary, or a scholar of him ; now he freed himself 
 from all restraining influences, and began to live, 
 think, plan, and work for himself The change, as 
 we shall see, worked wonders. Perhaps the phrase 
 "for himself" is misleading; for his worst friends 
 (and he made many) never doubted Dumas's 
 passionate love for his mother. " I was a man, 
 now," he writes, " for a woman depended on me. 
 I was going to repay my mother in some degree 
 for all the care she had lavished on me." Truly, he 
 was a man, in two senses : he had reached the age 
 of a man, and he acted with all a man's courage 
 and sense of responsibility. 
 
 Of all his long and adventurous career, the story 
 of Dumas's early struggles is the most familiar 
 to the general reader ; every sketch of his life, 
 however short, deals with it, so that we, in turn, 
 can be as brief as this interesting period will allow. . 
 
 On his arrival in Paris Dumas went to each 
 of his father's old comrades, and experienced the 
 sad but inevitable disillusionment. Jourdan, Victor, 
 Sebastiani, turned their backs on their old colleague's 
 son ; Verdier had himself been superannuated, and 
 
22 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 was poor in money and influence. General Foy, 
 however, received Dumas kindly, but found the 
 young provincial woefully ignorant. Nevertheless, 
 he bade the youth write down his address. When 
 he saw the clerk's exquisite penmanship the General 
 cried out — 
 
 *' We are saved I " 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " You write such a good hand ! " 
 
 Dumas felt profoundly humiliated. He resolved 
 then and there to earn his living one day, not by his 
 penmanship, but by his pen. 
 
 This skill in caligraphy obtained for the despair- 
 ing young man a clerkship in the Secretary's depart- 
 ment of the Duke of Orleans, with a salary of about 
 fifty pounds a year. Fifty pounds a year ! It was 
 the riches of Monte Cristo ! Dumas hurried home 
 full of joy, reached Villers-Cotterets at midnight, 
 and rushed into his mother's bedroom, shouting 
 " Victory ! Victory ! " He had indeed drawn first 
 blood ! 
 
 Once installed in his modest lodgings. No. i Pate 
 des Italiens, Dumas set himself to study. The 
 days were his noble master's, and from seven 
 till ten every evening he returned to the bureau 
 to work ; but half the night he spent reading 
 Juvenal, Tacitus, Suetonius; or in studying geo- 
 graphy and physioloG^y. He also followed with a 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 23 
 
 certain curiosity the theatrical productions of the 
 period ; but as he was not In s)'mpathy with the 
 si)le, the dialogue, the construction of those plays, 
 which were of the pre-Romantic type, he felt no 
 desire to Imitate them. So steadily did he work, 
 however, that when two months later his mother 
 joined him, she scarcely knew her son again : he 
 had become so serious ! 
 
 Meanwhile the Romantics, like a crowd without 
 leaders, growled and threatened inarticulately. 
 Their growing power was greatly augmented by 
 the stupidity of the Government, who persecuted 
 that very moderate innovator Casimir Delavigne, 
 and ennobled Ancelot, his Royalist rival. The 
 year 1823 was indeed a year of revolution, literary 
 and political. Hugo and Lamartlne had already 
 begun the attack In poetry, with the " Odes and 
 Ballades " and the " Meditations " ; Nodier had 
 published his genre romances. Then came the 
 turn of the painters; and the Salon of 1824 was 
 full of pictures of a new type— Scheffer's " Death 
 of Gaston de Foix," Delacroix's " Massacre of 
 Chios," and Coigniet's " Massacre of the Inno- 
 cents." Gericault, too, was at work on his famous 
 ' Wreck of the Medtisar 
 
 From abroad came winds to fan the flames. 
 Byron, who died in this year, was deeply impressing 
 the future author of " Antony " ; Scott, who was 
 
24 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 eagerly read by the men of the rising generation, 
 had revolutionised the old ideas of romance in 
 general, and Dumas's notions in particular ; and 
 Cooper, the now-forgotten, found in the country of 
 Chateaubriand and Rousseau a congenial home for 
 his poetic romances of the prairies. 
 
 All this time the young collaborators, de Leuven 
 and Dumas, had not been idle. In spite of his 
 content with his modest salary, young Alexandre 
 had spent more than double that income, during the 
 first year, and his mother's little store was almost 
 gone. At this crisis a third person was taken 
 into the flourishing dramatic partnership — a clever 
 drunkard named Rousseau ; and the little play 
 which resulted — " La Chasse et lAmour " — though 
 rejected at the Theatre Gymnase, was accepted at 
 the Ambigu, and played with success in 1S25. This 
 lightened the poverty which was weighing upon the 
 author's household, and thus emboldened, Dumas 
 put together three little stories which he had written, 
 and persuaded a foolish publisher to go halves with 
 him in the risk of producing them. This little 
 volume, " Nouvelles Contemporaines," of which we 
 shall treat at greater length later on, was published 
 in 1826, but was not a success. Dumas tells us 
 variously that four and again that six copies only 
 were sold. It was favourably reviewed, however, 
 by Etienne Arago, and proved a species of letter-of- 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 25 
 
 introduction to Buloz, when the Revue des Deux 
 Mondes came into existence. 
 
 In the midst of these ever-growing interests and 
 possibilities — for Alexandre had now the privilege 
 of contributing (without pay) to a monthly magazine 
 called Le Psyche, and was interested, along with a 
 colleague named Lassagne, in the fortunes of a 
 second play called " La Noce et I'Enterrement " — 
 a blow fell upon him. News of this employee's 
 frivolous dallying with the Muses had reached the 
 ears of the authorities, and Lassagne was forbidden 
 to encourage such evil practices for the future. 
 Dumas was so alarmed at this threatened stoppage 
 of his life-work, that he found courage to beard his 
 superior, M. Oudard, in his den. That official, it 
 appeared, would be pleased to permit the young 
 clerk his literary pranks, if he strove to emulate 
 Delavigne ; but Dumas replied, with more honesty 
 than prudence, that if he did not hope to do some- 
 thing in the future very different from what M. 
 Delavigne had done, he would then and there 
 renounce all his ambitions. This answer was 
 treated as an impertinence by the chiefs of the 
 bureau, and laughed at as the drollest of jokes by 
 the rest of the staff From this time dated the 
 series of petty persecutions which in the end cost 
 the youth his salary, and nearly lost him his place. 
 
 Whilst Dumas was struggling on, more or less in 
 
26 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the dark as to the nature and direction of his own 
 abilities, two events of great importance happened. 
 Louis XVIII. had died, and had been succeeded by 
 Charles X., whose career in some respects resembled 
 that of our James II. Charles had pledged himself 
 on his accession to abolish the censorship ; but he 
 soon attempted to re-impose it. A political-literary 
 agitation followed, and after a struggle the obnoxious 
 threat was withdrawn. The other event was the 
 arrival in Paris of Kean and an English company of 
 Shakespearean actors. Not so long before, English 
 players had been pelted from the pit of the Porte St 
 Martin, but at this moment (1827) the French had 
 been seized with Anglo-mania. Scott was being 
 read and dramatised on all hands ; Guizot was 
 studying the British constitution, for future appli- 
 cation to French politics, and Byron was a literary 
 fashion. Dumas was even more prepared to wel- 
 come Shakespeare than were the majority of his 
 fellow-Romantics. He saw " Hamlet," and it 
 electrified him. He knew every word of the play 
 beforehand, and strange as he found the English 
 style of acting, he " saw light" for the first tim.e on 
 the path of his future. But let him speak for him- 
 self: 
 
 ''Ah, this was what my soul had been seeking after : 
 this was what I had lacked, and which had come at 
 last! Here were actors forgetting that they were 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 27 
 
 acting" — here was mock life become real life, by 
 the power of art; here was truth of speech and 
 action, which transformed the players into human 
 beings, with their virtues, passions, and weaknesses, 
 instead of into cold-blooded posers, unnatural, de- 
 clamatory, sententious. ... I read — nay, devoured — 
 not only the repertory of Shakespeare but that of 
 every other foreign dramatic poet, and I came to 
 recognise that in the world of the theatre everything 
 emanates from Shakespeare, as in the real world all 
 emanates from the sun. ... I recognised, in short, 
 that he was the one who had created most, after 
 God." 
 
 " From that moment my career was decided : 
 I felt that the special call which is sent to every 
 man had come to me, then ; I felt a confidence 
 which has never since failed me. Nevertheless I 
 did not disguise from myself the difficulties which 
 such a life-work would involve. I knew that above 
 all other professions this one demanded deep and 
 special study, and that, to operate with success upon 
 living life, I should first need to study 'dead nature' 
 long and earnestly. Shakespeare, Corneille, Moliere, 
 Calderon, Goethe, and Schiller — I laid their works 
 before me, like bodies on the surgeon's table, and 
 with scalpel in hand, long nights through, I probed 
 them to the heart to discover the secret of their 
 life. I saw by what admirable mechanism these 
 
28 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 authors set the nerves and muscles of their crea- 
 tures moving and working, and noted with what 
 skill they clothed and re-clothed with different flesh 
 that framework which was always the same." 
 
 Dumas had translated the " Fiesco " of Schiller, 
 and vainly attempted to dramatise Scott with Soulie, 
 but Shakespeare filled his heart and brain with new 
 thoughts, greater ambitions. No sooner had the 
 English actors gone than the Salon opened, and 
 the young author, paying an early visit, was im- 
 mediately impressed by a picture representing the 
 murder of Monaldeschi by order of Queen Chris- 
 tine of Sweden. Dumas seized upon the incident 
 then and there as a subject , for a poetic drama ; 
 he found the details of the tragedy in an article 
 in the " Biographie Michaud," and set to work. 
 
 "Christine" was soon written. It was only half- 
 classical in style, for although it observed some of 
 the " unities," it was thoroughly romantic in form. 
 "What, then, was to be done with the bastard 
 infant, born outside the pale of the Institute and 
 the Academy ? " Dumas asked himself. The 
 Comedie Fran^aise, a State-endowed theatre, ruled 
 by the Government and a committee of its actors, 
 and bound by tradition to the classic school of 
 Corneille and Racine, would not be likely to tolerate 
 any suspicion of vulgarity, in the shape of plays 
 cast in the mould of Shakespeare. But this very 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 29 
 
 system of national control enables young writers 
 to obtain, by right, at least a hearing. There was, 
 Dumas learnt, an official examiner of plays, who 
 would probably be a year before he got down to 
 " Christine," so great were his arrears of work ; 
 but there was the commissary, Baron Taylor, open 
 to give attention to more favoured candidates. 
 Dumas succeeded in obtaining an appointment 
 with the Baron, though it was for seven in the 
 morning — the only time the overworked official 
 could spare. Very droll is the young dramatist's 
 account of Baron Taylor in his bath, groaning 
 whilst a merciless poet read every line of a five- 
 act tragedy to him. At the end of the reading 
 the commissary was frozen and cross, and poor 
 Dumas offered to come again ; but the kindly 
 Baron encouraged him to begin his own play, and 
 became quite enthusiastic at the end. Thanks to 
 Taylor's exertions, the trembling author read the 
 play before the brilliant staff of the Fran9aise ; he 
 was applauded loudly, and the play was accepted 
 with acclamation, subject to revision. It is worthy 
 of remark that Dumas, hurrying home to delight 
 his sorrowing mother with the news, lost the MS. 
 on the way, — and rewrote it that night. He knew 
 every line of it by heart ! 
 
 The gentleman appointed on behalf of the 
 Comedie Franqaise to consider "Christine" was 
 
30 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 of the classic school, and he smilingly bade the 
 young iconoclast go back to his desk — and stay 
 there. Yet again the play was read, and once 
 more set aside for revision ; and this time Dumas 
 took the opportunity of remodelling and entirely 
 altering the motive of the play. 
 
 Poor " Christine " ! No sooner was she clad in 
 her new robe, than bureaucratic and social intrigues 
 forced Dumas to consent to the indefinite postpone- 
 ment of its production, in favour of another version 
 of the subject by a more influential writer. But he 
 was far from being daunted, and a chance occur- 
 rence set him on the road to success by another 
 path. 
 
 One day the office cupboard from which Dumas 
 usually got his writing-paper was locked, and he was 
 oblio^ed to o-o into another ofiice to fetch some. As 
 he passed through the room his eyes fell on a book 
 which was lying on a desk. It was a volume of 
 Anquetil, open at the passage which describes the 
 Duke de Guise's jealousy of St Megrin, and the 
 trick which he played upon the Duchess in conse- 
 quence. Guise gave her a dose of what he called 
 "poison," but which turned out to be harmless soup. 
 The incident seemed so dramatic that it excited 
 Dumas's interest, and he sought for and read the 
 story of the murder of St Megrin, and of Bussy 
 dAmboise in the " Memoires d'Estoile." From 
 
DIMAS IN 1828. I'KOM A UKAWIX(.t BV DKVKKIA. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 31 
 
 these, he tells us, he constructed his play of " Henri 
 Trois et sa Cour." 
 
 " I was then twenty-five years of age," he writes ; 
 " * Henri Trois' was my second serious work. Let 
 a conscientious critic take it and submit it to the 
 most searching examination — he will find in the 
 matter of style everything to censure ; in the matter 
 of plot, nothing. I have written fifty dramas since, 
 and none of them is more skilfully constructed." 
 These are bold words, and would be boastful if 
 ofood critics did not confirm them. 
 
 The young author's superiors were equally busy 
 during this time. They piled the work upon him 
 for fear that he should use a minute of their 
 time in writing his "trashy" dramas; they took 
 away his salary, and if Dumas had not been able 
 to borrow from Lafitte, the famous banker and 
 politician, he and his mother would have starved. 
 Finally, the Duke of Orleans withheld from our 
 author the customary yearly bonus given to his 
 staff. But for all that, " Henri Trois" was written, 
 was read privately, and greeted with enthusiasm — 
 was read before the Comedie Francaise, and ac- 
 cepted by acclamation. 
 
 Soon the news got about that a new play — a play 
 which would revolutionise the French staQfe — had 
 been written by an obscure young man. and little 
 by little the public excitement grew. The produc- 
 
32 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 tion was fixed for February loth, 1829, and 
 rehearsals went forward more or less smoothly. 
 Firmin (the leading actor since Talma's death) and 
 Mdlle. Mars were to play the chief parts, and 
 Dumas was full of joy and hope and pride, when 
 news came to him that his mother was dying. 
 
 Madame Dumas had never possessed the buoyant 
 spirits, the hopeful temperament, the love of daring 
 which characterised her quadroon son. She would 
 probably have borne the anxieties which his ambi- 
 tions caused her — for she loved him and believed in 
 him — if her friends and neighbours had not aggra- 
 vated her trouble with their croaking, spiteful 
 tongues. On the eve of the production of her son's 
 play, the poor widow, coming away after a more or 
 less trying interview of this nature, fell down in 
 an apoplectic fit Alexandre, struck with despair, 
 rendered his mother all the help which devotion 
 and intelligence could give, but the fateful night 
 came, and found her still unconscious and in danger. 
 
 Of all " first nights " on record, probably that of 
 "Henri III." was the most eventful and strange. 
 As an epoch-making event, as a triumph, it was 
 greater even than "Hernani" a year later, and 
 "Antony," which afterwards made such a sensa- 
 tional dSbut. The accounts of those who witnessed 
 this premiere have assured us that the author's 
 description does the scene no more than justice. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 33 
 
 •* I passed the whole day by my mother's bed- 
 side," he says. " She was still unconscious. At 
 a quarter to eight I left her, and entered my box 
 as the curtain rose." 
 
 "The first act was received complacently, although 
 the exposition of the plot was long, stiff and tedious. 
 As the curtain fell I ran out to revisit my mother." 
 
 " On my return I had just time to cast a glance 
 round the auditorium. Those who were present 
 will recollect what a magnificent coup dceil it pre- 
 sented. The first tier was crowded with men 
 resplendent with the Orders of five or six countries 
 on their breasts ; the whole aristocracy was massed 
 together in the boxes, and the ladies glistened with 
 diamonds." 
 
 "The second act, containing the sarbacane episode, 
 about which I had been so nervous, passed with- 
 out opposition, and the curtain fell in the midst 
 of applause." 
 
 " From the third act, to the close the play was 
 no longer a success : it was a growing delirium. 
 Everyone applauded, even the women ; and amongst 
 them Madame Malibran, leaning far out of a box 
 and clinging with both hands to a column to keep 
 herself from falling." . . . 
 
 Then, w^hen Firmin came forward to name the 
 author, the enthusiasm was so unanimous that the 
 Duke of Orleans himself rose and listened, stand- 
 
 c 
 
34 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 ing, to the announcement of his talented employee's 
 name. That night Dumas received an effusive 
 letter of congratulation, from the very official who 
 had deprived him of his salary ! 
 
 Next morning the successful young playwright's 
 room was crowded with bouquets, which he proudly 
 placed on his mother's bed. Dumas had sold the 
 manuscript of his play for 6,000 francs, and repaid 
 Lafitte, when news came that "Henri Trois " was 
 suspended by the Minister of the Interior. Happily, 
 Dumas straightway obtained a revocation of the 
 order, but during the interim the young author 
 could scarcely be said to breathe ! 
 
 He began immediately to pay for his success. 
 An anonymous attack in one of the papers brought 
 a challenge from the fiery young author, and — 
 greater honour still ! — seven " classical " playwrights 
 drew up a pompous address to the King, imploring 
 him to save the national theatre from " despicable 
 mountebanks," and to keep to the orthodox writers 
 — that is, themselves. Happily Charles X. replied 
 simply, that he had only his place in the pit, as 
 other Frenchmen had, and could not interfere. 
 
 About this time Nodier, of whom we have spoken, 
 was holding his salon at the Arsenal, and Dumas 
 had the eood fortune to be admitted to that brilliant 
 literary circle. Nodier's daughter, Marie Mennessier- 
 Nodier, tells in her recollections of her father an 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 35 
 
 amusing story of Dumas's first introduction to the 
 Arsenal. The librarian was constantly pestered 
 by poorer literary brethren, who called to sponge 
 on him. Therefore, when one day Marie begged 
 her father to receive a handsome young " man of 
 letters " who had called, the wary bibliophile flatly 
 refused. Dumas laughed, went away, and — called 
 again. Marie was much taken with the gay, good- 
 looking young fellow, and Nodier at last grumblingly 
 consented to see him, preparing as he spoke to 
 part with a score or two of francs. He received 
 Dumas, first with distrust, then with surprise, chatted 
 with him animatedly, and parted with him as unwill- 
 ingly as he had greeted him. Needless to say, 
 money was not mentioned ! 
 
 Nodier gave the young writer more than money : 
 he gave him a social life, and a literary encourage- 
 ment and education which was invaluable. Here 
 the young author met Hugo, De Vigny, Sainte 
 Beuve, De Musset, and others almost as brilliant 
 but less known. Thenceforth a place was kept 
 for the witty young writer at the famous Sunday 
 dinners of the Arsenal, and here in due course, 
 " little Alexandre " was brought. The friendship 
 between the two men remained close, affectionate 
 and unalterable, until the elder man's death. 
 
 Fame now came swiftly to the author of the 
 first great romantic play. Dumas was appointed 
 
36 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 assistant-librarian to the Duke of Orleans, under 
 Delavigne, at the princely salary of ^loo a year! 
 The author of "Henri Trois" was the lion of 
 Paris for the winter of 1829; Deveria made an 
 engraving- of him ; David of Angers a medallion. 
 " Nothing was wanting to my glory," says Dumas 
 frankly, — " not even that little shade of the ridiculous 
 which always accompanies literary reputations." 
 Wild stories were repeated in "classic" circles, of 
 the triumphant orgies of the Romantics, — how they 
 had danced about a bust of Racine, crying exultantly 
 that they had " done for him " ; how they were call- 
 ing for the heads of the Academicians on chargers, 
 and so forth. No wonder the Seven appealed to 
 the King ! 
 
 *' Henri Trois," indeed, was a revelation and a 
 revolution. It was a romance drawn from French 
 history ; its characters were real in origin, and true 
 to life in their words and deeds ; instead of dull 
 declamatory couplets, and a tawdry, meaningless 
 plot, the audience was enthralled by the rapid, 
 merciless development of a story of human passion. 
 The love of St Megrin for the Duchess of Guise, 
 the Duke's jealousy of St Megrin, both private 
 and political, the vivid picture of Henri HI. and 
 his mignons and the everyday life of the French 
 court — the series of dramatic scenes which develop 
 the intrigue, until St Megrin goes to the assigna- 
 
AL,EXANDRE DUMAS. FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY DELPAC'H OF 
 A DRAWING BY MAURIR. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS 37 
 
 tion which Guise forces his wife to make — all this 
 was so novel, so congenial, so startling, that for 
 the moment Paris talked of nothinof else. 
 
 Our author, with characteristic tact, determined to 
 follow up this success with another as soon as he 
 possibly could. He withdrew "Christine" from the 
 Comedie Francaise, where it was receiving luke- 
 warm treatment, and took it to the Odeon. He 
 had reconstructed the play, "to make it more 
 modern and more dramatic " ; and for this purpose 
 had taken coach to Havre and back, working out 
 the remodelled play in his brain, to the jolting of 
 coach ! 
 
 But this time the "classicists" were not to be 
 taken by surprise. The play was forbidden : then, 
 when the mandate was withdrawn and the rehearsals 
 went forward, an opposition was organised. Fortun- 
 ately the young "romantics" rallied round Dumas; 
 his friendly rival Soulie brought in a number of his 
 workmen to form a claque, and the forces were aljout 
 equal. On March 30th, 1830, the battle of the 
 Odeon was fought The theatre resounded alter- 
 nately with applause and "hissing"; roars of delight 
 and of disgust succeeded each other. This terrible 
 battle lasted seven hours. " Ten times overthrown, 
 the play sprang to its feet after each reverse, and at 
 two in the morning it finished, having thrown the 
 public, panting, thrilled and terrified, on its knees!" 
 
38 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Yet the success of" Christine " was still undecided 
 when the curtain fell, and Dumas and his backers 
 retired to supper, jubilant but exhausted. The 
 author had seen that many parts of the dialogue 
 urgently required to be altered or omitted, and had 
 arranged that the revisions should be sent to the 
 actors next morning ; but how was it possible for 
 the host of that joyous company to find the time to 
 do the work? Hugo and Alfred de Vigny grasped 
 the situation, and came to the rescue. Bidding 
 Dumas entertain his guests, they retired to another 
 room and wrought at the play for the rest of the 
 night, and at dawn walked away, arm-in-arm, leaving 
 the revised MS. on the mantelpiece in the room 
 where the revellers were snoring. 
 
 With the change consequent on his achievement 
 of fame and (in a less degree) of fortune, Dumas 
 closed a chapter in his life which had an im- 
 portant influence on his future. When he first took 
 lodgings in Paris, he was not quite twenty-one. He 
 lived in a garret, dreamed of fame, and was happy, 
 like Beranger's hero — 
 
 " Dans line grenier, qu'on est bien h. vingt ans ! " 
 
 The handsome lad had for neighbour one Madame 
 INTarie-Catherine Lebay, a young and pretty seam- 
 stress, amicably separated from her husband. She 
 brightened the life of the young playwright with 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJSIAS 39 
 
 her cheerful society, and the pair fell in love. When 
 Madame Dumas followed her son to Paris, he found 
 her rooms elsewhere, and Alexandre Dumas yf A was 
 born of this intimacy, in 1824. When worldly 
 temptations came upon the vain young genius he 
 separated from his mistress, and little by little lost 
 sight of her. Although the object of jealous rivalry 
 and of a struggle for possession between father and 
 mother, and although alternately under the control 
 of each, the younger Dumas grew up to love his two 
 parents, so strangely different in nature and position, 
 with almost equal affection. As long as the father 
 possessed a franc the son was welcome to it, and 
 this affection was repaid to the full in the last sad 
 days of the elder man's life. 
 
 What Dumas might have been, had he remained 
 true to his first love, we can only conjecture. That 
 it would have been for the good of his genius, his 
 happiness, and his success, those who have read the 
 story of this sweet and able woman's life cannot 
 doubt. Although at first there was a bitterness 
 between them after the separation, she remained 
 through life proud of the success of her famous 
 lover, and during the last years was reconciled to 
 him. Her death in 1S68 was one of the sorrows 
 of the old Dumas, when he himself was nearinof 
 his end. 
 
40 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 The Reign of Dumas I (1830- 1848) 
 
 The successful young dramatist was preparing to 
 visit Algiers, which had just been captured by the 
 French, and which, (with that instinct which he 
 developed in later years, Dumas was anxious to 
 explore and exploit), when the Revolution of July 
 1830 broke out. 
 
 It is not our intention to describe the political 
 crisis which led to the downfall of Charles X., and 
 the accession of the younger branch of the Bourbons 
 in the person of Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, 
 but sufficient must be told to explain the part which 
 our hero played in the strange tragic-farce. 
 
 Charles X. had done much, during his brief reign, 
 to rouse the old revolutionary spirit by his auto- 
 cratic measures. On the 25th July 1830, he caused 
 the famous " Ordonnances " to be issued, "putting 
 an end to the freedom of the press, already largely 
 curtailed, appointing a new mode of election, and 
 dissolving the recently-elected chamber." Once 
 more Paris saw the old familiar barricades rise in 
 a single night ; faded flags were brought forth, old 
 watch-words were revived, and old veterans re- 
 appeared ; the roll of the drums, and the thrilling 
 notes of the "Marseillaise" resounded once more 
 in the streets of the city. The revolutionaries, to 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 41 
 
 which party the son of the General Dumas belonged, 
 hoped to see a second Republic rise .out of the 
 ruins of the discredited monarchy, and the story 
 of "the days of July" is told in Dumas's 
 " Memoires," by himself as an eye-witness. M. 
 Parigot, commenting on this description, in his 
 study of our authior, says : — 
 
 ** If you have any desire to breathe a little of the 
 atmosphere which heated all brains at that moment 
 you need only read 'the three days of July' in 
 Volume VI. There the different means are 
 described, as well as the concentration of senti- 
 ments, which united to make the throne of Charles 
 X. totter. Turn over the leaves of Louis Blanc 
 and compare. Dumas is a magician for demon- 
 strating the picturesque. The ever-growing 
 enthusiasm which cut the streets into barricades, 
 uprooted the trees on the boulevards and burnt 
 the guard-house of the Exchange, to the cry of 
 ' Vive la Charte ! ' ; the indecision of journalists and 
 politicians, the discontent of the public, who wished 
 to ' avenge Waterloo in the streets of Paris ' ; the 
 excitement of the young collegians, Lafayette 
 domiciled at the Town Hall — and alonor with all 
 this the opposition which was beginning against 
 the Provisional Government — all is painted with 
 the exactitude of an eye-witness who has a fine 
 sense of spectacular effect. And, moreover, Dumas 
 
42 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 was one who had the courage to lash the 'com- 
 fortable middle-classes' for their politic opportunism. 
 They kept securely indoors, during the fray, but 
 were quite ready to take advantage of the popular 
 movement, after the danger. He denounced the 
 timorous and underhand conduct of these people, 
 and the work of reaction which they insidiously 
 accomplished, even at the moment when the people 
 were triumphing." 
 
 Alexandre's share in the Revolution was chiefly 
 confined to two exploits — the saving of precious 
 military relics, during the sacking of the artillery- 
 museum, and the fetching of the powder from 
 Soissons. This latter episode, though it had no 
 very important bearing on the fate of the revolu- 
 tion, was a brilliant coitp in its way, worthy of the 
 son of Napoleon's brave general, and of the creator 
 of D'Artagnan. 
 
 Charles X. had fled from Paris in the first days 
 of the tumult, but remained outside the city at 
 Saint Cloud, with an imposing army, awaiting the 
 turn of events, and in particular the action of his 
 representatives in Paris. Dumas heard Lafayette 
 (who was informally the Minister of War of the 
 insurgents) remark that if the King advanced on 
 Paris the revolutionaries would have no powder 
 wherewith to defend themselves ; and he at once 
 offered to go to Soissons, a town some sixty miles 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 43 
 
 away, and in his native department, where, as 
 he knew, a powder-magazine was located, and to 
 bring the ammunition back. His wild proposal 
 was laughed at ; but by his persistence Dumas 
 obtained an order for the powder, and a recom- 
 mendation to the people of Soissons ; and with 
 these credentials (which he boldly took upon him- 
 self to strengthen by interpolation) he prepared 
 for his daring expedition. 
 
 The bold young "red" posted for Soissons on 
 the afternoon of July 30th, with a comrade named 
 Bard. On the way, as one of the postillions re- 
 fused to keep his horses up to the pace of the 
 young adventurer's impatience, Dumas fired a 
 blank cartridge at the man, who fell from the 
 horse in affright. Young Alexandre promptly 
 donned the posting-boots and took the coach for- 
 ward himself. At his own beloved Villers-Cot- 
 terets the hero halted and supped hastily, in the 
 midst of enthusiastic fellow-townsmen ; and having 
 recruited a young friend named Hutin, whose 
 mother lived in Soissons and who was a native of 
 the place, the party drove forward and entered the 
 gates of that town at one o'clock in the morning. 
 
 All the rest of the night Madame Hutin and 
 her household worked to make a tricolour, which 
 was to float from the flagstaff of the cathedral 
 that morning. Bard and Hutin set out to smuggle 
 
44 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the flag into the church, to overpower the sacristan 
 and exchange the Bourbon white for repubhcan 
 red-white-and-blue ; and Dumas himself Hngered 
 about a small pavilion at the Fort St Jean, which 
 was used as a magazine, until he saw the tricolour 
 floating where a minute before the Royalist flag 
 had waved. Then he climbed the wall of the 
 pavilion, and dropping into the garden, confronted 
 with his gun two soldiers who were peacefully 
 hoeinpf the beds, and announced his errand. After 
 a parley the three guardians of the magazine agreed 
 to remain indoors, and behave as neutrals, until 
 some decisive order came from headquarters, and 
 Dumas went off to accomplish the second and 
 more difficult part of his enterprise. 
 
 Commandant Liniers, in charge of the depot 
 at Soissons, found himself that morning confronted 
 by a swarthy and very earnest young man with a 
 gun, who demanded the ammunition in his keeping. 
 He scoffed at the youth and his written order, 
 and denied that there was any quantity of powder 
 in the magazine. Dumas retired to assure himself 
 of the truth or untruth of this statement, and on 
 his return found that Liniers was reinforced by 
 three other officers, and therefore still more scornful 
 and incredulous. 
 
 Dumas did not hesitate, for he saw that he 
 must act prompdy, or he was lost. " I had gone 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 45 
 
 too far to withdraw," he says ; " I was almost 
 alone, in the midst of officials hostile to the new 
 government. It was a question of life or death 
 for me." He pulled out a pair of double-barrelled 
 pistols, and swore that unless he received an order 
 for the powder in five seconds, he would blow 
 out the brains of the whole party ! At this critical 
 moment the commandant's wife, who had evidently 
 got wind of the affair, rushed in, and flung herself 
 into the midst of the company, imploring her hus- 
 band to yield. Liniers was now willing to give 
 way, if his "face" could be "saved." Dumas took 
 the hint, sent for two or three of his comrades to 
 assemble in the court outside, threw open the 
 window, and bade them fire when he gave the 
 signal. Liniers sat down and wrote the order. 
 Then followed denials and delays on the part 
 f the mayor and other authorities. At last Dumas 
 in anger broke open the magazine himself, pro- 
 cured carts and loaded them with the powder, and 
 at fi[ve o'clock the adventurous little band were 
 on their way back to Paris. At nine next morning 
 Dumas delivered his precious convoy, so daringly 
 procured, at the " rebel " headquarters, the Hotel 
 de Ville. 
 
 Birt even while the young Dumas was "bluffing" 
 the Soissons garrison so gloriously, the cause 
 of Republicanism was being betrayed. Between 
 
46 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the alternatives of Charles X. and an elected 
 President a compromise was made ; and the Duke 
 of Orleans, having abandoned his King and pro- 
 mised all things democratic, entered Paris, and 
 was presently chosen lieutenant - general of the 
 kingdom, and then " monarch by the will of the 
 people." A " moderate " party, who believed in 
 constitutional government, acting with the very 
 best intentions, had given away in reality all that 
 their " extremist " allies had fought and died for ; 
 and Louis Philippe began to reign, the revolution 
 having made a distinction without a difference. 
 The new ruler, all affability, congratulated his em- 
 ployee on his return from Soissons, s- ing, " You 
 have just written your best drama ! " 
 
 The affair of Soissons, and the excited state of 
 public affairs unsettled our susceptible Dumas. 
 Charles X. had taken refuge in England, but there 
 had been for a moment a fear that he might flee 
 to La Vendee, the Royalist provinces, and let 
 loose upon France the horrors of civil war. Dumas, 
 knowing that the late king had renounced the throne 
 in favour of his grandson '* Henri V." (the Comte de 
 Chambord) whose mother, the Duchesse de Berri, 
 was a woman of much courage and determination, 
 suggested that to prevent the possibility of any 
 future rising, a national guard should be organised 
 in the Royalist department, and that he should 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 47 
 
 be sent as a special commissioner to consult the 
 responsible officials upon the subject. Lafayette 
 gave Dumas the required mandate, and on August 
 loth he set out. 
 
 Except that by his intercession a poor wretch of a 
 coiner was saved from the galleys, Dumas did nothing 
 notable during his six weeks in La Vendee ; and 
 when on his return Louis Philippe sent for him, the 
 envoy declared very frankly that it was useless to 
 attempt to organise the national guard in La Vendee ; 
 but that if the West were opened up, by means 
 of hieh-roads, so that communication between all 
 parts of it might be rapid and easy, this would 
 decrease the chances of a second outbreak of guerilla- 
 warfare. The "poet" prophesied — so he tells us 
 — another, though a less serious. La Vendee, if 
 occasion offered. Indeed, only two years later, 
 the Duchesse de Berri aroused the " Chouans " once 
 more and created a little Vendean rising on behalf 
 of her son. 
 
 But the King did not like the prophecy. 
 
 " You are a poet : write poetry, and leave politics 
 to kings and ministers," he said with a frown. 
 
 "Sire," answered Dumas, "the ancients called 
 their poets ' seers,' " 
 
 The young author was dismissed from the Royal 
 presence, and sent in his resignation forthwith. 
 
 The dramatist in Dumas was still subservient 
 
48 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 to the would-be politician, when he wrote his next 
 play "Napoleon," which, if we may believe the 
 " Memoires," was produced under novel and comic cir- 
 cumstances. For some time Harel, the manager of 
 the Odeon theatre, had been pressing Dumas to write 
 him a play on this subject ; but the young republican 
 could not give his mind to desk-work, and moreover, 
 the theme did not appeal to him. One night, after a 
 premiere at the Odeon, Dumas and several other 
 guests went to sup with Harel, and after the feast 
 Mademoiselle Georges led the unsuspecting play- 
 wright into another room, "to show him something." 
 On their return Dumas found that the guests had 
 disappeared, and the smiling Harel informed his coy 
 young author that he was a prisoner. Dumas was 
 startled, but took his imprisonment in good part. 
 He was fed sumptuously and treated like a lord ; all 
 the books which he required to consult were at his 
 elbow, and in eight days this enormous play was 
 ready. Its author confesses frankly that it is a bad 
 piece of work ; but under the circumstances the 
 blame can scarcely be laid upon him, for with him 
 the quality of his work depended entirely upon his 
 inspiration, which in turn was a matter of his own 
 initiative. 
 
 One of the causes of the failure of " Napoleon " 
 as a work of stagecraft was possibly the author's 
 preoccupation, for his mind was full of the prospects 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 49 
 
 of his famous play, " Antony." To the bulk of 
 British admirers of Dumas the very title will be 
 strange ; but in France our dramatist was better 
 known, for generations, as the author of " Antony," 
 than as the writer of any romance or play whatever. 
 He tells us that the idea of the drama came to 
 him at the time when " Christine " was temporarily 
 forbidden. 
 
 " One day I was pacing the boulevards ... I 
 stopped suddenly, and said to myself, * A man who, 
 when surprised by the husband of his mistress, 
 should kill her, saying that she had resisted him, 
 and who should die on the scaffold in consequence, 
 would save the honour of that woman, and expiate 
 his crime.' The idea of 'Antony' was found: six 
 weeks afterwards the play was written." 
 
 " When I was writing ' Antony,' " says Dumas 
 elsewhere, " I was in love with a woman of whom 
 I was terribly jealous : jealous because she was in 
 the position of Adele (in the play) in that she had 
 a husband, an officer in the army. . . . Read 
 ' Antony ' : he will tell you what I suffered then." 
 
 M. Parigot, in his study " Le Drame dAlex- 
 andre Dumas," throws further lio^ht on this sub- 
 ject. A number of unpublished letters from the 
 lover to the lady were placed in the critic's hands, 
 and he has quoted from them exhaustively. 
 The "Adele" appears to have been one Melanie 
 
 D 
 
50 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 W , to whom Dumas was presented (as he tells 
 
 us in " Le Testament de M. Chauvelin ") at the 
 house of her father-in-law, the bibliophile Villenave, 
 in 1827. The conquest of a lady of position and 
 of some pretentions to learning evidently flattered 
 the young man's vanity — " there was something of 
 the air of Villers-Cotterets about him still " — and 
 the young lover vowed, cursed, adored, despaired, and 
 rhapsodised for three years. Then " Antony " was 
 written ; the intimacy had unconsciously fulfilled its 
 purpose, and came to an end accordingly. Mean- 
 while this amorous heart, overflowing with passion, 
 had found opportunity to fall in love with another 
 Melanie (the mother of Marie-Alexandre Dumas), 
 with Marie Dorval, and others. The need for love 
 had for the time possessed this ardent nature as 
 with a fever. 
 
 It was of this experlment-in-love, in which he 
 took himself and his passion in such tragic earnest, 
 that Dumas was thinking when he wrote these 
 verses, with which he prefaced " Antony " : — 
 
 Que de fois tu m'as dit, aux heures du delire, 
 
 Quand mon front tout h. coup devenait souci eux : 
 
 " Sur ta bouche pourquoi cet effrayant souriie? 
 Pourquoi ces larmes dans tes yeux?" 
 
 Pourquoi ? Cast que mon coeur, au milieu des delices, 
 D'un souvenir jaloux constamment oppresse, 
 
 Froid au bonheur prdsent, va chercher ses supplices, 
 Dans I'avenir et le passd. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 51 
 
 Jusque dans tes baiscrs je retrouve des pcines ; 
 
 Tu m'accables d'amour : I'amour, je m'en soiiviens, 
 Pour la premiere fois s'est glisse dans tes veines, 
 
 Sous d'autres baisers que les miens. 
 
 Du feu des voluptes vainement tu m'enivres ; 
 
 Combien pour un beau jour de tristes lendemains ! 
 Ces chamies qu'ii mes mains en palpitant tu livres, 
 
 I'alpiteront sous d'autre mains. 
 
 Et je ne pourrai pas, dans ma fureur jalouse, 
 
 De I'infidelite te reserver le prix ! 
 Quelques mots a I'autel t'ont faite son dpouse, 
 
 Et te sauvent de mon mepris. 
 
 Car ces mots pour toujours ont vendu tes caresses, 
 L'amour ne les doit plus donner ni recevoir ; 
 
 L'usages des ^poux a regie les tendresses 
 Et leurs baisers sont un devoir ! 
 
 Malheur? Malheur h moi que le ciel en ce monde 
 
 A jetc comme un hote h. ses lois etranger ! 
 A moi qui ne sais pas dans ma douleur profonde 
 
 Souffrir longtemps sans me venger. 
 
 Malheur ! Car une voix qui n'a rien de la terra 
 
 Ma dit " Pour ton bonheur c'est sa mort qu'il te faut ;" 
 
 Et cette voix m'a fait comprendre le mystcre 
 Et du meurtre et de I'echafaud. 
 
 Viens, done, Ange du Mai, dont la voix me convie ! 
 
 Car il est des instants ou, si je te voyais, 
 Je pourrais pour son sang t'abandonner ma vie, 
 
 Et mon ame ... si j'y croyais ! 
 
 Years after, in his " Memoires," Dumas confessed 
 that the verses were poor, the sentiment was 
 affected, and the blasphemy w^as a wanton one — 
 prompted, his son has shrewdly suggested, by the 
 rhyme. 
 
52 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Once set at liberty by the tyrannical Harel, 
 Dumas hastened to the Com^die Franc^aise, where 
 " Antony " had been accepted and placed in re- 
 hearsal. But Mars and Firmin, the leading actor 
 and actress of the national theatre at that time, 
 were accustomed to more orthodox roles than those 
 of the weak, fascinated Adele, and Antony, the 
 masterful Ishmael-of-society ; and the Comedie 
 Fran9aise itself, as our author confesses, was not 
 the frame for such a picture. The two artists, 
 losing faith in their parts, hinted as much to the 
 author, Firmin with diffidence. Mars with a bold 
 pretext. Dumas astonished them by demanding 
 the manuscript from the prompter, and walking out 
 of the theatre. 
 
 It so happened that M. Crosnier, of the Porte 
 St Martin, had received Hugo's " Marion Delorme," 
 when that poet had also abandoned the stifling 
 atmosphere of the Fran^aise to breathe freer air 
 elsewhere. The young dramatist, although pro- 
 foundly discouraged concerning the merits of his 
 latest born, went forthwith to Marie Dorval, the 
 leading lady of the Porte St Martin, a clever actress, 
 ready-witted, naive, and full of nervous energy. 
 He read the play to her, and her trained and recep- 
 tive intelligence at once saw the possibilities of the 
 piece. She shut the young author into a room, 
 to spend the night in rewriting the last act, which 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 53 
 
 did not appeal to her in its original form ; and next 
 day negotiations began. The play was duly read 
 to the manager of the Porte St Martin and 
 accepted ; but it was something of a blow to the 
 author's vanity when M. Crosnier politely struggled 
 with slumber during the third act, slept comfortably 
 in the fourth, and snored unrestrainedly through 
 the fifth ! 
 
 At length the night of "Antony's" birth arrived, 
 and the miserable infant, which had now been wait- 
 ing two years for its delivery, had given its parent 
 much anxiety. For once Dumas had lost that 
 maofnificent confidence in himself which aided him 
 so powerfully in his career. 
 
 But if the moment for producing the play was 
 inopportune — appearing as it did in the midst of 
 distracting political ferment — the social atmosphere 
 was charged with a feverish electricity, which 
 die story of "Antony" attracted irresistibly to 
 itself. How is a social outlaw like Antony to 
 win for himself the lovely wife of a man in high 
 society — how is he to break through, and persuade 
 her to break through, all the bars to self-abandon- 
 ment which society has erected ? By will-power — 
 by the strength of an unscrupulous individuality! 
 For such a story of power and passion the Parisian 
 of that day was fully ripe. 
 
 As the play progressed, the emotion of the 
 
54 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 audience mounted to a painful height. The first 
 act ended in applause ; and the second was as 
 warmly received. In the midst of the play the 
 author, unconsciously copying Goldsmith, rushed 
 out for a time and paced the boulevards, unable to 
 face his fate. The startling climax to the third act 
 took away the breath ; and for a moment the fate 
 of the play hung in suspense : then the theatre 
 shook with a rushing storm of applause. The 
 curtain fell on the fourth act amid frenzied "bravos." 
 " A hundred francs," cried the excited author to 
 the scene-shifters, "if the curtain goes up again 
 before they stop applauding ! " And the fifth act 
 actually commenced before the audience had finished 
 acclaiming the fourth. 
 
 We have already indicated the ddnottement of 
 " Antony." That "hero," surprised by the husband, 
 stabs Adele, and throws the dagger at the wronged 
 man's feet, saying, " She resisted me ; and I killed 
 her ! " ^ 
 
 * Dumas tells a story respecting this famous " tag " which we cannot 
 omit. At a revival of the play, some years later, the prompter, through 
 ignorance, rang down the curtam immediately Antony had stabbed 
 Adcle. The public, furious at being cheated of the famous line, 
 clamoured " Le dt'no2ie//ie/:t ! le denouement I" Bocage sulked in his 
 dressing-room, and would not return ; but Marie Dorval good- 
 naturedly remained on the stage, and the curtain was rung up again, 
 in the hope that Antony would feel obliged to return. 
 
 Adcle was discovered, dead, in her chair. There was a silence. 
 At last Dorval rose slowly, and coming down to the footlights, re- 
 marked pleasantly, "Gentlemen, I resisted him, and he killed me." 
 Then she made her best bow, and retired, amidst frantic applause. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 55 
 
 The curtain down, the audience in a fury of im- 
 patience demanded a sight of the author. Calls and 
 recalls followed. Dumas, in rushing behind the 
 scenes from his box, took a short cut through the 
 corridors ; he was recognised, and chased by a 
 crowd of young enthusiasts, and his coat was torn 
 to ribbons. 
 
 " Antony " excited much enthusiasm and oppo- 
 sition. It was a daring, provocative play, de- 
 stined to set the fashion in French society dramas 
 for the rest of the century. When it was about to 
 be revived, three years later, this time at the 
 Comedie Fran^aise, one of the many journals hostile 
 to Dumas attacked " Antony " for its immorality. 
 The denunciation came from such a powerful quarter 
 that Thiers, who had arranged not only for the 
 revival, but for new plays from its author's pen, was 
 forced to forbid the performance. Dumas went to 
 law, and obtained ^400 damages, and an order that 
 the piece should be produced within a certain time. 
 
 But even "Antony" failed to bring its author 
 fortune, so greatly were the public preoccupied by 
 things political ; and to avoid the unsettling atmo- 
 sphere of Paris, Dumas went for a holiday to Trou- 
 ville, which in those days was a quiet and charming 
 little Normandy seaside village. As usual with 
 him, Dumas's holiday meant a different working- 
 place, for here he was busy evolving his most 
 
56 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 poetical play, "Charles VII.," inspired, as he ac- 
 knowledges, by De Mussel's " Marrons au feu," and 
 by " The Cid " and " Andromaque." Here also one 
 M. Beudin came to him with the prologue of a play 
 which afterwards became " Richard Darlington." 
 
 It was on our author's return from Trouville, to 
 witness the first night of Hugo's " Marion Delorme," 
 that Dumas encountered a kind friend who told him 
 that he was too late, and informed him of the com- 
 parative failure of the play. The critic-friend was 
 astounded to hear a detailed and eloquent eulogy of 
 " Marion " from the lips of the author of " Christine." 
 
 When Dumas had finished, the critic shrug-pfed 
 his shoulders with an air of profound amazement. 
 " A confrere ! " he said. Further words failed him. 
 
 "Charles VII.," like "Henri Trois " and 
 *' Antony," was, in spite of its historical setting, a 
 play of the times — a challenge to the old social 
 regime ; a part of the romantic movement ; a power- 
 ful plea for individuality. This Dumas himself 
 declared, in the lines which he prefixed to his 
 " Comme je devins auteur dramatique " (the first 
 draft of his "Memoires") in 1833 — 
 
 " Un jour on connaitra quelle lutte obstin^e 
 A fait sous mon genou plier la destince ; 
 A quelle source amere en mon ame j'ai pris 
 Tout ce qu'elle contient de haine et de mcpris : 
 Quel orage peut faire, en passant sur la tcte, 
 Qu'on prenne pour le jour I'eclair d'un tempete, 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 57 
 
 Et ce que I'homme souffre en ses convulsions, 
 Quand au volcan du cceur grondent les passions. 
 Je ne cacherai plus oil ma plume tidcle 
 A trouve d'Antony le type et le modcle, 
 Et je dirai tout haut ii quels foyers brulants 
 Yaquoub ' et Saint Megrin puiserent leurs elans. . . ." 
 
 "Charles VII." was a failure, or at best a stcccds 
 cTestime. Dumas fits has told us how sadly he and 
 his father walked homeward after the play ; for the 
 tragedy had contained its author's most conscious 
 and most literary attempt at poetry; and all his many 
 successes in life never compensated Dumas for the 
 fact that he was not in the strict sense of the word a 
 poet, and could not disguise the fact from himself. 
 
 " Charles VII." was of the school of " Christine," 
 and was the result of Dumas's occasional yearnings 
 after a classical reputation ; but the drama-proper 
 was his more conq-enial mcHier. " Richard Darlinsf- 
 ton," a legitimate son of " Antony," was successfully 
 produced, and became one of its author's favourite 
 plays. In spite of this Dumas, who on this occasion 
 had collaborators, refused to allow his name to be 
 announced, even as part-author. Unfortunately 
 " Richard Darlington " will be read by English 
 people — if it is read at all — with more amusement 
 than respect ; for the scene is laid in England, and 
 the details of our social life which it offers have all 
 the piquancy of novelty, and discount the dramatic 
 strength of the play. 
 
 ' The "hero" of "Charles VII." 
 
58 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 An incident which we find in the " Memoires " 
 gives us an interesting insight into the author's skill 
 and knowledge of stage-craft. Whilst Dumas was 
 busy writing " Richard Darlington " with Goubaud, 
 he stopped short at one point, unable to advance. 
 It was at the crisis when the ambitious Richard, 
 anxious to get rid of Jenny, his plebeian wife, so 
 that he may marry into higher society, determines to 
 make away with her. Someone is coming up the 
 stairs ; if the existence of this wife is discovered by 
 the newcomer, all Darlington's plans will be over- 
 thrown. The only obvious resource is to throw 
 Jenny out of the window into the rushing torrent 
 below. This is where the skilled dramatist dis- 
 covers and resolves a problem of stage-management. 
 It would revolt the audience to see a woman 
 struggling for life every inch of the way to that 
 window ; it would make them laugh, if the husband, 
 in lifting his victim to hurl her to death, should 
 expose her ankles. 
 
 At length the idea came, and Dumas like 
 Columbus with the egg, broke the end, and made 
 it stand, thus : 
 
 Darlington threatens Jenny; she rushes towards 
 the balcony, crying for help. He follows her, closing 
 the foldinof doors of the recess behind them. " A 
 cry pierces the silence. Richard strikes the doors 
 with his fist, they fly open and disclose him on the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 59 
 
 balcony, pale, wiping the sweat from his brow, and 
 alone. 
 
 Jenny has disappeared — Voi/d iout f" 
 It was at this period of his fortunes, when he was 
 writing with Anicet Bourgeois " Teresa," which he 
 describes as "one of my worst," and "Angele," 
 which he considered one of his best plays, that 
 Dumas gave his famous ball. As he wished to 
 invite three hundred guests, and had only four 
 rooms in which to receive them, he hired another 
 suite from his landlord. Three days before the 
 eventful night, Dumas turned ten of the foremost 
 painters of France into these empty rooms to deco- 
 rate them, and as the great men were all friends of 
 the young author, this was at once an economy, an 
 attraction, and a novelty. With the same object of 
 saving expense, Dumas took some friends out of 
 town, and they shot their own game for the feast. 
 It was a brilliant affair, for it was a costume ball, 
 and all Bohemia-in- Paris gathered in the little rooms, 
 which by midnight were crowded with dazzling 
 dresses, and filled with laughter and music. Here, 
 among others, came Lafayette, Rossini, De Musset, 
 Sue, Lemaitre, Mars, Georges, Dejazet and Dela- 
 croix — who had painted the panel allotted to him in 
 two or three hours ! M. Tissot, of the Academy, 
 went "made up" as a sick man, whereupon Jadin 
 followed him as a long-faced, funereal-looking under- 
 
60 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 taker, and dogged the other's footsteps, croaking out 
 lugubriously every other minute, " I'm waiting for 
 you ! I'm waiting for you ! " The party broke up at 
 nine in the morning, with a wild galop in the street. 
 
 And now events conspired to work an important 
 change in Dumas's life. So far, the author of 
 " Antony," under the influence of Goethe and 
 Byron, had "posed" in his writings, as a Manfred 
 or a Mephistopheles ; and with folded arms and 
 cynic laugh had affected to deny, and disdain, 
 the virtues and pleasures of the world. But one 
 day Dumas wrote a begging-letter for his friend 
 Lassailly, who, on reading the note, turned to its 
 author with a stupefied air. 
 
 " Well," he said, " this is comical! " 
 
 " What is ? " 
 
 " Why, you have wit ! " 
 
 " Why shouldn't I ? Envious fellow! '* 
 
 " Well, you're probably the first man of five feet 
 nine who has ever been witty ! " 
 
 Dumas has himself defined and described his 
 own gaiety. " Some folk," he says, " are gay be- 
 cause they're well, or have a good digestion, or 
 have nothing to worry about — that is the ordinary 
 « gaiety. But mine is invariable gaiety, which shines 
 through disturbing influences, through troubles, 
 through danger itself" 
 
 The young writer had been unconscious of the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 61 
 
 existence of this unfashionable quahty ; but it was 
 destined to show itself henceforth — first in his 
 books of travel, and afterwards in his comedies and 
 romances ; and, in short, more or less in everything 
 he wrote or spoke. 
 
 Dumas's gaiety does not, perhaps, appear in his 
 first romance — if we can call it so — of " Isabel de 
 Baviere." Four of his friends had previously 
 scraped together a little money, and started the 
 world - famous Revue des Deux Mondes, and 
 Dumas agreed to assist the new-born with his pen. 
 The " Histoire des Dues de Bourgoyne " of Barante 
 made a powerful impression upon him at this time, 
 "finishing," he says, "the work begun by Scott." 
 Still, the young author did not feel strong enough 
 to write an entirely original romance ; and he there- 
 fore put into a picturesque form, and into dialogue, 
 selected scenes from Barante, which he first called 
 " Scenes Historiques," and which proved a great 
 success in the pages of the Revue. This decided 
 the ambitious author to write forthwith the history 
 of France from the days of Charles »V I. to his own. 
 It is hardly credible — and yet Dumas confesses to 
 it — his ignorance of history at this period was so 
 profound that he was studying it by the aid of 
 poetic tags ! — 
 
 " En I'an quatre-cent-vingt, Pharamond, premier ro3, 
 Est connu seulement par la salique loi." . . . 
 
62 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 The novelist was delivered from this school-book 
 thraldom by a more learned friend, and introduced 
 to Thierry's " Conquete des Normands." History 
 became a passion with him, and the days of that 
 tremendous historic-romance-cycle grew nearer and 
 nearer. 
 
 In 1832 the cholera swept over Paris, emptying 
 the theatres, filling the cemeteries, and carrying 
 terror everywhere. Nevertheless it could not 
 daunt our author's new-found gaiety : he wrote the 
 dialogue of one of his wittiest plays — " Le Mari de 
 la Veuve " — for an actress who was about to take 
 a benefit, and who begged from Dumas some 
 novelty to put on the bills. Every night a group 
 of friends forgathered in Dumas's rooms. *'We 
 chatted ; sometimes Hugo decided to recite us some 
 of his poetry ; Liszt thumped hard on a wretched 
 piano, and the evening passed by without one 
 of us thinking any more of the cholera than if it 
 had been at Pekin." 
 
 But one evening, immediately after Dumas had 
 watched his joyous friends depart, he himself was 
 seized with the cholera. For five or six days he 
 was prostrate and in great danger, but his wonder- 
 ful physique withstood the attack of the terrible 
 disease. The first person to greet him in his 
 convalescence was Harel, the manager of the 
 Odeon. The cholera, he cheerfully declared, had 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 63 
 
 "gone away without even making its expenses," 
 and he pressed the fever-ridden author to set about 
 a new play. This was destined to be " La Tour de 
 Nesle." The plot of that drama was common pro- 
 perty ; from Villon's day all French readers had 
 known of the vile Queen Marguerite of Burgundy, 
 of her foul, nightly revels in the terrible Tower, and 
 of the bodies which were found in the Seine next 
 morning. It may be added that there is not a 
 horror, or an incredible incident in the play, which 
 history has not only justified, but asserted. 
 
 The authorship of the play led to a long and 
 acrimonious dispute, which is best described in the 
 words of Mr Walter Herries Pollock : 
 
 "It seems to me that no one who devotes a 
 moderate attention to his dramatic works can 
 reasonably doubt that in the celebrated quarrel 
 about the play called the ' Tour de Nesle,' right 
 was on the side of Dumas. This quarrel is worth 
 some attention. The story takes up some four 
 chapters of Dumas's 'Memoires'; but briefly, the 
 main facts were these : 
 
 " Harel, the great theatrical manager, had re- 
 ceived a play in manuscript from a young author 
 named Gaillardet. He thought there was caj|ital 
 stuff in it ; but as it was written it was quite unfitted 
 for stage representation on account of the author's 
 inexperience. Jules Janin had tried to do something 
 
64 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 with it, and had failed. Harel then came to Dumas, 
 who, according to his own account, which I for one 
 beheve, entirely remodelled it, and made of it one 
 of the most impressive melodramas ever put on the 
 stage. He had previously written a somewhat 
 imprudently self-effacing letter to the young author, 
 who, instead of being grateful, was furious at having, 
 as he said, a collaborator thrust upon him, and ended 
 by writing to the papers to assert that he was the 
 sole author of the piece. 
 
 " The matter went throuo^h all kinds of intricacies 
 into which it would be tedious to go ; but the last 
 word which ought to be said about it is found in a 
 letter written by Gaillardet in 1861 to the manager of 
 the Porte St Martin theatre. The letter runs thus : 
 
 "*A judgment of the courts in 1832 decreed 
 that the " Tour de Nesle " should be printed and 
 announced under my name alone ; and this was 
 done up to the date of its being forbidden by the 
 censorship in 185 i. 
 
 " * Now that you are going to put it on the stage 
 again, I give you permission — nay, more, I beg 
 you — to join to my name that of Alexandre Dumas, 
 my collaborator. I wish to prove to him that I 
 have, forgotten our old quarrel, and that I remember 
 only our later pleasant relations, and the great share 
 which his incomparable talent had in the success of 
 the "Tourde Nesle."'" 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 65 
 
 The success of the drama, indeed, equalled that of 
 " Antony." Yet, although Dumas was determined 
 that Gaillardet should receive the sole credit of the 
 play, a quarrel developed — for which Harel's un- 
 scrupulous behaviour as the go - between was re- 
 sponsible — and a duel was fought, fortunately with 
 no serious results. 
 
 But no sooner was our ardent hero out of this 
 scrape than he got into another. There was a 
 Republican riot during the funeral of General 
 Lamarque, a devoted servant of France and of 
 Napoleon. Dumas took part in the riot ; and next 
 day he read, in a legitimist paper, that he had been 
 taken with arms in his hand, summarily court- 
 martialled, and shot ! 
 
 "The news," says Dumas, "was of so authentic a 
 nature, the details of my execution were so circum- 
 stantial, the information came from such an infallible 
 source, that I experienced a moment's doubt. I felt 
 myself all over ! " Nodier wrote to say that he had 
 heard of Dumas's death, and expressed a hope that 
 it would not prevent him from dining with a few 
 friends on the morrow. The other replied that he 
 was not at all sure whether he was living or not, but 
 that either in body or in spirit he would come to 
 dinner. He added that, as he had eaten nothing 
 for six weeks there would probably be more of his 
 spirit than his body present. 
 
 r. 
 
66 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 But if he had not been shot, and if the cholera 
 had failed to kill him, Dumas was still in some 
 danger. One of the king's aides-de-camp gave the 
 literary politician a hint that the question of his 
 arrest was being considered, and advised a tempor- 
 ary absence from Paris. Accordingly Dumas set 
 out in July, 1832 for Switzerland. 
 
 This tour, the account of which delighted the 
 public by its freshness, gaiety and picturesque style, 
 possessed one or two notable features. With true 
 journalistic instinct Dumas called on Chateaubriand, 
 the self-exiled Royalist poet, and chatted to him of 
 politics ; he interviewed Jacques Balmat, and heard 
 from the lips of the guide his narrative of the first 
 ascent of Mont Blanc ; and he wrote the famous 
 fable of the " bear-beefsteak," which he pretended to 
 have eaten at a certain inn. Thenceforth travellers 
 by the score stopped at that inn and called for bear- 
 steak, and the unhappy landlord, quite unable to 
 satisfy the guests either with his explanations or 
 with the required dish, went nearly mad, and cursed 
 the very name of Dumas. 
 
 The most interesting portion of the " Impressions 
 de Voyage en Suisse," from a serious point of view, 
 is tl;ie account of Dumas's interview at Arenenburg 
 with Hortense Bonaparte, ex-Queen of Holland, 
 and mother of Louis Napoleon, afterwards Napoleon 
 III. The young Republican philosopher did not hold 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 67 
 
 out any hopes to the royal exile of a restoration by 
 force, or by the power of the Napoleonic tradition 
 alone. In reply to a request from the queen for 
 advice as to the means by which one of her family 
 might re-establish the dynasty, Dumas replied : 
 
 " I would say to him, obtain the revocation of 
 your exile ; buy a home in France ; cause yourself 
 to be elected deputy ; and try by force of your talent 
 to secure a majority in the chamber, and make use 
 of it to overthrow Louis Philippe, and get yourself 
 chosen king in his stead." Sixteen years later Louis 
 Napoleon followed this advice pretty closely, and his 
 success is a matter of history. 
 
 The Swiss holiday was followed by a brief visit to 
 England in 1833, and a tour in the South of France, 
 which was much more lengthy. The following year 
 Dumas started for Italy, with his friend Jadin, and 
 "Mylord," the bull-dog. He was arrested at Naples 
 as a dangerous " red," and it was only when he pro- 
 duced papers proving that he was entrusted with a 
 private mission by the French Government that he 
 was released. In November of the following year the 
 traveller was privileged to have an interview with 
 Pope Gregory XVI. — after which he was arrested 
 a second time ! 
 
 The next year or two passed in the most delight 
 ful way; Dumas enjoyed himself like a schoolboy 
 In holiday-time, sailing round Sicily, exploiting 
 
68 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Naples and Florence, and ''earning his keep" by 
 writing most entertaining accounts of his adventures. 
 
 On his return " Catherine Howard," " Don 
 Juan " and " Kean " were produced in successive 
 years. " Kean," as played by Frederick Lemaitre, 
 made a strong impression on Heine and others, 
 but in spite of its English milieu, the play is so 
 French in spirit as to appeal most to our sense 
 of humour. Thackeray, who was visiting Paris 
 about this period, was terribly shocked by the 
 naive and earnest irreverence of "Don Juan" 
 and " Calieula." In his " Paris Sketch-book " he 
 has denounced them, both, in that bluff " damn- 
 everything-that-isn't-English " style, so cheap, yet 
 so dear to the public. 
 
 Dumas had been on familiar terms with the 
 young Duke of Chartres, who succeeded to the 
 title of " Duke of Orleans " (which corresponded 
 to our " Prince of Wales "), when his father ob- 
 tained the throne. In 1836 our author had stayed 
 with the prince at Compiegne, and when the heir 
 was married in 1837, and fetes were held at 
 Versailles in honour of the occasion, four crosses 
 of the Legion of Honour were placed at the dis- 
 posal of the young prince. Dumas received one 
 of them — a knight's cross. Seven years before, 
 on the morrow of " Christine," Louis Philippe 
 himself, at his son's request, had asked for the 
 
ALEXANDRE DU:MAS 69 
 
 cross for his young employee from Charles X., but 
 had been refused. Dumas's name was on this 
 occasion removed from the list by the King's own 
 order ; upon which Hugo, who was about to re- 
 ceive an officer's cross, declined the promotion in- 
 dignantly. The offending name was accordingly 
 re-entered on the list, and the two friends went 
 to the fete torether, and left it arm-in-arm. But 
 Alexandre felt that the honour came too late. 
 Instead of fastening it to his button-hole, he put 
 it in his fob. 
 
 By this time Dumas had become so famous 
 that, with his artless vanity, his outspoken ways, 
 and his unbusiness-like methods, he had earned a 
 host of enemies, mockers, detractors, denunciators 
 and the like. His " Calio'ula " failed, although it 
 was produced at the Comedie Francaise in the 
 most costly fashion ; and its author discovered 
 that the leader of the claque (or organised gang 
 of applauders) had been bribed by a number of 
 actors, who were not performing in the play, to 
 do all he could to damn the piece ! 
 
 In 1838 Dumas suffered the great misfortune 
 of his life. His mother, to whom he had been 
 so passionately attached, died suddenly. Friends 
 brought him the news that Madame Dumas had 
 been seized with a second apoplectic stroke. The 
 first attack, eight years befure, had partly disabled 
 
70 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the sufferer, and this one proved almost imme- 
 diately fatal. The dying woman was able to 
 open her eyes and look on her son once more — 
 and that was all. With a choking heart Dumas 
 sent word of the event to his young patron, and 
 an hour later the kindly duke was at the street 
 door in his carriage. The mourner ran out, at 
 this sign of friendly sympathy, and kneeling at 
 the prince's feet, burst into tears. There was re- 
 morse mingled with grief in this passion of regret 
 for the life that was passing away in the room 
 above, for although Alexandre had usually visited 
 his mother constantly, and shown her every loving 
 mark of affection, there had also been periods of 
 absence and neglect, which now he regretted only 
 too keenly. 
 
 At the foot of the sketch of his dead mother, 
 which Duval drew, Dumas wrote these lines — 
 
 " Oh, mon Dieu ! Dans ce monde ou toute bouche nie, 
 Oil chacun foule aux pieds les Tables de la Loi, 
 Vous m'avez entendu, pendant son agonie, 
 Prier h. deux genoux, le coeur ardent de foi. 
 Vous m'avez vu, mon Dieu, sur la funebre route, 
 Oil la mort me courbait devant un crucifix, 
 Et vous avez comptc les pleurs qui, goutte h. goutte, 
 Ruisselaient de mes yeux aux pieds de Votre Fils. 
 Je demandais, mon Dieu, que moins vite ravie, 
 Vous retardiez I'instant de son dernier adieu : 
 Pour racheter ses jours je vous offrais ma vie ; 
 Vous n'avez pas voulu : soyez beni, mon Dieu '."^ 
 
 ^ (" Oh, my God, in this world, where all men deny Thee, where the 
 feet of men spurn the Tables of Thy Laws, Thou hast heard me, as I 
 
ALEXAINDRE DUMAS 71 
 
 It was in the next few years that Dumas, in 
 the interval of travels and foreign residence, wrote 
 the three comedies which seem destined to out- 
 live his dramas, and to prove in the future the 
 sole support of his reputation as a playwright. 
 These were " Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle," " Un 
 Manage sous Louis Ouinze," and " Les Demoi- 
 selles de St Cyr." These plays, which sparkle 
 with wit and are alive with interest, are still in 
 the repertoire of the Comedie Francaise. The 
 "Manage" was "commanded" by the responsible 
 Minister (fancy the Home Secretary ordering a 
 play from Mr Grundy for the Lyceum !), was written 
 in Italy, and sent in to the theatre. On the 
 author's return, his enemies in the company told 
 him gleefully that the comedy had been rejected. 
 Dumas quietly produced the Minister's letter, and 
 informed the dismayed actors that they had no 
 option but to play it, whether they liked it or 
 they didn't. Tableau ! 
 
 Dumas now led a roving life. In 1838 he had 
 visited Belgium and the Rhine ; two years later 
 
 knelt at her feet, throughout her agony, praying, with a heart full of 
 faith. Thou hast seen me, oh God, go with her on that last sad 
 journey, when Death's hand bowed my back and bent my gaze on the 
 crucifix, and Thou didst count the tears that one by one streamed 
 from my eyes on the feet of Thy Son. I asked, oh God, that Thou 
 wouldst delay for a while, however brief, the last parting of mother 
 and son. To purchase life for her I would have sold my own. It was 
 not Thy will : be Thou blest, oh my God I ''') 
 
72 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 he went to Italy, returning there in 1841 and again 
 in 1842. In 1840 he married Mdlle. Ida Ferrier, 
 a fascinating woman but a second-rate actress, who 
 appeared in her husband's tragedy-drama " Cah- 
 gula," and other subsequent plays. The marriage 
 was a very ill-advised one, and finally extravagance 
 and irreconcilable differences of character combined 
 caused the lady to leave her husband and go to 
 live in Florence. She never returned to France, 
 and died in Italy in 1859. 
 
 The " Comtesse Dash," an intimate friend of 
 Dumas and his wife, has given us, if not the real 
 excuse for his "immorality," at least the true ex- 
 planation of it : 
 
 " A woman who would have loved him enough 
 to love him as he wished to be loved (she writes 
 in her " Memoires dAutres "), a woman who would 
 have had the tact to close her eyes to his pranks, 
 and make home comfortable, so that he could invite 
 his friends there ; and above all, who zuoic/d not 
 have disturbed him in his work — that woman would 
 have been perfectly and eternally happy with him." 
 
 The character of Madame Dumas has been 
 clearly drawn for us by the same pen. " Ida " 
 was a beautiful woman of mediocre abilities and 
 with a jealous, narrow and contemptible nature. 
 She tolerated little Marie, Dumas's daughter, but 
 hated young Alexandre, because of the love his 
 
ALEXANDRE DU.AIAS 73 
 
 father bore him. The two were obh'g-ed to meet 
 by stealth, for the young- man was not allowed In 
 the house. As the actress " Mademoiselle Ferrier " 
 forced Dumas to gi^e her parts to which her 
 talents were not equal ; as a mistress she was 
 furiously jealous of every other woman, and played 
 practical jokes of doubtful taste on the master. 
 Dumas bore patiently with her extravagance, her 
 constant interruption of his work, and the daily 
 quarrel which seemed necessary to her existence ; 
 but soon after the pair were married the connec- 
 tion came to Its inevitable end. 
 
 Whilst Dumas was staying at the Villa Palmierl 
 at Florence, early in 1842, old Jerome Bonaparte 
 suggested that the author should take the young- 
 Prince Napoleon, who was just returning from 
 Wurtemburg, for a cruise, with the object of 
 "teaching him France." The nephew of the great 
 Emperor naturally desired to visit both Elba and 
 Corsica ; and it was during this trip that the 
 travellers espied from the mainland of Elba, the 
 insignificant islet of IMonte Cristo. Curiosity 
 prompted them to visit It, and Dumas was so 
 much struck by the appearance of the picturesque 
 little spot that he resolved to use Its name as 
 the title of his forthcominof romance. 
 
 It was one of Dumas's laughing complaints that 
 Scribe was considered a " moral " writer, whilst he 
 
74 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 himself was looked upon as immoral. Therefore, 
 when the opportunity came to him to play a prac- 
 tical joke on his confrh^e he could not resist. 
 
 Whilst Dumas was staying- in Florence about 
 this time an actor-friend of his, named Doligny, 
 came to him and asked permission to play some 
 of his best-known dramas. The author gfave his 
 consent willingly, but warned the actor that the 
 authorities would refuse him permission to perform. 
 When Doligny returned he confessed that his 
 friend was right — the censor had rejected the plays 
 by " that immoral writer" — but Dumas came to 
 the rescue. He took Doligny with him to the 
 office of a friendly printer, and ordered new covers 
 for the four plays in question. It was very 
 simple : — 
 
 In place of " Richard Darlington, by A. Dumas," 
 was printed "Ambition, or the Executioner's Son, 
 by Eugene Scribe." 
 
 In place of " Angele, by A. Dumas," was printed 
 "A Ladder of Petticoats, by Eugene Scribe." 
 
 Instead of "Antony, by A. Dumas," was printed 
 " Love's Victim, by Eugene Scribe." 
 
 "Instead of "La Tour de Nesle, by MM. 
 Gaillardet and A. Dumas," was printed "Adultery 
 Punished, by Eugene Scribe." 
 
 The old plays with the new coats — if we may 
 believe Dumas — duly passed the censor without 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 75 
 
 comment ; the public found the plays masterpieces 
 of improving- literature, and the grand-duke 
 applauded them furiously ! 
 
 In July of the same year Dumas heard of the 
 sudden and shocking death of the young Duke 
 of Orleans, \vho was thrown from his carriage, 
 through his horses taking fright, and mortally in- 
 jured. Full of grief, the author hurried post-haste 
 to Paris, and arrived just in time for the funeral 
 ceremonies, and the interment at Dreux. His 
 sorrow for the promising young prince, of which 
 there is no reason for doubting the sincerity, was 
 artless and unrestrained, and afforded his enemies 
 ample scope for mockery. 
 
 Dumas, like most French authors, had a desire 
 to be judged Immortal whilst he lived, and had 
 already more than once put himself forward for 
 election to the Academy, and in particular to the 
 seat vacant by the death of his old colleague and 
 rival Casimir Delavigne, the author of " Louis XI." 
 But in 1S43, as on previous occasions, he was re- 
 jected by the Forty, whose orthodoxy was shocked 
 by the audacious methods of this wicked " Romantic." 
 On one occasion Hugo would have nominated Dumas 
 for a vacant chair, but there were only thirteen 
 Academicians present and twenty-one votes were 
 necessary for election. Dumas consoled himself 
 with the fact that he occupied the "forty-first 
 
76 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 fauteuil " in good company, and recollecting the 
 treatment which the Academy had meted out to 
 great Frenchmen, from Corneille and Moliere, 
 downward. Repulsed once more, he returned 
 to Florence, saying to himself, " Je demande a 
 etre le qnaranticme, mais il parait qu'on me faire 
 faire quarantaijie ! " (" I ask to be made the 
 fortieth, but it appears they wish to keep me in 
 quarantine ! ") 
 
 The year 1844 was one of the great years in 
 the life of Dumas. " Les Trois Mousquetaires" 
 and " Monte Cristo " both appeared at that time, 
 and were welcomed enthusiastically by the public. 
 During their progress in feitilleton form, people 
 had discussed the sayings and doings of DArtagnan 
 or Dantes as if the men were alive, and known to 
 everybody — as, indeed, they were. Villemessant 
 tells us how he woke his wife in the night to tell 
 her of the escape in the sack from the Chateau 
 d'lf; and Gautier has described amusingly enough 
 the grip which the two books obtained on the 
 imagination of the Parisian public. Dumas had 
 achieved a second fame. 
 
 In his preface to " Les Trois Mousquetaires," 
 Alexandre Dumas yf/^ has left us a charming picture 
 of his father at the time these great romances were 
 written. Their author was then working in some 
 modest lodgings, overlooking the courtyard of the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 77 
 
 house (No. 2 2 Rue de Rivoli), his rooms plainly 
 furnished with a big white-wood table, a sofa, two 
 chairs, a few books on the mantelpiece, and an 
 iron bedstead, where he slept for a few hours when 
 the evening-'s work was prolonged into the night. 
 "It was there," adds the son, addressing his father 
 in apostrophe, " that you sought refuge, to be un- 
 disturbed by the importunate, and all the parasites 
 who incessantly besieged that door which you 
 did not close half often enough. Clothed in your 
 pantalons a pied and shirt sleeves, your arms bare 
 to the shoulder, your collar unfastened, you sat 
 down to work at seven in the morning and you 
 kept at it until seven at night, when I came to 
 dine with you. 
 
 " Sometimes I found your lunch untouched, on 
 the little table by your side, where the servant had 
 placed it. You had forgotten to eat it. Then, 
 whilst we dined and dined well, on the dishes 
 which you yourself had prepared, you recounted 
 to me, by way of relaxation, all that your characters 
 had done during the day, and rejoiced in the 
 thought of what they were going to do, on the 
 morrow. This lasted for some months. 
 
 " Ah, those happy days ! We were both of an 
 age : you were forty-two, and I was twenty ! " 
 
 Fiorentino declares that Dumas, being accustomed 
 to fill his twenty sheets a day, finished " Monte 
 
78 LIFE AND AVRITINGS OF 
 
 Cristo," In his presence, on the fifteenth page. 
 Not wishing to depart from his rule, the romancer 
 took a fresh sheet, wrote at the top " Les Trols 
 Mousquetalres," and completed five sheets of the 
 new story before finishing for the day ! 
 
 It will be readily understood that with his bo7i- 
 hoviie and contagious wit Dumas's social popularity 
 was enormous. Villemessant, whose stories of 
 "the master" were always amusing and sometimes 
 trustworthy, tells us 
 
 " When he spoke, the most celebrated guests 
 were silent, In order to listen to him ; when he 
 entered a salon, the wit of the men and the beauty 
 of the women — all that makes for the joy of life — 
 were eclipsed by the glory of this one man. He 
 was really the King of Paris, sovereign by virtue 
 of intelligence and wit — the only man for a whole 
 century, who had made himself adored by all classes 
 of society." 
 
 Janin relates that on the occasion of the Duke 
 of Montpensier's wedding with the Infanta of Spain 
 a grand fete was given at Madrid. An old diplomat, 
 arriving late, was astonished to see there a man 
 dressed simply in black, and a perfect stranger, to 
 whom the greatest lords of Spain were listening 
 with all their ears, forgetting the queen and the 
 royal bridal pair in their enjoyment. He asked 
 who the attraction was. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 79 
 
 ^' Pardic2i,'' answered his friend, "that's Alexandre 
 Dumas — who else do you think it would be ? " 
 
 A certain Parisian named M. Pitre-Chevalier, being 
 a sort of Lyon-Hunter, was (so Villemessant declares) 
 anxious to obtain the presence of all the social cele- 
 brities at his salons, and made unheard-of efforts to 
 secure the lion of the hour for one of his evenings. 
 Dumas chose his salons, as he chose his theatre, or 
 the newspaper for his fetiillctons, and when it was 
 known in Paris " Dumas will be at So-and-so's to- 
 night ! " society attacked the lucky host's house as if 
 it had been the doors of a theatre, on the nicjht of a 
 premiere, all the company stood up as he entered, 
 and his journey towards his host was a sort of 
 triumphal procession. Pitre-Chevalier had his way; 
 but the next day the gossips of the boulevards 
 talked of nothing but Dumas's latest mot. Asked 
 by a friend whether he had enjoyed the evening 
 with ]\I. Lyon-Hunter, Dumas replied, 
 
 " Well, I should have been very bored, if it hadn't 
 been for — myself! " 
 
 At one of these soirees Dumas was wearinof the 
 ribbon of a certain order, having recently been made 
 a commandant, and an envious friend remarked 
 upon it. 
 
 " My dear fellow," he said, " that cordon is a 
 wretched colour ! One would think it was your 
 woollen vest that was showine ! " 
 
80 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 "Oh no, my dear d'E ," replied Dumas with 
 
 a smile, " you're mistaken ; it's not a bad colour : it 
 is exactly the shade of the sour grapes in the fable." 
 
 Gozlan one day asked Dumas why a certain bete 
 noir of his had received the Legion of Honour. 
 
 "Don't you know?" answered the author, look- 
 ing wise, and as if he had some State secret to 
 reveal. 
 
 " Certainly I don't know — you don't know either ! " 
 
 " Ah, but I do, though ! " 
 
 " Then,— tell me ! " 
 
 " They've given him a cross — because — he hadn't 
 one! 
 
 This is as severe as Mark Twain's comment that 
 "few escape that distinction." 
 
 Writing furiously at his romances, our author 
 exiled himself from society as much as possible, and 
 for that purpose retired to some rented rooms in the 
 " Henry IV." pavilion at St Germain ; but even 
 there he was constantly disturbed by friends, para- 
 sites and duns, and in despair found it necessary to 
 move further afield. Driven from St Germain, he 
 discovered between that town and Marly a site which 
 seemed to him to be an ideal one for a quiet, unpre- 
 tentious house, which should be his own — he was 
 tired of living in other peoples' houses. He arranged 
 with an architect for a two- or three-roomed cottage, 
 where he could work in peace. But as he discussed 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 81 
 
 the plans, the love of splendour with which his 
 African descent had cursed or blessed him, came 
 uppermost, and at the tempting suggestions of others 
 his ideas expanded at such a pace that from a few 
 hundred francs, Dumas found himself paying — or 
 owing — tens of thousands. In July he gave a 
 breakfast on the site of the future palace, inviting 
 his guests to meet him there, three years later, to 
 see his new home. As Mr Fitzgerald says, "this 
 was like one of the dramatic appointments given in 
 ' Monte Cristo.' " 
 
 From this period in particular, dated that system 
 of collaboration which lasted for some years, and of 
 which so much too much has been made. The 
 editors who urged this ardent, insoiiciant worker 
 to undertake twice or three times as much as any 
 ordinary mortal could produce, were the first to 
 attack him, either for non-fulfilment of contract, or 
 for his " workshop " methods, as they were pleased 
 to call them. 
 
 Inevitably Dumas, in the full blaze of success, was 
 the butt of the envious, for envy is the shadow 
 thrown by the sun of fame. A young gentleman of 
 the name of Jacquot (who, like a kitchen-rogue, 
 dubbed himself " Eugene de Mirecourt "), choosing 
 to consider himself offended by the great man, 
 brought before the " Societe des Gens de Lettres," a 
 resolution levelled at our author (during his absence), 
 
82 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 condemning him for keeping " a literary factory " ; 
 for " setting up as a C07yphde of shame " ; and for 
 "laying his hand on Reputation, that white-winged 
 maiden, dragging her through the mire, and violat- 
 ing her before the public gaze," with much more 
 to the same effect. Unfortunately Dumas himself, 
 calling in unexpectedly, interrupted the back-biting 
 process ; and when he left, after a fierce encounter 
 with his circle of enemies, they passed a mild, emas- 
 culated resolution which, coming from so unimportant 
 a body, had little effect. 
 
 Theodore de Banville, in his " Odes Funambu- 
 lesques," has some amusing but quite untranslatable 
 verse on this episode. Dumas is passing by, when 
 a " mirecourt " darts out of the crowd, and abuses 
 the great man in the foulest manner. After the 
 thing has exhausted its bag of spleen, Dumas 
 replies. 
 
 Docile au mirecourt, il lui laissa tout dire, 
 Pencha son front reveur . . . puis, avec un sourire, 
 Fit : ' As-tu dcjeune, Jacquot ? ' ^ 
 
 Thwarted thus, Jacquot published his venomous 
 pamphlet, " Maison Dumas et Cie," by which he 
 got little credit or profit. There was a hall-truth 
 in this lie, and if it had been told with moderation 
 and in a friendly and appreciative way, it might 
 
 1 Dumas politely allowed the mireco'nt to say its say; then inclined 
 his thoughtful brow towards the crc;..are and aslvcd wuh a sunle, 
 " Hast thou lunched to-day, Jacquot?" 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 83 
 
 have had a salutary effect. As it was, both the 
 squib and the motive for it were ahke contemptible. 
 One of the "workmen" attacked challenged the 
 slanderer, who, at the instance of Dumas, was 
 sentenced to fifteen days' imprisonment. Dumas 
 fits took up his father's cause, and challenged Jac- 
 quot also ; but that gentleman, with characteristic 
 cowardice, shirked the encounter. Yet this con- 
 tractor for the gutter press of Paris had not written 
 in vain ; for most subsequent biographies of Dumas, 
 whether in English or in French, seem to have 
 been founded on Jacquot's statements, and to be 
 actuated by his spirit. 
 
 In 1S46 the Duke of Montpensier, younger 
 brother of the ill-fated Orleans, was betrothed by 
 Louis Philippe to the Infanta of Spain, and set out 
 for Madrid, for the wedding. The French Govern- 
 ment invited Dumas to accompany the prince and 
 act as official histriographer on this important 
 occasion. Further, he was instructed to go forward 
 to Algiers, and, in his gay, informative and incisive 
 way, to " teach " France all about its new colony. 
 A friendship had sprung up between the young 
 Duke and Dumas, and the arrangement was a 
 pleasant one for all parties. The writer, his vanity 
 flattered by the commission, accepted, although at 
 the very shortest notice, and without for a moment 
 considering the consequences to himself. 
 
84 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 The Royal party arrived at Madrid in October ; 
 the wedding duly took place, and Dumas received 
 the cordon of Charles III. on the occasion of the 
 auspicious ceremony. In due course he visited 
 Tangiers, in the State vessel Le Vdloce, called at 
 Gibraltar, crossed again to Tetuan, and took an 
 honourable share in the delivery of some French- 
 men, captured by the Moors. Although he did not 
 make a long stay at Algiers — where Marshal 
 Bugeaud failed to meet him as arranged — Dumas 
 sailed on to Tunis and the site of ancient Carthage, 
 and duly embodied his adventures in two series of 
 "Impressions" — " De Paris a Cadix," and " Le 
 Veloce." 
 
 All' this was wormwood to Dumas's enemies In 
 Paris, and they were numerous and Influential. 
 On his return his travels were made the subject 
 of a savage attack on the Government and their 
 envoy, in the press, and in the Chamber of Deputies. 
 Now, although M. Salvandy had expressly charged 
 Dumas with the mission to Algiers, and although 
 M. Guizot, the Foreign Minister, had given the 
 author special Instructions, as well as a passport, 
 placing him under national protection, the mInIster«L 
 made a discreditable attempt to explain away their 
 connection with " ce monsieur," as he was Insolently 
 called, and to pacify their enemies at the expense 
 of Dumas's reputation. It Is pleasant, by way of 
 
ALEXANDRE DUiMAS 85 
 
 contrast, to read Madame de Girardin's warm and 
 generous defence of our author, and her scorn of the 
 "gentlemen" who had insuked the man of genius. 
 For, when Dumas and Maquet sent challenges to 
 the depuiies who had abused them, those gentlemen 
 sheltered themselves behind their public position 
 and would not " come out and fight." 
 
 The following )ear was a busy one for the 
 returned "envoy," for no less than seven news- 
 papers combined to sue him for arrears of work due. 
 One in particular had a genuine grievance ; for the 
 impulsive writer, in order to follow the fortunes 
 of the young IVIontpensier, had left what is known 
 in English as "The Memoirs of a Physician" in 
 a state of startling incompleteness. The trial was 
 an amusing one, for the culprit conducted his own 
 defence, and proved himself as vivacious in dialogue 
 with his tongue as with his pen. After three days' 
 hearinof the court ordered the defendant to resume 
 the " Memoirs " within a month, and pay ^4 a day 
 for any delay beyond that time. He was threatened 
 with imprisonment if the arrears of fines became 
 too great ; and in addition was fined ^120 for each 
 of the seven journals. Needless to say, nothing 
 more was heard of the fines, and the whole affair 
 was naturally a splendid testimony to the author's 
 popularity. 
 
 Dumas the playwright had for some time been 
 
86 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 embroiled with the theatres, and in particular with 
 the Comedie Fran^aise — he gives an amusing 
 account of his " Odyssey " at the Fran9aise in the 
 "Souvenirs Dramatiques"; — and now that fame and 
 fortune had come to him he determined, with his 
 usual magnificence of ideas, to have not only his 
 own chateau, but also his own theatre, where no 
 jealousies should come between his genius and the 
 success of his plays. The young Duke of Mont- 
 pensier secured for the dramatist a patent for the 
 new theatre, which was to be called the " Theatre 
 Montpensier " ; the Hotel Foulon, on the Boule- 
 vard du Temple, was bought and pulled down, and 
 in its place the new theatre rose — a splendid build- 
 ing costing over ;^30,ooo, decorated most artistically 
 and dedicated by its founder to the dramatic art of 
 Europe. Unfortunately for Dumas, the Duke — at 
 the instance of his father, Louis Philippe, it is said 
 —withdrew this permission for the use of his name, 
 and accordingly the new playhouse was christened 
 the " Historique." On the 21st of February 1847 
 the first performance was given ; the duke and his 
 suite being present. The play chosen was a 
 dramatised version of " La Reine Margot." 
 
 There is an anecdote told in this connection, which 
 is truly illustrative of the characters of prince and 
 author respectively. When, after the Revolution of 
 '48, the Duke went into exile, his box was religiously 
 
THK ''L'HKAIKK H 1S1( )Kl(.>ri;,"' JSoUi.KVAKl) DK TKMPI.K^ I'AIUS. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 87 
 
 kept vacant for him for a whole year, although he 
 had long- since ceased to pay for it. Dumas learnt 
 later that the Duke, when he received his tickets, 
 was wont to burst out laughing at the quixotic 
 manager's " buffoonery " ; and the proprietor then 
 decided that the box should be devoted to public 
 use in future, remarking that the yearly rent of a 
 box was too high a price to pay for the privilege 
 of making a prince laugh. 
 
 In July of this year Dumas, according to his 
 pledge, gave a magnificent reception to six hundred 
 guests, as a house-warming for his new palace of 
 " Monte Cristo." The scheme had rapidly out- 
 grown the first modest plan, and had been 
 developed on the most lavish scale. " A beauti- 
 ful building, half-chateau, half-villa, had risen in 
 the meantime," says Fitzgerald, " embowered in 
 trees, and in the centre of a wild garden. Its 
 white stone walls were covered with exquisite 
 traceries and sculptures copied from those of Jean 
 Goujon at the Louvre, and executed by Choistat, 
 conspicuous in the centre being Dumas's arms, 
 with the motto 'Jaime qui in'aime.' Inside, the 
 walls were decorated from designs by Klagmann ; 
 while the ' Arabian chamber,' after the pattern 
 of the Alhambra, was a marvel of Eastern gorge- 
 ousness and decoration. The gardens were charm- 
 ing, all leafy and shaded. On the little island in 
 
88 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the lake rose an exquisite little Norman building, 
 intended as a sort of kiosk, covered with exquisite 
 carvings, the designs being by Mansson, a decora- 
 tor of great eminence. Blended with the sound 
 of falline waters — for an artificial torrent had been 
 contrived, that tumbled over rocks as artificially 
 arranged — was heard the chattering of monkeys, 
 and the screaming of parrots, while huge barbaric 
 dogs of strange shapes and colour ranged through 
 the groves. Such was * Monte Cristo,' which was 
 now the talk of Paris." 
 
 Here Dumas's hospitality was princely, unlimited. 
 "At his Abbotsford 'Monte Cristo,'" Mr Lang 
 reminds us, "the gates were open to everybody 
 but bailiffs. His dog asked other dogs to come 
 and stay ; twelve came, making thirteen in all. The 
 old butler wanted to turn them adrift, and Dumas 
 consented and repented. 
 
 "'Michel,' he said, 'there are some expenses 
 which a man's social position and the character 
 which he has had the ill-luck to receive from 
 heaven force upon him. I don't believe these 
 dogs ruin me. Let them bide. But, in the 
 interests of their own good luck, see that they 
 are not thirteen, an unfortunate number!* 
 
 "'Monsieur, I'll drive one of them away.' 
 
 "'No, no, Michel; let a fourteenth come. . . . 
 These dogs cost me some ^3 a month,' said 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 89 
 
 Dumas. ' A dinner to five or six friends would cost 
 thrice as much, and, when they went home, they 
 would say my wine was good, but certainly that 
 my books were bad.' " 
 
 The owner himself retired to the pavilion to 
 work, whilst his parasites enjoyed the unbounded 
 hospitality of the establishment, and roamed at will 
 throughout the splendid mansion. It will readily 
 be understood that under the irresistible influence 
 of this man, St Germain became a new place ; it 
 was filled with life and gaiety. Dumas rented 
 the local theatre, hired a company of actors, and 
 produced the translation of " Hamlet," for which 
 ]\Ieurice and himself were responsible. Indeed, 
 so transformed was this suburb of Paris, that 
 Louis Philippe, we are told, wondered at the 
 change ; and wished the same process to be applied 
 to Versailles, which was certainly dull enough. 
 However, when it was suggested to him by 
 Montalivet that Dumas should be brought to 
 Versailles, the king turned his back on the mala- 
 droit courtier ! 
 
 In 1847 the "reform agitation" broke out in 
 France, and ended the following February in the 
 downfall of the house of Orleans.^ Louis Philippe 
 
 * Dumas is silent concerning this Revolution, and Vandam tells us 
 that he never would discuss it. It is the opinion of the author of 
 "An Englishman in Paris" that the romancer was a trifle ashamed of 
 the Republican intriguers of that time. 
 
90 LIFE AND AVIUTINGS OF 
 
 fled to England ; and Louis Napoleon became 
 President of the French Republic, making him- 
 self Emperor, in 185 1, by means of the infamous 
 coup dUtat. And from this epoch onward, the 
 meteoric brilliance of Dumas's star be^an to fade. 
 
 Several causes contributed to this sudden and 
 overwhelming change of fortune. Our author was, 
 as Ferry says, a man of independence of character 
 and opinion, " and this opinion manifested itself 
 in an originality as rare as it was disinterested. 
 When Dumas had known a prince in private life, 
 or in exile, he broke with him as soon as he 
 became King or Emperor," — as in the cases of 
 Louis Philippe and Napoleon III. "Misfortune 
 and exile found Dumas friendly and respectful ; 
 triumph rendered him prudent, even antagonistic." 
 Thus, when he joined with his brother "liberals'' 
 in commencing the agitation of 1847, he acted 
 with a difference. He founded a journal i^Le 
 Hlois) in order to give publicity to his political 
 views ; and he protested indignantly against the 
 destruction of the statue of the Duke of Orleans 
 (Louis Philippe's son) as a wanton and disgrace- 
 ful act. He went further, and dedicated one of 
 his books to the exiled young Montpensier ; and 
 by the time that the elections came on, Dumas 
 had achieved the reputation of being an Orleanist ! 
 
 Still, he decided to offer himself as a candi- 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 91 
 
 date for the Chamber of Deputies — not for his 
 native department of the Aisnc, where, in conse- 
 quence of the Soissons exploit, he was considered 
 an extreme "red"; nor for St Germain, because 
 in the revolutionary days of February he had lost 
 his command of the national guard there, by 
 suggesting that he should lead his 750 comrades 
 to Paris, a la Marseillaise, to the help of the 
 people. It was suggested to him that the de- 
 partment of Yonne would be sure to acclaim him, 
 and accordingly he went off to Lower Burgundy. 
 When it was too late Dumas discovered that his 
 chances in this district were fatally compromised 
 because of his " Royalist sympathies " ! He was 
 mobbed, and fired at in the street. In vain he 
 harangued a hostile crowd of three thousand 
 Yonnais, and converted them into ardent sup- 
 porters ; he was not elected — perhaps because 
 he had prophesied Prussia's conquest of France, 
 twenty-two years later — although in his chant 
 " Mourir pour la Patrie," which Dumas had in- 
 troduced into his play of " Le Chevalier de 
 Maison Rouge," he had given the Paris mob its 
 " Marseillaise." (He had previously refused to 
 write a "national anthem" to suit the Govern- 
 ment.) Dumas was destined never to achieve a 
 place in French politics, however ardently he 
 desired it. 
 
92 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 In M. Blaze de Bury's study of our author there 
 is a witty account, which we wish we could repro- 
 duce in full, of a visit to Joigny paid by the writer, 
 a certain M. du Chaffault, with Dumas, during the 
 novelist's electoral campaign. 
 
 Du Chaffault, who lived at Sens, was awakened 
 one morning, he tells us, to find a " horrible big 
 devil " standing by his bedside. The apparition 
 laughingly introduced himself as Alexandre Dumas, 
 who had heard that this young man was " a good 
 fellow," and would be of use to him It Joigny. 
 Whilst the host hurriedly and bewilderedly dressed 
 himself, Dumas changed his worn boots for a new 
 pair of his young friend's, and, adds the narrator, 
 " those he left are now in my library. I show 
 them to visitors as the thousand-and-first volume of 
 Alexandre Dumas." By the time they had started 
 for Joigny the pair were like old friends, and 
 Dumas's chat en route made the time fly wonder- 
 fully. At the second stage the candidate borrowed 
 twenty francs from his new acquaintance, for the 
 postillion, and the ingenuous young Du Chaffault 
 duly entered in his note-book, "Alexandre Dumas, 
 twenty francs." The same thing occurred at Joigny, 
 where everyone came to the young man for money ; 
 and as Dumas invited everyone who accosted him 
 to dine with them that evening, the six hundred 
 francs which Du Chaffault had taken with him 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 93 
 
 were gone by the following morning-. " I returned 
 to Sens," he says, " my heart full of joy at having 
 seen and heard a man of genius. I still preserve 
 the accounts I paid, which recall to me my two days 
 passed in fairyland with * Monte Cristo.' I regret 
 only one thing — that I had not had the good sense 
 to put ten thousand francs into my pocket, so that 
 I might have prolonged this incomparable experi- 
 ence for a \veek or two." 
 
 Of course this political failure brought social 
 consequences, but worse remained behind. The 
 papers, being filled with public affairs, required no 
 more fciiillctons, and the " Theatre Historique," 
 which at first had succeeded, did terribly bad busi- 
 ness, and eventually closed its doors. It was after- 
 wards pulled down to make room for one of the 
 boulevards of the Second Empire. Meanwhile 
 " Monte Cristo " required an enormous income to 
 maintain it, and it will easily be understood that 
 this literary " cigale," who had saved no store for 
 the winter of misfortune, soon came to grief. He 
 was obliged in the end to abandon the scarcely- 
 finished palace and the newly-opened theatre to 
 his creditors. It was a cruel blow to the great 
 man's hopes and vanities ; but he bore it well. 
 He had reigned, like his old employer Louis 
 Philippe, from revolution to revolution. 
 
94 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Wanderings, Decline and Death (1848-1870). 
 
 Dumas had not given way without a struggle. 
 He had produced " Monte Cristo " at his ill-fated 
 theatre, and tried the extraordinary experiment of 
 playing it, half one night and the other half the 
 next ; and he had mortgaged his " palace " heavily. 
 In 1849, ^t ^^^^ Historique, he brought out his 
 play of " Comte Hermann," the tone of which is 
 in striking contrast with that of "Antony" and 
 " Richard Darlington ; " and its preface contains 
 a sincere disavowal of the " criminal-passionate " 
 themes of "twenty years before." In the same 
 year Dumas attended the wedding of the Prince 
 of Oranofeat Amsterdam ; and was also summoned 
 to a council of state, composed of playwrights and 
 others, seven in all, to consider the question of the 
 censorship. Unhappily, nothing came of the dis- 
 cussion. It was probably owing to his increasing 
 embarrassments that when poor Marie Dorval died, 
 during this year, her old friend was able to do 
 little more than struorgfle to collect from others 
 the necessary funds to bury her decently. 
 
 In 1 85 1, as we have already said, the Republic 
 fell, and buried Dumas's future in the ruins. He fled 
 to Brussels, whither Hugo had already gone, and 
 there, from December 1851 to January 1853, the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 95 
 
 novelist lived and worked, quietly but pleasantly, 
 at No. 'J2), Rue de Waterloo. Almost every even- 
 ing- he was visited by a few old friends, of whom, 
 of course, Hugo was the chief, and some of them 
 would stay until two or three in the morning, sitting 
 round the tea-table, chatting and laughing, w^hilst 
 the host worked on above-stairs, now and then 
 descending to exchange a word or two with his 
 company. Here he turned out fifty volumes, for 
 which, as he remarks, his enemies would have a 
 task to find him the "anonymous collaborators" 
 of whom they made so much. 
 
 At times, however, the ex-proprietor of ' Monte 
 Cristo ' would indulge in an evening's gaiety. One 
 such gorgeous supper-party is described by Emile 
 Deschanel in his volume of travels, " A Pied et en 
 Wasron." From eleven till dawn the ofuests revelled 
 in a never-ceasing series of delights and surprises, 
 plays acted on a lilliputian stage by celebrated per- 
 formers, Spanish singers and dancers, the gayest 
 and most brilliant conversation — all in beautifully 
 decorated salons, hung with the armorial escut- 
 cheons of Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Hugo, Nodier 
 and Dumas himself. Such experiences always 
 proved precious memories to those favoured ones 
 who enjoyed them. 
 
 Misfortunes indeed, did not come singly to Dumas. 
 His faithful Maquet had left him in 185 1. Charles 
 
9C LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Reade's account of this rupture is probably the 
 most truthful, as it is the most charitable : — 
 
 " Dumas, if I understand rightly, used to treat 
 with the publishers and managers, and settle with 
 his collaborator. Dumas fell into arrears with him, 
 arrears which, if his heart alone had been to be 
 consulted, would have been paid to the centime ; 
 but unfortunately he had other creditors, who in- 
 terposed with legal powers. In short, the situation 
 was so desperate that Maquet had no course open 
 to him but to withdraw from the connection ; he did 
 so, leaving 130,000 francs behind him — say ^5,200." 
 
 In 1856-8 Maquet brought an action against 
 Dumas, but although his share of the authorship 
 of several of the most famous romances was 
 declared, the court awarded him no further funds — ■ 
 a significant fact. 
 
 In 1853 the exile wearied to see his beloved 
 Paris again, and as public affairs had quieted 
 down, and as no doubt pressing invitations were 
 issued by his friends, Dumas returned to Paris 
 full of a new enthusiasm. At the establishment 
 of the " Maison D'Or," in the Rue Lafitte, rooms 
 were allotted to the great man, and a paper 
 was issued under his editorship. This was the 
 Moiisquetairc, which started with the most brilliant 
 prospects. The circulation throve exceedingly : the 
 master slaved at his desk ; and his name, and 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 97 
 
 his kindly treatment of the young and aspiring, 
 brought a group of clever young writers about 
 him. But the paper was never managed on business 
 principles, Dumas himself being the chief sinner in 
 this respect ; all was goodwill, confusion, gaiety and 
 improvidence. The " staff " were innumerable ; and 
 the noise of the many journalists crowded into the 
 little rooms of the " Maison D'Or" was alarming. 
 Audebrand tells us that the neighbour on one side 
 would cry to his valet, " They must be strangling 
 some one next door ! " and the neighbour on the 
 other side would overhear the remark, and laugh- 
 ingly reply, " There must be a woman in labour in 
 the house ! " 
 
 In the same volume are some amusing stories of 
 the great man's menage — how he had a triple 
 defence in the shape of three servants, who 
 struggled to keep duns and beggars from their 
 master's presence. A certain German, however, 
 called one day, sat down on the step and would 
 not leave ; and Dumas was eventually aroused 
 by the perpetual assaults on the door. It ended 
 as it always did; the man was "starving" and 
 would throv.' himself into the Seine if M. Dumas 
 did not take pity on him. The great man pushed 
 fifty francs into the beggar's hands — and found 
 himself with only two francs with which to buy 
 eggs for the omelette for his dinner ! 
 
98 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Whilst the journahst worked, the dramatist was 
 not idle. No less than four pieces were produced in 
 1854, — " Romulus," a one-act play, at the Comedie 
 Fran^aise ; " La Jeunessede Louis XIV.," a comedy, 
 full of Moliere and Louis's first love Marie de 
 Mancini (played at Brussels) ; " Le Marbrier," a 
 powerful play (at the Vaudeville), and " Conscience," 
 at the Odeon. Of the two dramas, highly moral, 
 not to say didactic, in tone, the latter was dedicated 
 to Hugo. It was a daring act, but Dumas was 
 as imprudent in this friendship as in all others. 
 
 To M. Blaze de Bury we are indebted for a vivid 
 sketch of " Dumas chez hii" about this time, which 
 he compares with the mournful home of Heine 
 who was then also living in Paris : — 
 
 "You passed," he writes, "from the shades of 
 death to the brilliant light of day ; to loud voices 
 and all the stir and bustle of a manufactory ! The 
 air was filled with voices in debate ; you trampled 
 upon bon mots, in the progress of your conversa- 
 tion. Then, in the brief intervals of silence, 3^ou 
 heard a pen quietly, lightly, scratch the paper : it was 
 Dumas, seated at his daily work. Without pausing 
 in his writing, he held out his left hand to you 
 with a smile. No tumult disturbed him ; and a 
 word thrown into the discourse here and there 
 told you that he was taking part in it." 
 
 " Twenty times interrupted in one morning," adds 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 99 
 
 Villemessant, " twenty times he took up his work 
 just where he had left it, to chat with a journahst, 
 an actress or a director ; he set aside a romance, 
 to settle with a collaborator concerning- the scenario 
 of another book ; but, as soon as the collaborator 
 had gone, Dumas went back to his narrative, of 
 which he had never for an instant lost the thread." 
 
 Abraham Hayward has quoted for us an account 
 of Dumas's day's work, with less rhetoric but 
 more detail. " He rises at six ; before him are 
 laid thirty-five sheets of paper of the largest size ; 
 he takes up his pen, and writes, in a hand that 
 M. de Saint Omer would envy, till eleven. At 
 eleven he breakfasts, always in company ; and during 
 this meal his spirits never flag. At twelve he re- 
 sumes the pe-n, not to quit it again until six in the 
 evening. The dinner-hour finds him as lively as 
 at breakfast. If by any chance he has not filled 
 the allotted number of sheets a momentary shade 
 passes over his face : he steals away and returns 
 two or three hours later, to enjoy the pleasures 
 of the evening." 
 
 When the Queen visited Paris, in 1855, the actors 
 of the Comedie Fran^aise gave a performance of the 
 " Demoiselles de St Cyr " at Her Majesty's request, 
 for she had seen the piece in London, and had been 
 so pleased with it that she wished to see it again. 
 
 " Two or three days after the performance at St 
 
100 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Cloud," says Vandam, " I ran against Dumas in the 
 Chaussee d'Antin. 
 
 " * Well, you ought to be pleased,* I said ; ' it 
 appears that not only has the Queen asked to see 
 your piece, which she has already seen in London, 
 but that she enjoyed it even better the second time 
 than the first,' 
 
 " ' Yes, it is like its author,' he replied ; ' the more 
 one knows him the more one loves him. But I 
 know what would have amused her still more than 
 seeing my play — to see me also ! Honestly, it 
 would have amused me too ! ' 
 
 " ' Then why did you not ask for an audience ? 
 I am certain it would have been granted,' I re- 
 marked, because I felt convinced that Her Majesty 
 would have been only too pleased .to confer an 
 honour upon such a man. 
 
 "'Well, I did think of it,' came the reply; *a 
 woman as remarkable as she is, who will probably 
 remain the first woman of the century, ought to 
 have met the greatest man in France ! It is a pity, 
 for she will go away without having seen the 
 best sight in France — Alexandre, King of the 
 world of Romance — Dumas the Ignorant ! ' ^ Then 
 he roared with laughter, and went away." 
 
 ^ Dumas the professor of chemistry was called " Dumas le savant." 
 '' Done," laughed the novelist, " Je suis Dumas rignorant." — Note by 
 A. V. 
 
ALEXAIVDRE DUMAS 101 
 
 The romancer was still full of energy, physical and 
 mental. M. About, in his oration at the unveiling- 
 of the Dumas statue in 1883, told an anecdote illus- 
 trative of this, which we give in Mr Lang's words : 
 
 " He met the great man at Marseilles. Dumas 
 picked up M. About, literally lifted him in his em- 
 brace, and carried him off to see a play which he 
 had written in three days. The play was a success ; 
 the supper was prolonged till three in the morning. 
 M. About was almost asleep as he walked home, 
 but Dumas was as fresh as if he had just got out of 
 bed. 
 
 "*Go to sleep, old man,' he said. 'I, who am 
 only fifty-five, have \\\x^& feuilletons to write, which 
 must be posted to-morrow. If I have time I shall 
 knock up a little piece for Montigny — the idea is 
 running in my head.' So next morning M. About 
 saw the \\\xq.q. feuilletons made up for the post, and 
 another packet addressed to M. Montigny : it was 
 the play ' L' Invitation a la Valse,' a chef-d'oeuvre ! "^ 
 
 The Alousqueiaire di&d in 1857, but Dumas at once 
 started another journal on the same lines, called 
 Mofite Crista. This year he crossed the Channel 
 with his son, and he has given us, in his " Causeries," 
 an account of his brief visit chez nous. 
 
 The pair crossed from Calais to Dover one Mon- 
 
 1 Dumas himself states that he wrote this play in London in 1S33 
 (see " Causeries "). 
 
102 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 day night towards the close of May. On the Tues- 
 day Dumas />ere visited Madame Tussaud''s (he was 
 curious to see the guillotine of Louis XVI. about 
 which he had written so much), and spent an hour or 
 so in Hyde Park. Then the party took a trip down 
 the river to Blackwall, dined there, and returned to 
 witness the illuminations in honour of the Queen's 
 birthday, and to see that fascinating but saddening 
 sight, the Haymarket at midnight. Next day the 
 party drove down to Epsom to witness Blinkbonny's 
 Derby. During Thursday and Friday Dumas at- 
 tended Gordon-Cumming's panoramic lecture on his 
 hunting adventures in South Africa, and had a chat 
 with that explorer afterwards, visited the Crystal 
 Palace, and witnessed that curious entertainment of 
 " Lord Chief Justice Nicholson," the '''poses 
 plastiques " and mock-trial, at the Coal-hole. On 
 Saturday he hurried back across the Channel to 
 avoid the British Sunday, of which he had had a 
 most satisfying experience during his previous visit 
 in 1833. 
 
 The brief papers on these topics are full of gaiety 
 and shrewd observation, and we can only regret that 
 this prince of travellers did not " do " England on a 
 larger scale, and make it the subject of " Impressions 
 de Voyage " in several volumes. 
 
 When a writer of one nation atteuTpts to repro- 
 duce the racial character of the people of another 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 103 
 
 country, it is only just to be indulgent, and welcome 
 any signs of accuracy and appreciation. Dumas 
 was not a Chauvinist , his liberal principles and 
 the breadth of mind which European travel gave 
 him, guarded him against any of those hysterical 
 outbursts to which the ordinary Frenchman is 
 subject. True, we do not recognise social England 
 of a century ago. in " Kean" and " Richard Darling- 
 ton;" and "Catherine Howard" is, as Dumas 
 frankly confesses, a violation of history, which he 
 only justifies on the plea that it produced some off- 
 spring — that is, that it was done with a purpose. But 
 he has given us the most vivid account of the last days 
 of Charles I. that romance has yet achieved ; he could 
 see something to admire in each of the two great 
 antagonists of the Civil War ; and in " San Felice " 
 his portrait of Nelson has much In it that is judicious 
 and true. Dumas certainly attributes the victory at 
 Waterloo to God, and not to Wellington, in which 
 he is foolish ; he condemns the British treatment of 
 Napoleon at St Helena, in which he is undoubtedly 
 right The conception of the Englishman which 
 Dumas formed is largely that which Jules Verne 
 has rendered familiar to the British schoolboy, and 
 there is this to be said for it — the type has many of 
 the best qualities which we claim for ourselves as a 
 race. Sir John Tanlay in the " Compagnons de 
 Jehu" may or may not be a faithful reproduction of 
 
104 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the " aristocrat " who travelled Europe, following 
 in the track of Byron, during the first half of the last 
 century ; but certainly he is a gentleman, and could 
 never have been drawn by a hater of our people. 
 
 It may further be pointed out, that Dumas re- 
 ceived his inspiration as a dramatist from Shake- 
 speare, and as a romancer, from Scott, both of whom 
 he fully and gratefully admired. " Whenever he 
 met an Englishman," says Vandam, " he considered 
 it his particular duty to make himself agreeable to 
 him as part of the debt he owed to Shakespeare and 
 Walter Scott." If Dumas has made fun — many 
 may think legitimate fun — of some of our English 
 characteristics and customs, he has at least known 
 how to admire our beautiful women. The sight of 
 a bevy of fair girls in Rotten Row, he tells us, 
 caused him to realise in a flash that native quality 
 in the heroines of Shakespeare, which until that 
 moment he had never quite understood. 
 
 Some of the remarks in his chapters on Eng- 
 land are worth quoting here. " The English, the 
 least artistic and most industrial (I say ' industrial,' 
 not 'industrious') of peoples, have almost achieved 
 art by force of industry." . . . "In Hyde Park you 
 find the finest horses and the prettiest women in 
 London, and therefore in the whole world. But to 
 do the Englishmen justice, their first glance is for 
 the horse, and, one might almost add, their first 
 
ALEXANDRE DUxMAS 105 
 
 desire." . . . "The Entjlish think that the biLrcrcr a 
 thing is, the greater it is." . . . " England fully de- 
 serves the title of a great nation, if power implies 
 greatness." ..." Everything is forbidden in England 
 on a Sunday ; after having worked six days one 
 does not rest on the seventh, there, 07i sennuie ! 
 London on a Sunday gives one an idea of what the 
 kingdom of the Sleeping Beauty was like before the 
 Princess was awakened." ..." The Englishman 
 generally has the spleen in November. You may 
 fancy that that is because of the fog, which com- 
 mences in November and doesn't go away until 
 May. Not at all ! They have the spleen because 
 they have been deprived of the fog for four months. 
 You may ask me what the English make their fogs 
 of."* Of coal, I suppose, but that is a detail. It was 
 not the good God who made the fog, it was the 
 English." 
 
 " Posterity commences at the frontier." So said 
 Dumas, a little sadly. "The old order" had 
 changed, and fickle Paris, Paris of the Second Empire, 
 turned a contemptuous shoulder on its old favourite. 
 P" ranee had cooled down after the Revolution ; 
 analytic fiction had superseded the romantic. Partly 
 to rest from desk-work, partly to warm his genius 
 in the admiration of those strange lands where his 
 works were so well known and so welcome, Dumas 
 took to travel more and more readily. In the 
 
106 LIFE AND AVRITINGS OF 
 
 winter of 1858 he started for a Russian tour; and 
 the reason for this sudden abandonment of his 
 journal, his contracts and his friends, as given by 
 M. Ferry, is very curious — and characteristic. 
 
 Home, the spirituahst, who was then in Paris, 
 and with whom Dumas was at that time very 
 friendly, introduced the author to a Russian count 
 and countess. Home was about to marry the 
 lady's sister — the wedding was to take place in 
 St Petersburg — and the count and his wife per- 
 suaded the impulsive Dumas to leave Paris with 
 them in five days, to be " best man." Such a tour 
 had been one of the dreams of his life, and was to 
 prove one of his pleasantest memories. He hunted 
 wolves ; he visited the prisons and prisoners of 
 the Russian government ; he crossed Ladoga, and 
 explored Finland ; he encountered a burning forest, 
 in which his train ran a winning race with death ; 
 he saw the world-famous fair of Nijni Novgorod; 
 he was uproariously feted by officers at Kaliasine, 
 who broke their leave to see him on his journey; 
 he became the guest of a Kalmuck prince in the 
 Caucasus, and was royally entertained in true, 
 though somewhat terrifying, Tartar fashion ; he 
 crossed savage south Russia in a tarantass, and 
 returned via Tiflis, Trebizond and Constantinople, 
 having thoroughly enjoyed himself. And no 
 wonder, for his name was known, and excited 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 107 
 
 flattery and hospitality everywhere. He was 
 absent ten months, and yet spent only 12,000 
 francs, so generous had been the welcome of his 
 hosts throughout the Empire. 
 
 But the social miseries which he saw in the life 
 of Russia profoundly saddened Dumas. Although 
 the emancipation of the serfs has taken place since 
 his day, much of the following is still too true, and 
 was written, be it remembered, before Russia was 
 exploited by the politicians : — 
 
 " The Russian Empire is one gigantic surface, 
 and no one seems to care what lies below it. And 
 what is more curious still, is, that in this land of 
 abuses, everyone, from the Emperor to the lowest 
 serf, desires that they should cease. But as soon 
 as one lays hands on an abuse in Russia, what is 
 it makes the loudest protest ? The abuse which 
 is threatened .'* No, that would be too clumsy ! — 
 it is the abuses which fear to be assailed in their 
 turn, that make the great outcry ! " 
 
 And this is his prophecy respecting Russia's 
 future : — 
 
 " There is a taint of the old Tartar, or Hun, 
 in this race of modern conquerors, and one finds 
 it hard to reconcile their appetite for territory, with 
 the canons of civilisation and intelligence. One 
 day Russia will take Constantinople : it is written 
 in the book of fate. Fair races have always been 
 
108 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the conquering nations : the dark nationalities have 
 had only brief periods of reactionary success. Then 
 Russia will break, not into two parts, but into 
 four. ... It is impossible that an empire which 
 to-day covers a seventh part of the globe should 
 remain under one hand. If it grips too hard, the 
 hand itself will break ; if it holds its prey too 
 loosely, it will be forced to open its fingers and 
 release its charge." 
 
 In 1859 Dumas made the acquaintance of "that 
 charming woman," as Glinel calls her, Emilie 
 Cordier, better known in those days as "L'Amiral," 
 partly because she was accustomed to dress en 
 gargon, and partly because she accompanied the 
 romancer during his maritime adventures of the 
 following year. The intimacy, indeed, lasted until 
 1864. If we may say so without being misunder- 
 stood, there was something paternal in the love of 
 Dumas for the young girl, something filial in her 
 affection for him ; and yet a child was born of this 
 liaison, at the close of i860. The news of the 
 event drew from Dumas two charming letters, which 
 are worth quoting, not only because they are so 
 characteristic of the man, but because very few 
 letters from this " living pen " are extant. In his 
 introduction to " Un Gil Bias en Californie" he 
 laughingly proclaims himself the literary man who 
 writes the most books and the fewest letters. On 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS FILS. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS lOO 
 
 the other hand many of his books — notably the 
 " Causeries," and many of the "Impressions de 
 Voyage " — are in the epistolary form and spirit. 
 
 The first letter is to the mother : — 
 
 " Joy and happiness to thee, my dear love of a 
 child, for sending me the good news that my little 
 Micaella has come into the world, and that her 
 mother is going on well. 
 
 " You know, my dear little one, that I preferred 
 a girl. I will tell you why. I love Alexandre 
 better than Marie ; I see Marie only once a year, 
 whilst I can see Alexandre whenever I wish. So 
 that all the love I might have had for Marie will 
 now fall to the share of my little Micaella. I fancy 
 I see her lying by the side of her little mother, 
 whom I forbid to get up and go out before I come. 
 I am arranging to be in Paris about the 12th — it 
 will be impossible for me to be there sooner, in spite 
 of my eagerness. 
 
 " If I tell thee one thing, my dear love, thou 
 may St well believe it true. In an hour my heart 
 has grown bigger, to make room for this new 
 love ! 
 
 "If for the next few months thou dost not wish 
 to be separated from thy child, we will take a little 
 house at Iscliia, in the best air and on the prettiest 
 island in all Naples, and I will come and spend two 
 or three days every week with you all the spring 
 
no LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 through : in short, rely on me to cherish mother 
 and child. 
 
 ^^ Att revoir, ma petite cherie ; embrace for me 
 the Donna Micaella, — who is no bigger than one's 
 thumb, so Madame de C. writes. I will answer 
 hers by the next mail, as well as your mother's, 
 whom I embrace. A toi et a r enfant. 
 
 "Alex. Dumas." 
 
 " To think that I have only got thy letter to-day 
 (the 1st), and that thou wilt not get this, perhaps, 
 before the i6th ! 
 
 ^^ Je faime ! " 
 
 The second letter is to the baby : — 
 
 " MoN Cher Beb^, — As thy good grandmother — 
 whom thou must love dearly, as well as thy little 
 mother — writes me that you have need of money, I 
 send thee 1 50 francs for thy new year's gift. 
 
 " I shall try to send thee also a little hamper of 
 good things. 
 
 " There will be nothing to pay to the messenger 
 who brings it. 
 
 " I embrace thee very tenderly. — Thy father who 
 loves thee, *' Alex. Dumas." 
 
 We make no apology for adding here three letters 
 which have no strict historical value, so far as our 
 subject is concerned, but are too characteristic of 
 their author, with his large-heartedness, his ir- 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 111 
 
 reverence (which it would be foolisli to take ati 
 sSrieux), and above all, his gaiety, to be omitted. 
 The first is to Charles Nodier, and is dated 
 September 2nd, 1836: — 
 
 " My Good Charles, — My great idler, my illus- 
 trious confrere, you who know the Past and the 
 Present better than God himself — I don't speak of 
 the future lest I humiliate Him too much — be good 
 enough to tell me who originated this fatal mania of 
 autograph-hunting of which you and I are victims. 
 Someone has asked me this and I didn't know what 
 to say; or rather I replied that I had my Charles, 
 who knew everything, and that I would write to 
 him. 
 
 "Ten lines, T beg, my good Nodier; I will come 
 and thank you for them on Sunday next. You see 
 that you do not get rid of me easily ! 
 
 " Adieu ! I reverence you as a master, I love you 
 as a brother, and respect you as a son. 
 
 "Alex. Dumas." 
 
 The second letter, dated 1849, is to the critic 
 and influential journalist, Jules Janin : — 
 
 " Mv Dear Janin, — You know of the death of 
 poor litde Maillet? We have buried her this 
 morning. She leaves a mother and a young 
 child. 
 
 " The mother Is Z"]. Help us to the best of your 
 
112 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 power — with subscriptions, tlieatrical benefits, etc. — 
 to get her into a hospital for the aged. 
 
 "As for the child, if the father does not come 
 forward I will take charge of it myself. It is only 
 three years old, and it doesn't eat much yet. I will 
 work an hour a day longer, and that will be all 
 right. — A V02CS, "Alex. Dumas." 
 
 The third, which is in our possession, is no more 
 than an invitation to supper, but is interesting as 
 giving a list of the novelist's intimate friends. It 
 bears no date : — 
 
 ** My dear M^ry, — Come to-night (Monday) and 
 sup with me, 46 Rue Rutier, at 9.30 in the evening. 
 " I will take no excuse. — Yours, 
 
 " Al. Dumas." 
 
 Hugo.^ Charles. Brohan. 
 
 Lacroix. Toto. De Leuven. 
 
 Janin. Les Melingue. Person. 
 
 Meurice. Les Guyons. Moi. 
 Vaquerie. 
 
 On his return from Russia, the "wandering Jew of 
 literature," as he called himself with sad significance, 
 
 ^ The guests include Mery, the invited, a Marseilles poet-author, 
 and intimate friend of Dumas's ; Victor Hugo ; Paul Lacroix, the 
 author ; Jules Janin, the critic ; Paul Meurice, Dumas's collaborator ; 
 Auguste Vaquerie, the auliior and dramatist ; Charles Hugo ; Dumas 
 Ji/s ; Melingue, the comedian, and his wife ; (kiyons and his wife ; 
 Augustine Brohan, the actress : and Adolphe De Leuven, the friend 
 of Dumas's youth. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 113 
 
 soon wearied of Paris and his declining popularity. 
 Feelinof the desire to travel come over him once 
 more, Dumas determined on a tour in the Mediter- 
 ranean which should surpass all his previous ex- 
 plorations. In a little boat of his own, he would 
 visit Egypt, Sparta, Athens, Corinth, the site of 
 ancient Troy, Abydos, Constantinople ! Such an 
 experience had been one of the dreams of his life. 
 But no sooner was the little schooner Enwia 
 built, no sooner had the merry party left Marseilles 
 in April i860 for Nice, than the whole scheme was 
 abandoned. Dumas's hopes of pleasure, his holiday, 
 his money, his safety even, were sacrificed without a 
 murmur or a thought, to — vanity, his critics say. 
 The reader shall judge for himself. 
 
 Garibaldi had just landed in Sicily, to give force 
 and vigour to the revolt of the Italians against the 
 rule of Ferdinand. The two men were no strangers. 
 In January of that year the author had met the 
 soldier at Milan, and a warm friendship had sprung 
 up between them. But Dumas tells us that ten years 
 before that, he had recognised Garibaldi's abilit)-, 
 energy and integrity.^ 
 
 ^ So loudly (says Blaze de Bury) had Dumas proclaimed the skill 
 and valour of that other "force of nature" Garibaldi, that a certain 
 consul in Italy thought it wise to report the existence of this unknown 
 person to headquarters. But when he confessed the source of his 
 information, the consul was curtly forbidden to trouble his superiors 
 with the idle talk of a romancer ! 
 
 H 
 
114 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Immediately he heard the news, Dumas set sail 
 in his little craft for Sicily, joined Garibaldi and his 
 band of " redshirts," marched across the island with 
 them and shared their fortunes. After his con- 
 quering journey along the north of Sicily from west 
 to east, Garibaldi prepared to cross Messina Straits 
 and begin his campaign on the mainland at Reggio ; 
 but he needed arms for the recruits who flocked to 
 join him. Dumas had 50,000 francs with him — the 
 money which was to have bought him his year of 
 pleasure in classic lands. He sailed from Marseilles, 
 after " running the blockade " of a Royalist ship, 
 bought the guns with his money, and returned to 
 Italy. At Naples he acted as Garibaldi's envoy, 
 stimulating the agitation there, and was expelled 
 by the ' king for his bold, seditious conduct. 
 " Everywhere" (says Maxime du Camp, who was 
 with Garibaldi's staff as a volunteer), " he gave the 
 word of command, and worked to prepare for 
 Italian unity." 
 
 When Garibaldi was at length master of Naples, 
 he made Dumas the only return the author asked — 
 gave him the appointment of " director of beazix- 
 arts^ This was an honorary post-, involving the 
 spending of much time and trouble ; but the French- 
 man had set his heart upon carrying out well and 
 thoroughly the excavations at Pompeii, which had 
 been neglected by the late government. He was 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 115 
 
 now installed in a little plainly furnislied palazzo, 
 bent upon devoting" all his energ"ies to the service 
 of archaeology and the discovery of priceless art- 
 treasures ; but the Neapolitans, learning that a 
 stranger had been appointed to — some post or other 
 — waxed indignant. This "job," as Mr Fitzgerald 
 elegantly calls it, excited the rabble, and Dumas, in 
 the midst of his gaiety and his unselfish labours, 
 was hooted and mobbed by the people for whom he 
 had worked so hard. For a time, the ingratitude of 
 the populace stunned him, and he was undisguisedly 
 pained ; but by degrees his spirits returned. This 
 experience was probably still fresh in Dumas's mind 
 when, on the occasion of Victor Emmanuel's 
 triumphal entry into Naples, he pointed out to Du 
 Camp that there were no Garibaldians in the 
 procession. (As a matter of fact we know how the 
 king had insulted the Garibaldians, and caused them 
 to absent themselves.) '' II jmU faire le bicn dtuie 
 fafon abstraite^ et ne jamais penser d la recompense" 
 was our author's philosophic comment. 
 
 Nevertheless he stayed in Naples for four years, 
 occasionally paying flying visits to Paris, — ^"to have 
 a chat," as he laughingly tells us. But the Indi- 
 pendant, the journal which Garibaldi had named 
 and which Dumas conducted, so faithfully fulfilled 
 its title, that the editor was continually in collision 
 with Victor Emmanuel's officials, and in 1864 ^^ 
 
116 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 returned to Paris, where the usual flattering chorus 
 of welcome greeted him. 
 
 " He was just the same as ever," says Ferry, 
 " big, powerful, robust, and yet so well-proportioned 
 that he could not be accused of stoutness. His 
 head, so firmly set upon that massive neck, was 
 crowned with a forest of crisp, grey hair ; the face, 
 with its vivacious eyes, and mobile mouth, shone 
 with almost perpetual gaiety. Never have good 
 humour, cordiality, affability and contagious good 
 spirits shown themselves in a human face with such 
 expressive fidelity." 
 
 The summer of that year was spent at the Villa 
 Catinat, a charming country house on the borders 
 of lake Enghien, where our author had for neigh- 
 bour his old friend Madame de Girardin. Un- 
 fortunately his parasites found him out once more, 
 and his " Sundays " were the talk of Paris. On 
 one occasion, when the servants, after a quarrel 
 with Dumas's mistress, had all departed summarily, 
 leaving the larder bare, the host, who was almost 
 as famous a cook as a writer, discovered some 
 rice and tomatoes, and prepared for his crowd 
 of unsuspecting guests a regal and gigantic 
 dish which entirely satisfied their appetites and 
 palates. 
 
 " In 1864," the Martins tell us in their interesting 
 book "The Stones of Paris," "the American 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 117 
 
 Minister to France, Mr John Bigelow, breakfasted 
 with Dumas at Saint-Gratien, near Paris, where 
 the romancer was temporarily sojourning. It was 
 towards the close of the American Civil War, and 
 he had a notion of going to the United States as 
 War Correspondent for French papers, and to make 
 another book, of course." Unhappily Dumas did 
 not go, and the book is lost to us. 
 
 It was about this time that the famous quadroon, 
 whose sympathies were naturally with the North in 
 the great struggle, sent to Lincoln a large sum of 
 money for the widows of the slain abolitionists. 
 When acknowledging the gift, the President sug- 
 gested that Dumas should send out some "mottoes' 
 with his autograph attached. The author duly 
 forwarded a hundred slips of paper, each with a 
 sententious line or two and the great man's auto- 
 graph. These were sold in the United States at 
 600 francs each. 
 
 The great writer was now growing old. He 
 could no longer work twelve, fourteen, sixteen 
 hours a day ; and his efforts were unequal to the 
 task of paying his way. Yet neither his dramatic 
 instinct, nor his quixotic sense of honour failed him. 
 The directorate of the Porte St Martin became 
 bankrupt, and the company was left stranded. 
 Dumas had just announced in the press that he 
 had a play — a dramatisation of " ^ladame de 
 
118 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Chamblay " — ready for production ; but not a 
 managfer in Paris deioj^ned even to send for the 
 manuscript of the author of "Antony." Some of 
 the Porte St Martin company, however, being at 
 their wits' end for employment, appealed to Dumas 
 to give them the manuscript, as they had hired the 
 Theatre Ventadour, and wished to open with a 
 new play. No sooner had he lent the drama to 
 the poverty-stricken actors, than a representative 
 of the Comedie Fran^aise itself, came to open 
 negotiations with him. Dumas refused : he had 
 given his word. The play was produced, but the 
 hot weather and the cold critics killed it, although 
 when revived later on, it proved a success in spite 
 of the press. 
 
 Dumas's enemies were now gaining the upper 
 hand of their old antagonist, and they did not spare 
 him. He had occasion at this time to write to 
 his old companion of the trip to Monte Cristo. 
 One of our author's plays had been forbidden by 
 the censor, and in France there is — or was — no 
 limit to the extent of the censor's power. He 
 wrote a public letter to the Emperor, pointing out 
 that this was the seventh of his plays or books 
 which had been thus prohibited — and that on almost 
 every occasion It was a revival of the play which 
 was condemned, and not a new play at all ! The 
 order was revoked. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 119 
 
 Still another role was reserved for this Protean 
 man — that of lecturer. Dumas was persuaded into 
 giving a chatty, vivid talk on the paintings of his 
 old friend Delacroix. These lectures, which were 
 given at the " Fantaisies-Parisiens," were packed, 
 as they deserved to be. It was probably this 
 success which aroused one of the lecturer's sleep- 
 ing ambitions, for early in the next year he en- 
 eaijed the " Grand-Theatre Parisiens " in the Rue 
 de Lyon, and produced his version of " Catherine 
 Blum " there. But the play was a failure ; Dumas's 
 secretary, who was nominally the lessee of the 
 building, turned out to be a rogue and embezzled 
 the money, and the scheme came to naught.^ In 
 the following year, still clinging to his belief that 
 the sons of his old patrons would inherit the tastes 
 of their fathers, the dramatist appealed to his 
 "unknown friends" the public, to subscribe to a 
 species of co-operative play-house, a new " Theatre 
 Historique," with an eminent banker for treasurer 
 and himself as the manager. The very slight and 
 
 ^ Dumas, owing his company arrears of salary, met the situation in 
 a characteristic and ingenious way. He gave the members collectively 
 the right to play the piece, and promised that whenever it was per- 
 formed within reach of Paris, he would attend if duly notified. On one 
 occasion the author missed his train, and did not reach the theatre 
 till the second act. The audience, who before his arrival had been 
 too uproarious and distracted to follow the play, insisted, as soon as 
 their darling appeared and peace was restored, that the actors should 
 begin all over again— which they were obliged to do ! 
 
120 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 quite inadequate response to this invitation gave 
 the dramatist another painful shock of self-revela- 
 tion. 
 
 In 1866 the war between Austria and Prussia 
 broke out, and Dumas, his love of history and of 
 travel both ursfinof him, set out for Frankfort, to 
 study the crisis presented by the growing power of 
 Prussia in mid - Europe, and to traverse the yet- 
 warm battlefields of the campaign. The result 
 was " La Terreur Prusslenne," In which the author, 
 filled with disquietude, sees in Prussian predomin- 
 ance a menace to other nations, and to France 
 above all. 
 
 Forced to earn money as best he could, Dumas 
 went down to the Havre Exhibition of 1868, and 
 lectured there, and at Caen, Rouen and other towns, 
 on his way back. Two or three of his plays were 
 revived about this time, but the old spirit of hostility 
 was again shown by the critics, who managed to 
 wound the now enfeebled playwright. To the last 
 he was ridiculed, abused and slandered. Lamartine, 
 lor whom the romancer had always felt a 'warm 
 admiration, died In 1869, worn out with the struggle 
 against his debts and his enemies ; and the news 
 saddened Dumas, for it gave him a foreboding of 
 his own end. 
 
 This brilliant and illustrious life was itself draw- 
 ing very near to a close, amidst humiliating 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJNIAS 121 
 
 poverty, oblivion and suffering. Spongers and 
 duns wrested from the failing giant every penny 
 that was not jealously guarded for him ; and care, 
 which the gay heart had so long kept at bay, stole 
 in and shared the old man's fireside. The father 
 had always felt a certain timidity towards his son : 
 the careless, improvident dupe had dreaded the re- 
 proaches of the other's more worldly wisdom. Not 
 until the very bread was lacking, not until the pawn- 
 shop had been visited, did the older man send hint 
 of his needs to his beloved " Alexandre." Again, 
 when disease crept upon him, Dumas hid that fact 
 from his son also, and it was not until the old man's 
 daughter, taking alarm, sent physicians to see him, 
 that the time came for Alexandre fils to realise the 
 position, and assert himself. 
 
 From that moment the cares of money matters at 
 least, were over. Dumas was taken to FInisterre, 
 and lastly, to his son's house at Puys near Dieppe, 
 where he remained until the last, watched over, 
 cared for and comforted, in a manner which had 
 lonof been strange to him. 
 
 But now another care haunted the great man ; 
 and day and night his clouding mind brooded upon 
 it. Would his work live after hlm.^ One day 
 when he could keep It to himself no longer, his 
 anguish found voice. 
 
 "It seems to me," he said to his son, " that I am 
 
122 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 standing on the pedestal of a monument which 
 trembles, as though it were based on shifting 
 sands." 
 
 " Be at peace," answered his son ; " the pillar is 
 well built, and the base will stand firm." 
 
 The dying father drew his son toward him, and 
 the two met in a silent embrace. It was the cry 
 of the soul doubting its own genius ; the agony 
 of doubt which seized Keats when he bade them 
 write as his epitaph, " Here lies one whose name 
 was writ in water." 
 
 In his introduction to " Les Trois Mousque- 
 taires," Dumas fils tells this anecdote, and 
 adds, by way of supporting his prophecy, that 
 from 1870 to 1893 no less than 2,840,000 
 volumes of his father's books had been sold in 
 France alone, not counting 80,000,000 of illus- 
 trated parts. 
 
 The dying man doubted everything. The world, 
 he fancied, had not advanced as it had promised 
 to do in the days of the glorious revolutions, politi- 
 cal and social, of the mid-century. Such an age 
 of agitation, he prophesied, would end in an era 
 of disillusionment. And truly for France the out- 
 look was dark, for the Prussians had overthrown 
 Napoleon and were invading France. In his 
 early days Dumas had seen the Prussians at the 
 gates of Paris ; in his last days he would have 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 123 
 
 witnessed a like spectacle had he stayed there. 
 But all such news was mercifully kept from 
 him. 
 
 " One day," wrote his son, " the pen dropped 
 from his hands, and he began to sleep." Like his 
 own Porthos, the child of his virile brain, Dumas 
 was struggling with all a Titan's strength against 
 the forces of nature which weighed upon him and 
 which were slowly crushing and stifling the life 
 from his giant frame and his great heart. All 
 night, and almost all the day, he slept ; and if, 
 with his old desire for work, he took pen in hand, 
 no responsive thought nerved the fingers ; the 
 weapon with which he had once wrought such 
 wonders fell from his nerveless finders. Excess 
 of labour, far more than excess of pleasure, had 
 made the brain mute at last. 
 
 In his brief moments of ViQ-ht Dumas would 
 play with his son's children, or would sit where 
 his nurses placed him on the beach, gazing, 
 motionless, at the sea, thinking long, long 
 thoucjhts. 
 
 On the morning of December 5th, 1870, a priest 
 was sent for. He found son and daughter on their 
 knees by the side of the dying m-an. The good 
 cure called his penitent by name, an'd Dumas slowly 
 opened his eyes. He could not speak. He died 
 that afternoon 
 
124 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Two years later, when the Prussians had de- 
 parted, Alexandre Dumas was able to take his 
 father home to Villers-Cotterets, where he had 
 wished to lie. A host of distinguished authors 
 and actors came to bid their old confrere farewell, 
 but the simple reverence and affection shown by 
 the dead man's old village friends was a far truer 
 token of the love that he had won. When the 
 train arrived with the coffin, the people were 
 quietly waiting in the streets to greet it, and 
 young and old pressed forward to contend with 
 the bearers for the honour of carrying the body 
 of their lost, dear friend. There, with the father 
 of whom he was so proud, with the mother 
 whom he so tenderly loved, he lies, in the little 
 town from which he set out on the pilgrimage 
 of life, and to which he so often looked wistfully 
 back. 
 
 In the words of the man whom he reverenced 
 most, 
 
 " After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well." . . . 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 125 
 
 His Character. 
 
 " The great eater, worker, earner and waster, 
 the man of much and witty laughter, the man of 
 great heart and, alas, of the doubtful honesty, is 
 a figure not yet clearly set before the world," wrote 
 R. L. Stevenson. " He still awaits a sober and 
 yet genial portrait, but with whatever art that may 
 be touched, and whatever indulgence, it will not 
 be the portrait of a precisian." That is quite true, 
 but in trying to sketch Dumas's character accord- 
 ing to the ideal Stevenson has given us, we hope 
 to show the " ventripotent mulatto" (as that author 
 wrongly calls him) less black, both outwardly and 
 inwardly, than even the admiring essayist deemed 
 him, — for we seem to see the slimy traces of that 
 ubiquitous snake-in-the-grass " M. de Mirecourt" 
 in this passage from " Memories and Portraits." 
 
 Happily we cannot mistake our starting-point, 
 for it is obviously best to commence one's journey 
 round a character with that which is the subject's 
 most characteristic quality, and which first strikes 
 those who read about him or come into his literary 
 presence. A score of Dumas's contemporaries have 
 left us their impressions of the great impressionist, 
 and they have one and all laid emphasis on his 
 gaiety — a naive heartiness and healthiness of tem- 
 perament, springing from a semi-tropical nature, a 
 
126 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 magnificent constitution, an unclouded self-con- 
 fidence, a kind, generous heart, and brilliant social, 
 dramatic, and literary successes. ^^ Hercules bon 
 enfant^' Maxime Du Camp called him, adding : — 
 
 " Like a giant who knows his strength and fears 
 to take advantage of it, he was gentle. I have 
 never seen in him — I will not say a sign of anger — 
 but not even a movement of impatience. If ever 
 a man was lovable, in the original sense of the 
 word, that is ' made to be loved,' Dumas was that 
 man. ... He had so much wit himself that every 
 one who was with him believed they had it too." 
 
 He seems to have created, as it were, an atmo- 
 sphere of esprit which was breathed by all who 
 came within its influence. 
 
 Roger de Beauvoir, the author of " L'Ecolier 
 de Cluny," one day visited the great man's rooms 
 in his absence, and was shown into the kitchen 
 instead of the study. Wishing to " leave his card," 
 he picked up his friend's account-book, and wrote 
 this quatrain on one of the pages : — 
 
 " Sur ce carnet, Dumas ecrit, 
 Jour par jour, tout ce qu'il depense, 
 II n'y pourrait mettre, je pense 
 Tout ce qu'il depense d'esprit ! " ' 
 
 Many of the best stories told of Dumas naturally 
 
 ^ " In this book Dumas has writ 
 
 All that he spends from day to day ; 
 'Twould never hold, I dare to say, 
 His great expenditure of wit ! " 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 127 
 
 relate to the theatre, of which he was such an 
 habitue, and the drama, of which he was such a 
 master. " Before telHng one of the best of these," 
 (says Mr W. H. Pollock), "it is necessary to re- 
 member that Pierre Corneille, the great dramatist, 
 had a younger brother named Thomas, who had 
 a considerable talent which was completely over- 
 shadowed by the greater genius of his brother. 
 There was also in the heiofht of Dumas 's success 
 another playwright — no relation of his — who bore 
 the name of Dumas. This writer produced a play 
 which is forgotten now, but which on the night 
 of its production had enough success to intoxicate 
 the author with joy. After the curtain had fallen, 
 the obscure Dumas came into the box of the oreat 
 Dumas and said : 
 
 " ' Ah ! after to-night people will talk of the two 
 Dumas as they talk of the two Corneilles ! ' 
 
 " ' H'm ! ' said the great man, looking at him from 
 head to foot — ' adieu, Thomas ! ' " 
 
 The phrase " the French Sheridan " occurs irre- 
 sistibly to- the mind, when one remembers the 
 Master's wit and improvidence. There is some- 
 thing very like the author of the " School for 
 Scandal " about the hero of the following story. 
 
 One eveninor at the Theatre Francais Dumas saw 
 one of the audience asleep in his stall during the 
 representation of a play by Soumet. 
 
128 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 " See," said the dramatist to his confrere, "that's 
 the effect that your plays produce ! " 
 
 The next day a comedy of Dumas's was played, 
 and the author was present. Suddenly Soumet 
 tapped his friend's shoulder, and pointed out a 
 gentleman asleep in the orchestra, saying in bitter- 
 sweet accents : 
 
 "You see, my dear friend, that one falls asleep 
 just the same when listening to your prose." 
 
 "That? Why that is the gentleman who went 
 to sleep yesterday, and hasn't woke up yet ! " re- 
 torted the other. 
 
 In spite of his social rank Dumas was just as 
 much at home in the boulevards, with the gamins, 
 and the populace, who loved him and whom he 
 loved, as with the wits and peers. He was walking 
 one day with his secretary Pifteau, and looking for 
 a cab, when a post-office mail-omnibus rolled by. 
 
 "Stop!" he cried to the driver, "give us a lift. 
 We're men of letters, too ! " 
 
 The postman grinned as he whipped up his 
 horses. 
 
 The mots uttered by Dumas or attributed to him 
 were numberless. The saying ''tout passe, toict 
 lasse, tout casse^' is said to have been originated by 
 him. The witty utterances in his books have all 
 the flavour, and unexpectedness of spoken jests. 
 " Heaven has made but one drama for man — the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 129 
 
 world," he wrote, " and durinc^ these three thousand 
 years mankind has been hissing it" " A young 
 man," he wrote to Beranger, "always makes his 
 entry into public life with an old woman on his 
 ari:i, and into the world of literature with an old 
 thought in his head. One needs to have much 
 experience before young ideas will come." 
 
 There was human truth, too, in this : "When the 
 prodigal son returned to his father's house after 
 three years they killed a calf; if he had not re- 
 turned for six years they would have killed an ox." 
 Again, take this passage from his " Memoires " as a 
 sample of the style of their contents : " I have been 
 confessing the ridiculous weaknesses of my child- 
 hood ; I shall be equally frank about those of my 
 )Outh. I shall be more courageous than Rousseau : 
 Rousseau confessed only his vices." 
 
 There is no room here for a volume of jaix 
 d esprit^ spoken or written, and we must be merciful, 
 too; in the matter of the stories told by Dumas ; for 
 he was a famous raconteur, and his autobiographical 
 writings are enriched with capital anecdotes, neatly 
 told. There are two, however, which we cannot 
 bring ourselves to omit. One is of j\I. de Sesmaisons, 
 " the fattest man in politics," who was so stout that 
 he found it necessary when he travelled to reserve 
 two places in the diligence fur himself. On one 
 occasion when he took this precaution, he discovered 
 
130 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 that his man had booked for him one seat in the 
 coupe and the other inside ! 
 
 The other story may be entitled the episode of 
 Colonel Bro's macaw. Dumas called at that officer's 
 house one day, went into the drawing-room to wait, 
 and seeing a yellow red and blue macaw on its 
 perch, he went up to it familiarly and commenced 
 to scratch its head. The bird, it appeared, was in 
 a vile temper that morning, and gave the unwelcome 
 visitor a murderous peck. Dumas withdrew his 
 finger, staunched the blood, and then, returning to 
 the bird, wrung its neck, and quiedy put the body 
 out of sifjht under some of the furniture. Later on 
 he left without anything having been noticed. 
 
 Some weeks afterwards Dumas dined with Colonel 
 Bro, and the conversation turned on natural history. 
 Reference was made to the habits of elephants, 
 who kneel to say their" prayers, and get out of 
 sight to die secretly. 
 
 "As for that last trait," said the Colonel's .wife, 
 "it must be common to all animals." Then turning 
 to Dumas she added, "You remember my beautiful 
 blue yellow and red macaw ? " 
 
 " Perfectly. Has some misfortune happened to 
 it.?" 
 
 "Alas! the poor thing is dead, — and would you 
 believe it, Monsieur Dumas, we found it in a corner 
 of the drawing-room, under the couch } That proves 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 131 
 
 that this modesty before death is an instinct common 
 to all animals in creation, and that our domestic 
 parrots have it, just as strongly as the kings of 
 the forest." 
 
 Dumas was- duly impressed. 
 
 Take, with his gaiety and wit, Dumas's vanity. 
 Here is I\Ir Lang's opinion of the worth of the 
 reproach :— 
 
 " They call Dumas vain : he had reason to be 
 vain, and no candid or generous reader will be 
 shocked by his pleasant, frank, and artless enjoy- 
 ment of himself and of his adventures. Oddly 
 enough, they are small-minded and small-hearted 
 people who are most shocked by what they call 
 ' vanity ' in the great. Dumas's delight in himself 
 and his doings is only the flower of his vigorous 
 existence, and in his ' Memoires,' at least, it is as 
 happy and encouraging as his laugh, or the laugh 
 of Porthos ; it is a kind of radiance, in which 
 others, too, may bask and enjoy themselves. And 
 yet it is resented by tiny scribblers, frozen in their 
 own chill self-conceit." 
 
 There is an amusing story told of how this vanity 
 was very neatly snubbed on one occasion. Dumas 
 was giving evidence in a trial, at Rouen, and was 
 asked his profession. 
 
 " I should say ' dramatic author,' if I were not 
 in the city of Corneille," he answered. 
 
132 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 " Oh, M'sieu," replied the judge, " there are 
 degrees." ... 
 
 We cannot resist quoting here how Dumas took 
 his revenge on the Rouen folk, who it appears 
 had also hissed his plays. "One day," he says, "a 
 Neapolitan boasted to me of having hissed Rossini 
 and Malibran, the ' Barbiere ' and ' Desdemona.' 
 
 "'That must be true,' I answered, 'because 
 Rossini and Malibran boast, on their part, of 
 having been hissed by the Neapolitans. So I 
 boast of being hissed by the Rouenese. The 
 Rouen people,' he added, ' hiss me because they 
 object to me. Why shouldn't they ? They objected 
 to Joan of Arc ! ' " 
 
 "Vanity," says Villemessant, "was a part of his 
 talent ; just as a balloon cannot rise, until it is 
 filled with air." " The public," adds Du Camp, 
 "are too exacting: they expect a man to have 
 every talent in the world, and not to know it." 
 Dumas's artless self-admiration was made the moral 
 of a hundred malicious stories. It is said that his 
 son remarked of him : "he is so vain that he would 
 like to get up behind his own coach to make 
 people think he owned a black footman." We 
 have not traced this speech to its source, but we 
 shall not believe that Dumas /i/s said it, without 
 the strongest proof There is, however, a story 
 told by Mr W. H. Pollock, which is more pro- 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 133 
 
 bably authentic, beini; in better taste and more 
 spirituel. 
 
 Dumas pcre is supposed to have written to his 
 son, as to a stranger, proposing that they should 
 collaborate. (He had more than once urged his 
 son to do this, adding, " it would bring you in 
 40,000 or 50,000 francs a year, — you would only 
 have to make objections, to contradict me in the 
 subjects I proposed, and to give me the germs 
 of ideas which I would develop without your 
 help.") On this occasion Dumas fils replied that 
 he disliked collaboration, but added, " I am the 
 more sorry to refuse what you ask me because 
 my sympathies are naturally enlisted by the great 
 admiration which you have always expressed for 
 my father's works." 
 
 " He believed in himself, it is true," writes Du 
 Camp, "and it was quite legitimate for him to do 
 so ; but he believed in others, too." " People who 
 complain of Dumas's vanity," adds Mr Lang, " may 
 be requested to observe that he seems just as ' vain ' 
 of Hugo's successes, or of Scribe's, as of his own, 
 and just as much delighted by them. Dumas had 
 no jealousy," Mr Lang goes on, " no more than 
 Scott. As he believed in no success without talent, 
 so he disbelieved in genius which wins no success. 
 ' Je ne crois pas au talent ignor^, au genie inconitu, 
 moi' Genius he saluted wherever he met it, but was 
 
134 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 incredulous about invisible and inaudible genius." 
 So little gall had Dumas in his disposition that 
 he found ability everywhere — he praised heartily, 
 gladly. His good-nature often led him to fancy 
 that there was talent in people who possessed none. 
 
 " I can't make out what Mallefille lacks, in order 
 to be a man of talent," he said one day. 
 
 " Perhaps he lacks the talent," some one sug- 
 gested. 
 
 " By Jove ! That's it ! I never thought of that I " 
 answered Dumas ingenuously. 
 
 With all his failings — and we will admit them in 
 due time — Dumas had one splendid quality which 
 mieht well outweig^h a host of sins heavier than his. 
 He was charity itself. His was indeed " a voice of 
 comfort and an open hand of help." " He was like 
 a cornucopia, shedding bounty peipctually from his 
 outstretched hands," says Du Camp. "Half, if 
 not more, of the money he earned he gave away." 
 Another great writer has told us how Dumas would 
 take his work and sit by the dying, would tend 
 them and help them in their need. His heart was 
 open to the suffering, his purse to the needy, his 
 house to the homeless. " I was sick and ye visited 
 me." We can fancy the Preacher of Galilee would 
 have found something in Alexandre Dumas which 
 till" world never saw. 
 
 One day, when Dumas and du Chaffault were 
 
ALJiXANDllE DUMAS 135 
 
 talking together, a poor Italian was shown in, beg- 
 ging for help. The author was, as usual, at the end 
 of his resources, but that did not check his charitable 
 desire. 
 
 " My friend," he said, " I am no richer than you 
 are ; I have nothing, but I can never send away 
 with empty hands a man who is in want. Take 
 down one of those pistols from the mantelpiece ; go 
 and sell it, and leave me the other for the next poor 
 devil that the good God may send to me for relief." 
 
 Theodore de Banville tells us in his " Souvenirs " 
 how a poor starving devil, Montjoye by name, was 
 ready to take his life in despair, when the thought 
 of Dumas came to him like an inspiration from 
 heaven. He found the great man deserted — all 
 the servants had gone a-holidaying — but the host 
 hurried into the kitchen, and prepared with his own 
 hands a feast for the gods, for this stranger. It is a 
 pleasant picture that the poet sets before us — the 
 penniless beggar eating, and making witty remarks 
 on the dishes as he attacked them, and Dumas 
 beaminor with delioht and roarino- with laufrhter, 
 as he heaped the strange guest's plate with good 
 things. 
 
 But the charity which gives money only is not 
 complete in the great apostle's sense, and happily 
 Dumas had his full share of that other and greater 
 generosity. Of such was his surprise for Maquet, 
 
136 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 on the first night of the " Trois Mousquetaires." 
 Maquet was the artisan and Dumas the artist of 
 that collaboration, and the henchman had no 
 thought of any public acknowledgment of his share 
 of the work. But at the fall of the curtain Melingue, 
 the famous "D'Artagnan" came forward and named 
 " Messieurs Alexandre Dumas and August Maquet." 
 Maquet gave a cry of joy and pride, and fell sobbing 
 on his master's neck. 
 
 The young and ambitious author always found 
 a kind, genial, helpful friend in Dumas. One day 
 a novice came to ask the great man a favour. 
 Would he listen to a play in verse? Dumas, 
 whose time was golden, nevertheless good-naturedly 
 agreed. After the first act the great man remarked 
 thoughtlessly : 
 
 "My boy, your verses are not very rich in 
 poetry." ^ 
 
 " Not rich . . ." the young man exclaimed 
 in dismay, letting the manuscript fall from his 
 hands. 
 
 Dumas, regretting that he had given such pain 
 to a beginner, picked up the play and handed it 
 back to the youth, saying hurriedly : 
 
 " Don't be discouraged by such a little thing, my 
 
 ^ The word "riche" here implies a certain form of line-endinf^ in 
 French verse, but for the purposes of the story our use of it is as 
 appropriate, and more comprehensible. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 137 
 
 boy. Your lines are not ricJi in thought, it is true 
 — but — but — they're fairly well off!" 
 
 Asseline, one of the staff of the ill-fated Mous- 
 quetaire, wrote in the Indcpendance Beige, at the 
 time that his old master was dying, a loving 
 appreciation of him, in which he recalled a character- 
 istic incident in their journalistic relations. Asseline 
 was writing a feuilleton in the journal and was at 
 a loss to know how to tell the story of a duel which 
 was necessary to his plot. He took his cares to the 
 famous editor, who, turning from his own work, 
 cross-questioned the writer on his plot, characters, 
 motives, and the rest, and then, having rapidly 
 grasped the situation, sat down and wrote the 
 chapter himself. Asseline received general con- 
 gratulations on his masterly handling of the duel 
 scene, but Dumas never made known the service 
 which he had rendered his pupil. 
 
 There was a truly noble generosity, too, in his 
 "confession," after he had written adverse critiques 
 on plays by three of his confix res. He discovered, 
 by self-analysis, that it was personal pique which 
 had provoked his judgments on others, and not a 
 lofty desire to defend his art. He cried shame on 
 himself, published his self-condemnation to the 
 world, and wTote no more criticisms. " What I had 
 done," he says, "was perhaps good from the point 
 of view of literature, but truly it was by no means 
 
138 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 good from the point of view of humanity, and the 
 brotherhood of art." 
 
 His dehcacy was equal to his kindness. One 
 day he found an old friend who was in needy cir- 
 cumstances, and bore him off to dinner. As they 
 parted the host said casually : 
 
 "Thou knowest, old comrade — I expect thee 
 here again to-morrow." 
 
 The friend came aofain — and for ten or twelve 
 years dined with Dumas. At last, overcome with 
 remorse at eating the bread he did not earn, the 
 guest declared that he must make some return for 
 his dinners, or he would not come again. Dumas 
 thouo^ht a moment. 
 
 " You can do me a great service," he said at 
 length. " Go to the Pont Neuf every day at noon, 
 and note the temperature of the Chevalier ther- 
 mometer for me. That is very important, in con- 
 nection with the receipts at the theatre. Will you 
 oblige me } " The friend agreed delightedly, and 
 the " situation was saved." Both men were happy 
 once more. 
 
 On another occasion a man entered the " master's " 
 room, bep-orinof. Dumas, without waitino- to hear 
 of his particular need, drew fifteen francs from a 
 drawer. It appeared that the caller was collecting 
 to raise funds to bury a huissier (or sheriff's officer.) 
 
 "To bury a huissier V cried Dumas, who knew 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 139 
 
 those gentry only too well. "Here — here are 
 another fifteen francs — go and bur)- another ! " 
 
 The many stories which are told of Dumas's 
 shifts to get money, and of his prodigality; are some 
 of them amusing, but most of them untrustworthy. 
 He himself was conscious of his failing, but was 
 never able to cure himself of it. " When my hand 
 closes on anything it can grip," he said laughing, 
 *' anything but money. Ah ! money is so smooth, 
 't slips through my fingers ! " 
 
 One evening Dumas promised his theatrical com- 
 pany a bal niasqiid, followed by a supper. 
 
 " Ah ! " cried a young and pert actress, " and 
 who will pay } " 
 
 '' Par bleu, I shall," answered Dumas, "shan't I 
 be diso'uised ? " 
 
 In later years, when the struggle to keep his 
 revenue up to his expenditure became very keen, 
 Dumas was almost as great at borrowing as at 
 giving, and showed the same magnificent careless- 
 ness as to the sequel. Frequently he brought his 
 wit to the service of his needs, as, for instance, 
 when Porcher, who had advanced Dumas money on 
 the prospects of his first play, and always been of 
 service to the dramatist on similar occasions, bees^ed 
 the great man to " tutoyer " him. This form of the 
 second-person-singular implies, with the French, 
 familiarity in friendliness. 
 
140 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 "Very good/' answered Dumas, amused at 
 Porcher's naive request. " Wilt thou lend me fifty 
 louis, Porcher?" 
 
 " Nothing," says Villemessant, ** was more odious 
 to him than avarice, which was entirely repugnant 
 to his own nature." Leaving a soiree one evening 
 Dumas found himself side by side in the cloak- 
 room with an archi-millionaire who, in exchange for 
 his paletot gave fifty centimes (fivepence) to the 
 servant. 
 
 The writer, blushing with shame for the financier, 
 drew out his purse and threw down a hundred-franc 
 note. 
 
 " Pardon, sir, you have made a mistake, I think ? " 
 said the lackey, offering to return the note. 
 
 " No, no, friend," answered Dumas, casting a dis- 
 dainful glance at the millionaire ; " it is the other 
 cfentleman who has made the mistake." 
 
 But Dumas's extravagance, so far as his own 
 pleasure and glorification were concerned, has been 
 much exaggerated. We have seen, ourselves, that 
 the palace of " Monte Cristo " was neither so big, 
 so gaudy, nor so costly as has been represented. 
 Again, Maxime du Camp refutes the charge that 
 Dumas lived in luxury at Naples, declaring thz^t 
 the great man worked there in modest rooms, poorly 
 furnished. " People," he adds, " spread false reports 
 because slander is the first need of fools." 
 
ALEXANDl^E DUMAS 141 
 
 " Thougli for forty years," says Vandam, " Alex- 
 andre Dumas could not have earned less than ^S,ooo 
 per annum ; though he neither smoked, drank, nor 
 gambled ; though in spite of his mania for cooking, 
 he himself was the most frugal eater — the beef from 
 the soup of the previous day, grilled, was his 
 favourite dish — it rained writs and summonses 
 around him, while he himself was frequently without 
 a penny." 
 
 No wonder, when the veriest stranger could farm 
 himself upon the indulgent host, and then send the 
 cabman, who took him to the station, back to the 
 house to ask for the fare ! Truly Dumas had a 
 right to say, "If I have been a spendthrift / 
 haven't made all the holes in my purse ! " 
 
 This leads us to a delicate topic, with which 
 Blaze de Bury, who knew Dumas intimately, deals 
 in this fashion : — 
 
 " There are no parasites worse than rapacious 
 women, and to these Dumas gave way as long as 
 he lived. As one left another entered. The place 
 was never empty, and the disgraced favourite, 
 leavinof one evenlnof, would locate herself some- 
 where else the next day, carrying all sorts of things 
 away with her, even to furniture. 
 
 "Take all," cried tlie master, looking on at the 
 dismantling; "take all, but for heaven's sake leave 
 me at least my genius ! ' " 
 
142 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 In the matter of morals it is impossible to judge 
 Dumas on general principles and by ordinary 
 standards, and still more unfair to let British 
 prejudice distort our judgment. His lax code of 
 virtue in this respect must be considered simply in 
 connection with his own nature and training. 
 Except for a brief period, love of women never 
 played the important and disastrous part in Dumas's 
 life which it did in the case of so many of his 
 contemporaries, like De Musset, for example. 
 He was too sane-minded for that. But his 
 ardent, semi-tropical temperament felt the over- 
 whelming need of feminine society and the 
 sensuous charms which fair women possess. His 
 gallantry, good nature, and artless vanity rendered 
 him a prey to the siren type of womanhood ; 
 although we have ample proof that he could 
 appreciate the higher qualities of the other sex, 
 as witness his honest, friendly admiration for 
 Madame de Girardin and George Sand, and the 
 chivalric way in which (as we see in " Une 
 Aventure dAmour "), he could treat a young and 
 charming woman who trusted him completely and 
 put herself under the protection of his honour. 
 
 We have spoken of the love of Dumas father for 
 Dumas son. They were, indeed, the complement of 
 each other — "not like in like, but like in difference." 
 
 " I know of no two characters more opposite than 
 
AT.KXANDRK DUMAS 143 
 
 Alexandre's and niinc," said the fatlicr one day, 
 " and yet they go together excellently. We 
 certainly have some very good times when we are 
 far away from each other, but I fancy we are never 
 happier than when we are together." 
 
 They loved each other madly, and yet lived such 
 different lives that sometimes they entirely lost 
 sight of each other. At these periods, if the old 
 Uumas saw a frier.d, he would stop his carriage 
 and hold out his hand, asking for news of his son : 
 
 " What has become of Alexandre ? Do you ever 
 see him? For my part I never come across him, 
 except to say ' good-day ' when I meet him at 
 funerals." On another occasion he added half- 
 bitterly, half-jestingly, " Perhaps I shan't meet him 
 again until my own ! " 
 
 The passionate love between Dumas pcre and 
 Dumas yf/s- began with the birth of the one and did 
 not end with the death of the other. Blaze de 
 Bury tells a pretty anecdote, showing how deeply- 
 rooted was this feeling, even in early childhood : — 
 
 " One day the young Alexandre fell from the top 
 of the staircase. The accident seemed to be very 
 serious : the child fainted, and the mother, thinking 
 him dead, was quite overcome. She sent at once 
 for Dumas, who was out on guard, and also for the 
 doctor, who arrived first. The child, however, had 
 regained consciousness, but he was very pale and 
 
144 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 faint, and when the father saw him in this state he 
 fainted too ! 
 
 " The doctor ordered leeches, but the child re- 
 sisted strongly. The father implored and besought 
 the boy to obey, vowing before God that it should 
 not hurt him, to which the child replied, ' Oh, very 
 well then, put them on yourself, and then I will let 
 them put them on me afterwards.' Dumas con- 
 sented, and put the leeches in the hollow of his left 
 hand." 
 
 After the first natural pang of jealousy the elder 
 playwright not only recognised, but acclaimed his 
 son's dramatic powers.^ At the " first night " of one 
 of the successful plays of Dumas Jils the proud 
 father wept with joy and happiness. " He took my 
 hand," writes Villemessant, "saying, 'He is my 
 best work ! ' " Even wittier was Dumas's reply, on 
 a similar occasion, to a friend who remarked that 
 the play was so good, it was surprising the father 
 had no share in it. " Oh, but I had," said the 
 veteran dramatist, "the author is by me ! " 
 
 The light-hearted gaiety of the father and the 
 sardonic gravity of the son, offered a contrast too 
 marked to be missed by the wits. " Alexandre is 
 
 ^ The latter has left a very charming account of his father's attitude 
 towards " La Dame aux Caiiielias." He did not think it would 
 dramatise, but catching the guilty youth with the MS. under his arm, 
 he insisted on hearing it. The elder dramatist became interested, 
 absorbed, moved, delighted, enraptured ! 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 145 
 
 Dumas yf/y, but you — you are not Dumas /t'r^ — )0u 
 never will be ! " said " the Lady of the Cam^Has " 
 to the great man. "He is a big child of mine, 
 born when I was quite young," said the son. Each 
 seemed to provoke wit in the other. The elder was 
 one day dining with his son, who had taken a house 
 where the trees in the garden quite blocked up the 
 light. " Open your windows," said old Dumas, 
 " and let your garden have a little fresh air ! " 
 
 By kindness of Madam Dumas Ji/s we are en- 
 abled to add two " documents " in connection with 
 this love between father and son. The first is 
 Dumas pcres formal, yet indignant, protest when 
 the censor prohibited his son's most famous 
 play :— 
 
 *' I declare, on my honour, and on my literary 
 experience, that ' La Dame aux Camelias ' forbidden 
 by that stupid institution called the Censorship, 
 is an essentially moral play, and I have a right to 
 an opinion on morality, seeing that I have written 
 700 volumes which might safely be included in a 
 school library, or be read in a convent, by the young 
 girls. — Paris, 4th October 1851. 
 
 " A. Dumas. 
 
 The other is a little gem, which we do not dare 
 to translate. It is written by the father to the son, 
 on New Year's day : — 
 
146 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 *' MoN Cher Enfant, — Encore un an de plus 
 que je t'aime, encore un an de molns a t'aimer. 
 
 " Voila le cote triste. 
 
 " Mais en attendant, sans calculer ce qui nous en 
 reste, aimons nous tant que nous pourrons. — i*"" 
 Janvier. — A toi, 
 
 ' '' A. Dumas." 
 
 We have been led away by seductive paths into 
 a tardy recognition of one of the g-reat facts about 
 our author — his energy. Henley tells us that at 
 times he wrote for sixteen or eighteen hours a day ; 
 and it is quite credible in the case of a physique so 
 magnificently healthy, and a brain so greedy of 
 work. Yet, until his final decline, the great writer 
 never suffered from this abnormal devotion to the 
 desk, except in one way. 
 
 "Dumas," says Blaze de Bury, "would never 
 rest except when fatigued ; consequently a curious 
 phenomenon came upon him. Almost every year 
 a fever seized him for two or three days ; he was 
 not simply ill, he was vanquished. Knowing this, 
 he went to bed, and dozed there ; from time to time 
 he opened his eyes, and hastily taking up the glass 
 of lemonade which the occasion required, he drank 
 it, and then lay back with his face to the wall, and 
 gave himself up to his fever. This was his violent 
 manner of takinof rest. The crisis lasted about 
 three days, at the end of which Dumas arose and 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 147 
 
 returned to work. The overtaxed organs had 
 insisted upon a halt." 
 
 M. Edmond About gives an interesting account 
 which describes Dumas's method of working. " I 
 can still see on our hotel table," he says, "the first 
 draft of the ' Compagnons de Jehu.' It was a thick 
 pile of school-paper, cut in four, and covered witli 
 a neat little writin^j — an excellent rou^^h sketch 
 drawn up by a skilled assistant according to the 
 master's original design. Dumas worked at it in 
 his own manner — scattering wit broadcast through 
 the pages as he wrote, each little slip of white 
 (? pasted) on a great sheet of blue." 
 
 If it can be truly said of Dumas that "panting 
 Time toiled after him in vain," it is just as true that 
 he was ever toilino- in the arrears of his own work — 
 ever striving to keep pace with the demand for 
 copy. " To be continued in our next " — it was the 
 slave's warning cry at the classic feast. In his 
 amusing preface to Grisier's "Arms and the Duel," 
 Dumas confesses that there were certain extra- 
 ordinary pledges which he could not fulfil unless 
 forcibly detached from his regular work. This 
 pressure on his time, coupled with a dislike of 
 ridicule, made him, like Balzac, shun his days in 
 uniform, on duty as a National guard, and accord- 
 ingly the hours of " guard-room " imprisonment due 
 from him mounted up enormously. Monpeou the 
 
148 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 composer, struggling vainly to get from the busy 
 writer an opera-comique libretto which our good- 
 natured author had undertaken to do, heard of the 
 facts of the case. He learnt, moreover, that Dumas 
 was dodging his military pursuers by sleeping in 
 different houses, entering by side-doors, and depart- 
 ing by windows, " as if he wanted to be a fairy, and 
 was rehearsing the part." Monpeou, for his own 
 base ends, "gave information which led to the 
 capture of the criminal." (It appeared that Dumas 
 had aggravated his offence by an answer which he 
 gave to a superior officer — one of his own trades- 
 men ! — who, with more feeling than culture, declared 
 that it was very "painible and terrible" for him to 
 be obliged to arrest Dumas ; to which that gentle- 
 man promptly replied, " Do you think it wouldn't 
 be painful and terriful to me to go ? ") Monpeou 
 begged that Dumas should have a private room to 
 work in, and a piano, and when the prisoner arrived 
 to undergo his punishment he found the traitorous 
 musician busy composing the overture to the comic 
 opera ! The result was " Piquillo." 
 
 One last touch to complete the picture of "Dumas 
 at work," not forgetting the invariable companion 
 of his labours — the tea of which he drank such 
 inordinate quantities. Mr Albert Vandam, in his 
 " Englishman in Paris," describes a call which he 
 made on his friend Dumas. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 149 
 
 " ' Is Monsieur at home ? ' I said to the servant. 
 
 " * He is in his study, Monsieur,' was the answer ; 
 * Monsieur can go in.' 
 
 "At that moment I heard a loud burst of laughter 
 from the inner apartment, so I said : 
 
 " ' I would rather wait until Monsieur's visitors 
 are gone.' 
 
 " ' Monsieur has no visitors ; he is working,' 
 remarked the servant with a smile. ' Monsieur 
 Dumas often laughs like that, at his work.' 
 
 " It was true enough ; the novelist was alone, or 
 rather in company with one of his characters, at 
 whose sallies he was simply roaring." 
 
 That Dumas lived to work rather than worked to 
 live, is obvious to all who read of his astonishinnf 
 fertility, and devotion to his desk. M. de Bury 
 quotes a passage from our author, in which he 
 showed himself doubly indebted to his books — for 
 the pleasure they brought in the writing and the 
 memories they evoked, in the re-reading. 
 
 " ' I am never alone as long as one of my books is 
 near me,' he says, in a passage full of a deep and 
 delightful emotion, which was not always usual with 
 him. ' Every line recalls to me a day that has 
 passed away, and this day is once more with me, 
 filled from dawn to dusk with all the old atmosphere 
 and all the same people who were there, in the days 
 gone by. Alas ! already the best part of my life is 
 
150 LIFE AND WRITINIiS OF 
 
 in my memories ; I am like one of those trees, 
 crowned with bushy foliage, which at noon is full of 
 silent birds, that wake up towards the close of the 
 day. Then, when evening has come, they will fill 
 my old age with the beating of wings and with 
 songs ; with their joy, their loves, and their clamour 
 they will enliven it until death, in its turn, lays its 
 hand upon their hospitable home ; and the tree, in 
 falling, frightens away all these merry singers, of 
 which each is simply an hour of my life.' " 
 
 It is this man whom most of his critics denounced 
 as an idler! In his boyhood, the peasants, with 
 more reason and less malice, said the same of him. 
 He tells us as much, and overhears in imagination 
 the neighbours shaking their heads over him, 
 muttering : — 
 
 "See the idler; he prefers rambling along the 
 hio^h-roads to oroinor to colleofe. He will never do 
 anything ! " 
 
 " I don't know that I have done much," comments 
 our author, " but I know that I have worked deuced 
 hard since then ! " 
 
 "Truly, this work has had no brilliant result; I 
 should have done better, I believe, instead of piling 
 up volume on volume, if I had bought a corner of 
 land, and put pebble upon pebble, there. At any 
 rate I should have had a house of my own, to-day." 
 
 " Bah ! Have I not the house of the good God — 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 151 
 
 the fields, the air, the wide world and nature — 
 which are denied to those who do not possess the 
 power of seeing what I see ? " 
 
 The most striking-, most intuitive intellectual 
 quality which Dumas possessed was what is known 
 as the "dramatic instinct." He seems from the 
 first to have seen life from the vivid, picturesque 
 point of view. As a lad, ignorant of the stage, and 
 collaborating with much more experienced men, his 
 "cockney sportsman" was the successful feature of 
 " La Chasse et T Amour," the first piece performed 
 in which he had any share. 
 
 His method of jDreparing his plays was interesting 
 and characteristic. 
 
 "When I am engaged upon a work which 
 occupies all my thoughts," he says, " I feel the need 
 of narrating it aloud ; in reciting thus I invent ; and 
 at the end of one or other of these narrations I find 
 some fine morning that the play is completed. But 
 it often happens that this method of working — that 
 is to say, not beginning a piece until I have finished 
 the plot — is a very slow one. In this way I kept 
 ' Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle ' in my head for nearly 
 five years." 
 
 We may add that finally the piece was not read, 
 but described to the committee of the Comedie 
 Francaise, and at the end of Dumas's vivid recital, 
 was accepted by acclamation ! The fact was, it was 
 
152 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 already composed; it only required to be set on 
 paper. 
 
 An anecdote told in connection with the drama- 
 tised version of the " Trois Mousquetaires " shows 
 how thoroughly Dumas knew his public, and trusted 
 his natural critics. 
 
 " Behind one of the scenes," says Dumas fils, 
 "we had seen the helmet of a fireman, who listened 
 to the play very attentively during the first six 
 tableaux. In the middle of the seventh, however, 
 the helmet disappeared." 
 
 " ' Do you see that fireman's helmet ? ' asked my 
 father. 
 
 *' * No, it's not there now.' 
 
 " After the act the author went in search of the 
 fireman (who did not know him) and said : 
 
 " ' Why are you no longer listening to the 
 piece } ' 
 
 " ' Because that act didn't interest me as much as 
 the others.' 
 
 " This reply was enough for my father ; he went 
 straieht to the office of Director Beraud ; he took off 
 his frockcoat, his tie, his waistcoat, his braces, opened 
 the collar of his shirt, just as he did when he sat 
 down to work at home, and asked for the copy of 
 the seventh tableau. It was given to him, and he 
 tore it up and threw it into the fire." 
 
 " ' What on earth are you doing ? ' cried Beraud. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJNIAS 153 
 
 " ' It didn't amuse the fireman : I have destroyed 
 it. But I see exactly what it wants.' 
 
 " And he rewrote it, there and then." 
 
 The day before the production of his comedy 
 " Hahfax," at the dress-rehearsal, Dumas decided 
 that the piece needed a prologue. He told the 
 actors that if they would learn the parts straightway, 
 he would write it. They were willing : the pro- 
 logue was written, learnt, and acted in twenty-four 
 hours. *' Read it," says Blaze de Bury, "it is a 
 gem ! " 
 
 Dumas and Rossini were present at the first night 
 of a play called " La Jeune Vieillesse." The piece 
 was a shocking failure, and as it proceeded dolor- 
 ously, to the tune of laughter and hisses, Dumas 
 muttered "What a fool the man is! He has eone 
 right past a splendid subject! I'll make a note of 
 it." And from this germ grew " Le Comte Her- 
 mann," one of the most notable of its author's later 
 plays. 
 
 Whenever he felt his dramatic enerofles flaarsrino-, 
 he tells us, he opened Schiller or Shakespeare at 
 random, to refresh and revive his powers by reading. 
 But the slightest opportunity or impulse was sufficient 
 to arouse the creative faculty and set it in action. 
 
 One day Dumas had been out shooting since six 
 in the morning, and had killed twenty-nine birds. 
 
 "I'll just make it thirty," he said, "then I'll go 
 
154 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 away and have a good sleep ; I'm tired, I've done 
 enough." 
 
 "He brought down his thirtieth partridge," says 
 Blaze de Bury, " and we saw him making his way 
 towards the farm. When we returned at five 
 o'clock, he was sitting before the fire in the kitchen, 
 gazing at the flames and twirling his thumbs. 
 
 " ' Whatever are you doing there ? ' asked his son. 
 
 " ' As you see, I am resting,' 
 
 " ' Have you had any sleep ? ' 
 
 " * No, impossible ! There is such an abominable 
 uproar in this farm, — sheep, cows, labourers,— it's 
 impossible to close one's eyes.' 
 
 " ' Then all this time you've been twirling your 
 thumbs ? ' 
 
 " ' No, I have written a play in one act.* 
 
 " As a matter of fact he had just written ' Romu- 
 lus,' which he amused himself by getting Regnier to 
 read at the Comedie Frangaise as being by ' a young, 
 unknown writer.' It was accepted with unanimity." 
 (The version which Dumas himself gives in " Bric-a- 
 brac " of the origin of this play differs only in un- 
 important details from his friend's account.) 
 
 The father's analysis of the son's play " La 
 Dame aux Camelias " shows his knowledge of stage- 
 craft in a striking^ liLrht. The elder Dumas added 
 to his criticism his opinion that the courtesan on 
 whose career the play and book were based, was 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 155 
 
 immoral by heredity. Subsequent research proved 
 the soundness of this deduction. 
 
 Dumas's talent was not confined to exertions on 
 his own behalf. " How often," says Blaze dc Bury, 
 " has he served as the anonymous collaborator of 
 his confreres ! ^ I have seen him thus deny himself 
 any credit for a score of plays which have been 
 signed with other names, but of which he had written 
 two-thirds." In one case a friend broucrht Dumas a 
 play which had been sent back from a theatre to be 
 cut down, as they considered it too long. The great 
 man read the piece, which was a short one, and told 
 his friend that far from being too long, it was not long 
 enough. He pointed out how the theme should be 
 developed and extended, and made into a full-sized 
 play. The author followed the advice he had re- 
 ceived ; and the piece thus remodelled was duly 
 accepted and performed. 
 
 But " the dramatic instinct " is not without its 
 disadvantages, as Dumas has amusingly shown. 
 
 " At a first night," he mourns, " I am the worst 
 spectator in the world. If it is an imaginative piece 
 that is being played, the characters have scarcely 
 appeared before they are no longer the author's, but 
 mine. In the first entracte I take them; I ap- 
 propriate them. Instead of their unknown future 
 of the next four acts, I introduce them into four of 
 
 ^ See the "Theatre Inconnu d'A. Dumas, /tvr," by Glinel. 
 
156 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 my own composition ; I enter into their characters, 
 I utilise their originaHty. If the interval lasts only 
 ten minutes, it is more than I require to build for 
 them the house of cards in which I instal them, and 
 my own particular paste-board house is scarcely ever 
 the same as the author's. With historical pieces it 
 is much worse. I bring my play, of course, built 
 upon the title, and as it is written with all my natural 
 defects — that is to say, with abundance of details, 
 absolute rigidity of characters, and double, triple, 
 quadruple intrigue — it is very seldom that my 
 play resembles in the least the one which is being 
 played. This is a real trouble to me, although to 
 other people it is a source of amusement." 
 
 The grreat romancer's frank confession as to his 
 lack of education as a youth has prompted his 
 detractors to pronounce him ignorant. They pre- 
 tend that the author of " Antony " wished to destroy 
 the fame of Corneille and Racine ; because Dumas's 
 sentiments towara^ the two national poets was a 
 discriminating admiration rather than blind worship. 
 In reality he admired the highest in literature; 
 and as a rule instinctively recognised it, and 
 judiciously proclaimed it. We know him as yield- 
 ing to no Frenchman, not even Hugo, in his 
 veneration for Shakespeare ; Andrew Lang, no 
 mean authority, testifies to Dumas's sound ap- 
 preciation of the greatness of Homer; and this 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 157 
 
 passage in the " Memoires " gives the He to many 
 jeers directed against the "great low - comedian " 
 as his foes called him : 
 
 " Bad Latin scholar as I am, I have always 
 adored Virgil ; his compassion for the wandering 
 exiles, his solemn pictures of death, his intuition of 
 an unknown God, touched my heart supremely from 
 the first ; the melody of his verses . . . had an 
 especial charm for me, and I knew by heart whole 
 passages of the 'yEneid.'" Unlike most scholars 
 Dumas studied with enthusiasm, and he never 
 forgot. 
 
 " Partly by diligence, partly by divination, Dumas 
 had great knowledge," says M. de Bury. " Having 
 received no early education, he set himself deliber- 
 ately to repair the misfortune, filling in the gap by 
 the thousand ideas which he gathered daily from 
 conversation, from travel and from reading. 
 History, travels, natural history, foreign literature 
 — he read all, from the "Ramayana" to Shake- 
 speare, Goethe, Schiller, Thackeray, Dickens, 
 Cooper, Scott, his admiration of literature ever 
 increasing. Hugo delighted without influencing 
 him, but Balzac had little attraction for Dumas, 
 who didn't see human nature from that point of 
 view." 
 
 As will readily be understood, the great realist 
 and the great romanticist were at opposite poles of 
 
158 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the literary sphere. On one occasion these ex- 
 tremes did meet, being invited by a well-meaning 
 friend, but the result was not happy. Balzac had 
 spoken contemptuously of his rival in popularity 
 as "a nigger," and Dumas was not disposed to 
 forget it. It was a Quaker's meeting, for neither 
 guest spoke until they were both leaving. Then 
 alzac said : 
 
 "When I am written out, I'll take to writing 
 dramas." 
 
 And Dumas replied — 
 
 " You'd better begin at once, then." 
 
 And they parted. Yet Balzac saw that Dumas, 
 like George Sand, had none of the low jealousy and 
 littlenesses which obscured so many contemporary 
 talents, and Dumas, who always wrote with ap- 
 preciation of Balzac's talents, followed his coffin 
 to the sfrave when the author of " Pere Goriot " died 
 in 1850. 
 
 A still greater bete-noire of Dumas's was Buloz, 
 the editor of the Revue des Deux Afondes, for which 
 periodical the " Isabel de Baviere " chroniques 
 were written. The pair had quarrelled over the 
 production of " Caligula " at the Comedie Fran- 
 ^aise, for at that time Buloz was commissary of 
 the national theatre. For some months afterward 
 Dumas, who was witty even in his dislikes, " em- 
 broidered " his correspondence with varying but 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 159 
 
 consistently uncomplimentary references to Buloz. 
 For instance, he would address a letter 
 "To 
 
 " M , 
 
 " Havre, 
 "Sixty kilometres from that idiot of a Buloz." 
 Or again, would begin a letter : — 
 
 " My dear Porcher, — You, who are in every 
 respect superior to that idiot, Buloz." . . . 
 
 There was a third exception to Dumas's general 
 " friendly relations with all the other powers." 
 This was M. Jules Lecomte, and the circumstances 
 of the case are worth recording, as beinof "sio- 
 nificant of many things." Lecomte, when a young 
 man, was recommended to Dumas by a mutual 
 friend, and the author of course opened his house 
 to the poor and friendless fugitive. In return for 
 this kindness Lecomte ordered costly clothes, and 
 left his host to pay the bill, sponged on the generous 
 author in various ways, and finally disgusted him 
 altogether by masquerading as Alfred de Musset, 
 also at his benefactor's expense. Further, Le- 
 comte, under a pseudonym, sent to Paris by way 
 of Brussels articles containing references to Dumas 
 and Ida Ferrier which were not in the best of 
 taste. 
 
 When the great man was staying in Florence, 
 Lecomte had the impudence to call once more on 
 
160 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 his old host. The authorities had required some par- 
 ticulars concerning Lecomte, and he had given them 
 Dumas's name as a reference. The novelist duly 
 furnished the officials with such facts about the 
 gentleman in question that he was ordered to 
 leave the city at once. Then the other, foreseeing 
 a public disturbance, armed himself with a stout 
 cane. 
 
 The precaution was a wise one. As the ro- 
 mancer was standing by the door of a carriage, 
 chatting with a lady friend, in a public avenue 
 one day, Lecomte, accompanied by a " backer," 
 strode up, and without a word of warning struck 
 at his old patron. Dumas parried the blow, and 
 cut the rogue across the face with his cane. Then, 
 turning to his assailant's " second," one Prince 
 Korsakoff, he declared that he would not cross 
 swords with a creature like Lecomte, but would 
 willingly meet the Prince, if he chose to take up 
 his companion's quarrel. 
 
 Korsakoff at once accepted, but before the duel 
 came about he wrote to Dumas stating that he had 
 heard certain truths about M. Lecomte, and now 
 refused either to fight for him or to continue his 
 acquaintance. 
 
 There are several morals to this incident, which 
 have their bearing on Dumas's success — and failure 
 — in life. 
 
AT.EXANDIIK DUMAS IGl 
 
 As a rule, liowcvcr, the great writer was not a 
 good hater, and bore litde malice. Meeting one day 
 a critic who had abused him, he stepped up to him, 
 saying, " Hein ! What a splendid article I have 
 provided you with!" It is true that the persistent 
 shout of " Collaborators ! collaborators ! " annoyed 
 him. Once, after keeping a company of friends 
 roaring at his witty sayings, Dumas added, " You 
 find the jest a good one ? Well, to-morrow one of 
 my collaborators will swear it's his ! " 
 
 Our author has expressed his opinion of col- 
 laboration in general, in his " Souvenirs drama- 
 tiques." The passage is written in his most 
 vivacious style. But for Fiorentino, one of the 
 many young men he befriended, and one of his 
 best " 'prentices," Dumas had a very real affection. 
 
 One day the master begged his secretary to 
 take a letter to Fiorentino and wait for a reply. 
 An hour after, the secretary returned with a letter 
 from the ex-'prentice, then critic of the Consti- 
 tutioiinel and the Mofiiteur. Dumas opened it : 
 
 " Here is a man whom I have rescued from 
 misery," he cried, "and whom I have taught his 
 trade. Well ! — would anyone believe it } — when at 
 odd times I ask him to do me a service ... he 
 never refuses me ! " 
 
 It is a proof of the many-sided nature of Dumas 's 
 genius that he was at once the rival of Balzac, 
 
162 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Scribe, and Hugo. Towards Scribe his attitude 
 was one of admiration, mingled with a httle good- 
 natured tolerance — the smile of the gay grasshopper, 
 as he watched the industrious ant toiling through a 
 hot summer's day to get in his winter stock. The 
 one had talent and amassed a fortune ; the other 
 had genius, made half a dozen fortunes, and died 
 poor. 
 
 •With the bulk of his fellow-writers Dumas was 
 on excellent terms, and numbered amongst his 
 friends Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Lafayette, George 
 Sand, Rossini, Hugo, De Musset, Heine, Soulie, 
 Beranger, Merimee, and Nodier, With Janin, it 
 is true, he engaged in a wordy duel over " Les, 
 Demoiselles de St Cyr." ^ Mr Swinburne thinks 
 that one of the poems in " Toute la Lyre " was 
 addressed by Hugo to his two friends, suggesting 
 reconciliation. We have seen that Dumas and 
 Janin were on good terms again in 1849, and at 
 the former's death the latter wrote a little " appre- 
 ciation " of him, full of sincere affection and 
 admiration. 
 
 We have mentioned Victor Hugo, and the friend- 
 ship between these two men, so strangely unlike 
 in character, played an important part in Dumas's 
 
 ^ The pair even met on the "field of honour." Janin would not 
 fight with swords (so the story went) because he knew an infallible 
 thrust ; Dumas refused pistols because he could kill a fly at forty 
 paces. So the foes embraced ! 
 
ALEXANDRE DUINIAS 163 
 
 life, although the genius of each was quite un- 
 affected by his admiration and affection for his 
 confrere. It is true that the plays of one suggested 
 ideas to the other, but the influence went no deeper. 
 Dumas first met Hugo about the time of the pro- 
 duction of "Henri Trois," — in a show on the 
 Boulevard du Temple, he tells us! — and Hugo 
 invited his new acquaintance to attend the private 
 reading of " Marion Delorme." The two young 
 " Romantics " became instant friends, and Dumas 
 never wearied of singing the praises of the poet, who 
 on his part, although of a less demonstrative nature, 
 seems to have remained a loyal friend throughout. 
 
 We have referred to Dumas's eulogy of " Marion 
 Delorme," and Hugo's noble championship of his 
 comrade, on the occasion when the Legion of 
 Honour was conferred on him and then with- 
 drawn. Unfortunately, a bitter attack on Dumas, 
 written by Granier de Cassagnac, appeared in 1833, 
 ao-ainst Hueo's wishes, in a journal with which the 
 poet was known to be connected. An attempt 
 was made by ill-advised partisans to set the rival 
 dramatists in opposition to each other. It may 
 have been this which caused the coolness to exist 
 between the two friends in 1837-8, but in the latter 
 year Madame Dumas died, and her sorrowing son 
 forgot the old enmity and invited Hugo to the 
 funeral. This was the poet's reply : 
 
164 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 " I could have wished a less mournful reason for 
 clasping your hand once more. You will see me 
 to-morrow, and with the first glance which we ex- 
 change, you will know that you did wrong ever to 
 doubt me. 
 
 " You were right in counting on me. It is a 
 return to a state of noble trust worthy of you, and 
 
 me. 
 
 It is a matter of history that after the coup dMat 
 Huofo went into exile. The other soon followed his 
 friend to Brussels, and we have already spoken of 
 their intimacy during this period. On his return 
 to Paris, Dumas proclaimed his admiration for 
 Hugo in the very first number of his Mousque- 
 tai7'e — a bold thing to do, when one remembers 
 that the author of " The History of a Crime " was 
 anathema to the soul of " Napoleon the Little." 
 The following year our author dedicated his play 
 of "La Conscience" to Hugo as "a proof of a 
 friendship which has survived exile, and which 
 will, I hope, outlive even death." The compli- 
 ment is acknowledged in the fifth book of the poet's 
 " Contemplations," in which Hugo recalls their 
 parting on the quay at Antwerp, and adds : 
 
 " Tu rentras dans ton ceuvre, eclatante, innombrable, 
 Multiple dblouissante, heureuse ou le jour luit, 
 Et moi dans Funite sinistra de la nuit." 
 
 When Mademoiselle Augustine Brohan attacked 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS 165 
 
 the exiled poet in the press, Dumas wrote to the 
 Comedie Franqaise to demand that the actress who 
 had insulted his friend should not be allowed to 
 play in his comedies in the future. Hugo in writini; 
 to thank his comrade for his loyalty, added, " I feel I 
 must write to tell you that I love you more every 
 day, not only because you are one of the wonders of 
 the century, but because you are one of its con- 
 solations." The letter ended with an urgent in- 
 vitation to visit the poet at Guernsey. Dumas 
 duly journeyed to see the exile (in 1S57), an act 
 on which Charles Hugo comments admiringly. It 
 was not only brave of him (he says), it was thought- 
 ful. The bond between the two o^reat men re- 
 
 o 
 
 mained unbroken till the end, and Hugo wrote to 
 the younger Dumas on the occasion of his father's 
 death one of his characteristically noble and tender 
 letters. 
 
 With all his defects of training and his semi- 
 plebeian birth, Dumas was a man of taste. Pictures, 
 music, bric-a-brac, ancient art in sculpture and 
 design, all that was best in the artistic sense, ap- 
 pealed to him. His admiration for architecture was 
 real and ardent, and when during his travels in La 
 Vendee he visited the cathedral at Angers, and 
 found an architect busy " restoring " the church — by 
 scraping it .'—his comment was severe in spite of its 
 wit. "Alas, it takes twenty-five years to make a 
 
166 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 man : a Swiss mercenary in the royalist pay shoots 
 him, and he dies. It takes six or eight centuries to 
 * colour ' a cathedral : an architect with ' taste ' 
 comes on the scene, and scrapes it! Oh, why 
 doesn't the Swiss shoot the architect, or the archi- 
 tect scrape the Swiss ? " 
 
 If his enemies had not insisted on the contrary, 
 one would hardly have thought it necessary to claim 
 courage for a man who was in the streets of Paris 
 during the days of July 1830, who chose to be " out " 
 with Garibaldi, and who fought two or three duels 
 and sent goodness knows how many challenges. As 
 a fact, Dumas's courage was of the best quality. 
 
 " In manhood his earliest impulse," Mr Lang tells 
 us, " was to rush at danger ; if he had to wait he felt 
 his courage oozing out at the tips of his fingers, like 
 Bob Acres, but in the moment of peril he was him- 
 self again." His bravery greatly resembled that of 
 Henri Quatre in " Les Ouarante Cinq": it was a 
 fear of feai\ which overmastered any fear of the 
 event that menaced him. 
 
 Once, when serving in the National guard, Dumas 
 was summoned to help to arrest the Chamber of 
 Deputies! He and another comrade met at the 
 doors : they waited, but no one joined them. The 
 "false alarm" appears to have been in the nature of 
 a test, which the author passed successfully. 
 
 The great man's disdain of danger was partly due 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 107 
 
 to his superb health and strength. He was truly 
 the son of the general who choked a horse with his 
 knees ; it was veritably the father of Porthos who 
 tackled the leader of a crowd which threatened to 
 mob him. " He turned round," says M. Du Chaf- 
 fault, "seized on the biggest, carried him to tlie 
 parapet of the bridge as if he'd been a bundle of 
 straw, and cried, ' Beg my pardon, or I'll throw you 
 into the water ! ' " His confidence rested also on his 
 perfect familiarity with all kinds of weapons. He 
 fenced admirably, and was an excellent shot, as 
 became an ardent sportsman, for in all the pleasures 
 of Dumas's life sport took a commanding place. As 
 a boy we have seen him companion of keepers and 
 poachers ; as a man he loved the chase from the 
 spearing of trout by midnight to the hunting of 
 wolves. His travels contain the stories of his own 
 exploits : his " Causeries " tell of the triumphs of 
 others ; everywhere in his books you may read of 
 some form of la chasse; in one it is Charles IX. 
 chasing the boar, in another Ferdinand of Naples 
 breaking up a Council at the call of h.\s pig it e2i7's. 
 When wearied of desk-work, or intent on thinking 
 out a new romance or play, Dumas would disappear 
 from Paris for a few days. Hi:: old friends at 
 Villers-Cotterets would be rejoicod to see their 
 young friend (he was always " young " to them) 
 walk in unexpectedly one line day, looking gay and 
 
168 I TFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 hearty, and ordering his dinner even as he shouted 
 a greeting! Then would follow the jolliest of 
 dinner-parties, everyone crowding round the table 
 to exchanofe banter and chaff with the " Kingf of 
 Paris," who was happy and content to be hail-fellow- 
 well-met with the poorest peasant in VillerS- 
 Cotterets. 
 
 It has been made a subject of reproach against 
 Dumas — and which of his qualities has not been made 
 use of in that way ? — that he knew how to " cook his 
 hare " after he had caught it. This prejudice is 
 especially strong in England, where the word 
 goicrmet is confused with gourmand, and popularly 
 translated to mean "glutton." Ordinarily, the writer 
 lived simply, and if he knew how food could best be 
 cooked, if he liked it cooked well instead of badly, 
 and if he had the skill to cook it himself, there is 
 surely no need to think any the worse of him. He 
 was not i^pace Stevenson) a "great eater" in the 
 sense of eating much ; he boasted of his appetite, it 
 is true, but there is no reason to believe that it was 
 out of proportion to his giant frame and the enor- 
 mous amount of work he got through. So much of 
 a "glutton," in short, was our Dumas, that when 
 engrossed in his writing he refused to stop to take 
 food ; whatever his servant chose to prepare for him 
 was placed at his elbow, and he ate mechanically as 
 he wrote on and on ! 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 1G9 
 
 To those who have so far followed the progress 
 of this sketch of Dumas's life and character it will 
 be a matter of no surprise to learn that he was a 
 humanitarian. His father had earned the nickname 
 of " Mr Humanity " from the fierce sansculottes of 
 the Revolution, because he drew down the blinds of 
 his room rather than witness the execution of some 
 poor wretches whom the fanaticism of the time had 
 doomed to the oruillotine. And as the love of one's 
 kind is only a grander form of charity, Dumas the 
 charitable was never found wantinsf. Sometimes he 
 used his influence to save a coiner from the gallows ; 
 sometimes he racked his wits to prevent a duel which 
 was likely to end fatally ; sometimes he would write 
 autographs and aphorisms by the hundred, that 
 some wretch in poverty might benefit by the sale. 
 When "Notre Dame des Arts" was founded, 
 Fitzgerald tells us, Dumas took the translation of 
 a little German play, shaped it, disposed of it for 
 ^Soo, and presented the money to the charity. A 
 poor monk journeying from Palestine, to obtain 
 funds for the rebuilding of his monastery at Carmel, 
 appealed to the writer, who laid the good man's 
 petition before the public through the columns of a 
 friendly journal. No less a sum than 300,000 francs 
 was raised, and the monk went home joyfully, his 
 quest accomplished. 
 
 Brunswick, who provided the base-idea on which 
 
170 LIFE AND AVRITINGS OF 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Belle- Isle " was founded, sold 
 his share — a third of the profits — for 300 francs, 
 to a friend, who re-sold it to Dumas. When the 
 play was written and produced, and proved a 
 success, Brunswick hinted to the author that the 
 sum was not adequate. The other replied : — 
 
 " I heartily thank you, my dear friend, for wishing 
 to have your share in the good fortune that has just 
 befallen me. I fancy I am more skilful in putting 
 dialogue together than figures. I left out an 
 * ought ' in the sum we agreed upon for ' your ' 
 piece. It is worth, my dear Brunswick, not 300, 
 but 3,000 francs." 
 
 The description given by Dumas of the last days 
 and the last moments of Marie Dorval is full of 
 pathos, and most feelingly, unaffectedly told. The 
 dying actress begged her old friend to see that she 
 was not laid in a pauper's grave, and he promised. 
 He had only 200 francs of his own; Hugo and 
 M. Falloux between them supplied another 300 ; 
 and the "vain fcnxeur'' pawned a cherished 
 decoration to make up the necessary balance. He 
 struggled vainly to obtain pardon for Marie 
 Capelle (Madame Lafarge), niece of his playmate 
 Collard, whose crime was one of the tragic mysteries 
 of the day. He had better fortune in the case of a 
 hussar named Bruyant, a native of Villers-Cotterets, 
 who was condemned to death for killing a superior 
 
ALEXxVNDRE DUMxVS 171 
 
 officer, in an attempt to desert. By energetically 
 attacking first his young patron the Duke de 
 Chartres, and then M. Guizot, Dumas obtained a 
 commutation of the sentence, for, as he had fore- 
 seen, the man proved to be mad, and was finally 
 taken care of. 
 
 In his epilogue to " Comte Hermann" the 
 author pleaded, with much earnestness and good 
 sense, that executions should not be held semi- 
 publicly, a way which summons false pride to the 
 heart of the condemned and hardens him to die 
 unrepentant. He asked that the sentence should 
 be carried out in the prison cell itself, and should be 
 accomplished, more swiftl\- and painlessly, by elec- 
 tricity. Since the words were written the French 
 have advanced somewhat towards Dumas's ideal ; 
 the Americans have realised it to the full. As in 
 private life our author was a friend of the poor, 
 the sorrowing and the suffering, so in the world's 
 history he invariably championed the cause of the 
 fallen. "In his stories," says Ferry, "he never lost 
 an opportunity of re-crowning the vanquished, of 
 raising up fallen causes, and of asking the pity of 
 posterity for those men who had sacrificed them- 
 selves for it." 
 
 Dumas passed through that evolution of the soul 
 so frequent with thinkers, — dogmatism, — doubt — 
 and a new faith, based on reason, and the divine 
 
172 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 intuition within man. As a boy he passed through 
 a period of reHgious ecstacy ; yet in his youth 
 when he was in the depths of Byronic gloom, he 
 prefaced his play of "Antony," as we have seen, 
 with what was intended to be a very wicked in- 
 vocation to the Spirit of Evil, in which he declared 
 he would give up to it his life, and his soul too, — 
 " if he believed in it ! " Twenty-four years later, 
 he wrote to Victor Hugo, ** I believe in the im- 
 mortality of the soul." In the verses which he 
 composed on his mother's death, he shows a 
 passionate piety. All these conflicting sentiments 
 were uttered with perfect sincerity — they were 
 really felt at the time they were expressed. But 
 his true confession of faith, the conclusions of his 
 maturer years, is given in the " Memoires." Here, 
 after protesting "a great respect for holy things, a 
 great faith in Providence and a great love for God," 
 he continues : 
 
 " Never in the course of a somewhat long life 
 have I fe'lt, in the most wretched hours of that 
 life, one moment of doubt, one instant's despair. 
 I will not dare to say that I am sure of the im- 
 mortality of my soul ; I will simply say, I hope 
 for it." 
 
 At a certain dinner-party given by an opulent 
 banker, the company discussed the existence of 
 God, "over the walnuts and wine," and a certain 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 173 
 
 general was very scornful on the subject, wonderi no- 
 how people could trouble to discuss such trifles. 
 
 ** For my part," he added, " I can't conceive of 
 the existence of this mysterious being whom they 
 call * the good God.' " 
 
 "General," replied Dumas, "I have two hunting- 
 dogs, two monkeys and a parrot at home, who are 
 of your opinion exactly." 
 
 Dumas Jils has examined his father's religious 
 sentiments and analysed them. In the Introduction 
 to the " Mousquetalres " before quoted. He finds 
 that his father was too sane, too busy In good 
 work, to dwell much on the hereafter ; but believes 
 that the kind, charitable soul need not be blamed 
 very severely for living for this life, without con- 
 sidering its own precious self too closely — and most 
 of us will agree with him. 
 
 Even in the last darkening; hours of his mind 
 Dumas was capable, at brief intervals, of some- 
 thing like his old wit. We quote his last mot 
 from M. Ferry's "Dernleres Annees d'A. Dumas": 
 
 " When they took him away from Paris he had 
 twenty francs on him. That louls was the total 
 fortune of this man, who had earned millions. 
 
 " On arriving at Puys, Dumas placed the coin 
 on his bedroom chlmney-plece, and there it re- 
 mained all through his illness. 
 
 " One day he was seated in his chair near the 
 
/ 
 
 174 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 window, chatting with his son, when his eye fell 
 on the gold piece. 
 
 "A recollection of the past crossed his mind. 
 
 " ' Fifty years ago, when I went to Paris,' he 
 said, * I had a louis. Why have people accused 
 me of prodigality.'* I have always kept that louis. 
 See — there it is ! ' " 
 
 " And he showed his son the coin, smiling feebly 
 as he did so." 
 
 We may add, by way of appendices, three 
 character-sketches which will supplement the im- 
 pression given by our own. They present by way 
 of contrast, a view of Dumas's character, which 
 is, as it were, focussed and compact. 
 
 The first is a phrenological description given 
 by Dr Castle, a professor of that "pseudo-science," 
 which purports to be a cold-blooded estimate of 
 its subject's virtues and vices : 
 
 " Frank in the expression of all that he feels 
 and thinks, he is loath by nature to take any 
 roundabout way of attaining his end: his is the 
 very opposite of the intriguing instinct. 
 
 " He is expansive, affectionate, and caressing in 
 manner ; and his affection is of that kind which 
 extends itself in all directions, being in fact, the 
 confession of his need for comradeship. This 
 tendency to make friends of all whom he meets 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 175 
 
 means practically an absence of exclusiveness in 
 affection. 
 
 " He has a natural love for the weak, the suffer- 
 ing, and the young, and by a logical antithesis, a 
 love, too, for the aged. 
 
 "He possesses confidence in himself, and yet 
 needs the approbation of others ; he has a desire 
 to please, coupled with a respect for others. 
 
 " As one may see, such a character is subject 
 to a great number of opposing impulses. These 
 contradictory instincts will have an effect on our 
 writer, a subtle inward effect, which is more 
 apparent to Dumas himself than to any of his 
 friends, however well they know him. 
 
 " He feels the need of love, of lovinof and beine 
 loved : this need is elemental in him, and is felt 
 perhaps the more strongly by the sensuous than 
 by the spiritual side of his nature. 
 
 " He is subject to irritable, rather than to iras- 
 cible moments, and capable, on rare occasions, of 
 violent and blind passion. Also he is liable to 
 show himself vindictive, or, more often, stubborn, 
 in controversy or quarrel. This obstinacy is prone 
 to seem like vindictiveness, because our subject 
 will probably be infuriated by resistance to his 
 desires, although he feels no hatred towards the 
 cause of his anorer. 
 
 "There is a tendency towards covetousness, ver}" 
 
176 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 slightly indicated, but present. He is generally 
 inclined to see the best side of everything, and 
 view all things through couleur de rose spectacles. 
 He is pious by instinct and religious by intelligence, 
 more brave than courageous, and more resolute 
 than brave." 
 
 The second is a portrait of Dumas in his thirties, 
 by a confrere and a contemporary, M. Hippolyte 
 Romand, who looks upon the author from a more 
 human point of view : 
 
 " Passionate by temperament, subtle by instinct, 
 and courageous by vanity, he has a good heart and 
 bad judgment, and is a spendthrift by nature. He 
 is a veritable ' Antony ' for love, almost a ' Dar- 
 lington ' for ambition : he never will be a * Sen- 
 tinelli ' ^ for vengeance. Superstitious^ when he 
 thinks, religious when he writes, sceptical when he 
 speaks, light even in his most fiery passions, his 
 blood is a lava, his thought a spark. His per- 
 sonality is as illogical as it is possible to conceive, 
 and the most unmusical that we know ; he is a 
 liar in his capacity as poet ; generous, because he 
 
 1 The character in " Christine " who, impelled by private hate, kills 
 Monaldeschi, by Queen Christine's order. 
 
 2 Pifteau tells us that Dumas had a belief in the "evil eye," and a 
 rooted distrust of monks as harbingers of evil. Vandam tells us that 
 "althoug^h far from being superstitious," the romancer prophesied that 
 the notorious Lola Montes would bring ill-luck to all who joined their 
 destinies to hers, and the after career of that courtesan proved him to 
 be riffht. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 177 
 
 is an artist and a poet; too liberal in friendship, 
 too despotic in love ; vain as a woman, resolute 
 as a man, and egoistical as a God. He is sincere 
 to imprudence, kind without discernment, forgetful 
 even to thoughtlessness, a wanderer body and soul, 
 cosmopolitan by taste, patriotic in opinion, rich in 
 illusions and caprices, poor in prudence and ex- 
 perience ; light in spirit, cutting in speech, witty 
 in season, a Don Juan by night, an Alcibiades by 
 day, a veritable Proteus, escaping from everybody 
 and from himself; as lovable for his defects as 
 for his good qualities ; more seductive for his vices 
 than for his virtues — that is M. Dumas as we love 
 him, as he is ! " 
 
 We make no apology for adding, as the third 
 " opinion," that of one whose partiality inspired a 
 frank eulogy. It is Dumas fits who is speaking, 
 a man of critical insight, who may at least be relied 
 upon to praise the praiseworthy qualities of his 
 father, and not to extol the bad ones. He speaks 
 in apostrophe : 
 
 " In this century, which seems created, above 
 all, to devour all things, you were in truth the one 
 man it needed, for you in turn were born to pro- 
 duce perpetually. What precautions nature took, 
 what provision she made in thee, for the formidable 
 appetites, for which she was forced to prepare ! 
 It was beneath the American sun, and with African 
 
178 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 blood, that she moulded him of whom you were 
 born, and who, soldier and general of the Republic, 
 strangled a horse between his legs, broke a helmet 
 with his teeth, and, alone, defended the bridge of 
 Brixen against a vanguard of twenty men ! Rome 
 would have bestowed the honours of a triumph 
 upon him and made him consul : France, calmer 
 and more economical, shut the doors of the college 
 upon his son. That son, growing to manhood in 
 the wide forests — in the open air and under the 
 blue heavens — urged on by want and by his genius, 
 flung himself, one fine day, into the great city, and 
 marched into literature by the breach he made, 
 as his father marched into the camp of the enemy. 
 " Then commenced that cyclopean work which 
 lasted for forty years. Tragedy, dramas, history, 
 romance, comedy, travel, you cast all of them in 
 the furnace and the mould of your brain, and you 
 peopled the world of fiction with new creations. 
 The newspaper, the book, the theatre, burst asunder, 
 too narrow for your puissant shoulders ; you fed 
 France, Europe, America, with your works; you 
 made the wealth of publishers, translators, plagi- 
 arists ; printers and copyists toiled after you in vain. 
 In the fever of production you did not always try to 
 prove the metal you employed, and sometimes you 
 tossed into the furnace whatever came to your hand. 
 The fire made the selection : what was your own is 
 
ALEXANDRE DUIMAS 179 
 
 bronze, what was hot yours vanished in smoke. 
 You have turned out some bad worl: thus ; but on 
 the other hand, how many amongst those who would 
 have remained obscure have been Hghtened and 
 warmed at the forge of your genius ; and if the 
 hour of restoration sounded, how immensely would 
 you gain, simply by taking back what you have 
 given, and what has been taken from you ! 
 
 '' Sometimes you placed your heavy hammer upon 
 your great anvil, and rested on the threshold of 
 the glittering grotto, your sleeves turned back, 
 your chest open to the air. With smiling face, you 
 wiped your forehead ; you gazed at the calm stars, 
 breathing the freshness of the night, or perhaps 
 you rushed off upon the first path you met, hailing 
 your freedom as a prisoner would ; you crossed 
 the ocean, you climbed the Caucasians, you scaled 
 Etna — it was always something colossal ! Then, 
 your lungs filled anew, you returned to your cave. 
 Seeing your big shadow outlined in black against 
 the glowing hearth, the mob clapped their hands ; 
 for at heart they love fertility in work, elegance 
 in strength, simplicity in genius, and you have 
 fertility, simplicity, elegance — and generosity, which 
 I had forgotten, but which has made you a million- 
 aire for others and poor for yourself. 
 
 " Then one day there came a change — indiffer- 
 ence, ingratitude, seized the crowd, whom till now 
 
180 ALEXANDRE DUMAS 
 
 you had swayed and dominated. They went else- 
 where, wishing to see something fresh ; you had 
 given them too much. You even heard it whis- 
 pered, ' I declare the son has far more talent.' 
 You well might laugh at that, but you did not ; 
 you were merely proud of me, like some ordinary 
 father, and perhaps you thought that they were 
 right. You would have given me all your glory, 
 just as you used to give me all your money when 
 I was an idle boy. Let others of my time claim 
 to be your equals : as they do not bear your name, 
 that is their own affair ; but I wish those who come 
 after me to know, when they shall see our two 
 names one above the other on the scroll of this 
 century, that whatever people may say, I have 
 never felt you other than my father, my friend, 
 and my teacher ; and that, thanks to you, I have 
 never become conceited, always considering myself 
 a mere pigmy by the side of you." 
 
 Reading this filial tribute, in which the regret 
 for the father's lost popularity seems to be sin- 
 cerely greater than the writer's own pleasure in 
 his success, one may well agree with Hugo, when 
 he wrote to the younger Dumas on the death of 
 his father : — 
 
 " That soul was capable of all the miracles, even 
 that of bequeathing itself, even of surviving itself. 
 Your father lives in you." 
 
PART II 
 
 HIS WRITINGS 
 
His Writings 
 
 " Suppose," wrote Victor Hugo, " that in place of 
 the romance of narrative, and the romance epis- 
 tolary, a creativ^e brain produced the romance 
 dramatic, wherein the action should unfold itself 
 in a series of faithful and varied pictures, just as 
 the events of real life occur ; which should know 
 no other division than that which the chansfinsf 
 scenes demanded — which should be, in short, a 
 long drama, in which the description supplies the 
 scenery and the costumes ? " 
 
 Dumas was destined to realise this ideal much 
 more extensively and closely than Hugo himself. 
 He possessed, in the first place, the constructive, 
 dramatic skill ; he only needed the impetus. He 
 found it in the love of history ; but it was needful 
 that he should first find the historians who would 
 reconcile him to the task. 
 
 "What France is looking for, is the historical 
 novel," said Lassagne to Dumas once, in the early 
 days of the writer's career. 
 
 " But the history of France is so dull and 
 tedious ! " answered the ignorant young dramatist 
 dogmatically. 
 
184 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 " Indeed — how do you know that?" 
 
 " I've been told so." 
 
 " Poor boy ! Read it yourself, first, and then 
 you'll change your mind." 
 
 Dumas took his friend's advice, and read Thierry, 
 and a high ambition possessed him. 
 
 "One day," he tells us, " Lamartine asked me 
 to what I attributed the success of his ' Histoire 
 des Girondins.' " 
 
 " ' To the fact that you raised history to the 
 height of the romance,' I replied." 
 
 "In Dumas," says Swinburne, " the novelist and 
 the dramatist were thoroughly at one." We are 
 told, and can well believe, that when the immense 
 success of " Les Trois Mousquetaires " called for a 
 dramatised version of the book, little more than 
 scissors and paste, some skill in selection, and a change 
 of form, were needed to turn the romance into a 
 play. On the other hand, " Henri Trois et sa 
 Cour" and "La Tour de Nesle" read like cape- 
 and-sv/ord romances in stage dress. 
 
 We know that in Dumas a desire to write fiction 
 had always lurked behind the lust for theatrical 
 fame. About the time that his first vaudeville was 
 performed, the first book, a little collection of short 
 stories, appeared. These, as we have said, were 
 the " Nouvelles Contemporaines " of 1826, after- 
 wards included in the " Souvenirs d'Antony " of 
 
CONTEMPORAINES, 
 
 Alex. DUMAS. 
 
 Fils d'un soIdaL, i'airae a cboisit 
 noes herosdanslesranfsderarmee. 
 
 PARIS. 
 
 SANSON, LIBRAIRE 
 
 DE S. A. R. MONSEICNEL'R LE DLC DE MONTPENSIER, 
 
 Palais-Roval, galeric de bois, n° 25o. 
 
 1826. 
 
 TITLE PAwE UF ItlMASS lUiST BUUK. 
 

ALEXANDRE DUMAS 185 
 
 1S35. As this was Dumas's first book, and is 
 now a great rarity, we may give it a little 
 attention. 
 
 "The first of these stories," he tells us, "was 
 entitled ' Laurette,' the second ' Blanche de Beau- 
 lieu,' and the name of the third I have utterly 
 forgotten. ' Blanche de Beaulieu ' I afterwards 
 utilised in writing ' La Rose Rouge,' and the third 
 {the one of which I cannot remember the name), 
 I subsequently reconstructed into * Le Cocher de 
 Cabriolet.' " We may add that the third story 
 was named " Marie," and that the book was dedi- 
 cated to the author's mother in " Homage — love 
 — gratitude." Of the four (or six) copies sold, 
 one is now in the possession of Robert Garnett, 
 Esq., and the title-page is here reproduced with 
 his permission. 
 
 Of the three (later the five) stories, " Blanche 
 de Beaulieu" was the most strikinof. It is note- 
 worthy that in this sombre but powerful little 
 story General Dumas, the author's father, appears, 
 though in its first form he was alluded to without 
 being named, " Le Cocher de Cabriolet " (after- 
 w^ards destined to form the basis of the author's 
 drama of " Angele "), is a pretty story, of a kind 
 differing strongly from the terrible poignancy of 
 its companion, " Un bal masque," which is in the 
 true " Antony " vein. This last, indeed, is the 
 
186 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 sole excuse for connecting these stories with the 
 famous play, as it is supposed to be told by that 
 Byronic personage himself. The remaining story, 
 " Cherubino et Celestini," appeared as one of 
 the " Cent-et-un Nouvelles" in 1833, under the 
 title of " Les Enfants de la Madone " ("The 
 Foundlings "). The main incidents contained in 
 this " nouvelle " were told to Sir Walter Scott as 
 local history, when he visited Naples shortly before 
 he died, and are given in his "Journal" as "The 
 Death of Bizarro." Tennyson versified it from 
 that source in " The Bandit's Wife." How cleverly 
 the theme has been elaborated, and how its in- 
 terest has been heightened, by the skill of the 
 Frenchman, may be seen by those who will com- 
 pare the outline in Scott's journal with "Cheru- 
 bino et Celestini." 
 
 The novelist in Dumas lay dormant for nine 
 years — his period of dramatic triumphs. Then, 
 an acquaintance with Scott's novels, and an intro- 
 duction to history picturesquely told, in the shape 
 of Barante's " Histoire des Dues de Bourgoyne " 
 combined to excite his imagination, and gave di- 
 rection to the ambitions called forth by Thierry. 
 In his fine preface to " Isabel de Baviere" he faces 
 the difficulties and exults over the glories of the 
 career which he foresees for himself: 
 
 " One of the most magnificent privileges of the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS 187 
 
 historian, that lord over the Past," he wrote, "is 
 the power to rebuild palaces and reanimate the 
 dust of dead heroes. With the touch of his pen, at 
 the sound of his voice, as at the call of a God, 
 the scattered bones reunite ; again the living flesh 
 covers them ; they are clothed once more in the 
 gay robes of their other life, and from out that 
 immense gulf of oblivion whither the three thousand 
 centuries have flung their offspring, he has but to 
 choose the favoured elect of his caprice, and call 
 them by name, to see them instantly raise with their 
 brows the walls of their tombs, part with their hands 
 the folds of their shrouds, and answer him, as 
 Lazarus answered Christ : ' Lord, here am I : what 
 wilt Thou with me ? ' " 
 
 " True, one needs a firm step to descend into the 
 abyss of history, a voice of power, to question the 
 phantoms who dwell there, a hand that shall not 
 tremble, to write the words that they shall speak, 
 for often the dead hold terrible secrets which have 
 been 'interred with their bones.' " 
 
 Dumas's early ideal of the historical romance, 
 although it changed with the development of his 
 genius, is also interesting. At the beginning of his 
 career, he wrote : 
 
 " The great difficulty (it seems to us) is to avoid 
 two errors — not to attenuate the past, as history has 
 done ; not to disfigure it, as the romance does. The 
 
188 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 only way to steer clear of both these mistakes 
 will be, then, immediately one has chosen one's 
 historical epoch, to study thoroughly the interests 
 which moved the three classes of society — the 
 people, the nobility and royalty — at that time ; to 
 choose from among the principal personages of 
 those classes such as took an active part in the 
 events to be comprised in the narrative ; and to 
 enquire minutely concerning their appearance, char- 
 acter and temperament, so that, whilst making them 
 live, speak, and act in this triple unity, one may 
 show the development in these historical types, of 
 the passions which brought about those catastrophes 
 which are recorded in the pages of the century by 
 dates and facts and in which one can only interest 
 one's public by showing them the actual living 
 manner in which the same deeds were added to 
 history." 
 
 Such was Dumas's view of the romance in the 
 days of " Isabel de Baviere," and " La Comtesse de 
 Salisbury." We have already explained how the 
 former " chronique " came to be written. Dumas 
 selected the most effective portions of Barante, and 
 vivified them. He was destined in the future to 
 make a brilliant success by the way in which he 
 painted romance on a foundation of history ; but on 
 this occasion, as Mr Saintsbury pithily puts it, " the 
 canvas shows throucrh," There is a want of coher- 
 
 O 
 
ALEXANDRE DU.MAS 189 
 
 ence in the book : it is absorbingly interesting, but 
 it is neither romance nor history. " La Comtesse 
 de SaHsbury," pubHshed four years later, in 1839, 
 is less readable. An admirable opening chapter is 
 succeeded by long tracts of history, and only at 
 brief intervals do the characters take life. This is 
 the more to be regretted, as the episode of Edward 
 III.'s guilty passion for his vassal's wife was a 
 subject of which, in after-years, our more experi- 
 enced author, emancipated from history, would 
 probably have made much. The preface, which 
 treats of the influence of Scott on the author and 
 his fellow-romancers in France, is by far the most 
 valuable part of the book. 
 
 Absorbed in travel and the drama, once again 
 our romancer neglected the historical metier. 
 " Pauline," a powerful little novel, some first in- 
 dications of which appeared in his " Impressions 
 de Voyage en Suisse," was published in 183S, 
 and was much praised ; and " Pascal Bruno," an 
 episode of the days of Murat, was also suggested 
 by the author's travels in Italy, and was coupled 
 with " Pauline " in a volume entitled " La Salle 
 dArmes." 
 
 When Dumas produced his drama of " Caligula," 
 he said to himself, " to study the corpse it is best to 
 visit the tomb." He therefore went to Italy, and also 
 " read up " the epoch, and the result was a romance 
 
190 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 as well as a drama. " Acte," which was published 
 in 1839, is not translated into English, but in some 
 respects it is a most notable book. " Scott could 
 never have written the first two hundred pages," 
 says Parigot truly ; " Renan would not have been 
 ashamed of them. Every step that Dumas takes 
 his foot rests on a document — Nero's entry into the 
 city over the ddbris of its walls, which had been 
 levelled in his honour, the suppers, the games at 
 the circus, the letters from Gaul which interrupt the 
 spectacle — the whole story is taken from authentic 
 sources, not forgetting Nero's flight, and his death 
 at the house of Plancus. And with what grace, 
 with what imaginative facility is this prodigious epoch 
 conjured up, living and breathing, before our eyes! 
 To these marvels of illusion, gathered together by 
 the artist in Dumas with great effort and skill, he 
 adds the vivid illusion of his own story." 
 
 It is a pity that such excellent work should in the 
 end " drag itself to death in plagiarism and prolixity " ; 
 but the fact was that Dumas's mother died whilst the 
 book was being written, and this probably accounts 
 for the fact that the novel varies so markedly 
 in merit. Either the writer, absorbed in his 
 sorrow, left some other author to finish it, or he lost 
 interest in the romance, and being as usual pressed 
 for time, made use of Chateaubriand's " Martyrs " 
 to supply the place of his vanished inspiration. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 101 
 
 Sienkiewicz, who has studied Dumas's works to 
 admirable purpose, probably found in "Acte" the 
 basis for " Quo Vadis." The " Acte " of Mr West- 
 bury, although it does not resemble Dumas's in 
 plot, would seem to have been suggested by the 
 older romance. 
 
 " Le Capitaine Paul," published in the previous 
 year, relates to the celebrated privateersman Paul 
 Jones, and professes to be a sequel to Fenimore 
 Cooper's "Pilot." Although Alphonse Karr in "Les 
 Guepes " makes fun of the sea-terms employed in 
 the story, the comparative non-success of the book 
 is due rather to the fact that Dumas, in his admira- 
 tion for the American novelist, was working with 
 unfamiliar and uncongenial material. The plot 
 seems to have been suo-o-ested to him. " Dauzats in- 
 venit, Dumas sculpsit," he wrote. He was more 
 successful, two years later, with the " Aventures de 
 John Davys," a book somewhat after the manner of 
 Defoe. Thackeray in the Revtie Britainiiqiic for 
 1847 accused Dumas of having stolen half of it 
 from another book, which he did not specify. Cher- 
 buliez, a contemporary critic, who was usually severe 
 on our author, admitted that the book could be 
 numbered amonost the best and most amusinir of 
 his early works. 
 
 Three other books published in 1840 deserve 
 attention, although not one of them is accessible in 
 
192 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 English. Of these perhaps the most noteworthy is 
 " Maitre Adam, le Calabrais," which is unknown to 
 many of the admirers of the romancer, even to 
 those who pursue him in the huge list of Calmann- 
 Levy. According to his witty epilogue, Dumas 
 first heard the story from the lips of a peasant at 
 Mugnano ; but the intimate knowledge of Calabrian 
 life, customs, and superstitions displayed suggests the 
 assistance of Fiorentino, Dumas's Italian assistant. 
 The result is an admirable story, told in most 
 humorous fashion. 
 
 The " Maitre d'Armes," the second book of this 
 trio, Mr Saintsbury has pronounced "very poor 
 stuff" Yet it was translated by a peer of the realm, 
 and has been issued also for the use of schools. We 
 fancy that on this occasion our author is to be taken 
 more literally than usual in his explanation of the 
 story's origin. Dumas supplied an introductory 
 page to his friend Grisier's journal of a visit to St 
 Petersburg, and possibly selected passages and re- 
 wrote them. " The public are warned that nothing 
 of what follows is mine," writes Dumas, "not even 
 the title." That is plain enough, and the internal evi- 
 dence proves it. The story of the exiling of a 
 Russian noble for complicity in the plot of 1825,^ 
 and of the devotion of the mistress who followed 
 him to far Siberia, forms only a minor portion of 
 
 ^ The plot forms the subject of Jokai's romance, " The Green Book. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 193 
 
 the book, and is not developed, as Dumas would 
 have found himself forced to develop anything of 
 his own. It may be added, that during his travels 
 in Russia in 1858, our author was introduced to the 
 hero and heroine of the adventure. The book had 
 the honour of being forbidden in Russia. 
 
 The remaining work of this year was " Le Capi- 
 taine Pamphile," which narrates the adventures of a 
 sort of nautical Crusoe in northern America. It 
 should appeal particularly to children, for whom it 
 was written, and if the entertaining digres- 
 sions respecting the author's pets be forgiven or 
 skipped, the rest of the book will be found capital 
 reading. The note of humour in Dumas, which 
 appears first in this book and in " Maitre Adam," is 
 not too frequently present in his later works. 
 
 Yet it is rather gaiety than any other quality 
 which pervades the only attempt at story-telling 
 made by Dumas during 1841 and 1842. It may be 
 remembered that he was busy writing his three 
 comedies for the Theatre Frangais at this time, 
 and also his " Impressions de Voyage "in the south 
 of France and Mediterranean. At Marseilles, Dumas 
 and his friend Mery enjoyed an experience which 
 each utilised in his own way. Hayward, in his 
 essay on our author, says, " One of the most amus- 
 ing stories composed by Dumas is ' La Chasse au 
 Chastre,' in which he depicts the trials and perils 
 
194 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 into which a wortliy professor of music is hurried, by 
 the reckless pursuit of a field-fare." Gautier in one 
 of his books refers to " that c/iasire, whose adven- 
 tures Dumas has told so vivaciously and wittily." 
 The two authors heard the story from the lips of 
 the unfortunate musician himself, and " de Mire- 
 court's " assertion that Dumas stole the tale from 
 Mery is disproved by that writer in the preface to 
 his own version. 
 
 " Le Chateau d'Eppstein " or " Albine " was the 
 outcome of a social gathering at Florence in 1841, 
 and was told to Dumas and the company by one 
 of the guests. That is our author's explanation : 
 his " commentators " declare " Albine " to be a story 
 of the Rhineland (title and author not given). 
 " Jacquot sans Oreilles " — not, one is disappointed 
 to find, a pillorying of M. " de Mirecourt" — was 
 similarly "supplied " to Dumas by an officer whose 
 acquaintance he made during his Russian travels 
 in 1858. The " Aventures de Lyderic " which 
 appeared in 1842, is the story of Siegfried, made 
 familiar to the public by Wagner. 
 
 We now enter upon the most important period of 
 our author's career as a writer of romance. Up to 
 this time he has possessed some very praiseworthy 
 ideals, but has failed to devote much care — except, 
 perhaps, in the case of " Acte " — to the realisation 
 of them. We have seen him displaying wit and 
 
ALEXANDRE DUiMAS 195 
 
 humour, skill in picturesque narrative, and his 
 native sense of the dramatic, but all without any 
 very definite aim. He had vowed, he tells us, to 
 write the history of France in fiction, but, as we 
 have seen, he had made little progress. 
 
 At this juncture the great man made the 
 acquaintance of an unknown, unappreciated writer, 
 named Auguste Maquet. The latter wrote a short 
 story, in which he had great faith, and had the 
 mortification of seeing it refused by an editor. Let 
 Charles Reade (who supplies these details, in his 
 " Eighth Commandment ") take up the story : 
 
 "As Maquet paced the boulevards, smarting, he 
 met Dumas, who asked him if he had nothing ' by 
 him.' 
 
 "'I have only the " Bonhomme Buvat," ' said 
 Maquet, sorrowfully. 
 
 " Dumas pricked up his ears. ' That is a good 
 title,' he said. ' Come, tell me something about 
 your " Bonhomme." ' 
 
 " Maquet glowed, and poured out a part of his 
 story. 
 
 "' That will do: send me the manuscript,' said 
 Dumas. ' I am off to Italy to-night.' 
 
 " Dumas took the ' Buvat ' with him, worked on 
 him, and in a few weeks it came out and charmed 
 all Europe as the * Chevalier d'Harmental.' " 
 
 "And then," adds Readc, " began that intellcc- 
 
196 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 tual alliance to which the world owes the most bril- 
 liant romances of the century." 
 
 The episode of " The good-man Buvat" will be 
 remembered by readers of this romance (known also 
 as "The Conspirators"). It is a clever piece of 
 character-drawing, but has only a slight-connection 
 with the main plot. The Cellemare conspiracy has 
 provided the principal theme. 
 
 This is one of the best of Dumas's stories, and 
 is not yet fully appreciated. Thackeray refers to it 
 admiringly in his " Roundabout Papers " ; and Mr. 
 Saintsbury commends it as the most perfect of its 
 author's novels in form — for unhappily Dumas was 
 not always particular about unity and completeness. 
 The contrast between the witty, voluptuous society 
 of the Regency and the fresh, innocent life of 
 Bathilde, is admirable in taste and effect. Captain 
 Roquefinette is the first (off the stage) of the ad- 
 venturers who occupy such a large place in Du- 
 mas's gallery of portraits. He dies finely, too, as 
 do his comrades who come after him — Porthos, 
 D'Artagnan, Maison-Rouge, La Mole, " Morgan,'' 
 Banniere, and the rest. 
 
 " Une Fille du Regent," a sequel to the "Cheva- 
 lier," was published two or three yearslater by the 
 same collaborators. It contains one entertaining 
 episode (treating of the Cellamare conspirators, and 
 their life in the Bastille); but it is the plot of 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 197 
 
 ** D'Harmenthal " again, with judicious variations. 
 Worse still, there is a gloomy note of fatalism 
 throughout the whole story. Nevertheless, " Une 
 Fille du Regent " is well worth reading, if only for 
 the study of Dubois, the Regent's minister, which 
 shows Dumas's talent for intrigue at its best. 
 
 "Georges," which also dates from 1843, is a 
 story of Mauritius, or the "He de France," and is 
 probably the work of our author In combination 
 with some " 'prentice " who knew the colony. This 
 may or may not have been Mallefille, to whom the 
 credit of the whole work has charitably been given. 
 But the hero, \vho suffers social ostracism for the 
 black blood in his veins ; the hero, who allows 
 nothing to stand between himself and his desires — 
 in short, " Dumas-Antony," — betrays his origin 
 unmistakably. With the struggle between the 
 French and English for that tropical paradise the 
 novelist has interwoven a revolt of the slaves, told 
 with great dramatic force and truth, and a love story. 
 
 " Cecile," or" La Robe de Noce," is chiefly inter- 
 esting as affording a first glimpse, in the author's 
 writings, of the days of Revolution, afterwards to be 
 turned to such full and effective account. So 
 popular was this pathetic story that two pirated 
 editions were Issued in Belgium in the course of a 
 few months. " Cecile " dates from " the great year," 
 1844, ^s does " Fernande," which has been claimed 
 
198 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 by M. Hippolyte Auger as at least half his own. 
 It is impossible to test the truth of that author's 
 assertions at this remote date, so that the degree of 
 blame — if any — which can attach to Dumas cannot 
 now be measured, but we may add that we believe 
 the story is not the great writer's. " Amaury " was 
 also published about this time, and Dumas gives 
 an account of its orio^in in which he disavows the 
 authorship ; but it may or may not be genuine, for 
 he always delighted in this form of mystification. 
 It is probably true that M. Paul Meurice wrote the 
 story with Dumas, for the style is not our author's. 
 He has told us, however, that it was suggested by 
 the case of his friend Felix Deviolaine, who was 
 consumptive, and who, happily, recovered ; but 
 in the story Madeleine D'Avrigny is not cured, 
 and so faithful and poignant was the descrip- 
 tion of the malady's progress that one M. Noailles, 
 whose daughter was also suffering from the disease, 
 appealed to the author to suspend the serial publica- 
 tion of "Amaury," if Madeleine was meant to die. 
 Th.Qfciu'ilctou was therefore suspended until after the 
 poor girl's death, and the kind-hearted Dumas went 
 so far as to improvise in manuscript a miraculous 
 recovery and happy fate for the poor heroine, for the 
 especial benefit of the doomed girl and her husband. 
 One of the best of Dumas's minor romances is 
 that of " Sylvandire," at one time known in England 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 100 
 
 as " Beau Tancrede." Its historical interest is 
 slight, but it affords a glimpse of the court of Louis 
 XIV. in his latter days, under the domination of 
 Madame de Maintenon. Chronologically " Sylvan- 
 dire " precedes the " Chevalier d'Harmenthal," and 
 possesses many of the merits of that romance. It 
 h^is little or nothing of the pretty sentiment of 
 Bathilde's love story, but instead, is told with much 
 ironic humour. 
 
 M. About, at the unveiling of the Dumas statue 
 in Paris, told a story of M. Sarcey, who was in the 
 same class at school with a little Spanish boy. The 
 child was homesick ; he could not eat, he could not 
 sleep ; he was almost in a decline. 
 
 " You want to see your mother ? " said young 
 Sarcey. 
 
 " No : she is dead." 
 
 " Your father, then ? " 
 
 " No : he used to beat me." 
 
 " Your brothers and sisters ?" 
 
 " I have none." 
 
 " Then why are you so eager to be back in 
 Spain ? " 
 
 "To finish a book I began in the holidays." 
 
 " And what was its name ? " 
 
 " * Los Tres Mosqueteros ! " 
 
 " He was homesick for ' The Three Musketeers' 
 (says Mr. Lang), "and they cured him easily." 
 
200 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 That boy would almost seem to have been the 
 young Castelar, the great Spanish orator, statesman, 
 and author, for he has written of the famous story 
 in manner quite as fervent : 
 
 " I can never forget the impression left upon my 
 mind by the reading of that book. The characters 
 are life-like, and stand out in such high relief, that 
 I seemed to see them, to speak to them, to dis- 
 tinguish their features and manners, and even to 
 compare them with real persons among my acquaint- 
 ances. So absorbing was my interest in the story, 
 that I watched for each new number with feverish 
 impatience, to read the end of these adventures, as 
 if they were intimately connected with some one 
 beloved, with my former friends, with my nearest 
 relations, with my own soul. . . . That exciting 
 narrative ; that flashing style ; those characters, 
 so boldly described ; those scenes, so marvellously 
 woven together ; that ever-increasing interest in the 
 story — all this worked upon my imagination, and 
 by the magic of art the fictitious world was changed 
 into the world of truth and poetry, and became as 
 real as society or as nature." 
 
 Is there any man who has not read " The Three 
 Musketeers"? It has become one of the world's 
 books. As Mery, Dumas's fast friend, jestingly 
 put it, 
 
 " If there exists a second Robinson Crusoe in any 
 part of the world at this moment, be sure that the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 201 
 
 exile is vvhiling away his solitude reading ' Les 
 Trois Mousquetaires,' under the shade of his parrot- 
 feathered umbrella." 
 
 In his preface to the romance, Dumas has con- 
 fessed the chief source of his inspiration — Courtils 
 de Sandraz's " Memoires de D'Artagnan," which in 
 turn was probably more than half-fiction, although, 
 of course, a soldier of that name lived, fought, 
 sinned, and died in those times. " I think I like 
 DArtagnan in his own 'Memoires' best," wrote 
 Thackeray. Mr Lang does not agree with him, 
 nor, if we may add our testimony, do we. To read 
 the "Memoires" and then the romance is to undergo 
 a revelation. Mingled with this sordid story of 
 closet- intrigue and kitchen-amours, Dumas, with 
 his keen scent for the picturesque, found excellent 
 material for a splendid story ; and his admirable 
 taste is shown not only in what has been utilised, 
 but in what has been omitted. Only one question- 
 able incident has been employed, and that because 
 it has an important bearing on the plot of the 
 romance and its sequel. "It has passed through 
 a medium, as Dumas himself declared, of natural 
 delicacy and good taste." These chapters about 
 Kitty and Miladi, Sir Merbert Maxwell reminds 
 us, in his article on " The Real DArtagnan," did 
 not escape their author's criticism. 
 
 "It is told that Dumas in after-life expressed 
 
202 LIFE AND AVRITINGS OF 
 
 bitter regret that the said episode had not been 
 omitted, with the rest of Hke nature ; and there is 
 evidence given by M. E. de Goncourt of how 
 greatly Dumas differed in taste on these matters 
 from less scrupulous French writers. M. de Goncourt 
 tells us that he once heard Victor Huc:o declare 
 that, had he not been above filching from other 
 authors, he must have yielded to the temptation 
 to appropriate the story of ' Ketty,' ' ct de hd douncr 
 une forme ddi'L' 'Think,' exclaimed Hugo, 'of 
 the marvellously human ddiioiluicnt, far finer than 
 any dthioil^ment of the utmost realism ! ' ^ It is not 
 difficult to imagine to what luxuriance these 
 materials might have blossomed, under the florid 
 touch of Victor Hugo." 
 
 M. Parigot recommends students of Dumas to 
 make the comparison between the romance and 
 the " Memoires," and judge for themselves how 
 the man of imacrination has o-lorified the material 
 he worked on. " Dumas borrowed, but Dumas 
 selected," he adds. 
 
 We may supplement this opinion with a short 
 comparison of our own. Briefly, Dumas owes 
 "D'Artagnan," first, the facts of the hero's life, 
 so far as they concern history. ' All these are 
 retained, and the famous character goes through the 
 
 ^ This incident is not to be found, as the reader will infer, in 
 Dumas's romance. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS -03 
 
 very necessary process of renovation, elaboration, 
 and elevation. 
 
 The names — and little else — of the three 
 " brothers - in - war " are to be found in the 
 " Memoires." Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are 
 but shadows, and the little that we do learn of 
 them there is not exactly to their credit. They 
 are actually brothers ; whereas the romancer by 
 making them brothers -in -heart gains enormously 
 in effect. 
 
 Roughly speaking, Dumas has expanded, in the 
 first six chapters of the " INIousquetaires," the opening 
 chapters of " DArtagnan." "The man of Meung," 
 the hero's evil genius, was evidently suggested by 
 an aristocrat named Rosnay, with whom the real 
 DArtagnan had an encounter early in his career, and 
 who figures throughout as a coward, who endea- 
 vours to get DArtagnan assassinated. In a later 
 part of the " Memoires" a hint is given that Louis 
 XIII.'s Chancellor, Seguier, once attempted to 
 take from the Queen a letter concealed upon her 
 person. In " DArtagnan " the letter was suspected 
 to be from Spain, and political ; in Dumas it was 
 thought to be from Buckingham, Anne's secret 
 lover. The most important extract from the 
 "Memoires" concerns " Miladi," and our author 
 has borrowed freely from the young cadet's amour 
 with the beautiful Englishwoman. The chapters 
 
204 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 describing the intrigue, D'Artagnan's rivalry with 
 De Wardes, his subterfuges, and "affair" with the 
 chambermaid, are mostly " fact " ; but strange to 
 say, Dumas entirely ignored the real beginning of 
 this, DArtagnan's greatest "passion." 
 
 The story is interesting. The musketeer had just 
 returned from England (where he had fought with 
 Charles at the battle of Newbury), when he was 
 sent for by the exiled Queen, and questioned con- 
 cerning his visit. The too-candid youth declared, 
 in the course of the interview, that " he would as 
 soon live with bears as with the English " ; and this 
 so deeply provoked one of the Queen's maids-of- 
 honour, that she sent DArtagnan, after the forward 
 fashion of the time, an invitation to pay court to her. 
 The soldier readily responded, and fell straightway 
 in love. When, however, he at length avowed his 
 passion, " Miladi" coolly informed him that she had 
 acted thus in order to punish him for his abuse 
 of her countrymen, and proceeded to mock him 
 pitilessly. The story of his revenge is told by 
 Dumas, to whose imagination, however, is due 
 the incident of the fieui'-de-lis, and all the tragic 
 sequel. 
 
 These detailed comparisons may, perhaps, be 
 more interestingly summed up in a few words. 
 From the loose, casual jottings of a soldier, telling 
 of his aniours, his campaigns, and the politics of his 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 205 
 
 day, Dumas extracted, by some wonderful mental 
 process, a stirring and dramatic story, full of incident 
 and character. Of the spiteful wanton " Miladi " he 
 made a powerful and tragic figure ; and the three names 
 Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, in his hands, assumed 
 individualities and became immortal. The whole 
 plot concerning the Queen's studs, the sad story of 
 Constance Bonacieux, the tragedy of Fenton and 
 Buckingham — all these were either devised in the 
 French novelist's fertile brain, or skilfully introduced 
 by him into the framework provided for him by the 
 " Memoires." After the first six chapters (of which 
 the dialogue, wit, and character-drawing were wholly 
 his own), Dumas launched out for himself, and the 
 plot begins. 
 
 Our author, too, makes use in this and subsequent 
 romances, of Madame de la Fayette's " Histoire 
 d'Henriette d'Angleterre," and also of the court 
 chroniques of the time, omitting to avail himself of 
 their most scandalous passages. He borrows from 
 La Porte's memoirs the incident of Bonacieux's 
 abduction ; he finds the faint outline of his episode 
 of the Bastion St Gervais, in an account of a scene 
 at the siege of Casal in 1630. To Maquet probably 
 belongs the credit of discovering these picturesque 
 incidents ; to Dumas the glory of giving them 
 colour, shape, and life on his great canvas. 
 
 Of the other source of information — the "Memoires 
 
206 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 de M. le Comte de la Fere," nothing can be said here, 
 for a very excellent reason. When Dumas had the 
 audacity to ask at the Bibliotheque Royale for that 
 book, the librarian retorted, "You know that it 
 doesn't exist, because you yourself have said it 
 does!" Indeed, the good man's sharpness was 
 natural ; since the publication of tlie " Mousque- 
 taires " he had been appealed to perpetually for the 
 book, by readers eager for " more " ! 
 
 Mr Saintsbury complains that there is no central 
 idea in " Les Trois Mousquetaires," and indeed there 
 are at least two main plots. Professor Carpenter 
 even analyses the story into 
 
 " A series of smaller tales (they are more like plays), 
 each a hundred pages or so in length. In ' Les 
 Trois Mousquetaires " the main problem is this, 
 How can four adventurers, by their combined force, 
 outwit The Cardinal and all his powers, temporal 
 and spiritual? Viz. (i) How can a friendless and 
 awkward but dashing young Gascon become in 
 three days the talk of Paris and a sworn companion 
 of the best three blades in the city } (2) The 
 Queens honour is at stake ; how can this band of 
 brothers fetch her jewels from England in time.'* 
 
 (3) U Artagnan is fascinated by Milady : how can 
 his reckless passion be turned to hate and fear-f* 
 
 (4) Milady, with good reason, is determined on 
 D' Artagnan s death, Richelieu- on BtLckinghani s as- 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 207 
 
 sassination : how can bolh catastrophes be averted? 
 (5) Milady is a prisoner in England : how can she 
 escape and murder Buckingham ? (6) How can 
 the ' brothers ' avenge their wrongs on Milady, and 
 avoid tlie punishment of the Cardinal, whose agent 
 she is ?" 
 
 But it is obviously wrong to treat a book of 
 adventure as if it were an ordinary novel. We do 
 not expect a central plot in "Don Quixote," "Robin- 
 son Crusoe," or "Gil Bias." 
 
 Every lover of the " Mousquetaires " has his 
 own particular hero, in one of the famous four. 
 Thackeray, for instance, writes : 
 
 " Of your heroic heroes, I think our friend 
 Monseigneur Athos, Count de la Fere, is my 
 favourite. I have read about him from sunrise to 
 sunset with the utmost contentment of mind. He 
 has passed through how many volumes .^ Forty "^ 
 Fifty.'* I wish, for my part, there were a hundred 
 more, and would never tire of him rescuing prisoners, 
 punishing ruffians, and running scoundrels through 
 the midriff with his most graceful rapier. Ah ! 
 Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, you are a magnificent 
 trio." 
 
 Stevenson had a weakness for Porthos. " If," 
 he wrote to a friend, " by any sacrifice of my own 
 literary baggage I could clear the ' Vicomte de 
 Bragelonne ' of Porthos, Jckyll might go, and the 
 
208 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Master, and the Black Arrow, you may be sure, 
 and I should think my life not lost for mankind if 
 half a dozen more of my volumes must be thrown 
 in." 
 
 Dumas himself shared this feeling. The great, 
 strong, vain hero was a child after his own heart. 
 One afternoon his son, seeing him" looking careworn, 
 wretched, overwhelmed, asked him, 
 
 " What has happened to you } Are you ill .'* " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Well, what is it then ? 
 
 " I am miserable." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " This morning, I killed Porthos — poor Porthos! 
 Oh what trouble I have had, to make up my mind 
 to do it ! But there must be an end to all things. 
 Yet when I saw him sink beneath the ruins, crying 
 * ]t is too heavy, too heavy for me ! ' I swear to you 
 that I cried." 
 
 And he wiped away a tear with the sleeve of his 
 dressing-gown. 
 
 We have glided Insensibly into "Vingt Ans 
 Apres" and the " Vicomte de Bragelonne," for it is 
 the DArtagnan of this last of the series whom 
 Steven'^on has so eloquently proclaimed as his hero. 
 In his essay "On a Romance of Dumas's " in 
 " Memories and Portraits," he writes of him thus : 
 
 "It is in the character of DArtas^nan, that we 
 
_^ ,.4^mmmMmtlmHltmtm 
 
 fc^'.:>.-x.^--^' 
 
 1) akta(tNax. fkom thk uu jrAs monument. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 209 
 
 must look for that spirit of morality, which is one 
 of the chief merits of the book, makes one of 
 the main joys of its perusal, and sets it high above 
 more popular rivals. Athos, with the coming of 
 years, has declined too much into the preacher, and 
 the preacher of a sapless creed ; but DArtagnan 
 has mellowed into a man so witty, rough, kind and 
 upright, that he takes the heart by storm. There is 
 nothing of the copybook about his virtues, nothing 
 of the drawing-room in his fine, natural civility ; he 
 will sail near the wind ; he is no district visitor — no 
 Wesley or Robespierre ; his conscience is void of all 
 refinement whether for good or evil ; but the whole 
 man rings true like a good sovereign. I do not say 
 there is no character as well-drawn in Shakespeare ; 
 I do say there is none that I love so wholly. 
 There are many spiritual eyes that seem to spy 
 upon our actions — eyes of the dead and the absent, 
 whom we imagine to behold us in our most private 
 hours, and whom we fear and scruple to offend ; our 
 witnesses and judges. And among these, even if 
 you should think me childish, I must count my 
 DArtagnan — not the DArtagnan of the memoirs, 
 whom Thackeray pretended to prefer — a preference, 
 I take the freedom of saying, in which he stands 
 alone — not the DArtagnan of tiesh and blood, but 
 
 him of the ink and paper ; not Nature's but 
 
 D> )» 
 umas s. 
 
 o 
 
210 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 One secret of the charm of the four musketeers Is 
 perhaps to be found in the fact that they stand for 
 types of the great national characteristics. Says 
 Parlgrot : 
 
 " D'Artagnan, the adroit Gascon, caressing his 
 moustache; Porthos, the muscular and fooHsh; Athos, 
 the somewhat romantic 'grand seigneur,' Aramis, 
 who pinches his ear to make it red, — Aramis, the 
 discreet Aramis, who hides his reHglon and his 
 amours, able pupil of the good fathers — these four 
 friends, and not four brothers as Courtils imagined, 
 typify the four cardinal qualities of our country. . . . 
 If Danton and Napoleon were the prototypes of 
 French energy, Dumas, in ' Les Trois Mousque- 
 taires ' Is its national historian. His romance is 
 quite as dramatic as theirs, but more pleasant, and 
 with a more continuous charm." 
 
 The origin of the two sequels has already been 
 partly Indicated. It Is said that Dumas fils, 
 frightened at the thought of the prodigious task 
 which the rash author set himself, asked his father 
 
 *' In spite of the help of Madame de La Fayette, 
 who furnishes you with the name and first-love of 
 Athos's son, how will you manage to keep up the 
 interest through these innumerable volumes ? " 
 
 *' Oh, well," answered his father, "all that 
 happened to Athos will happen over again to his 
 son. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 211 
 
 But (not for the first time) Dumas did himself an 
 injustice. One has no feehng- of repetition about 
 " Bragelonne." If it is, as some critics assert, "full 
 of improbabilities," it is yet very faithful to the 
 chronicles of the court. " Those who rai^e about 
 the far-fetched incidents," writes M. Parigot, "with 
 which these romances of Dumas are simply 
 crammed, make us smile. Have they never read 
 the history written by Madame de La Fayette.^ 
 And Gulche in the chimney.'^ And the women 
 spies ? And the caskets of Malicorne ? And the 
 plots of de Wardes ? " 
 
 The Trilogy of the Four is, after all, one great 
 prose epic on friendship — the love of man for man. 
 Professor Carpenter has seen this clearly, and 
 expressed it well : 
 
 " So far as I am concerned there is no more 
 poignant scene in literature than that in which, 
 after twenty years of separation, the four who once 
 were but a single will and a single force — hence, 
 dauntless and invincible — found in the gloom of 
 battle their swords clash on those of their peers, 
 and realised that they were arrayed against each 
 other. How paltry beside this seem lovers' 
 quarrels ! And yet there is nothing of the mock- 
 heroic in Dumas's treatment of the famous friend- 
 ship. These were men of clay, prone to vice and 
 error, redeemed only by their sense of the sacred- 
 
212 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 ness of the strongest human tie, save that of 
 family." 
 
 The same writer also notices with what un- 
 conscious skill the characters of the musketeers 
 are developed : 
 
 " These men grow, not of the author's set 
 purpose, in the ordinary fashion, according to a 
 rule of logic, but as men grow in life, naturally. 
 He (Dumas) could not have planned it; at the 
 proper time he simply knew it. The Atkos, the 
 PortJios, the Aramis, and the DArtagnan of ' Le 
 Vicomte de Braqfelonne " are not those of * Les 
 Trois Mousquetaires,' or even of ' Vingt Ans 
 Apres.' But the author does not inform us of it, 
 except in a single case, and then he is evidently as 
 surprised as we are. They grow, and if they are 
 honest men they grow better, on stepping-stones of 
 their own baser selves. . . . These novels show 
 more than the growth of man. They represent the 
 slow development of a race and nation. Like 
 Gibbon or Michelet, Dumas had a genius for 
 history. France under Charles IX. and Henry 
 III., France under Louis XIV., France in the 
 Revolution — he knew them, and felt them to the 
 core.' His chronology may be weak and his facts 
 faulty, the young doctor of philosophy may find 
 flaws in every chapter, but the great laws he 
 follows, so far as I can see : the types are sound." 
 
ALEXANDRE JJUJMAS 213 
 
 Let us limit ourselves to the quotation of two 
 passages from Stevenson, endorsing this opinion. 
 He is still writing of " my dear ' Vicomte,' " as he 
 called him : 
 
 *' What other novel has such epic variety and 
 nobility of incident? Often, if you will, impossible; 
 often of the order of an Arabian story ; and yet all 
 based in human nature ? Not studied with the 
 microscope, but seen largely, in plain daylight, 
 with the natural eye ? What novel has more good 
 sense, and gaiety, and wit, and unflagging, admir- 
 able literary skill ? And once more, to make an 
 end of commendations, what novel is inspired 
 with a more unstrained or a more wholesome 
 morality ? There is no quite good book without a 
 good morality ; but the world is wide, and so are 
 morals. . . . And above all, in this last volume, 
 I find a singular charm of spirit. It breathes a 
 pleasant and a tonic sadness, always brave, never 
 hysterical. Upon the crowded, noisy life of this 
 long tale, evening gradually falls, and the lights are 
 extinguished, and the heroes pass away one by one. 
 One by one they go, and not a regret embitters 
 their departure ; the young succeed them in their 
 places, Louis Ouatorze is swelling larger and 
 shining broader, another generation and another 
 France dawn on the horizon ; but for us and these 
 old men whom we have loved so long, the inevitable 
 
214 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 end draws near and is welcome. To read this well 
 is to anticipate experience. Ah, if only, when these 
 hours of the long shadows fall for us in reality and 
 not in figure, we may hope to face them with a 
 mind as quiet." 
 
 One day, about two years before his death, 
 Dumas 's son found him with a book. * 
 
 " What are you reading ? " he asked. 
 
 " * Les Trois Mousquetaires.' I always promised 
 myself that I would read it when I was an old man, 
 so that I might be able to judge of its merit." 
 
 ** Well, what do you think of it ? " 
 
 " It is good." 
 
 Some days later the same thing occurred again, 
 only this time it was another of his own books — 
 " Monte Cristo." 
 
 " What do you think of it ? " asked the son once 
 more. 
 
 " Pah ! It isn't as good as the 'Mousquetaires!'"^ 
 
 Nevertheless " Monte Cristo," published in the 
 same year as the " Mousquetaires," rivalled, and still 
 
 ^ It is interesting to note that chere was announced, in the 
 "Mousquetaire" (1853), a romance, " Le Marechal Ferrant," in 4 
 vols., "a sequel to the D'Artagnan Cycle." We know that in those 
 days it was a frequent practice to announce books before they were 
 written. What would not such an MS. be worth now, if it could be 
 discovered? The so-called "Stories by Dumas" — "Monte (Jristo 
 and his Wife," and " The Son of Porthos " — are, of course, forgeries 
 and find no place in Calmann-Ldvy's authorised edition. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 215 
 
 rivals the other in popularity. The two romances 
 were in point of fact written with great rapidity. 
 Charles Reade's comment on the fact is amusinof : 
 
 " This phenomenon astounded costive writers, 
 and set them uttering, by way of solution, old 
 wives' fables that turned the wonder into an im- 
 possibility. The account the authors themselves 
 (Dumas and Maquet) gave was the only credible 
 one. These works were flung off by even col- 
 laboration of two most inventive and rapid writers. 
 Some of the work was written In almost less time 
 than a single hand could have transcribed it. I 
 believe they still show at Trouville, in a fisherman's 
 cottage, the chamber and table where the pair wrote 
 the first four volumes of ' Monte Cristo ' in sixteen 
 days.' " 
 
 According to the amiable Ouerard (inspired by 
 the equally kindly " de Mirecourt ") " Monte Cristo " 
 was written, the first half by Fiorentino, the second 
 by Maquet. "It was so simple to believe I was 
 the author, that they never even thought of it," says 
 Dumas banteringly. He has given us his own 
 account of the genesis of the book, in his 
 " Causeries." We know already how the story 
 got its "local habitation and its name"; and the 
 evolution of the plot is no less interesting. 
 
 Towards 1843 Dumas had agreed with a firm of 
 publishers to supply them with eight volumes of 
 
216 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 "Impressions de Voyage" through Paris, the idea 
 being a perambulatory tour of the city from barrier 
 to barrier, anecdotic, historic, archaeological and 
 above all, picturesque. But Sue had just written 
 his " Mysteries of Paris," and the publishers, anxious 
 to imitate the success of that book, modified their 
 idea and demanded a story in which Paris should 
 be the background merely. Dumas bethought him 
 of an anecdote, twenty pages long, from the " Police 
 devoilee" of Peuchet, entitled, " La Diamant et La 
 Vengeance," of which he had made a mental note. 
 The story itself he declares was tout shnplement 
 idiot, but it contained the germ of an idea. 
 
 The first outline of the book was no more than 
 this — that a very rich nobleman, living in Rome, 
 and called the Count of Monte Cristo, should 
 render a great service to a young French traveller, 
 and should beg him, when that gentleman desires 
 to repay the kindness, to act as the Count's guide 
 when he, in his turn, should visit Paris. Vengeance 
 had inspired this thought, and when Monte Cristo 
 " did " the French capital he was to discover 
 enemies who were hidden there — his enemies, who 
 had condemned him in his youth to ten years of 
 captivity. His fortune was to furnish the Count 
 with the means of revenge. 
 
 At this point Dumas acquainted Maquet (who, 
 as we know, was his literary partner at the time) 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJNIAS 217 
 
 with the plot, and the assistant at once pointed out 
 that " the master " was passing by the most inter- 
 esting part of the story — ^the prologue, in which 
 should be told not only how those enemies betrayed 
 the Count in his youth, but also the story of his 
 years in prison. From that moment the story 
 developed : Dumas seized the idea, took for his 
 text three cities — Marseilles, Rome, Paris — and the 
 romance was made. 
 
 " Monte Cristo " owed part of its enormous 
 success to its verisimilitude. The details were 
 most convincing, and had, indeed, been studied on 
 the spot. 
 
 "There is one thing I cannot do," Dumas tells 
 us, in his preface to the " Compagnons de Jehu," 
 " I cannot write a book or a drama about localities 
 I have never seen. To write ' Christine ' I went to 
 Fontainebleau ; to write ' Henri III.' I went to Blois ; 
 to write ' Les Trois Mousquetaires ' I went to 
 Bethune and Boulogne ; to write ' Monte Cristo ' 
 I returned to the Catalans and the Chateau d'If. 
 This gives such a character of truth to what I 
 write that the personages I plant in certain places 
 seem to grow there, and some people have been led 
 to think they have actually existed ; in fact, there 
 are persons who say they have known them. I do 
 not wish to injure worthy family-men who live by the 
 little industry, but if you go to Marseilles they will 
 
218 LIFE AND WHITINGS OF 
 
 show you Morel's house on the Cours, Mercedes' 
 house at the Catalans, and the dungeons of Dantes 
 and Faria at the Chateau D'If. When brought out 
 ' Monte Cristo' at the Theatre Historique I wrote 
 to Marseilles for a drawing of the Chateau D'If, 
 which they sent me. I wanted it for the scene- 
 painter. The artist to whom I had written not 
 only sent me the sketch, but he did more than I 
 had ventured to ask of him ; he wrote underneath 
 it: 'View of the Chateau D'If, on the side from 
 which Dantes was flung.' I have heard since that 
 a worthy fellow, a guide attached to the Chateau 
 D'If, sells pens of fish-bones made by the Abbe 
 Faria himself." 
 
 One anecdote among many, will illustrate the 
 fascination which this book possesses for its readers. 
 The Academy not so long ago quoted an amusing 
 passage from a speech made by Lord Salisbury 
 at a literary gathering. The Prime Minister 
 humorously told how once at Sandringham, he was 
 surprised by his host, at half-past four one morning, 
 readino- his favourite book "Monte Cristo." The 
 prince wished to know the name of the book 
 which had dragged the Premier from his bed 
 at such an hour. Three weeks after he confessed 
 to his guest that the same romance had lured him 
 from his bed that morning half-an-hour earlier still ! 
 
 "'Monte Cristo,'" says Mr Lang, "has the best 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 219 
 
 bcL-innino- — and loses itself In the sands." There 
 is a ofood deal of truth in this : some of us believe 
 that Dumas's reputation suffers rather than gains 
 by being so prominently associated with a romance, 
 I)arts of which are undeniably dull. Mr Saintsbury 
 declares the second part to be too " Balzac-like." 
 But even admitting this, admitting also that the 
 omnipresent count is not altogether the perfect 
 gentleman his creator seems to have thought 
 him ; and that his appearances and disappearances 
 are ultra-theatrical at times ; yet, there is a grandeur 
 of conception about "Monte Cristo" which more 
 than redeems it from these drawbacks. It is 
 Dumas's " Miserables," and the lesson it teaches — 
 " Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord " — is taught 
 so effectively, so honestly, and on so great a scale, 
 that the book has a moral value which should 
 preserve it from oblivion for generations to come. 
 
 " Ascanio " is variously said to date from this 
 year or the previous one. It was suggested 
 by Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography, wherein 
 one or two of the most improbable incidents 
 of the story are to be found, notably the employ- 
 ment of the head of the sculptor's gigantic statue 
 as a hiding-place. The reader is introduced to 
 Francois I., the monarch of Pavia, and the 
 intrigues of his court, which as usual with Dumas 
 are cleverly manipulated to attract and absorb the 
 
220 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 reader. It should be added that our author in his 
 "Causeries" tells of a flattering and unexpected 
 sequel to this book. It so inspired a poor potter 
 of Bourg-en-bresse with an ambition to emulate 
 its hero, that he studied and worked until from 
 artisan he developed into an artist. Meurice is 
 said to have been the collaborator in this instance. 
 
 " Gabriel Lambert " is the last chief product of 
 this extraordinary year. Dumas professes that this 
 story is true, and that he has met and spoken 
 with the chief personages. "Gabriel Lambert" 
 recalls " Richard Darlington," with a difference, 
 for this novel is less a story of unscrupulous ambition, 
 than a study of cowardice, made with a touch of 
 that poignant realism which has since become so 
 popular. 
 
 The ** forties " proved the most brilliant and most 
 productive period of Dumas the novelist. In 1845, 
 the year following his great double triumph, the 
 author produced (in addition to " Une Fille 
 de Regent " and " Vingt Ans Apres," already 
 mentioned) " La Reine Margot," " La Guerre des 
 Femmes " (or ** Nanon "), and " Les Freres Corses." 
 
 First of the Valois romances as was " La Reine 
 Margot," we must not forget that the success of 
 "Henri Trois et sa Cour" many years before, had 
 given the author a love for this historical period. 
 The fatal passion of St Megrin is repeated in the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJNIAS 221 
 
 ill-fated devotion of La Mole. The great personages 
 of history here are drawn boldly, and with seeming 
 carelessness, but how human they are — how full 
 of character and life! The Charles IX. of history, 
 as Parigot testifies, is not *' betrayed " by the Charles 
 of romance ; the portrait of Catherine de Medici, 
 if somewhat overdrawn, is full of that Italian guile 
 with which the records credit her, and the frank, in- 
 genuous, supple-minded Bearnais, Henri of Navarre, 
 is one of the triumphs of Dumas's vivifying genius. 
 The intricrue of the romance is full of absorbinof 
 interest : Will Henri of Navarre become King of 
 France ? Will Catherine be able to prevent him 
 from reaching the throne? And with this, other 
 threads are interwoven : the Huguenot-Catholic 
 plots, the brotherly love of La Mole and Coconnas, 
 these in turn being interspersed with those terrible 
 episodes, the massacre of St Bartholomew, and the 
 reading of the poisoned book : ^ 
 
 Yet, throughout "La Reine Margot" our "hap- 
 hazard " author (the words belongs to his critics) 
 has exercised a double restraint : he neither harrows 
 the reader unbearably nor does he take advantage 
 of the scandalous facts which informal history affords, 
 relating to the court of the Valois. Mr Lang, in 
 
 1 We would advise our readers to compare the romance with "The 
 House of the Wolf" or "Count Hannibal" by Weyman, and the 
 "Chronique du Regne de Charles IX." by Merimee. 
 
222 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 his " Letters to Dead Authors " notes this judicious 
 quality in our author. "In these romances," he says, 
 apostrophising Dumas, " how easy it would have 
 been for you to burn incense to that great goddess, 
 Lubricity, whom our critic says your people worship. 
 You had Brantome, you had Tallemant, you had 
 Retif, and a dozen others, to furnish materials for 
 scenes of voluptuousness and of blood that would 
 have outdone even present naturalistes. From 
 these alcoves of ' Les Dames Galantes,' from the 
 torture chambers (M. Zola would not have spared 
 us one startlnof sinew of brave La Mole on the 
 rack) you turned, as Scott would have turned, 
 without a thought of their profitable literary uses. 
 You had other metal to work on : you gave us 
 that superstitious and tragical true love of La Mole's, 
 that devotion — how tender and how pure ! — of Bussy 
 for the Dame de Montsoreau. You gave us the 
 valour of DArtagnan, the strength of Porthos, the 
 melancholy nobility of Athos : Honour, Chivalry, 
 and Friendship." 
 
 " La Guerre des Femmes," a story of the 
 Fronde, and therefore contemporary with "Vingt 
 Ans Apres," is easily recognised as another of the 
 romances in which Maquet had his share. Pro- 
 bably it owes its position in the second class to its 
 sad, its fatalistic atmosphere. But " La Guerre des 
 Femmes " has many merits : it develops rapidly. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 223 
 
 neatly, to its end, and Cavagnac and Canollcs, like 
 La Mole and Coconnas, are worthy of a place not 
 far below those famous friends-to-the-death, the 
 Musketeers. 
 
 Dumas's admiration for the historical plays of 
 Shakespeare was chiefly owing to the skill with 
 which the dramatist fused history into fiction and 
 fiction into history, so that only the most expert eye 
 could tell where the one ended and the other began. 
 The little novel, " Les Freres Corses," possesses 
 this virtue. It is obviously, as its author asserts, 
 the result of his travels in Corsica ; but it is equally 
 certain that the supernatural element is beyond the 
 credible and actual. Although the story forms a 
 strikingly dramatic episode it hardly possesses the 
 merits to which Its popularity In England would 
 seem to entitle It. Dumas himself, though much 
 given to staging his novels, never made a play of 
 the " Freres Corses," ^ but two or three different 
 versions were played simultaneously in London, and 
 the craze gave rise to various burlesques on the 
 theme. 
 
 In the following year, 1846, Dumas's publishers 
 issued a remarkable advertisement respecting our 
 author, w4ilch Mr Fitzgerald asserts (without advanc- 
 ing proof) to be written by the novelist himself. 
 It offers the public Dumas's works " in a new shape " 
 
 ^ See Appendix C. 
 
224 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 and at a uniformly low price. It proclaims the 
 author as still young and in " wonderfully good 
 health " ; and declares that his unceasing flow of 
 invention and esprit will in all probability add forty 
 volumes a year to his already large library. 
 
 There seemed, indeed, every prospect that this 
 extraordinary pledge would be fulfilled. The next 
 few years brought their quota of lengthy and more 
 or less famous romances, and " Le Chevalier de 
 Maison Rouge " dates from 1 846. 
 
 This epilogue to the series of novels dealing with 
 the French Revolution was in reality the first to 
 appear. The raisoii d'etre of the book, which is 
 full of revolutionary spirit, is easily explained in 
 this instance, for France was beginning to feel 
 the throes of that political upheaval, which was 
 destined two years later to result In the Second 
 Republic. 
 
 M. Blaze de Bury tells an anecdote respecting 
 this story, which explains the rapidity with which 
 our author worked : 
 
 " Dumas asserted that the actual writing of a 
 book or a play was nothing to him — the conception, 
 form, arrangement, and development of the theme, 
 comprised all the difficulties. These once settled, 
 the hand could go forward ' by itself.' One day 
 some one avowed the very opposite. The roman- 
 clst, who was preparing ' Maison Rouge ' at this 
 
AT.EXANDRK DUMAS 225 
 
 time, wagered with his opponent that he would 
 write the first book in seventy-two hours, inclusive 
 of time for sleep and meals. A bet of a hundred 
 louis was made and recorded : to complete the 
 volume ^ seventy-five great sheets were to contain 
 forty-five lines of fifty letters each. In sixty-six 
 hours Dumas filled them in his beautiful hand- 
 writing, without an erasure, thus gaining six hours 
 on the specified time." 
 
 The incidents of the story, strange as they seem, 
 were amply justified by history. Once again Dumas 
 was " speaking by the book." M. Parigot suggests 
 that " unbelievers " should compare the romance 
 with M. Lenotre's erudite work on the original 
 hero ; " Vrai Chevalier de Maison Rouge — A. D. J. 
 Gonze de Rougeville, 1761-1814." "If I am not 
 mistaken," he adds, " you will admire the discretion 
 of our author, no less than his modesty." M. de 
 Bury, in an appreciation of this romance, especially 
 praises its creator for respecting and doing justice 
 to the characters of Marie Antoinette and Madame 
 Elizabeth, and adds that in spite of his republican 
 sentiments, which he never loses an opportunity of 
 expressing, Dumas gives those personages exactly 
 their true sympathetic and historical value. 
 
 Even more famous than the "Chevalier de 
 
 ^ In the original editions of Dumas's works, there were at least 
 twice as many volumes as in the present one-franc series — hence 
 occasional discrepancies on this point. 
 
 P 
 
226 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Maison Rouge " is the second Valois romance, 
 which appeared the same year — " La Dame de 
 Monsoreau," commonly known in England as 
 "Chicot the Jester." Dumas had already made 
 acquaintance with Bussy D'Amboise, the mignon 
 of the Due dAlen9on in the old chroniclers, in- 
 troduced him into " Henri Trois," and utilised the 
 story of his assassination, as given in Anquetil, for 
 the ddnoument of his tragedy. But in history the 
 lady was on the side of the husband ; our story- 
 weaver turned her affections in the other direction, 
 and the romance became at once sympathetic and 
 moving. (A writer has taken the trouble to com- 
 pile a book on the "historical inaccuracies" of this 
 romance. Dumas knew quite well when it was 
 wise to reconvey the spirit of the age, and ignore 
 the form.) Critics have agreed that there are few 
 finer historical portraits in fiction than that of 
 Henri HI., the effeminate, superstitious king, de- 
 voted to luxury and the most trivial pleasures. 
 The sardonic Chicot, the Rabelaisian monk Goren- 
 flot, the chivalrous and devoted Bussy, are three 
 splendid additions to Dumas's picture-gallery. For 
 the truth or untruth of detail in these stories it is 
 probably only fair to praise or blame Maquet. We 
 learn that a descendant of St Luc (one of the 
 minor characters of the book) took umbrage at 
 the description of that courtier, and brought an 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 227 
 
 action, to prove that his ancestor was not one of 
 Henri's viignoiis. The trial showed the collabo- 
 rators to be right, even in this trifling respect ! 
 
 The closing scene of the book — the death of 
 Bussy— draws this warm tribute from Mr Lang : 
 
 " I know four crood fifrhts of one arainst a 
 multitude. These are the Death of Gretir the 
 Stronof, the Death of Gunnar of Lithend, the 
 Death of Herew^ard the Wake, and the Death of 
 Bussy D'Amboise." 
 
 " Le Batard de Mauleon," or " The Half- 
 Brothers,"' was written, as we know by a passage 
 in the " Histoire de mes Betes," in the chateau 
 of Monte Cristo, by Dumas and Maquet ; and the 
 dog Mouton, a new recruit for the menagerie of 
 the "palace," was woven into the story by his 
 master. The scene on this occasion is laid in 
 Spain, in the days of Du Guesclin and the Black 
 Prince ; and those interested in comparing the 
 methods of romancists should read Dr Doyle's 
 " White Company," which is of the same period, 
 and into which many of the same characters are 
 introduced. Froissart's chronicles formed the base 
 for Dumas's story, and even Agenor de Mauleon 
 himself is to be found in the pages of the old 
 chronicler. In spite of some "purple passages," 
 however^ — Mr Saintsbury instances Du Guesclin's 
 negotiations with the Free Companies, and the 
 
228 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 battle of Najara — this story of the clays of Don 
 Pedro the Cruel has not the best qualities of its 
 author, for which, perhaps, we may blame the 
 uncongenial time and place. Querard states that 
 the end is wholly Maquet's. 
 
 There remains for 1846 " Les Deux Diane," 
 which, if a certain letter from Dumas be not a 
 forgery, was entirely the work of M. Paul Meurice. 
 It is probable, however, that the plot is "the 
 master's." The style is certainly not Dumas's, 
 being entirely sentimental, and the romance is said 
 to have been suggested by " Une Fille Naturelle," 
 by one Felix Davin. 
 
 Our readers will remember that in the autumn 
 of this year Dumas departed hurriedly for Madrid, 
 accompanied, it is true, by Maquet, but bent upon 
 pleasure-seeking and the pursuit of material for 
 further "Impressions de Voyage." "Joseph Bal- 
 samo " ("The Memoirs of a Physician"), which 
 was appearing serially, suddenly suspended pub- 
 lication, leaving young Gilbert, the hero, lying 
 senseless in the road whilst his thouo-htless creator 
 " did " Spain and Algeria. The unfortunate youth 
 remained in this inconvenient position until Dumas 
 restored him to life on his return. This suspen- 
 sion of consciousness suggests the magnetic trances 
 of which our author so frequently makes use in 
 this story. He has told us (in " Bric-a-Brac ") 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 229 
 
 that he experimented in mesmerism at the time 
 that he was preparing to write " Balsamo," and 
 that he succeeded in " putting to sleep " one of 
 his servants, who then became clau^voyatit. How- 
 ever much truth there may be in this, there is no 
 doubt that " magnetic influence," or telepathy, is 
 very ingeniously employed to give the charlatan 
 Balsamo (or Cagllostro) his supposed supernatural 
 powers. 
 
 For the rest the romance, if somewhat form- 
 less, is full of a number of varied intrigues 
 and interests. We meet the king's mistress, 
 Madame Dubarry, and learn how, in spite of all 
 opposition, she managed to get presented at Court. 
 We enjoy once more the witty society of Dumas's 
 favourite libertine, the Due de Richelieu, whom 
 we met, in earlier years, in " Mademoiselle de 
 Bellisle," and view Louis Ouinze \\\xriS^{ en faniille. 
 The first faint rumblings of the coming thunder 
 of the Revolution are heard ; Marat appears on 
 the scene ; Rousseau is disappearing from it. 
 Then there is the weird story of Balsamo's love 
 for Lorenza, and that of Gilbert for Andree de 
 Tavernay — all are interwoven in this gigantic ro- 
 mance, which is itself only a beginning. Either 
 because Dumas wearied of his interminable sub- 
 ject, or le^t it to Maqiiet to finish — possibly the law- 
 suit with tlie seven journals distracted the author's 
 
230 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 attention — the closing chapters are dull ; but, on 
 the whole, " Balsamo " contains some of his best 
 work. 
 
 In 1847 came " Les Quarante-Cinq," the sequel 
 to " La Dame de Monsoreau." It tells chiefly 
 of that lady's revenge upon the treacherous 
 D'Alen^on (now D'Anjou), who has caused the 
 death of her beloved Bussy. The part of the 
 book in which Chicot goes on an embassy to 
 Henri Ouatre is excellent, but the last volume 
 is unsatisfactory. This year, be it remembered, 
 was a stormy one in public affairs, and disastrous 
 to Dumas personally. He dictated the last 
 chapters to his son, being probably ill in bed. 
 
 Notwithstanding this blemish, the " Ouarante- 
 Cinq " was a favourite with one of our author's 
 firmest admirers — George Sand. M. Victor Borie 
 has told us that he chanced to visit the famous 
 novelist just before her death, and found the 
 romance lying on her table. He expressed 
 his wonder that she was reading it for the first 
 time. 
 
 " For the first time," she exclaimed, " why, this 
 is the fifth or sixth time I have read ' Les Quarante- 
 Cinq,' and the others. When I am ill, anxious, 
 melancholy, tired, discouraged, nothing helps me 
 against moral or physical troubles like a book of 
 Dumas's." 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS 231 
 
 During the next two years — troublous ones for 
 our novelist — the rate of production slackened. 
 With the very notable exception of " Bragelonne," 
 and some historical studies, the chief work of im- 
 portance in 1849 was " Le Collier de la Reine" 
 ("The Queen's Necklace"), a continuation of the 
 history-in-romance of the Louis XVL period. So 
 much has been written by Carlyle, by Funck- 
 Brentano and others, about this famous episode in 
 the career of Marie Antoinette, that there is no 
 need to describe it here. Dumas (still with the 
 valuable assistance of Maquet) tells the story of 
 that extraordinary scandal in his own fashion, carry- 
 ing forward, as he does so, the other "motifs" 
 mentioned already. The comparative non-success 
 of this book Is probably due to the fact that history 
 left so little to the Imagination. " Les Mllle-et-un 
 Fantomes," said by some to have been written 
 with Paul Bocage, by others with " Bibliophile 
 Jacob," appeared this year. It Is In great part a 
 gruesome debate as to whether a severed head can 
 speak, or retains knowledge of Itself after parting 
 from the body, and dwells on other similar matters, 
 — being, In short, a book calculated to " make your 
 flesh creep." 
 
 Of a very different nature was " La Tulipe 
 Noire," which appeared In 1850. This book — "as 
 modest as a story by Miss Edgeworth," Thackeray 
 
232 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 declared enthusiastically — has recently been issued 
 as Dumas's contribution to the series of translations 
 known as a " Century of French Romance." The 
 subject — or at least the historical part of it — is 
 said to have been suggested to Dumas by the King 
 of Holland. (The novelist visited Amsterdam in 
 1849 to be present at the wedding of the Prince 
 ;of Orange, who had recently ascended the throne, 
 and with whom he had a corresponding acquaint- 
 ance.) The tale, as Flotow used to relate it, is 
 as follows. 
 
 When the author of " Monte Cristo " was first 
 presented to the king at Amsterdam, the royal host 
 said : 
 
 " M. Dumas, you have written many brilliant 
 stories dealing with distinguished Frenchmen ; have 
 you not found any Dutchmen worthy of your con- 
 sideration ? " 
 
 "Your Majesty, I have not had time to make 
 the necessary researches." 
 
 " Oh ! you need not trouble about that," replied 
 the king, whose own life and courtship had tinges 
 of romance, "I will tell you a story." And so the 
 king related the incidents of 1672 and 1673, of 
 the murder of the De Witts, and the imprisonment 
 of Cornelius Van Baerle — all upon wicked and 
 shamefully wrong charges. At the end of the de- 
 scription, Dumas exclaimed, 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 233 
 
 " What a fine subject for a novel ! " 
 
 "Write it," said the king-, and Dumas promptly 
 answered 
 
 " I will." 
 
 The dramatised version of the story produced at 
 the Haymarket, and the consequent popularity of 
 the book itself will have made the plot generally 
 familiar. This is another case in which EnMish 
 managers, who have so generally disdained Dumas's 
 dramatic work, have adapted for the stage a book 
 which even the skilled instinct of its author failed 
 to find suitable for dramatic use. 
 
 " Les Manages de Pere Olifus," rather loosely 
 described as "a sequel to the 'Mille-et-un 
 Pantomes,' " is said to have been written with Paul 
 Bocage, and was one of the results of the trip to 
 Amsterdam mentioned above. It is an extra 
 ordinary work, and decidedly deserves much more 
 attention than it has received at the hands of 
 critics. From a letter with which Mr W. M. 
 Rossetti has kindly favoured us, it appears that 
 the story was specially liked by Dante Gabriel 
 Rossetti, a great admirer of our author. 
 
 " If a question were raised as to particular novels 
 (by Dumas) specially admired by my brother," he 
 writes, " I could mention * Monte Cristo,' ' Trois 
 Mousquetaires,' ' Bragelonne,' ' Pere Olifus,' 
 ' Ingenue,' ' Les Ouarante-Cinq,' I think also ' La 
 
234 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Tulipe Noire.' He was also vastly amused with 
 Dumas's ' Memoires.' " 
 
 The tale, which purports to have been confided 
 to Dumas by Olifus himself, is too strange not to 
 have had some such oricrin. As we read it, it is 
 told with as much reticence as the exiijencies of the 
 story and the promptings of humour allow ; but the 
 adventures of the seaman with his " sea-wife " too 
 closely resemble the style of the narratives of " The 
 Arabian Nights" or "Boccaccio," to recommend 
 themselves to a prudish translator. 
 
 For his next story Dumas went to German 
 history, and chose the time when the patriotic 
 secret society of the " Tugendbund" was conspiring 
 to assassinate Napoleon and to throw off the French 
 yoke. Probably with the help of a 'prentice who 
 " knew his Germany," Dumas wrote " Le Trou de 
 I'Enfer," a powerful, poignant story, of how a young 
 Antony living, d la Schiller's " Robber," a life 
 sufficient unto himself, strove successfully to possess 
 a young goatherdess, and the wife of his best 
 friend, for whom he had conceived a self-willed 
 passion. " Dieu dispose," which Mr Swinburne 
 considers to possess great merit, was written in 
 Brussels in 1852. It tells of the retribution which 
 gradually overtakes the seducer, and the reader 
 follows the sure though tortuous course of Nemesis 
 with the interest which Dumas himself rarely fails 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 235 
 
 to arouse and reward. The Revolution of 1830, 
 and the secret " freemasonry " agitations connected 
 therewith, are touched upon ; but the dramatic 
 effect of the story is borrowed from the author's 
 own play of " Comte Hermann," produced three 
 years before. We have indicated the sources of the 
 story's strength ; its weakness lies in a husband's 
 non-recognition of his wife, after years of separation. 
 
 " La Femme au Collier de Velours," which also 
 dates from 1S51, contains by way of introduction an 
 interesting account of Dumas's literary patron, 
 Charles Nodier, and the society at the Arsenal. 
 The tale itself, which purports to have been told 
 to the narrator by the dying Nodier, and of which 
 Hoffmann, the author of "Contes Fantastiques," is 
 the hero, is as weird as any story by the German 
 Poe. Incidentally it introduces the guillotining of 
 Madame Dubarry the mistress of Louis XV., and 
 presents a realistic picture of life in Paris in '93. 
 
 This story is associated by Calmann-Levy with 
 another essay into the supernatural — " Le Testa- 
 ment de M. Chauvelin." That noble, who was 
 historically one of Louis XV. 's roues, makes a will 
 for the protection of his wife and children, which he 
 neglects to sign. He dies suddenly, but is seen 
 to return to his chateau, and the will is found, duly 
 completed. Powerful as the story is, its chief value 
 lies in the introduction, which gives us a glimpse 
 
236 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 of the writer's youth, and in the full and vivid 
 description of the last days of Louis Quinze. 
 
 One of the books of Dumas which is destined to 
 become more appreciated in the future than it has 
 been in the past, is " Olympe de Cleves," which 
 dates from 1852. It was written before he re- 
 tired to Brussels, and Maquet is credited with a 
 share in the work. We, for our part, believe that 
 the extent of that writer's connection with this story 
 begins — if it begins at all — and ends with the dis- 
 covery of Lemazurier's biographies of the French 
 actors, from which the career of Banniere is taken, 
 and with the preparation of the historical material 
 repecting the debauching of the young king, Louis 
 Quinze. The charm of the story lies for once in 
 the characters of the lovable hero and heroine, and 
 the unhistorical parts of the book, describing the 
 life of a strolling company of French actors, in the 
 early eighteenth century. We should like to echo 
 the sentiments of Mr W. E. Henley, who proclaims 
 " Olympe de Cleves" a masterpiece. 
 
 Probably most readers of " Ange Pitou " (also 
 known as " Taking the Bastille "), published in 
 1853, will have noticed that the story ends abrupdy 
 — -that, in fact, it cannot be said to end at all. An 
 anecdote told by M. Parigot offers an explanation of 
 this. One day, it appears, Maquet, reader and ex- 
 plorer of the obscure, burst in upon Dumas with an 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJNIAS 237 
 
 idea for a new romance, to be founded on a real 
 historical character, Ange Pitou, ballad - monger, 
 Royalist, and the rest, (M. Maurice Engerrand has 
 recently given us a brochure on this historical per- 
 sonage similar to the one written by M. Lenotre on 
 Rougeville, or " Maison Rouge.") The master bade 
 his assistant prepare the usual material, that is to 
 say, make researches, and reconstitute the man in his 
 moral and historical atmosphere. On the strength 
 of this project the romancer entered into a contract 
 with publishers to write and supply the story. 
 Luckily or unluckily, Dumas and Maquet quarrelled; 
 the book had to be written by a certain date ; the 
 romancer, pressed for time, ignored research, and 
 created his hero from his own imao^ination, locating 
 him at Villers-Cotterets, giving him his own personal 
 boyhood, and sending him to Paris to take part in 
 the capture of the Bastille. Then, when the novel 
 had reached the requisite length, he abandoned the 
 work. 
 
 Dumas's own explanation, given in an intro- 
 duction to " La Comtesse de Charny," is that just 
 at that time the Chamber imposed a tax on every 
 copy of those journals which contained a ftiiil- 
 leton \ and that De Girardin, editor of the paper in 
 which " Ange Pitou " appeared, wrote to Dumas 
 bidding him cut the story short. Presumably the 
 ii?7ibre was taken off soon after. Those readers who 
 
238 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 care to compare the early chapters of " Ange Pitou" 
 with the first volumes of the " Memoires" will find 
 that the hero and his author possess many interesting 
 points of resemblance and dissimilarity. 
 
 Here, so far as we can trace, ended the connec- 
 tion between Dumas and his best collaborator. It 
 has been said that without Maquet our author was 
 helpless. It is true that he was at his best with 
 that admirable 'prentice ; but it is none the less true 
 that both before and after him, Dumas wrote books 
 which none but he could have produced, whilst 
 Maquet never achieved anything like the same 
 degree of merit or success under his own name. 
 
 During his exile in Brussels (185 1-3) Dumas, as 
 he tells us in the preface to " Pere Gigogne," was far 
 from idle. He instances "Conscience 1' Innocent" 
 (or "L'Enfant"), "La Comtesse de Charny," " Le 
 Pasteur dAshbourn," "Isaac Laquedem," "Catherine 
 Blum," and a portion of his '' Memoires " as the 
 result of two years' work, and adds " it will one day 
 be a source of trouble for my biographers to dis- 
 cover the ' anonymous collaborators ' who have 
 written those books ! " 
 
 It was about this time that the novelist turned 
 from the romance of cap-and-sword, and devoted 
 himself chiefly to semi-pastoral stories, to tales of 
 contemporary, and often humble, life. In the open- 
 ing passages of " Conscience " he dwells on this. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUiMxVS 239 
 
 " As one gets on In life," he writes, " and, losing- 
 sight of the cradle, draws nigh to the tomb, it seems 
 as if the invisible ties which bind one to one's 
 birthplace grow stronger and more irresistible. . . . 
 A man's life is divided into two distinct parts : the 
 first thirty-five years are for hope ; the second 
 thirty-five, for memory. . . . That is why, instead 
 of always breaking fresh ground in literary work, 
 consulting solely the caprices of my fancy, the re- 
 sources of my imagination, ever seeking new 
 characters and conceiving new, unheard - of situa- 
 tions, I return at times, at least in thought, to that 
 beaten track, my childhood, retracing those days to 
 their earliest hours, looking back along the path 
 I have trodden, back until I see my little feet as 
 they kept pace with my dearly loved mother's — 
 which have traversed life side by side with mine 
 from the day when my eyes first opened, to the day 
 when hers closed for ever." 
 
 We have seen how Dumas made use, in " Ange 
 Pitou," of his recollections of childhood. The pre- 
 paration of the " Memoires " probably further stimu- 
 lated him to utilise his recollections of life at Villers- 
 Cotterets, as a "milieu" for these semi-pastoral stories. 
 Therefore, when he read a little story by Hendrik 
 Conscience, the Flemish novelist, called " Le Con- 
 scrit," in which a young peasant Is "drawn" for the 
 war, is blinded in action, Is brought home by his 
 
240 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 sweetheart, and Is finally restored to sight, Dumas 
 saw in this novelette (as he tells us in " Bric-a- 
 brac ") the outline of a story after his own heart. 
 He wrote to Conscience, asking permission to use 
 this story as a basis, and this the flattered author, 
 readily granted. In order to acknowledge his in- 
 debtedness publicly Dumas gave the name of 
 Conscience to the hero of his own story, 
 which is a considerable elaboration on the 
 original. Our author chancjed the locale to 
 Villers-Cotterets, introduced his boyish recollections 
 of Napoleon's flying visits to that village, indulged 
 in a little contemporary history, made the love of the 
 peasant for the land a powerful factor in the story, 
 created Bastien, one of the leading characters, and 
 gave to the new "Consent" many times the length 
 and strength of the original. 
 
 "Catherine Blum," published in 1854, had a 
 similar origin. It is said to have been suQfo-ested 
 by Iffland's "Gardes Forestiers," but its charm lies 
 in the description of the people and atmosphere of 
 Villers-Cotterets, and in the simple art with which 
 it is told. There is a pleasant portrait of Abbe 
 Gregoire, one of the boy Alexandre's preceptors. 
 Mr Swinburne tells us that amongst Dumas's minor 
 works he admires chiefly this pair of pastoral pic- 
 tures, "Conscience" and "Catherine Blum," and we 
 believe that if they were known to the English- 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 241 
 
 reading public his judgment would be generally 
 confirmed. 
 
 When he wrote " Conscience " Dumas was wait- 
 ing for a copy of Michelet's " French Revolution," 
 in order to begin upon " La Comtesse de Charny " 
 (1853-5). Professor G. C. Carpenter, a thoughtful 
 critic of Dumas's genius and writings, gives an 
 appreciation of this romance, touching also upon 
 the secret sources of our author's success : 
 
 "He read memoirs avidly, for one thing ; he had 
 a marvellous heritage of race, that made other times 
 akin to him ; submerged in his under-consclousness, 
 out of reach of will or reason, were wondrous stores 
 of association ; his own life was rich and varied ; his 
 sympathy was extraordinary. On all these sources 
 he drew, in that madly rapid writing of his. And 
 the result is that in his pages, as in an allegory, are 
 all the elements essential to the nation's life. Among 
 a score of others, three are not to be forgotten : the 
 violated Comtesse de Charny, who was the wrecked 
 aristocracy ; the brutal peasant boy Gilbert, who 
 represented the uprising of men long down-trodden ; 
 and their child, who was the new France." 
 
 " La Comtesse de Charny," which links " Ange 
 Pitou " with the " Chevalier de Maison Rouge " and 
 thus completes the Revolution cycle, is full of pic- 
 turesque history, although it is perhaps too long ; and 
 the fictitious interest, apart from the character of the 
 
 Q 
 
242 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 countess* herself, who develops into one of Dumas's 
 most life-like heroines, is not very engrossing. 
 We regret to find that in some English transla- 
 tions the "epilogue " to " La Comtesse de Charny," 
 in which Ange Pitou and Catherine are satisfactorily 
 brought together, is omitted. 
 
 In this cycle of revolutionary romance, which 
 begins with the " Memoires du Medecin," and ends 
 with " Le Chevalier de Maison Rouge," there are 
 several unsatisfactory gaps. The reader will find a 
 consecutive and vivid panorama of the events of 
 1792, 1793, ^^d 1794' fron^ the battles of Valmy 
 and Jemappes to the fall of Robespierre, in " Le 
 Docteur Mysterieux '' and "La Fille du Marquis." 
 These volumes bear evident traces of Dumas's 
 hand, touching as they do upon the restoration of 
 reason to the imbecile, the use of " magnetic power," 
 and the sense of life after death, in the case of a 
 guillotined head (see " Le Mille-et-une Fantomes "). 
 There is an interestincr thread of fiction, and a 
 translation of scenes from "Romeo and Juliet" 
 may attract the curious. Chincholle tells us that 
 when he visited the author in 1869, he was com- 
 pleting the dictation of these volumes, which were 
 not published in book-form until after his death. 
 
 "Ever since 1832," Dumas tells us in one of his 
 frequent bursts of confidence, " I have had in my 
 mind the outline of a ' Juif errant,' to which I shall 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 243 
 
 devote myself at the first leisure moment I get, and 
 which will be one of my best books. Indeed, I have 
 only one fear — that I may die without having written 
 it." 
 
 In this case, '' Tauteur propose, le censeiir dispose." 
 Parieot is facetious, but misleadingf, when he writes : 
 " Dumas, in commencing ' Isaac Laquedem,' thought 
 to wTite the romance of the world's history. He soon 
 stopped, as there did not seem sufficient material," 
 
 The story was interdicted by the censor of the 
 Second Empire, probably as profane. It promised, 
 says Henley, to fulfil its author's pledge, and be one 
 of his best romances. M. de Bury devotes con- 
 siderable space to it in his study of Dumas. It was, 
 in truth, a orlcrantic task to undertake : " Isaac 
 Laquedem " was telling us the story of the early 
 days of the world and of the Bible with all sincerity 
 and reverence, and in Dumas's most vivid and en- 
 thralling manner. The trial of Jesus ; His encounter 
 with the Jew and the terrible curse He laid upon 
 him — all was as powerful as it was audacious. But 
 the idea of the Passion told en fetulldoii was too 
 much for the authorities, and all that we possess of 
 " Isaac Laquedem " is a fragment — a few scattered 
 columns of one of the most daring literary edifices 
 ever mortal man desiorned to erect. The J\IS. — all 
 in Dumas's own handwriting — was presented by his 
 son to the town of Villers-Cotterets. 
 
244 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 The last of the " romances of exile," the " Pasteur 
 d'Ashbourn," is said to have been drawn from an 
 English source. On the other hand, Parran, who 
 made considerable researches into the dates and 
 origins of Dumas's works, believed both in its gen- 
 uineness and its merit. " It reveals a new side to 
 his talent," he declares. To this we are regret- 
 fully unable to subscribe. Apart from the story of 
 " la Dame Grise " which it contains, and which may 
 have been suggested by Marie Dorval's passionate 
 and unconquerable grief for her dead child, the novel 
 would seem to have originally been a German at- 
 tempt to copy Goldsmith or Richardson. Probably 
 something in this story attracted Dumas and caused 
 him to translate and transform it. The novel is 
 obviously incomplete as it stands, but we can find 
 no trace of a sequel, which perhaps its lack of success 
 did not encourage the author to supply. " La Boule 
 de Neige " (or " Moullah-Nour ") is also a transla- 
 tion or adaptation of a story by Marlinsky, but the 
 humour with which it is told makes it our author's 
 own, if not by right of ownership, then by right of 
 "conquest." 
 
 The year 1854 saw Dumas back in Paris and in- 
 stalled in the editorial chair of the Moiisquetah'e. 
 " Salteador (or " The Brigand "), which appeared in 
 the great man's journal, was announced in the 
 master's introductory note as by another hand ; but, 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 245 
 
 according to a member of the family, it is certainly 
 the work of our author — probably in collaboration. 
 " La Princesse de Monaco" was simply recueillihy 
 Dumas; " Une Vie d'Artiste " consists of the story 
 of the early struggles of Mellngue, the witty actor 
 and original stage DArtagnan, most interestingly 
 retold by his friend and patron. 
 
 In this year began " Les Mohicans de Paris," 
 still another new departure for the inexhaus- 
 tible romancer. Frequently with Dumas a new 
 assistant meant a new field of enterprise ; on 
 this occasion the 'prentice was, we believe, 
 Paul Bocage, and the story was at once the 
 pioneer of the detective-story, and a remin- 
 iscence of the second part of '* Monte Cristo," and 
 " The Mysteries of Paris." Our author himself 
 appeared in it, "athlete and poet," in the opening 
 chapters, which take place in a night restaurant. 
 The leading character, the detective, was a fore- 
 runner of Sherlock Holmes ; but in this particular 
 type of story Dumas was not at his best, and the 
 same remark applies to the better constructed but 
 too lengthy sequel, " Salvator," which commenced 
 to appear the following year. 
 
 " Ingenue," ^ also of this year's date, is of much 
 
 ^ It is stated that Maquet had a share in this work, but unless it was 
 commenced before the rupture between the two men we doubt this. 
 Certainly they would scarcely come together for the purpose of writing 
 this small romance. 
 
246 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 better quality, and we are surprised that the EngHsh 
 translations of it have been allowed to [jo out of 
 print. We find ourselves once more In the midst of 
 the Revolution, the leading character of the story 
 being Marat, to whom a love romance of his youth 
 brings a strange sequel. The heroine is the daugh- 
 ter of Retif de la Bretonne, a literary character of 
 the time ; but his descendants resented the freedom 
 with which their ancestors were treated, and warned 
 the public not to accept the story as true. Dumas's 
 sincere apology, and declaration that he was unaware 
 of the existence of any survivors of the family were 
 accepted. 
 
 A sequel to " Les Deux Diane " also belongs to 
 1855 — " Le Page du Due de Savoie," and is obvi- 
 ously from the same pens — Meurice, instructed by 
 his master. 
 
 We now come to another of our author's very best 
 romances — " Les Compagnons de Jehu." This 
 story, which appeared in 1857, was suggested (as 
 we learn from the preface) by a page in Nodier's 
 " Souvenirs de la Revolution." Dumas, in accord- 
 ance with his practice, visited Bourg-en-Bresse to 
 study the locality, and gives an instructive and 
 amusing account of his visit, in the introduction to 
 the book. At the time when he set off on the 
 track of the young Royalist highwaymen he was 
 preparing to write a serial to be called " Rene 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS 247 
 
 d'Aroonnc," and was studying- Varcnncs for that 
 purpose, along with Paul Bocage, so that the " neat 
 draft" of the " Compagnons " which About saw on 
 Dumas's table was probably by that young 'prentice. 
 In our judgment this story of the days of the Direc- 
 toire is one of the most dramatic and skilfully con- 
 structed of all Dumas's romances, and excels most 
 of its more famous rivals in unity and form. Dumas 
 Jils took an interest in the story, and is said to have 
 suggested to his father the characters of Roland de 
 Montrevel, the young Republican, and Sir John 
 Tanlay, the English aristocrat. 
 
 Once more, Villers-Cotterets ! In " Le Meneur 
 de Loups," which dates from this year, the narrator 
 is Mocquet, the friend of the boy Alexandre, keeper 
 to General Dumas, and hero of a wonderful trip to 
 the moon. Dumas recalls how in his childhood 
 Mocquet told him the tale of Thibaut, the man who 
 became a wolf ; and the weird adventures of the 
 loup-garoiL are told engrossingly enough, not to say 
 enthrallingly. But their chronicler- in -after- years 
 modestly disclaims the credit. He speaks of the 
 story as his, it is true, adding very sensibly, " when 
 one has sat on an ^^^ for thirty- two years one 
 finishes by thinking one has laid it one's-self ! " 
 
 " Le Capitaine Richard," known to the last 
 generation of English readers as *' The Twin 
 Captains," is a good story spoilt bv histor)\ For 
 
248 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 once Dumas did not give sufficient attention to 
 the fusing process, and story and history could 
 almost be disentangled without damage to either. 
 The plot, as we learn in the epilogue, was given to 
 Dumas by Schlegel, the great critic, whom the 
 former met when he was " doins^ the Rhine " in 
 1838. The period of the story is that of the " Trou 
 de I'Enfer " ; Napoleon is in Germany ; and the 
 account of the attempted assassination of the 
 Emperor by Staps, and of the Moscow campaign, 
 are both of the author's best. The tale finishes 
 with such a dramatic situation that one is tempted 
 to regret the evident haste with which " Le Capitaine 
 Richard " was written, a haste which compressed 
 matter for a full-sized drama into the last few pages 
 of a novel. 
 
 We pass by " L' Horoscope," a fragment of the 
 history of the short-lived Frangois II., husband of 
 Mary Queen of Scots, a piece of work of which the 
 little we possess makes us ask vainly for more ; 
 " Black," a pretty story, based on the idea of the 
 transmigration of souls into the bodies of animals ; 
 and " Ammalat Beg" (or " Sultanetta "), rewritten 
 by Dumas from a translation of a story in Russian 
 by Marlinsky.i This was published in 1859, being, 
 of course, the result of Dumas's visit to the Caucasus 
 
 ^ An English version of this story, one of the best known in Russian 
 literature, appeared in Blackwood's, 1 843. • 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 249 
 
 just previously. We may also briefly dismiss " Le 
 Chasseur de Sauvagine," a charming story, the 
 whole credit of which Dumas frankly gives entirely 
 to his friend and collaborator, the Comte de 
 Cherville. In spite of this avowal the authorship 
 has been claimed by experts for Dumas, and in any 
 case the story is well worth reading. It follows 
 the fortunes of a Normandy wildfowl-hunter, and 
 tells of his love, his sin, and his repentance. The 
 story contains qualities not generally acknow- 
 ledged to be possessed by our author, being in 
 marked contrast with his better-known style. " Le 
 Fils du Forcat" (or "Monsieur Coumbes "), pub- 
 lished the following year, has also been ascribed 
 to Dumas, and suggests the same collaborator as 
 the previous work. Although the scene is laid in 
 Marseilles, the tale resembles the "Chasseur" in 
 manner. It is really a study of a "little" nature — 
 that of Monsieur Coumbes, to wit, and is simply 
 yet powerfully told. A splendid edition of " Le Fils 
 du Format" was published in France not long ago. 
 
 " Les Louves de Machecoul," a product of 1859, 
 deserves fuller notice. This tale gives the reader 
 a graphic account of the rising in La Vendee in 
 1832, caused by the Duchesse de Berri — a descrip- 
 tion all the more trustworthy because, as we know, 
 the author had not only foreseen the occurrence, 
 but had visited the Royalist West a year or two 
 
250 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 before the outbreak. Mr Saintsbury remarks that 
 the episode of Ewan of Brigglands in *' Rob Roy" 
 is "calmly translated verbatim" into this romance. 
 This is somewhat of an exaggeration ; the incident 
 is undoubtedly " conveyed," it is true, but is retold 
 in more graphic style. The character of Jean 
 Oullier alone should give this book life : he is a 
 fine study of the Breton peasant — cunning, dogged, 
 devoted, pious — one of the best portraits from the 
 hands of the master. 
 
 " La Maison de Glace," known to us in the 
 sixties as "The Russian Gipsy," published in 1859, 
 was another outcome of the visit to Russia two 
 years before. It is a romance of the court of the 
 Empress Anna, in the early half of the eighteenth 
 century, full of intrigue and passion. We incline to 
 believe, with Maurel, that the story is a translation. 
 
 Another excursion into unfamiliar regions was 
 " L'lle de Feu," known to a past generation in 
 England as " Doctor Basilius." This was probably 
 written with an assistant who knew Java well, for 
 it is a weird story of that island, the interest 
 afforded by the people and customs of that semi- 
 barbarous spot being heightened by a suggestion 
 of the supernatural. "Truly one of the gems of 
 the collection," writes a deep student of Dumas, 
 "the concluding volume being perhaps among his 
 finest work." 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 251 
 
 " Le Pcre la Ruine," which dates from this period, 
 resembles " Le Chasseur de Sauvagine," " Le Fils 
 du Forcat," and "Parisiens et Provinciaux," so much 
 as to suggest Dumas in collaboration with de Cher- 
 ville once more. It is a pretty but sad story, in 
 which, as in " Conscience," the love of the French 
 peasant for the soil is powerfully shown. 
 
 A translation of Trelawney's "Adventures of a 
 Younger Son," made under Dumas's orders, and 
 known as " Un Cadet de Famille," and one of 
 Gordon-Cumming's 'Adventures of a Lion Hunter," 
 known as " La Vie au Desert," were also issued in 
 i860, when Dumas set out on that tour which 
 ended in the camp of Garibaldi. For some time 
 the romancer was busy following the fortunes of 
 the " red-shirts," editing a paper at Naples, writing 
 the " Memoires de Garibaldi," his own diary as 
 amateur war correspondent, and the rest ; and it 
 was not until 1863 that he published another 
 romance of any importance — " Madame de Cham- 
 blay." According to the circumstantial account 
 given in the introduction, the manuscript of this 
 story was sent to Dumas by a friend, whom he 
 had met at Compiegne In 1836, when on a visit 
 to the young Due D'Orleans. The novel tells of 
 a young wife, an unworthy husband, a lover, a 
 potion a la Juliet, by which the lady escapes from 
 bondage, and promises a happy life for lover and 
 
252 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 mistress in a distant land. In spite of this testi- 
 mony, however, Mr Saintsbury beHeves Octave 
 Feuillet to be the author of " Madame de Cham- 
 blay." Be that as it may, we have seen that 
 Dumas does not claim the authorship for himself. 
 
 " Une Nuit a Florence," published in 1861, is 
 a story based on the life-history of the Medicis — 
 a favourite topic with Dumas. The night in 
 question is the 2nd or 3rd January 1537/ and 
 concerns the adventure of the Duke Alexander de 
 Medici, who is finally killed by his cousin Lorenzino, 
 the " Brutus " of his day. It would be interesting 
 to compare this story with de Musset's play, 
 " Lorenzaccio," which it closely resembles. 
 
 About this time (1862) appeared " Une Aventure 
 dArnour," which is more an autobiographical sketch 
 and a record of the author's visit to Austria in 
 1856, than fiction. Incidentally it shows Dumas 
 as the chivalrous friend of a beautiful woman in 
 a risky and equivocal position. "Herminie" or 
 " Une Amazone," which is bound with the same 
 volume, is of earlier date— about 1845. It is a 
 short story of a bal niasqud intrigue, a sort of 
 belated " Souvenir dAntony," and is considered 
 a model short story in its way. 
 
 In the following year — 1864 — came Dumas's last 
 
 ^ This is the date given by Dumas. Authorities disagree as to the 
 day, and even as to the year. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 253 
 
 long romance (if we except " Le Docteur Mys- 
 terieux," and its sequel), " La San Felice." 
 
 " La San Felice " is a word - panorama of the 
 strange series of events which occurred in Naples 
 in 1798 and 1799, when the Bourbon Ferdinand 
 was overthrown by the Frencli, in the former year, 
 and was restored to the throne by Cardinal Ruffo 
 in the next. We know, by passages in " Le 
 Corricolo," that the events of this time had 
 already aroused Dumas's interest. Pifteau, who 
 was the author's secretary at the time the romance 
 was written (and who vouches for its authenticity), 
 tells us that Dumas whilst at Naples wrote a history 
 of Ferdinand's overthrow and return known as the 
 " Histoire des Bourbons," or " I Borboni Napoli," 
 for the paper which he was then editing, and found 
 the series of events far too exciting and extra- 
 ordinary to neglect. Accordingly " La San Felice " 
 was written. The characters are historical throuo-h- 
 out, and the hapless Luisa San Felice, Ferdinand, 
 " King of the Lazzarone," Nelson, Lady Hamilton, 
 Fra Diavolo, Admiral Caracciolo ^ and a score more, 
 appear " in their habits as they lived." This story 
 shows strikingly the change which has come over 
 
 ^ Incidentally, the story of Nelson's hanging of Caracciolo is intro- 
 duced, and treated from the French and humanitarian point of view. 
 The "case for Nelson" is presented in Mr Sladen's book "The 
 Admiral," which contains exhaustive quotations from original docu- 
 ments. 
 
254 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the author during the past twenty years. The 
 "pace," is now comparatively slow ; one is no longer 
 swept off one's feet, as with the " Mousquetaires." 
 The author unfolds his tale deliberately, but with 
 much of his old charm, stepping carefully from 
 document to document, and weaving half a score 
 of threads together with a patience and dignity of 
 style akin to Scott. " La San Felice " was followed 
 by " Emma Lyonna," in which is told the story of 
 Lady Hamilton's career, being a p'cturesque version, 
 it is said, of that fascinating woman's " Memoirs." 
 A supplementary sequel, " Les Souvenirs d'une 
 Favorite," appeared in 1865. Lady Hamilton 
 played a prominent part in the events described 
 in " La San Felice," and Dumas was evidently 
 led on by his interest in that picturesque person- 
 ality to make her the central figure in succeeding 
 volumes. 
 
 Readers who are inclined to disparage Dumas's 
 later work, particularly the products of the " sixties," 
 are advised to try " Parisiens et Provinciaux," issued 
 this year, written with the Comte de Chervil le. 
 The scene shifts from Paris to the neighbourhood 
 of the author's beloved Villers-Cotterets, and is in 
 fact a humorous comparison of the city cockney 
 (typified in the delightful person of M. Peluche) 
 and the " rustic " Madeleine. The story might have 
 taken the title of the author's first little play " La 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 255 
 
 Chasse et rAmour," for the humours of the chase 
 and a sHght but pretty love-story are the chief 
 attractions of this book, which is one of the best of 
 that class of novels written by Dumas and yet so 
 neglected by his admirers, — the slight, humorous 
 story of modern humble life. 
 
 It is not generally known that in the closing 
 years of his life Dumas tried his hand once more 
 at a " romance of cape-and-sword." The reader 
 will search the comprehensive list of MM. Calmann- 
 Levy in vain for any record of it. In the early 
 part of 1 866 — so Ferry asserts — the editor of Les 
 Nouvelles appealed to Dumas for an historical 
 romance in his famous style, and Dumas agreed 
 to think the matter over. He found an excellent 
 subject in the career of " Le Comte de Moret," 
 that illegitimate son of Henri Quatre who dis- 
 appeared so mysteriously during the battle of 
 Castelnaudary, and whose body was never found. 
 He had already treated this subject in that charm- 
 ing story, " La Colombe." The first number of 
 th.e feinlht 0)1, Ferry tells us, promised an engrossing 
 story ; but unhappily other preoccupations, other 
 work, took Dumas's attention from the romance, 
 which flagged. He lost the thread of the narra- 
 tive, which became merely a chronique, full of long 
 extracts from the memoirs of Pontis, Delaporte, and 
 from other historical documents of the seventeenth 
 
256 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 century. It suddenly ceased to appear, and was 
 never heard of more. But although the romance 
 is not now accessible, a wretched American transla- 
 tion published at the time, and happily preserved, 
 shows that the story has been underrated by M. 
 Ferry. Some of it, indeed, is excellent, notably 
 the chapter in which Corneille is introduced to the 
 pr^cieuses ridicules of the day ; and Richelieu's 
 intrigues, and the incident of the "day of dupes," 
 are Dumas as we know him best. The period of 
 " Le Comte de Moret" just precedes that of the 
 " Mousquetaires." 
 
 Two of the last volumes of fiction from the pen 
 of the fast-ageing writer were of the revolutionary 
 period.^ " Les Blancs et les Bleus" (1S67) like 
 the " Compagnons," was suggested by Nodier's 
 " Souvenirs de la Revolution," and Dumas in ac- 
 knowledgment introduces his old friend into the 
 story. It is interesting chiefly for the dramatic 
 episode of Euloge Schneider the " red," who bar- 
 gained for the hand of a Royalist maiden, as the 
 price of her father's life. " Les Blancs et les 
 Bleus," the scene of which is laid in Strasbourg in 
 December 1793, was dedicated, with a gleam of 
 the author's old wit, to the memory of Nodier, his 
 
 ^ " La Terreur Prussienne," although technically a novel, derives 
 its chief interest and value from its historical matter, and is therefore 
 dealt with in that capacity. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUIMAS 257 
 
 illustrious friend and " collaborator." " I have said 
 'collaborator,'" he adds, "because people would 
 give themselves a lot of trouble in finding another 
 one, and their time would be wasted." The 
 veteran still held his grip of his facts, and of his 
 reader; but the sequel, " Le Huitieme Croisade," 
 which now forms the latter part of " Les Blancs et 
 les Bleus," is chiefly a spirited chronique of the siege 
 of Acre. And on that last effort, made in 1869, the 
 year before Dumas's death, the curtain falls. 
 ***** 
 
 At occasional intervals Dumas issued books of 
 tales for children, one of which (" Le Capitaine 
 Pamphile ") we have already mentioned. Of the 
 others, " La Bouillie de la Comtesse Berthe " is the 
 most notable : it is a pretty story, in which the 
 "Castle of Otranto" seems turned into a haunt for 
 dwarfs and a delight for little readers. " Le Pere 
 Gigogne " opens with a story (" La Lievre de mon 
 grandpere") told to Dumas by de Cherville and 
 recounted by him ; but the rest of the two volumes 
 contains fairy-tales, chiefly translations from tians 
 Christian Andersen and the German. 
 
 In reply to an enquiry from us Mr Lang writes 
 to say that although he has not these stories by 
 him, he thinks it unlikely that any are original. In 
 spite of this weighty opinion we are reluctant to 
 part with two or three tales, notably " La Jeunesse 
 
258 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 de Pierrot." This verdict also disposes of the tales 
 in " L'Homme aux Contes " : " L'Histoire d'un 
 casse - noisette," is, we know, an adaptation of 
 Hoffmann's story of the same name. 
 
 Next to the plays, with which we have not dealt 
 for reasons already given, and to the romances, 
 come the travels — if not in importance, at least in 
 originality. These volumes abound in gaiety, in 
 brief sketches of dialogue, of history, of archaeology, 
 of personal adventure — in short, they make a 
 'ntdlange, a savoury stew, with Dumas for cook ! 
 Parigot suggests that they should be called "Im- 
 pressions produites par Dumas en Voyage," and 
 declares " he is charming thus " ; though with a 
 touch of satire he adds, " one scarcely exaggerates 
 when one says that the beauty of a country was to 
 Dumas in proportion to the native admiration for 
 his books." Of the first trip, " En Suisse" (1833), 
 we have already given some account ; then followed 
 those on "La Midi de la France " and " Les Bords du 
 Rhin "(1841), the former containing " La Chasse au 
 Chastre " and other excellent reading ; the latter, pro- 
 bably written with the help of Gerard de Nerval, 
 tellinof, amonorst other matter, of Waterloo and 
 Marceau, of Rubens, and the clevil-tempted archi- 
 tect of Cologne cathedral. Italy and the Medi- 
 terranean yielded the finest crop of "impressions," 
 and there appeared in rapid succession " Une Ann^e 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 259 
 
 a Florence" (in 1841), and " Lc Capitaine Arena," ^ 
 followed by " Le Corricolo " and " Le Speronare " 
 in the next two years. " It must be said," admits 
 Fitzgerald, " that the ' Corricolo,' an account of 
 Naples, and the 'Speronare,' an account of Florence 
 — both written by Dumas's friend Fiorentin under 
 his direction — are as spirited and amusing books of 
 travc'ls as can be found." " La Villa Palmieri " is 
 another volume of souvenirs of Florence. 
 
 In 1846, as will be remembered, Dumas set out 
 for Madrid, to be present at the royal wedding, and 
 the following year his description of Spain was 
 issued, in " Paris a Cadix." " Spain had had little in- 
 fluence on his genius, it is true," says Parigot, " but 
 what impressions he has left us ! The very custom- 
 house officers respected the baggage of the illus- 
 trious Frenchman ; the author of ' Monte Cristo ' 
 was received with open arms ; the French school- 
 masters left their work to escort him hither and 
 thither, and the great hidalgos paid him homage of 
 courtesy." As a consequence, " Paris a Cadix" is 
 full of verve and gaiety, bull-fights, dances, and the 
 rest. " Le V^loce," issued two years later, is a 
 description of Dumas's adventures in that state- 
 vessel along the coast of North Africa. Of the 
 
 ^ " Le Capitaine Arena" lells of a tour round Sicily in a vessel 
 commanded by that seaman. A "speronare" is a light coasting- 
 vessel used by the Italians ; a "corricolo," a carriage used by the 
 Neapohtans — a sort of " tilbury." 
 
2G0 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 travels "En Russie " (1865) and " Le Cancase " 
 (1859) we have already spoken, and there only 
 remains " Ouinze jours a Sinai," written in 1839, a 
 book remarkable for the fact that althouo^h Dumas 
 was never in Palestine (he wrote the volume from 
 the drawings of Dauzats and Baron Taylor's notes), 
 it was declared by a Caliph to be the most faithful 
 description of the Holy Land that he had ever read ! 
 Its author, we can believe, was delighted to find he 
 had revealed the East to the Orientals. 
 
 We must not omit " Un Pays Inconnu," 1865 (an 
 account of a visit to the land of the Aztecs in South 
 America, and written from the notes of a certain Mr 
 Middleton- Payne of New York), if only because of 
 the incidental assertion, unmistakably made, that 
 Dumas had visited the United States. It seems in- 
 credible that a man who travelled in the public eye, 
 as it were, and whose journeys abroad were invari- 
 ably turned to delightful account, could have gone 
 to America unnoticed, and returned to leave his 
 visit unrecorded. We know that Dumas wished to 
 cross the Atlantic, but was restrained by a natural 
 fear that his negro descent might lay him open 
 to humiliating rebuffs. Probably, either Dumas 
 " bluffed " his readers more hardily than usual, or 
 else the introduction and notes were written by a 
 'prentice who had had the desired experience. 
 
 Not yet have we exhausted the catalogue of this 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 2G1 
 
 universal writer ! Here are historical studies by the 
 teens of volumes — a presentment of old facts from 
 a refreshingly new point of view. " Gaule et 
 France," a concise sketch of French history, began 
 the series, being written, it is said, to divert Dumas's 
 mind from the cholera epidemic. Its author is 
 accused of having borrowed passages from Thierry 
 and others ; and this is quite possible. On the 
 other hand, the forrii, design, and aim of the work 
 were Dumas's own, and the closing passages which 
 so faithfully prophesy the Second Republic of fifteen 
 years later — with a president, elected by the people 
 for five years, and so forth — is quoted by Blaze de 
 Bury in full, as proof of the romancer's political 
 foresight. Then came " Napoleon" (1839); " Les 
 Stuarts" {1840) — in w'hich Dumas largely availed 
 himself of Scott's "Abbot " ; " Jehanne la Pucelle," 
 (1842), which is half a romance; "Louis XIV. et 
 son Siecle " (1844), his most important history; 
 " Les Medicis " (1845) ; " La Regence " and 
 "Louis XV. et sa Cour " (1849); "Louis XVI. 
 et la Revolution" (1850); "'93" {1851); and a 
 " Histoire de Louis-Philippe" (1852). A series of 
 portraits in undress, " Grands Hommes en Robe- 
 de-Chambre," was sketched, but only " Cesar " 
 (1857), "Henri IV." (1866), and "Louis XIII. 
 et Richelieu ' (1866) appeared. " Perhaps," 
 added Dumas, " if these studies meet with sue- 
 
262 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 cess, we shall try to go backward as far as Alex- 
 ander, and forward as far as Napoleon." Evidently 
 the series did not appeal to Dumas's public. 
 
 Of one of these books its author tells an amusing 
 anecdote. He was chatting with a somewhat super- 
 cilious savant, and incidentally mentioned that he 
 had written a history of Caesar. 
 
 " You have written a history of Caesar ? " repeated 
 the incredulous listener with a smile. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " You ? " 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Pardon ! But it has not been spoken of amongst 
 scholars ..." 
 
 " Oh, the scholars never speak of me." 
 
 " But a history of Caesar should have caused some 
 sensation ? . . ." 
 
 *' Mine caused none ; people read it, that's all. 
 It is the unreadable histories which make sensa- 
 tions ; they are like the dinners which one doesn't 
 digest ; the dinners which one does digest, one has 
 forgotten by next day." 
 
 Of these excursions into history " La Route de 
 Varennes " (i860) and "La Terreur Prussienne " 
 (1867) are two of the most valuable. The former 
 was an attempt to write the story of Louis XVI. 's 
 flight from Paris, of which historical accounts seemed 
 confusing and contradictory. Dumas followed the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 2G3 
 
 course of the royal fugitive step by step, and 
 Maxime Du Camp, who had himself studied the 
 epoch carefully, testified to Dumas's accuracy and 
 skill in the revision of the work of trusted historians. 
 The "Terreur," in spite of its fiction-form, is practi- 
 cally a stud)' of the Prusso- Austrian war, made on 
 the spot, and full of shrewd observation and dis- 
 quieting forebodings, soon to be justifiied. We 
 should add here " Les Garibaldiens," Dumas's diary 
 as amateur and volunteer war correspondent in 
 i860 — a crisp, intelligent, restrained account of the 
 Sicilian campaign. 
 
 Certainly not the least attractive of Dumas's 
 writings are those in which he writes frankly of 
 himself, his friends, his pets, and all that concerns 
 his life and w^ork. Of these, the first in order and 
 importance is " ^Nles Memoires," commenced in the 
 forties, but written "in exile" in 1S52-54, when 
 leisure allowed the adventurous author to look back 
 upon his early life. Dr Garnett speaks of them as 
 "those wondrous 'Memoires' which, as it is incon- 
 ceivable that anyone but himself should have written 
 them, alone suffice to establish his genius." The 
 ten volumes cover the period of" childhood, the early 
 struggles and triumphs, the Revolution of 1830, and 
 end abruptly at the time of the Swiss tour, 1S32-33. 
 But the " Memoires " contain much more than 
 Dumas's own history ; he chronicles the political 
 
[ Translatiott."] 
 MY FATHER 
 
 My father, who has already been mentioned twice in the fore- 
 going chapter, firstly, a propos of my certificate of birth, and 
 again, in connection with his own marriage-contract, was 
 General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie. 
 
 He was, as we have shown in the documents cited by us 
 son of the Marquis Antoine-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, 
 Colonel and Commissary-General of Artillery, who owned by 
 inheritance the estate of La Pailleterie, raised to a Marquisate 
 by Louis XIV. in 1707. 
 
 The arms of the family were : " d''aziir a trois aigles cTor, 
 aux vols ^ployes pour deux, et un avec un anneau d'argent 
 place en ca^ur, embrasses par les griffes dextres et senestres des 
 angles du chef, et reposant sur la tete de Vaigle de pointed 
 
 My father, when enlisting as a simple soldier, or rather, 
 when renouncing both title and coat-of-arms, adopted instead 
 the simple device " Deus dcdit ; Deus dabit " — a device which 
 would have sounded ambitious, if God himself had not counter- 
 signed it. 
 
 I do not know what secret discontent or speculative plan 
 determined my grandfather to quit France, about 1760, sell his 
 estate and go off to take up his abode in San Domingo. 
 
 As a result of this resolution he bought an immense stretch 
 of land situated on the western side of the island near Cape 
 Rose and known as La Guinodce, or the Trou de Jcrcmie. 
 
 It was there that my father was born, of Louise-Cessette 
 Dumas and the Marquis de la Pailleterie, on March 25th, 1762. 
 The Marquis was then fifty-two years of age, having been born 
 in 1710. 
 
 My father first saw the light in the most beautiful spot in that 
 magnificent island, queen of the gulf in which it is situated, 
 and of which the air is so pure that no venomous reptile can 
 exist there. 
 
 264 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 265 
 
 events of the time, and sketches the characters of 
 his famous contemporaries. It is evident that even 
 the stout-hearted Alexandre himself shirked the 
 task of bringing such a record up to date. Needless 
 to add, these volumes are full of entertainment. 
 The " Causeries " {i860) contain the sketches of 
 travel in England, chatty fragments of autobio- 
 graphy, and two jeux d' esprit. The two volumes 
 of " Bric-a-brac," issued the following year, are 
 similar in nature — " Propos d'art, de cuisine " — et 
 de Dumas. " Les Morts vont vite " contains appre- 
 ciations of the author's friends, de Musset, Chateau- 
 briand, Beranger, and recollections of Marie Dorval, 
 and others. The " Histoire de mes Betes" (1S68) 
 shows us Dumas as he was in the forties, en faniille 
 at Monte Cristo, amongst his dogs, monkeys, ser- 
 vants, and hangers-on. The " Souvenirs drama- 
 tiques" (1868) are written with an unusual degree of 
 dignity for Dumas, and with a genial masterhood of 
 stage-craft. The studies in criticism, the apprecia- 
 tion of Shakespeare, and the views expressed on 
 the art of the playwright, and the management 
 of the theatre, are all excellent in matter and 
 manner. 
 
 Two volumes of " Memoires" with which Dumas's 
 name has been associated are not easy to classify. 
 One is the " Memoires d' Horace," published in 
 i860. It was supposed to be taken from an MS. 
 
266 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 in the library of the Vatican, and is, Ghnel tells us, 
 "une orrande fantaisie sur Rome ancienne." It 
 is not now accessible. The " Memoires de 
 Talma," on the other hand, were written by 
 Dumas from memoranda left by the great trage- 
 dian, and have been recognised by Fournel, J. 
 Cherbuliez, and others, to be practically a bio- 
 graphy of the actor, written by his young admirer, 
 in after years. 
 
 One other work also stands in a class by itself. 
 This is " Crimes Celebres," which appeared in 
 1839-40. The series was founded on the " Causes 
 Celebres " of Gayot de Pithaval ; the excellent 
 material afforded by that industrious person was 
 divested of formality and tediousness, and rewritten 
 with all the animation and dramatic effect for which 
 the novelist was noted. The records were com- 
 pared by Dumas with the best authorities on the 
 subject, and the romances of real life written with 
 scrupulous attention to accuracy. Arnould, Fournier, 
 Fiorentino, and Mallefille were responsible for some 
 chapters, which consisted of the following : " Les 
 Borgia," " La Comtesse de St Geran," "Jeanne de 
 Naples," " Nisida," "La Marquise de Brinvilliers," 
 " Les Cenci," " La Marquise de Ganges," " Karl 
 Ludwig Sand" (the murderer of Kotzebue), " Van- 
 inka" and " Urbain Grandier." (This last was 
 dramatised by the author.) The whole scheme of 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 267 
 
 the book is of course Dumas's, and some of the 
 chapters appeared in his different " Impressions de 
 Voyage." 
 
 Dumas the poet is perhaps best represented by 
 "Charles VII. et ses grands Vassaux," and by 
 "Christine"; but M. GHnel has collected a con- 
 siderable number of fugitive poems, most of which 
 appeared in the " Psyche." ^ They prove what, 
 indeed, Dumas's tragedy-dramas show, that he had 
 le mouverneiit, la couleur et r image, and expressed 
 passion with a rare vigour and warmth. "Although 
 lacking a sure knowledge of syntax," says Parigot, 
 " and deficient in mastery of form, he sparkled with 
 gaiety and youth, even in verse. The man who 
 wrote the lion chase, the dream of the desert, and 
 the fifth act of ' Charles VII.'; the ' spirituel ' couplets 
 in ' L'Alchimiste,' and, above all, the prologue to 
 'Caligula' is not a poet to be despised." What, 
 indeed, did this marvellous man attempt, that he 
 did not in some degree achieve ? Of the thirty or 
 forty poems thus preserved, the elegy on the death 
 of General Foy, the dithyrambe " Canaris," in praise 
 of that heroic Greek, and the verses to Hugo and 
 Sainte-Beuve, deserve mention. In selecting one of 
 Dumas's poems for quotation, we have chosen what 
 we believe to be one of the best and most typical. 
 
 ^ Dumas translated a number of poems from German and Russian 
 writers, but these are not now accessible. 
 
268 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 It is "La Sylphe," one of the fairy race which we 
 meet in the " Rape of the Lock " : 
 
 Je suis un sylphe, une ombre, un rien, un reve, 
 Hote de I'air, esprit mystdrieux, 
 Lcger parfum, que le zifphir enleve, 
 Anneau vivant, qui joint rhomme et les dieux 
 
 De mon corps pur les rayons diaphanes 
 Flottent meles k la vapeur du soir ; 
 Mais je me cache aux regards des profanes, 
 Et Tame seule en songe peut me voir. 
 
 Rasant du lac la nappe dtincelante 
 D'un vol leger j'effleure les roseaux ; 
 Et, balance sur mon aile brillante, 
 J'aime h. me voir dans le cristal des eaux. 
 
 Dans vos jardins quelque fois je voltige ; 
 Et, m'enivrant de suaves odeurs, 
 Sans que mon pied fasse incliner leur tige, 
 J e me suspends au calice des fleurs. 
 
 Dans vos foyers j'entre avec confiance, 
 Et, recreant son ceil clos a demi, 
 J'aime k verser des songes d'innocence 
 Sur le front pur d'un enfant endormi. 
 
 Lorsque sur vous la nuit jette son voile 
 Je glisse aux cieux comme un long filet d'or, 
 Et les mortals disent " C'est une ctoile 
 Qui d'un ami vous presage la mort." 
 
 We are far from pretending that the foregoing is 
 a complete review of its subject. The task is an 
 almost endless one, and there are limits to time and 
 space and the patience of readers. We submit, 
 however, that this analytical description is in 
 advance of public knowledge in England and 
 
ALEXANDRE DUINIAS 269 
 
 America at least, and that it has served a two-fold 
 purpose. It has, we hope, told the reader something 
 new about the books he knows, and has given him 
 an idea, however slight, of the nature and authen- 
 ticity of other works by our author of which he 
 has probably never heard. We trust we shall 
 have led him to marvel, as we have marvelled, at 
 the fact that so much which is good, and which is 
 undoubtedly " genuine Dumas," should remain 
 untranslated and almost forgotten. A good dozen 
 of the minor romances have been translated into 
 English and allowed to go out of print. Yet we 
 have shown, we think, that there is plenty of 
 excellent fish in this wide, wide sea which has not 
 as yet been landed on our shores in the net of the 
 translator. 
 
 One other point cannot have escaped attention. 
 Our most serious admissions respecting Dumas's 
 integrity have been made in the course of this 
 examination of the authenticity of the various books 
 attributed to him. In the case of collaboration, we 
 declare that Dumas was ever the greater brain, the 
 "predominant partner," and deserves the most 
 credit. But in cases where his name is attached, 
 obviously or confessedly to books untouched by his 
 pen, his responsibility is grave. Yet even here it is 
 well to discriminate between the man who issued 
 the book with a frank disavowal of authorship, and 
 
270 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the publishers of his day who sent it forth as " the 
 master's."^ Like Goldsmith, Dumas became a 
 bondman to his publishers, and yielded weakly to 
 them. His reputation has suffered accordingly, as 
 was only right ; but we believe that when the wheat 
 of his own growing is sifted from the chaff, as one 
 day it will be, and when the truth has prevailed 
 over slander, Dumas, as a man and as a writer, will 
 stand hiorher than he has ever done. 
 
 o 
 
 ^ We need hardly say that this in no way reflects on the present 
 publishers of Dumas, MM. Calmann-Ldvy. 
 
PART III 
 
 HIS GENIUS 
 
 A Defence— A Counterclaim 
 
His Genius: A Defence. 
 
 Dumas was once asked for a subscription towards a 
 monument to a man whom everyone had reviled in 
 the beginning of his career. 
 
 "You had better be content," he repHed, "with 
 the stones that people threw at him during his 
 lifetime. No monument you can raise will be so 
 eloquent of their imbecility, and his genius." There 
 was a savour of bitterness in this speech which was 
 only too natural. 
 
 " There never was a popular writer," declared 
 Hayward thirty years ago, " who had better reason 
 than Alexandre Dumas to protest against the 
 contemporary judgment of his countrymen, or to 
 appeal, like Bacon, to the foreign nations and the 
 next ages." Charles Reade, writing in the French 
 novelist's lifetime, implies the existence of the same 
 attitude towards our author's genius in this forcible 
 comment : " Poor Dumas ! He has not only pro- 
 duced immortal stories and immortal plays, each by 
 the dozen, but also a son who has shown himselr 
 master of the story and the drama. But what avails 
 that treble fertility.'* If five generations of Dumas, 
 
 novelist and dramatist, were now on earth together, 
 
 273 
 
274 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 instead of two, our puppy-dogs, drunk with moon- 
 shine, would manage to look at them all and not see 
 any of them ! " 
 
 It was the fashion to treat our author as the chief 
 of a school of second-rate writers of popular stories, 
 which were "turned out" hastily, and which there- 
 fore possessed no claim to criticism. " Dumas," 
 adds Dr Garnett, " exceptionally passed for long as 
 an example of this inferior grade of authorship. At 
 one time it would have been thought absurd to 
 parallel him with deep thinkers like Balzac, or 
 exquisite artists like George Sand. * Monte Cristo' 
 and the ' Three Musketeers ' were ranged alon<7 
 with ' The Mysteries of Paris ' and * The Wandering 
 Jew,' and the circumstances of their reproduction in 
 England showed that they were expected to appeal 
 to readers of the same class. Yet as time passed, 
 and mere clever melodrama gave place to other 
 clever melodrama but Dumas retained his power 
 and popularity, it became clear that his work really 
 belonged to the domain of literature. In adjusting 
 the relations between Dumas and his critics, it must 
 be remembered that he did not, like some of the 
 literary heroes of his age, take the world by storm 
 with his earliest writings. . . . But Dumas had 
 acquired a good sound reputation as a second-rate 
 romancer before writing ' Monte Cristo,' and criticism 
 was naturally slow to accept him as a genius." 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 275 
 
 Wc come down to 1880, and find Mr \V. H, 
 Pollock asserting in the " Nineteenth Century" that 
 " Dumas has perhaps been more persistently under- 
 rated, in England at least, than any modern writer 
 of his calibre ; " and five years later Blaze de Bury, 
 in his study of our subject, refers to public opinion 
 in France, when he writes : — " Dumas is popular ; 
 he is not kiiown. His method of life and his 
 occasional worthless books greatly damaged his 
 literary position. He is usually looked upon 
 simply as an 'amuser,' and yet, like others, and 
 more than many others, he had his moments of 
 lofty thought and philosophy," " Even to be 
 'amusing,'" as Parigot drily remarks, "is not, when 
 one looks round the world of literature, so common- 
 place and contemptible a merit, after all." 
 
 Nevertheless, in one province of literary opinion 
 there has been a striking change during the past 
 twenty or thirty years. The English literary 
 critics and essayists of the romantic school, as we 
 shall see, have more and more loudly proclaimed 
 their admiration of Dumas. Still the public at 
 larsfe remains ignorant and unconverted. Its 
 attitude towards the romance-writer is thirty )ears 
 behind the times, and dates from the days when 
 " Chambers's Encyclopaedia " treated our author in 
 this summary fashion : 
 
 ** It may be said that the appearance in literature 
 
276 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 of a writer like Dumas Is a portentous phenomenon, 
 and the avidity with which his invariably immoral 
 and generally licentious fictions are devoured is the 
 most severe condemnation of modern, and especially 
 of French society, that could well be pronounced." 
 
 That is pretty well, and one is rather relieved, for 
 Dumas's sake, to find that the biographer has 
 previously declared that the novelist did not write 
 his own books at all. We read further of " the 
 savage voluptuousness " of his books (the " savage 
 voluptuousness " of the " Tulipe Noire " is good), of 
 his " astounding quackery," and of his " sweating 
 system " of production. Need we add that the 
 "brief biography" refers us to " De Mirecourt " ."^ 
 
 Happily the "Encyclopaedia" has retrieved 
 Itself, and its latest edition contains a sketch of 
 Dumas's life, from the pen of Mr W. E. Henley, 
 which, In the old-fashioned language of our fathers, 
 " does equal honour to that writer's head and heart." 
 We learn from R. L. Stevenson's " Letters " that 
 his collaborator In " Beau Austin " was contem- 
 plating a book on Dumas some years ago. There 
 is, Indeed, a passage in "Memories and Portraits" 
 which was written at Henley — " something about 
 Dumas still waiting his biographer." It Is truly 
 a pity that the author of "Views and Reviews" 
 never wrote this book, and did not obviate the 
 necessity for the present work by giving the public 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 277 
 
 an estimation of the Qrreat Frenchman which would 
 say what should be said, with all the literary power 
 and critical authority which that writer can command 
 
 Unfortunately the other ordinary books of refer- 
 ence still repeat the old story of prejudice and 
 spite. We have already mentioned that there 
 is only one book in English dealing w^ith 
 Dumas's life and WTitings, a work which the 
 critics have heartily condemned. We need only 
 add, by way of summing up their views, that it 
 ought fitly to be entitled " Dumas According to 
 his Enemies: by One'of Them." In France no 
 adequate biography exists : on the one hand there 
 are the "studies" of MM. B. de Bury and Parigot ; 
 on the other we have the bibliographical and 
 biographical notes of Dumas's fellow-provincial, 
 Glinel ; but as yet the book which shall combine 
 the two points of view is wanting. 
 
 The lover of Dumas could afford to laugh at the 
 old-fashioned utterances of a cyclopaedia in the 
 sixties ; he could forget a third-rate biography 
 already forgotten by the public. But these are not 
 the only obstacles in the way of a reconsideration 
 of Dumas's literary merits. It is only a few 
 years since a "Quarterly Reviewer" dismissed the 
 claims of our author as a novelist in a few 
 contemptuous words. True, nobody reads the 
 Ouarta^ly Review, but even straws show how the 
 
278 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 wind is blowing in certain quarters. In a recent 
 work^ M. G. Pellissier complacently remarks that 
 Dumas "sacrificed his literary conscience to the 
 vulgar taste of the public, and the necessities of the 
 purse prevailed more and more over his work. . . . 
 he was only the most popular of amusers." We are 
 not surprised that this book was " crowned by the 
 Academie." G. Brandes has repeated the same 
 statement, which Parigot, who certainly possesses 
 some knowledge of the subject, flatly denies : 
 
 " G. Brandes has declared that Dumas wrote 
 firstly en roinantjqtie, and then e7i indiistriel — 
 a doubly false estimate. * Industriel' Dumas never 
 ceased to be ; ' romantic ' he was also, if by the 
 word we imply revolutionary ; but dramatic he 
 remained always, con ainoi^e, and by right of 
 conquest." 
 
 M. Lanson, in his voluminous and comprehensive 
 history of French literature, acknowledges Dumas 
 to be a skilled stage craftsman, but no more ; he 
 ignores Dumas the novelist altogether ! 
 
 These criticisms could only exercise a very dis- 
 tant influence on the ordinary English reader, 
 and we need not concern ourselves with them 
 further. But unhappily they seem to have fur- 
 nished the sole sources of reference for Professor 
 Dowden in his book on P"rench literature. This 
 
 1 " La Mouvement Littcraire au XIX*^ Si^cle." 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 279 
 
 famous scholar confesses in his preface that " an 
 adequate history of a great Hterature can be written 
 only by collaboration. In this small volume I too 
 have had my collaborators . . . who have written 
 each a part of my book." The list of authorities 
 which the professor quotes includes the three 
 critics we have mentioned, and contains no record 
 of any direct study of Dumas himself. Hence 
 we are not surprised to find that he " admits " 
 our author's history to be untrue, his characters 
 superficial, his action incredible. Dumas's work 
 " ceased to be literature and became mere ' com- 
 merce "... his money was ' recklessly squan- 
 dered.' . . , Half genius, half charlatan, his genius 
 decayed and his charlatanry grew to enormous 
 proportions." ^ Half-knowledge, at second hand, 
 gives currency to those half-truths concerning which 
 Tennyson held strong opinions. It is to be re- 
 gretted that a great scholar meaning to deal fairly 
 and even kindly with a personality should be misled 
 into a flagrant under-estimate which is certain to 
 be accepted by the public at large, who have a 
 natural confidence in the professor's ability and 
 
 ^ We regret to find that Dr Gamett (in the introduction to the 
 latest edition of the "Black Tulip"), repeats this charge in almost 
 the same words. The epithet "charlatan," as applied to a writer, 
 can surely only be taken to imply that he wrote without conscience 
 and lowered his standard of literary production to catch the public 
 taste. This implied charge we believe an impartial reading of 
 Dumas's works at any period will disprove. 
 
280 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 honesty of purpose. It is a relief to turn to 
 Professor Saintsbury's " Short History of French 
 Literature " and find our author dealt with more 
 justly and sympathetically by one who has a fuller 
 and more direct knowledge of his subject. 
 
 The attitude of -the orthodox French critic to- 
 wards Dumas is even more severe and contemp- 
 tuous, and this is easily explained. A man of 
 such irregular origin, who led such an irregular 
 life, who produced his works in such an irregular 
 way, was bound to shock the critics of the nation 
 which takes pride in that triumph of literary con- 
 vention and snobbery, the Academic Fran9aise. 
 If Dumas had been content to live a quiet, " re- 
 spectable " life, to stick to one class of writing, 
 and conform to tradition in that branch of litera- 
 ture ; if in addition he had refrained from dis- 
 respectful witticisms respecting the Institut, and 
 maintained a non-aggressive attitude towards the 
 world, ?i fauteuil mx^t have been his. He would 
 have gained the praise of the conventional and 
 won, if not Immortality, at least an Academic fame. 
 But he remained^Dumas — himself, and an eccen- 
 tric individuality ; and so we find Sainte-Beuve 
 writing of him : " All that he has written is fairly 
 bright, engrossing and amusing, d 77ioiti4, but spoilt 
 by incompleteness, negligence and vulgarity." Still, 
 elsewhere the same writer condescends to say : 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 281 
 
 " Quant a M. Dumas, tout le monJe sait sa verve 
 prodigieuse, son entrain facile, son bonheur de 
 mise-en-scene, son dialogue spirituel, et toujours 
 en mouvement, ce recit leger qui court sans cesse 
 et qui sait cnlever I'obstacle et I'espace sans jamais 
 faiblir. II couvre d'immense toiles sans fatiguer 
 jamais ni son pinceau ni son lecteur." 
 
 Similarly, Desire Nisard sneered at Dumas, in his 
 attack on what he called the "easy" literature. It 
 is characteristic of the French critic, this inability 
 to see that for certain kinds of composition rapidity 
 of thouo-ht and writinof are essential to success. 
 In short, the austere devotion to "form" and 
 " style " which his countrymen profess and demand 
 in others have always prevented Dumas, who cared 
 little for either quality, from achieving honour in 
 his own country — -except, of course, from the 
 ignorant public, who read him and enjoyed him. 
 
 The weight of official authority being cast against 
 us, it is obvious that our own attempt to estimate 
 the extent and value of Dumas's genius must firstly 
 take more or less the form of a defence, in which 
 we must pass in review the charges brought against 
 our client, and produce evidence in support. 
 
 It is not at all our desire to deny all the accusa- 
 tions brought against Dumas ; we hope, however, 
 that w^e shall be allowed to extenuate some things, 
 and be pardoned for setting down naught in malice. 
 
282 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 We have admitted the many faults to be found 
 in Dumas as a man and a writer ; we have re- 
 corded, and shall continue to record, hard things 
 said of him by expert and impartial critics. We 
 do this not only for honesty's sake, but because 
 we believe that the shoulders of his talent are 
 broad enough to bear the burden. Mr Henley is 
 by no means a mealy-mouthed witness, and this 
 is how he faces the point : 
 
 "He is one of the heroes of modern art. Envy 
 and scandal have done their worst now. The 
 libeller has said his say ; the detectives who make 
 a speciality of literary forgeries have proved their 
 cases one and all ; the judges of matter have 
 spoken, and so have the critics of style ; the dis- 
 tinguished author of ' Nana ' has taken us into 
 his confidence on the subject ; we have heard from 
 the lamented Granier (de Cassagnac) and others 
 as much as was to be heard on the question of 
 plagiarism in general and the plagiarisms of Dumas 
 in particular ; and Mr Percy Fitzgerald has done 
 what he is pleased to designate the ' nightman's 
 work ' of analysing ' Antony ' and ' Kean,' and 
 of collecting everything that spite has said about 
 their author's life, their author's habits, their 
 author's manners and customs and character : of 
 whose vanity, mendacity, immorality, and a score 
 of improper qualities besides, enough has been 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJNIAS 283 
 
 written to furnish a good-sized library. And the 
 result of it all is that Dumas is recoofnised for a 
 force in modern art and for one of the greatest 
 inventors and amusers the century has produced." 
 
 Before proceeding to the counts in our defence 
 il may be as well to "put into court" Dumas 's own 
 (ipinion of his place in and value to literature, 
 hrom the '' vsXxv fargettr'' something pompous and 
 ridiculously big will be anticipated. 
 
 " Lamartine/' he writes, "is a dreamer; Hugo 
 is a thinker ; as for myself, I am a populariser. I 
 take possession of both : I give substance to the 
 dream of one, I throw light upon the thought of 
 the other, and I serve up to the public this ex- 
 cellent dish, which, from the hand of the first would 
 have- lacked nourishment, being too light, and from 
 the second, would have caused indigestion, being 
 too heavy ; but which when seasoned and Intro- 
 duced by me, will agree with almost any stomach, 
 the weakest as well as the strongest." 
 
 This passage, of course, refers to Dumas's 
 position in the ranks of the Romantics, but it may 
 fairly be taken as representing his general opinion 
 of his own worth. The reader will be able to 
 judge for himself as we proceed, whether our author 
 is correct in this self-estimation, or whether he falls 
 below it or rises above it. 
 
 The first attack which was made upon Dumas, 
 
284 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 and the first therefore which we have to meet, is 
 that his plays were " horrible," and immoral. The 
 chief plays to be pilloried were " Henri Trois," 
 "Antony," "Don Juan de Marana," "Caligula," 
 and " La Tour de Nesle." Each of these received 
 its due share of ridicule from the wits of the rival 
 school, the classicists. The first, in which the 
 intrigues of the Valois court were exposed, was 
 the subject of an epigram which made fun of the 
 "handkerchief" incident, (which no doubt was 
 borrowed from "Othello"): 
 
 " Messieurs et mesdames, cette piece est morale ; 
 Elle prouve aujourd'hui, sans faire de scandale. 
 Que chez un amant, lorsqu'on va le soir 
 On peut oublier tout . . . exceptd son mouchoir ! " ^ 
 
 Similarly, "Antony," the society drama which 
 set the fashion in " foundlinof " or illeo^itimate 
 heroes, and heroines fair and frail, inspired the 
 couplet — 
 
 A croire ces MM. on ne voit dans nos rues 
 
 Que les enfants trouves, et les femmes perdues." ^ 
 
 The author's classic tragedy-drama gave rise to 
 the slangy word " caligulate," meaning to bore; 
 
 1 " Ladies and gentlemen, this play is moral : it proves that now- 
 a-days, when meeting one's lover by night one may without scandal 
 forget one's self, . . . but not one's handkerchief!" (Alluding to the 
 fact that the Duchesse de Guise's handkerchief, left in Ruggieri's 
 rooms — where she has met St Megrin, her lover, — is found by the 
 Due, and, by arousing his jealousy, leads on to the tragedy.) 
 
 2 "If we can believe these gentlemen (Dumas and others of the 
 Romantics) one meets everywhere only women who are "lost "and 
 children who are " found." 
 
ALEXANDRE DUiNIAS 2S5 
 
 and Dumas was represented as being haunted, a 
 la Richard III., by the ghosts of the authors from 
 whose "Don Juans" he had borrowed. 
 
 "Henri Trois " is now by general consent 
 beyond the reach of this injurious criticism. Of 
 "Antony" Dumas himself in his '' Memoires " 
 has submitted his own defence to the judgment 
 of posterity. He certainly makes two palpable hits, 
 firstly, in pointing out that the sinners Antony 
 and Adele do not prosper by their sin, for they 
 live in stress and anofuish and die violent and 
 miserable deaths; and secondly, that in "exploit- 
 ing " adultery as a subject for the stage he treats 
 it in a far more worthy fashion than did Moliere, 
 and we may add, than the Restoration and eight- 
 eenth century dramatists. With them cuckoldry 
 was a suitable theme for comedy ; as the fashion- 
 able and amusing pastime of le monde ou fon 
 senmde. In fact, Dumas faithfully follows Shake- 
 speare in " Othello," and " Much Ado about 
 Nothing." 
 
 It should never be forgotten, especially by Eng- 
 lishmen, that many of the "horrors" with which 
 Dumas's early plays are filled, are due to an ardent 
 but indiscriminate admiration for Shakespeare. 
 Schiller no doubt is also to blame, but we are 
 obviously more concerned with the Elizabethan 
 playwright. Do those who condemn the murder 
 
286 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 of Monaldeschi, the unholy love of Queen Mar- 
 guerite In " La Tour de Nesle," and the profanity 
 of "Don Juan" forget not only the "horrors" of 
 the old classic tragedies, which Dumas duly studied, 
 but also the passages In " Titus Andronlcus," In 
 "Macbeth," In "Richard III.," and other plays, 
 which no stage-manager would dare to present to 
 the public to-day ? For In more than one respect 
 the Romantic movement In France, In the early part 
 of last century, corresponds with the Elizabethan era 
 in our literature. We have neither the desire nor 
 the ability to present an elaborate comparison here : 
 it is sufficient to note that political and social con- 
 ditions favoured a reaction towards passion and 
 action in poetry, drama, and romance, and this has 
 been well shown by Dumas himself In his preface 
 to " Comte Hermann," in which our author explains 
 and defends the outcomes of his first dramatic 
 period. He had taken part, as Castelar truly says, 
 *' In that war of giants, the struggle for the poetry 
 of nature against the poetry of the Academic, 
 breaking the chains of all literary codes, and loudly 
 proclaiming liberty ; ardent and daring even to folly, 
 like a hero In the war of his age against past 
 ages." 
 
 Why, we may fairly ask, should critics take eager 
 note of the excesses of the young dramatist and 
 ignore his second and last periods, when experience 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJNIAS 287 
 
 had taught a nature instinctively sane the folly of 
 that Byronic mood, in which it had copied perhaps 
 not the best qualities of Shakespeare ? Dumas's 
 three famous comedies are all "on the side of 
 the angels"; and "Conscience," " Le Marbrier," 
 and " Comte Hermann" are almost sermons in 
 their didactic presentment of moral truths. 
 
 We may leave this point . in our case, then, 
 quoting in support the words of Brander Matthews, 
 the American critic : 
 
 " The horrible is not necessarily immoral . . . 
 morality is an affair, not of subject but of treat- 
 ment, and Dumas's ... is not insidious or vicious." 
 
 No sooner had the orthodox French classicists 
 found Dumas's plays startlingly successful than they 
 set themselves to discover the sources of his plots, 
 and to their great delight, ascertained that he had 
 " stolen " right and left, from English, German and 
 other writers. In reply to this cry of "Thief! 
 thief!" the author, in boldly characteristic fashion, 
 stated his theory of defence in respect of plagiarism : 
 
 "It is men who invent, and not the individual. 
 Each in his turn and in his time lays hands on 
 something accomplished by his fore-runners, makes 
 use of it in a new way, and then dies, after having 
 added some small share to the sum of human 
 knowledge. This he bequeaths to his successors, 
 — a new star in the Milky Way. As for the 
 
288 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 creative completion of a thing, I believe that to 
 be impossible." 
 
 After having quoted Shakespeare and Moliere in 
 support of his practice, Dumas adds : 
 
 "The man of genius does not steal, he conquers; 
 he makes the province which he annexes a part 
 of his own empire, peoples it w^'th his own subjects, 
 and imposes his own laws upon it He extends 
 his golden sceptre over it, and no one dares to say, 
 as they look upon his fair kingdom, ' That piece 
 of ground was not part of his patrimony.' " 
 
 One delightful sample of the knowledge and 
 spirit with which Dumas was attacked by his de- 
 tractors is recorded in the " Memoires." " Isabel 
 de Baviere " was, as we know, published serially in 
 the first numbers of Revue des deux Mondes, which 
 was at that time little known and read by few. 
 Bourgeois and Lockroy joined some of the most 
 striking scenes of the chronupLe together and made 
 them into a play called " Perrinet Leclerc," which 
 was very successful. At that time Dumas had 
 collaborated with Bourgeois in a drama " Le Fils 
 Emi^rre," which our author confesses to have been 
 an " execrable " play. One of the leading critics 
 of the day reviled Dumas as if he were the sole 
 author of the latter drama, but praised the other 
 to the skies; and not content with this, the journalist 
 emphasised his own fatuity by calling attention to 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 289 
 
 the rare literary and historical merits of the story 
 of " Pcrrinet Leclerc," and comparing It, greatly 
 to its advantage, with " Le FIls Emigre," for which 
 Dumas was only partly responsible ! But the best 
 was yet to come ; for when Dumas re-issued " Isabel 
 de Baviere " In book-form the critics fell foul of him 
 for stealing from MM. Bourgeois and Lockroy ! 
 
 It Is best to recognise that the charge of 
 "plagiarism" has been brought against almost 
 every dramatist of weight since plays first were 
 written ; and one of Dumas's defenders has made 
 a full and Instructive list of the "thefts" attributed 
 to Shakespeare.- Moliere, Sheridan, and even the 
 classical writers themselves. It is In our view 
 simply a question whether the "borrower" does 
 or does not add to the value of the material he 
 uses ; whether he Imprints the personality of his 
 own talent upon it. Surely Dumas did that. "All 
 his plagiarisms, and they were not a few," says 
 Brander Matthews, "are the veriest trifles when 
 compared with his Indisputable and extraordinary 
 powers ... It Irks one to see Dumas pilloried 
 as a mere vulgar approprlator of the works of 
 other men." 
 
 The cry "plagiarist!" was not raised so loudly 
 or generally against Dumas's romances, and such 
 charges as were brought we have already dealt 
 with. It was now that the cry of " collaborators 1 " 
 
 T 
 
290 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 was heard In the land ; and this time the plays, 
 with the exception of " La Tour de Nesle," of 
 which we have spoken, were let off lightly, partly 
 because Dumas 's earliest plays were incontestibly 
 his own, partly because he did not dispute the 
 share of Maquet, Bourgeois and the rest, in the 
 later productions. A new charge, therefore, was 
 levelled at the romancer, whose second fame in- 
 furiated his enemies. He was represented as a 
 rich, prosperous (!) spider who lured the starving 
 flies into his web, and sucked their brains, "swell- 
 ing wisibly" thus, whilst they dwelt in darkness, 
 enduring an obscure, not to say empty, existence. 
 
 Dumas's reply to this terrible indictment was a 
 challenge, which we need hardly say was never 
 accepted. He informed these unknown but talented 
 authors that he was supplying the feuilleton to one 
 Paris journal only, and that therefore the rest of 
 the press was open to them. This was their 
 opportunity : now they could vindicate themselves, 
 and win a reputation that was their own undis- 
 putedly. " Write a ' Monte Cristo ' or a ' Trois 
 Mousquetaires,' " he pleaded ; " don't wait until 
 I am dead — let me in turn have the pleasure of 
 reading your books ! " The answer was — silence. 
 
 Dumas was always the man of genius, whoever 
 his co-worker may have been, and this Is asserted 
 by all critics of any standing. " That he was the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 201 
 
 moving spirit still, and the actual author of what 
 is best and most peculiar in the works which go 
 by his name," says INIr Saintsbury, " is sufficiently 
 proved by the fact that none of his assistants, 
 whose names are in many cases known, and who in 
 not a few instances subsequently attained eminence 
 on their own account, has equalled or even re- 
 sembled his peculiar style." " Whereas Dumas 
 could turn out books that live, whoever his assistants 
 were," adds Mr Lang, "could any of his assistants 
 write books that live without Dumas ? One mieht 
 as well call any barrister in good practice a thief 
 and an impostor because he has juniors to devil 
 for him, as make charges of this kind ao^ainst 
 Dumas." Theophile Gautier employs the same 
 argument, in his " Histoire de I'Art Dramatique." 
 "He has been reproached wuth having had colla- 
 borators," writes Castelar. " I declare that all 
 these collaborators lost their brilliancy when they 
 separated from Dumas ; and I must add, that all 
 of them united do not weigh in the literary 
 balances of Europe half as much as Dumas weighed 
 alone." 
 
 The implied accusation that Dumas injured and 
 debauched his "assistants" has been ruthlessly spoilt 
 By M. Edmond About. "The master," he declared, 
 " took from them neither their money, for they 
 are rich, nor their reputation, for they are cele- 
 
292 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 brated, nor their merit, for they have it still, and in 
 plenty. For the rest, they have never pitied them- 
 selves : on the contrary, the proudest of them have 
 congratulated themselves on having been to such a 
 good *school, and it is with a true veneration that the 
 greatest of them, M. Maquet, speaks of his old 
 friend." 
 
 The great romancer frequently protested against 
 the word "collaborators," and he was right, for it 
 implies an equality in quantity and quality of the 
 work done which was not justified. " Dumas's 
 method," says Mr Lang, "apparently was first to 
 talk the subject over with his aide-de-ca7np. This is 
 an excellent practice, as ideas are knocked out, like 
 sparks (an elderly illustration), by the contact of 
 minds. Then the young man probably made re- 
 searches, put a rough sketch on paper, and supplied 
 Dumas, as it were, with his 'brief.' Then Dumas 
 took the ' brief and wrote the novel. He gave it 
 life — he gave it the spark {Tdtincelle), and the story 
 lived and moved." 
 
 The testimony of one of the great man's best 
 collaborators is valuable evidence on this point. 
 Fiorentino, in his " Comedies et Comediens," writes : 
 " How many believed themselves his collaborators 
 who were only his confidants! ... In his books, but 
 above all, in his plays, his collaborators had only 
 the smallest share. He remodelled the scenarios, 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 293 
 
 changed the characters, added or cut down entire 
 acts, and wrote all in his own hand." 
 
 Thackeray, with 3. i:a;;ia7'adcric a.nd candour, both 
 of which do him infinite credit, has stoutly defended 
 this system in one of his " Roundabout Papers." 
 The support it gives to our author is none the less 
 valuable for having been written in a half-jesting 
 manner. " They say," adds the English novelist, 
 after a eulogy of Dumas, " that all the works bearing 
 his name are not written by him. Well ? Does 
 not the chief cook have an/cs under him ? Did not 
 Rubens's pupils paint on his canvasses? Had not 
 Lawrence assistants for his backgrounds ? For 
 myself, being also dii^ metier, I confess I would often 
 like to have a competent, respectable, and rapid 
 clerk for the business part of my novels. . . . 
 Sir Christopher is the architect of St Paul's. He 
 has not laid the stones or carried up the mortar. 
 There is a great deal of carpenter's and joiner's work 
 in novels which surely a smart professional hand 
 might supply." 
 
 We may venture to add to these "testimonials " 
 from writers more or less expert or learned in fiction, 
 our own strong belief that the ideal romance of fact 
 or history in particular requires two workers at it — 
 the one to prepare the material, and the other to 
 make use of it. The case of Scott, of course, will 
 be brought forward as evidence to the contrary ; but 
 
294 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 surely those who recognise the existence of such a 
 study as the Art of Narrative will admit that Scott 
 the poetic novelist was often terribly hampered by 
 Scott the antiquarian and archaeologist. In searching 
 out details, in verifying references, and the other 
 work of preparation the imagination is naturally 
 restrained, the fancy is deadened, the mental 
 energies turn in the direction of the trivial, the pre- 
 cise, the formal. Charles Reade, a master of narra- 
 tive, too frequently gives us a glimpse of Reade the 
 compiler of cuttings-books. Dumas himself offers a 
 still more glaring example ; for when preparing " La 
 San Felice " he made his own researches into the 
 original documents, and, seeing the historical and 
 picturesque Importance of each, he wrote a story 
 full of detail and long parentheses, which only his 
 ereat skill saved from beinof dull and drawn-out. If 
 the facts had been brought to him already ferreted 
 out, he would have seen and seized on the salient 
 points, and have written a romance half the length, 
 but with ten times the brilliance and engrossing 
 charm. 
 
 It frequently proclaimed, by people Imperfectly 
 acquainted with Dumas's novels, that they are Im- 
 moral In nature and tendency. It must be con- 
 fessed that this Is true — if books dealing with pitch 
 must of necessity be themselves defiled. He 
 attempted to teach his fellow-Frenchmen the history 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 295 
 
 of their nation, and the history of France, social and 
 political, is full of improperly-behaved personages. 
 We can quite understand the attitude of those people 
 who wish to ignore great facts, such as the sensual 
 as well as the ethereal side of love between the 
 sexes, the passionate love which laughs at priests 
 and lawyers, and other objectionable traits of human 
 nature. We advise these readers to avoid Dumas, 
 — and all the other great writers. " If," says Mr. W. 
 M. Pollock, " his writing is not intended for boys 
 and maidens, that is one quality which he has in 
 common with such playwriters as for instance, 
 Shakespeare, Racine, and Moliere, and such 
 novelists as Goethe, Fieldinor and Le Saee. His 
 method was at any rate * an honest method ' ; he 
 did not palter, as the modern French school of 
 playwriting does, with vice and virtue, keeping one 
 foot in the domain of each, and casting a false 
 glamour of splendour around corruption." 
 
 But hear the defendant in his own cause. 
 
 " I had, thank God, a natural sentiment of 
 delicacy (as a boy), and thus, out of my six hundred 
 volumes^ there are not four which the most scrupu- 
 lous mother may not give to her daughter." Dumas 
 repeated this assertion in a letter to Napoleon III 
 in 1864, twelve years later, adding, " I am as 
 fatherly as Sir Walter Scott." We are afraid that 
 
 1 See note, p. 225 
 
296 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Dumas gave mothers credit for too much breadth 
 and independence of mind. When Stevenson, in 
 defence of our romancer, wrote that " the world is 
 wide and so are morals," he did not hope to win 
 Mrs. Grundy's approval of the sentiment. Mr. Lang, 
 dealing more directly with Dumas's reply,adds : " his 
 enormous popularity, the widest in the world of 
 letters, owes absolutely nothing to prurience or 
 curiosity. The air which he breathes is a healthy 
 air, is the open air, and that by his own choice, for 
 he had every temptation to seek another kind of 
 vogiie, and every opportunity." Hayward, again, 
 notices the difference between Dumas and so many 
 other of the French writers with whom he is icrnor- 
 antly and indiscriminately classed. " His best 
 romances," says the author of " Biographical 
 Essays," " rarely trangress propriety, and are 
 entirely free from that hard, cold, sceptical, materia- 
 list, illusion-destroying tone which is so repelling 
 in Balzac and many others of the most popular 
 French novelists." 
 
 Professor Carpenter lifts the subject to a higher 
 plane of thought. 
 
 " I find it impossible," he writes, "to admit that 
 Dumas's ideals were low, unfit for common use. 
 It is of honour that he tells most willingly — of 
 man's honour and the constancy of men to men • 
 of man's striving against the powders of the world 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 297 
 
 by force and guile ; of man's love of woman and 
 the curb it puts on cowardice and sloth and selfish- 
 ness ; of man's strength and weakness ; of a nation's 
 slow progress onward and upward toward order and 
 justice. Dumas was not an austere moralist, and 
 his life was prodigal ; but the reader will find on 
 reflection that the ethical system revealed by his 
 books is one which, the more we consider, the more 
 we shall approve." 
 
 We may add that we made one or two experi- 
 ments to test Dumas's books from this point of 
 view. We have asked repeatedly at shops where 
 French novels of the pornographic type have been 
 displayed in large quantities, and have failed to 
 obtain a copy of one of the master's novels. We 
 have found that at free libraries (and at the com- 
 mittee meetings connected with such institutions 
 Mrs. Grundy is always present in spirit) that 
 Dumas's works are admitted fully and freely, where 
 Fielding, Defoe, Zola, Boccaccio and others are 
 forbidden. Lastly, we have followed Ruskin's 
 advice and left our bookshelves open to the use of 
 the Young Person, who has frequently chosen 
 one of our author's stories, and returned it in due 
 course with warm and inofenuous acknowledgment 
 of the pleasure the book has given her. 
 
 We have already dealt to some extent with the 
 charge that Dumas, in writing amusing stories of 
 
298 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 ^,- the past, has distorted or Ignored history. In sup- 
 port of this indictment the critics have quoted the 
 passages in " Vingt Ans Apres " relating to our 
 Civil War and the execution of Charles — together 
 with the "General Monk" episode, In " Brage- 
 lonne," and the plot of the plays "Catherine 
 Howard " and " Kean." As he has expressed it in 
 a well-known sentence, Dumas deliberately violated 
 history, when he had some set purpose to achieve 
 which rendered it necessary. The word " fiction " 
 implies something, even in historical romance, and 
 the writer who has not the nerve to make a little 
 history for his own purposes, and to take liberties 
 with great personages, may contrive very accurate 
 history, but we are afraid he will write a very dull 
 romance. On the other hand, when Dumas set 
 himself to reproduce a certain period in the past 
 centuries, he was full of precise detail and historic 
 fact. And he was supreme m what, after all, was 
 the essential : he caught and revivified the atmos- 
 phere of those by-gone days with a fidelity, a power 
 of conviction, a charm, and a subtle skill which no 
 one before or since has excelled. 
 
 The warfare between the classicists and roman- 
 tics in French literature was waged fiercely througli- 
 out Dumas's prime. Nisard, of whom we have 
 spoken, fastened on Dumas the stigma of "easy 
 composition." To this our author replied with his 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 299 
 
 customary good-humoured banter, behind which 
 lurked a good deal of sense and power : 
 
 " When one is a real romancer, you know, it is 
 as easy to produce a romance as for an apple-tree 
 to produce apples. This is how it is done. 
 
 " One gets one's paper, pen and ink ; one sits 
 down, as comfortably as possible, at a table not too 
 high, not to low ; one reflects for half an hour, one 
 writes a little. After the title, comes Chapter I ; 
 then one writes thirty-five lines to a page, fifty 
 letters to a line — for two hundred pages, if it is to 
 be a romance in two volumes — for four hundred 
 pages if in four volumes — for eight hundred pages, 
 if in eight volumes, and so on. And after ten or 
 twenty or forty days, supposing that one writes 
 twenty pages between morning and evening, which 
 means seven hundred lines, or 38,500 letters daily, 
 the romance is finished. 
 
 " That is the way I work, say most of the 
 critics who are o^ood enousrh to concern themselves 
 about me ; and these gentlemen only forget one 
 thing. 
 
 "It is this : that before preparing the ink, the 
 pens and the paper which must serve for the 
 material in the development of a new romance, 
 before drawing my arm-chair up to the table, before 
 writing the title and those two very simple words 
 'Chapter I.,' I have sometimes thought for six 
 
300 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 months, a year, ten years, about the subject 
 on which I am going to write. I owe to this 
 way of working the clearness of my intrigue, the 
 simpHcity of my methods, the naturalness of my 
 effects. As a rule I do not begin a book until it 
 is finished." 
 
 A women of talent, Madame de Girardin, who 
 knew and admired Dumas, put the case for her 
 friend even more forcibly : 
 
 " This rapidity of composition, is like the swift- 
 ness of a railway train : both work on the same 
 principles, from the same causes — an extreme 
 facility obtained by difficulties ' overcome. You 
 cover sixty leagues in three hours : it is nothing — 
 you laugh at the swiftness of your travelling. But 
 to what do you owe this marvel of transportation ? 
 To years of daunting toil, to money spent like 
 water, all along your way, and to thousands of pairs 
 of arms which have prepared the way for you, day 
 after weary day. You flash past so swiftly that 
 one can scarcely see you ; but to gain that freedom 
 of speed for you, how men have slaved, and grown 
 old, bending over the pick and shovel ! What 
 plans have been made, and baulked ; what cares, 
 what struggles has it not cost, to whirl you from 
 this spot to that, so smoothly and easefully, and 
 without a care or a fear ! " 
 
 Blaze de Bury further explains Dumas's facility 
 
ALEXANDRE DUINIAS 301 
 
 of working, doing justice to his friend's marvellous 
 memory, and that power of intuition and divination 
 which was ahnost second-sight. 
 
 " When other authors write," he says, " they are 
 stopped every other minute — there is a detail to dis- 
 cover, or a reference to verify — a lapse of memory, 
 or some other obstacle, Dumas was never stopped 
 by anything. The practice of writing for the stage 
 gave him great fluency in composition ; add to these 
 gifts sparkling wit, and inexhaustible gaiety, and you 
 will understand how, with such resources, a man 
 may achieve an incredible rapidity of production 
 without sacrificing skill in construction or injuring 
 the quality or solidity of his work." 
 
 The same writer adds shrewdly " the public were 
 very ready to despise as * shop-made goods ' books 
 written in such quantity, being unwilling to believe 
 that there are certain favoured individualities like 
 those blest places of the earth where the grain 
 shoots into green and ripens in a few weeks. It is 
 no sin to own these precious 'gifts : it is only wrong 
 to abuse them." 
 
 It is difficult for most people to comprehend that 
 a book quickly written can be well written ; and the 
 obvious course of trying the work on its merits does 
 not seem to occur to them. As the old prejudices 
 of fifty years ago are still held to-day, we shall do 
 well to quote Maxime Du Camp's protest on behalf 
 
302 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 of his old friend, which has been excellently para- 
 phrased and elaborated by Mr Lang. 
 
 " A writer so fertile, so rapid, so masterly in the 
 ease with which he worked, could not escape the 
 reproaches of barren envy. Because you overflowed 
 with wit, you could not be ' serious ' ; because you 
 created with a word, you were said to scamp your 
 work ; because you were never dull, never pedantic, 
 incapable of greed, you were to be censured as 
 desultory, inaccurate, and prodigal." 
 
 Having assured themselves that Dumas wrote 
 rapidly and therefore badly, the critics proceeded 
 quite confidently to dower that author with another 
 literary vice. 
 
 In theology there is a sin so terrible as to be 
 unmentionable ; in literature there is a sin so awful 
 as to be indefinable. Therefore, it was decided, in 
 order to dispose once and for all of the French 
 romancer's claims on the tender-hearted public, that 
 he should be declared to have no "style." There 
 is only one thing certain about this mysterious 
 quality — that those who do not possess it cannot 
 belong to the elect. 
 
 Far be it from us to dare to attempt to indicate 
 the nature and habits of this mythical creation : we 
 can only attempt to win a place for Dumas among 
 the " stylists " (for we must " conform " to this creed 
 in the literary religion) by putting forward the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUISIAS 303 
 
 testimony of such as arc "within the pale." If a 
 sufficient number of these haloed great can be per- 
 suaded to gather round our sinner, perhaps it may 
 never be noticed that he himself wears no such 
 symbol of intellectual sanctity. 
 
 Our first witness (we grieve to betray his identity, 
 but we must give chapter and verse), is R. L. 
 Stevenson, whose manner of composition was the 
 very opposite of Dumas's. He is allowed to 
 possess "style," and truly he laboured hard and 
 nobly to win it — the quality itself, not the acknow- 
 ledgment of it. 
 
 " There is no style so untranslatable " (as Dumas's), 
 he wrote; "light as a whipped trifle; strong as 
 silk ; wordy like a village tale ; pat like a general's 
 despatch ; with every fault, yet never tedious, with 
 no merit, yet inimitably right." 
 
 Next we have Mr Lang-, In addition to his 
 fame as scholar and critic, was he not the prize 
 "stylist" of an "Academy" competition.^ That is 
 as good as a degree at a University, it is an 
 unofficial election to a fauteuil and Immortality 
 (with a capital I). Then note with respect this 
 evidence : 
 
 " When I read the maunderings, the stilted and 
 staggering, sentences, the hesitating phrases, the far- 
 sought and dear-bought and worthless word-juggles ; 
 the sham scientific verbiage, the native pedantries 
 
304 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 of many modern so-called ' stylists,' I rejoice that 
 Dumas was not one of these. He told a plain tale, 
 In the language suited to a plain tale, with abun- 
 dance of wit and gaiety. . . . but he did not gnaw 
 the end of his pen in search of some word that 
 nobody had ever used in this or that connection 
 before. The right word came to him, the simple 
 straightforward phrase. Epithet-himting may be a 
 pretty sport, and the bag of the epithet-hunter may 
 contain some agreeable epigrams and rare specimens 
 of st)le ; but a plain tale of adventure, of love and 
 war, needs none of this industry, and is even 
 spoiled by inopportune diligence." 
 
 This misguided critic involves himself more 
 deeply still. He praises Dumas's dialogue for its 
 unsurpassed excellence, and dares to claim for some 
 of Dumas's phrases that they are unconsciously 
 Homeric ! 
 
 "In your works we hear the Homeric Muse 
 again, rejoicing In the clash of steel ; and even, at 
 times, your very phrases are unconsciously Homeric. 
 Look at these men of murder, on the Eve of St 
 Bartholomew, who flee in terror from the Queen's 
 chamber, and 'find the door too narrow for their 
 flight': the very words were anticipated in a line 
 of the ' Odyssey ' concerning the massacre of the 
 Wooers. And the picture of Catherine dc Medicis, 
 prowling Mike a wolf among the bodies and the 
 
ALEXANDllE DLJJNIAS 305 
 
 blood,' in a passage of the Louvre — the picture is 
 taken unwittingly from the 'Iliad.'" 
 
 We are not, we confess, aware whether or no 
 Balzac is admitted to be a " stylist," but at least two 
 critics prefer Dumas's language to that of his great 
 rival ; for Brander Matthews favourably compares the 
 running sentences of the romancer with the tortured 
 "style" of the realist; and Nisard, in spite of 
 his prejudices, acknowledges that Dumas "tells his 
 story with more vivacity (than Balzac), in dialogue 
 more witty and natural, and clothed in better words." 
 Parieot admits that Dumas takes no heed of the 
 literary merit of his writing, but claims that never- 
 theless he shows taste and care, and a choice of 
 clear and sane language. Edmond About pro- 
 phesied that Dumas would become a classic, 
 " thanks to the limpidity of his style." Dumas a 
 classic ! Yet the history of literature tells us that 
 more unlikely things have happened. We shall be 
 laughed at when we point out that passages from 
 the romancer's books are constantly being chosen 
 and edited for use in schools and colleges, and yet 
 the fact is not so puerile as its connection would 
 seem to imply. Those who are responsible for 
 such productions are men of culture, with a pro- 
 fessional knowledge of French literature and with 
 reputations to maintain. If they find in Dumas's 
 books qualities which make them fit to be put 
 
306 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 before scholars as models of French composition, 
 we may rest assured that there Is some suspicion of 
 " style " about our author's writing, after all. 
 
 We may return to the point touched upon by 
 Mr Lang, that Dumas's style — we use the word in 
 its uncanonlcal sense — was fitted to its author's 
 purpose. " Of art, of careful choice, of laborious 
 adaptation of words and phrases and paragraphs 
 there is none," says Professor Saintsbury. " It Is 
 even capable of being argued whether, consistently 
 with his peculiar plan and object, there could, or 
 ought to be, any. A novel of Incident, if It be 
 good, must be read as rapidly the seventh time as 
 it Is the first." Quite so ; the romancer's desire was 
 to tell you a story In a way that would enthral you 
 from beginning to end ; if you stopped to admire 
 the exquislteness of a phrase, or to ponder over the 
 possibilities which a thought suggested, you would 
 lose the thread of the story, the charm that its 
 narrator had woven about you would be broken, 
 and his aim would be defeated. 
 
 Even when Dumas seems wordy there Is, as 
 another great story-teller saw clearly, an artistic 
 reason for It. Stevenson, writing to one of his 
 friends, touched on this point, and declared " if 
 there Is anywhere a thing said In two sentences 
 that could have been as clearly and as engagingly 
 and as forcibly said in on(% then It's amateur work." 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 307 
 
 But he added: "Then you will bring me up with 
 old Dumas. Nay, the object of a story is to be 
 long, to fill up hours ; the story-teller's art of 
 writing is to water out by continual invention, 
 historical and technical, and yet not seem to water ; 
 seem, on the other hand, to practise that same wit 
 of conspicuous and declaratory condensation which 
 is the proper art of writing." 
 
 One last word on this point. We have taken a 
 solemn vow not to blaspheme by attempting to 
 define the occult word, but if style can be said to 
 imply distinction and individuality in a writer, and 
 that in a praiseworthy sense, then we claim it for 
 Dumas. Once the reader is acquainted with his 
 style (in the French) he can hardly mistake it. 
 And if it is justified in narrative by its artistic 
 subservience to the story, it justifies itself in the 
 lighter writings of its author. Unfortunately these 
 are practically unknown to the general British 
 reading public. "In the slightest and loosest work 
 of his vainest mood or his idlest moment Dumas is 
 at least unaffected and unpretentious," says Swin- 
 burne ; and we may add that in the best of his 
 "occasional writings" he exhibits qualities of wit, 
 humour, and neatness of expression in a high 
 degree. 
 
 The last count in this lengthy indictment is 
 perhaps the most serious. It is asserted that 
 
308 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Dumas, at least in the latter part of his Hfe, 
 "wrote for money." 
 
 This is a loose phrase, and we must dis- 
 tinguish. Most authors write for money. '* Inti- 
 mate " biographies show that in private life all 
 writers not born to affluence have valued the 
 work of their brains in filthy lucre ; that they 
 have demanded — and quite rightly — the market 
 price for their work. The questions which 
 really touch the quick of the subject are : Did 
 Dumas pander to the public for gain } Did he 
 consciously lower and debase his abilities for 
 money? Was money the prime object of his 
 labours? We deny all these possible charges. 
 Granted, that Dumas, like many another artist, 
 turned out bad work at times ; that he spoke 
 of his books on occasion in commercial terms ; 
 that he was generally pressed for money, and 
 obliged to turn to his desk to satisfy a dun, or 
 fulfil a contract, and that in the last few years he 
 resorted to shifts unbecoming in a man of genius. 
 He never parted company with his literary con- 
 science. A score of examples of this could be 
 given : how he destroyed bad work ; how he delayed 
 or refused to commence work for which he had not 
 found in his brain the plan of adequate treatment ; 
 and how he deplored the bad stuff which he had 
 been coerced or persuaded into doing. He never 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 309 
 
 wrote unworthily, or below his own level. The 
 greed of money, for money's sake, for anything that 
 money could give him, was foreign to the man's 
 generous, insoitciant nature. Before and after the 
 writing of a story, the man of business was keenly 
 alive in Dumas, as in all shrewd authors ; once 
 plunged into the story the man became the artist ; 
 he had no thought but for the story and the best 
 way of telling it. If he had been miserly, if his 
 work had not been the great enjoyment of his life, 
 the whole story of Dumas's career would have left 
 him open to base suspicion ; but the more one 
 learns of the man's nature and life-story, the more 
 clearly one sees in him the artist, not the artisan. 
 
 Counterclaim. 
 
 In the hope that we have extenuated or disproved 
 the charges against Dumas, and shown him guilty 
 of literary faults rather than vices, we shall modify 
 our metaphor and treat the case more lightl)-. 
 Believing it only just to look upon the matter rather 
 as a question for the civil courts of literature, we 
 close our defence and proceed to put in a counter- 
 claim of as modest a nature as our convictions 
 respecting the true worth of our client's cause will 
 allow. 
 
 It is noteworthy that whereas we in England look 
 
310 LIFE AN13 AVlllTlNGS OF 
 
 upon Dumas simply as a writer of fiction, and are 
 ignorant of his plays, the French regard him almost 
 exclusively as a dramatist. " This," says Blaze de 
 Bury shrewdly, " is because the imperturbable 
 entomological public loves classification, and will 
 only judge a man from one point of view." 
 
 Unable as we are to prove Dumas's merits as a 
 playwright by instance and reminder, to readers 
 unacquainted with his stage triumphs, we must 
 again have recourse to "expert opinion," and show 
 indirectly, and as concisely as possible, the high 
 position which Dumas occupies in the ranks of the 
 world's dramatists. 
 
 He possessed the "dramatic instinct" to the 
 full. "He is not a dramatic author; he is the 
 drama incarnate ! " cried Fiorentino. Dumas has 
 told us, with a pride which is justifiable, that 
 all he needed was the bare apparatus of a stage, 
 "two actors, and a passion." In this he is held to 
 have been superior — as a craftsman — to his friend 
 and rival, Victor Hugo. Whatever Heine was as a 
 dramatic critic, he was a man of piercing insight 
 where his prejudices did not obscure his view, and 
 further, a keen student of the literature of his time ; 
 and this is what he says of the two authors, in his 
 letters on the French staee : 
 
 '* The best tragic poets in France are still 
 Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo. I put the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUiAIAS 311 
 
 latter in the second place because his efficiency as 
 regards the theatre is not so great or productive 
 of result. . . . Dumas is not so great a poet 
 as Hugo — far from it — but he has qualities which 
 ofo much further, as resfards the theatre. He has at 
 command that prompt, straightforward expression of 
 passion which the French call verve, and therein he 
 is more French than Hugo ; he sympathises with 
 all vices and virtues, daily needs and restless fancies 
 of his fellow-countrymen ; he is by turns enthusiastic, 
 comedian-like, noble, frivolous, swaggering, a real 
 son of France, that Gascony of Europe. He 
 speaks to heart with heart, and is understood and 
 applauded. 
 
 "No one has such a talent for the dramatic as 
 Dumas. The theatre is his true callino: — he is a 
 born stage poet, and all rnaterials for the drama 
 belong to him wherever he finds them, in nature 
 or in Schiller, Shakespeare or Calderon. A very 
 unjust criticism on art which appeared long ago 
 under most deplorable circumstances in the Journal 
 des Debats greatly injured our poor poet among the 
 ignorant multitude. In it was shown that many 
 scenes in his plays had the most striking resemblance 
 to others in former dramas. But there is nothing 
 so foolish as this reproach of plagiarism ; the poet 
 may grasp and grab boldly wherever he finds 
 material for his works ; he may even appropriate 
 
312 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 whole columns, carved capitals and all, so that the 
 temple which they support be magnificent. Goethe 
 understood this very well, as did Shakespeare long 
 before him." 
 
 Professor Brander Matthews in his consideration 
 of our author as playwright cannot avoid the 
 coupling of the two great names. " There is but 
 one dramatist of Dumas's generation who will stand 
 comparison with him," he says; "and even Victor 
 Hugo, master as he is of many things, is less a 
 master of the theatre than Dumas." 
 
 Dumas yf/i- wrote of his father as one "who was 
 and is the master of the modern stage, whose 
 prodigious imagination touched the four cardinal 
 points of our art, — tragedy, historic drama, the 
 dramas of manners, and the comedy of anecdote, — 
 whose only fault was to lack solemnity, and to have 
 genius without pride, and fecundity without effort, 
 as he had youth and health ; and who (to conclude), 
 Shakespeare being taken as the culminating point, 
 by invention, power and variety, approached among 
 us most closely to Shakespeare." And Professor 
 Matthews adds, of the son's opinion : *' Due allow- 
 ance made, he is not so very far out." 
 
 '* Dumas broke ground," writes Mr Henley, "with 
 the ease, the assurance, the insight into essentials, 
 and a technical accomplishment of a master, and he 
 retained these qualities to the last. ... He was the 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 313 
 
 soundest innuencc in drama of the century." Sardou 
 has similarly declared Dumas to have been " le 
 premier Jionivie de tht'dtre du siecle passd." Castelar 
 has this passage on Dumas as a revolutionary 
 leader, a pioneer of stage liberty : 
 
 " A lover of the drama, he proved himself able to 
 reanimate the theatre. To accomplish this purpose 
 he chose pieces of lively interest, characters of a 
 strongly marked individuality, descriptions of un- 
 bridled passions, which, though without the artificial 
 rules of poetic conventionality, followed the inspira- 
 tions of fancy in its native purity, and were powerful 
 enough to awaken artistic attention." 
 
 Did Dumas in his ardour go too far? Goethe 
 uttered a warning note when, two years before his 
 death, he addressed the young poet after the success 
 of " Christine " : 
 
 "Friend," he wrote, "don't go further than your 
 masters, Delavigne and Beranger, Schiller and 
 Scott. Beware of forcing your activity ; production 
 without respite ends in bankruptcy of one's talent. 
 Whatever frees the fancy, without retaining it 
 within the control of reason, is pernicious. Art 
 must be at the command of the imagination, if it is 
 to have an outcome in poetry. Nothing is more 
 terrible than imagination deprived of taste." 
 
 Whether or no Goethe's advice was necessar)-, 
 and applicable, we leave to be discussed by others. 
 
314 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 and elsewhere ; but we are inclined to suspect, by 
 the choice of masters here prescribed for Dumas, 
 that the sage neither comprehended the nature of 
 our author's talent, nor foresaw its tendencies. 
 
 Certainly the drama of passion and Intrigue, of 
 which Dumas's own plays are the first great examples, 
 developed extremes for which the originator cannot 
 fairly be blamed. George Sand saw this, when, in 
 dedicating her play on Moliere to her friend and 
 confrere, she pleaded for psychology as well as 
 movement and action, as an element in the drama. 
 She protested against the Idea that her play. Illus- 
 trating this theory, was in any way a challenge 
 levelled against the school of which Dumas was the 
 chief. 
 
 " I love your works too well," she continued, " I 
 read them, I listen to them with too much emotion 
 and appreciation to wish to cast the slightest slur on 
 your triumphs. . . . You have lifted dramatic action 
 to the highest power, without any desire to sacrifice 
 psychological interest to it, but your Imitators have 
 abandoned this second essential, for one must be of 
 strong calibre to keep both ideals equally to the 
 fore." 
 
 In his expositions of the hidden motives of his 
 plays, in his skilful analysis of his son's great play 
 (" La Dame aux Camelias "), and in various 
 chapters of his " Souvenirs Dramatiques," Dunuis 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 315 
 
 showed that he was something: more than the teller 
 of a stage story, something better than a clever 
 manipulator of incident and intrigue, plot and 
 passion. "A man?" cried Michelet, "no, an 
 element, like an inextinguishable volcano or a 
 greiit American river. ... He remains the most 
 powerful craftsman, the most living dramatist since 
 Shakespeare." 
 
 Of Dumas's influence on the modern French 
 drama, M. Parigot has written fully and learnedly 
 in his " Drame dAlexandre Dumas," showing the 
 effect produced in varying ways and degrees by 
 the pla)'wright on the later nineteenth century, — on 
 his son, on Augier, Sandeau, Daudet, Lemaitre, 
 Meilhac and Halevy, Sardou, and others. He 
 " exercised a continuous and profound influence on 
 the drama of the nineteenth century," adds the 
 writer, and we need only supplement his verdict by 
 calling attention to the case of the " latest discovery " 
 in French dramatic literature, Edmond Rostand, 
 whose success with " Cyrano de Bergerac " so closely 
 recalls the triumphs of the author of " Les Trois 
 Mousquetaires " and " Henri Trois." 
 
 On our English drama the plays of Dumas have 
 had only a subtly indirect effect. As the founder 
 of the " society drama " he has much to answer for ; 
 but for our sterile " West-End " fashion plays, and 
 the modern French school which has been evolved 
 
316 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 from "Antony" and his successors, the old play- 
 wright cannot fairly be held responsible. He was 
 the first to vivify the melodrama in its higher form, 
 and the history-drama, at present so popular with 
 us, owes its true birth to the author of " La Tour 
 de Nesle." His three comedies have each been 
 " adapted " and produced in London within recent 
 years, but without much success ; and we may 
 predict, without going into the grounds for our 
 belief, that his books may be dramatised from time 
 to time, but that his plays themselves will never 
 take root with us. 
 
 It is with a very judicious fear of our "entomo- 
 logical public " that we claim for Dumas a supreme 
 place as a master of the art of narrative. True, 
 Swinburne goes further, and acclaims him " the 
 king of story-tellers ; " and a poet-critic in many 
 respects akin in taste to the author of " Atalanta 
 in Calydon " held a similar opinion. Oliver Madox 
 Brown once wrote to his father in great perturbation : 
 
 " (D. G.) Rossetti . . . nas had several long dis- 
 cussions with me on the subject of novel-writing. 
 . . . Thackeray he will hardly hear the name of; 
 George Eliot is vulgarity personified ; Balzac is 
 melodramatic in plot, conceited, wishy-washy, and 
 dull. Dumas is the one great and supreme man, 
 the sole descendant of Shakespeare." 
 
 In reply to a letter from ourselves, Mr W. M. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 317 
 
 Rossetti has kindly confirmed this record with his 
 own testimony. 
 
 " It is perfectly true," he writes, " that my brother 
 took the greatest delight in reading Dumas, and I 
 think it may be said that, if he had been asked 
 ' whom do you regard as the greatest novelist that 
 ever existed — in those qualities which are most 
 essential for novel-writing ? ' he would have replied 
 ' Dumas.' Of course he would at the same time 
 have been conscious that Walter Scott, as a pre- 
 cursor of Dumas, had to some extent served him 
 as a pattern." ^ 
 
 Henley strikes the same note of praise. " Dumas 
 is assuredly one of the greatest masters of the art 
 of narrative in all literature," he says, and amplifies 
 his assertion thus : " He was an artist at once 
 original and exemplary, with an incomparable in- 
 stinct of selection, a constructive faculty not equalled 
 among the men of this century, an understanding 
 of what is right and what is wrong in art, and a 
 mastery of his materials which in their way are not 
 to be paralleled in the work of Sir Walter himself," 
 
 The frequent references to Scott force us without 
 
 ' Another passage in this letter is interesting, in connection with 
 much that has been written above. " In my very early years — say 
 1846-7," adds Mr Rossetti, " my brother and I knew more of Dumas 
 as a dramatist than novelist. 'Don Juan de Marana' was our 
 favourite; next might come 'Antony' and 'Caligula.' 'Kean' we 
 used to laugh over, for its amusing travestie of English manners and 
 customs." 
 
318 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 further delay to face a comparison as inevitable In 
 the case of Dumas the novelist, as was that with 
 Hugo In the case of Dumas the playwright. The 
 two names — in the field of romance — are linked 
 together inseparably by talents, time, and circum- 
 stance ; but until recent years the ordinary English 
 critic would not admit of any degree of equality 
 between the two. It is no doubt an act of daring 
 on our part to presume to discuss the relative 
 merits of the two men, as if the Frenchman could 
 seriously challenge the Scotsman's supremacy. Yet 
 we venture to submit that, generally speaking, the 
 two writers, as masters of the historical romance, 
 stand on a level, and that Sir Walter, superior as he 
 Is In some respects, has been excelled by his pupil 
 in the art of story-telling. 
 
 In claiming this point for our client we own 
 that we should have none of that client's sympathy, 
 Scott, as we have said, was Dumas's teacher, and 
 the junior never wearied of expressing his praise, 
 his eratitude, and reverence for the older writer. 
 "Scott," he wrote in his " Memoires," "had a great 
 influence on me in the early days of my literary 
 life." In another book he analysed the causes of 
 his master's success, thus : " To the natural qualities 
 of his predecessors Scott added knowledge specially 
 acquired ; to his study of the hearts of men, he 
 added that of the science of popular history ; 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 319 
 
 dowered with archaeological zeal, a quick discern- 
 ing eye, and the power to reanimate, his genius 
 conjured into a new existence a past epoch, with 
 all its manners, interests and emotions." 
 
 Dumas saw one of Scott's weak points, but dealt 
 with it very pleasantly and tenderly. 
 
 "Scott," (he says in his " HIstoire de mes 
 Betes"), ''had his own way of creating interest 
 in his characters, which, though with a few ex- 
 ceptions always the same, and though at first a 
 little disconcerting, succeeded none the less. This 
 method was, to be wearisome, mortally wearisome, 
 often for half a volume, sometimes for a whole 
 volume. But during this volume he placed his 
 characters, and gave such a minute description of 
 their appearance, of their mental status, of the 
 traits of their individuality ; one knew so well 
 how they walked, dressed, and spoke, that when 
 at the beofinninor of the second volume one of these 
 characters found himself in some danger, you ex- 
 claimed ' Ah, here's this poor limping chap in 
 Lincoln ofreen — how on earth is he ""oino- to eet 
 out of this ? ' " 
 
 And then our author goes on to set his own 
 method of narrative by the side of Scott's, of 
 course to the advantage of the latter, declaring 
 that Sir Walter gives you the best dishes last 
 and the worst ones first, so that one rises from 
 
320 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 the table delighted ; but that he himself reverses 
 the process, leaving the guests to go out on the 
 house-tops and revile the stupid chefs bill of fare. 
 
 But it was another thing entirely, when Dumas 
 thought of Scott as a possible pattern for himself, 
 in the self-imposed task of writing the history of 
 France in romance. In two important respects 
 the genius of the younger man broke away from 
 his teacher's style. 
 
 " The qualities of Walter Scott are not dramatic 
 qualities," he declared. "Admirable in the por- 
 trayal t)f manners, costumes and characters, he was 
 completely unable to paint passions. The only 
 ' romance of passion ' amongst his novels is ' Kenil- 
 worth.' . . . My analysis of Scott's books taught 
 me to see the romance from another point of view 
 to that familiar to us in those days. The same 
 fidelity to manners, costumes, and characters, with 
 a brighter, more natural dialogue, and with passions 
 that were more life-like — these appeared to me 
 to be what we needed." 
 
 In course of time Dumas applied these beliefs 
 of his, enormously aided by the experience and 
 discipline of fifteen years of play-writing. The 
 result we know. 
 
 One of Sir Walter's most fervent admirers, Mr 
 Lang, has underlined much that we have already 
 implied, and though he probably ranks Scott higher 
 
ALKXANDT^E DTTISTAS 321 
 
 than the Frenchman, botli as a man and as a writer, 
 he certainly seems to us to endorse all that we 
 have claimed for our author. In " Essays in Little" 
 he touches this point again and again : 
 
 " Speed, directness, lucidity, are the charac- 
 teristics of Dumas's style, and they are exactly 
 the characteristics which his novels required. 
 Scott often failed, his most loyal admirers may 
 admit, in these essentials ; but it is rarely that 
 Dumas fails, when he is himself and at his 
 best." We venture to add that these are the 
 qualities which the ideal story should possess. 
 Further on we read: *' It is admitted that Dumas's 
 good tales are told with a vigour and life which 
 rejoice the heart ; that his narrative is never dull, 
 never stands still, but moves with a freedom of 
 adventure which perhaps has no parallel. ... If 
 Dumas has not, as he certainly has not, the noble 
 philosophy and kindly knowledge of the heart 
 which are Scott's, he is far more swift, more witty, 
 more diverting. He is not prolix, his style is not 
 involved, his dialogue is as rapid and keen as an 
 assault-at-arms. " 
 
 The qualities which have made Scott so great 
 and so beloved are not part of his technical skill 
 in narrative, and it is only with that particular 
 quality that we are concerned here. Mr Saints- 
 bury, in the "Short History of French Literature," 
 
322 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 although treating Dumas critically, as becomes one 
 sitting on the judge's bench, does not hesitate to 
 set the Frenchman, in his peculiar talent, above 
 Scott and all others. 
 
 "His best work," the professor declares, "has 
 remarkable and almost unique merits. The style 
 is not more remarkable as such than that of the 
 dramas ; there is not often or always a well-defined 
 plot, and the characters are drawn only in the 
 broadest outline. But the peculiar admixture of 
 incident and dialogue by which Dumas carries on 
 the interest of his gigantic narrations without weary- 
 ing the reader is a secret of his own, and has never 
 been thoroughly mastered by anyone else." 
 
 An American critic, emancipated from any super- 
 stitious feeling concerning Scott, has put his opinion 
 in blunt and unmistakable form. "What is it," 
 asks Professor Carpenter, " that endears Dumas to 
 us ? The conventional answer would be, the ex- 
 citing character of his plots. And his plots may 
 well be called exciting. No other author — except 
 Sienkiewicz, who learned the art from him — can 
 match him there. He is better reading than Scott ; 
 for there are, as a rule, no elaborate essays, no 
 dull dialogues, no stupid characters, satisfactory 
 only to the antiquary. The characters act and 
 talk ; but they talk only to make the act more 
 telling. The whole moves quietly, rapidly, but 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 323 
 
 without unnecessary haste ; every scene is to be 
 enjoyed as it passes ; and one is impressed through- 
 out by the power that the author keeps in reserve 
 for eacli of his cHmaxes." 
 
 In short, although Dumas found his inspiration 
 in Scott, the style of the Frenchman's romances 
 was essentially different. He wrote with a lighter, 
 bolder touch. He got rid of all the impedimenta 
 which baulked the Scotsman's speed. His books 
 contain little or no background ; he is not con- 
 cerned with scenery ; still-life has no attraction for 
 him- Nor do his heroes indulge in the torments 
 of mind which assail the old-fashioned English 
 hero : they simply speak and act. 
 
 Nothing, however, can be so instructive as a 
 test-comparison of novels by the two romancers — 
 say "Waverley" and " Les Trois Mousquetaires." 
 Take it as granted that it is a story's first 
 duty to be readable, and that one's attention 
 should be seized as quickly as possible ; and 
 with this common-sense fact in mind, dip first into 
 the Scottish and then into the French romance. 
 
 " Waverley's" first nine chapters are devoted suc- 
 cessively to an introduction, the hero's birth, his 
 education, his day-dreams, his appointment to the 
 army, and his departure from home, with a de- 
 scription of a Scottish " horse-quarter," a manor- 
 house, and again, the manor-house. You have 
 
324 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 now reached page 40, and you have not yet 
 begun the story. Turn then to the " Mous- 
 quetaires." You have a couple of pages of 
 introduction, which go to paint the character 
 of the hero ; and on the third the story — -the 
 plot — begins, and with it the interest. Your 
 sympathies are at once enlisted on the side of 
 D'Artagnan by the Unknown's cruel behaviour 
 toward him ; your curiosity is aroused by the ap- 
 parent mystery surrounding this same Unknown, 
 by the theft of the letter, and by the vision of 
 Miladi, The political intrigue has begun, also — 
 and all in the first chapter. 
 
 Dumas saw clearly that dialogue was the life, 
 the vitality of this style of story — the dramatic 
 romance. It seems a truism now to say that the 
 best insiofht into the characters of a book is qrained 
 by hearing them speak ; but the old-fashioned novel 
 relied upon description to convey these impressions 
 to the reader's mind. Now we live in an era of 
 " suoro-estion " ; somethino- is left to one's imagfina- 
 tion, and the old "steel-plate-engraving" style is 
 dying out in fiction as in art. 
 
 It would be foolish to carry the comparison any 
 further. Scott possessed powers beyond the reach 
 of Dumas, and each writer must be judged accord- 
 ing to his aims and nature, and the materials at 
 his command. Few can appreciate both writers. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 325 
 
 their styles are so opposite. To those who love 
 the Scot Dumas is frivolous and outre' \ to those 
 who are in sympathy with the French spirit, Scott 
 is dull and sluf^g"ish. But there can surely be no 
 reasonable doubt as to which is the master and 
 pioneer of the story of adventure as we know it 
 to-day. 
 
 The changes which have come over the historical 
 novel within the last twenty or thirty years are 
 striking indeed. The old school was perhaps 
 founded by Scott, and certainly imitated by Lytton, 
 G. P. R. James, Ainsworth, and a host of others. 
 This style possessed several very marked features. 
 Its pages abounded in description ; it was not enough 
 to be with our hero in his adventures ; we were 
 obliged to listen to the story of his birth, parentage 
 and upbringing, with many other dreary details by 
 way of introduction. We were regaled with lengthy 
 accounts of scenery and buildings, costumes and 
 customs. We found the heroine a very sensitive 
 and sedate young lady, with supreme sensibility 
 and a wonderful capacity for tears. We followed 
 the course of the hero's thoughts, page after page, 
 as he raved at fortune, or rhapsodised upon his 
 love. As a consequence we cultivated a habit of 
 "skipping," and no one to-day would blame us for 
 so doing ; for in truth there was a laborious heavi- 
 ness about the old-fashioned, historical romance. 
 
326 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Scott succeeded in spite of his style — or lack of 
 it — but his successors, one and all, died of theirs. 
 
 There is no need, we think, to labour the point 
 as to the Frenchman's influence on present-day 
 romance, if our readers will apply a simple test, and 
 keep one or two dates in mind. Read firstly one of 
 Scott's imitators — some romance of the thirties or 
 forties, and note the rare and stilted dialogue, the 
 padding, the lack of fire, of human interest — the 
 tawdry dreariness of it. Then, after half an hour 
 at the " Mousquetaires," let the reader take up 
 some modern romance, say one of Mr Weyman's, 
 " The Refugees," by Dr Doyle, or Anthony Hope's 
 " Simon Dale." This subject, we are aware, de- 
 serves a whole essay, but for all practical purposes 
 the object lesson we have suggested will be suffi- 
 cient to carry conviction with it. 
 
 We are told that the influence of Dumas can be 
 traced back as far as " Esmond," the scene of "the 
 breaking of the sword " being suggested by more 
 ihan one like incident in the Frenchman's romances. 
 Of the many authors who have benefited by a study 
 of the great conteur, one has acknowledged his 
 indebtedness. This is Bret Harte, whom one would 
 scarcely have expected to experience such an in- 
 fluence. He testifies to having received "the 
 sacred spark " whilst reading Dumas — the burial 
 of Dantes in the sack, in particular, having power- 
 
ALEX^VNDRE DUJNIAS 327 
 
 fully affected him. " The grandeur of effect, the 
 simplicity of the means, the absence of all ap- 
 parent effort, caused me an unspeakable jo)'." 
 In after years he gratefully took the opportunity 
 of proclaiming how much he owed to Dumas. 
 The spirit of our author lives to this day, if 
 Mr A. E. W. Mason's recently published story, 
 " Clementina," be any criterion ; and a more recent 
 and more striking example is that of Maxime 
 Gorki, who, though a sombre realist in tempera- 
 ment, was led on to read Gogol and Dumas when 
 all other literature was distasteful to him. Forth- 
 with the Russian was seized with an ambition to 
 write. The fact that the optimistic romancer could 
 awaken emulation in a nature so widely different 
 is a strong proof of the vital power of his 
 talents. 
 
 But the modern writer whom Dumas most 
 strongly impressed was Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 This Sidney Colvin acknowledges, in his preface 
 to his friend's " Letters." 
 
 "The debate, before his place in literature is 
 settled, must rather turn on other points, as whether 
 the genial essayist and egoist or the romantic in- 
 ventor and narrator was the strong^er in him — 
 whether the Montaigne and Pepys elements pre- 
 vailed in his literary composition, or the Scott and 
 Dumas elements — a question, indeed, which among 
 
328 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 those who care for him most has always been at 
 issue." Althoupfh Stevenson could not fail to make 
 use of his great knowledge of Dumas for his 
 own ends, being a man of originality in talent, we 
 seem to find traces of the great Frenchman here, 
 there, and everywhere in his admirer's stories — 
 subtle effects, twists of the plot, picturesque situa- 
 tions, chivalric touches, gusts of breezy freshness 
 — all Stevenson, and yet instinctively familiar to 
 the lover of Dumas. 
 
 To our master of narrative, those literary adorn- 
 ments of which nowadays we are so dispropor- 
 tionately proud were not entirely lacking. He 
 possessed in supreme degree a third quality — wit. 
 It was this which rendered his dialogue "brilliant" 
 and " unapproachable " — dialogue " of which the 
 quantity would be the most remarkable point, if 
 its quality were not equally remarkable." Echo- 
 ing Professor Saintsbury, Brander Matthews adds, 
 — "dialogue such as none but Dumas could write. 
 ... He was witty without effort and without end." 
 This gift, as we have seen, made the quadroon 
 the kino^ of Paris and the most deliofhtful com- 
 panion, the causeui" par excellence in print; it made 
 comedy- writing easy to him, and the telling of 
 short stories a delicrht to reader and writer. 
 
 But the companion quality of wit, which is yet so 
 rarely found in conjunction with it, was Dumas's 
 
ALEXANDRE 13U.MAS 329 
 
 also, although most critics ignore it, and one 
 in particular denies it. " He had little humour, 
 as we understand the word," Professor Matthews 
 declares, " and what he had was on the surface." 
 To say the least of it, humour is not a quality which 
 should be hidden very deeply from observation. 
 Hay ward, whose essay shows a close knowledge 
 of our author's writings, remarks " he had an ex- 
 quisite perception of the humorous " ; and we regret 
 we have no means of showing our readers how 
 truly discerning the essayist's words proved him to 
 be. The distinction between the two forms of 
 mirth is a subtle one and difficult to define, we are 
 aware. Dumas's wit is at least quotable, and mostly 
 to be found in dialogue : his humour is more airy 
 and tangible, and frequently is at its best in the 
 telling of a story. 
 
 Unluckily many of these tales are not known 
 to the English reader, and a sly style is apt to 
 evaporate in the process of translation. Neverthe- 
 less we are convinced that when Dumas's own 
 genuine and complete writings are edited, and 
 Englished by translators of literary taste, this 
 quality in them will be recognised with delight as 
 still another vein of riches in the mine of wealth 
 left us by this versatile genius. 
 
 It remains to be seen whether Dumas's works 
 will last. His plays, with one or two exceptions, 
 
330 LIFE AND AVKITINGS OF 
 
 are almost forgotten, even in France. His travels, 
 which "discovered Europe" to the million, have 
 been imitated so often that they have paid the 
 penalty of their success and become common-place. 
 The literary pendulum swings from romance to 
 realism and back from realism to romance ; at 
 present Zola and his school prevail in France, and 
 to a great extent throughout Europe and America. 
 Dumas heartily disliked "naturalism." The Gon- 
 courts tell us that when he read " Madame 
 de Bovary " he cried, "If that is good, all that 
 we've written since 1830 is worthless!" But the 
 " novel " to-day is, on the whole, better written 
 than the "romance," and even in fiction of adven- 
 ture psychology plays an increasingly important 
 part. 
 
 But with the mass of readers these changes, these 
 fashions of the moment, have little weight. In the 
 higher strata of society Dickens and Dumas are as 
 dead as last year's novels ; amongst the people, 
 untroubled by ultra-intellectual qualms, those de- 
 spised authors flourish shamelessly. As the stress 
 of daily life grows more acute, as the great primitive 
 instincts of our natures become more and more 
 obscured in the complex duties of civilised societ)-, 
 the more likely shall we be to turn with relief and 
 gratitude to the welcome optimism, the refreshing 
 simplicity, the engrossing charm of the two great 
 
ALEXANDRE DUiMAS 331 
 
 writers, and the books which they devised for our 
 delight. 
 
 It is acknowledged that Dumas is one of the 
 amusers of the world, even b)' his detractors, who 
 appear to think that to amuse is easy work, requiring 
 neither skill nor effort, deserving neither recognition 
 nor praise. (If the amuser is born, not made, the 
 rarity of the species is perhaps accounted for.) Is 
 this power so small a thing? "They say that 
 Dumas has amused three or four generations," 
 said Jules Claretie ; " he has done better : he has 
 consoled them. If he has shown us humanity more 
 generous than it is, do not reproach him for that : 
 he has painted it in his own image." "Old folk 
 blessed him," wrote Jules Janin, "for he made easy 
 the path to the grave ; the women called upon him 
 to aid them against their sadness, and the young 
 men swore by the romances of their poet." "All 
 our hospital patients recover or die with one 
 of your father's books under their pillow," said 
 a surgeon to Alexandre Dumas Jils. "When 
 we wish to make them forget the terror of an 
 approaching operation, the tediousness of con- 
 valescence, or the dread of death, we prescribe 
 one of your father's novels, and they are able to 
 forget." 
 
 One great poet and great sufferer has left his 
 appreciative gratitude on record : 
 
332 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 " For six years," wrote Heine to his confrere, " I 
 have been bed-ridden. During the worst part of 
 the time, when I was suffering the greatest tor- 
 ment, my wife read your romances to me, and that 
 was the only way in which I was enabled to forget 
 my pains. Thus I have devoured them all, and 
 sometimes during the reading I have exclaimed 
 ' What an ingenious poet ! What a grand fellow 
 this Dumas is ! ' Certainly after Cervantes and 
 Madame Schariaz, better known as the sultana 
 Scheherazade, you are the most amusing story- 
 teller I know. What fluency ! what ease ! and 
 what a good chap you are ! Truly, I can find but 
 one fault in you : that is modesty. You are too 
 modest. Good gracious ! those who accuse you 
 of boastinor and swao-o-erino: have no notion of the 
 greatness of your talent ! 
 
 Nor are these "amusing" books ephemeral in 
 their charm ; there is, in despite of critics, some- 
 thing more than merely an hour's entertainment 
 in Dumas's romances. Their particular qualities 
 have been thus defined by Dr Garnett : 
 
 " Dumas stands out as the first among the truly 
 eminent novelists of the world for exuberance of 
 production. To class him thus is to assign him 
 a high place. . . . Exuberance implies a vast 
 fertility of invention ; animated, impassioned style; 
 and more particularly great facility in dialogue. 
 
AT.EXANDRE DUMAS 333 
 
 All these merits Dumas possesses in the hig-hest 
 decree : his invention moves within the limits of 
 humanity, his characters are credible personages, 
 neither monsters nor puppets." 
 
 " If his imagination was not of the highest 
 quality," says Professor Bryce, "it was of almost 
 unsurpassed fertility-" 
 
 Mr Saintsbury, reflecting upon the charm which 
 the romancer's books possess for him, is vaguely 
 conscious of an abiding quality in what seems so 
 slight, so fleeting in its nati^re : 
 
 *' Dumas has the faculty, as no other novelist 
 has, of presenting rapid and brilliant dioramas of 
 the picturesque aspects of history, animating them 
 with really human if not very intricately analysed 
 passion, and connecting them with dialogue match- 
 less of its kind. He cannot, as a rule, do much 
 more than this, and to ask him for anything more is 
 unreasonable, though in rare passages he rises to 
 a much greater height. But he will absorb your 
 attention and rest you from care and worry as 
 hardly any other novelist will, and, unlike most 
 novelists of his class, his pictures, at least the best 
 of them, do not lose their virtue by rebeholding. I 
 at least find ' The Three Musketeers ' not less but 
 more effectual for its purpose than I found it thirty, 
 twenty, ten, even five years ago, and I think there 
 must be something in work of such a virtue than 
 
334 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 mere scene - painting for a background and mere 
 lay-figures for actors." 
 
 Professor Carpenter sees evidence of the " stay- 
 ing power " in these books, and does not hesitate to 
 s?.y so. 
 
 " I find one explanation of the deeper effect these 
 volumes make on me," he writes, " in the fact that 
 Dumas, recklessly as he apparently wrote, and in 
 headlong haste, has somehow managed to build his 
 characters out of genuinely human material. He 
 seems to treat them like the veriest puppets ; they 
 wear their hearts on their sleeves ; and yet neither 
 the creations of Scott nor of Shakespeare are more 
 truly alive. With women he was less successful ; 
 though Margtierite, the queen of folly, the gracious 
 Diane de Monsoreau, and the proud Comtesse de 
 CJiarny, are wonderful types of womanhood. But 
 his men are men. U Aidagnan, Athos, Po7d/ios, 
 and Aramis ; Chicot, Heni'i IV., La Mole, 
 Coconnas, Bussy d Aniboise ; Balsaino, Philippe de 
 Tavernay, and Gilbert — not to mention others — 
 these are as solidly and finely imagined as any 
 characters in literature. How the author could 
 have produced them we may never cease to 
 wonder ; but they do exist. He lived a foolish 
 life; and he wrote in haste; but he wrote from his 
 heart, and his heart was by nature clairvoyant.'' 
 
 And he adds in conclusion : 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 335 
 
 " Such are the considerations, in my judgment, 
 which raise Dumas above the horde of vulgar 
 romancers. His fame, hke his genius, is not 
 academic, and the critics may praise him with only 
 half a heart, but his great public will be none the 
 worse. One who reads him will pass the word to 
 another ; and each who knows him will be a better 
 man." 
 
 Finally, Mr Lang sees, beyond the mere power 
 of amusement possessed by Dumas, a philosophy 
 and an ethical influence. 
 
 "In all he does, at his best, as in the ' Chevalier 
 d'Harmenthal,' he has movement, kindness, courage, 
 and gaiety. His philosophy of life is that old philo- 
 sophy of the sagas and of Homer. Let us enjoy 
 the movement of the fray, the faces of fair women, 
 the taste of good wine ; let us welcome life like a 
 mistress, let us welcome death like a friend, and 
 with a jest — if death comes with honour. . . 
 That his works (his best works) should be even 
 still more widely circulated than they are ; that the 
 young should read them, and learn frankness, kind- 
 ness, generosity — should esteem the tender heart, 
 and the gay, invincible wit ; that the old should 
 read them again, and find forgetfulness of trouble, 
 and taste the anodyne of dreams, that is what we 
 desire." 
 . A^^^ have more than oncf^ dubbed Dumas " qreat," 
 
336 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 and possibly the reader has smiled to himself, or 
 registered an inward protest at the time. And yet 
 a threefold proof can be presented in support of 
 the tremendous adjective. 
 
 To our thinking, the very reason advanced by 
 many critics for refusing greatness to Dumas offers 
 one of the strongest presumptions in favour of that 
 claim. " There is perhaps hardly such another 
 instance," says Dr Garnett, "of a man with so 
 little moral or intellectual claim to rank among 
 the ^lite of letters, taking so high a place upon 
 the literary Olympus." (We have neither time nor 
 space to do more than register a strong protest 
 respecting the " immorality " of Dumas's claim to 
 literary rank, and pass on.) " Inferior in intellec- 
 tual power to his principal contemporaries, his 
 instinct is often truer than their reason." 
 
 Roughly speaking, great writers may be divided 
 into two classes — ^those whose work is based on 
 reason and process of thought, and those whose 
 utterances are prompted by instinct and inspira- 
 tion. We refrain from suggesting instances of what 
 we may call the " intellectual " writers and the 
 "spiritual" writers; neither quality can claim to 
 be higher in itself than the other, and some great 
 men, like Shakespeare, possess both. The one 
 type of mind tends to produce logicians, political 
 economists, problem-novelists and playwrights, poll- 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 337 
 
 ticians, theologians, and so forth ; the other gives 
 birth to the poets, seers and prophets in all forms 
 of art. To this latter class Dumas belonged. He 
 lacked the power of poetic expression in its highest 
 form, it is true ; but there existed behind that 
 barrier a nature akin in essentials to a poet's. 
 Not only do his writings show this, but those 
 who knew him or have studied him have testified 
 to this fact a^iain and aorain. He was '■'■ clair- 
 voya7it " ; he divined in a flash what reason must 
 laboriously discover ; his intuitive instinct, guided 
 by his intelligence, served him in place of experi- 
 ence, memory and logical thought. We have 
 given numerous instances of his political foresight. 
 Such qualities are of the highest, even if Dumas 
 did not possess ther'x to the uttermost ; the soul 
 is at least the equal of the brain. 
 
 This power, mysterious and inexplicable, too 
 often produces the visionary, the fanatic. It had 
 a very earthly abode in Dumas, and in one sense 
 this was an enormous advantage. On a subject 
 which appealed to him he could reason well and 
 clearly, and grasp both principle and detail. Blaze 
 de Bury tells us that the novelist once casually 
 ventured to dispute with Geoffroy St Hilaire on a 
 point of natural history relating to the whale's 
 anatomy. Dumas imperturbably maintained his 
 hypothesis ; the great savant smiled with good- 
 
 Y 
 
338 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 natured scorn. Will it be believed ? When the 
 standard authorities were consulted on the ques- 
 tion, they confirmed the romancer's view ! 
 
 It would seem that, according to Dr Garnett, 
 Dumas was "great" in some respect, and by virtue 
 of some high power. We presume that if Dumas 
 is "high on Olympus" he has some right to be 
 there : and if his is not the greatness of intellect, 
 what form does his genius take? It must surely 
 be a quality equal in calibre to that of brain- 
 power, and there we are content to leave the 
 matter. 
 
 Another of Dumas's claims to the rank of 
 great" is pithily put by Hay ward. 
 
 " A title to fame, like a chain of proofs, may 
 be cumulative. It may rest on the multiplicity 
 and universality of production and capacity. . . . 
 Dumas will thus take rank as one of the three 
 or four most popular and gifted writers that the 
 France of the nineteenth century produced." Brander 
 Matthews takes the same view. " Even more re- 
 markable than the range of Dumas's work is its 
 general level of merit. He had at least one element 
 of greatness — an inexhaustible fecundity." He adds 
 regretfully : "With his great powers one feels that 
 he ouorht to have done somethincr higher and 
 nobler : that he had great powers, admits of no 
 cavil." All who love Dumas and appreciate his 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJNIAS 339 
 
 work will echo this sentiment. Dr Garnett makes 
 the same point when attributing to the Frenchman 
 "a fecundity rivalled by very few novelists, and 
 a standard of merit equalled by none who have 
 approached Dumas's productiveness." 
 
 We find a third " reason for the faith that is in us " 
 in the fact that so many great writers have proclaimed 
 Dumas great, if not in so many words, still, un- 
 mistakably. It is not simply the ordinary reader 
 who is astounded at the romancer's charm and 
 resource, wit and skill ; " the front row of the 
 stalls " — the principal men and women writers of 
 his day — applauded him just as heartily. We 
 could wish nothing better than that the reader 
 should compare the respective calibre, and worth, 
 of our author's eulosfists and detractors. For in 
 addition to the great names we have already quoted 
 there were others as "loyal" in their acclamation 
 as Charles Reade himself. " I have an opinion of 
 human things," wrote Lamartine, poet and historian ; 
 " I have none on miracles : you are superhuman. 
 My opinion — of you — it is a note of exclamation ! 
 People have tried to discover perpetual motion — 
 you have done better : you have created perpetual 
 astonishment ! " 
 
 "He was not France's, he was not Europe's, 
 he was the world's ! " cried Hugo ; and he 
 it was who wrote '* Ce qtiil seme, cest lidde 
 
340 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 Fra'jifaise" He has indeed taught French 
 and the French to the whole world. Swin- 
 burne writes of Dumas's " excellent heart and 
 brilliant genius " ; Stevenson " would not give a 
 chapter of old Dumas for the whole boiling of 
 Zolas." Blaze de Bury, a sober critic, well ac- 
 quainted with the literature of his nation and the 
 great writers of his time, declared that " if there 
 can be said to have been a French Shakespeare, 
 it was Dumas. Hugo, who imagined that he was 
 descended from the Elizabethan poet in a direct 
 line, had far less claim to such parentage than 
 Dumas." The most illuminating tribute to our 
 author's genius was without doubt that of Michelet 
 the historian. " Monsieur," he wrote, ''Je vous aime 
 et je V021S admire, pare e qtie votis eies ttne des forces 
 de la nature." This is strikingly true : there was 
 something great, something primitive, elemental, 
 about Dumas, which explains at once his strength 
 and his weaknesses. '* His virtues were colossal," 
 says Dr Garnett, " and he had the defects of his 
 qualities." The mixture of "white" and "black" 
 blood produced a phenomenon of physical strength 
 and energy in General Dumas ; a combination of 
 physical and mental energy and strength in Dumas 
 pere ; and the " strain " survived to give us a re- 
 markable instance of intellectual capacity in Dumas 
 fils. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUMAS 341 
 
 Briefly, our author was great because, being a 
 natural force, with the great instincts of primitive 
 man, without subtlety, or fear, or a doubt of self, 
 he strove greatly and achieved great things, or 
 failed as thoroughly. Ridicule never soured him 
 nor baulked him of his end and aim ; in heart and 
 valour and confidence he was a giant. Such men 
 are rare in these days, and "to encourage" any 
 possible "others," we have laughed at this one for 
 his failures ; and measuring his stature with our eye, 
 through the wrong end of the telescope, have 
 decided that he was, if anything, rather below the 
 middle height. In saying this we feel that we have 
 added another inch or two to our own tall selves. 
 
 We have reserved for final quotation three very 
 different estimates of our hero, which cannot, on the 
 whole, be said to err on the side of eulogistic 
 platitude. The first is from Castelar's essay on our 
 author, and we present it with only one comment — 
 that whereas the eloquent Spanish scholar obtained 
 his knowledfre of Dumas's orenius direct from the 
 writer's books, he received his impression of the 
 Frenchman's life and conduct throuo^h the medium 
 
 o 
 
 of" De Mirecourt" and others, as his article plainly 
 indicates. 
 
 " Probably but few men have been born with so 
 many and such brilliant qualities as Alexandre 
 Dumas. His dramas are somewhat deficient in 
 
342 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 finish, but they are highly interesting-. His novels 
 contain nothing ideal, but much that is enchanting. 
 Had he taken time for reflection, he would have 
 produced some perfect work. With such great 
 rapidity this was impossible. His creations are 
 meteors when they might have been stars. Here 
 we find a poet of a wonderful imagination, of an 
 extraordinary power, fallen in the mire of the 
 Parisian streets ; punished for not having con- 
 sidered life as a reality, art as a religion, genius as 
 a ministry, the world as a tribunal, and history, that 
 conscience of humanity, as a judge." 
 
 In an oration full of feeling and eloquence, M. 
 Edmond About pronounced a formal eulogy on 
 Dumas at the unveiling of the statue in Place 
 Malesherbes in Paris, in 1883.^ 
 
 " This statue," said M. About, " is that of a 
 great madman, who, into all his good humour and 
 astonishing gaiety, put more true wisdom than there 
 is to be found in the hearts of all of us here. . . . 
 It is the likeness of a prodigal who, after having 
 
 ^ This monument owed its origin and completion to the loving 
 admiration which the great romancer has so generally inspired. 
 A. M. Villard, a traveller, had cheered so many of his hours of enforced 
 idleness with the company of d'Artagnan and his innumerable com- 
 rades, that he set on foot a scheme to recognise publicly and per- 
 petually the author's fame and worth. When the committee — a 
 representative one, full of illustrious names — was still lacking the 
 money for the sculptor's labour, Gustavo Dore, the artist, offered to 
 do the work, literally " for love," 
 
THE Dl'MAS MONUMENT BV DOKE, PLACE MALESHEKBES, PAKIS 
 
ALEXANDKE DIJJMAS 343 
 
 squandered millions in a thousand generous ways, 
 left, without knowintr it, a kino^'s treasure behind 
 him — it is the portrait of a ' man of pleasure,' 
 whose life might well serve as a model for all 
 men who work ; of an egoist who devoted his 
 life to his mother, his children, his friends, and 
 his country." 
 
 As a summary of Dumas's character, an epitome 
 of his greatness, and his failings — human and full 
 of charity, we have not bettered this of Mr Henley's, 
 in all our reading, and our own searchings of heart 
 and brain : 
 
 "In life he was very much of a scapegrace and 
 a madcap, and even more of a prodigal. His morals 
 were loose, he was vain as only a man of colour can 
 be, his literary conscience was (to say the least) 
 imperfect, his veracity was that of the roniantiques 
 in o-eneral, he could — and did — commit astonishin"- 
 offences in taste ; but his humanity was boundless in 
 degree and incorruptible in quality, he was generous 
 to a fault, he is not known to have dealt a single 
 foul blow . . . the fact is, that he was a prodigy of 
 gaiety, kindliness, and charm, and a prodigy of 
 temperament and power, and capacity of life and 
 invention and achievement. He talked still better 
 than he wrote ; and he wrote without any affecta- 
 tions of style, and with an ease, a gusto, a sincerity 
 of mind, a completeness of method that are irresist- 
 
344 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 ible. And the lesson of his greater books is one 
 by which the world may well have profited. Love, 
 honour, friendship, loyalty, valour, the old chivalric 
 virtues — these were his darling themes ; and he 
 treated them with a combination of energy and 
 insight, of good sense and good feeling, of manliness 
 of mind and beauty of heart, that has ranked him 
 with the greatest benefactors of the race." 
 
 Well may we add, with Villemessant, that " if 
 during Dumas's long career there are some in- 
 cidents which one ought to judge, severely we 
 should pass them by in silence,, not only out of 
 respect for the great name which he has left to 
 French literature, but ^ilso out of sympathy with 
 the excellent heart which did so little harm, and 
 wrought such an enormous amount of good." 
 
 It has been our aim throughout, to leave the 
 praise we fain would speak to come from the 
 mouths of others, who would do the pleasant task 
 more skilfully, and be listened to with the respect 
 which their reputations can command. We are 
 aware that as a result critics may dub us '' com- 
 piler," or "book-maker." Had we "stolen the 
 thunder" of our authorities, omitting acknowledg- 
 ment and quotation-marks, we might have passed 
 for being very clever, very conceited — or very dis- 
 honest. .We preferred to speak by the mouths of 
 others, the better to establish Dumas's reputation. 
 
ALEXANDRE DUiMAS 345 
 
 and to let the captious say what they choose. 
 *'\Vhat matters it to the artist, so that the work 
 be done ? " 
 
 Yet we, too, have a word to say. The great 
 men have spoken their glowing periods by the 
 grave-side, and turned away. Before it is too 
 late we, who have lingered behind, crave the right 
 to come forward, take a last leave of our old 
 friend, and 
 
 *' cast at his feet one flower that fades away." 
 
 Stevenson has said, half-stoically, half-bitterly, 
 that an author must look to his pleasure in writing 
 as the only reward for his work. If this be 
 true, we have already received our best pay for 
 our labours. Nothing that may happen to this 
 book can give the author the pleasure which he 
 has found in the preparation of it. With every 
 day's research his wonder, respect and love grew 
 and deepened. "What a man to love!" he thought ; 
 and then, " How this man was loved ! " 
 
 That, we believe, was the secret of Dumas's 
 success, of his lasting popularity, and of his great- 
 ness. He was, like Fielding and Goldsmith, a man 
 who won affection without effort. ** If any man 
 could be lovcable, in the true sense of the word, — 
 that is, made to be loved, — he was that rnan," so 
 wrote one who knew him well end intimately ; and 
 
346 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF 
 
 indeed all who knew him seem to speak of him 
 with full hearts, almost with tears in their eyes, so 
 fond and affectionate is their remembrance of the 
 man. From the famous great ones who treated 
 him as their equal, to the servants who strove to 
 save him from his generosity, to the very dogs he 
 rescued, Dumas earned love from all, by giving it, 
 generously and without thought of return. A 
 heart such as his will outlive many a cleverer 
 brain. 
 
 '' Je suis tout en dehors,'' he once declared, in 
 laughing self- disparagement. True, most of his 
 vices, and some of his virtues, were on the surface, 
 easy to be* seen. But it would be truer to say of 
 him that his was so transparent a nature that the 
 sun of life shone through it, and that like a precious 
 stone, its rays were reflected in myriad sparkling 
 flashes of joy, gaiety, kindliness and generosity. 
 The flaws were there ; but there is no doubt this 
 was a o^enuine diamond. 
 
 '^ J' aime qui in aimey It was his motto, that line 
 from the Proverbs : "I love them that love me." 
 Loving the world, cheering it in its wretchedness, 
 brightening its hours of leisure, giving to it fully 
 of his wealth of gaiety and wit, he failed at times 
 to keep the respect of the more prosaic, and was 
 delivered over to the mercy of the envious. But 
 those who have loved the people, the people never 
 
ALEXANDRE DUJMAS 347 
 
 forget. The dying Dumas feared he had written 
 in vain., but he wroui^ht better than he knew ; and 
 the rock of human nature on which he built will 
 endure throuijh asfes of carkinfj Time, and all the 
 storms of chancre. 
 
 TO MY FATHER 
 
 Oh, my father, thou the thinker, thou the poet — can it be 
 That naught will snap the chain of bondage round thy heart, and set 
 thee free ? 
 
 Must thou ever give thy best 
 To the others who grow wealthy with the riches from thy store, 
 Leaving you not e'en as solace, when the long week's work is o'er. 
 
 One brief seventh day of rest? 
 
 Bow thy head, then to thy labours ! Not for thee the fields, the 
 flow'rs, 
 
 Laughing song of birds, that echo in the leafy mountain bow'rs, 
 Peaceful sleep of liberty, 
 
 Smiling valleys, in the glory of the setting summer sun. 
 
 And the sweet, faint breath of nature — Heaven's gift to ev'ry one- 
 Free to all men, but to thee. 
 
 From thy study-window gleaming, one may watch and see, alway 
 When the twilight falls at even, when the dawn is dim and gray. 
 
 Light of lamps that shine for thee. 
 Galley-slave of thine own talent, thou must toil, and toil in vain ; 
 Thou canst not, with all thy weary years of labour and of pain. 
 
 Buy a month of liberty ! 
 
348 LIFE AND AVRITINGS 
 
 Be it so, then — thou, the cornfield rich in flowing golden grain 
 Still must see the gladdened reapers in the season come again, 
 
 Reap the harvest thou hast grown ; 
 Be thou still, the bright, the wondrous star, whose light all men may 
 
 share, 
 Shining on, supreme, majestic in the studded heavens there, 
 
 Distant — splendid — and unknown 1 
 
 Work, then, for the coming ages, that shall hold thy days so dear j 
 Strive, and testify, and suffer, like some ancient prophet-seer ! 
 
 Thou thy onward course shalt keep 
 Calm and peaceful, like the Rhine, that grand old river. To thy brink 
 Let all nations come, and, grateful, of thy flowing current drink, 
 
 'Twill be still as clear and deep ! 
 
 Work, then, freely ; work unceasing. I will watch beside the gate ; 
 What care I what others think me ? For I know that, 'spite their hate. 
 
 Soon or late, fame will be mine. 
 But to-day my place is here ; for I the pious duty claim 
 Here to stand, to guard from wrong a father's glory and fair name, 
 
 As it were a sacred shrine ! 
 
 ■{From the French of Alexandre Dumas Jils.) 
 
APPENDICES 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 Comparative List showing the: Events in French History 
 covered by the romances of dumas 
 
 As we have said, it was Dumas's ambition to write the history of 
 his country in romance. As even he quailed before the task of 
 telhng the story from the days of Ccesar, or of Charlemagne 
 downward, he contented himself with biographies of those heroes, 
 and began his task in the fourteenth century, when literature had 
 so far developed as to afford the novelist some material for his 
 background. It was Barante's work deahng with this era which 
 fired the author to attemj)t " Isabel de Baviere," and he saw no 
 reason for going backwards down history for his subjects. Hence- 
 forth, although there are gaps, there is scarcely a reign which he 
 does not touch. We have thought it best to add the histories 
 and historical plays to the romances, to show that Dumas fulfilled 
 his intentions in one form or another. The task was practically 
 completed with the Napoleonic romances, although one or two 
 intermittent attempts to bring the record up to his own time 
 were made by Dumas. The reign of Louis XI. was probably 
 abandoned by the author because of "Quentin Durward," and 
 the episode of the death of Charles the Bold, Louis's enemy, 
 because of "Anne of Geierstein." 
 
 1328 The House of Valois — Philip "La Comtesse de Salis- 
 
 VI. ascends — Edward III. of bury." 
 
 England claims the French 
 
 crown— Anglo-French Wars. 
 1350 John II. — Poitiers — Regency 
 
 of Charles "The Dauphin." 
 
 351 
 
352 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 1364 Charles V. — Spanish Civil 
 
 War — French interposition 
 
 under du Guesclin. 
 1389 Charles VI. — His insanity — 
 
 The feuds of the Burgundians 
 
 and Armagnacs. 
 1415 Agincourt. 
 1422 Charles VII. and Agnes Sorel, 
 
 etc. 
 
 1429-31 Joan of Arc. 
 
 1461 Louis XI. 
 
 1477 Charles the Bold of Burgundy 
 
 slain by the Swiss. 
 1483 Charles VIII. 
 
 " Le Batard de Mauleon." 
 
 " Isabel de Baviere." 
 
 "Charles VII. chez ses 
 grands Vassaux " (tra- 
 gedy). 
 
 "Jehanne la Pucelle" 
 (chronique). 
 
 " Charles le Temeraire " 
 (biography). 
 
 15 
 
 1540 
 1547 
 
 1559- 
 
 1560 
 1572 
 
 1574 
 
 1574 
 
 1589 
 
 Louis XII. 
 
 Francis I. — "Field of the 
 Cloth of Gold "—The Refor- 
 mation (15 1 7), etc. 
 
 Charles V. and Francis I. 
 
 59 Henri II. — Calais taken 
 from the English — War in 
 the Low Countries. 
 
 60 Francois II. and Mary 
 (Queen of Scots). 
 
 Charles IX. 
 
 Massacre of St Bartholomew's 
 Eve. 
 
 Death of Charles. 
 89 Henri III. — Assassination 
 of Due D'Anjou — Death of 
 St Megrin, etc. — Huguenot- 
 Catholic Wars. 
 
 1610 Henri IV. — The wars of 
 the Holy League — Edict of 
 Nantes, etc. 
 
 " Ascanio." 
 
 "Les Deux Diane" and 
 " Le Page du Due de 
 Savoie" (1555-57). 
 
 " L'Horoscope." 
 
 " La Reine Margot." 
 
 " La Dame de Monsoreau " 
 and "Les Quarante- 
 Cinq " ; " Henri Trois 
 et Sa Cour " (drama). 
 
 "Henri IV." (biography). 
 
APPEXDIX A 
 
 353 
 
 1610-2S Louis XIII. — Richelieu- 
 Capture of La Rochelle, etc. 
 
 1643-60 Louis XIV. — Mazarin — 
 The war of the Fronde — Col- 
 bert and Fouquet — The king's 
 loves (De la Valliere and de 
 Montespan) — The Man in 
 the Iron Mask, etc. 
 
 1708 Old age of Louis — Marriage 
 with Madame de Maintenon 
 — Death of Louis XIV. 
 
 17 1 7 The Regency of the Due 
 D'Orleans. 
 
 1727-29 The youth of Louis XV. 
 1756 The Seven Years' War — 
 
 Canada won from France by 
 
 the English (1760). 
 1770-74 Last years of Louis XV. — 
 
 Court intrigues, etc. 
 1774 Death of Louis XV. 
 
 1774 Louis XVI. — The affair of the 
 
 queen's necklace (1784). 
 1789 The Revolution. 
 
 1789 Taking of the Bastille. 
 
 ■Lc Comte de Moret," 
 "La Colombe," "Les 
 Trois Mousquetaires." 
 (See also " Les Grands 
 Hommes en Robe-dc- 
 Chambre.") 
 
 '■ La Guerre des Femmes " 
 (1650) and "Vingt ans 
 Apres " (the Fronde) ; 
 " Le Vicomte de Brage- 
 lonne" (1660); "La 
 Jeunesse de Louis XIV." 
 (comedy); "Louis XIV. 
 et son Siecle" (his- 
 tory). 
 
 ' Sylvandire." 
 
 " Chevalier d'Harmenthal " 
 (Cellamare conspiracy) 
 and '■' Une Fille du 
 Regent." "LaRegence" 
 (history). 
 " Olympe de Cleves." 
 "Louis XV. et Sa Cour" 
 (history). 
 
 "Les Memoires d'un Me- 
 
 decin." 
 "Le Testament de M. 
 
 Chauvelin." 
 "Le Collier de la Reine." 
 
 " Ingenue," " Louis XVI. et 
 la Revolution " (history). 
 
 "Ange Pitou" ("The 
 Taking of the Bastille"). 
 
354 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 ] 79 1 The Royal Family's attempted 
 flight from France, etc. 
 
 1793 Execution of Louis XVI. and 
 Marie Antoinette — Reign of 
 Terror — The Revolution, 
 from Valmy and Jemappes 
 to the fall of Robespierre. 
 
 1798-9 French in Italy — Conquest 
 and loss of Naples. 
 
 1799-1S00 The Directoire — La 
 Vendee — Rise of Napoleon 
 — Royalist conspiracies. 
 
 1 801 Napoleon in Egypt — Siege of 
 Acre, etc. 
 
 1805 Napoleon's Continental Cam- 
 paigns. 
 
 181 2 The Russian Expedition. 
 
 1814 Louis XVIIL— The "Hundred 
 
 Days " — Return of Napoleon 
 from Elba. 
 
 1 8 15 Waterloo. 
 
 1824 Death of Louis XVIIL and 
 Accession of Charles X. 
 
 1S30 The Revolution of July — 
 Charles X. flies to England, 
 Louis Philippe, king. 
 
 1832 The Duchesse de Berri's 
 " Second Vendee." 
 
 " La Comtesse de Charny," 
 "La Route de Va- 
 rennes " (history). 
 
 " Le Chevalier de Maison- 
 Rouge"; "Les Blancs 
 et les Bleus " and 
 " Blanche de Beaulieu " ; 
 " Le Docteur Mysteri- 
 eux " and " La Fille du 
 Marquis " ; " Ninety- 
 three " (history). 
 
 " La San Felice." 
 
 " Les Compagnons de 
 Jehu " and " Les Blancs 
 et les Bleus." 
 
 "Les Blancs et les Bleus" 
 (second series). 
 
 " Le Trou de I'Enfer." 
 and 
 
 " Le Capitaine Richard." 
 
 " Black," " Monte Cristo." 
 
 " Napoleon " (history) ; 
 " Napoldon " (drama). 
 
 " Dieu dispose." 
 
 "Les Louves de Mache- 
 coul." 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 The Chief Events in Dumas's Life, with their Dates. 
 
 Birth at Villers-Cotterets .... July 24, 1802 
 
 Death of his Father, General Dumas .... 1806 
 
 Becomes a Clerk with M. Mennesson, the Notary . 181 6 
 
 Becomes a Clerk with M. Lefevre, Crepy . . . 1822 
 Runaway trip to Paris . . . . . . . 1822 
 
 Return to Paris — Clerkship in the Orleans Bureau . 1823 
 Birth of Alexandre Dumas _/?/$• ..... 1824 
 
 Production of " La Chasse et 1' Amour " . September 22, 1825 
 
 1826 
 1827 
 1829 
 1830 
 
 Publication of " Nouvelles Contemporaines " 
 
 Kean and the English Shakespeare Company in Paris 
 
 Production of " Henri Trois," Theatre Frangais Feb. 10 
 
 Production of " Christine " at the Odeon . March 29 
 
 "The Revolution of July"; the Soisson Expedition 
 
 July 30 and 31, 1830 
 
 " The Revolution in La Vendee " ; as Special Com- 
 missioner .... 
 
 Production of " Antony " 
 
 Attacked by the Cholera 
 
 Gaillardet and " La Tour de Nesle" 
 
 Publication of " Isabel de Baviere" 
 
 Swiss Travels .... 
 
 Visit to England .... 
 
 Travels in the South of France, Corsica 
 Sicily ..... 
 
 Travels in H)eres, Etna, Naples, etc. 
 
 Death of Durnas's Mother . 
 
 Travels in Belgium and on the Rhine 
 
 Production of " Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle" 
 
 355 
 
 . August 
 
 1830 
 
 . 
 
 1831 
 
 . 
 
 1832 
 
 . 
 
 1832 
 
 . 
 
 1832 
 
 . 
 
 1832 
 
 . 
 
 1S33 
 
 1, Calabria, 
 
 
 . 
 
 1834 
 
 1 
 
 S35-6 
 
 . 
 
 183S 
 
 . 
 
 183S 
 
 " 
 
 1839 
 
356 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 Marriage with Mdlle. Ida Ferrier. . . . March 1840 
 
 Residence in Italy 1 840-1-2 
 
 Production of " Una Mariage sous Louis XV." . . 1841 
 
 Voyage with Louis Napoleon 1842 
 
 Production of " Les Demoiselles de St Cyr" . . 1843 
 Finally rejected by the Academie .... 1843 
 
 Publication of " Les Trois Mousquetaires " and " Monte 
 
 Cristo" ........ 1844 
 
 Travels in Spain and along the N. coast of Africa . 1846-7 
 
 Opening of Dumas's Theatre, the " Historique " February 1847 
 Opening of the "Palace" of Monte Cristo . . July 1847 
 Second Republic : Dumas a Candidate for the Chamber 
 
 of Deputies 1848 
 
 Coup d'etat : Dumas leaves Paris for Brussels . . 185 1 
 Return to Paris : the " Mousquetaire " founded, with 
 
 Dumas as Editor and Chief Contributor . Nov. 12, 1853 
 Visit to England May-June, 1857 
 
 Travels in Russia and the Caucasus 
 Joins Garibaldi's Sicilian Expedition 
 Stay in Naples .... 
 Return to Paris .... 
 Travels in Germany (Frankfort), etc. : 
 
 Austrian War 
 Lectures at the Havre Exhibition 
 Seized with illness 
 Taken to Puys, near Dieppe, by his Son 
 Death there ..... 
 
 . 1858-9 
 
 May i860 
 
 . 1860-64 
 
 1864 
 
 after the Prusso- 
 
 1S66 
 1868 
 1869 
 1S70 
 December 5, 1870 
 
 Body removed to Villers-Cotterets by his Son . May 187,? 
 
 Unveiling of the Statue to Dumas, in the Place 
 
 Malesherbes, Paris .... November 4, 1883 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 List of Books by Dumas or Attributed to him, with their 
 Approximate Dates of Publication and Remarks on 
 their Authenticity. 
 
 It is almost impossible for any student of Dumas to compile a 
 perfectly exhaustive and accurate bibliographical list of his works. 
 They were published, some in Paris, some in Brussels, in varying 
 forms and with different titles, and the works of reference available 
 for our purpose are incomplete. Even the Bibliotheque Nationale, 
 Paris, has not a complete set of his works. But for the use of the 
 ordinary reader the following table will be found adequate. It is 
 based on the list of Dumas's works as given by Calmann-Levy, 
 the authorised publishers, with one or two additions,^ and is 
 prepared from the notes afforded by Glinel, Parran and Querard, 
 supplemented by the information supplied in Dumas's various auto- 
 biographical writings and in the biographical sketches on Dumas, 
 etc., and by our own researches and information privately supplied 
 to us. For the comments respecting the genuineness or other- 
 wise of the books the writer is, of course, solely responsible, 
 although in most cases his opinion is that of the majority of the 
 impartial critics who have dealt with the subject. For the con- 
 venience of readers those books not ordinarily accessible in 
 English are printed in italics, and to facilitate reference the 
 works are given in alphabetical rather than chronological 
 order. 
 
 Several of the dates have been kindly supplied by M.M. 
 Calmann-Levy. 
 
 ^ Those books starred thus * are the only ones not included in the 
 Calmann-Levy series. 
 
 357 
 
358 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 Romances and Autobiographical Works. 
 
 Name OF Book. Pi.nfi^lTi'!iM Remarks re Authenticity, etc. 
 
 Acte 
 Amaury 
 
 1839 
 1844 
 
 Ange Pitou (or "Talc 1853 
 ing the Bastille ") 
 
 Ascanio 1843 
 Une Avenlure cT Amour 1862 
 
 Les Aventures de Johi 1840 
 Davys 
 
 Aventures de Lyderic 1842 
 
 Le Batard de Mauleon 1846 
 
 Black 1858 
 Les Blancs et les 1867-8-9? 
 
 Bleus 
 
 La Bouillie de la 1844 
 
 Com.'esse Berthe 
 
 La Boule de Neige 1853 
 
 ("The Snowball") 
 
 Bric-a-Brac 1 8 6 1 
 
 Un Cadet de Famille i860 
 
 Mainly Dumas's, but probably 
 
 finished by an assistant. 
 Q) Writteti by P. Meurice, 
 
 probably under Dumas's 
 
 supervision. 
 For explanation of the abrupt 
 
 end see Part III. We believe 
 
 that this book is solely 
 
 Dumas's. 
 Dumas, in collaboration with 
 
 Meurice. 
 Dumas. This volume also con- 
 tains "Herminie" or "Une 
 
 Amazone." 
 Stated by Thackeray to be half 
 
 original, half derived from an 
 
 anonymous work. 
 The story of Siegfried. See 
 
 "La Bouillie," etc. 
 In collaboration with Maquet, 
 
 who finished the romance. 
 
 Dumas's last work. Contains 
 "The Eighth Crusade." 
 
 A fairy - tale for children. 
 Followed, in Cahnann-Levy, 
 by "Aventures de Lyderic." 
 
 Written by Dumas from Mar- 
 linsky. 
 
 Fugitive papers and autobio- 
 graphical "mems." 
 
 A translation, at tlie direction of 
 Dumas, of Trelawney's " Ad- 
 ventures of a Younger Son." 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 359 
 
 Name of Book. 
 
 Year of 
 Publication. 
 
 Le Cajn'faine Pamphile 1 840 
 
 Le Capitaine Paul 1832 
 
 (Jones) 
 
 Lc Capitaine Richard 1858 
 
 Catherine Bliuii 1854 
 
 Causeries 
 
 i860 
 
 Ceci/e, or Lc Robe de 1S43 
 
 Noce 
 La Chasse au Chastre 1841 
 
 Le Chasseur de Sau- 1859 
 vagiiie 
 
 L.e Chateau D'JEppsteift 1 844 
 
 Le Chevalier D'Har- 1843 
 
 menthal (or "The 
 
 Consi)irators ") 
 Le Chevalier de 1846 
 
 Maison-Rouge 
 Le Collier de la Reine 1849-50 
 La Co'ombe 185 1 
 
 Les Compagnons de 1857 
 
 Jehu 
 Le Comte de Monte 1844 
 
 Cristo 
 
 Remarks re Autiienticitv, etc. 
 
 Written by Dumas for a 
 children's journal. 
 
 Dumas's sequel to Fenimore 
 Cooper's " Pilot." 
 
 Undoubtedly Dumas. 
 
 Said to have been suggested by 
 Iffland's "Gardes Forestiers." 
 Dymas. Translation out of 
 print. 
 
 A collection of autobiographia, 
 jeux d'esprit and sporting 
 sketches. Contains also D.'s 
 impressions of England. 
 
 Probably mainly by a collabo- 
 rator. 
 
 Dumas. Licluded in the " Im- 
 pressions de Voyage "("Le 
 Midi de la France"). 
 
 Probably written by Dumas 
 from a story supplied by the 
 Comte de Cherville. 
 
 According to Dumas, narrated 
 to him in 1841. Probably 
 not his. 
 
 Dumas, with the assistance of 
 Maquet. 
 
 Ditto. See "Memoires d'un 
 
 Medecin." 
 Ditto. 
 Dumas. Bound with " Maitre 
 
 Adam le Calabrais" (C.L.). 
 Dumas. Probably with Paul 
 
 Bocage's assistance. 
 Dumas, with the assistance of 
 
 Maquet. 
 
360 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 Name of Book. 
 
 Year of 
 Publication. 
 
 *Le Comte de Moret 1866 
 
 La Conitesse de 1853-5 
 
 Charny 
 La Conitesse de Sails- 1839 
 
 Iniry 
 Les Confessiojis de ia 1857 
 
 Marquise 
 
 Consciejice P Innocent 1853 
 ''orTEnfafit" 
 
 *Crimes Celebres 1839-40 
 
 La Dame de Mon- 1846 
 soreau (" Chicot the 
 Jester ") 
 
 La Dame de Volupte 1863 
 
 Les Deux Diane 
 
 1846-7 
 
 Les Deux Remes 
 Dieu dispose 
 
 1864 
 1852 
 
 Remarks re Authenticity, etc 
 
 Dumas. Not available either 
 in French or English. 
 
 Dumas alone. See " Memories 
 d'un Medecin." 
 
 First chapter fiction ; the rest a 
 mere chrojiiqtie of history. 
 
 Part of a version of the 
 " Memoires de Madame du 
 Deffand." Not by Dumas. 
 
 Written by Dumas on the basis 
 of some chapters in Hendrik 
 Conscience's "Conscrit." 
 
 Under the editorship of Dumas, 
 and most of the articles 
 written by him. (See Part 
 III.). 
 
 Dumas, with the assistance of 
 Maquet. See " Les Quarante- 
 Cinq." Not a sequel to " La 
 Reine Margot." 
 
 From the " Memoires de Mdlle. 
 de Luynes." Unlikely to be 
 by Dumas. 
 
 It is said that Dumas, in a 
 letter written to Meurice in 
 1865, gives that ex-colla- 
 borator the entire " honours " ' 
 of this historical romance. 
 He probably dictated the 
 plot, however. The same 
 no doubt applies to " Le 
 Page Ju Due de Savoie." 
 
 Sequel to " La Dame de 
 Volupte." 
 
 Dumas. Sequel to "Le Trou 
 de I'Enfer." 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 361 
 
 Year ok 
 Name of Book. Publication. 
 
 Le Docteur MystMeux 1872 
 
 Ejnma Lyonna 
 
 La Fille dti Marquis 
 Une Fille du Regent 
 Le Fils du Forcat 
 Les Freres Corses 
 
 Gabriel Lamberi 
 
 Georges 
 
 1865 
 
 La Femme au Collier 1851 
 
 de Velours 
 Fcriiande 
 
 1844 
 1872 
 
 1845 
 i860 
 
 1845 
 1844 
 
 La Guerre des Fern- 1845-6 
 
 mes (Nanon) 
 Histoire de mes Bites 1 868 
 
 Histoire d'un Casse- 1844 
 Noisette 
 
 Remarks re Authenticity, etc. 
 
 Dumas. Published in book 
 form pos.thumously. See 
 "La Fille du Marquis." 
 
 Sequel to "La San Felice. 
 " Emma" is Lady Hamilton, 
 on whose reputed Memoirs 
 Dumas is said to have based 
 the work. 
 
 Dumas. " After " Hoffmann. 
 
 Not Dumas. Claimed by H. 
 Auger. 
 
 Sequel to " Le Docteur Mys- 
 terieux." 
 
 Dumas with Maquet's assist- 
 ance. 
 
 Dumas in collaboration with 
 an anonymous assistant. 
 
 Undoubtedly Dumas. With 
 this (in C.-L.) is bound 
 " Otho I'Archer." 
 
 Either based on fact as alleged, 
 or on a story supplied to 
 Dumas. 
 
 Attributed by some to Malle- 
 fille. Much more probably 
 by Dumas with Mallefille's 
 assistance. 
 
 Dumas with Maquet's assist- 
 ance. 
 
 Dumas chatting on pets, ser- 
 vants, etc. : with some auto- 
 biographical episodes. 
 
 Translated and adapted from 
 Hoffmann's book of that 
 name. 
 
362 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 Name of Book. 
 
 L'Homme aux Contes 
 
 Year of 
 Publication. 
 
 1858 
 
 L'Horoscope 
 
 1858 
 
 Llle de Feu 
 
 1870 
 
 Inginue 
 
 1854 
 
 Isaac Laquedem 
 
 1853 
 
 Isabel de Baviere 
 
 1836 
 
 Jacques Ortts 
 
 1839 
 
 Jacquot sa7U Oreille s 
 
 1859-60 
 
 Jane 
 
 1863 
 
 Les Louves de Mach e- 1859 
 colli 
 
 Madame de Chamblay 1863 
 
 La Mai son de Glace i860 
 
 Remarks re Authenticity, etc. 
 
 Collection of translations of 
 fairy-tales from other lan- 
 guages. 
 
 Little more than a fragment, 
 but undisputably Dumas. 
 
 Dumas, probably in collabora- 
 tion with an "assistant" who 
 knew Java. 
 
 Dumas. Said to have been 
 written with Maquet, but tliis 
 is unlikely. 
 
 Little more than a fragment. 
 Stopped b" the Censor. 
 Dumas's own work. 
 
 A series of scenes selected, 
 dramatised and vitalised with 
 dialogue from Barante's 
 "Histoire des Dues de Bour- 
 goyne." Translation out of 
 print. 
 
 A translation, said to be by 
 Fiorentino, of a work by Ugo 
 Foscolo. 
 
 Said to have been "given" to 
 Dumas : certainly not by 
 him. 
 
 From the Russian of Marlinsky. 
 Contains also "Un coup de 
 feu" and "Le faiseur de 
 cerceuils" (both also from 
 the Russian). 
 
 Dumas- Probably with an 
 
 assistant. 
 Doubtful. Attributed to Octave 
 
 Feuillet. 
 Translated from the Russian. 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 363 
 
 XT T5 Year of 
 
 Name of Book. Publication. 
 
 Ma'ttre Adam ie Cala- 1840 
 brais ^ 
 
 r F.MARKS re Authenticity, etc. 
 
 Unquestionably Dumas. Bound 
 with "La Colombe." Colla- 
 borator: Fiorentino. 
 
 Dumas. From materials ob- 
 tained during a visit to Hol- 
 land. 
 
 Not by Dumas, 
 
 A version of the " Memoires 
 de Madame da Deffand." 
 See "Les Confessions de la 
 Marquise." Not by Dumas. 
 
 Dumas, with Maquet's assist- 
 ance. (Sequels : " Le Collier 
 de la Reine," " Ange Pitou," 
 " La Comtesse de Charny " 
 and "Chevalier de Maison- 
 Rouge." 
 
 Dumas. A tale of Villers-Cot- 
 terets. 
 
 The s*ory of his life, 1802-32. 
 
 Not now accessible. 
 
 Said to have been in collabora- 
 tion with Paul Bocage. A 
 treatise on the horrible, 
 rather than a story. 
 
 Dumas in collaboration with 
 Bocage. Translation now 
 out of print. Followed by 
 "Salvator." 
 
 "Appreciations" of Chateau- 
 briand, le Due et Duchesse 
 D'Orleans, Beranger, Sue, 
 De Musset, etc., by Dumas. 
 Une Nuit h Florence 186 1 Dumas. 
 
 1 A translation by the writer will shortly be published. 
 
 Les Mariages de Fere 1850 
 Olifus 
 
 Le Marquis d' Escoman 1861 
 
 (Drames Galantes) 
 Memoires d'lin Aveugle 1856-7 
 
 Les Memoires d'un 1847 
 Medecin ( " The 
 Memoirs of a Phy- 
 sician ") 
 
 Le Meneur de Loups 1857 
 
 Mes Memoires 1852-4 
 
 * Memoires d' Horace i860 
 Les Milles-ct-un Fan- 1849 
 tonics 
 
 Les Mohicans de Farts 1854-5 
 
 Les Marts vont vite 
 
 1861 
 
364 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 Name of Book. 
 
 Olympe de Clbves 
 
 Year of 
 Publication. 
 
 1852 
 
 Le Page du Due de 
 
 185s 
 
 Savoie 
 
 
 Parisie?is et Provin- 
 
 1864 
 
 ciaux 
 
 
 Pascal Bruno 
 
 1838 
 
 Le Pasteur d'Ashdourn 
 
 1853 
 
 Pauline 
 
 Le Pere Gigogne 
 
 Le Pere la Ruine 
 
 1838 
 
 i860 
 
 i860 
 
 Le Prince des Vokurs 
 
 1872 
 
 and Pobin Hood le 
 
 1873 
 
 Proscrit 
 
 
 La Prhicesse de Mon- 
 
 1854 
 
 aco 
 
 
 La Princesse Nora 
 
 1863 
 
 Remarks re Authenticity, etc. 
 
 It is asserted that Maquet was 
 a collaborator with Dumas in 
 this work. If so, his share 
 was small. 
 
 See " Les Deux Diane." 
 
 Dumas, in collaboration with 
 the Comte de Cherville. 
 
 Dumas. Bound with "Paul- 
 ine " (C. L.). 
 
 Not by Dumas. At most, re- 
 written by him from an 
 English story, or a German 
 story with an English locale. 
 
 Dumas. First indications ap- 
 peared in his Swiss " Impres- 
 sions de Voyage." 
 
 Chiefly, if not entirely, transla- 
 tions of fairy tales from 
 foreign authors, introduced 
 by " Le Lievre de mon 
 grandpere," told to Dumas 
 by de Cherville. One story 
 which bears the undoubted 
 stamp of our author's style is 
 " La Jeunesse de Pierrot." 
 
 Probably written with de Cher- 
 ville. 
 
 Not Dumas. Probably trans- 
 lations of some English 
 stories. 
 
 Not by Dumas. The title- 
 page announces the book as 
 " recueilli " par Alexandre 
 Dumas. 
 
 Translated from Marlinsky. 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 365 
 
 Name of Book. 
 
 Les Quarante - Cinq 
 
 ("The Forty -Five 
 
 Guardsmen") 
 La Reine Margot 
 
 ( " Marguerite of 
 
 Valois ") 
 El Salteador 
 (In Dent's edition 
 
 "The Brigand"). 
 
 Salvaior 
 
 La Safi Felice 
 
 Year of 
 Publication. 
 
 Smivenirs d' Antony 
 
 Remarks re Authenticity, tc 
 
 1848 Dumas, with Maquet's assist- 
 ance. The concluding por- 
 tion aictated to his son. 
 
 1845 Dumas, with Maquet. This 
 book has no sequel. 
 
 1854 In a prefatory note to this 
 romance in the " Mousque- 
 taire," Dumas disavows the 
 authorship. Nevertheless it 
 is probably by him and one 
 of his 'prentices. 
 
 1855-9 Dumas, with Bocage. See 
 ''Les Mohicans de Paris." 
 
 1864-5 Proved to be by Dumas. His 
 only long untranslated 
 romance. Followed by 
 *' Emma Lyonna " and 
 " Souvenirs d'un Fa- 
 vorite." 
 
 1835 A collection of short stories by 
 Dumas, previously published 
 — called after the hero of 
 the famous play, Antony 
 figuring in one of them, 
 "Z^ Bal Masquer The 
 others are ''■ Le Cocker de 
 Cabriolet^'' " Blanche de 
 Bcaulieu" (or " Le Rose 
 Rouge "), " Cherub 1710 et 
 Ceiestint,'^ *^ Bernard," '■^ Dojn 
 Martyns de Freytas," and 
 "■ Le Curi Cha7nbard:' Of the 
 untranslated ones " Cherti- 
 bino et Cetestini" is the most 
 important. 
 
866 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 Name of Book. 
 
 Souvenirs Dra matiques 
 
 Year 
 publicatic 
 
 1868 
 
 Souvenirs d^un Favorite 
 
 Sultanetta 
 
 Sylvandire 
 
 La Terreur Prussienne 
 
 Le Testament de M. 
 Chauvelin 
 
 Les Trois Mousque- 
 taires 
 
 1865 
 
 1859 
 
 1844 
 1867 
 
 1861 
 
 1844 
 
 Le Trou de TEnfer 1 850-1 
 
 Remarks re Authenticity, etc 
 
 Colle ction of articles by Dumas: 
 dramatic criticisms, essays on 
 the theatre and the State, 
 etc., including " William 
 Shakespeare," " Mon Odys- 
 see a la Comedie Frangaise," 
 and a report of the " special 
 commission" of 1849 (of 
 which Dumas was a mem- 
 ber) on the question of the 
 censorship. 
 
 See "La San Fehce" and 
 " Emma Lyonna." 
 
 Dum~^'s version of a Russian 
 story by Marlinsky. 
 
 Dumas with Maquet's assistance. 
 
 The thread of fiction is only 
 slight. Dumas treats chiefly 
 of Frankfort during the 
 Prusso- Austrian War of 1866. 
 
 Dumas, and partly autobio- 
 graphical. This volume in 
 C.-L. also contains " Don 
 Bernardo de Zuniga." 
 
 Dumas, with Maquet's assist- 
 ance. Founded on Courtils 
 de Sandraz's " Memoires de 
 D'Artagnan." Sequels : 
 
 "Vingt Ans Apres" and " Le 
 Vicomte de Bragelonne." 
 
 Dumas, possibly with Gerard 
 de Nerval or some other 
 'prentice acquainted with 
 Germany. Sequel, " Dieu 
 dispose," probably Dumas's 
 alone. 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 367 
 
 Name of Book. 
 
 La Tulipe Noire 
 
 Le Vicomte de Brage- 
 lonne 
 
 Utie Vie d' Artiste 
 
 Vingt Ans Aprt^s 
 ("Twenty Years 
 After") 
 
 Year of 
 publicai ion. 
 
 1850 
 1848-50 
 
 1854 
 
 1845 
 
 Remarks re Authenticity, etc. 
 
 Dumas, with Maquet's assist- 
 ance. 
 
 Dumas, with Maquet. Based 
 on n:atcrial taken from 
 Madame de la Fayette's 
 "Histoire d'Henriette d'- 
 Angleterre." See " Les Trois 
 Mousquetaires." 
 
 Dumas's account of the early 
 struggles of the comedian, 
 Melingue, the creator of the 
 stage "D'Artagnan." 
 
 Dumas, with Maquet. See 
 " Les Trois Mousquetaires." 
 
 History 
 Charles le Tcmeraire 
 
 Les JDranie de '93 
 
 Les Drames de la Mer 
 
 Filles, Lorettes 
 
 Courtisanes 
 Les Garibaldie7is 
 
 Oaule et France 
 
 Biography, etc. 
 
 1859 Historical sketch of Charles 
 
 the Bold of Burgundy. 
 1851-2 See "Louis XIV. et Son 
 Siecle." 
 
 1852 Includes " Boutikoe," " Le 
 
 Capitaine Marion," " La 
 Junon" and " Le Kent." 
 Stories of shipwreck and 
 other sea-adventures. 
 et 1873 "Les Serpents" is included in 
 this voUune. 
 1861 Dumas's "despatches from the 
 seat of war" during Gari- 
 baldi's progress from Sicily 
 to Naples, i860. 
 
 1853 A rapid survey of French his- 
 
 tory from the earliest time, 
 ending with a remarkable 
 prophecy as to the future. 
 
368 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 Name OP BOOK. pZlZrIcu. 
 
 Les Grands Hommes efi 
 Robe-de-chambre : 
 
 Cesar 1857-S 
 
 Henri IV. 1866 
 
 Louis XIII., et 1866 
 Richelieu 
 * Histoire des Bourbons 1863 
 
 Histoire de Louis 1852 
 Philippe 
 
 Les Hommes de Fer 1867 
 
 Italiens et Flamands 
 
 1846 
 
 Jehanne la Pucelle 1842 
 
 Louis XIV. et Son 1844-5 
 Siecle 
 
 Louis XV. et sa C our 1849 
 
 Louis XVI. et la 1 850-1 
 
 Revolution 
 
 Les Medicis 1845 
 
 Mimoires de Garibaldi i860 
 
 ^ Mimoires de Talma 1850 
 
 Remarks re Authenticity, etc. 
 
 Part of a scheme for a series 
 biographies of great men 
 from the earliest to the latest 
 period, written from a new 
 point of view. 
 
 Originally written in Italian, 
 " I Borboni di Napoli." 
 
 or " Histoire de Dix-Huit Ans " 
 (1830-48), published in 1853, 
 and again, "Le Dernier Roi." 
 
 A republished collection of 
 " studies " of Pepin, Charle- 
 magne, etc. 
 
 Appreciative sketches of 
 painters — Andrea del Sarto, 
 Botticelli, Holbein, Diirer, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 A " chronique " of Joan of Arc. 
 
 The first of a series of" histori- 
 cal eras" which ended with 
 the "Drame de '93." Dumas's 
 most important historical 
 work. 
 
 The series continued (" La 
 Regence " intervening). 
 
 Ditto : followed by the last of 
 the series, "'93." 
 
 Should be read in connection 
 with " Trois Maitres " and 
 " Italiens et Flamands." 
 
 An account of Garibaldi's ex- 
 ploits in S. America, written 
 by Dumas from materials 
 afforded by Garibaldi himself. 
 
 Written by Dumas from 
 materials left by Talma. 
 
APrEXDIX c 
 
 369 
 
 Name op Book. 
 
 Ykar of 
 Publication. 
 
 Remarks re Authenticity, etc. 
 
 Mhnoires d' Horace 
 
 i860 
 
 Not now accessible in English 
 or French. 
 
 Napolhn 
 
 1839 
 
 A picturesque biography. 
 
 La Rcgence 
 
 1849 
 
 See " Louis XIV. et son Siecle." 
 
 La Route de Varennes 
 
 i860 
 
 Story of Louis XVL's flight in 
 1791. 
 
 Les Stuarts 
 
 1840 
 
 Not a trustworthy work. Con- 
 tains lengthy extracts from 
 Scott's "Abbot," etc. 
 
 Trois Maitres 
 
 1862 
 
 The three masters are Michael 
 Angelo, Titian and Raphael. 
 See " Italiens et Flamands " 
 and " Les Medicis." 
 
 
 Travels 
 
 Une Annie a Florence 
 
 1841 
 
 See " Le Midi de la France." 
 
 B Arable Heureuse 
 
 i860 
 
 By Haii 'abd el Hamid Bey. 
 
 Les Balelnlers 1861 
 
 Le Capltalne Arena 1842 
 
 Le Caucase 
 
 
 1859 
 
 L,e Corrlcolo 
 
 
 1843 
 
 De Paris a Cadlx 
 
 
 1848 
 
 Excursions sur 
 
 les 
 
 1841 
 
 Bords du Rhln 
 
 
 
 Published by Dumas's assist- 
 ance. 
 
 The travels of Dr Felix May- 
 nard, published by Dumas. 
 
 Account of a voyage round 
 Sicily, etc. See " Le Speron- 
 are." 
 
 Sequel to the Russian " Im- 
 pressions." 
 
 Impressions of Naples. Written 
 with Fiorentino. 
 
 Letters from Spain, describing 
 Dumas's tour in 1846. See 
 "Le Veloce." 
 
 BelgKum and the Rhine. Pos- 
 sibly with Gerard de Nerval, 
 Dumas's companion. 
 2 A 
 
370 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 Name OP Book. pJ^rc^TToN. 
 
 Un Gil Bias en Call- 1852 
 fornie 
 
 Impressions de Voyage i860 
 
 en Russie and '65 
 
 Impressions de Voyage 1833 
 en Suisse 
 
 Mhnoires d'un Maitre 1 840 
 d'Armes 
 
 Le Midi de la France 1841 
 
 Un Pays Inconnu 1865 
 
 Quinze Jours au Sinai 1839 
 
 Le Speronare 
 
 Le Veloce 
 
 1842 
 
 La Vie au Desert i860 
 
 Remarks re Authenticity, etc. 
 
 Published by Dumas, with an 
 introduction by him. 
 
 Followed by " Le Caucase." 
 
 Dumas's first book of travel, 
 thought by many to be his 
 best. 
 
 Classified by Calmann-Levy 
 as " travels." Dumas edited 
 his friend Grisier's impres- 
 sions of St Petersburg, etc. 
 There is a slight element of 
 narrative. 
 
 Followed by " Une Annee a 
 Florence" and "La Villa 
 Palmieri." This book con- 
 cludes with " La Chasse au 
 Chastre." 
 
 Not Dumas. Notes on Brazilian 
 travel by another hand. 
 
 Written by Dumas from notes 
 by Baron Taylor, and draw- 
 ings by Dauzats. 
 
 Impressions of Sicily. Written 
 with the help of Fiorentino. 
 Followed by " Capitaine 
 Arena" and " Le Corricolo." 
 
 Account of Dumas's visit to 
 Tangiers, Algiers and Tunis, 
 etc. Sequel to " De Paris a 
 Cadix." 
 
 Simply a translation of R. G. 
 Gordon-Cumming's book on 
 the adventures of a lion 
 hunter in Africa. 
 
APPENDIX C 371 
 
 Namk of Book. PuuficATioN Remarks re Authenticity, etc. 
 
 La Villa Pabnieri 1843 Souvenirs of Florence. See 
 
 " Une Annee k Florence." 
 Contains " Un Alchimiste 
 du Dix-Neuvieme Sicclc." 
 
 The sixty-six plays are issued in twenty-five one-franc volumes, 
 or fifteen volumes at 3 f. 50 c, by MM. Calmann-Levy, as 
 follows : — 
 Tome Y\ — Comment je devins auteur dramatique. — La Chasse 
 
 et I'Amour. — La Noce et I'Enterrement. — Henri IIL et sa 
 
 Cour. — Christine. 
 Tome IL — Napoleon Bonaparte. — Antony. — Charles VIL chez 
 
 ses grands vassaux. 
 Tome IIL — Richard Darlington. — Teresa. — Le Mari de la 
 
 Veuve. 
 Tome IV. — La Tour de Nesle. — Angele. — Catherine Howard. 
 Tome V. — Don Juan de Marana. — Kean. — Piquillo. 
 Tome VI. — Caligula. — Paul Jones. — L' Alchimiste. 
 Tome VII. — Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle. — Un Mariage sous 
 
 Louis XV.^Lorenzino. 
 Tome VIII. — Halifax.— Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr. — Louise 
 
 Bernard. 
 Tome IX. — Le Laird de Dumbiki. — Une Fille du Regent. 
 Tome X. — La Reine Margot. — Intrigue et Amour. 
 Tome XL — Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge. — Hamlet. — Le 
 
 Cachemire vert. 
 Tome XII. — Monte-Cristo (i'^ partie). — Monte-Cristo (a^partie). 
 Tome XIII. — Le Comte de Morcerf (3^ partie de Monte-Cristo). 
 
 — Villefort (4" partie de Monte-Cristo). 
 Tome XIV. — La Jeunesse des Mousquetaires. — Les Mous- 
 
 quetaires. 
 Tome XV.— Catilina. — Le Chevalier d'Harmental. 
 Tome XVI. — La Guerre des Femmes. — Le Comte Hermann. — 
 
 Trois Entr'actes pour r Amour medecin. 
 Tome XVII. — Urbain Grandier. — Le Vingt-Quatre Fevrier. — 
 
 La Chasse au chastre. 
 
372 APPENDIX C 
 
 Tome XVIII. — La Barribre de Clichy. — Le Vampire. 
 
 Tome XIX. — Romulus. — La Jeunesse de Louis XIV. — Le 
 
 Marbrier. 
 Tome XX. — La Conscience. — L'Orestie. — La Tour Saint- 
 Jacques. 
 Tome XXL — Le Verrou de la Reine. — LTnvitation k la valse. — 
 
 Les Forestiers. 
 Tome XXII. — L'Honneur est satisfait. — Le Roman d'EIvire. — 
 
 L'Envers d'une conspiration. 
 Tome XXIII. — Le Gentilhomme de la Montagne. — La Dame 
 
 de Monsoreau. 
 Tome XXIV. — Les Mohicans de Paris. — Gabriel Lambert. 
 Tome XXV. — Madame de Chamblay. — Les Blancs et les Bleus. 
 
 — Simples lettres sur I'Art dramatique. 
 (Maurel adds : " Les Freres Corses," and " Pauline," but there is 
 
 no record of their public production.) 
 
APPENDIX D. 
 
 List of Books Consulted in the Preparation 
 OF THIS Work 
 
 The following list gives only the names of those authorities from 
 whom information has been obtained, i.e. represents about half 
 the books actually consulted : — 
 
 About, Edmond (see "Monument ^ A. Dumas"). 
 
 Asseline, A., "Courrier d'a-u^xeioxs" {L'Independance Beige, Nov. 
 
 20, 1870). 
 Audebrand, P., "A. Dumas k la Maison D'Or." 
 Banville, Theodore de, " Mes Souvenirs." 
 
 " Odes Funambulesques." 
 Beauvoir, Roger de, " Soupeurs de Mon Temps," with preface by 
 
 A. Dumas. 
 Blackwood's Magazine, 1835-72 inclusive. 
 " Brown, Oliver Madox," by J. H. Ingram. 
 
 Bury, Henry Blaze de, " A. Dumas, sa vie, son temps, son ceuvre." 
 Carpenter, G. C, Forum, June 1899, on "Will Dumas's novels 
 
 last?" 
 Castelar, Emilio, " Byron and other Essays " ("Alexandre Dumas." 
 "Chambers's Encyclopaedia," edition of 1868. 
 
 New edition (article on Dumas /eV^ by W. E, Henley). 
 Chasles, Philarete, Portrait d'A. Dumas. 
 
 Cherbuliez, Joel, Revue Critique des Livres Nouvelles, 1830-50. 
 Chincholle, C, " Dumas aujourd'hui." 
 Claretie, J. (see " Monument \ A. Dumas "). 
 Conscience, H., " Le Conscrit." 
 " D'Artagnan, Memoirs of," Courtils de Sandraz. 
 " D'Artagnan " : E. D'Auriac. Comparison of the romance with 
 
 the Memoires. 
 
 878 
 
374 APPENDIX D 
 
 "D'Artagnan, The Real," Sir H. Maxwell, Bart. {Blackwood s 
 Magazitie, June 1897). 
 
 Dash, Comtesse, " Memoires d'autres." 
 
 Deschanel, E., " A pied et en Wagon." 
 
 Dowden, Prof. E., " French Literature." 
 
 Du Camp, Maxime, " Souvenirs Litteraires." 
 
 Dumas fils, " Le Fils Naturel " (preface) ; Introductory letter to 
 " Les Trois Mousquetaires," edition de luxe, 1894; (see also 
 " Monument a A. Dumas "). 
 
 Dumas pere^ Autobiographical works — " Mes Memoires," " Sou- 
 venirs Dramatiques," " Causeries," " Bric-k-Brac," '* Les 
 Morts vont vite," " Les Garibaldiens," etc. 
 Romances. 
 Travels. 
 
 Historical Studies. 
 Plays. 
 
 Ferry, Gabriel, " Les Dernieres Annees d'Alexandre Dumas." 
 
 Fiorentino, P. A., " Comedies et Comediens." 
 
 Fitzgerald, P., " Life and Adventures of Alexander Dumas." 
 
 Garnett, Dr Richard, Introduction to "The Black Tulip." 
 
 Gautier, Theophile, " Histoire de I'art Dramatique " ; " Histoire 
 du Romantisme " ; "Belles Femmes de Paris." 
 
 Glinel, C-, "A. Dumas : Notes biographique et bibHographique." 
 
 Goncourt, Edmund and Jules, "Journal." 
 
 Gordon-Cumming, R. C, "The Adventures of a Lion Hunter in 
 South Africa." 
 
 Gozlan L., "Almanach Comique," 1848: article on the Chateau 
 " Monte Cristo." 
 
 Grisier, "Les Armes et le Duel." (Preface by A. Dumas.) 
 
 Hayward, Abraham, " Biographical Essays." (" A. Dumas.") 
 
 Heine, H., " Letters on the French Stage." 
 
 Henley, W. E., "Views and Reviews." 
 
 Hugo, C, " Les hommes de I'Exil." 
 
 " Hugo V. au Temoins." 
 
 Hugo, v., " Les Contemplations." 
 
 L' Illustration, 1846-7. 
 
 Janin, J., "Alexandre Dumas." 
 
APPENDIX D ;375 
 
 Karr, Alphonse, " Les Guepes " (periodical). 
 
 Lang, Andrew, "Essays in Little"; "Letters to Dead Authors." 
 
 Communication to the writer. 
 Lanson, G., " Histoire de la Litteraire Frangaise." 
 Larousse, P., "Grand Dictionnaire Frangais." 
 Matthews, Prof., Brander " Frencli Dramatists." 
 Maurel, A., " Les Trois Dumas." 
 " Monument h. Alexandre Dumas." Speeches by MM. About, 
 
 Claretie, etc. : Introduction by Duma.s Ji/s. 
 Mousqjietaire, Le, Journal edited by Dumas. 
 Nisard, D., " Histoire de I'Ecole Romantique." 
 Nodier, Marie Mennessier, " Charles Nodier." 
 Parigot, H., "Dumas Pere" ("Les Grands Ecrivains"); "Le 
 
 Drame d'Alexandre Dumas." 
 Parran, A., " Les Romantiques" (Bibliographical notes). 
 Pellissier, G., " Le Mouvement Litteraire au XIX" Siecle." 
 Pifteau, B., "Dumas en manches de Chemises." 
 Pollock, W. H., "Alex. Tixxmsis" {Nineteenth Century, Oct. iSSo). 
 Quarterly Review, 1890. 
 Querard, J. M., " Supercheries Litteraires." 
 Reade, Charles, "The Eighth Commandment." 
 Romand, H., "A. Dumas" {Revue des Deux Mondes, Jan. 15, 
 
 1834)- 
 
 Rossetti, W. M. Communication to the writer. 
 
 Sainte-Beuve, C. A., " Causeries du Lundi." 
 
 Saintsbury, Geo., Prof., "Essays"; "History of French Litera- 
 ture." 
 
 Sand, George : Correspondence. 
 
 Sechan, "Souvenirs d'un Homme de Theatre." 
 
 Spectator, December 17th, 1870. 
 
 Stevenson, R. L., "Memories and Portraits"; "Letters to his 
 family and friends." 
 
 1 " Stones of Paris," B. E. and C. M. Martir.. 
 
 ^ This book gives interesting details respecting Dumas's various 
 residences in Paris, and the localities mentioned in connection wih 
 the leading romances— the scene of the quadruple duel in " Les Trois 
 Mousquetaires," etc. 
 
376 APPEISDIX D 
 
 Swinburne, A. C, Essays ("Charles Reade"). Communication 
 
 to the writer. 
 Thackeray, W. M., " Paris Sketch-Book" ; "Roundabout Papers" 
 
 ("A Peal of Bells ") ; Letters to the Revue Britannique, 
 
 1847. 
 Trelawney, " Adventures of a Younger Son." 
 Vandam, A., " An Englishman in Paris." 
 Villemessant, " Memoires d'un Journaliste. 
 Walkley, A. B., "Playhouse Impressions." 
 Weiss, J. J " Le Theatre et les Mceurs." 
 
INDEX 
 
 {For Dumas' s dramatic iVorks see " Plays ; "for his other Writings 
 see " Works.") 
 
 About, E., ioi, 147, 199, 247, 291, 
 
 ,3°5; 342 
 L'Amiral (Emilie Cordier), 108-10 
 Asseline, A., 137 
 Audebrand, P., 97 
 Auger, H., 198 
 
 B 
 
 Balzac, 147, 157-8, 161, 219, 274, 
 
 296, 305, 316 
 Banville, T. de, 82, 135 
 Barante, 61, 186, 188 
 Belgium, Dumas's tour in, 71 
 Beranger, 17, 129, 162, 265,313 
 Berri, Duchesse de, 46-7 
 Bocage, P., 231, 233, 245, 247 
 Brandes, G. , 278 
 Bret Harte, 326 
 Brohan (Mdlle. A.), 112, 164 
 Brussels (Dumas's stay in), 94-5 
 Bryce, Prof., 333 
 Buloz, 25, 1589 
 Bury, B. de, 92, 98, 141, 143, 146, 
 
 149. 153-5, 157, 224-5, 243, 261, 
 
 275-6, 300, 310, 337, 340 
 Byron, 23, 26, 60, 104 
 
 Carpenter, G. C., 206, 211, 241, 
 
 296, 322, 334 
 Cassagnac, G. de, 163, 282, vii 
 Castelar, E., 200, 2S6, 291, 313, 341 
 Chaffault, du, 92-3, 134, 167 
 Chambers's Encyclopaedia, 275-6, viii 
 Charles X., 26, 34, 40, 42, 46, 69 
 
 Chateaubriand, 66, 162, 190, 265 
 
 Cherbuliez, J., 191, 266 
 
 Cherville, ConUe de, 249, 251, 254 
 
 Chincholle, C, 242 
 
 Cholera, visitation, 62 
 
 Claretie, J., 331 
 
 Comedie P'rani^aise, 28-9, 3'» 37> S^j 
 
 55. 69, 71, 86, 98-9, 118, 127, 151, 
 
 154, 158, 165 
 Conscience, H. ("Le Conscrit "), 239 
 Cooper, Fenimore, 24, 157, 191 
 Corneille, 19, 27-8, 76, 127, 131, 156 
 
 D 
 
 DameauxCamelias, La, 144-5,154, 
 
 314 
 D'Artagnan, Maxwell on, 201 
 " D'Artagnan, Memoires de," 201-5 
 Dash, Comtesse, 72 
 Davy de la Pailleterie, Marquis A., 
 
 4, 6 
 Delacroix, 23, 59, 1 19 
 Delavigne, C, 17, 23, 25, 36, 75, 313 
 De Leuven, A., 16-7, 19, 24, 112 
 De Musset, A., 35, 56, 59, 142, 159, 
 
 162, 252, 265 
 Deschanel, E. , 95 
 Dickens, C, 157, 330 
 Dorval, Marie, 50, 52, 54«, 94, 170, 
 
 244, 265 
 Dowden, Prof. E,, 278 
 Doyle, Sir A. C-, 227, 326 
 Du Camp, M., 114-5, 126, 132-4, 140, 
 
 263, 301 
 Dumas : — 
 
 ^'ils, 35, 39, 57, 72, 76, S3, 109, 
 112, 121-3, 132-3, 142-6, 152-4, 
 165, 173. 177-S0, 208, 210, 247, 
 312, 315, 331, 340, 347-8 
 
 377 
 
378 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Dumas — continued 
 
 General, 4, 6-9, 20, 169, 178, 185, 
 
 247. 340 
 Louise-Cessette, 4, 6 
 Madame {n^e Labouret), 4, 13, 21, 
 
 32, 39, 69-70, 163, 185 
 Madame {uc'e Ferrier), 72-3, 159 
 Madame (/iVj), 145, and ded. 
 Marie-Alexandre, 50, 72, 109, 121, 
 
 Pere, his parentage, 4 ; birth, 4, 8 ; 
 boyhood, 9-15 ; youth, 15-21 ; 
 goes to Paris, 21 ; early dramatic 
 successes, 32-8; first love-affair, 
 38-9; marriage, 73-3; " Trois 
 Mousquetaires " and "Monte 
 Cristo, " 76-8 ; his theatre, 86, 
 93-4 ; his chateau, 80, 87, 93-4 ; 
 exile in Brussels, 94-5 ; " Le 
 Mousquetaire," 96, 97 ; visit to 
 England, 101-5 ; with Garibaldi, 
 113-15 ; illness, 120-3 ; death, 
 I23 ; burial at Villiers-Cotterets, 
 123. Statue to, 342« 
 
 Ferry, G., 90, 106, 116, 171, 173, 
 
 255-6 
 Feuillet, O., 252 
 Fiorentino, P. A., 77, 161, 192, 
 
 215, 259, 266, 292, 310 
 Fitzgerald, P., 6, 81, 87, 115, 169, 
 
 223, 259, 282, viii, ix 
 Florence (visit to), 73, 76 
 Foy, General, 22, 267 
 France, travels in the south of, 67 
 Frankfort (visit to), 120 
 
 Gaillardet, 63-4 
 
 Garibaldi, II3-15, 251 
 
 Garnett, Dr, 263, 274, 279«, 332, 
 
 " 336, 338-9. 340 
 Gautier, T., 76, 194, 291 
 Girardin, Madame de, 85, 1 16, 142, 300 
 Glinel, C., 108, 155W, 266-7, 277, x 
 Goethe, 27, 60, 157, 295, 312-13 
 Goncourts, The, 202, 330 
 Gorki, M., 327 
 
 Grisier, 147, 192 
 Guizot, 84, 171 
 
 H 
 
 Harel, 48, 62-s 
 
 Hay ward. A., 99, 273, 296, 329, 338 
 Heine, H., 68, 162, 310, 332 
 Henley, W. E., 146, 236, 243, 276, 
 
 2S2, 312, 317, 343, viii 
 Homer, 156, 335 
 Hugo, C., 112, 165 
 Hugo, v., 23, 35, 38, 52, 62, 69, 75, 
 
 94-5,98, 112, 135,156, 162-5, 170, 
 
 172, 180, 183, 202, 267, 2S3, 
 
 310-12, 318, 339-40 
 
 " Indipendant" (Journal), 115 
 Italy, travels in, 67 
 
 J 
 
 Jacquot ("E. de Mirecourt"), 81-3, 
 
 125, 194, 215, 276, 341, vii, viii 
 Janin, J., 63, 78, III-2, 162, 331 
 
 K 
 
 Karr, A. (" Les Guepes"), 191 
 Kean, E., 26 
 
 Lafayette, Gen., 41-2, 47, 59, 162 
 La Fayette (Madame de), 205, 2 10- 11 
 Lamartine, 23, 120, 162, 1S4, 283, 
 
 339 
 Lang, A., 88, loi, 131, 133, 156, 166, 
 
 199, 201, 215, 221, 227, 291-2, 
 
 296, 302-3, 320, 335, ix 
 Lanson, G. , 278 
 Lassagne, 25, 183 
 Lebay, Madame, 38-9 
 Lecomte, J., 159-60 
 Lectures (Dumas's), 119-20 
 Legion of Htmour, Dumas's, 68 
 Lemaitre 59, 68 
 
 Letters (from Dumas), 109-12, 145-6 
 Louis XVIIL, 14, 26 
 
INDEX 
 
 379 
 
 Louis Philippe (at first Due d'Orleans), 
 22, 31, 33, 36, 40, 46-7, 68, 83, 86, 
 89. 90, 93, ix 
 
 M 
 
 Maison D'Or (Dumas at), 97 
 
 Mallefille, 134, 197, 266 
 
 Maquet, A., 85, 95-6, 135-6, 195, 
 
 205, 215-7, 222, 226-9, 231, 236-8, 
 
 245«, 290, 292, viii 
 " Marion Delornie," 52, 56, 163 
 Mariinsky, 244, 248 
 Mars, Mdlle., 16, 32, 52, 59 
 Matthews, Brander, 287, 289, 305, 
 
 312, 32S-9, 33S, ix 
 Maurel, A., 250 
 Melingue, 112, 136, 245 
 Merimee, P., 162, 22 Im 
 Mery, L., 112, 193, 200 
 Meurice, P., 89, 112, 198, 220, 228, 
 
 246 
 Michelet, J., 241, 315, 340 
 "^Jirecourt, E. de " (j^(S Jacquot) 
 " Mois, le " (Journal), 90 
 Moliere, 27, 76, 2S8-9, 295 
 " Monte Cristo and his wife," 214;/ 
 Monte Cristo, Chateau of, 80-1, 87-9, 
 
 93, 94, 140, 265 
 " Monte Cristo " (Journal), loi 
 Monte Cristo (Visit to Isle of), 73 
 Montpensier, Duke of, 78, 83, 85-6-7, 
 
 9° 
 " Mourir pour la patrie" (song), 91 
 
 " Mousquetaire, Le," 96, loi, 137, 
 
 164, 2I4« 
 
 N 
 
 Naples (Dumas at), 1 14-16, 140 
 Napoleon, 7, 9, 14, 103, 240, 248, 262 
 Napoleon III., 66, 73, 90, 118, 122, 
 
 295 
 Nisard, D., 281, 298, 305 
 Nodier, C, 23, 34-5, 65, HI, 162, 
 
 2,-5. 24''', 256 
 Nodier, Marie, 34-5 
 Norval, G. de, 258 
 
 o 
 
 Ori.kans, Duke of (at first Duke of 
 Chartres), 68, 70, 75, 90, 171, 251 
 
 Parigot, IL, 6, 41,49, 190, 202, 210, 
 211, 221, 225, 236, 243, 258, 259, 
 267,275-6, 27S, 305.315. X 
 
 Parran, A., 244 
 
 Pellisbier, G., 278 
 
 Pifteau, B., 128, I76«, 253 
 
 Plays :— 
 
 L'Alchimiste, 267 
 Antony,. 23, 32, 49-57, 60, 74, 
 94, 172, 176, 185, 284-S, 316, 
 3I7« 
 Angele, 59, 74, 185 
 Caligula, 68-9, 72, 158, 189, 267, 
 
 284, 3i7« 
 Catherine Howard, 68, 103, 298 
 Charles ^'II. et ses Grands Vassaux, 
 
 56-7, 267 
 La Chasse et 1' Amour, 24, 151 
 Chevalier de Maison-Rouge, 91 
 Christine, 28-30, 37-8, 49, 68, 176M, 
 
 313 
 Le Comte Hermann, 94, 153, 171 
 
 235, 2S6-7 
 La Conscience, 98, 164, 287 
 Les Demoiselles de St Cyr, 71, 99, 
 
 162 
 Don Juan de Marana, 68, 284, 286, 
 
 3i7« 
 Halifax, 153, 226 
 Hamlet (translation of), 89 
 Henri III. et sa Cour, 30-34, 36, 
 
 163, 184, 217, 220, 284-5 
 L'Invitation a la Vake, lOl 
 Kean, 68, 103, 298, 3I7« 
 Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle, 71, 151, 
 
 170, 229 
 Une Mariage sous Louis Quinze, 
 
 71 
 Le Marbrier, 98, 287 
 Le Mari de la Veuve, 62 
 Monte-Cristo, 94, 218 
 La Noce et L'Enterrement, 25 
 Napi^leon, 48 
 Richard Darlington, 56-9, 74, 94, 
 
 103, 176, 220 
 
380 
 
 INDEX 
 
 riays — continued 
 
 Romulus, 98, 154 
 
 Teresa, 59 
 
 La Tour de Nesle, 63-4, 74, 184, 
 284, 286, 290, 316 
 
 Les Trois Mousquetaires, 136, 152 
 ( For- full list of plays see Appendix C. ) 
 Pollock, W. H., 63-4, 127, 132, 275, 
 
 295, ix 
 Poetry by Dumas, 50-1, 56-7, 70, 
 
 267-8 
 Porchcr, 139, 159 
 "Psyche, Le," 25, 267 
 Puys, 121-3 
 
 " Quarterly Review," 277 
 Querard, 228, viii, ix 
 
 R 
 
 Racine, 28, 36, 156, 295 
 
 Reade, C, 96, 195, 215, 273, 294, 
 
 339 
 "Revue des deux Mondes," 25, 61, 
 
 158, 288 
 Rhine, Dumas's travels on, 71 
 Romand, H. (on Dumas), 176 
 Rossetti, D. G., 233, 316-17 
 Rossetti, W. M., 233, 317 
 Rossini, 59, 153, 162 
 Rostand, 315 
 Rousseau, 129 
 Russia (Dumas's tour in), 106-8 
 
 Sainte-Beuve, C. a., 35, 267, 280 
 
 St Germain, 89 
 
 Saintsbury, Prof., 188, 192, 196, 206, 
 
 219, 227, 250, 252, 280, 291, 306, 
 
 321, 328, 333 
 Sale of Dumas's work, 122 
 Sand, George, 142, 158, 162, 230, 
 
 274. 314 
 Sardou, V., 313, 315 
 Schiller, 17, 19, 27, 28, 153, 157, 285, 
 
 311, 313 
 Schlegel, A. W., 248 
 
 Scott, Sir W., 23, 26, 28, 61, 104, 
 133. 157. 186, 189, 190, 222, 254, 
 261, 293-4-5, 3^2,, 317-26, 327, 334 
 Scribe, E., 73-5, 133, 162 
 Shakespeare, 16, 19, 26, 27-8, 104, 
 153, 156-7, 209, 223, 265, 285, 287- 
 .8-9, 295, 3", 3 12, 315, 334, 336, 340 
 Sicily (Dumas in), 114 
 Sienkiewicz, H., 191, 322 
 Soissons (Dumas's exploit at), 42-6 
 "Son of Porthos, The," 214;? 
 Soulie, F., 28, 37, 162 
 Spain, Dumas's visit to, 83-4 
 Stevenson, R. L. , 125, 168, 207-8, 
 213, 276, 296, 303, 306, 327, 340, 
 
 345 
 " Stones of Paris," 1 16 and app. D 
 Sue, E., 59, 216 
 Swinburne, A. C, 162, 184, 234, 307, 
 
 316, 340 
 Switzerland, Dumas's travels in, 66 
 "Sylphe, La" (poem), 268 
 
 Talma, 16, 19, 32 
 
 Taylor, Baron, 29, 260 
 
 Tennyson, 186 
 
 Thackeray, W. M., 68, 157, 191, 
 
 196, 201, 207, 293, 316, 326 
 Theatre (Dumas's), 86-7, 93-4, 1 19, 
 
 218 
 Thierry, A., 62, 184, 186 
 
 U 
 
 United States, Dumas and, 116-7 
 
 Vandam, A., 89;;, loo, 141, 14S, 
 
 1 76M 
 Vendee, La, 46-7 
 A'ictoria (Queen), 99 
 Victor Emmanuel, 115 
 Villemessant, 76-8, 99, 132, 140, 144, 
 
 344 
 Villers-Ccttercts, 123, 167, 170, 237, 
 
 239, 240, 243, 247, 254 
 Virgil, 157 
 
INDEX 
 
 381 
 
 w 
 
 " Waverley," 323-4 
 
 W , Melanie, 49 
 
 Works by Dumas, or attributed to 
 
 him : — 
 
 Acte, 190, 194 
 
 Amaury, 198 
 
 Ange Pitou, 10, 236-8 
 
 Ascanio, 219 
 
 Une Amazone, 252 
 
 Une Aventure d'amour, I42, 252 
 
 Aventures de Lyderic, 194 
 
 Aventures de John Davys, 191 
 
 Le Batard de Mauleon, 227 
 
 Black, 248 
 
 Les Blancs et les Bleus, 256 
 
 La Bouillie de la Comtesse Berthe, 
 
 257 
 La Boule de Neige, 244 
 Bric-a-Brac, 154, 228, 265 
 Un Cadet de famille, 251 
 Le Capitaine Pamphile, 193 
 Le (^apitaine Paul, 191 
 Le Capitaine Richard, 247 
 Catherine Blum, 238, 240 
 Causeries, loi, 109, 167, 215, 220, 
 
 265 
 Cecile, 197 
 
 La Chasse au Chastre, 193, 258 
 Le Chasseur de Sauvagine, 249 
 Le Chateau d'Eppstein, 194 
 Le Chevalier d'Harmental, 195, 335 
 Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge, 224 
 Le Collier de la Reine, 231 
 La Colombe, 255 
 Les Compagnonsde Jehu, 103, 147, 
 
 217, 246 
 Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, 76-8, 
 
 2i4-9> 233, 245,274 
 Le Comte de IMoret, 255 
 La Comtesse de Charny, 237-8, 241 
 La Comtesse de Salisbury, 188 
 Conscience I'Innocent, 10, 238-40 
 Creation et Redemption (Le 
 
 Docteur mysterieux et La Fille 
 
 du Marquis), 242 
 Crimes Cclebres, 266 
 La Dame de Monsoreau, 226 
 Les Deux Diane, 228 
 Dieu dispose, 234 
 Le Drame de '93, 261 
 Emma Lyonna, 254 
 
 Works — continued 
 
 La Femme au collier de velours, 235 
 
 Fernande, 197 
 
 Une Y\\\q du Regent, 196 
 
 Le Fils du For9at, 249 
 
 Les Freres Corses, 220, 223 
 
 Gabriel Lambert, 220 
 
 Les Garibaldiens, 263 
 
 Gaule et France, 261 
 
 Georges, 197 
 
 Un Gil- Bias en Californie, 108 
 
 Les Grands Hommes en robe de 
 
 Chambre : — 
 
 Cesar, 261 
 
 Henri IV., 261 
 
 Louis Xin. et Richelieu, 261 
 La Guerre des Femmes, 220, 222 
 Ilistoire des Bourbons, 253 
 Ilistoire de Louis I'hilippe, 261 
 Histoire d'un casse-noisette, 258 
 Histoire de mes Betes, 227, 265, 319 
 L'Homme aux contes, 258 
 L'Horoscope, 248 
 L'lle de Feu, 250 
 Impressions de Voyage : — 
 
 En Suisse, 189, 258 
 
 Une Annee a Plorence, 259 
 
 Les Bords du Rhin, 258 
 
 Le Capitaine Arena, 259 
 
 Le Caucase, 260 
 
 Le Corricolo, 253, 259 
 
 Le Midi de la France, 193, 258 
 
 De Paris a Cadix, 84, 259 
 
 Quinze jours au Sinai', 260 
 
 En Russie, 260 
 
 Le Speronare, 259 
 
 Le Veloce, 84, 259 
 
 La Villa Palmieri, 259 
 Ingenue, 233, 245 
 Isaac Laquedem, 238, 243 
 Isabel de Baviere, 61, 158, 186, 
 
 188, 288, 2S9 
 Jacquot sans Oreilles, 194 
 Jehanne la Pucelie, 261 
 Louis XIV. et son Siecle, 261 
 Louis XV. et sa Cour, 261 
 Louis XVI. et la Revolution, 261 
 Les Louves de Machecoul, 249 
 Madame de Chaniblay, 251 
 La Maison de Glace, 250 
 Maitre Aclam, le Calabrais, 192-3 
 Le Maitre d'armes, 192 
 Les Mariages du Pere Olifus, 233 
 
382 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Works — contimted 
 Les Medicis, 261 
 Mes Memoiics, 10, 41, 48, 51, 58, 
 
 63, 85, 129, 131, 157, 172, 234, 
 
 238, 263, 285, 288, 318 
 Memoires de Garibaldi, 251 
 Menioires de Talma, 266 
 Memoires d'Horace, 265 
 Memoires d'un Medecin, 85, 228 
 Le Meneur de loups, 247 
 Les Mille-et-un P'antomes, 231, 242 
 I^es Moliicans de Paris, 245 
 Monte-Cribto {see Comte de) 
 Les Morts vont vite, 265 
 Napoleon, 261 
 
 Nouvelles Contemporaines, 24, 184 
 Une Nuit a Florence, 252 
 Olympe de Cleves, 236 
 Le Page du Due de Savoie, 246 
 Parisiens et Provinciaux, 254 
 Le Pasteur d'Ashbourne, 238, 244 
 Pauline, 189 
 Pascal Bruno, 189 
 Un Pays inconnu, 260 
 Le Pere Gigoone, 238, 257 
 Le Pere La Ruine, 251 
 La Princesse de Monaco, 245 
 Les Quarante-Cinq, 166, 230, 233 
 La Regence, 261 
 La Reine Margot, 220-2, 304 
 La Route de Varennes, 262 
 Le Salteador, 244 
 Salvator, 245 
 La San Felice, 103, 253, 294 
 
 Works — continued 
 
 Souvenirs d' Antony, 184-5 
 Souvenirs d'une Favorite, 254 
 Souvenirs dramatiques, 86, 161, 
 
 265, 314 
 Les Stuarts, 261 
 Sultanetta, 248 
 Sylvandire, 198 
 La Terreur Prussienne, .20, 2^6n, 
 
 262 
 Le Testament de M. Chauvelin, 50 
 
 Les Trois Mousquetaires, 76-8, 122, 
 173, 184, 199-208, 212, 214, 217, 
 233, 274, 323-4, 326, 333 
 Le Trou de I'Enfer, 234, 248 
 La Tulipe Noire, 231, 234, 276 
 Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, 207-8, 
 
 211-13,233, 298 
 La Vie au Desert, 251 
 Une Vie d'Artiste, 245 
 Vingt Ans Apres, 208, 212, 298 
 (/i^r other works, see Appendix C) 
 Weyman, 221, 326 
 
 Yonne (Dumas's candidature in the), 
 91-3 
 
 Zola, 297, 330, 340 
 
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