Wednesday, September 17, 2008
D'Artagnan
I have a new hero. I've been reading the sequels to The Three Musketeers--oh, you didn't know there were sequels? There are:
* Twenty Years After (called a single novel, but published in two volumes in the edition I read, each volume about the same size as The Three Musketeers). This takes place, er... twenty years after the original book.
* The Vicomte of Bragelonne (also called a single novel, but published in three volumes in the edition I'm currently reading, each volume about the same length as The Three Musketeers). Most people are familiar with this novel, even if they don't know it--the last part of The Vicomte of Bragelonne is The Man in the Iron Mask.
I've just started the third part of The Vicomte of Bragelonne, The Man in the Iron Mask. In it, D'Artagnan, formerly hero of The Three Musketeers and now captain of the king's musketeers, has some harsh words for Louis XIV. Louis, the king, had behaved dishonorably by courting Athos's son's fiancee. You recall Athos--he was one of the original three musketeers, but is now an old man. The king had just sent Athos, the Comte de la Fere, to prison because Athos had called him on his dishonorable actions.
D'Artagnan takes on the king...
___
"Monsieur," said the king, "do you think you can excuse your friend by
exceeding him in insolence?"
"Oh! sire! I should go much further than he did," said D'Artagnan; "and
it would be your own fault. I should tell you what he, a man full of
the finest sense of delicacy, did not tell you; I should say--'Sire,
you have sacrificed his son, and he defended his son--you sacrificed
himself; he addressed you in the name of honor, of religion, of
virtue--you repulsed, drove him away, imprisoned him.' I should be
harder than he was, for I should say to you--'Sire; it is for you
to choose. Do you wish to have friends or lackeys--soldiers or
slaves--great men or mere puppets? Do you wish men to serve you, or to
bend and crouch before you? Do you wish men to love you, or to be afraid
of you? If you prefer baseness, intrigue, cowardice, say so at once,
sire, and we will leave you,--we who are the only individuals who are
left,--nay, I will say more, the only models of the valor of former
times; we who have done our duty, and have exceeded, perhaps, in courage
and in merit, the men already great for posterity. Choose, sire! and
that, too, without delay. Whatever relics remain to you of the great
nobility, guard them with a jealous eye; you will never be deficient in
courtiers. Delay not--and send me to the Bastile with my friend; for, if
you did not know how to listen to the Comte de la Fere, whose voice is
the sweetest and noblest in all the world when honor is the theme; if
you do not know how to listen to D'Artagnan, the frankest and honestest
voice of sincerity, you are a bad king, and to-morrow will be a poor
king. And learn from me, sire, that bad kings are hated by their people,
and poor kings are driven ignominiously away.' That is what I had to say
to you, sire; you were wrong to drive me to say it."
___
Go D'Artagnan! He said this fully expecting to be cast into prison himself. There is a happy ending to the scene, though. The king humbled himself a bit, and agreed to let Athos out of jail.
* Twenty Years After (called a single novel, but published in two volumes in the edition I read, each volume about the same size as The Three Musketeers). This takes place, er... twenty years after the original book.
* The Vicomte of Bragelonne (also called a single novel, but published in three volumes in the edition I'm currently reading, each volume about the same length as The Three Musketeers). Most people are familiar with this novel, even if they don't know it--the last part of The Vicomte of Bragelonne is The Man in the Iron Mask.
I've just started the third part of The Vicomte of Bragelonne, The Man in the Iron Mask. In it, D'Artagnan, formerly hero of The Three Musketeers and now captain of the king's musketeers, has some harsh words for Louis XIV. Louis, the king, had behaved dishonorably by courting Athos's son's fiancee. You recall Athos--he was one of the original three musketeers, but is now an old man. The king had just sent Athos, the Comte de la Fere, to prison because Athos had called him on his dishonorable actions.
D'Artagnan takes on the king...
___
"Monsieur," said the king, "do you think you can excuse your friend by
exceeding him in insolence?"
"Oh! sire! I should go much further than he did," said D'Artagnan; "and
it would be your own fault. I should tell you what he, a man full of
the finest sense of delicacy, did not tell you; I should say--'Sire,
you have sacrificed his son, and he defended his son--you sacrificed
himself; he addressed you in the name of honor, of religion, of
virtue--you repulsed, drove him away, imprisoned him.' I should be
harder than he was, for I should say to you--'Sire; it is for you
to choose. Do you wish to have friends or lackeys--soldiers or
slaves--great men or mere puppets? Do you wish men to serve you, or to
bend and crouch before you? Do you wish men to love you, or to be afraid
of you? If you prefer baseness, intrigue, cowardice, say so at once,
sire, and we will leave you,--we who are the only individuals who are
left,--nay, I will say more, the only models of the valor of former
times; we who have done our duty, and have exceeded, perhaps, in courage
and in merit, the men already great for posterity. Choose, sire! and
that, too, without delay. Whatever relics remain to you of the great
nobility, guard them with a jealous eye; you will never be deficient in
courtiers. Delay not--and send me to the Bastile with my friend; for, if
you did not know how to listen to the Comte de la Fere, whose voice is
the sweetest and noblest in all the world when honor is the theme; if
you do not know how to listen to D'Artagnan, the frankest and honestest
voice of sincerity, you are a bad king, and to-morrow will be a poor
king. And learn from me, sire, that bad kings are hated by their people,
and poor kings are driven ignominiously away.' That is what I had to say
to you, sire; you were wrong to drive me to say it."
___
Go D'Artagnan! He said this fully expecting to be cast into prison himself. There is a happy ending to the scene, though. The king humbled himself a bit, and agreed to let Athos out of jail.
# posted by John Colton @ 9:27 PM 
