Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/428

 420

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9<s.iL'Nov.i9,'98.

the nature or extent of Dumas's obligation. Not a common book in France is the 'Memoires,' and in this country it is all but inaccessible. Those who are content to wade through a book which is as licentious as Grammont's memoirs without being so witty, and which is at times coarse enough for Rabelais or M. Zola, will find in a perusal of the three volumes, the first of which only has yet appeared, a vivid picture of life in Paris in the middle of the seventeenth century, and will obtain some few not very important, but not wholly nuga- tory notes on our own civil war, together with some comments of a shrewd and not too friendly observer upon English habits and manners. Now, moreover, at a time when half a dozen theatres are presenting Dumas, and when further adaptations ot his work are in prospect or in preparation, it is pleasant to contemplate the workmanship of the great master of romance, and admire the skill with which he turns lead into gold. What is most stimulating in Dumas's story does not, and could not, appear in what purports to be a memoir of D'Artagnan. At the period when the chief hero of the ' Trois Mousque- taires' is represented as protecting the loves of Buckingham and Anne of Austria, participating in the siege of La Rochelle, conducting a discreditable amour with Miladi, and all but witnessing the assas- sination of Buckingham, the real D'Artagnan, sub- sequently the captain-lieutenant of the first company of the King's Musketeers, the man commissioned to arrest Fouquet, was but five years old. The picture of the raw Gascon youth is, however, faith- ful enough, and his association with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, who are herein stated to have been brothers, was almost as close as Dumas states. The characters of these three herpes have been idealized, and the incredibly romantic adventures assigned them in the novel are not narrated in the chronicle. Miladi, however, appears in a very modified form, and M. de Treville, who was a real personage as, indeed, were all four musketeers. Some of the most startling things in Dumas are, moreover, given in this more or less veracious chronicle. We thus find, extraordinary as it may seem, that Louis XIII., stung to political jealousy of the correspond- ence between Anne of Austria and her brother, ordered his Chancellor to examine the person of the queen to see if she had upon her any concealed letters. D'Artagnan is, naturally, a little ribald concerning the execution of this commission. He declares that the neck and arms of the queen "were well rounded, and both were of a whiteness which surpassed that of the lily" ; and though no one was able to supply exact information, he found reason to conclude that what was "beneath the linen was not less fair than that which was visible."

The materials for these memoirs Courtilz de Sandras claims to have derived from the papers of D'Artagnan which came into his possession after the hero's death. Nothing of his own has, he assures us, been given except the connecting links which assign the whole sequence. Not very modest is D'Artagnan in the narration of his facile con- quests. Modesty, however, is not characteristic of the middle of the seventeenth century, and was scarcely to be hoped in the case of a cadet of a Bearnais family and a musketeer of the king. The historical aspects of the book have great interest, and the statements, if they could be trusted, would be important. D'Artagnan paid more than one visit to London, and took part, as he tells us, in one combat of King Charles's men against the army of

Essex. He appears to have had some knowledge of Charles, though this is not certain, and obtained a very friendly reception from Cromwell, to whom, in 1656, Mazariri sent him on a private mission. With exiled English royalty in Paris he appears to have been on fairly intimate terms. What he says about the English whom he met, and concerning English men and institutions generally, may be read with pleasure and profit. The translation by Mr. Nevill is spirited and accurate. In reading the translation we have reread a considerable part of the original. Therein though in the second part of the work, the translation of which has not yet appeared we come upon the earliest mention yet chronicled of a hackney coach. This philo- logists may care to see. We give it, accordingly, for their benefit, as it appears, vol. ii. p. 490: " Au lieu d'un Char de triomphe, comme je m'attendois d'en trouver un, je ne trouvai que ce qui s'appelle un Hackney-coach en ce pai's-Ia; Hackney-coach veut dire un Carosse de ipiiage, non pas comme nous en avons en France qui sont assez propres, & que nous appellons Caresses de remise, mais un miserable fiacre tels que Ton en voit aujourd i'hui sur la place du Pallais Royal, ou devant 1'Eglise des grands Augustins."

MESSRS. PICKERING & CHATTO have issued a large and very interesting illustrated catalogue of book rarities at present offered for sale by them.

to jffms0ttfcmfs.

We must call special attention to the following notices :

ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.

To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. Correspond- ents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication " Duplicate."

To VARIOUS CONTRIBUTORS. When queries are sent by the editor of the 'H.E.D.,' it serves no purpose to give references to the book in question. It is not much more useful to supply extracts from dictionaries such as those of Nares, Wright, and Halliwell, which DR. MURRAY has, necessarily, under his hand.

CORRIGENDA. P. 359, col. 1, 1. 17, for "Cam- bridge" read Oxford. P. 381, col. 2, 1. 16, for "two" read three. P. 390, col. 2, note f, 1. 3, for " 219" read 249.

NOTICE.

Editorial Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of 'Notes and Queries'" Advertise- ments and Business Letters to "The Publisher" at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.G.

We beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we dp not print ; and to this rule we can make no exception.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION BY POST For this Year, Fifty-three Numbert.

For Twelve Montha 1 6 11

For Six Months 10 6