Show c I Th of I v r. r JI f IW I l. l d I I Swashbuckling w S uC n DArtagnan Artagnan r a nano of Alexandra Alexandre Dumas Dumas' z ma Fascinating Romance Lifted LIlted From Volume of Another Author Written N Nearly arly Two Centuries t Earlier According I to o Latest Charges J s of oJ Parisian r. r L Literary eras m c s Critics Critics- l ay d t r i S w ws s 4 r L lr f r o n dh tir y C a rA j j 4 pt n v iri 3 3 d. d r t y r M J f L 1 y b x 5 rs s a f r. r K s ta It develops now it is charged d that Alexandre Alexandra Dumas stole this thi masterpiece which is probably thea the the a most famous and fascinating romance in the French language from a notorious scribbler named i Gatien de de Sandras wh who was one one of the ori originators of k modern l t Dumas simply rewrote and jazzed up inS in S about 1845 a a book that de SandI Sandras Sandras' Sandras Sand Sand- I ras ras' had published in 1700 The proof I t t of this is said to be overwhelming r The grave clever and swashbuckling DArtagnan actually liv lived d in flesh and f blood although the was li not nearly so dashing as he has been f painted His right name was Charles de l 5 5 Batz but he took hiS hiS' mothers mother's name of DArtagnan His family belonging belong belong- belonging ti ing to the lesser Gascon nobility lived In the region between Pau and Toulouse t In the extreme southern part of France krance ance DArtagnan was born bom some time between f 1610 and 1620 As a young man he went E to Paris to seek h his fortune like m many many o of the poor young nobles of the day daY daY-a and d eventually became a captain of musketeers musketeers mus mu- mus- mus as shown by many documents documents' in his own illiterate hand hald in the French War Ministry archives Mus Muskets ets were just then coming into n military use and two selected 1 companies J companies of gentlemen had been armed i t. t with them The gentlemen de detested ested the them as as they made such has nasty wounds and kept t ts f s t them for their enemies When th they y fought foght among themselves they contin continued e r- r to to use rapiers The muskets were so so heavy that every musketeer hada valet to carry his weapon ARTAGNAN DARTAGNAN was ted with some t confidential political missions and intrigues although the tale of ot how the of t. t 5 5 AnnE Queen Queen Anne of Austria wife of Louis ir XIII XIII XIII-secretly sent him to London to re recover re- re rt t L c cover cover ver the diamonds diamon slug slid had given thee the it e Duke of Buckingham her supposed S lover is a myth He lie may also have been involve In some amorous adventures 4 when he ho first arrived arnved in Paris but he finally marrI married d settled down and became v- v G an ultra-respectable ultra family man matt H He was killed at the siege of on June t f. 25 1673 by a musket bullet through the thet fit t it t throat oa i Being proud ol of their musketeer the f people of th the tho the Department the Department the part of the former Province of Gascony where t DArtagnan was born recently born recently to 7 erect a monument in his memory and andt t incidentally add a few lines of tribute on onI I the statue to Dumas for immortalizing S S him And then the storm of scandal broker broke r A 0 number of dirt distinguished i e literary in inI in- in I t l r rj r. r j y S 'S S 'S 1 2 L Y ff w Z y f Y r fa L J. J JY w T 5 t r 5 5 5 b i id 1 d I Y A scene from froni the screen version of Dumas Three l et Musketeers who have hav been gumshoeing amo among g. g D Dumas Dumas' twenty six dramas and 2 0 romances r rushed hed into t Paris news newspapers ys papers with the sensational rev revelation lation that Dumas had lifted th the plot the characters characters char char- and virtually all the det details of his smashing gripping yarn from de Sandras Sandras' book Memoirs of Monsieur dArt d'Art dArtagnan n Cap Captain tail tail- Lieutenant of the tho First Firs Company of the Kings King's' Musketeers Containing a a. a Quantity of ot Special Special- l and S Secret cret Incidents That Happened During wring the Reif 11 of Louis the Ibe Grand published r by Pierre e. Marteau ai at Cologne Germany riy S in 1700 and 1701 It It has always been understood that Dumas and the odd dozen-odd gh ghosts who worked in his romance factory were notorious notorious notorious no no- plagiarists but the extent of this plagiarism is still unknown today They stole much of the stuff from books printed several centuries s' s sago ago ago and now Nevertheless Dumas was a a. marvelous marvelous marvelous mar mar- French rewrite man or as the say a cook ook who could always add just the right sauce to 1 h t's ts 3 dish They called his his' novel factory the kitchen IJ i ll ARTAGNAN rea really ly owes his glory to toL L' L de de Sandras and if there was any justice in this this' world world the monument monument monument mon mon- should be erected in memory of the 1 latter declared d tho the crit critic Emile I I Henriot at the conclusion of a a. a two column article in the Temps and other critics were ev even n more more forceful This Gatien de de Sandras Sandras was was wasa a a. curious figure Born near Paris in 1644 he became an officer in Touts XIII's bodYguards bodyguards bodyguards bodY bodY- body body- guards but he had a taste for writing the scandalous chroni chronicles les that were so widely read at that time and abandoned ned l his s military car career career er Although well informed about all the intrigues at the court with witha a command of picturesque language an an- eye for the colorful col rf I highlights de Sandras was carel careless careless' ss ab about t confirming all his facts and never hesitated to add plenty plent of sauce to his t tales les Altogether he wrote more more than forty books about about the King his favorites and his tiis Ministers some of oS his character sketches being excellent The books were were virtually all all' printed in Amsterdam m and Cologne from where they w were were re smuggled d into France by various various vari vari- ous means de Sandras was thrown into the Bastille three Uin times s' s for fot this is the King didn't object to scandals about other people ople b but t it made him furious to have them written writ written ten about himself himself and and durin one one of those times for a period of three or four four years he was a fellow prisoner in the old oldcastle oldcastle castle with The Tile Man in the Iron Mask bu but apparently never knew it What t a c t is cl J i 1 I F l 2 r rf rj f j 45 Iry b 1 r. r 1 i I d j r r SI I ay t I S 'S 1 S v t 1 I I o MS r 1 I 5 r S r- r 9 v r ir irS S j cS 1 a li CI ir u. u 4 C r ll M. M 1 b S 7 r 4 F a III S1 r r F S Hr r J i-J I i rF S 'S v L 2 ya R J ki V t 3 FA ryS j d d. d S a b 6 Yr 1 r 0 N. N a G 9 5 i tf j yF t. t r Lya Al F The frontispiece of jf Gatien de de der r Sandras' Sandras l d de f r M. M I. I d' d dArtagnan Artagnan from y which work Alexandre Dumas left is now now- s accused by many scholars of taking the J Jit B R R. S S. S F Fendrick d. d k chief character and it r r By Y en fIC much of the v. v plot f r R. R r 1 r for The Three f sY i P. P Paris arISe Musketeers l 5 1 PROJECT to erect a monument to tor A u. u r DArtagnan Artagnan D' D b I 1 the the half r real half al mythical half i 5 0 2 3 t Ff I hero of The Three Musketeers has r revealed veale L. L a sensational plagiarism according to literary y yr M r critics St k Y Y s L SV yv r Y a s f A painting of DArtagnan DArtagnan by an an l t unknown artist story he would have made out of the M Mask sk Ho lIe actually wrote some seine of his known best-known books in the Bastille though no one knows how he got the copy out H He finally died in Paris in 1712 dc do Sandras had actually known DArtagnan and in al all probability had served under him He h had d heart hear the musketeer relate some of his exploits Twenty-five Twenty years later when the chronIcler chronicler chronicler chron chron- was lying in ill the Bastille the idea came to him to write a book about the picturesque Gascon adventurer In fact he wrote three v volumes lumes describing them themas as DArt D'Art gnan's memoirs as as' he specialized in fake memoirs As As it is not long since nce Monsieur dArtagnan died and there are arc several persons still alive who kne knew him and were actually his friends they who deemed him worthy of their esteem will f certainly not be annoyed because I 1 have gathered together here a number of incidents incidents inci- inci dents that I 1 found among his papers after 1115 Ills his death de Sandras declared i in iii i his preface To compose these mem memoirs irs I L merely arranged them in any orderly w way y and that and that is the only honor honorI I deserve in publishing them P I added nothing of my own own And in a special notice to the reader the writer added One will viIi find in the first volume of this work s some some m amour amorous adventures that will perhaps ps not be to the tho readers reader's taste Wise persons persons' like onry ony serious this thiJS but one must must r remember member that love is a young mans man's heritage and these could not be s suppressed without altering the truth When Monster Mon- Mon ster sier dArtagnan was a bit older he corrected corrected cor cor- this weakness ll S ST T i l Maurice urice Leloir's illustration of a scene in The uThe Three Musketeers in in- which DArtagnan Do saves Mme from the Cardinals Cardinal's agents Debunking Literature DUR TOURING DURING G the te last few months months s scholars hol rs have found new evidence which points strongly to plagiarism by famous authors One of the most notable examples is Bunyan's Pilgrims Pilgrim 5 Pros Progress ress wc which closely follows The Pilgrimage of Man a story by hy a Frenchman who lived three centuries before Bunyan The two stories are very close in plot characters presentation and often in illustration n. n The legend of Washington and and the Cherry Tree as told b by hy Y Weems Weem's in his his- his biography biography of of the first President is thought by many stud students to have been taken from an earlier book The Looking Glass for for the Mind believed to have been written by the Rev Samuel Cooper a Boston clergyman n. n also thought to have been founded Another story on a tale in inThe inThe inThe The Looking Glass for the Mind is Marys Little Lamb by Mrs Sara Josepha Hale fale In the older story story- the lamb belonged to Flora but buto o otherwise the two are very much alike t de Sandras who cynically expressed essed the tb i same pious respect for forthe forthe the truth ill V all h. h his 18 Pre prefaces f aces thereupon there there- thereupon upon plunged into a tale that that does him much credit credit- 1 as a romantic writer writer I It does not have all the verve and animation anima anima- animation tion that Dumas put into the story when he rewrote it years later Dum Dumas Dumas' s' s jazzed it up added more color and dialogue and lifted some some highlights highlights- from the chroniclers chronicler's other books the books the story of Milady being branded on the back with a lis fleur-de-lis came from de Roche- Roche dras dras' du du Comte de Rochefort Roche- Roche fort but fort but the plot the characters the principal incidents ar are the same J JUST JUST how much of the the original original Memoirs Memoirs Me eJ of Monsieur dArt d'Art dArtagnan is truth and how much fiction ll will probably never be known The book bookis Is is cert certainly not a memoir as DArta D'Arta DArtagnan cO could d barely write mite and probably left no papers The chronicler undoubtedly composed it but based it on some facts The other two volumes seem to be unknown to collectors In Ini Inthis i this thus Memoir which can still stUl be occasionally found in old Paris bookshops for two or three dollars de San San- d dras s has DArt D'Art DArtagnan tell the same same story of his departure from his Gascon home homo that Dumas told a bit more mor brilliantly so many years later My parents were so poor he ex explains that they hey could only glee give me an old nag and ten e us in my pocket to make the voyage to Paris But though they were unable to give me much money they made up for it with their good advice They urgel l t me to take care that I never show any cow cowardice as I shau should d never never be able to live it down They showed me that the reputation of a man of war the pro profession pro pro- I was going to embrace was as delicate as that of a womans woman's for the agauS slightest weakness would al always ys be held against me mc And then the chronicler leads his hero Into his most famous adventures DArtagnan DArtagnan DArtagnan DAr who is about 16 picks a fight with witha a man who had mocked him in a tavern near Orleans but a gang jumps on him and club him to the floor He is ro robbed bed of his e us his horse and his letter of ol introduction to Monsieur de Treville Trevino the Gascon friend of his family who had be become become become be- be come influential at Paris and is finally thrown into the town jail for two months He He finally arrives at Paris cleans himself himself him him- self up and goes to to the to-the the of ol Monsieur de Treville which he found full of musketeers speaking his own Gascon diale dialect t. t The one I spoke to was called Porthos he explains and had lived only two or three leagues from my fathers father's house He l had ad two Vo boon friends in the company one one called Athos Athas and the other Arams Monsieur de Treville had brought them all SI from my province as they had been SIS involved made 5 in m some fights there a that t had them a big reputation DArtagnan an joins th the irio trio of hap happy kete k- k musketeers mus mus- rs drinks with them goes Joyously to them duels with them and pl philanders with It is the same story no as T in Musketeers the Duke ea except of that Dumas d di ged ed Buckingham a and Anne of Austria and and- DArta D'Arta land laud revolve voyages to England Eng Eng- around their alleged liaison whereas Courtil de Sandras at the m merely hints nature of his s n mission t to London As th the e resil res- of the expOSure of Dumas Dumas' plagIarism the good people o of f Gascony cannot agree to whom they credit shoUld Sloe give on their nt for ing their h hero ero de Sandras undoubtedly his origInal bho biographer was ra pier if one can call his work b a graphy but all Dumas put him on the map In all proba probability they w 1 n and authors the fame will be shared by bym m the tw Cc JI by Ll L aper s 1 1 t F kr |