Alexandre Alexandre Davy De La Paille Terie Dumas

DUMAS, ALEXANDRE (ALEXANDRE DAVY DE LA PAILLE TERIE) French novelist and dramatist, was born at Villers-Cotterets (Aisne) on July 24, 1802. His father, Gen eral Dumas (Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie) was born in San Domingo, the natural son of Antoine Alexandre Davy, marquis de la Pailleterie, by a negress, Marie Cessette Dumas, who died in 1772. In 1780 he accompanied the marquis to France, and there the father made a mesalliance which drove the son into enlisting in a dragoon regiment. The young Alexandre Dumas was still a private at the outbreak of the revolution, but he rose rapidly and became general of division in 1793. He was general-in-chief of the army of the western Pyrenees, and was transferred later to commands in the Alps and in La Vendee. Among his many exploits was the defeat of the Austrians at the bridge of Clausen on April 22, 1797, where he commanded Joubert's cavalry. He lost Napoleon's favour by plain speaking in the Egyptian cam paign, and later returned to France to spend the rest of his days in retirement at Villers-Cotterets, where he had married in 1792 Marie Elisabeth Labouret.

The novelist, who was the offspring of this union, was not four years old when General Dumas died (18o6), leaving his family with no further resource than 3o acres of land. Mme. Dumas tried to obtain help from Napoleon, but in vain, and lived with her parents in narrow circumstances. Alexandre received the rudiments of education from a priest, and entered the office of a local solicitor. His chief friend was Adolphe de Leuven, the son of an exiled Swedish nobleman implicated in the assassination of Gustavus III. of Sweden, and the two collaborated in various vaudevilles and other pieces which never saw the footlights. Leuven returned to Paris, and Dumas was sent to the office of a solicitor at Crepy. In 1823 Dumas visited his friend in Paris, and was received by Talma. He then determined to seek his fortune in Paris. An introduction to General Foy procured for him a place as clerk in the service of the duke of Orleans, and he began to collaborate with Leuven in the production of vaudevilles and melodramas. Madame Dumas presently joined her son in Paris, where she died in 1838. Soon after his arrival in Paris Dumas had entered on a liaison with a dressmaker, Marie Catherine Labay, and their son, the famous Alexandre Dumas fils (see be low), was born in 1824. Dumas acknowledged his son in 1831, and obtained the custody of him after a lawsuit with the mother.

His Plays.

The first piece by Dumas and Leuven to see the footlights was La Chasse et l'amour (Ambigu-Comique, Sept. 22, 1825), and in this they had help from other writers. Dumas had a share in another vaudeville, La Noce et l'enterrement (Porte Saint-Martin, Nov. 21, 1826). It was under the influence of the Shakespeare plays produced in Paris by Charles Kemble, Harriet Smithson (afterwards Mme. Berlioz) and an English company that the romantic drama of Christine was written. The subject was suggested by a bas-relief of the murder of Monaldeschi ex hibited at the Salon of 1827. The piece was accepted by the Comedic Francaise, but its production was deferred. Meanwhile Dumas had written, in prose, Henri III. et sa tour, which was im mediately accepted by the Comedic Francaise and produced on Feb. 11, 1829. It was the first great triumph of the romantic drama. The brilliant stagecraft of the piece and its admirable historical setting delighted an audience accustomed to the decadent classical tragedy, and brought him the friendship of Hugo and Vigny. His patron, the duke of Orleans, now gave him the librarianship of the Palais Royal. Christine was recast as a romantic trilogy in verse in five acts with a prologue and epilogue, with the sub-title of Stockholm, Fontainebleau, Rome, and was produced by Harel at the Odeon in March 1830.

The revolution of 183o temporarily diverted Dumas from letters. The account of his exploits should be read in his Memoires, where the incidents lose nothing in the telling. He finally alienated himself from the Orleans Government by being implicated in the disturbances which attended the funeral of General Lamarque in June 1832, and he received a hint that his absence from France was desirable. A tour in Switzerland undertaken on this account furnished material for the first of a long series of amusing books of travel. Dumas remained, however, on friendly and even affec tionate terms with the young duke of Orleans until his death in 1842. Meanwhile he had produced Napoleon Bonaparte (Odeon, Jan. 1o, 1831), his unwillingness to make a hero of the man who had slighted his father having been overcome by Harel, who put him under lock and key until the piece was finished. His next play, Antony, had a real importance in the history of the romantic theatre. It was put in rehearsal by Mlle. Mars, but so unsatis factorily that Dumas transferred it to Bocage and Mme. Dorval, who played it magnificently at the Porte Saint-Martin theatre on May 3, 1831. The Byronic hero Antony was a portrait of himself in his relations with Melanie Waldor, except of course in the extravagantly melodramatic denouement, when Antony, to save his mistress's honour, kills her and exclaims, "Elle me resistait, je l'ai assassinee." He produced more than 20 more plays alone or in collaboration before 1845, exclusive of dramatiza tiuns from his novels. Richard Darlington (Porte Saint-Martin, Dec. io, 1831), the first idea of which was drawn from Sir Walter Scott's Chronicles of the Canongate, owed part of its great suc cess to the admirable acting of Frederick Lemaitre. La Tour de Nesle (Porte Saint-Martin, May 29, 1832), announced as by MM. X X X and Gaillardet, was the occasion of a duel and a law-suit with the original author, Frederic Gaillardet, whose ms. had been revised, first by Jules Janin and then by Dumas. In rapidity of movement, and in the terror it inspired, the piece surpassed Henri III. and Antony. A lighter drama, Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (Theatre Francais, April 2, 1839), long held the stage.

In 184o Dumas married Ida Ferrier, an actress whom he had imposed on the theatres that took his pieces. The amiable relations which had subsisted between them for eight years were disturbed by the marriage, which is said to have been undertaken in conse quence of a strong hint from the duke of Orleans, and Mme. Dumas lived in Italy separated from her husband.

His Novels.

As a novelist Dumas began by writing short stories, but his happy collaboration with Auguste Maquet, which began in 1839, led to the admirable series of historical novels in which he proposed to reconstruct the whole course of French history. In 1844 he produced, with Maquet's help, that most famous of "cloak and sword" romances, Les Trois Mousquetaires (8 vols.), the material for which was discovered in the Memoiies de M. d'Artagnan (Cologne, 17o1–o2) of Courtils de Sandras. The adventures of d'Artagnan and the three musketeers, the gigan tic Porthos, the clever Aramis, and the melancholy Athos, who unite to defend the honour of Anne of Austria against Richelieu and the machinations of "Milady," are brought down to the murder of Buckingham in 1628. Their admirers were gratified by two sequels, Vingt ans a pres (i o vols., 1845) and Dix ans plus tard, ou le vicomte de Bragelonne (26 pts., 1848-50), which opens in 166o, showing us a mature d'Artagnan, a respectable captain of musketeers, and contains the magnificent account of the heroic death of Porthos. The three musketeers are as famous in England as in France. Thackeray could read about Athos from sunrise to sunset with the utmost contentment of mind, and R. L. Stevenson and Andrew Lang have paid tribute to the band in Memories and Portraits and Letters to Dead Authors. Before 1844 was out Dumas had completed a second great romance in 12 volumes, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, in which he had help from Fiorentino as well as from Maquet. The idea of the intrigue was suggested by Peuchet's Police devoilee, and the stress laid on the earlier incidents, Dantes, Danglars and the Chateau d'If, is said to have been an afterthought. Almost as famous as these two romances is the set of Valois novels of which Henri IV. is the central figure, beginning with La Reine Margot (6 vols., 1845), which contains the history of the struggle between Catherine of Medicis and Henry of Navarre ; the history of the reign of Henry III. is told in La Dame de Monsoreau (8 vols., 1846), generally known in English as Chicot the Jester, from its principal char acter; and in Les Quarante-cinq (10 vols., 1847-48), in which Diane de Monsoreau avenges herself on the duke of Anjou for the death of her former lover, Bussy d'Amboise.

Much has been written about the exact share which Dumas had in the novels which bear his name. The Dumas-Maquet series is undoubtedly the best, but Maquet alone never accom plished anything to approach them in value. The mss. of the novels still exist in Dumas's handwriting, and the best of them bear the unmistakable stamp of his unrivalled skill as a narrator. The chief key to his enormous output is to be found in his un tiring industry and amazing fertility of invention, not in the system of wholesale collaboration which was exposed with much exaggeration by Querard in his Supercheries litteraires and by "Eugene de Mirecourt" (C. B. J. Jacquot) in his misleading Fabrique de romans, maison Alexandre Dumas et cte His assistants, in fact, supplied him with outlines of romances on plans drawn up by himself, and he then rewrote the whole thing. That this method was never abused it would be impossible to say; Les Deux Diane, for instance, a prelude to the Valois novels, is said to have been written entirely by Paul Meurice, although Dumas's name appears on the title-page.

The latter part of Dumas's life is a record of excessive toil to meet prodigal expenditure and accumulated debts. His disasters began with the building of a house in the Renaissance style, with a Gothic pavilion and an "English" park, at Saint Germain en-Laye. This place, called Monte-Cristo, was governed by a crowd of hangers-on of both sexes, who absorbed Dumas's large earnings and left him penniless. Dumas also founded the Theatre Historique chiefly for the performance of his own works. The enterprise was under the patronage of the duc de Montpensier, and was under the management of Hippolyte Hostein, who had been the secretary of the Comedic Francaise. The theatre was opened in Feb. 1847 with a dramatic version of La Reine Margot. Meanwhile Dumas had been the guest of the duc de Montpensier at Madrid, and made a quasi-official tour to Algeria and Tunis in a Government vessel, which caused much comment in the press. Dumas had never changed his republican opinions. He greeted the revolution of 1848 with delight, and was even a candi date for electoral honours in the department of the Yonne. But the change was fatal to his theatrical enterprise, for the failure of which in 185o he was made financially responsible. His son, Alexandre Dumas, was at that time living with his mother Mlle. Labay, who was eventually reconciled with the elder Dumas. Father and son, though always on affectionate terms when they met, were too different in their ideas to see much of one another. After the coup d'etat of 1851 Dumas crossed the frontier to Brussels, and two years of rapid production, and the economy of his secretary, Noel Parfait, restored something like order to his affairs. On his return to Paris in the end of 1853 he established a daily paper, Le Mousquetaire, for the criticism of art and letters. It was chiefly written by Dumas, whose Memoires first appeared in it, and survived until 1857, when it was succeeded by a weekly paper, the Monte-Cristo (1857-6o). In 1858 Dumas travelled through Russia to the Caucasus, and in 186o he joined Garibaldi in Sicily. After an expedition to Marseilles in search of arms for the insurgents, he returned to Naples, where Garibaldi nomi nated him keeper of the museums. After four years' residence in Naples he returned to Paris, and after the war of '66 he visited the battlefields and produced his story of La Terreur prussienne. But his powers were beginning to fail, and in spite of the 1,200 volumes which he told Napoleon he had written, he was at the mercy of his creditors, and of the succession of theatrical ladies who tyrannized over him and feared nothing except the occasional visits of Dumas fils. He was finally rescued from these by his daughter, Mme. Petel, who came to live with him in 1868 ; and two years later, on Dec. 5, 187o, he died in his son's house at Puys, near Dieppe.

Auguste Maquet was Dumas's chief collaborator. Others were Paul Lacroix (the bibliophile "P. L. Jacob"), Paul Bocage, J. P. Mallefille and P. A. Fiorentino. The novels of Dumas may be conveniently arranged in a historical sequence. The Valois novels and the musqueteers series brought French history down to 1672. Contributions to later history are :—La Dame de volupte (2 vols., 1864), being the memoirs of Mme. de Luynes, and its sequel Les Deux Reines (2 vols., 1864) ; La Tulipe noire (3 vols., 185o), giving the history of the brothers de Witt; Le Chevalier d'Harmental (4 vols., 1853), and Une Fille du regent (4 vols., 1845), the story of two plots against the regent, the duke of Orleans ; two books on Mme. du Deffand, Memoires d'une aveugle (8 vols., 1856-57) and Les Confessions de la marquise (8 vols., 1857), both of doubtful authorship; Olympe de Cleves (9 vols., 1852), the story of an actress and a young Jesuit novice in the reign of Louis XV., one of his most popular novels ; five books on the beginning of the Revolution down to the execution of Marie Antoinette : the Memoires d'un medecin, including Joseph Balsamo (19 pts., 1846-48), in which J. J. Rousseau, Mme. du Barry and the dauphiness Marie Antoinette figure, with its sequels ; Le Collier de la refine (9 vols., in which Balsamo appears under the alias of Cagliostro; Ange Piton (8 vols., 1852), known in English as "The Taking of the Bastille" ; La Comtesse de Charny (19 vols., , describing the attempts to save the monarchy and the flight to Varennes ; and Le Chevalier de maison rouge (6 vols., 1846), which opens in 1793 with the hero's attempt to save the queen. Among the numerous novels dealing with the later revolutionary period are :—Les Blancs et les bleus (3 vols., 1868) and Les Compagnons de Jehu (7 vols., 1857). Les Louves de Machecoul (so vols., 1859) deals with the rising in 1832 in La Vendee. Other famous stories are :—Les Freres corses (2 vols., 1845); La Femme au collier de velours (2 vols., 1851); Les Mohicans de Paris (19 vols., , detective stories with which may be classed the series of Crimes celebres (8 vols., 1839 41) , which are, however, of doubtful authorship; La San Felice (9 vols., 1864-65), in which Lady Hamilton played a prominent part, with its sequels Emma Lyonna and Souvenirs d'une favorite. Of his numerous historical works other than fiction the most im portant is his Louis X I V . et son siecle (4 vols., 1845) . Mes Memoires (2o vols., 1852-S4; Eng. trans. of selections by A. F. Davidson, 2 vols., 1891) is an account of his father and of his own life down to 1832. There are collective editions of his plays (6 vols., 1834-36, and 15 vols., 1863-74), but of the 91 pieces for which he was wholly or partially responsible, 24 do not appear in these collections.

The complete works of Dumas were issued by Michel Levy f reres in 277 vols. . The more important novels have been frequently translated into English. There is a long list of writings on his life and his works both in English and French. The more important French authorities are: his own memoirs, already cited; C. Glinel, Alexandre Dumas et son oeuvre (Reims, 1884) ; H. Parigot, Dumas pere (Grands ecrivains f rancais series, 1902) , and Le Drame d'Alexandre Dumas (1899) ; H. Blaze de Bury, Alexandre Dumas (1885) ; Philibert Andebrand, Alexandre Dumas a la maison d'or (1888) ; G. Ferry, Dernieres Annees d'Alexandre Dumas (1883) ; and L. H. Lecomte, Alexandre Dumas (1904) . Of the English lives of Dumas perhaps the best is that by Arthur F. Davidson, Alexandre Dumas Pere his Life and Works (1902, bibl.) . See the lives by P. Fitzgerald (18731 and H. A. Spurr (1902), and essays by Andrew Lang (Letters to Dead Authors) and R. L. Stevenson (Memories and Portraits) . See also Herbert Gor man, The Incredible Marquis, Alexandre Dumas (1929) .