THE THREE MUSKETEERS: Know-The-Show Guide
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE THREE MUSKETEERS: Know-the-Show Guide Ken Ludwig’s The Three Musketeers Know-the-Show Audience Guide researched and written by the Education Department of Artwork by Scott McKowen The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE THREE MUSKETEERS: Know-the-Show Guide In this Guide – The Three Musketeers: An Introduction ..................................................................................... 2 – The Life of Alexandre Dumas .................................................................................................... 4 – Ken Ludwig, Adapter ................................................................................................................ 6 – The Three Musketeers: A Short Synopsis .................................................................................... 7 – Who’s Who in the Play ............................................................................................................. 8 – Musketeers Through the Ages .................................................................................................... 9 – Commentary & Criticism ........................................................................................................ 10 – In This Production ................................................................................................................... 11 – Explore Online ....................................................................................................................... 12 “Ken Ludwig’s The Three Musketeers” is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. The Three Musketeers is sponsored in part by 1 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE THREE MUSKETEERS: Know-the-Show Guide ARTISTIC LICENSE: FROM PAGE TO STAGE Pierre Rouge. The Three The title “I want the audience to come out feeling attracted me; I exhilarated. I want them to feel that they’ve took them home taken part in one of the great stories of all Musketeers: with me, with time — that they’ve laughed, been frightened, the permission cried — felt a part of this magnificent world An Introduction of the guardian, Dumas created; and I want them to feel that The following comes from Alexandre Dumas’ preface to the first and devoured they enjoyed every second of it.” installment of The Three Musketeers when it appeared in serial form them. — Ken Ludwig, playwright and adapter in the newspaper Le Siècle in March of 1844. Though Dumas had actually been inspired by a biography of the real-life d’Artagnan, It is not my Ludwig certainly takes a artistic license in his much of the rest of this introduction is a fiction designed to excite his intention here retelling of Dumas’ classic. He ventures away from readers’ appetite for the tale to come. to enter into an the original as he explores the sense of romantic analysis of this adventure in Dumas’ story making a piece that “AUTHOR’S PREFACE in which curious work; is uniquely his own. One of the most notable it is proved that, notwithstanding and I shall satisfy changes Ludwig makes is the addition of Sabine, their names’ ending in OS and IS, myself with D’Artagnan’s younger sister. Keep an eye out for the heroes of the story which we referring such of other alterations that appear in the play. are about to have the honor to my readers as relate to our readers have nothing appreciate the mythological about them. pictures of the period to its pages. They will therein find portraits penciled by the hand A short time ago, while making of a master; and although these squibs may be, for the most part, traced researches in the Royal Library for upon the doors of barracks and the walls of cabarets, they will not find my History of Louis XIV, I stumbled the likenesses of Louis XIII, Anne of Austria, Richelieu, Mazarin, and the by chance upon the Memoirs of courtiers of the period, less faithful than in the history of M. Anquetil. ... M. d’Artagnan, printed —as were most of the works of that period, in D’Artagnan relates that on his first visit to M. de Treville, Captain of the which authors could not tell the truth King’s musketeers, he met in the antechamber three young men, serving without the risk of a residence... in the illustrious corps into which he was soliciting the honor of being Illustration of Alexandre Dumas by received, bearing the names of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Maurice Leloir (1851-1940) in a in the Bastille — at Amsterdam, by woodgraving by Jules Huyot, 1894. 2 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE THREE MUSKETEERS: Know-the-Show Guide We must confess these three strange names struck us; and it admission to the Académie Française with our own proper pack. This immediately occurred to us that they were but pseudonyms, under permission, we feel bound to say, was graciously granted; which compels which d’Artagnan had disguised names perhaps illustrious, or else that us here to give a public contradiction to the slanderers who pretend that the bearers of these borrowed names had themselves chosen them on we live under a government but moderately indulgent to men of letters. the day in which, from caprice, discontent, or want of fortune, they had donned the simple musketeer’s uniform. Now, this is the first part of this precious manuscript which we offer to our readers, restoring it to the title which belongs to it, and entering into From that moment we had no rest till we could find some trace in an engagement that if (of which we have no doubt) this first part should contemporary works of these extraordinary names which had so obtain the success it strongly awakened our curiosity. merits, we will publish the STEALING FROM AN second immediately. IMAGINARY WRITER? The catalogue alone of the books we read with this object would fill a whole chapter, which, although it might be very instructive, would In the meanwhile, as the “What Dumas alludes to in the certainly afford our readers but little amusement....we at length godfather is a second last line of the preface—when found, guided by the counsels of our illustrious friend Paulin Paris, a father, we beg the reader he says to blame Dumas—is the manuscript in folio...having for title, Memoirs of the Comte de la Fere, to lay to our account, and Comte de la Fere memoirs, which Touching Some Events Which Passed in France Toward the End of the not to that of the Comte Reign of King Louis XIII and the Commencement of the Reign of King de la Fere, the pleasure are not real. The Comte de la Fere, Louis XIV. or the ennui he may known to readers for most of the experience. book as Athos, is the invention of It may be easily imagined how great was our joy when, in turning over Dumas, as is the nonexistent folio this manuscript, our last hope, we found at the twentieth page the name This being understood, found in the library. That did not of Athos, at the twenty-seventh the name of Porthos, and at the thirty- let us proceed with our stop readers from trying to find the first the name of Aramis. history.” memoirs in the stacks, and Dumas, with his appreciation of the absurd, The discovery of a completely unknown manuscript at a period in which historical science is carried to such a high degree appeared even went to find it himself after almost miraculous. We hastened, therefore, to obtain permission to receiving an irate letter accusing print it, with the view of presenting ourselves someday with the pack of him of stealing the content word others at the doors of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, if for word.” we should not succeed — a very probable thing, by the by — in gaining from CourseHero.com 3 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE THREE MUSKETEERS: Know-the-Show Guide age, including his friend and rival Victor Hugo (The Hunchback of Notre The Life of Dame and Les Miserables). Dumas was not wholly consumed with his work however, and was Alexandre Dumas reputed to be quite a rogue in his own right, living a life that echoed the Best known as the author of heroes he created on the page. He fathered an illegitimate son during an two popular works, The Count affair with a dressmaker in 1824, and was known to have romantic trysts of Monte Cristo and The Three with many young actresses. Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas In 1825, Dumas’ first play, The Chase and the Love, was presented and was born on July 24, 1802 in the it marked the start of a long and illustrious career in the theatre. Hugo small village of Villers-Cotterêts, and Dumas are credited with launching the Romantic Movement in just outside Paris. His father, France, which pushed aside the Neoclassic works that were prevalent a son of a Haitian slave and a on the stages of Paris at the time. In 1827, Dumas’ third play, Henry III marquis, served as a general in and his Court, was performed at the Comédie-Française to tremendous Napoleon’s army. His father acclaim. With this work, the uneducated and relatively unknown 26 was imprisoned, however, for year old Dumas became a sensation. His other popular works at the criticizing Napoleon’s campaign time included The Tower of Nesle, Kean, and Anthony. By 1843, he had in Egypt, and he died shortly written fifteen plays. after being released in 1806, leaving his family with very little Photograph of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), During the 1830 Revolution, Dumas was a captain of the National ca. 1855. From the Museum of Fine Arts, financial support. Alexandre’s Guard and a very popular public figure despite (or possibly because of) Houston Collection. mother worked to provide his political activities at the time. In 1832, he was struck ill during a her son with a respectable cholera epidemic. His doctor advised him to leave Paris and to travel. education. Not partial to the formal education system, however, His journeys took him to Austria, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Alexandre left school and became a clerk for a local notary. and England, and became the subject of many of his essays, short stories, and novels in the years to come. In 1840, he married his mistress, an In 1822, Dumas left for Paris, where he found his passion in the actress known as Ida Ferrier — her real name was Marguerite-Joséphine literary world.