|| i! !lU'!a i li!Il!;il;'!!i !< I i li I mtinil li »l 1 wti UMAS Itiil.,., BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Hcttrg m. Sage 1891 ^..n3i>^6 ^//s./,^c 7673-2 Cornell University Library PQ 2230.S77 (18 Life and writings of AleMndre Dumas 3 1924 027 347 131 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027347131 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS ALEXAN'TIRE DUMAS PKRE. THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS (1802-1870) BY HARRY A. SPURR AUTHOR OF "A COCKNEY IN ARCADIA," ETC WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS * NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES, COMPANY PUBLISHERS D Copyright, 1902, By harry a. SPURR. Published in October, 190S TLb\3 Booft, THE OUTCOME OF MANY YEARS OF LOVING STUDY, IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO MADAME DUMAS yf/j, IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF HER SYMPATHY AND HELP. — PREFACE The centenary of the birth of Alexandre Dumas pere occurred in July of this year. As no satis- factory "Life" of the great Frenchman exists in English, this was thought an appropriate moment for giving the public, with whom his romances are so popular, an account of Dumas's life, character, and writings, which should be both interesting to the ordinary reader, and trustworthy as a book of reference. The author has endeavoured to tell the " general reader— " the man in the public library who Dumas was, what he did, which books he did write and which he did not write, and finally, what his confreres and the great critics have said of him. One or two points may be dealt with here, by way of anticipating obvious criticism. The first relates to the omission from the following pages of the spiteful libels of MM. " de Mirecourt," de Cas- sagnac, etc. It is almost impossible at this date for any one, particularly an Englishman, to take the circumstantial allegations of these gentlemen and refute them In detail. It is now over sixty years since they were made : they had their source in admitted enmity, and their medium was equally vii ! ;; Vlll PREFACE his colleagues contemptible. Dumas ignored them ; in the higher ranks of literature discredited them his enemies accepted them willingly, without de- manding proof. " M. de Mirecourt" was sentenced but to imprisonment for publishing his statements ; their improbability is still stronger proof of their falseness. When Dumas's "collaborators" denied the allegations made "on their behalf," " M. de Mirecourt" impudently accused them of having allowed Dumas to dictate their denials ; when he " proved " Dumas's illiteracy, by an anecdote in which he cited M. Maquet in support, that gentle- man promptly gave the libeller the lie We make no apology for dwelling on this point, for the charges of this M. Jacquot have been accepted almost universally as the truth. Ouerard 'cites the gentleman with obvious complacency Larousse in his " Dictionnaire " quotes him con- stantly, and Mr Fitzgerald condemns the man's testimony almost as often as he makes use of it. " Mr Henley's article in Chambers's " Encyclopaedia is probably the only biographical account of Dumas which is trustworthy. That in the ninth edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " is by Mr Fitzgerald. Of M. Querard, who in his "Supercheries " proves to his own satisfaction that with one or two insig- nificant exceptions Dumas never wrote anything at all, it is sufficient to point out that he considered PREFACE ix that author as merely " a clever arranger of the thoughts of others." When a new edition of the " Supercheries " was issued, the exposds of M. Qu^rard, which stopped at 1848, were not con- tinued, and the editors formally expressed their regret that the great writer had received such treat- ment from the critic. They further hinted that only a determination to use the material of the first edition of the work in its entirety prevented them from dealing with M. Querard's accusations. We have referred to Mr Fitzgerald. His " Life and Adventures of Alexander Dumas " was written shortly after the novelist's death, is now forgotten, and is probably out of print. This relieves us from the necessity of saying more than that Mr Lang in his "Essays in Little," Mr Brander Matthews in his " French Novelists," Mr W. H. Pollock in the Nineteenth Century, Mr A. B. Walkley in " Playhouse Impressions," and others, have all con- demned the book as being inaccurate and unworthy of the subject and the writer. A great change has taken place in the literary estimation of Dumas during the past thirty years ; and it is our aim to convey this desirable revolution in opinion to the mind of the ordinary reader. Consistent with the declaration made above, we have ignored the charges brought against Dumas with reference to his attitude toward Louis Philippe X PREFACE The ex-employee of the Duke of Orleans is accused of having alternately abused and fawned upon that dignitary when he became king. We prefer to take the responsibility of suppressing the allegations respecting this episode in Dumas's career as utterly at variance with his practice and his nature. Another omission requires explanation. We have dealt with the plays of Dumas, so far as they affected his career, in Part I.; we have touched on them in general terms in other portions of the book ; but have refrained from dealing with them at all extensively. The general reader of the English-speaking public does not know Dumas's plays, and has had no opportunity of seeing them or of reading them, therefore one cannot hope to interest him in them ; and at the risk of throwing the subject out of its proper proportion we have omitted to treat tham fully. To those who do know and appreciate him as a dramatist, we can recommend " Le Drame dA. Dumas " by M. H. Parigot, published by Calmann-Levy, There is a general confusion in books of reference concerning the year of Dumas's birth. As Glinel shows, by reproducing the certificate of birth, the author was born in 1802. The author has tried to make his book as accurate as possible, but the task has been difficult, as no impartial and complete biography of Dumas exists, PREFACE xi even in French. He will therefore be grateful to any critic, friendly or otherwise, who will point out any errors of fact in the text. Note. —My thanks are due to Madame Dumas fils for her kind assistance ; to M. D'Hauterive, her son-in-law, for similar kindness ; to Mr Lang, Mr W. M. Rossetti and Mr Swinburne for courteous replies to inquiries ; to Mr Robert Garnett for valuable advice and help; to M.M. Calmann-Levy for information given ; to Mr F. M. Duncan for his photographs of illustrations in the British Museum Library ; and to M. E. Roch, secretary of the Villers-Cotterets Centenary Fetes Committee. CONTENTS I'AGE Dedication V Preface vii List of Illustraiions XV I'ART I. HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER Birth, Manhood and Early Successes (1802-30) The Reign of Dumas I. (1830-48) . 40 Wanderings. Declink and Death (1848-70) 94 Character PART II. HIS WRITINGS His Writings 183 PART III. HIS GENIUS A Defence 273 A Counterclaim 309 XIV CONTENTS APPENDICES PAGE A. History and Fiction : a Comparison B. Chronology of Dumas's Life . 355 C. Tabular Analysis of Dumas's Writings 357 D. List of Books Consulted 373 Index ...... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Alexandre Dumas pere . Frontispiece House in which Dumas was Born, Villers-Cotterets 8 Dumas IN 1828 (from a drawing b\ 'Dewe.yi.i a) . 30 Portrait of Dumas, after Maurin ... 36 " " DuMAS's Theatre, the Historique . 86 Alexandre Dumas ^A ..... 108 " Title-Pageof "NouvELLES Contemporaines . 185 " D'Artagnan" (/r(7;«//4^ DorS statue, Paris). 209 The Dumas Monument by DorS, Paris . 342 PART I HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER Birth, Manhood and Early Successes (1802-30)—The Reign OF Dumas I. (1S30-48)—Wanderings, Decline and Death (1848-70)— Character — From Birth to Manhood axd Fame (1802-30) If, like Defoe, we were about to offer fiction in the guise of biography, instead of biography in a more or less romantic form, we should be tempted to pre- face the story of Dumas with one of those elaborate " sub-titles in which the author of " Robinson Crusoe delighted. It would probably run somewhat in this fashion, if we allowed ourselves to prepare one, which of course we do not : '' TJic life and adventures of Alexandre Du- mas of the World, who luas both a black and a white man ; a Royalist and a Republican, aristocrat a an and sans-culotte ; who took part in three rcvolntions, and made three different reputations ; zvJio wrote more books than any other man living or dead, who erected tzvo " Monte Cristas," one of -which made his fortune and tJie other of which nnmade it , who eiiriched the world and was poor all his life ; together zuith an accorinf of his exploits as dramatist, romancer, trav- eller, politician, loit, journalist, diplomatist, soldier, lecturer, cook, historian, pact, etc." — 4 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF Before this Alexander entered the world he was about to conquer, much was already his own by inheritance. He was born into the atmosphere of fiery light and fierce heat which the Revolution had left behind it. He was destined to possess a good share of blue and of black blood, for his grand- father was no other than the Marquis Antoine- Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, a French noble-' man, self-exiled to San Domingo, and his grand- mother was a negro-woman, Louise-Cessette Dumas.