Reframe · No. 52
The Three Musketeers is not a friendship story. Dumas never wrote one.
Most readers arrive with the glasses already raised: four friends, one motto, and a queen who needs her diamonds back. That is the popular summary. It is not where Alexandre Dumas starts the page.
Les Trois Mousquetaires ran in Le Siècle in 1844. In April 1625 an eighteen-year-old Gascon rides a yellow pony into Meung and hears laughter at the Jolly Miller. He draws on a pale man in a violet doublet. While he is down, the letter meant for Monsieur de Tréville is taken from a kitchen doublet, and a boxed charge goes to an Englishwoman called Milady. He sells the horse for three crowns and walks into Paris. Later rooms remember a toast. The book opens on a theft.
The motto arrives in chapter 9, and the order is the argument. Constance Bonacieux has been carried off. Her husband bursts in: four men have come to arrest him. D'Artagnan stops the half-drawn swords, invites the Guards in, and shoves the landlord into their hands so the company can stay free. He drinks the man's wine to the cardinal. Porthos calls it villainy. Athos and Aramis call it the longest head in the room. Then the four swear: All for one, one for all. The line people quote is spoken after a neighbour has been handed over.
The diamond run spends the company the same way. On the road from Paris, Porthos stays at Chantilly. Aramis takes a ball through the shoulder. Athos is left at Amiens. D'Artagnan reaches London alone. Buckingham finds two of twelve studs gone, locks a goldsmith in the palace, and has two new stones cut so the queen can wear the set at a ball the cardinal designed as a count. Friendship, in this book, is who falls so one man can still arrive.
At the siege of La Rochelle they breakfast in the ruined bastion Saint-Gervais because the camp walls are like paper. From that table they send a warning to Lord de Winter. The warning is late. Felton reaches Buckingham. The four then ride for Constance and find her already poisoned at Béthune.
Near midnight the Lys looks like molten tin. They name the woman Charlotte Backson, once Comtesse de la Fère, then Milady de Winter. She asks for a tribunal. They pardon her in turn. Athos pays the executioner, and the man throws the silver into the river. The body follows. Three days later Monsieur de Tréville asks if they have been well amused. Athos answers for them: prodigiously.
At Surgères, Richelieu hears she is dead and calls them assassins for punishing without licence. Then he tears the paper Athos took from her and writes a lieutenant's commission with the name left blank. D'Artagnan offers the blank to Athos, to Porthos, and to Aramis. They refuse. Athos writes the boy's name. The king gets a siege. The cardinal gets a useful lieutenant. The reader gets the bill for a motto that began by handing a man to arrest.
What most readers assume
“Four friends, one motto, swords out for the queen: loyalty as a toast that never sends a bill.”
What Alexandre Dumas actually stages
Most readers arrive with the toast already raised: four friends, one motto, swords out for the queen. Dumas began the serial in Le Siècle in 1844. Chapter 1 opens at the Jolly Miller, where a letter is taken from a kitchen doublet. In chapter 9 they swear all for one after handing a landlord to the Guards. Near midnight on the Lys they try a woman, and Athos tells Tréville they have been prodigiously amused. The cardinal then leaves a lieutenant's commission blank.
The Three Musketeers · Alexandre Dumas
The popular summary sells a toast. The serial sells the arrest that comes first, and the river that comes last.
Common Questions
Search questions this reframe installment answers about The Three Musketeers.
Is The Three Musketeers a friendship story?
The four do share a purse, a road, and a bastion. Dumas does not leave the bond as a toast. In chapter 9 they swear all for one after D'Artagnan hands Bonacieux to the Guards. Near the end they try Milady on the Lys at night, and Athos tells Tréville they have been prodigiously amused. The company is real. So is the bill.
When do the musketeers say all for one, one for all?
In chapter 9, in D'Artagnan's rooms, after Constance has been carried off. Bonacieux bursts in because four men have come to arrest him. D'Artagnan stops the swords, invites the Guards in, and shoves the landlord into their hands. He drinks the man's wine to the cardinal. Porthos calls it villainy. Then the four swear the motto and leave at feud with the cardinal.
What happens to Constance Bonacieux?
She carries the queen's messages and pays for that work. Milady finds her at the convent in Béthune, gains her trust, and poisons her the night before the four arrive. On the Lys, D'Artagnan names Constance, younger than the woman they are judging, and already dead. The ride that was supposed to save her arrives after the poison.
What happens on the Lys?
Near midnight they take Milady to the bank at Armentières. They name her Charlotte Backson, once Comtesse de la Fère, then Milady de Winter. She asks for a tribunal and offers a cloister. They pardon her in turn. Athos pays the executioner so the act will look like a judgment, and the man throws the silver into the river before the body follows. Three days later Tréville asks if they have been well amused. Athos says prodigiously.
Does D'Artagnan refuse the cardinal's commission?
He refuses one while his friends still sit with him, then accepts the blank Richelieu writes at Surgères. The cardinal hears that Milady is dead, calls the four assassins for punishing without licence, tears the paper Athos took from her, and hands over a lieutenant's commission with the name left empty. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis will not take it. Athos writes D'Artagnan's name.
Why do people misread The Three Musketeers?
The motto is short, and the sword fights travel well. Adaptations keep the toast and the diamonds, and leave the arrest, the poisoned convent, and the night trial out. Dumas published a serial in which entertainment is the method. The cost is the argument: whom you stand with when the king, the cardinal, and your own ambition each want a different answer.