BORGO PRESS BOOKS BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Anthony
The Barricade at Clichy; or, The Fall of Napoleon
Bathilda
Caligula
The Corsican Brothers (with Eugène Grangé & Xavier de Montépin)
The Count of Monte Cristo, Part One: The Betrayal of Edmond Dantès
The Count of Monte Cristo, Part Two: The Resurrection of Edmond Dantès
The Count of Monte Cristo, Part Three: The Rise of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo, Part Four: The Revenge of Monte Cristo
A Fairy Tale (with Adolphe de Leuven & Léon Lhérie)
The Gold Thieves (with Countess Céleste de Chabrillan)
Kean
The Last of the Three Musketeers; or, The Prisoner of the Bastille (Musketeers #3)
Lorenzino
The Mad Marquis (with Emmanuel Théaulon & Ernest Jaime)
The Mohicans of Paris
Napoléon Bonaparte
Queen Margot
Richard Darlington (with Prosper Dinaux)
Sylvandire
The Three Musketeers (Musketeers #1)
The Three Musketeers—Twenty Years Later (Musketeers #2)
The Tower of Death (with Frédéric Gaillardet)
The Two Dianas (with Paul Meurice)
Urbain Grandier and the Devils of Loudon
The Venetian
The Whites and the Blues
The Widow’s Husband; and, Porthos in Search of an Outfit
Young Louix XIV
RELATED DRAMAS:
The Queen’s Necklace, by Pierre Decourcelle
The Seed of the Musketeers, by Paul de Kock & Guénée (Musketeers #5)
The San Felice, by Maurice Drack
The Son of Porthos the Musketeer, by Émile Blavet (Musketeers #4)
A Summer Night’s Dream, Adolphe de Leuven & Joseph-Bernard Rosier
The Widow’s Husband; and, Porthos in Search of an Outfit: Two Dumasian Comedies, edited by Frank J. Morlock
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Copyright © 2013 by Frank J. Morlock
Published by Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidebooks.com
DEDICATION
To Gerry Tetrault, who would make a great Mad Marquis
CAST OF CHARACTERS
MARQUIS DE BRUNOY
DUKE D’AIGUEVILLE
COUNT DE PROVENCE
COUNT DE VALMONT
THE BARON
THE LIEUTENANT CIVIL
BAIN
FAT JOHN, milk brother of the Marquis
COUNTESS DE MONTMARTEL
ADELAIDE DE MONTMARTEL, cousin of the Marquis
EMILIE D’AIGUEVILLE
BARONESS
GEORGETTE
ROSINE, the Countess’ Chambermaid
A NOTARY
AN USHER/BAILIFF
LELOUP, a Mason
A SERVANT
Courtiers, Peasants of both sexes, Masons, French Guards, Two Clerks of the Notary, a Lawyer, Servants.
ACT I
The action takes place in Versailles in a hotel near the palace.
A rich salon—a toilette and a sofa.
ADELAIDE
My God, auntie—how beautiful your toilette is.
COUNTESS (seated at her toilette)
My child, one does not present oneself before a king as if in the home of a plebian, and the court of Louis XV is cited for its grace and elegance.
ADELAIDE
All that is quite fine, but I regret that my cousin left the Château of Brunoy to come settle in Versailles.
COUNTESS (rising)
These are the regrets of your age; ambition has not yet awakened in your heart. Besides, my child, the possessor of the titles and the fortunes of a family has duties to fulfill. Let a simple bourgeois live ignored on his property if he has any, but one must appear in court, when at twenty-five one is handsome like your cousin, when one can cast to echo in a palace the name of the Marquis de Brunoy, king’s secretary, councilor—house crowned by France—and with his finances.
ADELAIDE
When my aunt pronounces those names, her heels double in height.
COUNTESS
And besides, this young man belongs to me, he is of my nobility, this son of my sister. His father, recently ennobled, only obtained our alliance through favor of a considerable fortune which has only increased; at his death, my nephew found himself rich with forty millions—with that he could pretend to the greatest alliance and render his blazon complete. Young, brilliant—what a career offers itself to his sight. Gold already enriched his father. For him, glory can increase his riches, however obscure his situation may be. But to see his nobility increase, there must be dazzling deeds.
(two servants appear)
ADELAIDE
Here’s my cousin coming this way.
MARQUIS
My aunt, my dear cousin.
COUNTESS
God, my friend—how nice you look. Ah, let me admire you at my ease.
MARQUIS
And you, Adelaide, how do you like me?
ADELAIDE
Marvelous for a courtier.
MARQUIS
Come on, now my tests begin already. I find myself situated, first of all between vanity and philosophy!
COUNTESS
You are going to see the court and all our great ladies.
ADELAIDE (sighing)
And all the great ladies.
COUNTESS
Up till now, relegated to a country estate you must force yourself to take the air and the tone of our brilliant youth.
MARQUIS
Ah, I’ve already frequented our fashionable young folks, and now at the recital, the role of a man of my sort—get up at noon, dress in the ravishing creations of a dream enchanter, to find oneself face to face with a hair-dresser who will envelop you in the atmosphere of odorous powder, and sets himself to render you the coolness of the morn, to let oneself fall softly into the hands of valets, who load you down with velours and lace, judge their cleverness in pressing the fold of a shirt-frill under your finger loaded with diamonds—at lunch to find yourself with rich friends in pleasant parties, to pass in review the deeds of the day—the Abbé de Voisenon, Madame