Prose drama in five acts. From the novel Ainsi soit-il!.
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: A prose drama in five acts, taken from the romance of the same title.
No collaborator has been suggested.
Though not to be compared with some of his earlier works, this piece is interesting to read, nor does it perhaps suffer greatly that only a portion of the original plot is utilised. The character of Alfred de Senenchen is a clever portrayal. The dénouement is a trifle weak and melodramatic. and we know by Dumas' own admission that it took him some time to find it.
In 1868 Dumas commenced a "Causerie" in his journal "Le D'Artagnan" concerning this story and the drama drawn from it, but unfortunately the cessation of the periodical interrupted it. More recently an article of rather more than 4 pp. has been offered for sale in Dumas' holograph, dealing with this same subject, and which it is claimed appeared in "L'Indipendente."
Some ill-informed periodical seemingly made the suggestion that Dumas had constructed his characters from well-known persons, for we find him writing to the editor: "I am sure that it is under the pretext of an innocent indiscretion that you have named the true heroine of the drama which I have just had performed at the Salle Ventadour. . . I beg that only the details on Madame de Chamblay which I give in 'Le D'Artagnan' be accepted as true."
The confusion was apparently caused by the use of some verses by Madame Manoury, wife of the Comte Manoury-Lacour. The paper jumped to the conclusion that Dumas was utilising some incidents in her life, hence his emphatic denial.
First performed at the Salle Ventadour on the 4th of June, 1868 ; and later at the Porte Saint-Martin Theatre on the 31st of October, 1868.
Original edition : Paris, Michel Lévy Frères, 12mo., 1869. It is now found in the final volume in both editions of the plays issued by Calmann-Lévy.
References :—
Dumas: "Causerie" in "Le D'Artagnan," 1868.
Dumas: Autograph Letter as above, sold by Maggs, 1920.
Ferry: "Dernières Années d'A. Dumas," pp. 166-78 and 252-54. Parran: "Bibliographie d'Alex. Dumas," page 37. Glinel: "A. Dumas et Son Œuvre," page 475.
