From Reviews (ADR) by Arthur D. Rypinski: Othon l’Archer
(Otho the Archer)
is a short romance, set in Germany on the banks of the
Rhine in 1340, based apparently on stories Dumas heard during his trip to
Germany and probably also on the
Chronique
of Jean Froissart, which Dumas
also used for the contemporaneous
Comtesse de Salisbury
and
Bâtard de Mauléon.
Dumas used a perfunctory melodramatic plot which keeps veering off in
unexpected directions as he showcases his German tales. The Landgrave
(Prince) Ludwig of Godesburg, struck by the resemblance of his son to a
friend of his wife's, decides that he has been cuckolded and his son is not
his. He packs his wife off to a nunnery, and ships his son, Otho, to a
monastery. On route, Otho escapes, diving into the Rhine, and disappears.
He swims to shore, acquires a longbow and arrows, and sets off with
some other archers to attend the "Festival of the Bow" held annually by
Prince Adolph of Cleves. En route, Otho and his companions spend the night
at a haunted castle, for which Dumas produces a first rate ghost story that
has little to do with the rest of the novel. At Cleves, Otho demonstrates
superhuman skill at archery, and Prince Adolph affably agrees to take him
into his service as an archer. Adolph's daughter, the Princess Helena, is
attracted to the archer, and breaks her engagement with the Count of
Ravenstein.
The Count, annoyed, challenges the aging Prince Adolph to single combat, or
failing that, to general warfare, and arrays his forces before Cleves.
Helena and Otho meet, giving Helena an excuse to tell Otho a charming
chapter-long story about how a dead knight was miraculously restored to
life to save the honor of one of her ancestors, arriving on a boat drawn by
a swan. Inspired, Otho deserts Adolph's forces, acquires a war horse and a
suit of armor, and, thus disguised, returns by boat to Cleves and
challenges the Count to single combat.
Otho defeats the Count, and departs unrecognized. He slips back into his
guise as an archer, and returns to Cleves. The Count, whom Dumas portrays
as a sensitive, new age sort of feudatory liege, neither hangs nor beats
his archer for deserting the face of the enemy, but suggests mildly that
perhaps Otho would be happier if he took service under some other noble.
Otho is on the point of departing when he encounters his father's old
friend, Count Karl, who, in the meantime has persuaded Ludwig that his
wife's suspect friend is actually his wife's bastard brother, and that his
suspicions are groundless. Ludwig extracts his wife from the nunnery, is
reconciled with Otho, who is then free to return to Cleves, marry Helena,
and, presumably, live happily ever after.
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: A legendary story of the XIVth century.
Original edition : Paris, Dumont, 1 vol., 8vo., pp. 325, 1840.
In the standard Calmann-Lévy edition it forms one volume with "Les Frères Corses."
It is also included in the same firm's "Musée Littéraire," and in their illustrated series.
In Le Vasseur's "Alexandre Dumas Illustré" it occurs in Vol. XVII.
English Translations :—
"Otho the Archer," London, H. Lea, 1860, 8vo., pp 119.
"Otho the Archer" ; London, Methuen, 1903, sewed ; same firm, 1904, with coloured plates by A. M. McLellan, cloth. (These editions and the following contain also "The Corsican Brothers.")
A reprint of the above, same firm, 18mo., 1922, pp. 222.
