Le Prisonnier de la Bastille : Fin des Mousquetaires
drame/play, pub:1861
Drama in five acts.
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: A drama in five acts and nine tableaux, in prose. It was drawn from "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne," by Alex. Dumas and Auguste Maquet.
We here enter upon a question of much difficulty as regards the decipherment of details. M. Gustave Simon quotes some eight titles for plays drawn or to be drawn from the romance mentioned, by the two collaborators. Some at least are almost certainly duplicate titles for the same work. Out from them all seems to loom "Marchiali, ou la Fin des Mousquetaires." Did Maquet place his hand to this particular piece, apart from the romance from which it was drawn, or was Dumas' contention that he had composed it wholly himself correct? If the latter is to be accepted, then it was probably this "Prisonnier de la Bastille : Fin des Mousquetaires."
Again, according to M. Simon, it would appear that several different plays from the lengthy romance were actually composed, at least in the first rough draft, but requiring revision before being ready for performance. If that is so, this is the only one which was staged.
From notes written by Dumas to Maquet it would seem that the first of the plays from "Bragelonne" was finished on the 24th of January, 1851. and that negotiations had been entered into with the Ambigu Theatre. Maquet, in a note to his lawyers, definitely states that three plays were completed from the romance in question ; later he states that this "Prisonnier de la Bastille" was the same as "Marchiali," and that it was performed at the Théâtre du Cirque.
First performed at the Théâtre Imperial du Cirque on the 22nd of March, 1861.
Original (and only) edition : Paris. Calmann-Lévy, large 4to. of two columns, with vignette, pp. 23 (N.D.), 1861.
Why it has never been, included among the collected plays in the Calmann-Lévy edition is unknown, probably from an oversight.
References :— Parran: "Bibliographie d'Alex. Dumas," page 36. Glinel: "A. Dumas et Son Œuvre," pp. 458-59. Lecomte: "Alexandre Dumas," page 121.
Simon: "Histoire d'une Collaboration : Dumas et Maquet," pp. 126-41.
Dumas: "Causerie" in "Le Monte-Cristo," No. for December 1st, 1859.
