The Mad Marquis. Александр Дюма

      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