Monsieur Coquenard
Monsieur Coquenard is a Parisian procurator, a man of law whose defining traits are avarice, physical decrepitude, and a comic inability to control his household. He is introduced as the elderly, miserly husband of Madame Coquenard, who is conducting a love affair with the Musketeer Porthos. Coquenard's role in the narrative is largely that of a dupe: his wealth is systematically siphoned off by his wife to finance Porthos's military equipment, and he is the unwitting victim of a series of humiliating deceptions orchestrated by the lovers.
Identity and Domestic Situation
Monsieur Coquenard is described as a man of seventy-six years, a detail that underscores the age disparity between him and his wife. He is physically frail, with legs that have begun to fail him, making him increasingly dependent on Madame Coquenard. The narrator notes that he is "brisk and dry," with "little gray eyes" that shine like carbuncles, and his entire slender body is wrapped in a large black doublet. His primary obsession is a large chest placed in front of his oak desk, which he guards with anxious vigilance. This chest, the family strongbox, is the object of Porthos's desire and the central symbol of Coquenard's miserliness. His household is run with extreme parsimony, a fact that becomes painfully apparent during the dinner he hosts for Porthos.
The Procurator's Dinner
The dinner at the Coquenard home is a masterpiece of comic humiliation. The meal is meager and poorly prepared, consisting of a thin soup, a boiled fowl so old it is nearly inedible, and a dish of haricot beans with mutton bones that have almost no meat. The wine is a cheap Montreuil, served so sparingly that the clerks must water it down. Coquenard, however, praises the meal extravagantly, calling it "a real feast, EPULAE EPULORUM." His hypocrisy is matched only by his wife's careful management of the scraps: she serves Porthos the wing of the fowl while keeping the neck and head for herself and giving her husband the feet. Throughout the meal, Coquenard is oblivious to the affair, though he is suspicious of the "cousin" relationship Porthos claims. His primary concern is the safety of his strongbox, which he keeps close even when he retires for a siesta, placing his feet on its edge for security.
Cuckoldry and Financial Drain
Coquenard is the archetypal cuckold, a figure of fun whose wife openly manipulates him. Madame Coquenard uses the pretext of a family relationship to bring Porthos into their home, and Coquenard, despite his suspicions, is too weak and avaricious to resist. The affair is a financial transaction: Madame Coquenard agrees to provide Porthos with money, a horse, and a mule for his military campaign. When Porthos, angered by the poor quality of the animals she initially provides, threatens to break off the relationship, she capitulates and promises to make amends. The climax of this financial drain occurs when Porthos, in a fit of pique, sends back the inferior horse and mule, tying them to the knocker of Coquenard's door. This public humiliation forces Madame Coquenard to promise a more generous settlement, and she arranges a private meeting with Porthos, telling him that her husband will be away for a consultation. Coquenard is thus reduced to a passive figure, his wealth and his wife's affections both being systematically stolen from under his nose.
Narrative Role and Significance
Monsieur Coquenard serves as a comic foil to the swashbuckling Musketeers. His world of petty legalism, domestic thrift, and physical frailty stands in stark contrast to the world of adventure, honor, and reckless spending that Porthos inhabits. He is a representative of the bourgeois class that the aristocratic Musketeers both despise and exploit. His avarice is the engine that drives the subplot of Porthos's equipment, providing a source of dark humor as the proud Musketeer is forced to humble himself before a miserly old man and his domineering wife. Coquenard's ultimate fate is left ambiguous in the epilogue, which notes that Porthos married Madame Coquenard after her husband's death, finally gaining access to the coveted strongbox. Coquenard, then, is a character defined by his absence in the end: he is the obstacle that is removed, the source of wealth that is finally unlocked, and the comic victim whose misfortune enables the fortune of another.
