Scaramouche

André-Louis Moreau

André-Louis Moreau drifts from provincial law courts to a ragged travelling theatre, where his improvisations as Scaramouche make the troupe's fortune and his own name. Beneath the icy cynicism he shows Leandre lies a smoldering thirst for vengeance against the Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr and the informer Binet. His refusal to play the grieving lover, his habit of turning every sincerity into a performance, makes him both magnetic and unreachable as the Revolution gathers around him.

M. Binet

Binet has spent a lifetime on the road, playing Pantaloon and counting every sou, and he sees in André-Louis a chance to escape hedges and empty bellies forever. His oily gratitude curdles as the company begins to credit Scaramouche, not Binet, for its success, and the malevolence that only slumbers in him stirs. His resentment of the partner who fills his purse while emptying him of command quietly poisons the troupe's triumph.

Aline de Kercadiou

Aline de Kercadiou moves between the drawing rooms of the old nobility and the dangerous pull of her cousin's world, bound by family loyalty yet unwilling to see André-Louis as merely a scoundrel. She alone names his blindness, teasing that she has never known him to lack presumption, and the moment of their clasped hands before her father suggests what both have long refused to admit. Her presence raises the stakes of every quarrel between André-Louis and the men of her class.

Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr

M. de La Tour d'Azyr moves through the salons with the assurance of a man who has never been answered, disposing of hotheads like Lagron with his skill and calling it order. His composure cracks when André-Louis names him assassin to his face, and for once he descends to argument with a canaille, losing dignity in the attempt. His revived passion for Aline is the purest feeling of his life, and it makes his coming duel with her cousin a matter of pride, love, and blood at once.

M. de Kercadiou

Quintin de Kercadiou presides over Gavrillac with the ease of a nobleman who believes his class owes everything and should be owed everything in return, and he writes his godson a letter of wounded indignation. Yet the fundamental kindliness beneath his temper surfaces the instant La Tour d'Azyr calmly predicts the young man's death, and his affection for André-Louis overwhelms his outrage. His torn loyalties between class and kin make him a barometer of the world the Revolution is about to break.

Philippe de Vilmorin

Philippe de Vilmorin belongs to the earnest, idealistic youth of the old order, a friend whose warmth and conviction André-Louis remembers as the last thing before his world turns cold. His fate at the hands of the Marquis and Binet transforms private grief into public grievance, and the memory of "poor Philippe" shadows every performance Scaramouche gives. Without him there is no duel, no flight into the theatre, no revolutionary mask.