Interest
The fate of the mysterious prisoner – and the extent of apparent precautions his jailers took – created much interest and many legends. There are almost a hundred theories in existence and many books have been written about the case. Some were presented after the existence of the letters was widely known. Later commentators have still presented their own theories, possibly based on embellished versions of the original tale.
Theories about his identity made at the time included that he was a Marshal of France; or the English Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell; or François, Duke of Beaufort. Later, many people such as Voltaire and Alexandre Dumas put forward other theories about the man in the mask.
It has even been suggested that he was one of the other famous contemporary prisoners being held at Pignerol at the same time as Dauger.
Read more about this topic: Man In The Iron Mask
Famous quotes containing the word interest:
“Governments which have a regard to the common interest are constituted in accordance with strict principles of justice, and are therefore true forms; but those which regard only the interest of the rulers are all defective and perverted forms, for they are despotic, whereas a state is a community of freemen.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“The moral sense is always supported by the permanent interest of the parties. Else, I know not how, in our world, any good would ever get done.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Any effort in philosophy to make the obscure obvious is likely to be unappealing, for the penalty of failure is confusion while the reward of success is banality. An answer, once found, is dull; and the only remaining interest lies in a further effort to render equally dull what is still obscure enough to be intriguing.”
—Nelson Goodman (b. 1906)