Dumas Pere's last masterpiece "The Black Tulip" is a Holland - based historical exposition, covering a period of principality by William of Orange (the son of Henrietta Stuart, and the grandson of British King Charles I), with arms of Stadtholder and the Captain-General. 1672 approaches. The arrest and cruel execution of de Witt brothers - political celebrities, deemed traitors to the throne for enforcing the Perpetual Edict, inflict a vigorous conflict between the French oriented liberals and radicals. Leaving the political celebrities on the background, Dumas shifts the focus on a horticultural celebrity, the tulip. The central character becomes Cornelius van Baerle, the godson of perished Cornelius De Witt. A medical doctor and a serious tulip fancier, Van Baerle produces the first flawless black tulip in the world. Being slandered and sabotaged by his envious and wicked neighbor Isaac Boxtel, Cornelius faces numbers of ordeals and trials, but finally wins the Grand Prize for his patent. Converting the original 300-page 33-chapter prose into a 104-page stanza of 11 epics, "Tulipa van Baerlensis" keeps the plot of "The black tulip" unaltered.