I have absolutely no idea on this.  A few people have e-mailed me some theories, but none of them panned out.  So for now, the official word is still roundabouts the fifteenth century.
   
 

 

He didn't die in the novel.  In fact, the novel ended with him marrying Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier.
   
 

 

Don't know much of this, either. He's a captain of the king's archers, and was recently betrothed to his first-cousin-once-removed Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier. He comes from a very noble family and had some education when he was young, but he has spent most of his life, from a very early age, roaming the countryside as part of the military. He on occasion visits Fleur-de-Lys and her family in Paris.
   
 

     He has a burgundian trimmed moustache, and he's very handsome; very pleasant to look at.  As to what exactly he looks like, Hugo leaves this up to the imagination of the reader.  He has a swaggering, arrogant mien that Hugo says attracts women, and apparently, at least at one point in the novel, his costume was much similar to that of Jupiter's, from the first of the novel.  Even though I'm quite aware it was a joke, since I don't have anything else to give you, I'll give you the description of Jupiter's costume.

     "Morever, the costume of Sir Jupiter was very handsome, and contributed little to calming the crowd by attracting its entire attention.  Jupiter was dressed in a brigandine covered in black velt, with gilt studs;  he was capped by a bicocket garnished in buttons of gilt silver; and if not for the rough and the thick beard which covered each half of his face, if not for the roll of guilded cardboard, scattered with spangles and all bristling with strips of tinsel which he carried in his hand, and in which exercised eyes recognized easily the thunder, if not for his flesh colored feet bound in grecian form, he might have supported the comparison, for the severity of his bearing, with a Briton archer of the regiment of Monsieur de Berry."
                                                                                             --Notre Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo


......now if it really does match that, I can't tell you.
 
   
 

 

   Phoebus is quite a work of art.  Raised in the military, he's about as vulgar as they come (though in the book, "horn and thunder" is the worst swearing there is.  You figure it out) and quite used to being around the common masses.  Which gives him a great discomfort when he's around nobility.  However, being of noble birth, he's around them very often, and is unfortunately forced to alter his lifestyle/language/attitude/etc to match their needs.
     He's very good looking, which gives him an ego when it comes to women.  Since he's a soldier, he's quite used to prostitutes and thinks all women have a price.  Since he's handsome, he's also learned the art of wooing in order to lower that price quite a bit.  More for pleasure than for love, he has none of the latter invested in his fiancée, whom he only admired for the first few hours of being with her.  Instead, he's quite uncomfortable around her (unless there's a promise of some conquest while her mother's out of the room).  He, however, takes a liking for Esmeralda, because of how beautiful she is and how comfortable he can be around her.  As for how he truly liked her, it was obviously for no more than her body.  And after the incident with Frollo, he tried to quickly forget her, wanting the humiliating (and life-threatening) experience to be done away with.  Now, is he a bad man?  I think he has less morals to compromise than Frollo and in that regard is a worse man.  He co-signed Esmeralda's death warrant.  Either by being a louse or by being a moron, I don't know.  Note:  Hugo didn't favor his intelligence, either.
   
 

  Phoebus, as stated in the novel, is a word derived from a Greek god.  The god happens to be Phoebus Apollo, who rode his chariot  (carried by six (?) horses and the chariot itself burned, creating the sun) across the sky every day, from east to west.  Apollo was a god of many things, including medicine, music, and the arts.  However, when bearing the praenomen Phoebus, he was the Sun God. If I remember my Greek (which is beyond shoddy, at best) phoebus actually means light.
    What does this have to do with Phoebus de Chateaupers (circumflex omitted for purposes of saving my sanity)? Well, if anyone noticed, Esmeralda was a girl who revolved around the sun.; She loved light, and she loved laughing, and singing, and whatever else is pleasant. So perhaps Phoebus was given that name as sort of an attempt to keep her interests along a theme. It's also irony, that Phoebus may have a name as bright as the sun, yet be so inclined toward darkness and deceit. For darkness is seen to personify deceit (and who does that better than Phoebus?). Also, it might be a slight reference to his superficiality.  There is a story, about a child of Phoebus Apollo, named Phaeton, who was almost destroyed by his ego. And so was this child of the sun. It could also be used to mock his beauty.
     As for de Chateaupers, I can't find anything. However, de in French surnames means of and is often given to higher-ranked families. As for Chateaupers, I know chateau means castle in French, and pers can be the shortened form of anything.& I like to think it's the shortened form personne which means de Chateaupers means of the castle person. Does it make any sense?  Not that I can think of.  Perhaps it's a real last name with some history that I don't know about.
   
 

   
 

Phoebus, Phoebus, wherefore art thou, Phoebus?  Or better yet, wherefore art thou not Phoebus?  Allow me to elaborate.  Producers really have a fun time with this young man.  After going through the heart-rending process of destroying the three major characters and building them up from the ground, they see Phoebus as almost child's play.  They can make him egotistical, and not suffer any consequences beyond giving Esme more character depth.  They can make him a love interest and satisfy the public's need for such.  They can make him a jerk  and allow the public to vent all their frustrations at jerks on him and not on Esme.  They can kill him, and he won't be sorely missed.  They can do just about whatever they please.
     And since I never really cared what they did with him, I won't be complaining too much in this section........I hope.....
     As far as I know, in the first silent films (which I won't be able to find anywhere, I'm sure) that may have stayed true to the story for the most part, Phoebus was just his sleazy, old self.   The directors could put in or take out Fleur-de-Lys as they wished, so often as not he was just viewed as a jerk who didn't get his share of tragedy in the end.  In these versions, Phoebus shows up in the usual manner, tries to seduce Esme in the usual manner, gets stabbed in the usual manner, and doesn't help her in the usual manner.  Sometimes, extra scenes with Jehan or toward the end in the Place de Greve might be omitted.
     In 1923 (can't you tell what my main sources are?) The Hunchback of Notre Dame saw Norman Kerry as Phoebus.  However, in this version, Phoebus is made to be a love interest.  Actually, they start the film off right.  Phoebus is a soldier made for carousing and not for marrying.  Yet when he attempts to woo Esme, Phoebus is overcome by Esme's charm and sees the error in his ways.  Thereby falling in love with her.  Now, I had stated at one point that I felt the producers were rather decent to try a conversion-theme with Phoebus.  I stand corrected.  One phrase best describes Phoebus in this movie, and actually, the movie itself.  "I plight thee my troth!"  If that single sentence stuns you from its sheer senselessness as much as it does me, then you've discovered the meaning behind Phoebus in Lon Chaney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  The man falls in love with Esmeralda somehow, despite the fact it has nothing to do with socialism.  The rest of the movie he spends weeping.  Of course, he's not very bright, anyhow.  Halfway through the movie, he decides to introduce the girl that he loves to his fiancee.  Chauvinistic stupidity at its finest, folks.  Geez, I'd forgotten how much I hated him.  Anyhow, in the end, he gets the girl.  Of course.
     1939 The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Alan Marshall as Phoebus went back to the old plot.  Phoebus doesn't ever change his ways (they had to differentiate themselves from their predecessor somehow).  In fact, Phoebus doesn't make it too far in the movie.  Esme falls in love with him, he tries to take advantage of her one night, and he's murdered.  Esme doesn't even have time to realize what a knave he is.  I think it's quite safe to say that in this version, Phoebus becomes a talking stick.  He has no characterization beyond a stick, that is.  But at least he's more accurate!
      1956 The Hunchback had Phoebus return to his rightful place, with Jean Danet as Phoebus.  This is by far the best Phoebus of all the version.  He cracks me up!  Now, this paragraph has been left hanging for four years without any clarification, and I swear I'll never leave such a glaring reference to how long it takes me in updating these sections ever again.  Yup...four years.....anyhow, so as I had been saying.  This Phoebus actually has some inherent entertainment value that he never had in the book.  I made a reference to a wisecrack he made at Frollo's expense, and it went something like this:  Frollo: "something-something your immortal soul?"  Phoebus:  "Hell won't be made any hotter for one more sin."  Sheer genius.  If he weren't such a friggin louse, I'd marry the guy.  I wish I could remember this Phoebus' untimely end, but I'm pretty sure he died and stayed dead.  Don't quote me, though.
      1977 TV movie, I can only guess at.  Richard Morant played Phoebus, and since most of the TV movies are fairly accurate, I'm guessing most of the Phoebi are accurate as well.  With the 1982 version, Robert Powell as Phoebus portrayed the character as his usual, lecherous self.  Indeed, he tries to seduce Esme.  Yet this Phoebus is lacking real sleaziness.  It's more like he takes for granted that Esme is loose.  Otherwise, he wouldn't have announced quite blatantly he's married.  That was smart.  After that point, Esme was more interested in him knowing that she didn't stab him.  Instead, she found someone else.  And Phoebus....well, when finding out that she'd hang, he didn't go "Huh?  Oh, yeah..eh, heh..heh..cool."  He did more of a, well "Let her hang and good riddance!"  Which made this Phoebus more mean that oblivious and idiotic.  I suppose an attempt to keep everyone from just hating Frollo.
       1996, Disney brought us their version, with Phoebus voiced by Kevin Kline.  Whereas most all the other Phoebus lacked the smooth, suave nature of the real Phoebus, this one got it down.  Unfortunately, it was only for the amusement of 10-year-olds.  So therefore, this Phoebus was not evil.  He's actually technically the hero of the movie, by Disney standards.  Instead of just wanting to get into bed with Esme, he feels for the citizens of Paris, attempts to save the gypsies, and rallies rebellion in order to break the oppressed from their bonds!  And wants to get into bed with Esme.  But that's covered over with true love.  As nice and smooth as Phoebus is, I just don't see him with Esme.  Maybe it's just me.  But I'm forced to love this Phoebus.  Apparently, he was combined with the character of Gringoire.  So by all measures, he's half my baby and therefore my favorite character.
       1996, The Hunchback, with Mandy Patrinkin as Quasi and Benedick Blythe as Phoebus.  I stand corrected, Phoebus was not stabbed -- some random advisor-counsellor guy was.  And no, Phoebus was not in love with Esme.  Then what was his point, you ask? Easy. He had none. We see Phoebus two times in the entire movie, both on his horse.  He just acts obnoxious toward minor characters who are credited in the end with such roles as Boy with the Blue Hat, and Serious-Looking Guy #1. In other words, he adds absolutely nothing to the story.  But...ah well.
      Notre Dame de Paris, the French musical, makes the greatest attempt to characterize Phoebus.  He's not the oblivious idiot from the book;  he's not the evil sleaze from other versions.  Instead, here's a man who is engaged and in love with a woman (Fleur-de-Lys).  He runs into Esme, and thinks "Hey!  Why not?  She looks like fun!"  There are some scruples in part of his conscience, but he easily overcomes it in his best (and nearly only) solo "Dechire" (Torn Apart).  He's divided between them, but he decides "Ohh, I can have both."  In the song "Belle", there's the hint of the fact he might care for Fleur-de-Lys' feelings, but he quickly forgets again.  And later in the songs, he demonstrates again his lack of feeling for Esme except for as someone to sleep with.  He's stabbed but he lives, and later on, Fleur-de-Lys jumps onto his case.  So he returns to her and tells her that he really loves her.  There's a question of whether he's doing what he does in the book (which is convince himself he loves her) or actually realizes he does love her.  Most people seem to think the latter, oddly enough.  So that's why I'm assuming they went for character depth with Phoebus.  In the end, he's made to turn Esme in himself.  They never explore Esme's response to that, though..
      So, strangely enough, I am not at all bothered by the Phoebus interpretations.  I remember, about four years ago, when I was mad at what Disney did to Phoebus, but not anymore.  He's simply not a deep enough nor important character for it to bug me.
 

 

     
  Back to Claude Frollo   Return to Characters Page    On to Pierre Gringoire
 

Page (c) Misty Woodard 2000-2001, text and some graphics

This starts with the background and the first picture in the slide (a guy in armor)

*Background Illustration by Gustav Brion, 1865 edition, provided generously by Andrea Brighton
(thanks so much!)
*Clipart from Heraldic Clipart (link soon to come)
*Alan Marshal as Phoebus, (c) 1939 RKO Pictures Inc (taken myself)
*Illustration by Gustav Brion, 1865 edition
*Patrick Fiori, (c) 1998 by Luc Plammodon?  (taken myself)
*Illustration of Phoebus, (c) 1996 Disney Corporation

All of the pictures (except for the one I took) are used without permission. The one I took myself is probably illegal somehow, too...

All graphics and links will be removed upon request. Please ask permission before using the text.