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BEAUMARCHAIS, PIERRE AUGUSTIN CARON D...

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 590 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BEAUMARCHAIS, See also:PIERRE AUGUSTIN CARON DE (1732-1799) , See also:French dramatist, was See also:born in See also:Paris on the 24th of See also:January 1732. His See also:father, a watchmaker named Caron, brought him up to the same See also:trade. He was an unusually precocious and lively boy, shrewd, sagacious, passionately fond of See also:music and imbued with a strong See also:desire for rising in the See also:world. At the See also:age of twenty-one he invented a new escapement for watches, which was pirated by a See also:rival maker. See also:Young Caron at once published his grievance in the Mercure, and had the See also:matter referred to the See also:Academy of Sciences, which decided in his favour. This affair brought him into See also:notice at See also:court; he was appointed, or at least called himself, watchmaker to the See also:king, who ordered from him a See also:watch similar to one he had made for Mme de See also:Pompadour. His handsome figure and cool assurance enabled him to make his way at court. Mme Franquet, the wife of an old court See also:official, persuaded her See also:husband to make over his See also:office to young Caron, and, on her husband's See also:death, a few months later, married the handsome watchmaker. Caron at the same See also:time assumed the name Beaumarchais; and four years later, by purchasing the office of secretary to the king obtained a patent of See also:nobility. At court his musical talents brought him under the notice of the king's sisters, who engaged him to See also:teach them the See also:harp. This position enabled him to confer a slight favour on the See also:great banker See also:Joseph Duverney, who testified his gratitude by giving Beaumarchais a See also:share in his speculations. The latter turned the opportunity to See also:good See also:account, and soon realized a handsome See also:fortune.

In 1764 he took a See also:

journey to See also:Spain, partly with commercial See also:objects in view, but principally on account of the See also:Clavijo affair. Jose Clavijo y See also:Fajardo had twice promised to marry the See also:sister of Beaumarchais, and had failed to keep his word. The See also:adventure had not the tragic ending of See also:Goethe's Clavigo, for Beaumarchais did not pursue his vengeance beyond words. Beaumarchais made his first See also:essay as a writer for the See also:stage with the sentimental See also:drama See also:Eugenie (1767), in which he See also:drew largely on the Clavijo incident. This was followed after an See also:interval of two years by See also:Les Deux Amis, but neither See also:play had more than moderate success. His first wife had died within a See also:year of the See also:marriage and in 1768 Beaumarchais married Mme Leveque. Her death in 1771 was the See also:signal for unfounded rumours of poisoning. Duverney died in 1770; but some time before his death a duplicate See also:settlement of the affairs between him and Beaumarchais had been See also:drawn up, in which the banker acknowledged himself debtor to Beaumarchais for 15,000 francs. Duverney's See also:heir, the See also:comte de La Blache, denied the validity of the document though without directly stigmatizing it as a See also:forgery. The matter was put to trial. Beaumarchais gained his cause, but his adversary at once carried the See also:case before the See also:parlement. In the meantime the duc de Chaulnes forced Beaumarchais into a See also:quarrel over Mdlle Menard, an actress at the Comedie Italienne, which resulted in the imprisonment of both parties.

This moment was chosen by La Blache to demand See also:

judgment from the parlement in the matter of the Duverney agreement. Beaumarchais was released from See also:prison for three or four days to see his See also:judges. He was, however, unable to obtain an interview with Goezman, the member of the parlement appointed to See also:report on his case. At last, just before the See also:day on which the report was to be given in, he was informed privately that, by presenting 200 See also:louis to Mme Goezman and 15 to her secretary, the desired interview might take See also:place, if the result should prove unfavourable the See also:money would be refunded. The money was sent and the interview obtained; but the decision was adverse, and 200 louis were returned, the 15 going as business expenses to the secretary. Beaumarchais, who had learned that .there was no secretary See also:save Mme Goezman herself, insisted on restitution of the 15 louis, but the See also:lady denied all knowledge of the affair. Her husband, who was probably not cognisant of the details of the transaction at first, doubtless thought the defeated litigant would be easily put down, and at once brought an See also:accusation against him for an See also:attempt to corrupt See also:justice. The See also:battle was fought chiefly through the Memoires, or reports published by the adverse parties, and in it Beaumarchais's success was See also:complete. For vivacity of See also:style, See also:fine See also:satire and broad See also:humour, his famous Memoires have never been surpassed. Even See also:Voltaire was constrained to envy them. Beaumarchais was skilful enough to make his particular case of universal application. He was attacking the parlement through one of its members, and the parlement was the universally detested See also:body formed by the See also:chancellor See also:Maupeou.

The Memoires were, therefore, hailed with See also:

general delight; and the author, from being perhaps the most unpopular See also:man in See also:France, became at once the idol of the See also:people. The decision went against Beaumarchais. The parlement condemned both him and Mme Goezman au blame, i.e. to civic degradation, while the husband was obliged to abandon his position. Beaumarchais was reduced to great straits, but he obtained restitution of his rights within two years, and finally triumphed over his adversary La Blache. During the next few years he was engaged in the king's See also:secret service. One of his See also:missions was to See also:England to destroy the Memoires secrets d'une femme publique in which See also:Charles Theveneau de Morande made an attack on Mme Du See also:Barry. Beaumarchais secured this pamphlet, and burnt the whole impression in See also:London. Another expedition to England and See also:Holland to seize a pamphlet attacking See also:Marie Antoinette led to a See also:series of incidents more amazing than the intrigues in Beaumarchais's own plays, but his own account must be received with caution. Beaumarchais pursued the libeller to See also:Germany and overtook him in a See also:wood near See also:Neustadt. After a struggle he had gained See also:possession of the document when he was attacked by brigands. Unfortunately the See also:wound alleged to have been received in this fight was proved to be self-inflicted. The See also:Austrian See also:government regarded Beaumarchais with a suspicion justified by the circumstances.

Phoenix-squares

He was imprisoned for some time in See also:

Vienna, and only released on the See also:receipt of explanations from Paris. His various visits to England led him to take a deep See also:interest in the impending struggle between the See also:American colonies and the See also:mother-See also:country. His sympathies were entirely with the former; and by his unwearied exertions he succeeded in inducing the French government to give ample, though private, assistance in money and arms to the Americans. He himself, partly on his own account, but chiefly as the See also:agent of the French and See also:Spanish governments, carried on an enormous See also:traffic with See also:America. Under the name of Rodrigue Hortalez et Cie, he employed a See also:fleet of See also:forty vessels to provide help for the insurgents. During the same See also:period he produced his two famous comedies. The earlier, Le See also:Barbier de See also:Seville, after a See also:prohibition of two years, was put on the stage in 1775. The first See also:representation was a complete failure. Beaumarchais had overloaded the last See also:scene with allusions to the facts of his own case and the whole See also:action of the piece was laboured and heavy. But he cut down and remodelled the piece in time for the second representation, when it achieved a complete success. The intrigues which were necessary in See also:order to obtain a See also:licence for the second and more famous See also:comedy, Le Mariage de See also:Figaro, are highly amusing, and throw much See also:light on the unsettled See also:state of public sentiment at the time. The play was completed in 1778, but the opposition of Louis XVI., who alone saw its dangerous tendencies, was not overcome till 1784.

The comedy had an unprecedented success. The See also:

principal See also:character in both plays, Figaro, is a completely See also:original conception; in fact Beaumarchais drew a portrait of himself in the resourceful adventurer, who, for mingled wit, shrewdness, gaiety and philosophic reflection, may not unjustly be ranked with Tartuffe. To See also:English readers the Figaro plays are generally known through the adaptations of them in the See also:grand See also:opera of See also:Mozart and See also:Rossini; but in France they See also:long retained popularity as acting pieces. The success of Le Mariage de Figaro was helped on by the methods of self-See also:advertisement so well understood by Beaumarchais. The proceeds of thefiftieth performance were devoted to a charity, the choice of which provoked numerous epigrams. Beaumarchais had the imprudence to retaliate by personalities that were reported by his enemies to be dedicated against the king and See also:queen. Beaumarchais was imprisoned for a See also:short time by royal order in the prison of St Lazare. Brilliant pamphleteer as he was, Beaumarchais was at last to meet more than his match. He undertook to defend the See also:company of the " Eaux de Paris," in which he had a large interest, against See also:Mirabeau, and brought down on himself an invective to which he could offer no reply. His real See also:influence was gone from that date (1785—1786). Shortly afterwards he was violently attacked by See also:Nicolas Bergasse, whom he sued for See also:defamation of character. He gained his case, but his reputation had suffered in the pamphlet See also:war.

Beaumarchais's later productions, the bombastic opera See also:

Tarare (1787) and the drama La See also:Mere coupable (1792), which was very popular, are in no way worthy of his See also:genius. By his writings Beaumarchais contributed greatly, though quite unconsciously, to See also:hurry on the events that led to the Revolution. At See also:heart he hardly seems to have been a republican, and the new state of affairs did not benefit him. The astonishing thing is that the society travestied in Le Mariage de Figaro was the most vehement in its See also:applause. The court looked on at a play justly characterized by See also:Napoleon as the " revolution already in action " apparently without a suspicion of its real character. His popularity had been destroyed by the Mirabeau and Bergasse affairs, and his great See also:wealth exposed him to the enmity of the envious. A See also:speculation into which he entered, to See also:supply the See also:Convention with muskets from Holland, proved a ruinous failure. He was accused of concealing arms and See also:corn in his See also:house, but when his house was searched nothing was discovered but some thousands of copies of the edition (1783—1790) of the See also:works of Voltaire which he had had printed at his private See also:press at See also:Kehl, in See also:Baden. He was charged with See also:treason to the See also:republic and was imprisoned in the Abbaye on the loth of See also:August 1792. A See also:week later he was released at the intercession of Mme Houret de la Mariniere, who had been his See also:mistress. He took See also:refuge in Holland and England. His See also:memoirs entitled, See also:Mes six epoques, detailing his sufferings under the republic, are not unworthy of the Goezman period.

His courage and happy disposition never deserted him, although he was hunted as an agent of the Convention in Holland and England, while in Paris he was proscribed as an emigre. He returned to Paris in 1796, and died there, suddenly, on the 18th of May 1799. Gudin de la Brenellerie's Histoire de Beaumarchais (1809) was edited by M. See also:

Maurice See also:Tourneux in 1888. See also L. de Lomenie, Beaumarchais et son temps (1855), Eng. trans. by H. S. See also:Edwards, (4 vols., 1856) ; A. Hallay's Beaumarchais (1897) ; M. de See also:Lescure, Eloge de Beaumarchais (1886) ; and Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. vi. Beaumarchais's works have been edited by Gudin (7 vols., 1809) ; by Furne (6 vols., 1827) ; and by E. See also:Fournier (1876). A variorum edition of his See also:Theatre consplet was published by MM. d'Heylli and de Marescot (4 vols., 1869–1875) ; and a Bibliographie See also:des oeuvres de Beaumarchais, by H. Cordier in 1883.

End of Article: BEAUMARCHAIS, PIERRE AUGUSTIN CARON DE (1732-1799)

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