Beaumarchais (1732-1799), real name Pierre Augustin Caron , is a French writer and playwright, known for his theatrical works such as the Barber of Seville and the Wedding of Figaro . First clockmaker to the king, he married a wealthy court widow and taught the harp to the daughters of Louis XV. Knighted in 1761, he became the lord of Beaumarchais. A secret agent in the service of the king, a wealthy businessman, he found himself embroiled in numerous scandals and trials, supplied arms to Americans fighting for their independence and provided guns to French revolutionaries. At the origin of the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers, he is an emblematic figure of the Age of Enlightenment.
Biography of Beaumarchais
Pierre Augustin Caron, seventh child and only boy in the family, was born on January 24, 1732 in Paris. First enrolled at the Ecole des Métiers d'Alfort, then working with his watchmaker father, at the age of twenty he perfected a shaft escapement system for pocket watches:a system preventing the watch from moving forward as the spring unwinds. Lepaute, watchmaker to the king, appropriated this invention which the Academy of Sciences attributed despite everything to Caron. He thus obtained his first order from the king:a watch for him, one for Madame de Pompadour, a clock for Madame Victoire!
In 1757, he took the name of Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, following a marriage with the widow Franquet , then buys a position of "official cleric controller of the king's household". At court, he gave harp lessons to the king's daughters and met the banker Le Normand d'Etiolles (husband of Madame de Pompadour) and his uncle Paris-Duverney. He joins them to engage in commercial speculation:purchase and resale of charges (grand masters of water and forests, lieutenant general of hunting), then in 1766 a forest exploitation in Chinon. In the meantime, he wrote farces for the theater and following the death of his first wife, he remarried the widow of Lévèque who died suddenly at the age of thirty-nine...leaving a large fortune in life!
Financial setbacks
First accused of embezzlement of inheritance, then summoned during the trial concerning the adjudication of the forest in Chinon, he then had trouble with the Count of La Blache against which he loses:it is ruin! The Barber of Seville, well received in 1773 at the Comédie Française, could not be presented in 1774, as Beaumarchais still had legal disputes, this time with the Duc de Chaulnes.
Trying to redeem himself, he is sent as a spy to England for a few missions:to destroy a libel concerning Mme du Barry “Secret memoirs of a public woman”; prevent the publication of the "Notice to the Spanish branch on its rights to the crown of France in the absence of heirs" pamphlet concerning Louis XVI ... who would have the knotted aiguillette; recover the secret papers of the plan for the invasion of England by France, held by the Chevalier d'Eon... who is at odds with the king; after a period in the Netherlands, then in Austria, he was imprisoned for espionage. When he returned to France, he had good news:the Barber of Seville obtained the right to print at the start of 1775…but the first performance in February was a complete failure. He revamps it, makes cuts, deletes an act and finally it's a triumph.
Engaging in the affair of the American Insurgents, he is in constant contact with Arthur Lee and M. de Vergennes, Minister of Foreign Affairs; he secretly participates in the sale of gunpowder and ammunition for the Americans in 1776… but it does not go so well with the Comédie Française for its copyrights. He then founded the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers, responsible for protecting copyright, guaranteeing property and moral rights, a society that would be recognized during the Revolution.
The comedies of Beaumarchais are a triumph
The Marriage of Figaro written in 1778 was accepted two years later by the Comédie Française. Beaumarchais produced at the same time the first edition of the works of Voltaire, printed from 1783 to 1790 in Germany where he spent astronomical sums. Always interested and attracted by speculation, he took out a loan in the Compagnie des Eaux in 1781, then became its main shareholder and director, thus being able to grant a loan to the Duke of Choiseul of one hundred and sixty-three thousand pounds. Still in the financial field, he launched a subscription for the reconstitution of the French fleet and received compensation from the king of five hundred and seventy thousand pounds for losses suffered at sea in the affair of the American Insurgents.
The Marriage of Figaro, a play censored for three years, was finally accepted by the king and it was a triumph at the premiere in April 1784. Despite everything, Beaumarchais spent a week in prison following the publication by the Journal de Paris in 1785 of the disputes between Beaumarchais and the king. Released, he tries to defend his play, but it is considered an attack on the nobility and especially as the beginnings of the Revolution. To make matters worse, the Council of State suppresses part of the volumes of the edition of the works of Voltaire. The year 1785 ended with lawsuits between Beaumarchais and Mirabeau concerning the Compagnie des Eaux.
By their audacity, the comedies of Beaumarchais mark the beginning of modern theatre. On the eve of the French Revolution of 1789, they denounce the privileges of the nobility and appear as a plea in favor of the people. Don't the last verses of the Marriage of Figaro say:"From the good people who hear it. / Let him be oppressed, he curses, he shouts…”
During the French Revolution
Thanks to the money received (eight hundred thousand pounds) to close the case of the insurgents, Beaumarchais has a new residence built near the Bastille. After the performance of The Barber of Seville in 1788, he was invited to court and celebrated there…but the Revolution was on the way:on July 15, 1789, he entered the Bastille at the head of eighty men. Belonging to the Assembly of Representatives, he was expelled for a few days following a denunciation. Reconciling with Mirabeau in 1790, he was made a provisional member of the Paris Commune, while writing La Mère Guilty and modifying the outcome of Tarare. But the lure of profit still very present, Beaumarchais embarked on new speculations:purchase of weapons (France lacked them) and this was the start of the Holland guns affair in March 1792.
Denounced in June, after a search of his house and then an arrest in August, he left France in September to reach England and then Holland. But the case is not over:he is imprisoned in London for debt. Asking for the help of the Convention, he appeared before the Committee of Public Safety which recognized him innocent, he can return to his house. He then resumed buying these weapons, but had to remain bedridden for three months in Ostend. The Committee of Public Safety considers him in 1794 as an emigrant. After the fall of Robespierre and his divorce, Beaumarchais went into exile in Hamburg. Meanwhile, England seizes Holland's guns...the case is definitely lost.
The return to France of Beaumarchais
Loved by a large part of the people, a petition was born in April 1795, asking the Committee to annul the emigrant decree. His ex-wife struggled so much that Beaumarchais was removed from the list of emigrants and was able to return to Paris in July 1796. The Dutch guns affair resurfaced in 1798 when the State declared him a creditor. Having lost in his speculations, then in his various lawsuits, he is on the verge of bankruptcy. He then wrote his Memoirs...but did not have time to take advantage of the glory reserved for him by the presentation of La Mère Guilty at the theater:Beaumarchais died of apoplexy on the night of May 17 to 18, 1799.
Let's leave the last words to F. Gendron, in the dictionary of the Revolution:"far from being a political head, Beaumarchais was a privileged person of his time. Rather than the Old Regime, he denounces the obstacles that personally hampered him in his life as an upstart:authority, justice, censorship, moral corruption. It is therefore a long way from Beaumarchais to a popular agitator and the Revolution made him see it:he found himself ruined, suspect and emigrated. Ultimately, the sling of Figaro, the alter-ego of Beaumarchais, is that of the man of spirit against the powers”.
Major works
- The Marriage of Figaro (1778), adapted by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1786.
- The Barber of Seville (1775).
- The Other Tartuffe, or the Guilty Mother (1792).
Bibliography
- Beaumarchais, biography of Christian Wasselin. Folio pocket, 2015.
- Beaumarchais:the Voltigeur des Lumières by JP de Beaumarchais. Flammarion, 1996.