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Pierre de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) | |
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French playwright and adventurer, whose best known comedies are The Barber of Seville (1775) and The Marriage of Figaro (1784). The plays inspired two famous operas, the first composed by Gioachhino Rossini, and the second by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Beaumarchais was one of the most colorful characters of the old Regime, who earned and lost fortunes, served as a secret agent in Britain, and supplied guns to the American revolutionaries. Although he supported the French Revolution, he was forced to go into exile. "No, Monsieur le Comte, you shan't have her! You shan't have her. Because you are a great noble, you think you are a great genius! Nobility, a fortune, a rank, appointments to office: all this makes a man so proud! What did you do to earn all this? You took the trouble to get born - nothing more. Moreover, you're really a pretty ordinary fellow. While as for me, lost in the crowd, I've had to use more knowledge, more brains, just to keep alive than your likes have to spend on governing Spain and the Empire for a century. And you want to contest with me - ..." (from The Marriage of Figaro) Pierre de Beaumarchais was born Pierre Augustin Caron in Paris, one of ten children by André-Charles Caron, a watchemaker, and the former Louise-Nicole Pichon. In his childhood he learned to play violin, flute and harp. He attended a trade school in Alfortville, where he learned some Latin, and then worked as a clockmaker in his father's shop. After many legal actions, he earned in 1754 a patent from the French Academy of Sciences for his invention, a new form of escapement mechanism, which became a standard part of new improved watches. In 1756 Beaumarchais married Madeleine Francquet, a widow and a wealthy customer of his father's shop. She died next years and left him a small property, from which he took the name Beaumarchais. In 1754, Beaumarchais presented himself at court. After selling a watch to Mme de Pompadour, he also gained the attention of the King. For a period, he had a post in Versailles as a music teacher to the daughters of Louis XV, but soon plunged into a series of political and financial intrigues, adventures – and lawsuits. In one case he believed that his opponent had won the courts by bribing the judge more generously than he himself had. The financier and adviser to Mme Pompadour, Joseph Paris-Duverney sent him to missions to England and Spain to secure a monopoly of the slave trade. Although he did not gain success, due to his contact with Duverney and business skills he managed to make a fortune and buy the post of King's Secretary. In 1768 he married another wealthy widow, Geneviève-Madeleine Wettebled Lévêque. She also died after a short marriage, in 1770. His third wife was Marie-Thérèse Willermanulas, whom he married in 1786. France joined the American War of Independence against Britain officially in 1778, but Beaumarchais had already supplied arms to the American colonies. He also organized a fleet of merchant ships to carry cannons, ammunition and other equipment and assist the Continental Congress. In exchange for the war supplies the agent of Congress promised to send back produce, chiefly tobacco, as compensation of the debt. 40 years later Beaumarchais's daughter still waited for the compensation, which was about 2 million francs. Congress replied: "Take one third or nothing." When the French writer Charles Théveneau de Morande threatened to publish in London a biography of the King's mistress, Mme du Barry, the King sent Beaumarchais to purchase the manuscript. Groundwork for the negotiations had been made by Chevalier d'Eon, who was living at that time in exile in England. D'Eon was a diplomat, spy, and a member of the elite Dragoons. Later Beaumarchais also negotiated with d'Eon over the latter's political rehabilitation. At that time rumors were spreading that Monsieur d'Eon was a woman, and in London Beaumarchais laid a wager on his sex. D'Eon expressed his disgust on Beaumarchais's attitude toward women, writing to him: "Why, during your last trip to London, did you contract a venereal disease, which was probably given to everyone in Paris; while, in order to amuse yourself certainly at my expense, or to make me look ridiculous, you let it be known in circles of your elegant women that you were supposed to marry me after I spent several months in the Abbaye des Dames de Sainte-Antoine?" Beaumarchais defended himself:. "I noted your announcement in the newspaper, whose goal, according to you, was to discourage bets on your sex, was so strangely worded as to seem written solely to stimulate such speculations and thus so contrary to the ostentatious disinterestedness that you affect..." (from Monsierur d'Eon is a Woman by Gary Kates, 1995) In 1777, Beaumarchais founded one of the first organizations to protect authors' rights, La Société des Auterus Dramatiques. After Voltaire's death Beaumarchais bought his banned books. To publish them, he opened a printing shop in Kehl, out of the reach of the French censors, and brought out the first complete edition of Voltaire (1784-90). This 70-volume edition was a financial disaster. Beaumarchais supported the French Revolution but his position at the royal court threw suspicion on him. In 1792 he lost money in attempting to sell muskets to the revolutionary armies; he also spent some time in the Abbaye Prison. After release, Beaumarchais fled through England and Holland to Hamburg. His property in Paris was confiscated and his family imprisoned. In 1796 he returned to France. Beaumarchais died of a stroke in Paris on May 18, 1799 in relative poverty. THE COUNT: I do believe it's that rascal Figaro. Beaumarchais's early plays were performed privately at the salon of his friend, Charles Lenormand d'Étoiles, husband of Mme de Pompadour. The full-length drama Eugénie (1767), produced by Comédie-Française, was about false marriage promises, and the shame of women who are deceived by members of the nobility. The story was set in London, but based on the experiences of Beaumarchais's sister. She had followed a penniless Spanish grandee to Spain, where he broke the engagement. Also Goethe's melodrama Clavigo was partly based on this contemporary scandal. Mémoires (1773-1774) was born from complicated lawsuits. Beaumarchais had sued the heir of Paris-Duverney for the money the estate owed him, but lost the suit. However, he won a small victory when the polemic work about the unfair decision against him brought the public opinion to his side. The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro showed Beaumarchais sympathy for the lot of the under-privileged people and the lower classes. In both plays the hero is a valet, Figaro, who is more clever than his noble employers, especially his master Almavira. In these class-conscious plays Beaumarchais mocked aristocracy although he was well-aware of his dependance on its favour. This also created a constant tension in his dramas – much is said and much is written between the lines. The Marriage of Figaro was written in 1775-78, but it was not until 1783 when it received the king's permission for a stage production. "If censorship reigns there cannot be sincere flattery, and only small men are afraid of small writings," Beaumarchais taunted. In his famous monologue Figaro condemned his aristocratic employer and tormentor, forecasting with his protest the coming revolution. Figaro has become one of the most famous French fictional characters, who has epitomized a number of characteristics that the Frenchmen see in themselves. Mozart's opera version of the play was based on the libretto written by Lorenzo da Ponte. It gained a huge popularity. "Here they talk about nothing but Figaro. Nothing is played, sung or whistled but Figaro," wrote Mozart to a friend from Prague. Paisiello's opera on Beaumarchais's The Barber of Seville had become popular before Rossini introduced his own work. The audience reacted first hostile to the new version, performed in 1816, but soon all resistance was swept away. Beaumarhais wrote also an opera libretto, Tarare (1787), which was set to music by Antonio Salieri and performed at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique. For further reading: Beaumarchais and His Times by L. de Loménie (1857); Beaumarchais en Allemagne by P. Huot (1869); Beaumarchais et son temps by L. de Loménie (1856, 1873, 1888); Beaumarchais by A. Hallay (1897); Beaumarchais: Eine Biographie by A. Bettelheim (1911); Beaumarchais and the War of American Indepencence by E.S. Kite (1918); The Life of Beaumarchais by J. Rivers (1922); La vie de Beaumarchais by R. Dalsème (1928); Beaumarchais: Adventurer in the Century of Women by P. Frischauer (1935); Beaumarchais and His Opponents by M.L. Johnson (1936); Beaumarchais by G.E. Lemaître (1949); Beaumarchais by S. Guitry (1950); Le mariage de Figaro by Jean Meyer (1953); Beaumarchais, l'homme et l'oeuvre by René Pomeau (1956); Beaumarchais: Le père de Figaro by M. Pollitzer (1957); The Comic Style of Beaumarchais by J.B. Batermanis and W.R. Irwin (1961); The Real Figaro by C. Cox (1962); Figaro, ou la vie de Beaumarchais by Duc de Castries (1972); Les grands rôles du théâtre de Beaumarchais (1974) - For further information: - Beaumarchais (Pierre-Augustin Caron de) - La vie de Beaumarchais - Selected works:
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