Pierre-Augustin Caron

Background

Beaumarchais was born in Paris, France on January 24, 1732.

Education

The son of a prosperous watchmaker, he was educated in the trade, but his father dismissed him because of his escapades.

Career

Thereupon Beaumarchais started a colorful career, which made him one of the best-known personalities of his age. He entered the household of Louis XV as music master to the king's daughters. Later, he bought an appointment as secretary to the king and, through his court contacts, became associated in a variety of business enterprises. These were to enrich him enormously and at the same time involve him in several notorious lawsuits. In 1764 Beaumarchais went to Spain to vindicate the honor of his sister, who had been jilted by a Spanish suitor; from this trip came much of the atmosphere that he was to use later in his plays. His inclination for the theater led him to write the dramas Eugenie (1767), which was fairly successful, and Les Deux Amis (1770), which failed completely. At this point, Beaumarchais became implicated in a series of lawsuits which culminated in the scandalous affaire Goëzman. Having lost important decisions in the lower courts, Beaumarchais sought the influence of M. Goëzman, president of the Maupeou Parlement in Paris, by showering largess on Madame Goëzman. The president ruled against Beaumarchais and Madame Goezman returned all the gifts except one item of 15 gold louis. Beaumarchais sued for recovery, and Goëzman placed countercharges; for weeks the case was the sensation of Paris. Eventually, both men were condemned, and Beaumarchais spent a short time in prison. To clear himself, he wrote his witty and darling Mémoires (1774), which contains a mordant attack on judicial injustice. The resounding success of Le Barbier de Séville in 1775 brought Beaumarchais to the fore as a dramatist. The next year he formed a company to supply weapons to the American Revolutionists. The venture made him a fortune, although his claims against the United States long remained unsettled. He also headed a project to publish the works of Voltaire. Between business deals and political intrigues, he finished Le Mariage de Figaro (1778). His play attacked feudal privileges so devastatingly that the king refused authorization for public performance. Beaumarchais therefore had it performed privately for nobles and members of the court; always an opportunist, he utilized royal censorship to sharpen curiosity about the play. When it was finally given at the Theatre Français, April 27, 1784, three persons were crushed to death by the hysterical crowd outside the theater. Beaumarchais attempted to use the Figaro characters a third time in La Mère coupable (1792), but this heavy melodrama was a dismal failure. During the French Revolution, Beaumarchais's career continued its bizarre course: he carried out commissions in Holland for the revolutionists and then was thrown into prison. Released, he became an agent for the Committee of Public Safety and was persecuted as an émigré; his wealth was confiscated and his family arrested. He was permitted to return to France in 1796 and died in Paris, May 18, 1799. Le Barbier de Séville, was presented with outstanding success at the Theatre Francais, February 23, 1775. Spanish in setting, it is essentially French in spirit. The plot follows an old stock pattern: the elderly Bartolo wishes to keep his ward, the lovely Rosine, in seclusion, so that he may marry her himself. However, the dashing Count Almaviva has seen Rosine on her balcony and seeks to win her. Rosine is touched by the count's ardor and does not discourage his attention. Bartolo's attendant and barber, Figaro, sides with the young lovers and contrives to introduce Almaviva into the house as a soldier, then as a singing teacher; he finally tricks Bartolo into approving the marriage of Rosine and the count. The play is filled with rich humor and brilliant dialogue, but what lifts it to preeminent importance is the character of Figaro, the ingenious, versatile, shrewd scamp whose insolent originality has given the comedy perennial freshness. Figaro reappears in Beaumarchais's succeeding play, Le Mariage de Figaro. The libretto of Rossini's opera II Barbiere di Siviglia (1816) is based on Le Barbier de Seville. Le Mariage de Figaro, which is generally considered the best French comedy of the 18th century, was first performed in public by the Comédie Française, April 27, 1784. The leading characters of Le Barbier de Séville reappear in Le Mariage de Figaro: the Count Almaviva, having married Rosine, has already embarked on amorous escapades. His latest target is Rosine's maid, Suzanne, who is betrothed to Figaro. The action of the play is a battle of wits, with Figaro scheming successfully to protect Suzanne from the count's plot. The democratic spirit of Le Barbier becomes revolutionary in Le Mariage. Figaro is no longer the faithful servant found in a Molière comedy; he is, rather, the emancipated man, the rival of his decadent noble master and conscious of his place in the new order. Coming, as he did, on the eve of the French Revolution, Figaro epitomizes the tendencies which had been growing for decades in the works of Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and other philosophers. Figaro's stinging epigrams and the sensuous overtones of the play have won Le Mariage enduring fame in the theater. The libretto of Mozart's opera Le Nozze di Figaro (1786) is based on Beaumarchais's comedy.

Achievements

• He is best known, however, for his theatrical works, especially the three Figaro plays.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Figaro Trilogy: The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro, The Guilty Mother (Oxford World's Classics)

    (Eighteenth-century France produced only one truly interna...)

  • Memoires de Beaumarchais Dans L'Affaire Goezman

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Parades

    (French Edition.)

  • lettres de combat
  • Le tartare a la legion

Politics

An early French supporter of American independence, Beaumarchais lobbied the French government on behalf of the American rebels during the American War of Independence. Beaumarchais oversaw covert aid from the French and Spanish governments to supply arms and financial assistance to the rebels in the years before France's formal entry into the war in 1778. He later struggled to recover money he had personally invested in the scheme. Beaumarchais was also a participant in the early stages of the French Revolution.

Connections

Beaumarchais married three times. His first wife was Madeleine-Catherine Franquet (née Aubertin), whom he married on 22 November 1756; she died under mysterious circumstances only 10 months later. He married Geneviève-Madeleine Lévêque (née Wattebled) in 1768. Again, the second Mme. de Beaumarchais died under mysterious circumstances two years later, though most scholars believed she actually suffered from tuberculosis. Before her death in 1770, she bore a son, Augustin, but he died in 1772. Beaumarchais lived with his lover, Marie-Thérèse de Willer-Mawlaz, for 12 years before she became his third wife in 1786. Together they had a daughter, Eugénie.

Father:

André-Charles Caron

Wife:

Geneviève-Madeleine Lévêque (née Wattebled)

Wife:

Madeleine-Catherine Franquet (née Aubertin)

Daughter:

Eugénie

Son:

Augustin

References

• Beaumarchais: A Biography
• Improbable Patriot: The Secret History of Monsieur de Beaumarchais, the French Playwright Who Saved the American Revolution