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DE LODEDIE'S BDAIIMA.RCHAIS.* DIE celebrated Beaumarchais was not so very important a person as his present biographer and those who speak after him repre- sent : still the author of the Marriage of Figaro was a remark- able man in himself, perhaps more remarkable as a type of his country and his time. With the versatility and readiness to un- dertake anything, which Juvenal ascribes to his " Grxculus esu-

riens," and Johnson reproduces more patly to the theme

" All sciences a fasting Monsieur knows,"-

Beaumarchais had incessant mental activity, an energetic te- nacity of purpose hard to baffie, animal spirits that almost pro- duced the effects of genius, and a buoyancy of mind that difficul- ties could not deter or reverses subdue. With these natural gifts of his countrymen, he had some other national qualities not so re- spectable, but carried, like his better parts, to an unusual extent. Though not perhaps personally dishonest as the world goes, he was utterly devoid of principle, and as utterly indiffirent to truth. That love of display and of making the best of everything which characterizes Frenchmen was carried by Beaumarchais to an extent that became ostentatious charlatanerie, and offended even his contemporaries. His "gallantry " was not greater than that of his age, probably not so great, but his free speech, like his free writing, rather shocked the times of Louis the Fifteenth. His fertility in resources and readiness in repartee were consider- able ; of wit in the sense of profound thought felicitously illus- trated he had none. His so-called wit consisted in pointed contrasts, turns of expression as often forced as happy, or that audacity which takes the bull by the horns and turns an adversary's weapon by impenetrable brass. The Irish Member of the Union Parliament met the reproach of sell- ing his country by "thanking God that he had a country to sell" : when Beaumarchais was reproached by an adversary with his want of nobility, he replied that he had a truer nobility than many, for he had paid for at and got the receipt.

The buoyant spirit, fertility of resources, facility in acquiring a knowledge of affairs, and an extraordinary faculty of applying the whole force of his mind to any subject that was brought be- fore him however suddenly, would have secured Beaumarchais some prominence in any society ; it was only in France during the latter part of the last century that he could have run such a career or attained so much worldly distinction. Society was decomposing, as much from want of vitality as from corrup- tion. It was scarcely possible for honest merit to advance itself in any direction ; so surrounded was every one by the abuses of administration, the powers and prejudices of classes, and the ne- cessity of meeting oppression as best he might, that honesty in an aspiring life could hardly exist. Beaumarchais—or rather Pierre Augustin Caron—was born in 1732. He was the son of an emi- nent watchmaker, and was brought up to the business ; from the time he quitted it every step of his career was the result of favour, or intrigue, or a dishonest appeal to .the public by ad- dresses to feelings and prejudices which could hardly have ex- isted in a purer social atmosphere. While engaged in his father's business, he displayed as much ability and energy as in his future career. In 1753 the young mechanic invented a new escapement for watches : a rival pilfered the invention and advertised it as his own : even at twenty-one Beaumarchais was not the man to be " put upon."—he addressed a letter to a newspaper reclaiming his invention--he appealed to the Academy of Sciences, which decided in his faVour. The result was more advantageous than he perhaps expected. He became watchmaker to the King, the Princes and Princesses ; and, what was equally important in that court, he was employed by Madame de Pompadour. It would seem to have been the fashion of Louis the Fifteenth to keep his courtiers waiting at a levee while he amused himself with the last "new novelties." This account of his reception on carrying home a watch is addressed by Beaumarchais to a cousin who was set- tled in London as a watchmaker : the date is July 31, 1754. "I have at last delivered the watch to the King, by whom I was fortu- nate enough to be recognized at once,f and who remembered my name. His Majesty commanded me to wind it up, and explain it to all the cour- tiers who were at the levee ; and never did his Majesty receive any artist with so much kindness: he wished to understand every detail. It was then that I had occasion to offer you many thanks for the microscope, which every one considered admirable. The King made use of it to examine the watch in Madame da Pompadour's ring, which is only four lines in diame- ter, and which was much admired, although it is not finished. The King asked me to make him a repeater in the same style, on which I am at pre- sent engaged. All the courtiers follow the example of the King, and eaoh one wishes to be attended to first. I have also made Mademoiselle Victoire a curious little clock, in the style of my watches, which the King wished to make her a present of : it has two dials, and shows the time whichever way you look at it."

This was the mechanical culminating paint of Peter Augustin Caron. His good looks and his audacious eoxcombry attracted the ladies of that Circean stye. Caron soon ceased to be a rotu- rier, 'without exactly becoming noble : but M. de Lomenie shall tell the story.

Beaumarchais and his Times: Sketches of .French Society in the Eighteenth `i„.71"47, from Unpublished Documents. By Louis de Donate. Translated by "''''PY S. Edwards. In four volumes. Published by Addey and Co.

"t This Passage indicates that Beaumarchais had already seen Louis XV. ; on what occasion I cannot say, but, .doubtless, in the capacity of watch- mSaker, s." and probably after his victory over Lepanto before the Academy of cience "In 1755, young Caron being nothing but a watchmaker, was not in a poaition to make the courtiers who ordered watches from him take umbrage. He began then by reaping the benefits of his good looks, without in the first instance experiencing any of their ill effects. A lady, who had seen him at Versailles, called upon him in Paris, at his shop in the Rue St. Denis, on the pretext of bringing him a watch to repair. She was not ex- actly a noble lady ; she was the wife of an officer of the King's pantry, eon- troleur de k bouelae, or, to be more dignified and more exact, of a contrideter &Ire d'office de la mason du roi,—who, by the way, had the same Christian name as Beaumarchais, being called Pierre Augustan Franquet. The office held by the husband was one of the thousand functions attached to the Court, which our Kings used to create formerly ; when they were in want of money, and which, when they had once been sold, could be transmitted by the holder to heirs or to other purchasers, if the Prince gave his consent.

*

"The controller whose wife had taken notice of Beaumarchais, was very old and infirm. The wife herself was no longer in the bloom of youth. It appears from one of Beaumarchais's notes that she was six years older than himself, and consequently, in 1755, she was thirty ; but she was still very beautiful, and when she came blushingly with her watch to Beaumarchais, there was no need to tell him to bring it back himself. ' The young artist,' says Gudin, politely claimed the honour of bringing back the watch as soon as he had repaired it. This event, which appeared an ordinary one, had an effect on his life, and gave him a new existence.'

" At the end of some months, M. Franquet confessed that his old age and infirmities prevented him from performing his functions as controller in a suitable manner, and that he could not do better than give up the place to young Caron, in consideration of an annuity, which was guaranteed by the father."

A few months after this, the old gentleman died ; and Caron, marrying the widow, took the name of Beaumarchais, from a small fief alleged to be possessed by his wife. It would. be useless to trace minutely the career of Beaumar- chais as a courtier and noble—for such he eventually became ; or the opposition, possibly mortifications, he encountered—for the courtiers, who might have cared nothing about an obscure or pro- vincial promotion, took every means of annoying the bourgeois who was metamorphosed into a gentilhomme before their eyes. The favour of the Princesses further excited jealous anger ; for though the Royal patronage was enjoyed by ladies of another stamp, the countenance of the Mesdames de France gave its pos- sessor a prestige. This favour he also obtained as a minister to pleasure. The Carons were an accomplished family : Beaumar- chais was a musical amateur and a performer on the harp ; the Princesses required that instrument at their private concerts ; Beaumarchais became a performer and likewise undertook the general management of the concerts. He not only did this gra- tuitously, but had to furnish forth the entertainments at his own charges, royalty overlooking such small matters.

" Here, for example, is a letter which was addressed to him by Madame Victoire's head lady in waiting. " Madame Victoire has taken a fancy today, sir, to play the tambourine, and desires me to write to you directly, that you may get her one as soon as you possibly can. I hope, sir, your cold has left you, and that you will be able to execute Madame's commission with promptitude. " have the honour to be, sir, your very humble servant,

"'Ds BOUCHEMAN-COUSTILLIER!

"It was necessary to purchase immediately a tambourine fit for the Prin- cess's acceptance. The next day a harp was wanted, the day afterwards a flute, and so on. When young Beaumarchais had exhausted his pulse, which was at that time very scanty, in paying the tradesmen and had be- come rather tired of waiting, he sent his bill with much humility to Ma- dame d'Hoppen, the superintendent of the Princess's household, accom- panied by the following observations. " ' I beg, madame, that you will have the kindness to observe that I am responsible for the payment of 844 livres, which remain due, as I was un- able to advance them myself, having paid away all the money I had ; and I beg you not to forget that I am, in consequence, entirely without a sou.

Besides the 1852 livres, Madame Victoire owes, on a balance of account 15 „ For a book in morocco, gilt, and bearing her arms 36 „ And for the copying of the music in the said book 36 „ Total 1939 liv. 10s.

which makes 80 Louis and 19 livres 10s.

" I do not reckon all the coaches I have had to take in going to the dif- ferent workmen, nearly all of whom live in the suburbs, nor the messages which I have had to send, as I took no note of the expenses, and am not in the habit of doing so with the Princesses. Do not forget, I beg, that Ma- dame Sophie* owes me five Ionia. In hard times one is obliged to collect the smallest sums. You know my respect and regard for you. I shall say no more on the subject.' " Although the Princesses did not of themselves enrich Beau- marchais, their favour was the means of his getting rich. Paris du Verney, an old millionnaire and " amateur of the military art," had procured a decree to found the military school in the Champ de Mars. The building was partly finished, but the undertaking languished for want of the Royal countenance. At last Du Verney bethought himself of Beaumarchais. He had no in- fluence with the King ; but he induced the Princesses to go and look at the building. Their conversation and their persuasions roused the curiosity of their blasé father, who went himself. The gratified millionnaire was not ungrateful. In our age, a capitalist who wishes to serve a man cheaply gives him an allotment of *shares in a new company.: under the old French regime a cen- tury ago, the form was different but the substance was pretty much the same.

"From this moment, the financier—grateful for Beaumarchais's good ser- vices, and delighted to find a person who could assist him as an intermediary in his intercourse with the Court—resolved to make the young man's for- tune. He began by giving him a share in one of his speculations to the amount of 60,000 francs, on which he paid him interest at the rate of ten

per cent;. after this he gave him an interest in various other affairs. 'He initiated me,' says Beaumarchais, into the secrets of finance, of which, as every one knows, he was a consummate master. I commenced making my fortune under his direction : by his advice I undertook several speculations,

• (Louis %V.'s third daughter.) in some of which he assisted me with his money or his name, in all with his advice.' It was in fact, under the influence of this able master that the son of Caron the watchmaker acquired that taste for speculation which never afterwards forsook him, which contributed not a little to harass his existence, and which,. joined to an equally ardent taste for the pleasures of the intellect and imagination, formed die peculiar features of his character."

It was after this success that. Beaumarchais bought that no- bility for which he had the receipt to show; but as a preliminary he was obliged to induce his father to remove the name of Caron from over the shop:

" If I were at liberty,' he writes to his father, to say what new year's gift I should like to receive from you, I should wish above all that you would remember your promise of such long standing, to change the inscrip- tion above your shop-front. An affair which I am about to conclude will probably be met by this difficulty alone, that you are in trade ; a fact of which you inform the public in an announcement which admits of no reply. I cannot think that you will refuse me a favour which can make no differ- ence to you, and which will make a great difference in my prospects, owing to the foolish manner in which matters are viewed in this country. Not being able to alter the prejudice, I am obliged to submit to it, as there is no other channel open to the advancement which I desire for our happiness, and for that of all the family. I have the honour to be, with the most pro- found respect, monsieur and honoured father, " Your very humble, &c. DE BEAUMARCHAIS. Versailles, January 2, 1761.' " The three things which, apart from his literary efforts, gave the name of Beaumarchais an European celebrity in his own age, were the affair of Clavijo, the legal contest with Goezman, and the supplying clothing and munitions of war to the insurgent Americans, as a nominal merchant, whilst France was avowedly at peace with this country. On the first and second affairs, M. de Lomenie adds little to what Beaumarchais himself published. In fact, the story of Clavijo, stripped of the dramatic extension and vivacity with which it was told, only amounted to Beau- marchais having procured from Clavijo an acknowledgment of his sister's virtue when the Spaniard broke off his engagement, and a subsequent attempt of the cidevant lover—a small official at Madrid—to get Beaumarchais arrested. The mode of telling the story, however, rendered it so popular that Goethe wrote a dramatic version of it. The Goezman lawsuit was also in itself a small affair, arising out of another lawsuit with the heir of Du Verney, who had contested the validity and accuracy of a signed account which made Du Verney in debt to Beaumarchais, the real though not the formal charge being one of forgery as well as fraud. Goezman was one of the judges and the " reporter" of the case. Beaumarchais had by invitation bribed Madame Goezman with a hundred louis and a watch worth another hundred, as well as fifteen for the judge's secretary. When an adverse decision was given, the two hundred louis were returned to Beaumarchais according to agreement, but not the fifteen louis, which Madame herself pocketed and said the secretary would not refund. This issue was narrow enough, even when it took the form of calumny, and Beaumarchais stood ill with the public on account of the charge of forgery, which was generally believed. But the new Parliament (the tribunal) was very unpopular on account of the arbitrary and violent manner in which the King had destroyed the old and appointed the new : Madame Goezman was silly .and violent; Goezman himself not quite respectable ; and the case was conducted with that complete irrelevancy to the true points at issue which obtains in the French tribunals even to the present day. Of these favourable circumstances Beaumarchais skilfully took advantage ; and the memorials or reports which he published produced so great an effect by his cleverness, unscrupu- lousness, vivacity, and impudence, falling-in with what Wal- pole truly calls "party sprit," that he not only covered his adversaries with ridicule, and dealt the new Parliament a heavy blow, but reinstated himself in Parisian opinion.

The connexion of the " Sieur de Beaumarchais " with the treacherous evasion of neutrality by the French Government was well known. Gibbon in the Justificatory Memoir had given a correct historical summary of the proceedings. M. De Lomenie lays them bare at large. The novelty of this section of his book consists in the claim that Beaumarchais originated the policy, and was not only the author of the idea but the cause of its being adopted, and the means of carrying it out. From this conclusion we dissent entirely. That Beaumarchais wrote incessantly upon the subject is true ; but that he did upon everything. The policy . itself was obvious : the time was the point of difficulty, for till there was some prospect of American success, to have aided the insurgents might have involved France in a useless war, for which she was ill-prepared. This the Ministers knew very well, but Beaumarchais did not. When the time came to act, how- ever, he extracted three millions from the Governments of France and Spain to carry on the business. M. de Lomenie thinks that other houses received money as well as Beaumarchais ; which we dare say is true, but the fact rather tells against the importance and preeminence of his hero. How very extensive was the traffic carried on, and how many were engaged in it, is known from the . remonstrances of the English Ambassador at Pans.; and in them other persons figure nearly as prominently as the author of Figaro. Beaumarchais obtained the, ear and the patronage of Louis the Sixteenth and his Ministers for this American business—not by his public reputation, but by " secret services." He was em- ployed by Louis the Fifteenth to buy up a libel on Madame du Barry printed in London. His successor sent him to London on a similar mission about a libel on Marie Antoinette. He was employed to induce the Chevalier D'Eon to assume female appa- rel, and was duped by that adventurer. Beaumarchais not only believed that the Chevalier was a woman, but was persuaded that

Mademoiselle D'Eon, at fifty, was deeply in love with himself. When Beaumarchais encountered real ability he was generally bafiled. D'Eon laughed at him ; Mirabeau, and a much less man than Mirabeau, though an able advocate, Bergasse, overcame him ; yet in both eases Beaumarchais had the right on his side. Nor did he succeed well except with Frenchmen, or perhaps Spaniards. When his pursuit of Marie Antoinette's libeller led him to Vienna, his pertinacious audacity procured him an inter- view with the Empress Maria Theresa, and his fanfaronnade con- ducted him to prison as an impostor, though he had a copy of the libel with him and an autograph authority from Louis the Six- teenth.

Although his permanent reputation depends upon the Barber of Seville and the Marriage of Figaro, he neither pursued literature systematically nor began it early. He was thirty-six before he produced a play ; and then it was in the serious vein, a "do- mestic drama," such as Diderot was trying to render popular, and which Lillo, the author of George _Barnwell, had attempted in England a good many years before. He was turned of fifty before the Marriage was produced, or at least performed,, and upwards of forty in the case of the Barber. M. de Lomenie enters very fully into the subject of his hero's dramatic pieces, more especially the Marriage of Figaro ; and his minute ac- counts of the composition may be too full for English readers. His criticisms on Beaumarchais are favourable, but in the main just. His account of the management, intrigues, and impudence by which the author finally got the Marriage of Figaro per- formed in spite of the King and his Minister, is a tedious but a striking picture of French courtly society on the verge of the &- volution. The indignant satirist deems it the lowest point of na- tional degradation when the people

" dues tantum res anxius optat, Panem et Circenses."

But there is a lower deep—when the people are wanting bread, and kings, ministers, and nobles are only anxious about a stage- play.

For the thirty years between the patronage of Du Verney and the French Revolution, [1761-1791,] Beaumarchais lived in a style of luxury, and latterly of great splendour ; building a mans= and laying out extensive grounds on the site of the Boule- vard Beaumarchais. How he contrived this we do not clearly make out. The condemnation in his unlucky lawsuit with the heir of Du Verney almost ruined him ; and though the decision was reversed when he became a Royal and Ministerial favourite, the lawyers doubtless got the oyster. M. de Lomenie gives a summary from the account-books of the mercantile transactions of Beaumarchais for seven years. They only reach to something beyond twenty-one millions of livres, and yield a profit of 48,327 livres, or less than a quarter per cent. He lost largely on a sump- tuous edition of Voltaire which he undertook for the national credit, printing fifteen thousand copies and selling two thousand. M. de Lomenie thinks that the three millions advanced by Govern- ment in the American business• were accounted for : we doubt it much, and suspect moreover that Beaumarchais managed to get supplied from the Government stores without payment. There is no other explanation of his circumstances. After great difficulties, Beaumarchais got an account signed by Silas Deane, the Ameri- can Envoy, for a balance of 3,600,000 livres ; but the Americans " repudiated" the account, on the ground that the French Go- vernment intended the three millions as a gift ; nor was the claim finally settled till 1835, when the family compromised the affair for 800,000 francs, the alternative being nothing. The whole story is fully told by M. de Lomenie, and is a shocking narrative of national ingratitude, selfishness, and shuffling.

Love of speculation induced Beaumarchais to meddle with the affairs of the Revolutionary Government ; through which he was ruined and persecuted to boot. When permitted to return to France, he was beset by the myrmidons of the law, and could not stir out without risk of arrest. Still he contrived to keep up a sort of theatrical establishment in his dilapidated palace. On the 17th May 1799, his valet put him to bed ; and found him a corpse in the morning. The medical certificate was apoplexy, but there was a report of suicide. This was not likely : Beaumarchais was a sanguine man, and the sanguine are not suicidal.

M. de Lomenie's Beaumarchais and his Times is in a great measure drawn from the papers and correspondence of Beaumar- chais, and a manuscript life by his confidential friend and secre- tary Gudin ; all which have been preserved (though neglected) by the family. The work was originally published in the _Revue des Deux Mondes ; and the merit of its primal structure remains, spite of revision, as a defect. The whole is lost sight of in the parts ; it is a series of articles rather than a continuous biography. This, indeed, is not all defect ; it has its advantages in the full exhibition of episodes or particular parts. The family of the Carona being treated as a substantive subject, permits a greater development than could have been properly attained in a strict biography ; and besides their own characteristics, which are remarkable, it leads to the inference that the middle classes under the old regime were not only superior to the present race of bourgeoisie in a certain independent spirit, as De Tocqueville intimates, but in taste and accomplishments. In like.manner, the earlier plays of Beaumarchais are not only fully considered, but a critical survey is taken of the "domestic drama" of which they formed a part. The negociation with D'Eon, the story of the American debt, the intrigues that brought about the performance of the " Figaro," and some other features, are exhibited with. the ,elaboration of independent topics. This has induced a minute exhibition of things of less interest, with the effect of overlaying the life. For English readers, who know little of Beaumar- ehais except as a name, the work is much too long and mi- nute, and should have been judiciously curtailed: four bulky volumes would appear even too long for the French public, unless they are prepared to look upon the hero not only as ,a clever dra- matist- and bold adventurer, half-Wilkes half-Gil Blas, but as the true author of American Independence, and a main contributor (by the Goezman cause and the Figaro) to the French Revolution.