Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence Volume II Part 19

"_It was to take from the Ministers all idea of my ambition, to conjure the storm, that I began again to amuse myself with frivolous theatrical plays, while guarding a profound silence upon my political actions._"

_Pet.i.tion to MM. the Representatives of the Commune of Paris by P. A.

Caron de Beaumarchais._

The _Mariage de Figaro_-Its Composition-Difficulties Encountered in Getting it Produced-It is Played at Grennevilliers-The First Representation-Its Success-_Inst.i.tut des meres nourrices_-Beaumarchais at Saint Lazare.

Several years before Beaumarchais had written in answer to the question,-"What gives you so gay a philosophy?"

"The habit of misfortune, I hasten to laugh at everything so as not to be obliged to weep."

So now in 1778 after seeing Deane recalled, his own service ignored, and jealousies aroused even among the ministers themselves he turned from all this bitterness, to develop in his own inimitable way, the gay scenes of his _Mariage de Figaro_.

"In this piece," says Gudin, "the combinations were so new, the situations so varied that one would be tempted to believe that such a work would have absorbed all the faculties of the mind of its author during many years, but for him it was only a relaxation from the many and diverse affairs in which he was engaged."

M. de Maurepas said to him one day, "And how, occupied as you are, have you been able to write it?"

"I, M. le Comte! I composed it the day when the ministers of the King had sufficient leisure to go together to the Redoute."

"Are there many repartees equal to that in your comedy? If so, I answer for its success," retorted Maurepas; for just the day before all the ministers had gone in a body to spend several hours at one of the new and fas.h.i.+onable pleasure gardens of Paris known as the Redoute.

But having written his play was very far from having it produced, for the daring boldness of the author since the marvelous success of his first comedy was known not to have diminished. The authorities rightly suspected that the new play would contain even more pointed criticisms upon the existing social order than had the _Barbier_. To be produced in public it must first pa.s.s the censors and have the approbation of the king.

La Harpe has said of this play, "It took much wit to write it-but not so much as to get it played."

Letters given by Lomenie show that already in October, 1781, the actors of the Theatre-Francais had seen the piece and were discussing with Beaumarchais the distribution of the parts. The author had appealed to the lieutenant of police to name a censor and asked as a special favor that the play should not leave his office. Six weeks later Beaumarchais learned that the king had read his play and that it had been condemned.

Madame Campan in her Memoires speaks of the incident.

Marie Antoinette who had always liked and protected Beaumarchais said to the King,

"Will the piece not be played?"

"Certainly not," answered the King, "it is detestable. Why, the Bastille would have to be pulled down if that were allowed!"

The situation against which the versatile author had to contend was the positive prohibition by the supreme head of authority-the King himself, but who was seconded, however, by very few of those personages who were nearest to him. In fact this very prohibition excited the curiosity of the court to such an extent that everyone from the loftiest personages down, and notably the Duke d'Artois, brother of Louis XVI, was demanding the favor of hearing Beaumarchais read his play.

"Every day," explained Madame de Campan, "one hears on every side, 'I have heard,' or 'I shall hear the piece of Beaumarchais.'"

Flattered as the author must have been by the enthusiasm of the courtiers, he was far too clever to lose his head or grant lightly the privilege of a reading.

"Even the most considerable personages of the realm," says Lomenie, "obtained the privilege on condition that they asked at least twice. The Princess Lamballe, for instance, personal friend of the queen, had a violent desire to have Beaumarchais read the _Mariage de Figaro_ in her salon. She sent an amba.s.sador to him, one of the greatest n.o.bles of the court, the oldest son of the Marechal de Richelieu, the Duc de Fronsac-an ardent patron of the _Mariage_.-Beaumarchais refused to see him. The duc wrote next day:

"You closed your door against me yesterday which was not well.

However, I do not hold against you enough malice to prevent me from speaking of the negotiation with which I am charged by Mme.

the Princess of Lamballe-and I propose you come next Wednesday to Versailles to dine with me, after which we will go to her.

Your very humble servant, etc.

"Le duc de Fronsac."

Beaumarchais evidently refused a second time for again the Duke wrote another letter, more urgent, to which the author finally yielded.

The grand Duke (afterward Paul I) and d.u.c.h.ess of Russia, while visiting Versailles in the spring of 1782, also became ardent supporters of the piece, after Beaumarchais had accorded them the privilege of a reading.

Strong now with the support of so many notables, he took occasion to write a vigorous letter to M. the _Garde des Sceaux_, to which august personage he began by apologizing for bothering him with such a "frivolous subject" but ended by a very ardent plea that his play be permitted to appear before the public.

"In June of 1783," says Lomenie, "Beaumarchais, who, it must not be forgotten, conducted twenty other operations at the same time, seemed on the point of succeeding.... By the influence of some one unknown, the comedians received an order to learn the piece so that it might be played before the court of Versailles. Later it was decided that it should be performed in Paris itself at the _hotel des Menus-Plaisirs_."

Everything was ready, even the tickets were out, when suddenly an express order of the king arrived, forbidding the performance. "This prohibition of the king," says Madame de Campan, "seemed like an attack upon the liberty of the public. The disappointed hopes of the people excited discontent to such an extent that the words, '_oppression_,'

'_tyranny_' were never p.r.o.nounced in the days before the fall of the throne, with so much pa.s.sion and vehemence."

Beaumarchais could well afford, as he writes, "to put his piece back in its portfolio, waiting until some event should draw it out again," for the prohibition of the king had acted only as the most serviceable advertis.e.m.e.nt. Therefore he had not long to wait.

Being in England on business the latter part of the summer, he received a letter from the Duc de Fronsac, from which the following is an extract:

"Paris, the 4th of September, 1783.

"I hope, Monsieur, that you will not object that I shall write to obtain your consent to have the _Mariage de Figaro_ played at Grennevilliers.... You know that I have for several years turned over my estate of Grennevilliers to M. de Vaudreuil. M. le Comte d'Artois comes there to hunt the 18th and Madame the d.u.c.h.ess de Polignac with her society comes to supper. Vaudreuil has asked me to arrange a spectacle, for there is a good enough hall. I told him that there was nothing more charming than the _Mariage de Figaro_, but that we must have the consent of the king. _We have secured that and_ I went running to find you and was astonished and distressed to find that you were far away in the north.

"Will you not give your consent that the piece be played? I promise you that I will do my utmost to have it well given. M. le Comte d'Artois and his whole society are waiting with the greatest eagerness to see it, and certainly it will be a great step in advance towards having it given at Fontainebleau and Paris.... I, in particular, have the greatest desire and I beg you to reply quickly, quickly. Let it be favorable, I beg you, and never doubt my grat.i.tude and the esteem and friends.h.i.+p with which I shall always be, Monsieur, yours, etc.

"Le duc de Fronsac."

"While the duc de Fronsac," says Lomenie, "sent after Beaumarchais, the comte de Vaudreuil who was arranging the festival in honor of the comte d'Artois and Madame de Polignac, waited with impatience for the consent of Beaumarchais. We have under our eyes a letter of the comte written to the duc de Fronsac which was found among the papers of Beaumarchais, apparently because the latter fearing some sudden change of feeling in the King, had requested that the duc give him the entire correspondence, in order that he might be in a position to prove that he had acted only at the urgent solicitations of the courtiers.

"This circ.u.mstance enables us to observe closely what was pa.s.sing in those frivolous heads that were soon to be stricken off, and to realize with what blind impatience those thoughtless patricians aspired to be pointed out by Figaro for the contempt of the ma.s.ses."

In this letter of the count, after running over a half dozen plays that do not satisfy him, he says:

"Fearing the permission of M. de Beaumarchais would not reach us in time we will postpone the spectacle for three or four days so it will not be given until the 21st or the 22nd. Will you please see that the comedians hold themselves ready for that date? But _hors du 'Mariage de Figaro,' point de salut_ (our only salvation is in the _Mariage de Figaro_). Thank you a thousand times, my dear Fronsac, for all your trouble. I know that it is for these ladies and M. the comte d'Artois, who join in my grat.i.tude.

Receive the renewed expression of my deep regard which is yours for life;

"Le comte de Vaudreuil."

Again to quote Lomenie:

"Beaumarchais, then in England, learned that nothing was now lacking but his own consent to play the piece prohibited by the king several months before. He returned immediately to Paris and it was he now who was the one to make the conditions. He was not satisfied simply to amuse the court, but wished rather to reach the public and to make them laugh at the expense of the court, which was a very different matter. If, however, the one would lead to the other, Beaumarchais would be charmed to gratify MM. de Vaudreuil and de Fronsac, but before consenting to the representation taking place at Grennevilliers, he required that the favor be accorded him of a new censure. Singular request!

"'But,' they said to him, 'your play has already been censored, approved, and we have the permission of the king.'

"'No matter, it must be censored again.'

"To M. de Breteuil he wrote, 'they found me a little difficult in my turn and they said it was only because I was so sought after; but since I desired _absolutely_ to _fix public opinion_ by a new examination of the piece, I insisted, and so they have accorded me the severe historian, Gaillard of the French Academy.'

"This," continues Lomenie, "was well thought out. Just before a court festival, where all were eagerly awaiting the representation, what censor, no matter how arbitrary, would dare interfere by spoiling their joy and provoking the anger of the powerful lords who ordered the festival? And so, as was to be expected, the report of the censure was 'completely favorable.'"

But Beaumarchais was not yet satisfied. "The play approved once more,"

he wrote in his memoirs to M. de Breteuil, "I carried my precaution so far that I required before I would consent to its being played at the festival, the express promise of the magistracy that the Comedie Francaise might consider it as belonging to their theater and I dare certify that that a.s.surance was given by M. Lenoir, who certainly believed everything complete as did I myself."