Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence Volume I Part 22

Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence Volume I Part 22

_?Toujours, toujours, il est toujours le m?me, Jamais Robin, Ne connut le chagrin, Le temps sombre on serein, Les jours gras, le car?me; Le matin ou le soir; Dites blanc, dites noir, ?Toujours, toujours, il est toujours le m?me.?_

In previous chapters, we have spoken already of the intimacy of Beaumarchais with Lenormant D?Etioles. The latter?s f?te happening a few days after Beaumarchais?s return from Vienna, he suddenly appeared unannounced in the midst of the gay festival, to the unbounded joy of his old friends. As the entertainment progressed, Beaumarchais absented himself for half an hour, returning with a song in dialect, which he had just composed in honor of his host. A young man present sang it before the company. Its success was complete, and along with the one previously mentioned, it soon spread all over Paris. This song contained a verse which recalled in a very pleasing way, the personal affair which was of such great importance to the author, and which had served to make him popular. He was thus kept fresh in the public mind and its sympathetic interest was conserved.

_?Mes chers amis, pourriez-vous m?enseigner J?im bon seigneur don cha?un parle?

Je ne sais pas comment vous l?designer C?pendent, on dit qu?il a nom Charle ..._

_L?hiver pa.s.s? j?eut un mandit proc?s Qui m?donna bien d?la tablature.

J?m?en vais vous l?dire: ils m?avons mis expr?s Sous c?te nouvelle magistrature; Charlot venait, jarni, Me consolait, si fit; Ami, ta cause est bonne et ronde ..._

_Est ce qu?on bl?me ainsi le pauvre monde??_

CHAPTER XIII

_Le Barbier De S?ville--_

_?J?ai donc eu la faiblesse autrefois, Monsieur, de faire des drames qui n?etaient pas du bon genre; et je m?en repens beaucoup._

_?Press? depuis, par les ?v?nements, j?ai hasard? de malheureux m?moires que mes ennemis n?ont pas trouv?s de bon style; j?en ai le remords cruel._

_?Aujourd?hui je fais glisser sous vos yeux, une com?die fort gaie, que certains ma?tres de go?t n?estiment pas du bon ton; et je ne m?en console point._

_?Je ne voudrais pas jurer qu?il en fut seulement question dans cinq ou six si?cles; tant notre nation est inconstante et l?g?re.?_

_Pr?face du Barbier de S?ville._

The Character of Figaro--The First Performance of _Le Barbier de S?ville_--Its Success after Failure--Beaumarchais?s Innovation at the Closing of the Theatre--His First Request for an Exact Account from the Actors--_Barbier de S?ville_ at the Pet.i.t-Trianon.

Aside from Beaumarchais?s partic.i.p.ation in the affairs of the War of American Independence, the chief t.i.tle to glory which his admirers can claim for him is his creation of the character of Figaro.

?Certainly no comic personage,? says Gudin, ?has more the tone, the _esprit_, the gaiety, the intelligence, the lightness, that kind of insouciance and intrepid self-confidence which characterizes the French people.?

So long and lovingly had Beaumarchais carried about with him this child of his _esprit_, that the two at last practically had become one. Gudin says, ?The handsome, the gay, the amiable Figaro, daring and philosophical, making sport of his masters and not able to get on without them, murmuring under the yoke and yet bearing it with gaiety? is no other than Beaumarchais in person. ?Welcomed in one city, imprisoned in another, and everywhere superior to events, praised by these, blamed by those, enduring evil, making fun of the stupid, braving the wicked, laughing at misery and shaving all the world, you see me at last in Seville.?

?Le Comte--?Who gave thee so gay a philosophy??

?Figaro--?The habit of misfortune, I hasten to laugh at everything for fear of being obliged to weep.? (?_Le Barbier de S?ville_,? Act I, Scene II) or again--

?Le Comte--?Do you write verses, Figaro??

?Figaro--?That is precisely my misfortune, your Excellency. When it became known to the ministers that I sent enigmas to the journals, that madrigals were afloat of my making, in a word that I had been printed alive, they took it tragically, and deprived me of my position under the pretext that the love of letters is incompatible with _l?esprit des affaires_.??

When Figaro re-appears a few years later, we shall see all his characteristics intensified in proportion as the experiences and success of Beaumarchais had heightened his daring and address.

We must not make the mistake however of identifying Beaumarchais with his creation, for to create Figaro required one greater than he. There is undoubtedly a strongly developed Figaro side to Beaumarchais?s nature and it is this which always had prevented him from being taken seriously, and which made him an unfathomable being even to those very persons who depended upon and profited most by his rare gifts.

With such limitless resources, such power of combination, such insight, incapable of taking offense at any injury, so generous, forgiving, laughing at misfortune, how could he be taken seriously? With Beaumarchais, as with Figaro, it is the very excess of his qualities and gifts which alarms. As one of his biographers has said, ?What deceives is, that in seeing Figaro display so much _esprit_, so much daring, we involuntarily fear that he will abuse his powers in using them for evil; this fear is really a kind of homage; Figaro in the piece, like Beaumarchais in the world, gives a handle to calumny but never justifies it. The one and the other never interfere except for good, and if they love intrigue it is princ.i.p.ally because it gives them occasion to use their _esprit_.?

The first conception of Figaro dates very far back in the history of Beaumarchais. Already before his return from Spain the character was beginning to take form in his mind. Its first appearance was in a farce produced at the Ch?teau d??tioles. We have spoken already of its rejection by the _Com?die des Italiens_, after it had a.s.sumed the form of a comic opera. Made over into a drama, it had soon after been accepted by the _Th??tre-Fran?ais_.

It will perhaps be remembered that following the frightful adventure with the duc de Chaulnes, Beaumarchais had spent the evening of that same day in reading his play to a circle of friends. It had at that time pa.s.sed the censor and had been approved. Permission for its presentation had been signed by M. de Sartine, then lieutenant of police, and it was advertised for the thirteenth of February of that year, 1773. The affair with the Duke happened on the 11th, two days before the piece was to be performed.

The difficulties which immediately followed were of a nature to cause the performance to be postponed indefinitely.

A year later, however, when the great success of the memoirs of Beaumarchais had made him so famous, ?the comedians,? says Lom?nie, ?wished to profit by the circ.u.mstance. They solicited permission to play the _Barbier de S?ville_.?

But the police, fearing to find in it satirical allusions to the suit then in progress, caused a new censorship to be appointed, before permission could be obtained. Their report was, ?The play has been censored with the greatest rigor but not a single word has been found which applies to the present situation.?

The representation was announced for Sat.u.r.day, the 12th of February, 1774.

Two days before this date, however, came an order from the authorities which prohibited the presentation. The noise had gone abroad that the piece had been altered and that it was full of allusions to the suit.

Beaumarchais denied this rumor in a notice which terminates thus:

?I implore the court to be so good as to order that the ma.n.u.script of my piece, as it was consigned to the police a year ago, and as it was to be performed, be presented; I submit myself to all the rigor of the ordinances if in the context, or in the style of the work, anything be found which has the faintest allusion to the unhappy suit which M. Go?zman has raised against me and which would be contrary to the profound respect which I profess for the parliament.

?Caron de Beaumarchais?

The prohibition was not removed and the piece was not presented until after the return of the author from Vienna in December, 1774.

?He then obtained permission,? says Lom?nie, ?to have his _Barbier_ played. Between the obtaining of the permission and the presentation he put himself at his ease; his comedy had been prohibited because of pretended allusions which did not exist; he compensated himself for this unjust prohibition by inserting precisely all the allusions which the authorities feared to find in it and which were not there. He reinforced it with a great number of satirical generalities, with a host of more or less audacious puns. He added a good many lengthy pa.s.sages, increased it by an act and overcharged it so completely that it fell flat the day of its first appearance before the public.?

The defeat was all the more striking because of the fame of the author; the public curiosity so long kept in abeyance had brought such a crowd to the first presentation as had never before been equalled in the annals of the theater.

?Never,? says Grimm, ?had a first presentation attracted so many people.?

The surprise of himself and his friends was extreme, for Beaumarchais instead of applause received the hisses of the parterre. Anyone else might have been discouraged, or at least disturbed by so unexpected a turn, not so Beaumarchais.

In his own account of the defeat, wittily told in the famous preface to the Barbier, published three months later, he says, ?The G.o.d of Cabal is irritated; I said to the comedians with force, ?Children, a sacrifice here is necessary,? and so giving the devil his part, and tearing my ma.n.u.script, ?G.o.d of the hissers, spitters, coughers, disturbers,? I cried, ?thou must have blood, drink my fourth act and may thy fury be appeased.?

In the instant you should have heard that infernal noise which made the actors grow pale, and falter, weaken in the distance and die away.? But Beaumarchais did more than simply renounce an act, he set instantly to work to rearrange and purify the whole play.

?Surely it is no common thing,? says Lom?nie, ?to see an author pick up a piece justly fallen, and within twenty-four hours ... transform it so that it becomes a charming production, full of life and movement....?

At its second production, ?everyone laughed, and applauded from one end to the other of the piece; its cause was completely gained.? (Gudin)

What Beaumarchais did, was to restore the piece to about the form which had been approved and signed by the censors.

Some of the best of the satirical portions which are to be found in the printed play, nevertheless, were inserted before the first presentation, these he dared to retain in the final form.

In accounting for its fall, Gudin says, ?A superabundance of _esprit_ produced satiety and fatigued the audience. Beaumarchais then set about pruning his too luxuriantly branching tree, pulled off the leaves which hid the flowers--thus allowing one to taste all the charm of its details.?

As might be expected, the success of the play after its first presentation produced a storm of opposition; critics and journals vied with each other to prove to the public that they had again been deceived. Gudin says, ?His facility to hazard everything and receive applause awakened jealousy and unchained against him cabals of every kind.?