Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence Volume II Part 21

"The ministers charged to fill public functions found the following phrase very just: 'They thought of me for a position, but by ill luck I was suited to it; they needed a calculator, it was a dancer who received it.'"

"The _Mariage de Figaro_" says Lomenie, "was presented sixty-eight times consecutively, something unheard of in that day. The receipts for the first presentation amounted to 6,511 livres, that of the sixty-eighth was 5,483. During eight months, from the 27th of April, 1784, to the 10th of January, 1785, the piece had brought to the Comedie Francaise (not counting the fiftieth presentation which at Beaumarchais's request had been given for the benefit of the poor) a gross sum of 347,197 livres, which left when all expenses were deducted, a net profit to the Comedians of 293,755 livres, except the part of the author which was valued at 41,499 livres....

"This sum the author of the _Mariage de Figaro_, as if to sanctify the piece, consecrated to works of charity.

"'I propose,' he wrote in the _Journal de Paris_, the 12th of August, 1784, '_un inst.i.tut de bienfaisance_, to which any woman recognized as needy and inscribed in her parish, can come, her infant in her arms and with her certificate from the parish priest, say to us, "I am a mother and a wet nurse, I gain twenty sous a day, my infant makes me lose twelve." Let us give her nine livres a month in charity.... So if the comedians have gained two hundred thousand francs from my Figaro, my nursing mothers will have twenty-eight thousand which with the thirty thousand of my friends, will produce a whole regiment of _marmots_ stuffed with maternal milk.'"

"This inst.i.tute," continues Lomenie, "of _les pauvres meres nourrices_, encountered obstacles at Paris which prevented its establishment in that city; but since the idea was good it did not remain fruitless. The Archbishop of Lyon, M. de Montazet, adopted it. He accepted the help and money of Beaumarchais, and the _Inst.i.tut de bienfaisance maternelle_, if I am not mistaken still in existence in Lyon, was the outcome of the _Mariage de Figaro_. Beaumarchais was one of its most constant protectors and in 1790 he sent six thousand francs to it and received in return the following letter signed by three of the most respectable and important inhabitants of Lyon:

"'Lyon, the 11th of April, 1790.

"'Monsieur:

"'To speak to you of the success of _l'Inst.i.tut de bienfaisance maternelle_, is to entertain you in regard to your own work. The idea of it is yours, therefore the plan of the work belongs to you. You have aided it with your generous gifts and more than two hundred children saved to the country, already owe their lives to you. We consider ourselves happy to have contributed to it and our grat.i.tude will always equal the respectful sentiments with which we are Monsieur, etc., _Les administrateurs de l'Inst.i.tut de bienfaisance maternelle_.

"'Palerne de Sacy, Chapp et Tabareau.'"

It was jealousy, Gudin tells us, that prevented the establishment of the inst.i.tute at Paris. A storm of protest arose from his enemies on every hand.

"It is not enough," they wrote, "to have gained at the bar the crown of Cicero and Parru; to have received at the theater, from the hands of Thalie, the laurels of Moliere, he must needs add to the just applause with which he is greeted, the cries of joy and benediction of the unfortunate!... From this feeble stream of money will flow rivers of milk and crowds of vigorous infants." An engraving was circulated showing Figaro helping mothers and opening the prison doors of poor debtors....

Gudin says: "The design made known, redoubled the solicitation of the unfortunates addressed to him as well as the insults which the envious poured upon him. He scarcely could open a letter which did not contain either a demand for charity if it was signed, or a series of invectives if it were anonymous."

One of these letters contained a curious request, not for money, as was usually the case, but asking that the author of the _Mariage de Figaro_, send the applicant a ticket to his play. "Misfortune," he wrote, "has driven me to despair, but before ending my life I desire once more to indulge in unrestrained laughter."

With characteristic generosity, Beaumarchais sent at once a message, to inquire into the cause of the young man's misfortune and not only gave him the desired ticket but restored hope to his distressed mind, found a position for him and warmed him back to a desire for life.

"But thus," Gudin tells us, "while with his wife, his daughter, his sisters, and a few friends, he was receiving the applause of the people and the benedictions of the fathers of families-a frightful outrage and one without motive was inflicted upon him by authority.

"I was supping with him; we were at the table when the commissioner Chenu was announced and asked to speak privately with Beaumarchais. They pa.s.sed into an adjoining room.

"We knew that the commissioner was his friend, still the conference made us uneasy. At length they came out together. Beaumarchais embraced us, as he said he would be obliged to go out and perhaps to pa.s.s the night away from home. He begged us not to be uneasy and that the next day we should be informed as to the cause of his going.

"These words, far from calming, troubled us. We could not doubt that he had been arrested, but why? Where would they take him? Perhaps to the Bastille?...

"Not to the Bastille, nor to Vincennes, but to St. Lazare, a prison house of correction for delinquent youths, he, a man of mature age, of the constancy, of the fortune of M. de Beaumarchais, treated as a depraved adolescent! It was a cowardly outrage.

"His enemies were charmed to see him thus humiliated. The consternation was general. Lafayette, the Prince de Na.s.sau-Siegen, and other n.o.blemen appealed instantly in his favor. At the end of five days he was liberated....

"I went with his wife and daughter and the Commissioner Chenu to bring him the news of his release. His first reaction was to refuse liberty.

"'I have done nothing to merit having lost it,' he said, 'I shall not go from here until judged and justified....'

"If he had not been husband and father, his obstinacy would no doubt have carried him to the point of demanding justice of the king against the king himself ... but he could not permit himself to pierce the hearts of his wife and daughter by condemning them to eternal tears in the vain hope of tearing from power the avowal of an injustice....

"Princes, Marshals of France, persons of every rank had inscribed their names at his door during his detention and came to felicitate him on his return...."

And what was the cause that had operated to bring about this sudden outburst of power directed against the author of the _Mariage de Figaro_?

It was this. In a dispute carried on with vigor in the pages of _le Journal de Paris_, between Beaumarchais and certain anonymous attacks directed against him, the former had made use of the expression, "After having been forced to conquer _lions_ and _tigers_ to have my comedy played...."

"_Lions_ and _tigers_!" Evidently the daring man meant the King and Queen of France! The news was brought at once to the royal presence.

Louis XVI, already annoyed beyond measure at the success of the play, to the performance of which he had been forced to consent in spite of himself, only needed some pretext to vent his displeasure, "so without rising from the card table at which he was seated," says Lomenie, "he wrote, if we may credit the authority of the author of _Souvenirs d'un s.e.xagenaire_, M. Arnault, ... upon the back of a seven of spades, in pencil, the order for the immediate arrest of Beaumarchais and joining insult to rigor, something which no sovereign is permitted to use, he ordered him conducted, not to an ordinary prison, but one ridiculous and shameful for a man of his years, to Saint-Lazare, where depraved adolescents were detained.

"To treat as a young good-for-nothing, a man of his age and celebrity, a man to whom confidential missions were entrusted, who carried the secrets of state, who was charged with the most important operations, and whose talents were a powerful attraction to the public and to the aristocracy, was not only a gross injustice, it was a most serious fault, because it became manifest to everyone how pernicious the influence of uncontrolled power might become even in the hands of the best prince. This arbitrary act is the only one of its kind that can be held as a reproach to Louis XVI....

"The next day, when the motive was demanded for that incarceration, the government said nothing, as it had nothing to say, for it would have been difficult to make anyone believe that Beaumarchais intended to compare Louis XVI to a _tiger_. The public became uneasy and began to murmur, and the day after to murmur loudly."

"Every one," says Arnault, "felt himself menaced, not only in his liberty but in his reputation." The fourth day there was a general movement of indignation.... The fifth day Beaumarchais was turned out of prison almost in spite of himself ... and Lomenie continues:

"A few days' reflection had made the king realize that he could not decently admit the intention given to the author, and coming back to the sentiments of justice and goodness so natural to him, he almost begged Beaumarchais to come out of prison, and set about in every way to make up to him for the wrong done him. Grimm affirms that nearly all the ministers were present at the first performance of the play after his release, which was made the most brilliant possible, when they had the slight unpleasantness of hearing this pa.s.sage of the famous monologue applauded with fervent energy: 'Not being able to debase the spirit, they take revenge in abuse.'"

[Ill.u.s.tration: D'ESTAIGN.]

Louis XVI, very soon after this, hastened to make amends in the n.o.blest manner and the one most worthy of a sovereign who felt that he had done wrong. "_Le Barbier de Seville_," says Grimm, "was given at the little theater of the Trianon, and the very distinguished favor was accorded the author to be present at the performance."

In the chapter on the _Barbier_ we have spoken already of this striking scene, where the queen herself, the Comte d'Artois, M. de Vaudreuil, etc., were the actors. There is one more line to this touching picture which we have from the pen of Gudin.

"A zealous partisan of royalty, after making himself trusted by those in power and in the guise of a Sans-culotte, had penetrated to the presence of the unhappy queen, then prisoner in the Temple. He was able to speak to her and asked if there were anyone of whom she could think who might help her, and he suggested Beaumarchais. The queen's countenance instantly fell.

"'Alas,' she said, 'he now has it in his power to avenge himself for the insult once offered him.'" And Gudin adds, "She did not know the heart of Beaumarchais or that if it had been possible, now that she was in trouble, he would have come to her relief with far more alacrity than in the hey day of her power."

But the storm now gathering, that was to sweep the mighty from their seats, was destined also to vent its fury upon the man of the people whose riches and honors long had been the objects of their jealous rage.

Twice he owed his safety to the poor whom he had a.s.sisted, but in the general _debacle_ which followed there was no opportunity for his wit or his ingenuity to save him; the author of the _Mariage de Figaro_ and the _Barbier_ was forced himself to bend before the storm.

CHAPTER XXIV

_"In my feeble childhood I was always astonished to see that the cheval de bronze had its foot in the air, but never advanced.... Sad emblem of my affairs, which like this image seem always to march, but which have no movement."_

_Beaumarchais to Ramel, Minister of Finance._

The Marine of Beaumarchais-Success of His Business Undertakings-His Wealth-Ringing Plea of Self-Justification in the Cause of America, Addressed to the Commune of Paris, 1789-The Beautiful House Which He Built in Paris-His Liberality-His Friends-His Home Life-Madame de Beaumarchais-His Daughter, Eugenie.

Since the official declaration made by the French Government to the Court of London, recognizing the independence of the United States, England had considered that war had been declared, and on June 18, 1778, she struck the first blow.

"Beaumarchais," says Lomenie, "disposed himself to make war as well as to carry on commerce. See him now demanding sailors from the Minister of the Navy, M. de Sartine, for the service of his great vessel, _le fier Roderigue_!

"'Paris, the 12th of December, 1778.

"'Monsieur:

"'If I presented myself to-day before you, and if I had the honor to propose to you to construct and arm a vessel of this importance, as one able to take the place of a vessel of the King, wherever I should send it, do you think, Monsieur, that you would refuse cannon and the t.i.tle of Captain of a battles.h.i.+p to its Commander? How then can it be less precious when all is ready than if it were still to be built?