In the spring of 1784, the court and capital wore wrought up to a high pitch of excitement by an incident which was in reality of so ordinary and trivial a character, that it would be hard to find a more striking proof how thoroughly unhealthy the whole condition and feeling of the nation must have been, when such a matter could have been regarded as important.  It was simply a question whether a play, which had been recently accepted by the manager of the principal theatre in Paris, should receive the license from the theatrical censor which was necessary to its being performed.

The play was entitled “The Marriage of Figaro.”  The history of the author, M. Beaumarchais, is curious, as that of a rare specimen of the literary adventurer of his time.  He was born in the year 1732.  His father was a watch-maker named Caron, and he himself followed that trade till he was three or four and twenty, and attained considerable skill in it.  But he was ambitious.  He was conscious of a handsome face and figure, and knew their value in such a court as that of Louis XV.  He gave up his trade as a watch-maker, and bought successively different places about the court, the last of which was sold at a price sufficient to entitle him to claim gentility; so that, in one of his subsequent railings against the nobles, he declared that his nobility was more incontestable than that of most of the body, since he could produce the stamped receipt for it.  Following the example of Moliere and Voltaire, he changed his name, and called himself Beaumarchais.  He married two rich widows.  He formed a connection with the celebrated financier, Paris Duverney, who initiated him in the mysteries of stock-jobbing.  Being a good musician, he obtained the protection of the king’s daughters, taught them the harp, and conducted the weekly concerts which, during the life of Marie Leczinska, they gave to the king and the royal family.  He wrote two or three plays, none of which had any great success, while one was a decided failure.  He became involved in lawsuits, one of which he conducted himself against the best ability of the Parisian bar, and displayed such wit and readiness that he not only gained his cause, but established a notoriety which throughout life was apparently his dearest object.  He crossed over to England, where he made the acquaintance of Wilkes, and one or two agents of the American colonies, then just commencing their insurrection; and, partly from political sympathy with their views of freedom, partly, as he declared, to retaliate on England for the injuries which France had suffered at her hands in the Seven Years’ War, he became a political agent himself, procuring arms and ships to be sent across the Atlantic, and also a great quantity of stores of a more peaceful character, out of which he had hoped to make a handsome profit.  But the Americans gave him credit for greater disinterestedness; the President of Congress wrote him a letter thanking him for his zeal, but refused to pay for his stores, for which he demanded nearly a hundred and fifty thousand francs.  He commenced an action for the money in the American courts, but, as he could not conduct it himself, he did not obtain an early decision; indeed, the matter imbittered all his closing days, and was not settled when he died.