[Footnote 1:  “Le Mariage de Figaro” was a play by a man who assumed the name of Beaumarchais (as Poquelin had taken the name of Moliere and Arouet that of Voltaire); and the histories of both the author and the play are curious.  The author’s real name was Caron, and he had been bred a watchmaker.  But he was ambitious; he gave up his trade, and bought a place about the Court, which was among those which conferred gentility, and which enabled him afterwards on one occasion to boast that he could establish a better claim to the rank of noble than most of that body, since he could produce a stamped receipt for it.  He married two rich widows.  He next obtained the place of music-master on the harp to the daughters of Louis XV., and conducted some of their concerts.  He became involved in a law-suit, which he conducted in person against some of the most renowned advocates of the day, and gained great applause for the talent he had exhibited in his pleadings.  He crossed over to England, where he made acquaintance with Wilkes and the agents of some of the North American colonies, and became a volunteer agent for them himself at the beginning of the American war, expending, according to his own statement, 150,000 francs in the purchase of arms and stores, which he sent out, when the President of Congress contented himself with thanking him for his liberality, but refused to pay his bill.  He resolved to try his skill as a dramatist.  His earlier plays were not particularly successful, but in 1781 he produced “The Marriage of Figaro,” a sort of sequel to one of its predecessors, “The Barber of Seville.”  During the progress of its composition he had shown some of the scenes to his critical friends, who had pronounced it witty, and prophesied its success.  But it had also become known that it contained sarcasms on some of the exclusive privileges of the nobles, and the officer who had charge of such matters in consequence refused to license it for performance, as a dangerous satire on the institutions of the country.  He had by this time made friends enough to form a party to remonstrate against the hardship of the Censor’s decision; till the King determined to judge for himself, and caused Mme. Campau to read it to himself and the Queen, when he fully agreed with the Censor, and expressed a positive determination not to permit its performance.  Unluckily he was never firm in his resolutions; and Beaumarchais having secured the patronage of Louis’s brother, the Comte d’Artois, and Mme. de Polignac, felt confident of carrying his point at last.  His royal and noble patrons arranged parties for private readings of the play.  He then declared, untruly, that he had altered all the passages which had been deemed offensive, and Louis was weak enough to believe him without further examination, and to sanction a private performance of it at the country house of the Comte de Vandreuel.  After this it was impossible to exclude it from the theatre in Paris; and in April,