How Figaro's literary father became the king's secret agent: The Secret Life of Beaumarchais

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many people love the production of The Marriage of Figaro with Andrei Mironov and Alexander Shirvindt. The author of the play, Pierre Beaumarchais, is one of the most famous French writers. But few people know that almost more than the scripts for theatrical performances, he earned money from his activities as a secret agent of the king.

A lively young man is looking for a wealthy widow to make up her family happiness

The creator of Figaro himself had a lot from his creation. He entered this world, of course, not from the very bottom - the son of a watchmaker, but not so that from that starting point, so that later he would personally communicate with the king (and he did!). Only in part he was helped by his musical and literary gift, much more - a well-hung tongue, the ability to build the most complex tactical and strategic calculations and a quick mind.

To begin with, there was no noble "de Beaumarchais" after his name - Pierre Augustin - initially. He was just Karon. Pierre Caron was born in Paris in 1732. From an early age he was taught mechanics so that one day he would inherit his father's business. And he liked to teach - music. Musicians were in great fashion. Those who were unlucky enough to find patrons who would take them as their personal musicians, nevertheless, got a good job as music teachers in noble houses.

Pierre Caron's acquaintance with King Louis XV just happened - a young, handsome, charming, with a great gift of persuasion, the Parisian managed to arrange so that he was hired to teach the royal daughters to play the harp. Such an episode could already be the high point of a career - for many, but not for Pierre Caron. He wanted a little more money, a little more fame, a little more respect, and a little more publicity.

He first marries one rich widow (much older), Madame Franqueu, then another, Madame Leveque. Understandably, the first one died first, and this caused a lot of trouble. First, rumors spread that Caron, that is, now de Beaumarchais (that is, the owner of the Beaumarchais estate), poisoned his first wife, and if they were strengthened, this would become his social death. Secondly, the death of his wife put him in a very financially disadvantageous situation, since the creditors, who were satisfied that Madame de Beaumarchais was paying debts on the sly, did not believe Karon and immediately came to claim their own. Well, along with the death of Madame de Beaumarchais, her social ties died, which Caron could not have foreseen - so he was the last who benefited from the death of his highly respected, venerable wife.

Fortunately, a friend who did not turn his back on de Beaumarchais, the banker Duvernay, with whom de Beaumarchais collaborated, helped to pay off the debts, and rumors came across Voltaire's statement that it was too funny for the poisoning of Beaumarchais's wife - the public liked it, and de Beaumarchais was freed from heavy, albeit unofficial, accusation.

Battles of Monsieur Pierre Caron with the court deceivers of Spain and France

The second marriage of de Beaumarchais did without scandals, but the scandal was thrown up by his own sister: she was seduced and abandoned by the Spanish writer Jose Clavijo and Fajardo. He was not an easy writer, but a courtier, so when de Beaumarchais was getting ready to go to Madrid to demand justice at the royal court, he could only twist his finger at his temple: who will listen to you, Parisian, who cares about the watchmaker's daughter?

De Beaumarchais arrived in Madrid, de Beaumarchais made sure that he was heard, de Beaumarchais made a speech that did not reach us - and incredibly, but the seducer was deprived of his post and, of course, removed from the court. The Spanish king did it personally! It seemed that only Beaumarchais was not surprised. His plans almost never failed. Almost.

Six years after the unfortunate incident with his sister, Beaumarchais faced new trouble that followed his personal grief: his friend and business partner Duvernay, the same one who had once helped pay off debts, died. By that time, Beaumarchais had already managed to get some profit and invest in the Duvernay business, so the banker already owed him, but after his death it was not possible to get the debt repaid. The heirs of Duvernay not only did not want to return the debt, but also accused Beaumarchais of deception.

Of course, litigation followed. De Beaumarchais lost, and not just lost, but after the bribes passed through the wives of the judges - and they did not return some of these bribes. He accused the judges of dishonesty - they branded him a liar. A new round of confrontation began, which de Beaumarchais interrupted very gracefully - he released a large text about how dishonestly judges work in France. The text impressed the king himself. Ultimately, the judges had to withdraw the libel charge against Beaumarchais, and the heir to Duvernay had to repay the debt.

This was not the first victory of the pen Beaumarchais. When he was still young and, as a watchmaker, he invented the escapement - a mechanism that increases the accuracy of the watch, which is still used today. At the time of the invention, Caron, the future Beaumarchais, was twenty-one years old. At such an age, it was a real shock to learn that the court watchmaker who had promised Karon support … He gave the young man's invention to the king as his own!

Pierre Caron published an open letter exposing the court watchmaker. This letter caught the attention of officials, and they got acquainted with Karon's evidence - previous models of the mechanism, which the thief, of course, did not have. Justice triumphed, Caron was given back the authorship, and Madame de Pompadour herself ordered a new watch. Karon put them on the ring. Despite their modest size - about a centimeter in diameter - they walked with a lag of no more than a second a week.

By the way, Karon became the court teacher of the harp after he invented the pedal, which made the sound control more precise and the sound itself cleaner. In order to improve the instrument, he himself learned to play it perfectly.

Musician, orator, playwright, mechanic - too many talents for one person? It would not be so, because de Beaumarchais was also a royal secret agent. And the tasks were assigned to him personally by the king of France.

King man

It is believed that it was on the instructions of the French king that Beaumarchais fueled the war of independence in America, which so beneficially weakened and distracted Britain - he suddenly turned into an arms and ammunition dealer and, in addition, secretly recruited experienced rebel officers to help the Americans, mainly from among Polish emigrants.

Beaumarchais' other assignment was to destroy the entire circulation of incriminating records about Madame Dubarry, the king's favorite, who was preparing for publication in London, and by bribes to ensure that such publications did not surface in Britain again. Beaumarchais coped with it, although it turned out to be very difficult.

But the most legendary operation of Beaumarchais was the discovery and negotiations with another secret agent of the French king, rebelled by d'Eon. The task was to ensure that d'Eon returned the secret documents and, moreover, definitely left the game. Everything was complicated by the fact that d'Eon himself was not unreasonably afraid that they were going to kill him. As a result, Beaumarchais persuaded his rebellious colleague to sign documents according to which he recognized himself as a woman (which guaranteed his life, but completely removed him from the espionage games) and surrender to France.

Against the background of all these adventures, the fact that it was Beaumarchais who achieved the introduction of copyright laws in France, which guaranteed writers income from productions and republishing their works, does not look so bright, and that Beaumarchais had to leave for London again in the nineties, hiding from pursuit for one of his biggest scams - a contract for the supply of weapons to the French army, which he did not fulfill.

Figaro is here, Figaro is there!

This story would be incomplete without the story of another character - Cavalier and young lady d'Eon: feminist, admirer of Russia, spy and genderqueer of the 18th century.