The Most Underrated Man in the American Revolution;
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais in Four Acts
Act 1: Introducing Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais:
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a wonderful play write, well known for the Le Barbier de Séville; which later in history would come to be translated into many languages(Lever,2009). What many people may not know is he was the son of a watch maker that found a gift for music. This gift allowed him to become connected with financier Duverny who gave him a considerable fortune. This was not his only source of wealth, he had additionally married into a wealthy family which made him even wealthier.
At the age of 46, shortly after the death of Voltaire Pierre purchased the rights to many of Voltaire’s works and attempted to publish them. He did publish several of them but the sales were limited and it proved to a financially unsound decision. This was important though because though unsound he saved much of Voltaire’s for those whom in the future would find interest. Some of said works had been banned and in order to print them he was forced to print in Europe in order to keep from being arrested. This has nothing to do with his importance to the American revolution though it shows a bit about him and his love for preserving the written word.
Toward the end of his life he ended up in a bit of financial trouble; his debtors allowed him to continue to borrow and he ended up owing a great debt, that was until his financier and himself came to an agreement to remove all of Pierre’s debts and grant him enough to live for the remainder of his days. Though, his financier’s heir Count De La Blache, was not okay with this agreement he took Pierre to court saying the agreement was a forgery. The two battled in court a few times and Count De La Blanche won due to an absence of Pierre. At this point many would have given up but not Beaumarchais, he picked back up his pen and wrote a pamphlet that swayed people back to his side then went back to court. This decision of his forced the courts to overturn their previous decision setting thing back the way they were supposed to be.
Act 2: The Show Will Go On
“Beaumarchais’s play was banned in Vienna because the concept of smart, empowered servants outwitting masters was too dangerous. Beaumarchais was a supporter of the French and American Revolutions. Also revolutionary: in The Marriage of Figaro, the women conspire and outwit the men”(Le Nozze Di Figaro Facts, n. Pag.). The importance of this is that plays like these are they set pathways. They lead the way partially to freedom of thought and the ability to change what we believe about what man’s position was in this world.
This way of thinking during this period of history did not make Beaumarchais very popular. He was arrested in 1784 for La Barbier de Séville because the king took offence that in his play the peon servant was able to outsmart a more renowned and better educated person with the aid of a woman(Von Uthmann, Feb 2005). This did not stop Beaumarchais from continuing to write. Marriage of Figaro, was the second part in a trilogy that came out after his arrest. The third part The Guilty Mother, was not released for twenty years
Act 3: How Beaumarchais Aided the American Revolution:
Pierre held negotions with Aurther Lee, agent of the colonies and finally persuaded Prime Minister Maurepas to give a loan of one-million Livres (Liveres was currency of the French till 1795) and he had gotten equil amounts from advanced from the Spanish government in order to purchase weapons for the American Revolutionaries. He had arms and ammunition delivered to the Americans from public arsenal through Beaumarchais under the firm by the name of Roderique, Hortez & Co..
In early 1777 he sent in three of his own ships to the colonies they carried two-hundred guns, twenty-five-hundred muskets and two-hundred-thousand pounds of gunpowder. This was not the only such shipment like this, there were many more that were pretty close in size to this one. The United States Congress did not pay back Beaumarchais for these shipments and the French still advanced Beaumarchais a Million Francs partially to relieve an embarrassment of Beaumarchais. By the end of the war four-million francs had transferred hands from Beaumarchais to the American Revolutionaries. The United States colonies could not repay this obligation after the war. However, after Beaumarchais death in 1835 the United States settled with the family of Beaumarchais for eight-hundred-thousand Francs to split amongst the heirs.
Act 4: My Opinion on Pierre-Augustin Carron De Beaumarchais:
I personally feel that Beaumarchais was the most underrated person responsible for the American Revolution. This was for several reasons, Beaumarchais wrote plays such as the Figaro series in the 1770’s and actively defied what was supposed to be during this time. His making of plays in which servants and women were capable of outsmarting kings, made people believe it was possible. “Figaro-The Marriage of Figaro [ . . . ] it is a comedy, but one with a serious underlying tone. Like the stage version of the story, the opera includes criticism of clas relationships and the immorality of the aristocracy”(Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, n. Pag.).
I feel though the turning point that really made him the person responsible for the American Revolution was the funneling of funds to the American Revolutionaries. This funding through the holding company Roderique, Hortez & Co. pushed the war into a hopeful situation for these Americans. Without these ships men, guns muskets and gunpowder, George Washington may not have been able to win the American Revolution.
Anytime one of these great authors comes into fruition things seem to change around them. They give new meaning to the people’s lives around them; they also generate much hatred toward themselves. Beaumarchais was a person whom attempted to conservatively cross the border of what would be decent in the French monarchy. He was willing to put himself in the line of fire in all aspects of his life. I often wonder about if this great individual had ever thought he could have been so popular or have even remotely imagined he would have changed the world around him.
Sources
Fiske, E.B. Pare 209-210 of the appletons’ cyclopedia of American biography New York. New York: D. Appleton & Company.
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO Figaro Facts. (n.d). Retrieved from Boston Lyric Opera: http://www.blo.org/season_figaro_facts.html
Lever, M.(2009). Beaumarchais: A Biography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. (2008, March). Retrieving July 15th, 2009 from Bob Jones University: Http://www.bju.edu/events/fine-arts/cod/arcive/barber-of-seville/barber-smart.pdf
Von Uthmann, J. (Feb 2005). How censors tried to protect us from “dangerous” operas. Opera News, 4.
The Most Underrated Man in the American Revolution;
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais in Four Acts
Act 1: Introducing Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais:
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a wonderful play write, well known for the Le Barbier de Séville; which later in history would come to be translated into many languages(Lever,2009). What many people may not know is he was the son of a watch maker that found a gift for music. This gift allowed him to become connected with financier Duverny who gave him a considerable fortune. This was not his only source of wealth, he had additionally married into a wealthy family which made him even wealthier.
At the age of 46, shortly after the death of Voltaire Pierre purchased the rights to many of Voltaire’s works and attempted to publish them. He did publish several of them but the sales were limited and it proved to a financially unsound decision. This was important though because though unsound he saved much of Voltaire’s for those whom in the future would find interest. Some of said works had been banned and in order to print them he was forced to print in Europe in order to keep from being arrested. This has nothing to do with his importance to the American revolution though it shows a bit about him and his love for preserving the written word.
Toward the end of his life he ended up in a bit of financial trouble; his debtors allowed him to continue to borrow and he ended up owing a great debt, that was until his financier and himself came to an agreement to remove all of Pierre’s debts and grant him enough to live for the remainder of his days. Though, his financier’s heir Count De La Blache, was not okay with this agreement he took Pierre to court saying the agreement was a forgery. The two battled in court a few times and Count De La Blanche won due to an absence of Pierre. At this point many would have given up but not Beaumarchais, he picked back up his pen and wrote a pamphlet that swayed people back to his side then went back to court. This decision of his forced the courts to overturn their previous decision setting thing back the way they were supposed to be.
Act 2: The Show Will Go On
“Beaumarchais’s play was banned in Vienna because the concept of smart, empowered servants outwitting masters was too dangerous. Beaumarchais was a supporter of the French and American Revolutions. Also revolutionary: in The Marriage of Figaro, the women conspire and outwit the men”(Le Nozze Di Figaro Facts, n. Pag.). The importance of this is that plays like these are they set pathways. They lead the way partially to freedom of thought and the ability to change what we believe about what man’s position was in this world.
This way of thinking during this period of history did not make Beaumarchais very popular. He was arrested in 1784 for La Barbier de Séville because the king took offence that in his play the peon servant was able to outsmart a more renowned and better educated person with the aid of a woman(Von Uthmann, Feb 2005). This did not stop Beaumarchais from continuing to write. Marriage of Figaro, was the second part in a trilogy that came out after his arrest. The third part The Guilty Mother, was not released for twenty years
Act 3: How Beaumarchais Aided the American Revolution:
Pierre held negotions with Aurther Lee, agent of the colonies and finally persuaded Prime Minister Maurepas to give a loan of one-million Livres (Liveres was currency of the French till 1795) and he had gotten equil amounts from advanced from the Spanish government in order to purchase weapons for the American Revolutionaries. He had arms and ammunition delivered to the Americans from public arsenal through Beaumarchais under the firm by the name of Roderique, Hortez & Co..
In early 1777 he sent in three of his own ships to the colonies they carried two-hundred guns, twenty-five-hundred muskets and two-hundred-thousand pounds of gunpowder. This was not the only such shipment like this, there were many more that were pretty close in size to this one. The United States Congress did not pay back Beaumarchais for these shipments and the French still advanced Beaumarchais a Million Francs partially to relieve an embarrassment of Beaumarchais. By the end of the war four-million francs had transferred hands from Beaumarchais to the American Revolutionaries. The United States colonies could not repay this obligation after the war. However, after Beaumarchais death in 1835 the United States settled with the family of Beaumarchais for eight-hundred-thousand Francs to split amongst the heirs.
Act 4: My Opinion on Pierre-Augustin Carron De Beaumarchais:
I personally feel that Beaumarchais was the most underrated person responsible for the American Revolution. This was for several reasons, Beaumarchais wrote plays such as the Figaro series in the 1770’s and actively defied what was supposed to be during this time. His making of plays in which servants and women were capable of outsmarting kings, made people believe it was possible. “Figaro-The Marriage of Figaro [ . . . ] it is a comedy, but one with a serious underlying tone. Like the stage version of the story, the opera includes criticism of clas relationships and the immorality of the aristocracy”(Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, n. Pag.).
I feel though the turning point that really made him the person responsible for the American Revolution was the funneling of funds to the American Revolutionaries. This funding through the holding company Roderique, Hortez & Co. pushed the war into a hopeful situation for these Americans. Without these ships men, guns muskets and gunpowder, George Washington may not have been able to win the American Revolution.
Anytime one of these great authors comes into fruition things seem to change around them. They give new meaning to the people’s lives around them; they also generate much hatred toward themselves. Beaumarchais was a person whom attempted to conservatively cross the border of what would be decent in the French monarchy. He was willing to put himself in the line of fire in all aspects of his life. I often wonder about if this great individual had ever thought he could have been so popular or have even remotely imagined he would have changed the world around him.
Sources
Fiske, E.B. Pare 209-210 of the appletons’ cyclopedia of American biography New York. New York: D. Appleton & Company.
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO Figaro Facts. (n.d). Retrieved from Boston Lyric Opera: http://www.blo.org/season_figaro_facts.html
Lever, M.(2009). Beaumarchais: A Biography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. (2008, March). Retrieving July 15th, 2009 from Bob Jones University: Http://www.bju.edu/events/fine-arts/cod/arcive/barber-of-seville/barber-smart.pdf
Von Uthmann, J. (Feb 2005). How censors tried to protect us from “dangerous” operas. Opera News, 4.