Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence Volume I Part 25

??What necessity, messieurs, that it should belong to you??

??A great many authors make similar arrangements with us.?

??Those authors are not to be imitated.?

??They are very well satisfied, monsieur, because if they do not enjoy the profits of their piece, at least they have the advantage of seeing it played more often. Do you wish that we play it for your profit six, eight, or even ten times? Speak.?

?The proposition seemed to me so amusing that I replied in the same gay tone, ?Since you permit me, I ask you to play it a thousand and one times.?

??Monsieur, you are very modest.?

??Modest, Messieurs, as you are just. What mania is it that you have, to wish to inherit from people who are not dead? My piece not belonging to you until it falls to a very low receipt, you ought to desire that it never belong to you. Are not eight-ninths of a hundred louis, more than nine-ninths of fifty? I see, Messieurs, that you love your interests better than you understand them.?

?I laughingly saluted the a.s.sembly, who smiled a little on their side because their orator was slightly flushed with argument.

?At last, on January 3rd, 1777, M. Desessarts, one of the comedians, came to my house ... bringing me four thousand, five-hundred, and six livres as belonging to me from my _droits d?auteur_ for the thirty-two performances of the _Barbier_. No account being joined, I did not accept the money, although M. Desessarts pressed me to do so in the most polite way in the world.

??There are a great many points upon which it is impossible for the _Com?die_ to give MM. the authors anything but _une c?te mal taill?e_ (in lump, without detail)?.

??What I require very much more than money,? I replied, ?is _une c?te bien taill?e_, an exact account, which may serve as a type or model for all future accounts and may bring at last peace between the actors and the authors.?

??I see,? he said, ?that you wish to open a quarrel with the _Com?die_.?

??On the contrary, Monsieur, nothing would please me so much as to be able to terminate everything to the equal advantage of both parties.? And he took back the money.?

Three days later Beaumarchais sent a polite note explaining why he returned the money, and clearly stating the nature of the account which he demanded. Receiving no reply, he wrote again, in the most courteous way, reminding them of their negligence.

The _Com?die_ then sent a simple memorandum, ?following the usages observed by us with Messieurs, _les auteurs_,? which was without signature.

Beaumarchais at once returned the memorandum, thanking the comedians for their pains, but begging that the memorandum be verified and signed.

Receiving no reply, three days later he sent a second missive, in which he a.s.sumed that his first letter had gone astray. ?I beg you,? he added, ?to enlighten me as to this matter and send me your account certified. The messenger has orders to wait.? And he ends thus, ?I am ill. I have been forbidden all serious affairs for several days; I profit by this forced leisure to occupy myself with this which is not serious at all.?

For the _Com?die_, however, it was, to say the least, a serious embarra.s.sment. They replied that it was impossible to verify the account except for the receipt taken at the door, ?the other elements can only be guessed at.?

?The letter,? says Beaumarchais, ?was garlanded with as many signatures as the memorandum had not.?

a.s.suming that it was their ignorance of affairs that caused the disorder, he undertook to give, in his own inimitable way, a lesson in bookkeeping.

The letter begins as follows:

?In reading, Messieurs, the obliging letter with which you have just honored me, signed by a number among you, I am confirmed in the idea that you are very honest people, and very much disposed to do justice to authors; but that it is with you, as with all men who are more versed in the agreeable arts than in the exact sciences, and who make phantoms of the embarra.s.sing methods of calculation, which the simplest arithmetician would solve without difficulty.?

Then follows the lesson. The letter ends with, ?Eh, believe me, Messieurs, give no more _c?tes mal taill?es_ to men of letters; too proud to receive favors, they are often too much in distress to endure losses.

?So long as you do not adopt the method of an exact account unknown only to yourselves, you will have the annoyance of being reproached with a pretended system of usurpation over men of letters which is surely not in the mind of any one of you.

?Pardon that I take the liberty of rectifying your ideas, but it is necessary to come to an understanding; and as you seemed to me in your letter embarra.s.sed to give an exact form to a simple account, I have permitted myself to propose to you an easy method, capable of being understood by the simplest accountant.

?Two words, Messieurs, enclose the whole of the present question; if the account which I returned is not just, rectify it. If you believe it to be exact, certify it; this is the way we must proceed in all matters of business.?

?The actors,? says Lom?nie, ?did not relish this lesson in accounts given with so much complaisance and politeness. They replied that they would a.s.semble the lawyers forming the council of the _Com?die_ and name four commissioners from their body to examine the case.?

?To a.s.semble all the council of lawyers,? says Beaumarchais, ?and name commissioners to consult as to whether an exact account should be sent me, duly signed, seemed to me a very strange proceeding.?

The comedians were, however, in no hurry to act. The 14th of February, 1777, they wrote to their troublesome friend.

?It is still a question of a.s.sembling the council. The circ.u.mstance of the carnival joined to the services which we are obliged to perform at court and in the city have prevented the frequent reunion of different persons who should occupy themselves in this affair....?

?I concluded from this letter,? says Beaumarchais, ?that the _Com?die_ was contented with me, but that the carnival seemed a bad time to occupy themselves with business. Letting the comedians, the lawyers, and their council dance in peace, I waited patiently until the end of Lent, but either they were still dancing, or doing penance for having danced, because I heard nothing from them.

?Four months rolled by in a profound sleep from which I was awakened June 1st, 1777.? The cause of Beaumarchais?s awakening was the sudden discovery that urgent requests from time to time to the comedians to play the _Barbier_ met with constant refusal.

The 2nd of June he wrote a letter from which we extract the following, ?If patience is a virtue, you have the right, Messieurs, to think me the most virtuous of men, but if you take the right to forget that you owe me for two or three years a verified account ... it is I who have the right to be offended, because there are limits to the patience of even the most absurd....?

After a spirited recapitulation of his wrongs he continues, ?In a word, Messieurs, you will give the piece, or you will not give it, it is not that which is important to-day. What is important is to put an end to so much indecision. Let us agree that if you accept I shall within eight days receive from you a certified account ... and when that term has expired, I may regard a silence on your part as an obstinate refusal to do me justice. You will not then object if, making a pious use of my rights as author, I confide the interests of the poor to those persons whose zeal and interests oblige them to discuss these interests more methodically than I, who profess to be always, with the greatest love of peace,...

Yours, etc.,

?Beaumarchais.?

The comedians in their turn awakened by the letter just quoted replied before the expiration of the eight days, promising the much desired meeting. Beaumarchais accepted their proposal with his usual grace and himself fixed the day for the a.s.sembly. Fresh difficulties arose. The comedians wrote an apologetic letter asking for a further delay of a few days.

?I thought the comedians very good,? wrote Beaumarchais, ?to fear that after waiting more than a year for their convenience, I should be offended by a new delay of a few days; I was too used to their manner of proceeding to lose patience at so small a cost. I resolved, therefore, to await the moment when it should please the fugitive a.s.sembly to meet. I waited until the 15th of June, when I received a letter from M. le Mar?chal de Duras....?

?The comedians,? says Lom?nie ?brought to the wall had solicited the support of the duke, who intervened and begged the claimant to discuss the matter with him. As Beaumarchais demanded nothing better, he hastened to offer to the Duke of Duras the same lesson in bookkeeping which he had vainly offered to the comedians.... Beaumarchais wrote to him:

??You are too much interested, M. le Mar?chal, in the progress of the most beautiful of the arts, not to admit that if those who play the pieces gain an income of twenty-thousand livres, those who thus make the fortune of the comedians should be able to draw from it that which is absolutely necessary. There is no personal interest, M. le Mar?chal, in my demand; the love of justice and of letters alone determines me. The man whom the impulsion of a great genius might have carried to a renewal of the beautiful chefs-d?oeuvre of our masters, certain that he cannot live three months from the fruits of the vigils of three years, after having lost five in waiting, becomes a journalist, a libellist or debases himself in some other trade as lucrative as degrading.??

M. de Lom?nie continues, ?After a conversation with Beaumarchais, M. de Duras seemed to enflame himself with ardor for the cause of justice. He declared that it was time to finish with the debates where authors are at the discretion of the comedians. He proposed to subst.i.tute for the arbitrary accounts a new regulation where the rights of the two parties shall be stipulated in the clearest, the most equitable manner. He invited Beaumarchais to consult with several dramatic authors, and to submit to him a plan. To this Beaumarchais replied that in a question which interested all equally, everyone who had written for the Th??tre-Fran?ais had a right to be heard and that all must be a.s.sembled.?

The duke consented and the first society of dramatic authors was founded by a circular, dated June 27th, 1777, in which Beaumarchais invited all to a dinner.

?To unite men,? says Lom?nie, ?who up to that time had been in the habit of living isolated and jealous lives, was something far from easy, even when invoking them to a common interest.?

In order that the reader may judge of the obstacles which this new phase of his enterprise presented, we subjoin two letters of La Harpe, published by M. de Lom?nie, in reply to the invitation of Beaumarchais.

?If the end,? says Lom?nie, in speaking of the first of these letters, ?announced a man unwilling enough to treat with his fellows, the beginning seemed equally to indicate a little annoyance that another than himself should have been given the lead with the consent of M. de Duras.?

?M. le Mar?chal de Duras,? wrote La Harpe, ?has already done me the honor, Monsieur, of communicating to me, and even in great detail, the new arrangements which he projects, and which tend, all of them toward the perfection of the theater, and the satisfaction of authors. I am none the less disposed to confer with you and with those who like you, Monsieur, have contributed to enrich the theater, upon our common interests and on the means of ameliorating and a.s.suring the fate of dramatic authors. It enters into my plan of life necessitated by pressing occupations never to dine away from home but I shall have the honor of coming to you after dinner. I must warn you, however, that if by chance, M. Sauvigny or M.

Dorat are to be present, I will not come. You know the world too well to bring me face to face with my declared enemies. I have the honor to be with the most distinguished consideration, Monsieur, etc.

?De la Harpe.?

Beaumarchais, a little embarra.s.sed because he had also invited Sauvigny and Dorat, replied to La Harpe by the following letter: ?You have imposed upon me, Monsieur, the unpleasant task of informing you that MM. Sauvigny and Dorat do me the honor of dining with me to-day. But in a common cause, permit me to observe to you that in all countries it is the custom to set aside private quarrels.

?I shall be only too happy, if seconding my pacific views, you do me the honor to come and forget in the pleasure of an a.s.sembly of men of letters all of whom honor you, small resentments which exist perhaps only through misunderstanding.

?Do not divide us, Monsieur. We are none too strong with all our forces united against the great machine of the _Com?die_. We dine at three, and I shall flatter myself that you are coming even until three-fifteen--so anxious am I to have you with us.