_"Mes chers amis, pourriez-vous m'enseigner J'im bon seigneur don cha'un parle? Je ne sais pas comment vous l'designer C'pendent, on dit qu'il a nom Charle ..._
_L'hiver passé j'eut un mandit procès Qui m'donna bien d'la tablature. J'm'en vais vous l'dire: ils m'avons mis exprès Sous c'te nouvelle magistrature; Charlot venait, jarni, Me consolait, si fit; Ami, ta cause est bonne et ronde ..._
_Est ce qu'on blâme ainsi le pauvre monde?"_
_"J'ai donc eu la faiblesse autrefois, Monsieur, de faire des drames qui n'etaient pas du bon genre; et je m'en repens beaucoup._
_"Pressé depuis, par les événements, j'ai hasardé de malheureux mémoires que mes ennemis n'ont pas trouvés de bon style; j'en ai le remords cruel._
_"Aujourd'hui je fais glisser sous vos yeux, une comédie fort gaie, que certains maîtres de goût n'estiment pas du bon ton; et je ne m'en console point._
_"Je ne voudrais pas jurer qu'il en fut seulement question dans cinq ou six siècles; tant notre nation est inconstante et légère."_
The Character of Figaro--The First Performance of _Le Barbier de Séville_--Its Success after Failure--Beaumarchais's Innovation at the Closing of the Theatre--His First Request for an Exact Account from the Actors--_Barbier de Séville_ at the Petit-Trianon.
Aside from Beaumarchais's participation in the affairs of the War of American Independence, the chief title to glory which his admirers can claim for him is his creation of the character of Figaro.
"Certainly no comic personage," says Gudin, "has more the tone, the _esprit_, the gaiety, the intelligence, the lightness, that kind of insouciance and intrepid self-confidence which characterizes the French people."
So long and lovingly had Beaumarchais carried about with him this child of his _esprit_, that the two at last practically had become one. Gudin says, "The handsome, the gay, the amiable Figaro, daring and philosophical, making sport of his masters and not able to get on without them, murmuring under the yoke and yet bearing it with gaiety" is no other than Beaumarchais in person. "Welcomed in one city, imprisoned in another, and everywhere superior to events, praised by these, blamed by those, enduring evil, making fun of the stupid, braving the wicked, laughing at misery and shaving all the world, you see me at last in Seville."