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 428 BEAUMARCHAIS country. This book, La coutume de Beauvoi- w, is one of the most viiluable monuments of French law during the middle ages. It greatly contributed to reforming the excesses of the feudal system,' and enforcing the para- mount power of the monarch. BKAl MARdlAIS, Pierre Angustin Caron de, a French dramatic author and speculator, born in Paris, Jan. 24, 1732, died there, May 19, 1799. He was the son of a watchmaker named Caron, and received his early education at a private ] school, which he left when only 13, after having shown remarkable precocity. His fa- ther desired him to study watchmaking ; but he neglected his work to devote himself to inusic, for which he had an absorbing taste, and further annoyed his father by his somewhat dis- solute habits. Threatened with severe punish- ment, however, he devoted himself for a time to his trade, and almost immediately achieved a great success by the invention of an improved escapement, which secured him the appoint- ment of watchmaker to the court, then estab- lished at Versailles. Caron, now only about 23 years of age, attracted much attention in the court circle to which he was admitted, and acquired by his ability, personal beauty, and gallantry a position entirely disproportionate to his rank. In 1755 an old government offi- cial, Franquet, with whose young wife Caron had long stood in questionable relations, died ; and the young watchmaker not only married : his widow, but succeeded through court influ- ence to his office. Less than a year after her marriage, Mme. Caron died after a very short illness ; and her husband's many enemies took advantage of the rapidity with which her death followed that of Franquet to bring against Caron an accusation of poisoning, which he promptly disproved, but which was afterward several times revived in the less tangible form of a rumor, and formed a favorite court scandal. In 1757 Caron assumed the name of Beaumar- chais ; but he had no legal right to his title of nobility till 1761, when he purchased a com- mission as secretary to the king, a sinecure which conferred noble rank on its possessor. He still devoted much of his time to music, especially to playing the harp, in which instru- ment he made several improvements. His skill attracted the attention of the princesses Ade- laide and Victoire, daughters of Louis XV., and he at once became a great favorite with them. Succeeding, through the influence thus acquired, in advancing certain schemes of the rich contractor Duverney, the latter admitted him to a share in his profitable mercantile ven- tures, which probably first gave him the passion for speculation that was afterward a distin- guishing feature of his life. He now began the rapid accumulation of a fortune, and by way of further advancement he purchased a second office, that of vice president of the tribunal de chatties. In 1764 Beaumarchais went to Madrid where he had mercantile schemes in progress ; but his visit is principally noteworthy on account of his revenge <>n Clavijo, the Spanish writer, who had broken a promise of marriage made to his younger sister. He not only compelled him to apologize, but succeeded in having him removed from his position at court, and prevented by decrei- from ever again holding any office under the crown. Goethe's drama of Clavigo lias made this incident one of the most famous in the life of Beaumarchais. In April, 1768, he was mar- ried at Paris to a rich widow, Mme. Leveque. Just before this marriage he had made his first important literary venture, in bringing out his play of Eugenie, but had met with no success. In 1770 he received a still greater rebuff in the failure of a second drama, Les deux amis. In the same year his second wife died, and the old stories of poisoning were revived against him. Duverney, the financier, also died in 1770, just after making a most advantageous contract with Beaumarchais. The contractor's heir contested this, and Beaumarchais found himself suddenly involved in a maze of law- suits. He carried on the legal conflict for seven years, and won, after making some remarkable displays of oratorical power and wit, which rendered him famous even outside of France. It was during this memorable time, too, that he found leisure to produce his Barbier de Seville, written in 1772, and played, after several refusals from different managers, in January, 1775. No sooner had he extricated himself from the troubles just recounted than he became involved in a bitter quarrel with the duke de Chaulnes, his rival in the affections of an actress, who succeeded in having him ille- gally imprisoned for a time. Counsellor Goez- mann had charge of his case, and, as the custom was, Beaumarchais sent Mme. Goezmann a pres- ent of money, which she promised to return in case her husband's report on the matter should be adverse to him. It so happened, but she returned only a part of the gift. Beaumar- chais preferred an accusation of venality against Goezmann, and an extraordinary trial ensued, in which the accuser developed a most remark- able power of satire, eloquence, and skill, and, though he did not gain his end, made himself for a time the best known man in Paris. Two other somewhat scandalous trials followed, for Beaumarchais no sooner escaped one difficulty than he rushed into another. All this time he was involved in speculations : among them, one for the sale of timber from the forest of Chinon (just before Duverney's death), and one for supplying arms and munitions to the Americans, in their contest with England. As early as 1775 he had submitted to the king a memorial in which he insisted that the French government ought to assist the Americans, giving as his deliberate opinion that they would prove unconquerable. Beaumarchais passed a part of the year 1775 in England as an agent of the French ministry, had interviews with Arthur Lee, and was in the most intimate relations of correspondence with Vergennes.