It was Napoleon who gave the final form to the regulations existing between dramatic authors and the Théâtre-Français. The honor, nevertheless, belonged to Beaumarchais, for it was he who conceived and carried on for so many years one of the most difficult enterprises ever undertaken by a private individual.
Essentially modern in all his views, his was the rôle of preparing the way for many of the things that the nineteenth century was to produce. Himself no revolutionist, at least not in theory, it was yet he who played so important a part in sustaining on one hand and preparing on the other the two greatest political and social revolutions which the world has ever seen.
The establishment of the reign of justice, liberty, and individual rights was the goal ever before him.
“Qu’ étais-je donc,” he writes near the close of his life, “What have I been after all? I have been nothing by myself and myself as I have remained, free in the midst of fetters, serene in the greatest dangers, braving all the storms, sustaining commerce with one hand and war with the other, indolent as a mule, but always working, the butt of a thousand calumnies, but happy in my family, never having been of
any coterie, neither literary, nor political, nor mystic, never having paid court to anyone, and ever repelled by all.” Somewhere else he adds, “It is the mystery of my life, in vain I try to comprehend it.”
STUDIES IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Beaumarchais, and the War of American Independence. Two volumes. Illustrated. By Elizabeth S. Kite.
The Political History of the Public Lands, from 1840 to 1862. From Pre-emption to Homestead. By George M. Stephenson.
Georgia as a Proprietary Province—The Execution of a Trust. By James Ross McCain.