IvIBRA^RY OF THE University of California. RECEIVED BY EXCHANGE Class _^0lte. T77 Zbc VXnivcxBit^ of Cbicago OUNDED BV JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER l^EAUMAliCHATS AND PLAUTUS 1HK SO! RCES OF THE BARBTKR T)E SEVILLE A DISSERTATION I LITEKATUKK PHILOSOi Igitized by the internet Archivel I in 2008 with funding from I I IVIicrosoft Corporation \RTS AND ICTOR OF LORENCK Nit liTINCULE JONJ'S CHiCAUU SCOTT, ^'f)]^'^SMAN A'^T) r^^TAlPAVN- 1908 ttp://www.archive.org/details/beaumarchaisplauOOjonerii Zbc 'ClnivcrsttB ot Cblcaflo FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER BEAUMARCHAIS AI^D PLAUTUS THE SOURCES OF THE BARBIEE DE SEVILLE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERAT^URE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES BY FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE JONES CHICAGO SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 1908 V BEAUMAEOHAIS AIsTD PLAUTUS LE BARBIER DE SEVILLE On the title page of Reinhardstoettner's monumental work on the imitations of Plautus in the dramatic literature of Europe might well be written the warning: lasciate ogni speranza, 'abandon all hope' of finding a play of which the plot was not first conceived by Plautus. Be prepared to find that Falstaff strutted about and Scapin played his tricks in the days of Scipio Africanus, that Shak- spere and Moliere, together with nearly every other writer of plays since the middle ages, have all been to a greater or less extent, plagiarists of Plautus. In many cases there has been direct, unmistakable imitation of a whole play of Plautus, such as the Clizia of Macchiavelli, imitated from the Casina; Shakspere's Comedy of Errors, from the Menae- chmi; Moliere's At are, from the Aulularia, and Lessing's Der Schatz, from the Trinummus. Often a single scene from Plautus has fur- nished a later playwright with material for a whole comedy, as in the case of Regnard, whose Serenade is nothing but an amplifica-, tion of the second scene of the fourth act of the Pseudolus. Plautus, it appears, is the chef who first discovered the art of concocting a Latin comedy. To the old Roman satura he added the ' attic salt ' of Menander and Diphilus and thus produced a dish fit for Roman senators. Then for centuries the secret of comedy making was lost, until, with the Renaissance, the Latin authors were resurrected and the playwrights of the sixteenth century jumbled together scenes and characters from Plautus to form the olla podrida of Italian comedy. Their example was followed by all the playwriters of Europe, each adding to his Plautine model the flavor of his own individuality and nationality. In the history of French dramatic literature, the influence of Seneca in tragedy, and of Plautus in comedy, is to be reckoned with from the very start. In the middle of the sixteenth century, there took place, mainly through the influence of the members of the 3 183471 4 BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS Pleiade, that break in the history of the indigenous French drama which was marked by the waning popularity of the moraUties and mystery plays and the introduction of classical models. In 1567, De Baif gave a representation of the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, under the title of Le Brave, in the Hotel de Guise, before the King. Close upon, De Baif came Larivey with half a dozen plays imitated from Plautus. In the seventeenth century, Rotrou, Corneille, and Moliere all drew upon Plautus, as also did Regnard at the very close of the century. During the first half of the eighteenth century, in spite of some isolated attempts at imitation by Destouches, the tradition that Plautus should be the model for comedy was practically disregarded. Classical tragedy had long since passed away and its mourners were consoling themselves with the comedie larmoyante, Moliere and Reg- nard, with their frank imitations of Plautus, were gone and mari- vaudage held the stage. Just before the Revolution, however, a comedy appeared of which the hero was the traditional valet of comedy, the evolutionized slave of the Plautine play, arrived at the last degree of ingenuity and insolence, the witty, resourceful, impudent Figaro. Once more the echo of the ironical laugh of Plautus was heard, as Beaumarchais, after uttering his gibes at the nobility, through the mouth of Figaro, turned to the audience with a mocking nunc plaudite. Soon after, both Plautus and the ancien regime were driven off the stage by the stern tragedy of the French Revolution. It is strange that Reinhardstoettner, in his search for borrow- ings from Plautus, should have failed to notice the striking resem- blance between the Figaro comedies of Beaumarchais and certain plays of Plautus, a resemblance which was remarked upon by Naudet in his edition of Plautus published in 1831. In his intro- duction to the Casina, Naudet calls attention to the striking simi- larity in plot between this play and the Mariage de Figaro. Some- what later Marc-Monnier in his Aieux de Figaro, traces the evolu- tion of the modern valet of comedy and remarks, in regard to the hero of the Casina "mais il est 6pris d'une esclave de sa femme, d'une Casina, sur laquelle il reclamerait volontiers les droits du seigneur. A cet effet, il veut la marier a I'esclave Olympion. II s'agit en un mot d'un Almaviva de I'ancienne Rome amoureux d'une Suzanne." Nisard in his Theatre des Latins is the first to THE SOURCES OF THE BARBIER DE SEVILLE 5 call attention to the resemblance between the Miles Gloriosus and the Barhier de Seville. '^PyrgopoUnices reunit la fatuite a la jactance militaire. Son rare merite ne Tempeche pas d'etre trompe par une jeune fille qu'il a enlevee et qu'il tient sous clef comme nos tuteurs. L' evasion de la jeune fille est secondee par un amant et surtout par Tesclave Palaestrion, un des plus dignes ancetres de Figaro." It is true that Reinhardstoettner admits that there is a general resemblance in character between Figaro and the intriguing slave of Latin comedy, but no attempt is made to show that Beaumar- chais imitated any particular play of Plautus. He agrees with Sommer, a French translator of Plautus, in refusing to consider the serenade scene at the beginning of the Barhier de Seville as an imita- tion of the first three scenes of the Curculio. He regards as equally far-fetched a comparison made by Sainte-Beuve between a passage describing Suzanne and a sentence from the Truculentus of Plautus. Thus Reinhardstoettner, who has arraigned nearly every play- wright of every country and of every time as an imitator of Plautus, is inclined to be lenient toward Beaumarchais, whose name occurs only three times in his index plagiatorum. While this striking similarity between the two above mentioned plays of Plautus and those of Beaumarchais has thus been remarked by several editors and students of Plautus, by none of them has it been suggested that Beaumarchais deliberately took Plautus as his model; the similarity in plot has been treated as accidental rather than intentional. Yet there is no reason why Beaumarchais, follow- ing the example of other dramatic authors, should not have taken Plautus as his model. The real question to be decided is whether the similarity in plot and detail is sufficient to warrant this assump- tion. When this is once settled, the motives and the circumstances which led Beaumarchais to seek this source for his comedies can easily be explained. Before entering upon a detailed comparison between the Miles Gloriosus and the Barhier de Seville, it is necessary to understand clearly what is meant by a working over or imitation of a Plautine comedy. Sometimes the mere substitution of French names of characters and places and the translation of ancient conditions of life into modern terms, such as substituting a valet for a slave, was sufficient to produce a play which was listened to by persons b BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS fairly well acquainted with Greek and Latin authors with no suspi- cion that they were listening to a disguised Latin comedy. But often the playwright was not content with a mere translation, he left out several scenes, sometimes a whole act, added a character which was not found in the original, invented incidents and local hits; in fact, merely used the Latin play as a framework on which to hang his own invention. Sometimes he even went further and combined two plays of Plautus to form one, as in the case of Shak- spere, who took the well-worn ''twin" plot from the Menaechmi of Plautus and combined with it the plot of the Amphitryon in his Comedy of Errors. In comparing the Barhier de Seville with the Miles Gloriosus it is true that there is nothing in the Barhier which corresponds to the first act of the Miles, that in which the braggart soldier boasts of his military prowess, but if the French play be compared with the remaining four acts of the Latin play, it is easy to see the resem- blance which struck Nisard. The plot of the Miles is as follows: A young Athenian, Pleusides by name, has fallen in love with a young slave girl named Philocomasium. While the young Athenian was away on an embassy, the soldier, Pyrgopolinices, kidnapped the girl and carried her off to Ephesus. Palaestrion, the slave of Pleusides, set out to announce this news to his master, but on his way was captured by pirates and brought to Ephesus where he serves the soldier as his slave. The Athenian, to whom Palaestrion has contrived to send word what has happened, comes to Ephesus and lodges in the house of a bachelor friend, Periplecomenes, whose house adjoins that of the soldier. This neighbor very obligingly makes an opening from his house into the room occupied by the Athenian girl in the soldier's house. By this means the two lovers are enabled to have frequent interviews. The soldier's slave, Sceledrus, while hunting for a stray monkey on the neighbor's roof, sees the two lovers in the court below. The slave, Palaestrio, makes the Athenian girl pass back to her room by means of the secret opening and then reappear before the eyes of Sceledrus, who is thus made to believe that he has seen her twin sister. Now comes the turn of the soldier to be duped. The bachelor friend finds a courtesan who is to act the part of his wife and pretend to have fallen in love with the soldier. The latter, flattered by her attentions, is now anxious to get rid of the Athenian girl and con- THE SOURCES OF THE BARBIER DE SEVILLE 7 sents to send her home to her mother. The lover enters the soldier's house, disguised as a ship captain, and aided in every possible way by the unsuspecting soldier, succeeds in carrying off his mistress. As soon as they are gone, the bachelor friend with his servants, falls upon the soldier, beats him with clubs and accuses him of having seduced his wife. The soldier perceives too late that he has been the unwitting instrument of the girl's escape with her lover. In the Barhier de Seville, as in the Miles Gloriosus, the valet or servant meets his former master in a town remote from the one in which they have formerly known each other. Figaro informs his master, the Count Almaviva, that Bartholo has carried off Rosine from Madrid, where the Count had seen her and fallen in love with her. Almaviva decides to try to carry her off and marry her and Figaro promises to assist him. Bartholo is informed by Bazile, Rosine's music master, that the Count Almaviva is in town, evidently in search of Rosine. In -spite of all Bartholo's precau- tions the Count succeeds in entering the guardian's house twice, first in the disguise of a soldier and later as a pretended pupil of Bazile, who claims that he has been sent to give a lesson to Rosine as a substitute for his master who is ill. Bazile now appears and is mystified at finding his pretended substitute there in his place. Then occurs the famous ^'allez vous coucher" scene in which Bazile is made the. butt of ridicule of the whole company. Bartholo now appeals to Rosine's jealousy by pretending that Almaviva has betrayed her, and Rosine herself informs Bartholo of the plot to carry her off that night. Almaviva and Figaro now enter the house by means of a ladder. Rosine quickly becomes reconciled to the Count and is preparing to flee, when Figaro announces that the ladder has been removed by Bartholo. The notary, who has been sent for by Bartholo to marry himself and Rosine^ how, in Bartholo's absence, marries Rosine to the Count Almaviva, believing him to be Bartholo, who now arrives with some police officers to arrest Figaro and his master. The police are now informed b}^ Almaviva of Bartholo's design to gain possession of his ward's dowry by marrying her and they soundly reprimand him. The play ends exactly as does the Miles Gloriosus, with the guardian's confession that he has been outwitted and has himself been the instrument of his own undoing. It is evident from this cursory comparison of the two plays 8 BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS that several episodes of the Miles do not appear in the Barhier de Seville. The entire first act of the Miles which has been the source of innumerable ''boastful soldier" plays, is entirely omitted in the French play, as is also the episode of the lost monkey and the hole in the wall connecting the two houses which serves to help carry on the intrigue in the Latin play. However, these are unimportant episodes in the Latin play. In all their essential elements the two plays have the same plot. Master and man meet each other in a town far from the place where they once lived. The master learns that the young lady with whom he is in love has been forcibly abducted by her guardian, who intends to force her to marry him. Just as the slave Palaestrion has become a member of the house- hold of the enemy, i.e., of the soldier, so has Figaro become attached to Barthoio's house as his barber, which gives him access to the house and enables him to aid the Count, his former master, more effectually. In the Latin play, the lover in disguise, enters the house of the soldier and carries on a conversation with the young girl under the very eyes of her guardian. Beaumarchais makes his hero enter the house twice, each time in a different disguise. In order to facilitate this Plautus adopts the device of making the Puer or slave drunk. Beaumarchais makes Figaro, in his char- acter of apothecary and barber, resort to drugs to gain entrance to Barthoio's house — he gives a narcotic to L'Eveille and a sternu- tatory to the aged La Jeunesse who is perhaps the Puer of Plautus reincarnated. Finally, in both plays, it is the guardian who un- wittingly aids in the escape of his ward. Bartholo himself, like the soldier, has only himself to blame for the escape of the lovers. " Et moi qui leur ai enleve Techelle pour que le mariage fut plus sur." The number of principal characters is the same in both com- edies. The guardian, in the one play, is a boastful soldier, in the other, an avaricious doctor. The ward, in both plays, is a pre- tended ingenue. The lover is of high rank, but unresourceful, depending almost wholly upon his valet to get him out of diffi- culties. The valet is the real hero, both in Plautus and Beaumar- chais. To this conventional quartet is added a fifth character, that of the niais, or simpleton. In the Miles this part is played by the slave Sceledrus whose duty it is to guard Philocomasium, in the Barhier, it is Bazile, the music master, who is stupid and easily imposed upon, while in the ordinary Tuteur a clef comedy, it THE SOURCES OF THE BARBIER DE SEVILLE 9 is the guardian himself who is easily duped. Another character- istic which the two comedies have in common is that the heroine plays her part unaided by any serving maid who may act the role of confidante. Philocomasium, it is* true, consults with the cour- tesan, but she does not depend upon her to any extent. Rosine, too, acts her part entirely without feminine aid, even that of a duenna. The officers of the police who fall upon the guardian in the Barhier de Seville are paralleled by the servants of Periplecomenes in the Latin play, who inflict summary punishment on the soldier — with blows instead of warrants. When it comes to the question of verbal resemblances, the Barhier de Seville is full of expressions which certainly suggest a close acquaintance on the part of Beaumarchais with the Latin play. The description of the soldier Pyrgopolinices, gloriosus, impvdens, plenus injurii atque adulteri [M.G., II-l.] is closely par- alleled by the description of Doctor Bartholo — Brutal, avare, amour- eux et jaloux [B. S., 1-4]. So also just as the slave girl Philocoma- sium is said to hate the soldier, neque pejus quemquam odisse quam istunc militem [M. G., II-l.] Rosine cherishes toward her guar- dian, a mortal hatred, ^^ Sa pupille, qui la hait d la morV^ — B. S., 1-4. The description, too, which Plautus gives of the slave Sceledrus, liomo haud magni pretii, glaucomam oh oculos ohjiciemus, M. G., II-L must have suggested to Beaumarchais the description of Bazile, " Un pauvre here, et dont il sera facile de venir a hout," B. S., 1-6. The sentiments in regard to women, uttered by the bachelor Periple- comenes in his famous diatribe against married life seem to have been utilized by Beaumarchais with reference to Rosine. Woman, according to Periplecomenes — " Domi hahet os, linguam, perfidiam, malitiam,^^ and half a dozen other vices, which are summed up in Figaro's cynical remark: ''Oh ces femmes! voulez vous donner de Tadresse a la plus ingenue? enfermez — la." Another case of similarity of expression under like circum- stances is found in the outburst of Periplecomenes against the slave Sceledrus, who, while hunting on the roof for a pet monkey, has looked down into the neighbor's court and discovered Philocoma- sium and her lover together. " Mihi quidem jam arhitri vicini sunt meae quid fiat domi,'^ exclaims the old man, just as Bartholo breaks out into imprecations when he discovers that Figaro has 10 ' BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS had an interview with Rosine. ^'Ah! malediction! Tenrage, le scelerat corsaire de Figaro: " et personne a V antichambre^ on arrive a cet appartement comnie a la place d^armes.'^ The scene in the Latin play in which the soldier permits the lover, in the disguise of a ship captain, to enter his house, is very much like the corresponding scene in the French play. Philo- comasium, with a cleverness of acting which reminds one strongly of Rosine, pretends to regret her separation from the soldier and makes a pretence of fainting away in order to get an opportunity to prompt her lover as to the part he is to play. The soldier orders water to be brought, but his suspicions are aroused, as is shown by his remark, "capita inter se nimis nexa hisce hahent.^' M. G., IV-8. In the Barhier de Seville, Rosine on a similar occasion gives as an excuse for her agitation, "le pied m'a tourne,'' and Bartholo, who like the soldier, is suspicious of the actions of the two lovers, reproaches Figaro, who is shaving him, for trying to put himself between him and them in order to conceal their manoeuvres. " II me semble que vous le fassiez expres de vous approcher et de vous mettre devant moi pour m'empecher de voir." B. S., III-4. The most striking verbal resemblance between the two plays, however, is that of the 'left eye.'' The lover of Philocomasium has entered the soldier's house in the disguise of a ship master to carry the girl home to her mother. The soldier notices that the pre- tended sailor has a bandage over the left eye and asks him sud- denly, "Quid factum tuo oculof at laevum dicof — M. G., IV-7. In the Barhier de Seville, Figaro, in order to keep Bartholo from seeing the two lovers as they talk together, pretends that he has something In his eye and calls upon Bartholo to help him remove it. Bartholo — Qu'est-ce que c'est? Figaro — Je ne sais ce qui m'est entre dans I'oeil. Bartholo — Ne frottez done pas. Figaro— C'est le gauche.— B. S., III-12. It is certainly a striking coincidence that the 'left eye' should be mentioned in both plays and under similar circumstances. There seems to be no especial significance attached to the use of the expres- sion in the Barhier, it may then be simply a reminiscence of Plautus. The scene in which this expression is used is that one in the Barhier which most of all resembles the scene of the disguised lover in the Miles Gloriosus. It is used in close connection with the remark THE SOURCES OF THE BARBIER DE SEVILLE 11 made by Bartholo that Figaro hinders him from seeing the two lovers who are talking with each other, just as the soldier, in the Latin play has his suspicions aroused by a similar manoeuvre on the part of the lovers. Finally, may not an expression which Palaestrion uses in regard to the soldier have suggested to Beaumarchais the title, Bar- hier de Seville. The slave Palaestrion, who like Figaro, has by his stratagems, got the better of the soldier and enabled his master to succeed in carrying off Philocomasium, remarks at the end of the play, that he has deruncinavit, i.e., shaved the soldier, figur- atively, of course, just as Figaro both literally and figuratively 'shaved' Doctor Bartholo. If the close relationship between the Barhier and the Miles still seems doubtful, let French names be substituted for Latin ones. Let the soldier, Pyrgopolinices be divested of his sword and provided with a doctor's lancet and we have the Doctor Bar- tholo, who probably killed more persons in his lifetime by means of his drugs than did the soldier, Pyrgopolinices, who boasted that he had killed. Centum in Cilicia Et quinquaginta. Centum in Cryplaolathronia. Triginta Sardis, sexaginta Macedones. Give Philocomasium the name of Rosine, put her behind a balconied window in Seville and she will be able to outwit her guardian with the same success and without even the aid of a serv- ing maid. As for Pleusides and Palaestrion, master and man, they are as precious a pair of rascals in Plautus as in Beaumar- chais. From the Miles Gloriosus — the earliest guardian and ward play in Latin literature to the latest guardian and ward play in French literature there is more difference in time than difference in plot. [See note 2.] From this consideration of the two plays it is evident that there is reason to believe that the Barhier de Seville may have been modeled upon the Miles Gloriosus. That a 'guardian and ward' comedy of the approved conventional type could easily be evolved from this play, is shown in the case of Cailhava, a contemporary of Beau- marchais, who in 1765 brought out a play entitled Le Tuteur Dupe, which is by the express avowal of the author an imitation of the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus. This play was afterward put upon 12 BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS the stage again in 1773. That the piece obtained sufficient suc- cess to be well known to playgoers and consequently to Beaumar- chais, is shown by the fact that it is favorably mentioned by Grimm, in his Correspondance Litteraire who declares that it has the merit of being gaie. It is, therefore, peMectly possible that Beaumar- chais, who up to this time had been an unsuccessful playwright, a mere imitator of Diderot, seeing the success which Cailhava had obtained from his adaptation of the Miles, should conceive the idea of trying his hand also at working over a Latin play. The Barbier de Seville was first composed toward the end of the year 4773 as a comic opera, having almost nothing of the character which' it finally assumed. The Barbier de Seville, in its final form, that with which we are familiar, made its first appearance at the Comedie Frangaise, February 23, 1775 — just two years after the revival of Cailhava' s Tuteur Dupe and resembles it closely in character. In the preface to the Tuteur Dupe, Cailhava describes his method of procedure in adapting the Latin play to modern conditions, so as to make of it the conventional 'guardian and ward comedy.' The description is interesting as showing the liberties he took with the Latin original. The first act of the Miles he does not use at all, his guardian has nothing of the boastful soldier in his makeup, he is simply plain Monsieur Richard. The episode of the lost monkey is entirely dispensed with also. However, the device of the door connecting the two houses, which in Plautus is not men- tioned until the middle of the piece, and then plays a very unim- portant part in the play, is announced in Cailhava's play in the first scene of the first act. ''Dans le Poete Latin," says Cailhava in the preface to his play, "la ressemblance et la fausse porte n'ani- ment que deux ou trois scenes inutiles. J^ai retourne mon sujet, je me suis replie de fagon a les rendre la base de la machine entiere. Chez mon maitre elles ne servent qu' a tromper un miserable esclave, acteur tres subalterne: dans ma comedie servent elles a duper le Heros de la piece, Ces changements une fois prepares et fondus dans ma tete, je confiai, sans hesiter, a un Valet, tous les fils de I'intrigue; je lui laissai le soin d'en combiner les effets et de manier, a son gre, des ressorts, qui ne sont comiques et decents que dans les mains des Domestiques." This last sentence of Cailhava's is particularly important as indicating a prominent feature of the THE SOURCES OF THE BARBIER DE SEVILLE " 13 Miles, the Barhier, and the Tuteur, the entrusting all the ''threads of the intrigue" to the hands of a valet. There are many points of resemblance between the Barhier and the Tuteur Dupe which would naturally arise from imitation of the same model. The lover, aided by the valet, tries to outwit the guardian and carry off the young lady, the guardian himself all the while unconsciously aiding the lover. Cailhava, however, as he expressly states in his preface, has elaborated the incident of the secret door between the two houses which enables the heroine to pass herself off as her own twin sister. This incident, as Cailhava remarks, plays an unimportant part in the comedy of Plautus. The theory that Beaumarchais, having written his comic opera, Le Barhier de Seville in 1773, the same year in which Cailhava's Tuteur Dupe was put again upon the stage, seeing the success of his contemporary's play, resolved to remodel his play after Plautus — wisely leaving out the secret door device — receives confirmation from the fact that in the Barhier there are several passages which resemble passages in the Tuteur, notably the one in which Merlin exclaims, ''Allons, Merlin, du courage, Les douze mille livres que Damis vous promet font precisement douze mille raisons qui prou- vent que M. Richard doit etre dupe." T. D., 1-6. Compare with this the remark of Bazile in the Barhier, as he accepts a bribe. ''Ce 'diable d'homme a toujours ses poches pleines d' arguments irresisti- hles." B. S., IV-8. Moreover, both plays end with the signing of marriage contracts as the result of mistaken identity. M. Richard believes he is marrying his ward and finds himself united to her aunt, while the lover, as in the Barbier, signs the contract which unites him to the young girl. The device of the soeurs jumelles used by both Plautus and Cailhava, while not employed by Beaumarchais to the same extent as by them, seems to be hinted at in the Barhier — IV-7 — the scene of the two marriage contracts, ''C'est que j'ai deux contrats de mariage, monseigneur: ne confondons point: voici le votre, et c'est ici celui du seigneur Bartholo, avec la senora — Rosine aussi? Les demoiselles, apparemment, sout deux sceurs qui portent le meme nom?" The impression that remains in the mind after reading Cail- hava's play with its characters disguised under French names, some of its incidents elaborated and others entirely omitted, is 14 * BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS simply that the author has added another to the long hst of 'guar- dian and ward' comedies which have occupied a prominent place in French literature since the time of Moliere. It is doubtful whether one reader in a hundred, even though he were well versed in Latin literature, would suspect that the Tuteur Dupe was imitated from the Miles Gloriosus if Cailhava himself did not expressly name his model. If Beaumarchais had made the same statement in regard to the Barhier de Seville, the reader would find it quite as easy to believe as Cailhava's statement. Why then, did not Beau- marchais, if it were true, state the fact openly? Cailhava men- tions Beaumarchais in the preface to his dramatic works, [I., p. 43] '' Le President me signifie nettement qu' on donnera les Deux Amis de M. de Beaumarchais," but Beaumarchais nowhere mentions Cailhava. However, in the preface prefixed to the Barhier de Seville Beaumarchais admits that he has been accused of plagiar- ism, he adopts a mocking tone, openly admits that some critics have accused him of strutting about in peacock's feathers, which, if they were stripped from him would show him to be nothing but a 'Wilain corbeau noir." It is not strange that the source of the play should not have been patent to everyone at the time of its first representation, when it is remembered that this was the case with a number of similar imitations of Plautus. Regnard's Serenade was not dis- covered to be an imitation of the Pseudolus until the middle of the eighteenth century. Even Reinhardstoettner failed to discover that Remy Belleau's Reconnue was derived from the Casina of Plautus, as was recently pointed out in the Revue d'Histoire Lit- teraire [Voldo, 1908]. Examples also of a '^concours" or com- petition by two authors upon a given subject are not lacking. In the spring of 1701 Regnard wrote his Folies Amoureuses, a ''guar- dian and ward" comedy, to which the Barhier de Seville has often been compared, which it in fact does somewhat resemble, and a few months later Dancourt wrote his Colin Maillard, also a "guar- dian and ward" comedy. As for Cailhava, he really could have no ground for complaint if Beaumarchais chose to go to the same Latin source as himself, as to the acknowledging that source, he was free to do it or not, as he chose. Moliere did not think it necessary to proclaim the Latin source of the Avare or the Amphitryon. The whole tone of THE SOURCES OF THE BARRIER DE SEVILLE 15 the preface to the Barbier de Seville, already referred to, seems to show^ that Beaumarchais preferred to meet the charge of pla- giarism by adopting an almost impudent ''guess if you can" atti- tude. The plays of Cailhava and Beaumarchais v^ere the manifesta- tion of a widespread tendency to imitate Plautus and other classical writers, especially Terence, which developed in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Destouches wrote in 1745, Le Tresor Cache, based upon the Trinummus; later Sedaine wrote an opera, Amphitryon, and Cailhava, beside the Tuteur, wrote a play based upon the Menaechmi. In Germany also this interest in Plautus manifested itself. Lessing's Der Schatz, written in 175U, was, like Destouches's Tresor Cache, an imitation of the Trinummus. Less- ing's admiration for Plautus was shared by Herder and Schlegel. The movement finally culminated in the five Plautine comedies written by Lenz, which appeared at Leipzig in 1774. Among these plays was an imitation of the Miles Glorio'sus, entitled "Der Grossprahlerische Offizier.^' This play he sent to Goethe at Strass- bourg in 1772 for criticism. The latter advised Lenz to modernize the play still more than he had done, with the result that the play was rewritten by Lenz under the title of "Die Entfilhrungen.'' "In dem Dialog des 'grossprahlerische Offizier' hat Lenz fiir seine Umar- beitung in Die Entfuhrungen, manches gestrochen, zusammen gezogen und verandert," says his biographer. It is quite possible that Beaumarchais may have had his atten- tion called to the Miles and Lenz's imitation of it. In August of 1774 Beaumarchais made a short stay at Frankfort, where in all probability he met Goethe, who had just dramatized the adventures of Beaumarchais in Spain in his play Clavigo. The example of Lenz, added to that of Cailhava, must certainly have aroused his interest in the Latin play. The objection may be made that Beaumarchais, like Shakspere, was first of all a man of affairs, rather than a student of Latin authors. To a certain extent, this is true. Beaumarchais was, like Shakspere, a student of human nature rather than of books, but like Shakspere, he knew his ''little Latin," and like Moliere he did not scruple to borrow from any source, whatsoever, provided by so doing he could suit the taste of the theater-going public. Beaumarchais, after all, possessed a fairly extensive knowledge .16 BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS of the classics. Lomenie, one of his biographers, quotes a letter written by Beaumarchais to one of his sisters while he was in Spain. "Suivant I'usage des colleges, on m'avait plus occupe de vers latins que des regies de la versification frangaise." [Lomenie, Vol. I., p. 64 and 287.] His German biographer, Bettelheim [p. 13], testifies to his ability to translate into French an anthology of Latin authors of his own selection. Lintilhac, his latest biographer, praises the elegance of these same translations and also remarks upon the cleverness with which, in his letters, he used and applied certain Latin quotations to different circumstances of his own life and that of his sisters. It can then be established as certain that a man, who had made Latin verses and selected extracts from Latin authors, must certainly have been able to read his Plautus. Moreover, in the preface to Figaro he refers to Moliere's borrowings from Plau- tus, so he must have been conscious of what was apparently an unwritten" law that a dramatist must imitate at least two plays from Plautus. Moliere had imitated the Aulularia and the Amphi- tryon, Regnard the Mostellaria and the Menaechmi, Cailhava the Miles Gloriosus and the Menaechmi. Why should not he imitate the Miles Gloriosus and the Casina? [See note 1.] Before summing up all that has just been said in regard to the connection between the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus and the Barhier de Seville of Beaumarchais, it is necessary to admit, first of all, that we have no direct statement anywhere, on the part of Beau- marchais himself or his contemporaries that this was the case, but as has been shown above, similar cases of imitation have occurred without avowal on the part of the author or detection on the part of the public. The evidence which has been brought forward in favor of the assumption that the Barhier was at least suggested by the Miles resolves itself into five arguments. / First, the similarity in plot has been shown. Second, a sufficient number of verbal resemblances have been found to indicate that Beaumarchais was acquainted with the Latin original. Third, the fact that Cailhava, by imitating Plautus, had pro- duced a successful play, might very easily suggest to Beaumarchais, who hitherto had written nothing but unsuccessful plays, that he go to the same source for his inspiration. Fourth, the literary tradition handed down by Moliere in regard THE SOURCES OF THE BARBIER DE SEVILLE 17 to imitating Plautus would be accepted as his own particular be- quest by Beaumarchais, who claimed to be the direct heir of Moliere. Fifth, it may be asked whether it was mere chance that the only two plays produced by Beaumarchais which were in any way successful are those which it is reasonable to suppose were imitated from Plautus, for, as will be shown later the Mariage de Figaro bears a strong resemblance to the Casina of Plautus. Witty as Beaumarchais is in his Memoires, in all his comedies, except the two above mentioned, he is flat and insipid. It is only when he is inspired by Plautus with that contagious gayety which seems to emanate from the master that he attains the goal he had set to restore French comedy to the '^gaiete^' it possessed in the days of MoUere. Each one of the biographers of Beaumarchais has his theory as to the source of the Barbier de Seville, for not one of them seems to have doubted that it was based upon some other tuteur d clef comedy. Lomenie points out some points of resemblance with Fatou- ville's Precaution Inutile, played at the Theatre des Italiens in 1692, a source which would seem to be plainly indicated by the subtitle of the Barhier. He rather inclines to the opinion that the first version of the play which was written as a comic opera in 1772, is due to Spanish influence. '^C'est le souvenir de ces tonadillas qui parait avoir donne naissance au Barhier de Seville, compose d'abord pour faire valoir des airs espagnols que le voyageur avait apporte de Madrid et qu'il arrangeait a la frangaise." Lomenie, 451-2. In answer to this theory it may be said that the Barhier does resemble the Precaution Inutile, just as any tuteur a clef comedy resembles another, as Beaumarchais himself says in the preface to the Barhier de Seville: "Un vieillard amoureux pretend epouser demain sa pupille: un jeune amant plus adroit le pr^vient, et ce jour meme en fait sa femme, a la barbe et dans la maison du tuteur. Voila le fond, dont on eiit pu faire avec un egal succes une tragedie, une comedie, un drame un opera et caetera." As to Spanish influ- ence, however much the Spanish airs which he heard in Spain may have been used in the first edition of the Barhier, which was prac- tically nothing but a comic opera of which the manuscript is not. preserved, except in fragments, and which differs radically from the 18 BBAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS Barhier of 1775, the fact remains that in this last Barhier de Seville the names of persons and places are Spanish — just enough to give local color — the characters and incidents are thoroughly French. As Morel Fatio has said, ''une influence lointaine, a peine saisissa- ble, voila ce que TEspagne pourrait reclamer dans le theatre de Beaumarchais." Bettelheim is of the opinion that the Barhier is based upon an opera by Panard, le Conte de Belflor, which Beaumarchais probably heard when a child, and of which he gives the following brief out- line, p. 168: "Le Conte de Belflor est amoureux de Jacinthe, pupille de Don Cormera, alcalde de Campo Mayor, qui la garde dans le dessein d'en faire son epouse. Le Comte, par un stratageme fort ingenieux s'introduit chez T alcalde, se decouvre a Jacinthe et la fait consentir a se faire enlever. L' alcalde vent courir apres le ravisseur: mais le corregidor I'arrete, lui declare qu'il le depossede de sa charge pour ses malversations et le fait emmener par les alguazils. Apres leur depart on celebre la noce du comte qui forme le divertisse- ment." Here is undoubtedly a play similar in plot to the Barhier, but the resemblance between the two, except in its being located in Spain, is not any more striking than that which exists between the Barhier and the Folies Amour euses of Regnard, a guardian and ward play, an amateur performance of which was given by one of the sisters of Beaumarchais at the time of his return from Spain, and which must, tljerefore, have been more fresh in his memory than the Comte de Belflor. As for the audaces which Figaro utters, Bettelheim finds them in Piron's Arlequin Deucalion and in Favart's Ninette a la Couv. He might also have added the comedies of Marivaux in which Trivelin and other valets utter sayings which are even more audacious than the epigrams of Figaro. Lintilhac, the latest of the biographers of Beaumarchais, while admitting that he was influenced in composing the Barhier by the "guardian and ward" comedies of Moliere, namely, the Ecole des Femmes, Ecole des Maris, le Sicilien, as well as by the Precaution Inutile of Fatouville, suggests as a possible first sketch of the Barhier, a parade called Jean Bete a la Foire, written by Beaumar- chais himself a little while before the Barhier, which he considers a first outline of the Barbier, the name Bartholo being borrowed iSi.'r'FORNV^^ THE SOURCES OF THE BARBIER DE SEVILLE 19 from another farce of this kind. As for the rest of the play, here are the sources indicated by Lintilhac. (p. 225). ''II prit d'abord son titre d'une nouvelle de Scarron, d'ou Moliere avait tire en partie le sujet de VEcole des Femmes et ou Beaumarchais puisera I'idee d'une des scenes les plus piquantes du Mariage de Figaro. Ce titre, la Precaution inutile, avait d'ailleurs servi depuis a plusieurs autres auteurs dramatiques. Mais le titre est tout ce qu'il a de commun avec Dorimon, Gallet, Achard, Anseaume, etc. En revanche, il eut pu dire de Moliere, comme Racine de Tacite: ''J'etais alors si rempli de la lecture de cet excellent comique, qu'il n'y a presque pas un trait e'clatant dans ma piece dont il ne m'ait donne I'idee. Le canevas est au denouement pres, celui du Sicilien, et rappelle en maint endroit ceux de VEcole des Maris et de VEcole des Femmes, Les travestis permettant a I'amant d'entretenir ou de faire entretenir de sa passion celle qui en est I'objet, au nez des tuteurs, est un vieux procede scenique que Moliere avait employ^, en variant ses effets, dans sept de ses comedies." These comedies being VEtourdi — Ecole des Maris, U Amour Medecin, le Sicilien, le Medecin malgre lui, le Malade Imaginaire. There seems then to be no lack of unanimity among the biogra- phers of Beaumarchais as to the Barbier's having been borrowed from some source; there is, on the other hand, a striking lack of unanimity as to the source from which it is borrowed. In plot, it could easily be found to resemble any one of several dozen ''guar- dian and ward" comedies from the time of Moliere on. As to names of characters, incidents and phrases, he is convicted of having taken them indiscriminately wherever he found them — the sub- title from Fatonville's play, or from a nouvelle of Scarron. The name Bartholo from an anonymous parade, (Lintilhac,) 225, La Jeunesse must have been taken from Gresset's Parrain Magnifique in which figures prominently an octogenarian valet by that name, the incident of the key from an opera of Sedaine, "On ne s'avise jamais de tout," played in September, 176L The drugging of L'fiveille from George Dandin, "II n'est pas jusqu'au narcotic de I'Eveille dont le sommeil intempestif et obstine du CoHn de George Dandin n'ait pu suggerer la recette." Lintilhac, 227. From the Precaution Inutile is taken the following phrase: Arlequin — // n'a qu'un defaut, c'est quHl est amoureux, which is paralleled exactly in the Barbier de Seville. 20 BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS Rosine — II est amour eux, et vous appelez cela un defaut? It is even probable that he borrowed from Virgil in the cele- brated description of Calomine, ''Vous voyez la calomnie se dresser, sifHer, s'enfler, grandir a vue d^oeil. Elle s'elance, s'etend son, vol. B. S., II-8., which is an almost literal translation of Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes, Parva metu primo, mox sese attoUit in auras. No wonder that Augusto Vitu in his preface to the Barbier calls it a remarkable piece of ''marqueterie." It almost seems as if Beaumarchais had deliberately set to work to compose this piece of ''marqueterie" as a literary tour de force, taking a bit here and a bit there from every "guardian and ward" comedy with which he was acquainted, acknowledging by his sub- title his indebtedness to the Precaution Inutile, and in the preface, pleading guilty to the charge that his comedy was indebted to Sedaine's opera by acknowledging that it is, "On ne s'avise jamais de tout." Neither of these statements in the preface is inconsistent with the theory which has just been advanced, that the Barbier is modeled upon the Miles of Plautus and was suggested to Beaumarchais by the recently performed adaptation of this play by Cailhava. The resemblance between the two plays which has already been pointed out would indicate that Beaumarchais chose out of the numerous "guardian and ward" plots at his disposal, the plot furnished by the Miles, suggested by the recent performance of Cailhava's play. Cutting out, instead of enlarging upon the device of the secret door as Cailhava did, he added to it without scruple all the incidents and phrases he chose to from other comedies. It is not strange that Beaumarchais should not openly confess that his play was an imitation of the same play which had served as Cailhava's model. The latter author, by his French version of the Miles had produced a new "guardian and ward" comedy, a plot which every playwright considered common property. Then, too, may not this be the meaning of that mocking reply addressed to his accuser, "On ne s'avise jamais de tout — "Yes." Beaumar- chais seems to say, "the comedy is borrowed, a name here, a line there, but the principal source, the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus and Cailhava's French adaptation, Le Tuteur Dupe, have not yet been guessed, as its source. Truly, 'On ne s'avise jamais de tout.'" BIBLIOGRAPHY 21 BIBLIOGRAPHY Lomenie — Beaumarchais et Son Temps Paris, 1880 Bettelheim — Beaumarchais Frankfurt, 1886 Lintilhac — Beaumarchais Paris, 1887 Reinhardstoettner — Plautus-Studien Leipzig, 1886 Marc-Monnier — Les A'ieux de Figaro Paris, 1868 Naudet — Bihlioteca Classica Latina, Plautus Paris, 1830 Nisard — Theatre des Latins, Plaute Paris, 1879 Fournier — Beaumarchais, Oeuvres Completes Paris, 1884, Cailhava — Theatre Paris, 1781 Vitu — Preface, Barhier de Seville, . Theatre de Beaumar- chais Paris, 1882 Lenient — La Comedie au XVIII Siecle Paris, 1888 Larroumet — ^.fitudes d'Histoire de Critique Dramatique . Paris, 1892 Parfaict Freres — Histoire du Theatre Frangais Paris, 1725-49 Riccoboni — Histoire du Theatre ItaUen Paris, 1731 Grimm — Gorrespondance Litteraire Paris, 1812 Gruppe — Lenz, Leben u. Werke. BerUn,1861 Gresset — Le Parrain Magnifique Renouard, Paris, 1810 Toldo— La Comedie Fr. au XVL Revue d'Hist. Litt ... Paris, 1898 22 BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS NOTES Note 1. — The Mariage de Figaro and the Casina ''Jam docti viri notarunt huic baud absimili argumento per actam fuisse in nostrata scena, sub finem proxime superioris saeculi; fabulam de nuptiis Hispalensis cujusdam tonsoris celebratissimi nominatim." In these words Naudet, in his preface to the works of Plautusj calls attention to the resemblance between the Mariage de Figaro and the Casina of Plautus, as did also, somewhat later, Marc-Monnier, in his Aieux de Figaro. As in the case of the Barhier de Seville, however, neither of these two authors has examined the two plays in detail, to see whether there is enough resemblance between them to warrant the assump- tion that Beaumarchais took the Casina as a model for the Mariage de Figaro. It is perfectly possible that Beaumarchais may have taken the hint again from Cailhava, who in the preface to the Tuteur Dupe, expressly mentions the Casina. It is a curious fact in the history of the drama that the Miles Gloriosus and the Casina seem to have been linked together. They were both performed in Italy at Court of Ferrara in the sixteenth century when Ercole d'Este resurrected Plautus, They were both transformed into French plays in the sixteenth century, the Miles becoming Le Brave of De Baif and the Casina La Reconnue of Remy Belleau. Finally in the eighteenth century we have the Miles Gloriosus — the Barhier de Seville, and, as will be shown later, the Casina — the Mariage de Figaro. The marriage of a serving man to a fellow servant girl who is in the employ of the master's wife and with whom the master is in love, and the trick played upon the master w^ho tries to claim le droit du seigneur, forms the plot of both the Latin and the French play. As the Latin play opens with a scene between two slaves in which the coarsest invective is indulged in, so the Mariage opens with a scene in which Suzanne and Marceline vie with each other in reverences, a scene in which the invective is more refined, but NOTES 23 none the less biting. In the Latin play, the ill-tempered wife and the vain and foolish old husband, decide by lot the question as to whether the serving girl shall marry the son's armour bearer, who is devoted to the interests of his young master who is in love with the girl, or the old master's farm superintendent. This scene of the drawing of the lots, which is described in great detail by Plautus, must have been watched with breathless interest by a Neapolitan audience before whom the play was probably first performed, and who evidently were not behind their descendants in their love for lotteries and gambling. Beaumarchais, like Plautus, shows his knowledge of what will suit his audience, by letting the marriage of Figaro be decided in a court and before a judge whose decisions strikingly resemble the decisions arrived at by drawing lots. In- deed, the Judge Bridoison of Beaumarchais is but another name for the famous Judge Bridoie of Rabelais, who decided his cases by drawing lots. What a lottery scene was to the Neapolitans of the time of Plautus, was a courtroom scene to the Parisians of the eighteenth century. The third important scene in the Casina is that in which the master is tricked by a slave who dresses himself in the clothes of the servant girl and administers summary punishment to his in- fatuated master. This is paralleled in the Manage de Figaro by the masquerade scene ''sous les marroniers," in which the Countess is disguised as Suzanne, Suzanne as the Countess and Figaro as the Count. Even the ''recognition" scene which is found in the mutilated conclusion of the Latin play, in which Casina is found to be after all of good family and is thus enabled to marry the son of the family, has its counterpart in the "recognition" scene in the Mariage, where Figaro is recognized by both his parents. One of the most dramatic scenes in the Latin play is that in which the terrified maid servant rushes out upon the stage and informs the audience that Casina stands with a drawn sword in her hand, like one mad, threatening all who approach her to adorn her for the marriage ceremony which will unite her to the hated slave, a scene which has been well imitated by Regnard in his, Folies Amoureuses, which seems to be a "contamination" of the Miles with the Casina. Nothing like this scene occurs in the Mariage, although there may be a suggestion of it in the sub-title. La Folle Journee. Two strongly marked characteristics distinguished the Casina 24 BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS from most of the other plays of Plautus. More than aily of them is skeptical and cynical, the gods are openly ridiculed, the old master compares himself to Jupiter and his wife to Juno. Even the institu- tion of marriage, which was one of the most sacred institutions of the Romans, is treated with the utmost levity and cynicism. A second marked peculiarity of the play is the fact that the hero and heroine do not appear upon the stage, as if to emphasize the fact that this is a marriage in the world of slavedom that is to be celebrated. It is just these two things which render the Mariage de Figaro different from all the other plays which preceded it. The marriage of a man servant and a maid servant is the subject of the play, not as subordinate to the marriage of a high-born master and mis- tress, but as an important event in itself. Secondly, in cynicism Plautus found a worthy successor in Beaumarchais, who, through Figaro, utters those famous tirades against the existing order of things which made Napoleon remark, ^'Figaro, C'est la Revolution deja en action." In trying to show the close analogy between the Casina and the Mariage de Figaro, a likeness so striking as to certainly suggest conscious imitation of Plautus on the part of Beaumarchais, though perhaps not so close an imitation as in the Barhier, it is not claimed, of course, that Beaumarchais did not take characters and incidents from other authors. First of all these other probable sources stands Voltaire's Droit du Seigneur, and also a play of Boursault, Le Mercure Galant. Merlin — Non — Monsieur. Vous pretendriez sur elle avoir droit de seigneur. Droit de dime, Un valet marie dont la femme est jolie A de justes raison de paraitre jaloux. The character of Suzanne was perhaps suggested by the Pamela Comedies of Goldoni which were written about this time and which owed their vogue to the popularity of Richardson. As has been suggested by Lomenie, one of the probable sources of Cherubih is in Petit Jean de Saintre, which had just been republished by the Count de Tressan. The pin with which the Countess fastens the billet doux which she sends to Cherubin must certainly have been suggested by the above mentioned story. NOTES 25 Note 2. — The Guardian and Ward Comedy The ''guardian and ward" comedy has been popular on the stage of every country of Europe from the beginning of the Renais- sance to the time of the first performance of the Barbier de Seville. No other comedy plot has surpassed this in popularity, not even the well-worn ''twin" plot. The Barbier de Seville, however, ranks as the most , famous of all the comedies of this class. It marks the highest development of which this plot was capable and since then it has remained the typical "guardian and ward" play, so perfect, or at least so suc- cessful, that no noteworthy attempt has been made since to write another comedy of this kind. The question may well be asked: How did a plot, which has proved so popular, originate? As to the origin of the equally pop- ular "twin plot" there has never been the shadow of a doubt that the Menaechmi of Plautus furnished the model. Fifty or more imitations of which are found in Reinhardstoettner's list. Next in popularity, according to that list, appears to be the Miles Glori- osus, which has almost an equal number of imitations. Shakspere, with his unerring dramatic instinct, seized upon these two popular themes, the "twins," in the Comedy of Errors, and the Miles Glori- osus, or "boastful soldier," in the Falstaff plays, particularly in the "Merry Wives of Windsor," where the denoument, in which the soldier comes to grief at the hands of the injured husbands, bears a striking resemblance to that of the Miles. But there are two sides to this Miles Gloriosus, this soldat fan- faron. He is also the guardian of a young girl whom he has carried off and who is taken away from him by the lover and his valet. It is these two elements in the play which seem to have given rise to the two kinds of comedy, the soldat fanfaron and the tuteur a clef plays. It is difficult to decide just when these two elements in the Latin play became separated. Before the seventeenth century there seems to be no distinctive "guardian and ward" play in French literature, then Moliere, with a dramatic instinct as sure as that of Shakspere, took hold of this plot and on it based his tuteur d clef plays. If Moliere's Ecole des Maris, is imitated from Lope de Vega's Discreta Inamorada, as has been claimed, this separation 26 BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS of the Latin play into the two plots may have taken place first in Spain. It is a curious fact that in many of these guardian . and ward plays the barber comes to be associated. A play by Sebastian Mittersnachts, called the Unglilckliche Soldat und Vorwitzige Barhier, written in 1662, is mentioned by Reinhard Stoettner and probably was a version of the Miles Gloriosus. Equally worthy of remark is also the fact that many of the old farces contain a monologue recited by the valet in which he boasts of his skill as a barber among his other useful accomplishments, such monologues being often associated with the boasts of the soldier and the intrigues of lovers. The earliest of these mono- logues is that of Maistre Hambrelin found in the collection of farces of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Picot and Nyrop. Je sais jouer farces sans rolles Je suis bon maistre rasenaire Gens barbier, seigner, veiner. Scarron in his Don Japhet d'Armenie, has a similar monologue. Don Alphonse — Jeune comme je suis, Monsieur, je sais tout faire. Je rase, je blanchis, je couds, je sais saigner; Je sais noircir le poil, le couper, le peigner; Je travaille en parfums, je sais la medecine, J'ecris en heroique aussi bien qu'en burlesque. Compare with this the speech of Figaro, who is a veritable descen- dant of the valet qui salt 'Hout faire." Also in Regnard's Folies Amour euses is a similar monologue. Albert — Et quel homme etes vous? Crispin — J'ai fait tant de metiers d'apres le naturel Quelque fois hofmete homme, quelquefois fripon. Compare also Trivelin in the Fausse Suivante of Marivaux. Depuis quinze aus que je roule dans le monde Ami des fripons. Nor must the monologue of Gil Bias, to whom Beaumarchais is more than once indebted, be omitted in this list. "Apres cela, ne voulant plus retourner dans les Asturies, pour eviter toute discussion avec la justice." In all these monologues the valet "salt tout faire," he makes verses and has difficulties with the officers of justice. Figaro, NOTES 27 with his "Convaincu que I'utile revenu du rasoir est preferable aux vains honneurs de la plume," adds nothing new. A second element in the guardian and ward comedy is the description of obstacles to be overcome by the valet. Crispin — Moi, comme ingenieur et chef d'artillerie Pour battre en breche Albert et I'obliger bientot , A nous rendre la place ou sontenir T assault. — 1-8. — Folies Amour euses. The same idea is found in one of the comedies of Destouches "Je vais done avec lui faire assault de genie.'' — L'Ingrat 11-7. Compare with the elaborate description given in Plautus of the difficulties to be overcome by the slave Palaestrion, and in the Barber of Seville — ''Je vais d'un coup de baguette, endormir la vigilance." III. The need of money is always emphasized by the valet in Moliere, Regnard, Dancourt as well as in Beaumarchais. L'Etourdi, II-5 — Pandolfe — De Targent, dites vous, ah, voila Ten- colure, C'est le noeud secret de toute I'aventure. Ecoles des Femmes — Horace — Vous savez mieux que moi quels que soient mes efforts. Que r argent est la clef de tons les grands ressorts, Et que ce doux metal qui frappe tant de tetes En amour, comme en guerre, avance les con- quetes. Folies Amoureuses — Eraste — J'aurais pour le succes assez bonne esperance. Si de quelque argent frais, nous avions le se- cours : C'est le nerf de la guerre, ainsique des amours. —1-7. Cohn Maillard, 9 — On tiroit une bourse d'abord — C'est pourtant un meuble bien necessaire. B. S. Figaro, 1-5 — De Tor, mon Dieu, le I'or: C'est le nerf de I'in- trigue. Also is to be compared the douze mille raisons in the Tuteur of Cailhava. IV. A description of the guardian, conventional in every respect, is found in every one of these comedies. In the comedies 28 BEAUMARCHAIS AND PLAUTUS of Moliere the character of the guardian really forms the motif of the comedy, especially in the Ecole des Maris. La Fontaine, however, in his Florentin I-l, has given the real tuteur with all his keys. Marinette — Chaque porte, outre un nombre infini de ferrures Sous different ressorts a quatre ou cinq serrures Huit on dix cadenas et quinze on vingt verrous. Regnard, who evidently borrowed this description for his Folies Amoureuses, has softened it a little. Lisette — II s'arrete, il s'agite, il court sans savoir ou; Toute la nuit il rode Brutal a toute outrance, avare, dur, hargneux. Albert — J'ai fait dans mon chateau, toute la nuit, la ronde. Beaumarchais has not forgotten this conventional description. Le comte — Tu dis que la crainte des galants lui fait fermer sa porte? Figaro — A tout le monde: S'il pouvait la calfeutrer. — B. S., 1-4. Bartholo — Mais tout cela n'arrivera plus, car je vais faire sceller cette grille. Rosine — Faites mieux: murez les fenetres tout d'un coup. — II-4. The fifth conventional element which always enters into the comedies of this kind is the disguise under which the lover enters the house of the guardian and in the presence of the guardian talks to the young lady without that the latter suspects what they are talk- ing about. This scene in the Miles is one of the best of its kind and has furnished a model for innumerable guardian and ward comedies since. The entrance of the lover, disguised as a ship master, ''facito ut venias hue ornatu nauclerico causiam habeas, ferrugineam," IV-5, and the skilful acting done by Philocomasium, who feigns to regret leaving the soldier, has never been surpassed, even by Rosine. Cette situation, dans laquelle des interets de coeur se traitent en presence d'un rival, d'un pere, on d'un tuteur, a la faveur d'une fiction qui I'empechent d'y rien comprendre, est tou jours d'un grand effet au theatre quand la fiction est ingenieuse et vraisemblable." Le Sicilien, ou Ton pourrait encore signaler deux des plus amus- antes idees sceniques du Barbier de Seville: la conversation, Act I, sons le balcon et celle du troisieme entre les deux amoureux au nez du tuteur distrait. — Larroumet Etudes, p. 177. NOTES 29 The description of the brutal character of the guardian, the difficulties to be overcome in order to outwit him, the versatility of the valet, the disguise, are all found in the Miles Gloriosus as in all guardian ward plays — the need of money seems to be a later addition. OF THE • ^ university} OF / UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, BERKELEY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of 50c per volume after the third day overdue, increasing fo $1 00 peJTohxme after the sixth day.. Books not in demand may be renewed if application is made before expiration of loan period. Vtb 13192S APR V\0^2 ^ 4^2^69 -4PW RECDLD SEP2b'72-9 AMrO 50iJ(-7,'27