Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence, Vol. 1Kite, Elizabeth Sarah
History
Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence, Vol. 1
Kite, Elizabeth Sarah
Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de, 1732-1799; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Participation, French
It was very soon after acquiring the foundations of a fixed fortune, that
Beaumarchais carried into execution the cherished dream of his life, which
was to gather all the members of his family under his own roof and to
lavish upon them all those comforts of life, in which the limited means of
the elder Caron had not permitted them to indulge. His mother was no
longer living but there remained his father and two unmarried sisters at
home. The elder Caron had, two years before, at his son’s request given up
his trade of watchmaker, receiving from the latter a lifelong pension and
a considerable sum of money to cover certain heavy losses which had come
to him in the way of business.
We have formed already the acquaintance of Julie whom Beaumarchais
especially loved and who shared with him to the end all the vicissitudes
of his career.
Julie is spoken of as charming, witty, and vivacious; a good musician,
speaking Italian and Spanish with fluency, improvising songs and composing
verses, “more remarkable by their gaiety than by their poetic value.”
Later in life she appeared before the public in a serious little volume
entitled _Reflections on Life, or Moral Considerations on the Value of
Existence_, but at the present time--1763--the tone of her letters
distinctly betokens one not yet disenchanted with the gay world of which
her brother formed the center.
The youngest sister of all, Jeanne Marguerite Caron, seems to have
received a more brilliant education than the rest. M. de Loménie says of
her that, “She was a good musician, playing very well on the harp, that
she had a charming voice and more than that she was very pretty. She loved
to compose verses like her sister Julie, and without being equally
intelligent she possessed the same vivid, gay _esprit_ which distinguished
the family. In her infancy and girlhood she was called ‘Tonton.’ When her
brother, now a courtier, had associated Julie with the graceful name of
Beaumarchais, he found an even more aristocratic name for his youngest
sister, he called her Mademoiselle de Boisgarnier, and it was under this
name that Mlle. Tonton appeared with success in several salons.
“In her correspondence as a girl, Mlle. Boisgarnier appears to us as a
small person, very elegant, slightly coquettish, slightly indolent,
somewhat sarcastic, but still very attractive. The whole tone of her
letters is that of the _petite bourgeoise_, of quality, very proud to have
for a brother a _Secrétaire du roi, Lieutenant-général des chasses_, and
in relation to whom she says in one of her letters, ‘_Comment se gouverne
la petite société? Le frère charmant en fait-il toujours les délices?_’”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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