BARBER OF SEVILLE, The (Le Bar bier de Seville), one of the wittiest of all dramas and most mordant of satirical solvents, was written by Beaumarchais under irritation at speculative misadventures in American trade, in 1772, ready for the stage in 1773 and, after two years of prohibition and intrigue, first acted in February 1775. In its first form it was overloaded with allusions to his personal affairs and was ill-received. Revised on the instant it won on the second night a great success. Sev eral passages then suppressed, because they had been hissed, when inserted nine years later in 'The Marriage of Figaro,' were received with applause. The second title of the Barber, 'The Futile Precaution' points to Fatouville's 'La Precaution inutile' (1692) as the source of its plot. Something was borrowed also from Se daine's 'On ne s'avise jamais de tout.' But the ex-valet Figaro, the central figure, is Beau marchais' sole creation, a marvelous and half autobiographic combination of gaiety and phi losophy, disillusioned shrewdness, deep reflec tion and lambent wit. The guardian who wishes to marry his ward is a stock figure of old comedy. But Bartholo is no commonplace old man nor Rosine the conventional ingenue.
Duped Bartholo may be, but he is no unworthy antagonist of the young lover Almaviva and counters well on the devices of Figaro from point to point so that the interest rises stead ily to the very denouement. The dialogue throughout sparkles with overflowing wit, un expected turns of phrase, words of double in tent, topsy-turvy application of proverbial wis dom and even quite superfluous jests. The play is still popular in France and in the version given it by Rossini in his opera, Barbiere di Seviglia) (1816), has an international currency. The best edition of 'Le Barbier de Seville' is in 'Theatre de Beaumarchais,' edited by d'Heyli and Marescot. For its history, autobiographi cal elements in it and contemporary opinion of it consult Lomenie, 'Beaumarchais and his Times' (Vol. 2, pp. 233 f.). For the character of Figaro see Brunetiere, 'Epoques du theatre' (pp. 297f.), and Lintilhac, 'Beaumarchais.' A modern type of Figaro may be seen in Au gier's (Fils de Giboyer) (trans. by A. B. Myrick, New York 1905). See MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, THE.