It. was ou the 19th of May 1764 that this declaration was given on the 26th of May, Marie Louise Caron and Joseph Clavijo signed a contract of marriage, in presence of several witnesses. Then for the third time the 'Pensador' began to waver. A duenna made her appearance who assorted that he had made her n promise of marriage several years before. Beam:larch:tie suspected, not without some cause, that the duenna was set on by the man she nppeared to pursue. Meiji:, then shifted his residence, and gave out that be was in fear of violence from Boanmarchais, who had forced him with a pistol at his throat to sign a contract for marrying his sister. Tho French ambassador advised his countryman to quit Spain as soon as possible for his own safety; but he took the bolder course of forcing his way to Grimaldi, the minister, and a narrative of the whole affair was put through Grimaldi's intervention into the hands of the king. Finally, the monarch in person decided that Clavijo should be deprived of his post, and for ever dismissed from the employment of the state.
Such is the statement of the whole affair made by Beaumarchais ten years after its occurrence. It took place in 1764; in 1774 Beau. marchale, who was then in prison at Paris, engaged in a law-suit with a certain Madame Goezcoann, finding that the public was prejudiced against him by a report that ho had been expelled from Spain for discreditable proceedings there, published, as one of the legal docu ments in his defence, an account of his journey to Spain. His antagonists might have argued from it that, even when ho had a good caueo to defend, his proceedings were full of artifice; and that, in spite of his stratagems, he failed in his object. But nothing of this kind appears to have been said. It was curreutly remarked that his enemies, by trying to plunge Beaumarchais into an abyss, lied forced him to save himself ou a pedestal, and his conduct in the affair seems to have passed for a model of spirit and sagacity. In fact it was the narrative of his adventure with Clavijo that first raised him a reputatiou. It was read with eagerness and sympathy throughout Europe, and in Germany, falling into the hands of Gothe, it was in eight days turned into a tragedy, which became at once popular on the German and the Danish stage. The earlier part of the play, in which the characters bear their actual names, follows with tolerable closeness the narrative of Beaumarchais ; in the latter part the renewed desertion of Clavijo, or as ho is called Clavigo, is made to have a fatal effect on his betrothed, who dies of a broken heart, and at her funeral the lover, who is delineated as a man of worth led astray by ambition, dies by the sword of the brother, rejoicing that hie death makes some atonement for the wrongs of his beloved.
At the time that Gathe'a tragedy was making the names of Clavijo and Maria almost as familiar in northern Europe as those of Romeo and Juliet, Maria Caron had become the wife of a French merchant named Durand, and Clavijo was managing a theatre and editing a newspaper. The narrative of Beaumarchais concludes with the ignominious dis missal of the Spaniard from all his employments—a dismissal which was to last for life, but which appears to base been reversed in n very few years. In a Spanish work, the ils'oticias de Is Hiatoria General do las !alas de Canada,' by Don Joseph de Viera y Clavijo, probably is relative of the author of the 'Pens:vier,' the fourth volume, published in 1783, which contains a ' Biblioteca de los Autores.Canarios,' has a life of Clavijo y Faxardo, which enables us to obtain a glimpse at his side of the question. "He was," says the friendly biographer, "an officer of the archives of the chief secretariat of state in 1761, when a monster from France came to disturb his fortunes and to interrupt his useful labours. I give the name of monster not without reason to that Pierre Caron do Beaumarchais, who is known throughout Europe for his machinations, his law-suits, his adventures, his writings, his comedies, and his talents. He did not hesitate to publish in Paris in
1774 all the harm he had done to our Dou Joseph Clavijo, by making himself hero in Madrid the Don Quixote of a sister who aspired to his hand (qua aspiraba h su mane). It would have been easy for Clavijo to refute a story so full of fictions that Wolfgang Gothe, a German poet, thought he found in it sufficient argument for a German tragedy called 'Clavijo,' which was translated into French by M. Friedel ; but ho rather chose to give the world n rare example of Christian philosophy and generosity, by causing to be acted in the theatre of the royal palace, of which he was at that time chief director, a comedy by this very Beaumnrchaie, entitled the 'Barber of Seville.' " The defence of Clavijo, thus put forth evidently under his own auspices, leaves him in a worse position, when it is known, than he occupied before. In the fIlingraphie Universolle; Bourgoing, and in the ' I)ictionnaire do In Conversation,' Audilfrct, both Frenchmen, havo taken up his defence, remarking that his only fault was that lie could not love for over, and that he was the victim of the hatred of Beau marchais!; but a man who is only able to reply to an accusation of having three times broken a contract of marriage, in one case formally signed, by &vague sneer at the lady who "aspired to his hand," without a denial of the facts alleged, is a man not to be excused. It should be remarked also that in the memoirs of 'Beaumarchais et son Temps,' published at Paris in 1856 by Louis do Lomenie, the statements reepecting his proceedings in Spain appear to be borne out in almost every respect as exact, and that it is shown that he atayed at Madrid for nearly a twelvemonth after his memorable affray with Clavijo, no that there can be no doubt who remained master of the field. The only material objection to the correctness of his narrative is that the reader is left to suppose that the disgrace in which Clavijo was plunged was lasting. On the contrary, it appears by the 'Biblioteca de los Autores Canaries,' that at all events as early as 1770 he was again iu favour with Grimaldi, who in recompence of his excellent essays on the drama in the Pensador,' conferred on him the direction of the theatre of the palace. In 1773 he was entrusted by the secretary of state with the editorship of the 'Mercurio historico y politico,' one of the newspapers of Madrid. He translated some plays from the French, and published an original work bearing the title of ' El Tribunal de las Dimas' ('The Ladies' Tribunal'), which was pirated in four surreptitious editions, the title probably exciting some curiosity. He was also appointed secretary to the Cabinet of Natural History at Madrid, of which he compiled a catalogue, and he published a translation of Buffon. He died an old bachelor of eighty in 1806.
In addition to the tragedy of Clothe, which is still a stock play in Germany, the story of Clavijo has thrice formed the subject of dramatic treatment in France. Norac et Javolci' (an anagram of Caron and Clavijo), by Marsollier des Vivetihres, was produced in 1780; 'Beau marchais en Espagne,' an anonymous work, in 1804 ; and Clavijo, ou la Jeu nesse de Beaumarchais,' by Dorat-Cubieres, in 1806. The quarrel between two persons, both of whom were afterwards dramatic authors, and one at least a manager, appears to have found singular favour in the eyes of dramatists.
It may be observed that the copy of the Pensador ' in the British 31useum is that which belonged to the German poet Tieck, and contains a note by him to the effect that he obtained it from Baumgartner, for merly consul at Madrid, who received it from Clavijo himself, and assured Tieck that the third number, which is in manuscript, is in Clavijo's handwriting.