Les deux amis (Beaumarchais)

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Data
Original title: Les deux amis
Genus: drama
Original language: French
Author: Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
Premiere: January 13, 1770
Place of premiere: Comédie-Française
Place and time of the action: Lyon , 18th century
people
  • Aurelly (merchant)
  • Mélac (general tax collector in Lyon)
  • Pauline (niece of Aurelly)
  • Mélac's son
  • Saint-Alban ( general tax farmer on  inspection trip )
  • Dabins ( Aurelly Treasurer)
  • André ( servant )
Émile Bayard : Mélac (1876).
Silk fabric, Lyon (ca.1770).

Les deux amis ou Le négociant de  Lyon (The Two Friends or The Merchant of L.) is a five- act drama in  prose by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732–1799).

In contrast to his first play Eugénie , the main characters are to be assigned to the third estate , even if Aurelly and Beaumarchais bought the nobility and the former cadet Mélac comes from the poor country nobility. You move in a world that the author himself knew as a protégé and junior partner of the financier Joseph Pâris-Duverney (1684–1770).

Sedaine had preceded him in the “poetic glorification of the merchant class ” with the comedy Le philosophe sans le savoir (The philosopher without knowing it) from 1765 .

action

Aurelly proudly refers to the state-supporting role of the entrepreneur :

“(…) I have two hundred looms made in Lyon every day. Three times as many arms are required to finish my silk . My mulberry plantations and my silkworms occupy just as many. My supplies are distributed to all the merchants in the kingdom , all of this is alive, all of that is earned, and as industry multiplies the value of the raw material a hundredfold, there are none of these creatures, starting with me , who would not willingly pay tribute to the state who corresponds to the reward of his efforts. (...) And all the gold that war costs, gentlemen, who will bring it back in peace? "

Given the value of money at the time, huge sums are involved: Aurelly has commissioned his Parisian banker Préfort to sell securities worth 800,000 livres . He does not yet know that Préfort died and that his estate was sealed. Aurelly's cashier, Dabins, found out about this through a courier who arrived in Lyon twelve hours before the post office. Aurelly would have to make payments of 600,000 livres the following day. Dabins cannot bring himself to inform his master of the impending bankruptcy and consults with Mélac, who brought him up.

Mélac owes his office as tax collector to Aurelly. In order to save his friend's honor, he lends Dabins 100,000 francs, which were intended to furnish his son, and half a million from the tax treasury entrusted to him. Aurelly shouldn't find out about it. Mélac wants to go to Paris to get Aurelly's securities released and sell them. Since true tax collector Saint-Alban one who has his eye on Aurellys niece Pauline. In addition to the good news that the son Mélacs has been designated as his successor , he brings the bad news that Mélac has to deliver his till immediately. Mélac declares himself unable to do so, but remains silent about the cause. Aurelly also considers him guilty of having embezzled public funds. Although he wants to vouch for his friend , the tax lease company only accepts cash.

Pauline, who was raised by Mélac and loves his son, asks her uncle to avert the ruin of the two. Aurelly replies that although he has deposited another half a million in papers at Préfort , 100,000 écus (300,000 livres) of it is a sacred pledge. Finally he confesses to Pauline that she is his daughter from a secret marriage to a noblewoman and that the 100,000 Écus are her dowry . Pauline gets Aurelly to risk his and her money to save Mélac.

Saint-Alban accepts the half a million that is to be paid to him in Paris, but makes his silence about Mélac's misconduct dependent on Mélac's resignation. In order to secure the office of the father for the son, Aurelly Saint-Alban promises counter-service. The latter then asks for Pauline's hand. While Pauline remains firm in her love for Mélac's son, the latter wants to renounce both his office and his lover in favor of his father. Finally Aurelly also learns that Préfort is dead and that his money is blocked - by Saint-Alban, to whom he wants to hand over a money order to the banker. Aurelly calls for Dabins, who unties the knot by telling what Mélac has done for the friend. Ashamed of so much generosity, Saint-Alban exclaims: “Oh gods! What a virtue! ”He vouches for Mélac, so that Pauline and Mélac's son can get married on the same day.

Lyon scene

The third largest city in France after Paris and Marseille dominated the European silk market in the Age of Enlightenment . Important steps on the way to mechanization of the textile industry were also taken there. If production had doubled from 1720 to 1760, the Seven Years War (1756–1763) caused sales problems.

Performances

At the premiere, Préville (Pierre-Louis Dubus) played Aurelly, Brizard (Jean-Baptiste Britard) Mélac, Mademoiselle Doligny (Louise-Adélaïde Berton-Maisonneuve) Pauline and François-René Molé Mélac's son. The piece only brought eleven performances, which were followed by two more in 1783. This is probably because the financial transactions of the protagonists are difficult to understand and their nobility goes beyond all imagination. After all, the work was also played in Lyon, Marseille and Rouen . Friedrich Ludwig Schröder performed it under the title Der Kaufmann von Lion in Hamburg .

evaluation

Like Eugénie before , Les deux amis was also torn apart by criticism ( Pidansat de Mairobert , Grimm , Collé , Palissot ). The economist Galiani, on the other hand, wrote after a performance in Naples of a “charming, magnificent piece for everyone who knows the trade, its language and the customs of the French”. It gave him infinite joy, but the majority of the audience did not understand what a “general tenant on an inspection trip” was. Even so, the work had been very successful, especially André, the only kind-hearted servant he had ever seen on stage. Beaumarchais himself called Les deux amis the best composed of his pieces, including the Barber de Séville (Barber of Seville) .

literature

Notes and individual references

  1. In the salon of Aurelly's house, which he shares with Mélac.
  2. Lively, honest, outspoken and naive. The Mercure de France , February 1770, p. 153 ff. ( Digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3DgCo0AAAAMAAJ%26pg%3DRA1-PA153%26lpg%3DRA1-PA153%26dq%3DOrelli%2Bn%C3%A9gociant%2BLyon%26source%3Dbl%26igots35%3Dem26source%3Dbl%26igots35%3Dem26 3D57FehiJfKOFh52-h3sDqDqeB2AU% 26hl% 3Dde% 26sa% 3DX% 26ved% 3D0ahUKEwjPvvO7ivTbAhXC26QKHZR0Bi0Q6AEIKzAA% 23v% 3Donepage% 26q% 26f% 3Dfal ~ 3DseZ% 26q% 26f% 3Dfal ~ 3Dse ~ IAOP% 26% 3Donepage% 26q% MD 3D ), wrote the name "Orelli". The Protestant Orelli family, who emigrated from Locarno , traded silk in Zurich and was at the head of the local merchants around 1700. The watchmaking family Caron - Beaumarchais' baptismal name - was originally Protestant.
  3. Wise, compassionate.
  4. ↑ Raised by Mélac, a young girl who is mature for her age.
  5. Heated and overly sensitive young man.
  6. Honorable man of the world.
  7. ↑ Raised by Mélac, to whom he is very attached, man of judgment.
  8. Very simple fellow.
  9. Les deux amis ou Le négociant de Lyon, Drame en cinq actes en prose, par M. de Beaumarchais (…), Veuve Duchesne, Paris 1770, 1st  act , scene  11, p. 13 ( digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fstream%2Flesdeuxamis00beaugoog%23page%2Fn25%2Fmode%2F1up~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ) et passim . Beaumarchais had acquired the nobility with the office of conseiller secrétaire du Roi .
  10. Les deux amis ou Le négociant de Lyon, Drame en cinq actes en prose, par M. de Beaumarchais (…), Veuve Duchesne, Paris 1770, 2nd act, scene 5, p. 23 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fstream%2Flesdeuxamis00beaugoog%23page%2Fn35%2Fmode%2F1up~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ).
  11. In the Entretiens (conversations) about his play Le fils naturel (The Natural Son) , Diderot had regretfully stated in 1757 that the financier had not yet been brought onto the stage. Cf. Le fils naturel (…), Marc Michel Rey, Amsterdam 1757, p. 151 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fgallica.bnf.fr%2Fark%3A%2F12148%2Fbpt6k10402051%2Ff159.item~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ).
  12. ^ Anton Bettelheim : Beaumarchais, Eine Biographie, 2nd, revised edition, C. H. Beck , Munich 1911, p. 104.
  13. Les deux amis ou Le négociant de Lyon, Drame en cinq actes en prose, par M. de Beaumarchais (...), Veuve Duchesne, Paris 1770, 2nd act, scene 10, p. 28 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fstream%2Flesdeuxamis00beaugoog%23page%2Fn40%2Fmode%2F1up~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ).
  14. The terms Livre and Franc were used synonymously .
  15. Beaumarchais baptized this figure after the Creole Pauline Le Breton, who had given him a basket. See Maurice Lever : Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Volume 1, Fayard , Paris 1999, p. 298.
  16. Les deux amis ou Le négociant de Lyon, Drame en cinq actes en prose, par M. de Beaumarchais (...), Veuve Duchesne, Paris 1770, 5th act, scene 5, p. 72 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fstream%2Flesdeuxamis00beaugoog%23page%2Fn84%2Fmode%2F1up~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ).
  17. 1725/28 Basile Bouchon and Jean-Baptiste Falcon invented the punched tape or punch card control , 1745 Jacques Vaucanson the mechanical loom (with roller control).
  18. See the article Histoire de la soierie à Lyon in the French language Wikipedia and Les deux amis ou Le négociant de Lyon, Drame en cinq actes en prose, par M. de Beaumarchais (...), Veuve Duchesne, Paris 1770, 1st act , Scene 11, p. 13 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fstream%2Flesdeuxamis00beaugoog%23page%2Fn25%2Fmode%2F1up~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ), et passim, where there is talk of a crisis.
  19. Pierre Larthomas , with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard ( Bibliothèque de la Pléiade ), Paris 1988, p. 1270 f.
  20. Cf. Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer : Friedrich Ludwig Schröder (...), 2. Part, 2. Abth., Hoffmann and Campe , Hamburg 1819, pp. 57, 128, 151 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D6cVcAAAAcAAJ%26pg%3DPA57%26lpg%3DPA57%26dq%3D%2522der%2Bkaufmann%2Bvon%2Blion%2522%26source%3Dbl%26ots%3Dyk3E2C6sigSewf% XmIy1hnfyflp3Q% 26hl% 3Dde% 26sa% 3DX% 26ved% 3D0ahUKEwi5gb3w-fXbAhVGyqYKHbDTA7MQ6AEILDAC% 23v% 3Donepage% 26q% 26f% 3Dfalse ~% IA% PUR% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 3D ~ 3D ~ double sided 3D ).
  21. See Maurice Lever: Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Volume 1, Fayard, Paris 1999, pp. 299–303.
  22. To Madame d'Épinay , Naples, February 27, 1773, in: Correspondance inédite de l'abbé Galiani (...), Volume 2, J. G. Dentu, Paris 1818, p. 18 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3Dv4UMAAAAYAAJ%26pg%3DPA18%26dq%3D%2522galiani%2522%2B%2522deux%2Bamis%2522%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DXA6VED%3D0ahUKEHCWi_j 23v% 3Donepage% 26q% 26f% 3Dfalse ~ IA% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D ).
  23. Pierre Larthomas, with the assistance of v. Jacqueline Larthomas (ed.): Beaumarchais, Œuvres, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), Paris 1988, p. 1274 (letter to the Comédiens-Français of November 22, 1779).