success?'--'Sire, I hope the piece will fail.'--'And so do I,' replied the
King.

"There is something still more ridiculous than my piece," said
Beaumarchais himself; "that is, its success." Mademoiselle Arnould
foresaw it the first day, and exclaimed, "It is a production that will
fail fifty nights successively." There was as crowded an audience on the
seventy-second night as on the first. The following is extracted from
Grimm's 'Correspondence.'

"Answer of M. de Beaumarchais to -----, who requested the use of his
private box for some ladies desirous of seeing 'Figaro' without being
themselves seen.

"I have no respect for women who indulge themselves in seeing any play
which they think indecorous, provided they can do so in secret. I lend
myself to no such acts. I have given my piece to the public, to amuse,
and not to instruct, not to give any compounding prudes the pleasure of
going to admire it in a private box, and balancing their account with
conscience by censuring it in company. To indulge in the pleasure of vice
and assume the credit of virtue is the hypocrisy of the age. My piece is
not of a doubtful nature; it must be patronised in good earnest, or
avoided altogether; therefore, with all respect to you, I shall keep my
box." This letter was circulated all over Paris for a week.]

Under the persuasion that there was not a passage left capable of
malicious or dangerous application, Monsieur attended the first
performance in a public box. The mad enthusiasm of the public in favour
of the piece and Monsieur's just displeasure are well known. The author
was sent to prison soon afterwards, though his work was extolled to the