Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

Pierre-Augustin Caron, known as Beaumarchais, was born in Paris on 24 January 1732, the son of a master watchmaker. At twenty-one, he invented a watch escapement that the king's watchmaker Lepaute tried to claim as his own, and he won his case. Harp master to the daughters of Louis XV, secret agent in England, from 1776 he supplied arms to the American insurgents and published the works of Voltaire at Kehl, outside France. Imprisoned in 1792 and forced into exile, he returned to Paris in 1796 and died there on 18 May 1799.

In the catalogue 1

• TheatreThe Barber of SevilleLe Barbier de SévillePierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais · 1775LiteraturePublic domain