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Beginning then with his action against the comedians, it is necessary to state that the custom by which that ancient and highly honored institution the �ճ�éâ�ٰ���-�������ç������ regulated its accounts with the author whose plays were there produced, permitted of so much obscurity that no attempt was ever made to verify those accounts, so that all the authors practically were obliged to content themselves with whatever the comedians chose to give them.

To this Beaumarchais replied that in a question which interested all equally, everyone who had written for the �ճ�éâ�ٰ���-�������ç������ had a right to be heard and that all must be assembled.”

Although the fastidious French taste, apart from all the enmity aroused by the many-sided success of its author, found much to criticise in the production, Eugénie, or la Vertu malheureuse, the piece retains its place upon the repertoire of the �ճ�éâ�ٰ���-�������ç������ and is still occasionally given.

We congratulated him, we knew his piece, we assured him the comedians of the �ճ�éâ�ٰ���-�������ç������ would be more sensible, that he would only lose the couplets, and that the Barbier de Séville would have more success at the theater of Molière than at the Harlequin.

We laughed, we moralized and it was decided that Beaumarchais should carry his work to the �ճ�éâ�ٰ���-�������ç������.”