ABSTRACT
In the late 1760s and early 1770s, Beaumarchais himself had been one such new arrival, and yet by 1777, he had positioned himself at the head of one such new form of literary sociability, the SAD. In this role, he had engaged with the royal troupe and the court over reforms to the theater; at the same time, he had used the access this position granted him to emphasize his personal moderation, restraint, credibility and diligent commitment. Other aspiring writers, who entered elite literary life in the early and mid-1770s, however, were not integrated as readily into established institutions, norms and hierarchies of literary sociability; they turned instead to print to demonstrate their legitimacy as men of letters by emphasizing not their civility but their personal authenticity and autonomy. They thereby fashioned the ideal of a “patriotic” playwright in service above all to “the public.” In this chapter, we will examine how these two ideals of “men of letters” confronted each other, not merely within the meetings of the SAD or in meetings between Beaumarchais and the troupe, its lawyers or supervisors at court, but when represented in print to the abstraction of “the public.” We will also consider the eventual conclusion of the SAD’s negotiations with the crown, with a new set of royal regulations issued in December 1780 – and its impact on Beaumarchais, the SAD, the Comédie Française and literary sociability broadly in the 1780s.
