Beaumarchais et le théâtre politique de Louis XVI : un nouveau « Secret du roi »

Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais is well-known as a playwright and as a spy of Louis XVI. I argue here that both activities were closely associated and that the king ordered him to write literary works in order to defend his policies. I defend the hypothesis that the libretto of Thomas d’Hèles’ opera L’Amant jaloux is one of the commissioned works and that Beaumarchais hides under the pseudonym Thomas d’Hèles.Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais is well-known as a playwright and as a spy of Louis XVI. I argue here that both activities were closely associated and that the king ordered him to write literary works in order to defend his policies. I defend the hypothesis that the libretto of Thomas d’Hèles’ opera L’Amant jaloux is one of the commissioned works and that Beaumarchais hides under the pseudonym Thomas d’Hèles