Abstract: The figure of the husband occupies an original place in Beaumarchais’s œuvre, notably in the trilogy. The sentimental and pathetic denunciation of the domestic tyrant is influenced by comic tradition, which derides the authority of a husband destined to be cuckolded. But if Beaumarchais can connive with the aristocratic public at the expense of the amorous old fogey, he cannot overshadow the new prestige that the status of spouse is in the process of acquiring in more popular milieus.
