"It would have been a mistake to defy the Bastille to represent this piece inconsistency." These words, attributed to Louis XVI, highlight the sensitivity of his contemporaries to the subversive nature of a play they viewed primarily as a political event. Yet the message would not have been so widely received without the dramatic impact and virtuosity of the writing that supported it. The Vichy regime banned "Le Mariage" from 1940 to 1944; at that time, Beaumarchais had not yet become dull, according to Stendhal's always uncertain prediction. Giovanna Trisolini's copious and new introduction lays bare the mechanisms of a satire that benefits from contextualization, without, however, neglecting the study of human characters and their inconsistencies.