Castigat Flagrando Mores

Castigat Flagrando Mores. Beaumarchais, holding a copy of Folle journée, is being flogged, surrounded by the entire cast of characters from "Mariage" who seem to celebrate his fate. The heading to this engraving reads "Castigat Flagrando Mores" [Correct morals by whipping], a variant on the classical device, "Castigat Ridendo Mores" [Correct morals by laughter], much quoted in the eighteenth century. At one point held by the BCF, this engraving now appears lost. It is reproduced in Agusutin Cabanès "Beaumarchais à Saint-Lazare," Les Indiscretions de l'histoire (Paris: Albin Michel, [1903]) 206 ­ 222 and Georges Monval, "Beaumarchais fouetté," LaRevue d'art ancien et moderne (1898) 360 ­ 363, from which it is reproduced here.