This writer became infamous for his protracted legal battles, including a lawsuit to protect the honor of the Swiss heiress Madame Kornmann. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this author of a trilogy of plays concluding with The Guilty Mother. Georges Danton applauded this writer for “killing off the nobility” with a play about a Spanish count who seeks the right of prima nocta.
ANSWER: Pierre Beaumarchais
[10e] Beaumarchais was hailed as a forerunner of the French Revolution for his trilogy of plays concerning this barber from Seville.
ANSWER: Figaro
[10h] As is typical in French farce, the various plot threads in The Barber of Seville resolve via this device. This three-word French term for a type of obligatory dramatic climax names a principle in copyright law protecting plot elements expected in a genre from infringement claims.
ANSWER: scène à faire [or scènes à faire]
<S, European Literature>