had adopted the additional name of Marivaux.[4] There seems, however, to have been no connection between them and the lords of Marivaux (or Marivaulx), a branch of the house of l'Isle-Adam.[5] Our author signed, himself de Marivaux or Carlet de Marivaux.

His childhood was passed at Riom in Auvergne, where his father had been appointed director of the Mint. Gossot declares that Marivaux was six years of age when he was taken to Riom,[6] but does not give his authority for the statement. It is certain, however, that he was so young at the time that some of his contemporaries supposed he had been born there.[7] Marivaux received his early education at Riom, and later at Limoges, where the family went to dwell, and where his father was perhaps again connected with the Mint.

His biographers differ with regard to the education he received. His earliest biographer, de La Porte, maintains that his father "ne négligea rien pour l'éducation de son fils, qui annonça de bonne heure, par des progrès rapides dans ses premières études, cette finesse d'esprit qui caractérise ses ouvrages."8] Lesbros de la Versane gives the same testimony: "Ses heureuses dispositions lui firent profiter de celle (the education) qu'il reçut," and adds: "Il fut admiré de ses maîtres, et il a fait les délices de tous ceux qui l'ont connu."[9] There is no reason why we should not accept the testimony of one who, in general, is so judicious in his statements as is de La Porte, and, particularly, when the adverse testimony comes from so evidently prejudiced a writer as Palissot.[10]

D'Alembert follows the testimony of Palissot and others, although he confesses that they are "in truth very ill disposed" towards Marivaux, and adds that perhaps they have very unjustly accused him of ignorance of Latin. Their pardoning him his lack of knowledge of Greek, d'Alembert cleverly ascribes to that "indulgent equity" which does not require of one's fellows that which one lacks himself.[11] The following extract from the Spectateur will prove that, while Marivaux could read the Greek writers in translations only, he was able to read Latin in the original: "Si c'est une traduction du grec, et qu'elle m'ennuie, je penche à croire que l'auteur y a perdu; si c'est du latin, comme je le sais, je me livre sans façon au dégoût ou au plaisir qu'il me donne."[12] It is also known that he completed his law studies and might have practiced, but for the hatred which he, in common with so many other young littérateurs in times past, had conceived for the profession.

Admitted early to the best society of Limoges, Marivaux enjoyed advantages from which he gained the polish that made him acceptable in the Paris salons of which he was later an habitué, When he was but seventeen years of age there occurred an incident, which, if it did not have so serious an effect upon his life as he himself believed, at least was not without its influence in fostering that spirit of observation and inquiry, not to say scepticism, with regard to the motives that influence his fellow man, which was so prominent a characteristic of this writer. Marivaux describes the incident in the first feuille of the Spectateur français, and, inasmuch as the sketch gives an excellent idea of the man, I translate it in full.

"At the age of seventeen I became attached to a young girl, to whom I owe the sort of life which I adopted. I was not uncomely then, I had a mild disposition and affectionate ways. The decorum which I noticed in the girl had drawn my attention to her beauty. I found in her, moreover, so much indifference to her charms, that I would have sworn she was ignorant of them. How simple minded I was at that time! What a pleasure, said I to myself, if I can win the love of a girl who does not care to have lovers, since she is beautiful without observing it, and hence is no coquette! I never left her without my affectionate surprise increasing at the sight of so many graces in a person who was not the more vain because of it. Were she seated or standing, speaking or walking, it always seemed to me that she was absolutely artless, and that she thought of nothing less than appearing to be what she was.

"One day in the country, when I had just left her, a forgotten glove caused me to retrace my steps to get it. I perceived the beauty in the distance, regarding herself in a mirror, and I noticed, to my great astonishment, that she was picturing herself to herself in all the phases in which, during our conversation, I had seen her face, and it turned out that the expressions of her countenance, which I had thought so unaffected, were, to name them correctly, only tricks; I judged from a distance that her vanity adopted certain ones, that it improved upon others; they were little ways that one might have noted down and that a woman might have learned like a musical air. I trembled for the risk which I should have run, if I had had the misfortune to experience again in good faith her deceptions, at the point of perfection to which her cleverness had carried them; but I had believed her natural, and had loved her only on that footing; so that my love ceased immediately, as if my heart had been only conditionally moved. She, in turn, perceived me in the mirror, and blushed. As for me, I entered laughing, and picking up my glove: 'Ah! mademoiselle, I beg your pardon,' I said to her, 'for having, up to this time, attributed to nature charms, the whole honour of which is due to your ingenuity alone.' 'What is the matter? What does this speech mean?' was her reply. 'Shall I speak to you more frankly?' I said to her: 'I have just seen the machinery of the Opera; it will still divert me, but it will touch me less.' Thereupon I went out, and it is from this adventure that there sprang up in me that misanthropy which has not left me, and which has caused me to pass my life in examining mankind, and in amusing myself with my reflexions."[13]

We could not have in miniature a more perfect sketch than this of the character of the man, with those peculiarities that were to make of him so original a writer, and little did Marivaux imagine that in the coquette of Limoges he "had seen the living and faithful image of his Muse,"[14] with all its archness, coquettishness, and ingenuity in style and expression. Marivaux had much of the feminine in his nature,—a rare intuition, a marked finesse in observation, an extreme sensitiveness with regard to his own and others' feelings, a dislike of criticism with a reluctance to reply to it, though never forgetting the attack, a certain timidity with men, a fondness for dress and luxury, an extreme love of conversation, generosity to the point of self-sacrifice, and a religious turn of mind in a sceptical century. His connection with the salons of Paris, where so much of his life was spent in the society of women, probably contributed largely to develop those traits that were doubtless innate.

With something of the coquette in his own nature, Marivaux had no patience with it in others. D'Alembert relates another incident, which will serve to show that not only affectation, but also everything that seemed to him too studied, received his condemnation. "One day, he went to see a man from whom he had received many letters, which were almost in his own style, and, which, as one may well imagine, had seemed to him very ingenious. Not finding him, he determined to wait. He noticed, by chance, on the desk of this man, the rough draughts of the letters which he had received from him, and which he supposed had been written off-hand. Here are rough draughts, said he, which do him no credit: henceforth, he may make minutes of his letters for whomsoever he likes, but he shall receive no more of mine. He left the house instantly, and never returned."[15]

At the age of eighteen[16] (1706), and shortly after leaving college, Marivaux made his début in literature as the