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Title: A Selection from the Comedies of Marivaux
Author: Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux
Release Date: June 3, 2004 [EBook #12504]
Language: French and English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMEDIES OF MARIVAUX ***
Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
A SELECTION FROM THE COMEDIES OF MARIVAUX
EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY EVERETT WARD OLMSTED
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
1901
All rights reserved.
To Thomas Frederick Crane, A.M., Of Cornell University,
Whose Profound Scholarship, Inspiring Teachings,
And Lasting Friendship Are Here Gratefully Acknowledged.
PREFACE.
That so typical a representative of eighteenth century society, so gracious a personality, so charming a writer, and so superior a genius as Marivaux should be not only unedited, but practically unknown to the American reading public, is a matter of surprise. His brilliant comedies, written in an easy prose, and free from all impurities of thought or expression, offer peculiarly attractive texts for our classes. It is for these reasons that this edition was undertaken. The plays chosen, le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard, le Legs, and les Fausses Confidences are generally considered his best plays, and are fortunately free from dialect, which, in the mouths of certain characters of l'Épreuve and of la Mère confidente, charming as are these comedies, makes them undesirable for study in college or school. The text of les Fausses Confidences is that of 1758 (Paris, Duchesne, 5 vols.), the last collective edition published during the lifetime of the author, that of le Legs, from the edition of 1740 (Paris, Prault père, 4 vols.), while that of le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard, which is contained in neither the edition of 1758 nor in that of 1740, is from the first collective edition of his works of 1732 (Paris. Briasson, 2 vols.). It has not seemed wise to retain the curious orthography of these early editions, as the explanation of the same would uselessly burden the notes, and possibly confuse the student. An orthography following the same lines as that of the edition of les Grands Écrivains has been adopted.
The Introduction is rather extensive, but, as it serves in truth as an introduction to students in American schools of an author as yet little known, a less minute statement of his qualifications would hardly have been pardonable. Many quotations have been given, some from Marivaux himself, or from contemporary biographers, of so authoritative a nature as to add more weight than any summing up by the editor, and others from celebrated French critics, whose views, or whose picturesqueness of expression, have been often invaluable. In fact, the Introduction does not claim to be so much a literary essay as a compilation of authorities.
The notes to a text containing no historical, literary, or biographical allusions are naturally limited to explaining the difficulties of the French, and are less extensive than would otherwise be required.
Words and idioms, which, though unusual or difficult, can be found in any of the small dictionaries accessible to students, have been excluded from the notes as unnecessary, except such as might mislead unless explained, or such as differ from the modern use.
It remains for the editor to acknowledge his indebtedness for sympathetic interest and valuable suggestions to Gustave Larroumet, professor of French Literature at the University of Paris, and perpetual secretary of the Académie des Beaux Arts, to Professor Crane and Mr. Guerlac of Cornell University, and to Professor de Sumichrast of Harvard.
EVERETT WARD OLMSTED.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N.Y.,
January 9, 1901.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
CHRONOLOGY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
LE JEU DE L'AMOUR ET DU HASARD
LE LEGS
LES FAUSSES CONFIDENCES
NOTES
INTRODUCTION
Among the treasures of the Comédie-Française, interesting alike to students of letters and of art, is a painting by Vanloo. It bears the date of 1753, and represents a man of doubtful age—for it is hard to tell whether he is past his prime or not—yet, if the truth were known, one could not write him down for less than sixty-five. The face is life-like and attractive, full of an expression of gentle breeding, kindliness, wit, and subtlety. The eyes are rather dark, large, fine, and keen; with the thin lips, pursed in a half-smile, they form the most striking features of the countenance, and serve to give it that characteristic of finesse so peculiar to the man. The well-developed brow, the full cheeks, and faint suggestion of a double chin, the powdered hair, the black silk coat, the lace jabot, are all in keeping with our conception of this French dramatist, whom a competent critic[1] of to-day has classed as greater than any of his contemporaries in the same field, than Beaumarchais, Voltaire, Regnard, Le Sage, and second only to Molière, Corneille, and Racine. Marivaux, whose rehabilitation has come but slowly, and in spite of many critics, occupies a place to-day, not only with the ultra-refined, but in the hearts of the theatre-going public, which, I doubt not, even the most enthusiastic admirers among his contemporaries would not have dared to hope for him; for, next to Molière, no author of comedies appears so often upon the stage of the Théâtre-Français as does the author of le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard.
In the very heart of Paris, and just back of the Hôtel de Ville, stands the church of Saint-Gervais, a church of comparatively little fascination to the general student of art or history, although its mingling of Flamboyant and Renaissance styles may attract the specialist in architecture: but to the student of literary history it has a greater interest, for it is here that "poor Scarron sleeps." and it was in this parish that Pierre Cariet de Chamblain de Marivaux was born, and in this church, doubtless, that he was christened, although the register of baptism was destroyed at the time of the burning of the archives of the Hôtel de Ville, in May, 1871.
The date of his birth was February 4, 1688, a year noteworthy as introducing to the public the first edition of the Caractères of La Bruyère, with whom Marivaux has often been compared. His father was of an old Norman family, which had had representatives in the parlement of that province.[2] Since then the family had "descended from the robe to finance," following the expression of d'Alembert.[3] Ennobled by the robe, they had assumed the name de Chamblain, but unfortunately the latter name was common to certain financiers, and, to still better distinguish themselves, the family
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
It must have been shortly after this that Marivaux returned to Paris to continue his studies, and possibly to prepare himself for the life of a literary dilettante. His means were sufficient to enable him to indulge his taste in this way. Here we find him admitted to the salon of Mme. de Lambert, held in her famous apartments, situated at the corner of the rue Richelieu and the rue Colbert, and now replaced by a portion of the Bibliothèque Nationale. It was a rendezvous of select society on Wednesdays, and particularly of the literary set on Tuesdays, and among its habitués may be mentioned such men as Fontenelle, d'Argenson, Sainte- Aulaire, La Motte, and President Hénault. "It was," says Fontenelle, "with few exceptions, the only house which had preserved itself from the epidemic disease of gambling, the only one in which one met to converse reasonably and even with esprit upon occasion."[18] Its influence was inestimable upon literary questions of the time, and it might be considered almost as the antechamber of the French Academy. The envious dubbed it un bureau d'esprit, and its form of préciosité, lambertinage.
That Mme. de Lambert had a great influence in forming the mind of the young author no one can read his works and doubt. A "précieuse in the most flattering and most exact acceptation"[19] of the term, she promoted a similar turn of mind in Marivaux. His dislike for Molière may have received its encouragement from her, as she was never quite willing to forgive that great genius for his attack upon les femmes savantes. Marivaux, too, had, as Palissot expresses it, "un faible pour les précieuses,"[20] and for the author of those famous attacks, a contempt as unfeigned as absurd. The high moral character of his writings and his ideas on marriage and children may readily have found their origin with Mme. de Lambert.
Mme. de Tencin, to whose salon of the rue Saint-Honoré Marivaux was likewise welcomed, was as different a character from the kindly, serious, upright, and judicious Mme. de Lambert as can well be imagined, and it was only after the death of the latter, in 1733, that her salon was particularly brilliant. Her youth had been most disorderly. At an early age she had assumed the veil, but, through the efforts of her brother, the abbé de Tencin, and later cardinal, who, doubtless, saw in her a powerful factor for his own promotion, she obtained her secularization. Coming to Paris a short time before the death of Louis XIV, she was ready to welcome the gross immorality of the Regency, and, for personal advancement, entered into a series of liaisons with Prior, the friend of Lord Bolingbroke, René d'Argenson, the Regent himself, Dubois, and the Chevalier Destouches. The latter was the father of her son, whom she abandoned on the steps of the church Saint-Jean-le-Rond, and who, reared by a glazier's wife, became the celebrated d'Alembert. Another lover, Lafresnaye, whom she had induced to put all of his property in her name, shot himself, or was shot, at her house. Although imprisoned on suspicion at the Châtelet, and later at the Bastille, she soon gained her liberty by the intervention of powerful friends. That she could maintain her position in society as she did is a striking proof of its terribly corrupt condition. In her declining years she sought to veil the disorders of her youth by more serious pursuits, and gathered about her a number of literary spirits of whom she spoke as her bêtes or her ménagerie.
Marmontel gives the following description of the habitués of her salon and of the desire that pervaded all to show their wit: "L'auditoire était respectable. J'y vis rassemblés Montesquieu, Fontenelle, Mairan, Marivaux, le jeune Helvétius, Astruc, je ne sais qui encore, tous gens de lettres ou savants, et au milieu d'eux une femme d'un esprit et d'un sens profonds, mais qui, enveloppée dans son extérieur de bonhomie et de simplicité, avait plutôt l'air de la ménagère que de la maîtresse de la maison: c'était là Mme. de Tencin … je m'aperçus bientôt qu'on y arrivait préparé à jouer son rôle, et que l'envie d'entrer en scène n'y laissait pas toujours à la conversation la liberté de suivre son cours facile et naturel. C'était à qui saisirait le plus vite, et comme à la volée, le moment de placer son mot, son conte, son anecdote, sa maxime ou son trait léger et piquant; et, pour amener l'à-propos, on le tirait quelquefois d'un peu loin. Dans Marivaux, l'impatience de faire preuve de finesse et de sagacité perçait visiblement."[21]
Marivaux, in describing the feelings of Marianne upon being introduced into polite society at the home of Mme. Dorsin, makes an evident allusion to the salon of Mme. de Tencin, and shows how differently from Marmontel he regarded the spirit that marked those gatherings. As though to answer the latter's accusations, he exclaims: "On accuse quelquefois Ses gens d'esprit de vouloir briller; oh! il n'était pas question de cela ici." "Ce n'était point eux qui y mettaient de la finesse, c'était de la finesse qui s'y rencontrait; ils ne sentaient pas qu'ils parlaient mieux qu'on ne parle ordinairement; c'étaient seulement de meilleurs esprits que d'autres."[22] All that was said there, he adds, was uttered with so little effort, so naturally, so simply, and yet with so much brilliancy that one could see that it was a company of persons of exquisite taste and breeding. Society, as depicted here, was not "full of solemn and important trifles, difficult to learn, and, however ridiculous they are in themselves, necessary to be known under penalty of being ridiculous." [23] One was made to feel at home, and what one lacked in wit was supplemented by that of the company, without one's being made to feel that what he seemed to utter was not all his own.
The description of Mme. Dorsin is that of Mme. de Tencin herself, seen through the eyes of an enthusiastic friend, and she knew the art of gaining friends, and of keeping them, too. In fact, she was never weary of doing for them, as Marivaux had reason to know as well as any of them, and, had it not been for her efforts, he would never have belonged to the French Academy. Her judgment of the literary productions of her friends was most unprejudiced and judicious, so that whatever met with an enthusiastic reception in her salon was reasonably certain of success in the world.
After the death of Mme. de Tencin, in 1749, Marivaux frequented the mercredis of the bonne maman Geoffrin, and, through friendship for her, sustained the candidature of Marmontel for the French Academy.[24] However, he must have felt ill at ease in company with the philosophers and encylopedists who gave dignity to her salon, and, with his love of admiration, must have sighed for the days when he shone so brilliantly in the circle that surrounded Mme. de Lambert or Mme. de Tencin; and, perhaps in sheer desperation, was led to seek in the salons of the brilliant but discontented Mme. du
Marmontel, in describing the society that frequented the salon of Mme. Geoffrin, mentions d'Alembert as "the gayest, the most animated, the most amusing in his gayety,"[25] and goes on to say that Marivaux, too, "would have liked to have this playful humour; but he had in his head an affair which constantly preoccupied him and gave him an anxious air. As he had acquired through his works the reputation of a keen and subtle wit, he considered himself obliged to constantly display that turn of mind, and was continually on the watch for ideas susceptible of contrast or analysis, in order to set them off against each other or to put them through a test. He would agree that such a thing was true up to a certain point or under a certain aspect; but there was always some restriction, some distinction to be made, which he alone had perceived. This labor of attention was hard for him, often painful for the others; but sometimes there resulted from it happy observations and brilliant hits. However, by the anxiety of his glances, one could see that he was uneasy about the success that he was having or might have. There never was, I think, a more delicate, more tender, and more apprehensive amour-propre; but, as he carefully considered that of others, they respected his, and merely pitied him for not being able to determine to be simple and natural."[26]
Although this characterization by Marmontel may be true, too much must not be attributed to self-conceit, for Marivaux was rather timid and suspicious of himself at heart than self-conceited, and this very lack of confidence, this desire to please and to be thought well of, which caused him, at times, to emphasize before his friends his own worth, is a key to his nature, without which it would be difficult to understand him. This timidity of his explains his fear of being duped by the ingénue of Limoges, as well as his mistrust of the man who made rough draughts of his letters, instead of writing them off-hand. That Marivaux was over- sensitive we must agree, for, although the testimony of his contemporaries may be somewhat biased by jealousy, it is too overwhelmingly unanimous to be gainsaid.[27]
We cannot conclude, however, despite the testimony of Grimm, whose caustic tongue was none too chary of his friends, that intercourse with Marivaux was "épineux et insupportable," for, were it so, he never would have been so cordially welcomed into society as he was, for which, according to the abbé de La Porte, he possessed all the qualities required, "an exact honesty, a noble disinterestedness,… a pleasing candour, a charitable soul, a modesty without affectation and without pretense, an extremely sensitive courtesy, and the most scrupulous attention to avoid whatever might offend or displease."[28]
A brilliant conversationalist, Marivaux excelled in the quality, no less rare, of being a good listener, and never gave way to "that distraction which always wounds when it does not provoke laughter."[29]
The following incident[30] will serve to illustrate the extreme sensitiveness of Marivaux. He had confided to Mme. Geoffrin a certain grievance against Marmontel. She, in turn, spoke to the latter of the fancied slight, although she assured him that, even in his complaints, Marivaux spoke only well of him, a small matter, but one that proves the nobility of our author's nature. When the occasion presented itself, Marmontel asked for an explanation of his grievance, and, with some difficulty, elicited the following reply: "Have you forgotten that at the house of Mme. du Bocage, one evening, being seated near Mme. de Villaumont, you both kept looking at me and laughing, while whispering together? Assuredly you were laughing at me, and I do not know why, for on that day I was no more ridiculous than usual." Upon an assurance from Marmontel that he was not the object of their amusement, he declared that he believed him, but it is doubtful whether he ever quite forgave him or forgot the fact.
This habit of suspiciousness grew upon Marivaux with age; but we must return to his early years at Paris and to his first literary attempts, after this long digression, which has served, I hope, to give something of an idea of the milieu in which he moved, and of the influences at work upon the formation of his talent.
He had made his début, as has been said, with le Père prudent in 1706. This was followed a few years later by three mediocre novels. The first of these, written in 1712, though not published" until 1737, appeared under the several titles of Pharsamon, les Folies romanesques, and le Don Quichotte moderne, and was, as one of the titles discloses, an attack upon the romantic novel, as exemplified in those of Mlle. de Scudéry. It must not be considered a parody, but rather a weak imitation of Cervantes' Don Quijote. He was no more successful in les Aventures de…, ou les Effets surprenants de la sympathie (1713-1714), written, in much the same style, or in la Voiture embourbée,[31] which appeared between the two publications of the former. This latter follows a familiar device: that is to say, one of the personages of the main narrative begins a story. which is continued by another when he reaches the end of his imagination, and so on. The purpose of the story was to turn to ridicule romantic love, but, following the expression of Fournier, it advanced only "cahin-caha, comme le pauvre coche dont il contait les accidents, et il finit par s'embourber avec lui."[32] He somewhat redeemed himself in 1715 with le Triomphe de Bilboquet, ou la Défaite de l'Esprit, de l'Amour et de la Raison, a fancy inspired by the game of cup and ball, so much in vogue at that period that it threatened to usurp the time and rights of conversation, and had even made its way upon the stage, in which simple matter Marivaux found occasion for moral observation.
In 1717 he allied himself with le Nouveau Mercure, a paper devoted to the interests of the Modernes as against those of the Anciens. This quarrel over the comparative merits of the ancient and modern writers, begun in the first half of the seventeenth century with the abbé de Bois- Robert, Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin, and later Perrault, Fontenelle, La Motte, and others ranged on the side of the latter, while Boileau, Corneille, Racine, Rollin, Mme. Dacier, and followers strenuously upheld the honor of antiquity, had dragged on through the seventeenth and into the eighteenth century, until apparently the last word had been said by Mme. Dacier in her Préface à la traduction de l'Odyssée (1716). Marivaux, however, by turn of mind and training a modern, and ever the champion of his friend La Motte, and, perhaps more to avenge him for the "grosses paroles de Mme. Dacier"[33] than to depreciate le divin Homère (whom he made a point of always mentioning in that way), would not let the matter rest, and, in 1717, composed a burlesque poem entitled l'Iliade ravestie. Had he been familiar with the Greek language, he might never have committed this piece of literary impudence, but he knew Homer only through La Motte's reduction of the Iliad, which in turn was based upon Mme. Dacier's translation. If his object was to overthrow the great Greek poet, it must have been a bitter disappointment to Marivaux to see that his burlesque passed almost unnoticed by his contemporaries and was soon forgotten. The same year he wrote a Télémaque travesti, a parody on the masterpiece of Fénelon. This work was not published until 1736, when it was received with such disapprobation that he hastened to disavow its authorship.[34]
Whatever he saw became food for meditation, and, if not used at once, was treasured up for future need. Marivaux came at last to surmise that here lay the secret of his inspiration, but it was not for some years yet that he expressed himself, as he did in the Spectateur français: "Ainsi je ne suis point auteur, et j'aurais été, je pense, fort embarrassé de le devenir… je ne sais point créer, je sais seulement surprendre en moi les pensées que le hasard me fait naître, et je serais fâché d'y mettre rien du mien."[38]
In the Mercure for August, September, and October, 1717, and for March and June, 1718, appeared from the pen of Marivaux "five letters to M. de M——, containing an adventure, and four letters to Mme. ——, containing reflections on the populace, the bourgeois, the merchants, the men and women of rank, and the beaux esprits." This seems to be a turning point in his literary life. He appears now to have grasped the idea of his own limitations and of his own powers, powers which will be disclosed, not only in his journalistic work, but in his novels and his plays. I refer to those excellences which are the direct result of the acuteness of his observation. These writings gained for him the agnomen of Théophraste moderne, which his sense of fitness and natural dislike of over-praise led him to disclaim in a letter to the Mercure of October, 1717. That same year a Portrait de Climène, ode anacréontique, proves that he had yet to sustain a real defeat in the line of verse before he came to realize that he should confine himself to prose alone. The Mercure of March, 1719, contained some Pensées sur divers sujets: sur la clarté du discours, sur la pensée sublime. The next year, 1720, however, was one of the utmost importance in determining his future career.
The statement has already been made that when Marivaux came to Paris his fortune, if not munificent, was at least ample for his needs, and, fond of his ease and indifferent to business affairs, he might have enjoyed independence for the rest of his life, had he not yielded to the influence of certain friends and entrusted his fortune to the speculations of the Law system. When the crash came, in May, 1720, he lost all that he had. In a letter, written in 1740, he relates the circumstances of the affair in so philosophical a tone that it is well worth reading. He says: "Oui, mon cher ami, je suis paresseux et je jouis de ce bien-là, en dépit de la fortune qui n'a pu me l'enlever et qui m'a réduit à très peu de chose sur tout le reste: et ce qui est fort plaisant, ce qui prouve combien la paresse est raisonnable, combien elle est innocente de tous les blâmes dont on la charge, c'est que je n'aurais rien perdu des autres biens si des gens, qu'on appelait sages, à force de me gronder, ne m'avaient pas fait cesser un instant d'être paresseux, je n'avais qu'à rester comme j'étais, m'en tenir à ce que j'avais, et ce que j'avais m'appartiendrait encore: mais ils voulaient, disaient-ils, doubler, tripler, quadrupler mon patrimoine à cause de la commodité du temps, et moitié honte de paraître un sot en ne faisant rien. moitié bêtise d'adolescence et adhérence de petit garçon au conseil de ces gens sensés, dont l'autorité était regardée comme respectable, je les laissai disposer, vendre pour acheter, et ils me menaient comme ils voulaient… Ah! sainte paresse! salutaire indolence! si vous étiez restées mes gouvernantes, je n'aurais pas vraisemblablement écrit tant de néants plus ou moins spirituels, mais j'aurais eu plus de jours heureux que je n'ai eu d'instants supportables…"[39]
Marivaux acknowledges his fondness of ease and idleness elsewhere, as well as in this letter,[40] and it would certainly seem natural, from what we know of the man, to accept his own statement. However, all men fond of idleness are not necessarily idle, nor do all lazy men lack industry. There are various motives that force them to labor, often mere pride, and more often still, necessity. Marivaux was a great worker, as his works in ten large volumes (as edited by Duviquet) prove, but they do not in the least disprove his statement that he was not fond of work, and it is undoubtedly true that, had it not been for the spur of necessity, he would not have written "tant de néants plus ou moins spirituels," and the world would have been deprived of his best writings, for the poorest work that he produced was done while he was rich.
The loss of his fortune was a cruel blow, for it deprived him of the means of gratifying his fondness for dress and good living[41], and, worst of all, it debarred him largely from indulging his passion for charity. His generosity and fellow-feeling for others were so great that he really suffered at sight of their misfortunes, if he was unable to alleviate them. "Quoi! voir les besoins d'un honnête homme, et n'être point en état de les soulager, n'est-ce pas les avoir soi-même? Je serai donc pauvre avec les indigents, ruiné avec ceux qui seront ruinés, et je manquerai de tout ce qui leur manquera," he exclaims in the thirteenth feuille of the Spectateur, and it was this spirit of generosity that led him to deprive himself often of the necessities of life for the sake of giving to others, and even, at times, to give unwisely.
The following anecdote, related by both Lesbros de la Versane[42] and d'Alembert[43], goes to show how far his love of giving sometimes led him. One day he was accosted by a beggar, who seemed to him so young and strong that he was indignant, and, with a desire to shame him, asked him why he did not work. "Hélas! monsieur, si vous saviez combien je suis paresseux!" was the unexpected answer of the youth. Marivaux, who hated all deceit, was so struck by the naïve frankness of the reply that he gave him
Another incident has come down to us from the same Sources[44]. A young actress, lacking in beauty and talent, had entered upon a career which Marivaux saw meant failure, and, to preserve her from the inevitable end, he persuaded her to enter a convent and provided the necessary funds, although at the price of great self-sacrifice.
Meanwhile Marivaux had married, at the age of thirty-three, a Mlle. Martin, "d'une bonne famille de Sens,"[45] whom he had the misfortune to lose within two years (in 1723), and whom he "regretted all his life."[46] She left him with an only daughter, who later became a nun and took the veil at the Abbaye du Trésor.
The Duke of Orléans, son of the Regent, through fondness for Marivaux, generously met all of the expenses of her installation.
Marivaux numbered among his faithful friends, La Motte, Fontenelle, Helvétius, Mme. de Lambert, Mme. de Tencin, Mme, de Bez, and, toward the end of his life, Mlle. de Saint-Jean, and, had it not been for their generous aid, he would have almost lacked the necessities of life, not to mention the means for his charities. Through the efforts of Mme. de Tencin, he received an annuity of three thousand livres from Mme. de Pompadour, who had the delicacy, however, to spare his pride by allowing him to attribute the gift to the generosity of Louis XV. The chagrin, caused by the discovery that the pension came, not from the king, but from the favourite, is said to have hastened his death, which followed a few months later.
This was not the only allowance that he received, for his income in this way amounted to "some four thousand livres," and with this sum he could have been quite comfortable "had he been less sensitive to the misfortunes of others and less liberal; but he spent only fifteen hundred for his own needs, and the rest was employed for those of others."[48] His friend Helvétius helped to swell the sum of his annual income, but, although he had succeeded in prevailing upon Marivaux to accept of his benevolence, the latter had at once too much self-respect and too much respect for his friend to feel bound for that reason to smother his own feelings and ideas. "One day, in a dispute, he quite lost his temper with Helvetius, who accepted this attack with the most philosophical tranquillity and contented himself by saying, when Marivaux had departed: 'How I would have replied to him, if I were not indebted to him for having been kind enough to accept of my services!'"[49] A charming reply, which speaks well for the hearts of both men. At another time, when Marivaux was ill, Fontenelle, fearing lest he might be in need of money, brought him a hundred louis, but Marivaux, deeply moved at his friend's generosity, yet too independent to accept it, said simply: "I regard them as received; I have made use of them, and I return them to you with gratitude." [50]
Such a character was not likely to sue for the favour of the great. Only three of his writings, and these among his early works, contain dedications—l'Homère travesti to the Duke de Noailles, la Double Inconstance to Madame de Prie, and the second Surprise de l'Amour to the Duchess du Maine.[51] His whole life exemplified the thought contained in these words from the Spectateur français:[52] "Quand on demande des grâces aux puissants de ce monde, et qu'on a le coeur bien placé, on a toujours l'haleine courte," and we shall see this same attitude characterizing his relations with the French Academy.
There were at this time in Paris, besides the Opera, three theatres, [53] —the Théâtre-Français (known also as the Comédie-Française), the Théâtre- Italien (or Comédie-Italienne), and the Theatre de la Foire, to name them in order of importance.
The Théâtre-Français had been regularly organized by royal edict on October 21, 1680, when the troupe of the Hôtel de Bourgogne and that of the Théâtre Guénégaud were united,[54] although its origin is much more ancient, going back as far as 1548, when the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne was opened by the Confrères de la Passion. In 1720 it occupied the Théâtre de la Comédie-Française, on the rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain, since become the rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie. Its reputation, as a criterion of dramatic art, was already established, and this reputation has ever since been sustained.
In 1576[55] Henry III called from Venice a troupe of Italian actors, the Gelosi, and, from the time of their installation at Paris, in 1577, until 1697, when they were expelled from France by Louis XIV, for their temerity in ridiculing Mme. de Maintenon in la Fausse Prude, Paris had seen an almost uninterrupted succession of troupes of these Italian actors. Up to this time almost unlimited license in language and themes had been tolerated in them. The plays had been mostly in Italian, but, some time before their banishment, French had also made its way into their repertory, and, in spite of many complaints to the king on the part of the members of the Comédie-Française, who found this prejudicial to their interests, the French had held its ground, not, however, to the exclusion of the Italian, until after the time of their recall.
Their exile lasted nineteen years, or until 1716, when they were recalled by the Regent. A new troupe was organized under the direction of Louis Riccoboni, a famous actor, and author, among other works, of a valuable history of the Théâtre-Italien. Riccoboni took the young lovers' parts and the name of Lelio. The rest of the cast[56] was as follows: Joseph Baletti, called Mario, second lover; Thomasso Vicentini, called Thomassin, who took the rôles of Harlequin; Alborghetti, as Pantalon; Matterazzi, the doctor; Bissoni, as Scapin; and Giacoppo, as Scaramouche;[57] with Hélène Baletti, sister of Joseph Baletti and wife of Louis Riccoboni, who, under the name of Flaminia, for thirty-six years was to take the rôles of première amoureuse, of soubrette, and the travestis; Silvia, who later married Joseph Baletti, and performed for forty-two years the rôles of second amoureuse; and Violette, the charming soubrette, with one or two others of less consequence.[58] The characters are those of the old commedia dell'arte. However, written plays had now begun to take the place of the improvisation of the earlier Italian comedy.
Not long after the reëstablishment of the Théâtre-Italien at Paris, and, in fact, as early as the first of June of that same year, we find them housed in the Hôtel de Bourgogne, rue Mauconseil, over the principal door of which, after the death of the Regent in 1723, was engraved the following inscription: Hôtel des comédiens italiens ordinaires du Roi, entretenus par Sa Majesté, rétablis à Paris en 1716. In 1762 it lost its individuality, and became merged into the Opéra-Comique, but that was some years after the last play of Marivaux had been staged, and does not concern us here.
The Théâtre, or rather Théâtres de la Foire, for there were two that were particularly noteworthy, that of Saint-Germain and that of Saint-Laurent, had had a more humble, though scarcely less early, origin than either of the other theatres just mentioned, for, as early as the year 1595, an ambulant troupe had played at the former of these two fairs. For many years their performances consisted largely of juggling, tumbling, tight- rope walking, and the like, interspersed perhaps with dialogues, which, in time, came to occupy the principal part. The characters were largely borrowed from the Italian commedia dell'arte. Extreme license of expression characterized these plays. Music often accompanied them. In fact the Théâtre de la Foire was the germ that later developed into the Opéra-Comique. Harrassed not only by the
Among the authors writing for the Théâtre-Français were such celebrities as Crébillon père,[59] Voltaire, Destouches, etc. No lesser names than those of Lesage and Piron were the support of the Théâtre de la Foire. It remained for Marivaux to render illustrious the Italian stage[60].
Here it was, then, on the fourth of March, 1720, that he made his début before the public with a comedy in three acts, l'Amour et la Vérité. It may be recalled that Crispin l'heureux fourbe had been presented only in private. Perhaps to give himself confidence in a line as yet almost untried, and which, after his boasting of fourteen years before and his rather unsuccessful attempt, he had come to consider as not so "easy" after all, he may have sought the aid of one of his co-workers on the Mercure. At any rate, the play was written in collaboration with the Chevalier de Saint-Jory, and was the only piece in which Marivaux accepted similar aid, "except for the musical diversions of his plays."[61] L'Amour et la Vérité failed to please the public, but, as it was never printed, we cannot judge of its merits.
However, that same year, Marivaux amply retrieved himself in the exquisite fairy-play of Arlequin poli par l'Amour, a comedy in one act, presented at the Théâtre-Italien, October 20, and which Jules Lemaître characterizes as perhaps of all his plays "the most purely poetical, in spite of the excess of esprit, and the one in which fancy is the freest."[62] It was greeted by the public with enthusiasm, and even such severe critics of Marivaux as La Harpe could find little to say against it,—that it "lacked intrigue" and had a "weak dénouement " possibly, but after all that he had made of Harlequin, "of that ideal personage, who up to that time had only known how to provoke laughter," an "interesting" character "by making him in love."[63]
The plot of the play is as follows: A fairy, enflamed with love for Harlequin, on account of his beauty, has caused him to be brought to her realm, but, in spite of all her charms and graces and her assiduous attentions, she cannot awaken love in him, nor change him from the rude and clownish fellow that he is; and it is not until he meets with Silvia, the shepherdess, that love is seen to be more potent than all the charms of fairy-land to make of simple Harlequin, as of Hawthorne's Faun, a man. The developing influence of love is the theme of the comedy, and, although the development is rapid, as befits a play, it is nevertheless by graduated stages. Each meeting of the lovers fans the flame, and the need of secrecy but stimulates their wit, until, at last, by a cunning wile, Harlequin gains possession of the fairy's wand and with it, of her power. This, of course, brings about the natural dénouement, and the play ends to the satisfaction of the lovers.
Many of the scenes are characterized by an artlessness and grace that recall Florian's les Deux Billets or Musset's A quoi rêvent les jeunes Filles. It is the poetry of an epoch of prose. "All the poetry of the first half of the eighteenth century is in Marivaux, as all the poetry of the second half is in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and in Bernardin de Saint- Pierre."[64] The first two plays of Marivaux presented to the public were performed upon the stage of the Théâtre-Italien, and throughout his life he showed a marked preference for that theatre.
His success was brilliant, and Arlequin poli par l'Amour had twelve representations. At last Marivaux appears to have found his true sphere; but no, he has still to feel his way, and to experience another check, before entrusting himself to the promptings of his genius. His was not a talent to blossom in a night, and only an over-zealous friend could say of him: "Il ne se décida point pour les lettres, il fut entraîné par elles. Il ne chercha point à devenir auteur, il fut étonné de l'être devenu."[65]
At this time tragedy still held sway over the hearts of the French, although the period of its glory was past. As nearly every writer of the century had produced his tragedy, not to mention the immediate friends of Marivaux, Fontenelle with his Aspar and La Motte with his Oedipe and Romulus, it is not strange that Marivaux felt tempted to try his wings in this upper sphere. His Annibal, a tragedy in five acts and in verse, was produced at the Théâtre-Français on December 16, 1720. In this play the very qualities, destined later to procure for the author such splendid successes in his comedies, were either lacking or out of place. It survived four representations, three at the Théâtre-Français and one at Court, and then disappeared from the repertory, not to be taken up again until Marivaux was an academician, and as such, in the minds of many, of course worthy of applause.
Marivaux had the good judgment to abandon a style of composition for which he was in no way fitted, and, on May 3, 1722, returned to the Théâtre- Italien with la Surprise de l'Amour, a comedy in three acts, and a decided success. His predilection for the Théâtre-Italien was such that he gave to it twenty of his plays, while only ten were brought out at the Théâtre-Français. "Of the six plays of our author which were to remain in the repertory, only one, le Legs, was first played at the Comédie- Française; the five others, la Surprise de l'Amour, le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard, l'École des Mères, les Fausses Confidences, l'Épreuve, appeared for the first time at the Théâtre-Italien."[66]
L'abbé de La Porte declares, moreover, that, had it not been for his support, through lack of spectators the actors would have been obliged to give up their theatre.[67]
Why was this preference of Marivaux for the Théâtre-Italien? In the first place, because he found the Italian actors better fitted to interpret him with that "brillante et abondante volubilité" of the Italian nature, which his plays seem to require, masterpieces, as they are, of dialogue and conversational style. Moreover, the Italians were performing in a foreign language and in a country in which they had a reputation yet to gain, and, consequently, were willing to accept suggestions from the author. At the Théâtre-Français, on the contrary, both actors and audience were under the ban of certain traditions, which hindered the one from performing with the requisite natural grace and the other from accepting without criticism that which at the Théâtre-Italien they might have received with enthusiasm.[68]
The prestige enjoyed by the members of the Comédie-Française was not calculated to make them readily accept advice, and Marivaux was often heard lamenting over their intractability. The beauty of his plays depends upon the artless grace with which they are rendered. "Il faut … que les acteurs ne paraissent jamais sentir la valeur de ce qu'ils disent, et qu'en même temps les spectateurs la sentent et la démêlent à travers l'espèce de nuage dont l'auteur a dû envelopper leurs discours."[69] Such were the recommendations of Marivaux, but all to no purpose. "J'ai eu beau le répéter aux comédiens, la fureur de montrer de l'esprit a été plus forte que mes très humbles remontrances; et *iis ont mieux aimé commettre dans leur jeu un contre-sens perpétuel, qui flattait leur amour-propre, que de ne pas paraître entendre finesse à leur rôle."[70]
Mlle. Lecouvreur, of the Comédie-Française, who played the rôles of
It was as a result of the presentation of the first Surprise de l'Amour that Marivaux made the acquaintance of the renowned actress.[72] With that characteristic timidity, which we have already noted, Marivaux had withheld from the public his name as author. Although Silvia had played her part well, she felt that there was still lacking a shade of meaning, which, if she only knew the author, she might grasp. Yielding to the solicitation of a friend of hers, Marivaux consented to pay her his respects, but on condition that he might keep his incognito. Upon being presented to the artist, he congratulated her upon her charming rendition of the play. Silvia was pleased with his appreciation, but, foreseeing possibilities in the piece as yet unattained by her, she said: "It is a charming comedy; but I have a grudge against the author… for not disclosing himself. We would play it a hundred times better, if he had merely deigned to read it to us."
Marivaux took the rôle, and, choosing a few passages, read into them all of their hidden meaning, with the fluent ease and clearness which had gained for him the reputation of a fascinating reader. Silvia listened with ever increasing surprise, and at last exclaimed: "Ah, sir, you are the author of the piece, or else the devil." He assured her with a smile that he was not the latter, and their friendship had begun, a friendship which had in it something akin to that of Racine and la Champmeslé, for, from this time on, Marivaux wrote most of his plays with Silvia in mind; but here the comparison must end, for no closer relation has ever been suggested by any of Marivaux's contemporaries, and it is not likely that so tempting a bit of scandal would ever have been allowed to pass unnoticed by the eighteenth century, "si friand d'indiscrétions de ce genre."[73]
As can be seen by a Compliment in prose and verse, addressed to Mlle. Silvia the same year that the first Surprise de l'Amour appeared. Marivaux joined also in the well-nigh universal chorus of praise which rose on all sides in celebration of the graceful actress. If the author contributed much to the perfection of her talent, she, too, lent no small part to the popularity which many of Marivaux's plays attained.
In the year of the presentation of the first Surprise de l'Amour, and the more speedily and surely to relieve his financial embarrassment, Marivaux turned his mind to journalism, and began the publication of what he termed le Spectateur français, modelled after Addison's Spectator. He adopted a literary fiction to introduce his observations and moral reflections similar to that which gave life to Sir Roger de Coverly, but the whole was carried out with less simplicity, logical development, and power in the creation of types, though, perhaps, with greater subtlety. Strange to say, the Spectateur has never been as much appreciated in France as in England, where Marivaux has been compared not unfavorably with La Bruyère.[74]
Germany was a scarcely less enthusiastic admirer, and even so severe a critic of French literature, as was Lessing, could find words of commendation for Marivaux; but the latter was less prodigal in his admiration of the works of foreign literatures. "and preferred unhesitatingly our writers to those of any nation, ancient or modern," says d'Alembert.[75]
The journal is composed of a series of feuilles or leaflets, more or less closely connected, familiar and conversational in character. Most of the sketches are characterized by that intuitive and feminine delicacy of perception and that subtlety sometimes lacking in Addison, and, while perhaps too often they appear over quintessenced or subtilized, at times they attain an eloquent and virile tone. Aside from their literary value, they are of great interest in the study of the author's character.
The humanity of the man and his sensitiveness to the wrongs of others are manifest in the description of a young girl forced to beg for a mother, sick and in want, or to accept dishonor with the assistance of a rich man, whose aid is offered at so dear a price. The concluding words of this sketch contain a confession of his own weakness, but with an eloquent and vigorous attack upon those who basely sacrifice the happiness of others for the gratification of their own pleasures. "Homme riche, vous qui voulez triompher de sa vertu par sa misère, de grâce, prêtez-moi votre attention. Ce n'est point une exhortation pieuse, ce ne sont point des sentiments dévots que vous allez entendre; non, je vais seulement tâcher de vous tenir les discours d'un galant homme, sujet à ses sens aussi bien que vous; faible, et, si vous voulez, vicieux; mais chez qui les vices et les faiblesses ne sont point féroces, et ne subsistent qu'avec l'aveu d'une humanité généreuse. Oui, vicieux encore une fois, mais en honnête homme, dont le coeur est heureusement forcé, quand il le faut, de ménager les intérêts d'autrui dans les siens, et ne peut vouloir d'un plaisir qui ferait la douleur d'un autre."[76]
Perhaps in no other writing has he attained the eloquence, sustained throughout the description, that characterizes the letter[77] from a father self-impoverished for his son's advancement and then abandoned by that same son.
One is not accustomed to think of Marivaux as a moralist, yet this frilled and powdered representative of the beau monde, this courtly gentleman, this graceful writer, was one of the powers for good of his time. Throughout his plays and novels, and particularly in his journals, may be seen this nobler side of the man's nature. He was a practical moralist, with little love for abstract theories, and a morality far from asceticism, but, with profound unselfishness and pity for his fellow-man, he strove to right the wrongs and correct the abuses of a cruelly indifferent and light-hearted society. He once said of himself: "Je serais peu flatté d'entendre dire que je suis un bel esprit; mais si on m'apprenait que mes écrits eussent corrigé quelques vices, ou seulement quelque vicieux, je serais vraiment sensible à cet éloge."[78] However, he was tolerant, as one who knows the weaknesses that flesh is heir to, and, whether his attack was aimed at the petty foibles or graver weaknesses of the individual, coquetry, ambition, avarice, hypocrisy, vanity, and the like, or at certain social evils, the reprimand was always given with a tone of moderation.
Throughout his writings Marivaux showed himself heartily opposed to the loose ideas then prevalent upon the marriage relation, and, as though to emphasize his convictions in this matter, his comedies all end with "the triumph of love in marriage." In certain ones, as for example le Petit Maître corrigé (acte I, scène XII) and l'Héritier de Village (scène II), this social evil is more directly attacked, as it is also in several portions of the Spectateur français, and particularly in the sixteenth feuille.
He was likewise an opponent of the strained relations that existed in most families between parents and children. Instead of the deplorable custom of making of each household a miniature court, in which the parents reigned over timid but unwilling subjects, he advocated intimate and loving relations. "Voulez-vous faire d'honnêtes gens de vos enfants? Ne soyez que leur père, et non pas leur juge et leur tyran. Et qu'est-ce que
Was it not Mme. de Lambert, from whom Marivaux gained many of his ideas, who had said: "Les enfants aiment à être traités en personnes raisonnables. Il faut entretenir en eux cette espèce de fierté, et s'en servir comme d'un moyen pour les conduire où l'on veut"? Where is there a more charming character than that of la Mère confidente, willing to sacrifice the dreaded name of mother in order to become her daughter's friend and confidante, or than the indulgent father of le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard? Such examples indicate the kindly philosophy that permeates his writings.
Marivaux has been said to have held revolutionary ideas, and, in some degree, to have forecast the terrible rending of society of 1789. While the unqualified statement may give rise to a false conception, and tend to exaggerate the part that he played in the progress of social emancipation, it is not difficult to discover in him the sentiments, if not of a revolutionist,[80] at least of a reformer. The prejudice of birth is attacked in the comedies les Fausses Confidences, le Préjugé vaincu, la Double Inconstance (acte III, scène IV), and in many a passage in other plays, le Dénoûment imprévu, l'Héritier de Village, etc., as well as in his novels and other writings, while the comedy l'Ile des Esclaves is a social satire on the abuses of the day. The increasing importance and the social elevation of servants in his drama is but another tendency along the same line.
One of the most obvious faults of the Spectateur français was the irregular and disconnected manner of its publication. Perhaps through natural indolence, but more likely through over conscientiousness and too high an ideal of artistic perfection, which caused him to magnify his own shortcomings and to soon tire of the subject in hand, he was inclined to abandon his work unfinished and to turn to newer interests. This tendency may be seen in the Spectateur, which, after sundry interruptions, finally reaches the twenty-fifth leaflet, after which it suddenly, and without warning, comes to an end.
Another journal in the same vein, l'Indigent Philosophe, undertaken in 1728, fared even worse, for it was carried only through the seventh leaflet, when it too succumbed, to be revived, however, in 1734, under the title of le Cabinet du Philosophe. The same fate awaited the latter, and Marivaux's enthusiasm forsook him at the end of the eleventh leaflet, Fleury[81] characterizes this as the best of his three periodical publications. but I am of the opinion of Lavollée,[82] who does not consider it comparable "either in interest or variety" with the Spectateur.
It is not alone in this style of literature that our author wearies of his theme and drops his pen, for neither of his novels Marianne nor le Paysan parvenu was completed. The former was begun in 1731, and the publication of its eleven parts was not completed until 1741, ten years later; but the periodical publication of novels was common at that epoch,[83] and the chef-d'oeuvre of Le Sage, contemporary with it (1715- 1735), was double that time in appearing.
It has long been thought that the twelfth part, which concludes the story of Marianne, was by Mme. Riccoboni; but Fleury[84] has proved quite satisfactorily that the Conclusion, which appeared in 1745, in an Amsterdam edition of Marianne, was written by one of those who, as d'Alembert says, "se sont chargés, sans qu'on les en priât, de finir les romans de M. de Marivaux, et (qui) ont eu dans cette entreprise un succès digne de leurs talents:" while a simple Continuation, written, in fact, by Mme. Riccoboni, and so cleverly, too, as to almost deceive the critics of the eighteenth century, did not appear until 1751.[85]
Marianne is a young girl, beautiful and of high birth, who, when but a small child, has the misfortune to lose her parents in an attack by robbers on the road to Bordeaux. Sheltered by a priest and his sister, she reaches the age of fifteen, without, however, having discovered who her parents were. Deprived by death of her guardians, she finds herself at this early age alone and unprotected in the streets of Paris. She seeks the counsel of a kindly priest, who refers her to a rich and apparently respectable man, but in reality the personification of hypocrisy. Of his character study of M. de Climal, Marivaux was justly proud. Few, if any, however, will justify him in rating it superior to Molière's Tartuffe.[86] Throughout her trials and temptations Marianne preserves her innocence and her hand for M. de Valville, a handsome and wealthy young aristocrat, who is really enamoured of Marianne, despite certain infidelities of which he is guilty, and which Marianne pardons with the same forbearing charity and kindly philosophy that characterize our author himself.[87]
The story of Marianne is interesting, though never of so absorbing an interest as to hold the reader's attention more closely than was held that of the writer himself. It is a book to be read by piecemeal, and it may be laid down at any time. Indeed, one is not surprised, nor much distressed, when the author fails to grasp again his fallen pen after the eleventh part. I would not in any way detract from the literary value of a work which, as even critical La Harpe declares, "assures him one of the first places among French novelists;"[88] but the interest inspired by Marianne is of much the same sort as that inspired by the Spectateur. The thread of the story serves merely to join the analyses of character, moral reflections, and digressions of various kinds which abound. The style is conversational, very similar to that of his journals.
Taken as a whole it may be considered as a psychological study of a young girl's heart, as viewed by herself in maturer years. I am half inclined to say the heart of a coquette, for Marianne has much of the coquette in her nature, but she has, too, the nobler qualities of heart and mind. She is an epitome, in short, of the feminine side of Marivaux.
One of the chief faults of the author's style is apparent in Marianne to a degree unparalleled by most of his other writings, and that is the fault of over-elaborate description or definition. His subtle mind could perceive so many delicate shades of character, which the less cultivated eye could not detect, that, by elaborating thereupon and endeavoring to disclose to others what he saw, he seemed to overdefine, or even to repeat himself, and sometimes became monotonous. His was the delicate ear of the musical prodigy, capable of grasping half-tones quite beyond the range of the normal ear, and his attempt to cause them to be heard and appreciated by his coarser fellows brought him only criticism and abuse. He realized at times his own powerlessness to convey in words all that he felt, and once said: "On ne saurait rendre en entier ce que sont les personnes; du moins cela ne me serait pas possible; je connais bien mieux celles avec qui je vis, que je ne les définirais; il y a des choses en elles que je ne saisis point assez pour les dire, et que je n'aperçois que pour moi, et non pas pour les autres: ou, si je les disais je les dirais mal: ce sont des objets de sentiment si compliqués, et d'une netteté si délicate, qu'ils se brouillent dès que ma réflexion s'en mêle; je ne sais plus par où les prendre pour les exprimer; de sorte qu'ils sont en moi et non pas à moi. N'êtes-vous pas de même? Il me semble que mon âme, en mille occasions, en sait plus qu'elle n'en peut dire, et qu'elle a un esprit à part, qui est bien supérieur à celui que j'ai d'ordinaire. Je
It was with great difficulty that Marivaux could prevail upon himself to draw a description or a reflection to an end, feeling, as he did, that there was always something left unsaid. His struggle with himself and his apology to the reader are sometimes quite amusing in their naïveté. "Me voilà au bout de ma réflexion," he says: "j'aurais pourtant grande envie d'y ajouter quelques mots pour la rendre complète: le voulez-vous bien? Oui, je vous en prie. Heureusement que mon défaut là-dessus n'a rien de nouveau pour vous. Je suis insupportable avec mes réflexions, vous le savez bien."[90]
The success that greeted Marianne was calculated to make his rivals in the field of fiction jealous. Perhaps no one felt more keenly than did Crébillon fils the growing popularity of a novel the purity of which but enhanced the obscenity of his own writings. To this feeling may be attributed his attack upon Marivaux's style in a very free and tiresome story, entitled Tanzaï et Néadarné, ou l'Écumoire, in which his rival's muse is represented as a mole. The mole relates her life, in a most diffuse and wearisome manner, constantly interrupting the story with reflections and digressions. The imitation was so clever that it deceived even Marivaux himself into thinking that a justification of his style was intended. Doubtless the offense that he felt was the greater, owing to this additional wound to his amour-propre. At any rate, for the first time he dignified a criticism by a reply in print. Even here he did not go so far as to mention any name, but the allusion to Crébillon fils was evident. "Il est vrai, monsieur, que nous sommes naturellement libertins, ou, pour mieux dire, corrompus; mais en fait d'ouvrages d'esprit, il ne faut pas prendre cela à la lettre ni nous traiter d'emblée sur ce pied-là. Un lecteur veut être ménagé. Vous, auteur, voulez-vous mettre sa corruption dans vos intérêts? Allez-y doucement du moins, apprivoisez-la, mais ne la poussez pas à bout.