Read Ebook: A Selection from the Comedies of Marivaux by Marivaux Pierre Carlet De Chamblain De Olmsted Everett Ward Editor

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 4167 lines and 81730 words, and 84 pages

MADAME ARGANTE. Oh! votre fille, et qui te parle d'elle? Ce n'est point ta m?re qui veut ?tre ta confidente; c'est ton amie, encore une fois.

MADAME ARGANTE. Eh bien! je les s?pare, moi; je t'en fais serment. Oui, mets-toi dans l'esprit que ce que tu me confieras sur ce pied-l?, c'est comme si ta m?re ne l'entendait pas....

Little by little the mother gains the daughter's confidence, until at last, emboldened, Ang?lique confesses:

Vous m'avez demand? si on avait attaqu? mon coeur? Que trop, puisque j'aime!

Both the accusation and the reply are somewhat justifiable. With all the diversity that may be found in his different characters, there is yet a similarity of sentiments and of expression, which is due, not to a desire of representing himself in his plays, but to looking for models to a society the very natural of which was artificial, and to looking always from one point of view. To the careful student of the human heart the infinite variety that Marivaux has known how to introduce into his characters, which are always clearly distinct from one another, even if by mere delicate shades of difference, is a greater cause for wonder than the general family resemblance that unites them all.

Marivaux has introduced into a number of his plays peasants of the cunning, calculating, Norman type, who speak a Norman patois, which may be a souvenir of his own Norman origin.

Marivaux has been blamed for an affectation, an ingenuity, a delicacy of style, together with a diffuseness, which led him to turn a thought in so many different ways as to weary the reader, a habit of clothing in popular expressions subtle and over-refined ideas, and, finally, a studied and far-fetched neologism.

If Marivaux, yielding to his sense of etiquette and good breeding, was sparing in his criticism of his contemporaries, he was certainly not spared by them. The circle of his friends was small, but intimate, and his timidity with men, his suspiciousness, his lack of self-assertion, made him an easy prey to such unscrupulous opponents as Voltaire. Fond of the refined society of the salons, and repelled by the less feeling and more boisterous set of the caf?s, which he avoided, Marivaux became a convenient object of attack for the cabals set in motion by the latter, and, although, in spite of his general suspiciousness, he refused to give credence to an idea so obnoxious to him, it is not unlikely that the frequent failure of his comedies on their "first night" may be most satisfactorily explained in this way.

Nothing, perhaps, could have so wounded Marivaux as this imputation, for few writers have been actuated by purer and more noble motives, and it was with difficulty that he restrained his impulse to call upon the assembled company for justification. This is but another instance of his extreme sensibility, for, despite the criticism more or less just, the spirit of the discourse was both kindly and complimentary, as may be seen from these closing words: "J'ai rendu justice, monsieur, ? la beaut? de votre g?nie, ? sa f?condit?, ? ses agr?ments: rendez-la, je vous prie, de votre part, au minist?re saint dont je suis charg?; et en sa faveur, pardonnez-moi une critique qui ne d?roge point, ni ? ce qui est d? d'estime ? votre aimable caract?re, ni ? ce qui est d? d'?loge ? la multitude, ? la vari?t?, ? la gentillesse de vos ouvrages."

No sooner was Marivaux a member of the French Academy than epigrams, such as this, began to be showered upon him: "Il e?t ?t? mieux plac? ? l'Acad?mie des Sciences, comme inventeur d'un idiome nouveau, qu'? l'Acad?mie Fran?aise, dont assur?ment il ne connaissait pas la langue."

Although at the time of his death he was seventy-five years of age, as Coll? records in his journal, "he did not seem to be fifty-eight." He had that gift, which none but his own light-hearted time has known, of warding off, if not old age itself, at least the appearance of it. And from that first half of the eighteenth century, that period of perennial youth, have come down to us those ever fresh and rose-hued creations, which are our charm to-day, recalling, as they do, a society long past, a brilliancy of wit, of conversation well-nigh forgotten, a gayety, a thoughtlessness, which we of the money-loving, practical, and scientific twentieth century may long for, but not know.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

COLLECTIVE EDITIONS.

MARIVAUX: Les Com?dies de Monsieur de Marivaux, jou?es sur le Th??tre de l'H?tel de Bourgogne, par les Com?diens Italiens ordinaires du Roy. Paris, Briasson, 2 vol. in-12, 1732.

MARIVAUX: Oeuvres de th??tre de M. de Marivaux. A Paris, chez Prault p?re, 4 vol. in-12, 1740.

MARIVAUX: Oeuvres de th??tre de M. de Marivaux, de l'Acad?mie fran?oise. Nouvelle ?dition. A Paris, chez N.B. Duchesne, rue S. Jacques, au-dessous de la Fontaine S. Beno?t, au Temple du Go?t; 5 vol. in-12, avec portrait grav? par Chenu d'apr?s Garand, 1758.

MARIVAUX: Oeuvres compl?tes. Paris, chez Gogu? et N?e de la Rochelle, 12 vol. in-8, 1781-1782.

MARIVAUX: Oeuvres compl?tes de Marivaux de l'Acad?mie Fran?aise . Paris, Haut-Coeur et Gayet jeune, P.J. Gayet et Dauthereau, 10 vol. in-8, 1825-1830.

WORKS CONSULTED OR REFERRED TO IN THE INTRODUCTION.

FERDINAND BRUNETI?RE: Nouvelles critiques sur l'histoire de la litt?rature fran?aise. Paris, Hachette et Cie., 1882.

GASTON DESCHAMPS: Marivaux . Paris, Hachette et Cie., 1897.

L'ABB? PIERRE-FRAN?OIS GUYOT DESFONTAINES: Dictionnaire n?ologique ? l'usage des beaux esprits du si?cle. Amsterdam, Michel-Charles le C?ne, 1731.

JEAN FLEURY: Marivaux et le marivaudage. Paris, E. Pion et Cie., 1881.

EDOUARD FOURNIER: ?tude sur la vie et les oeuvres de l'auteur. Preceding the Th??tre complet de Marivaux. Laplace et Sanchez, 1878.

EMILE GOSSOT: Marivaux moraliste. Paris, Didier et Cie., 1881.

LE PR?SIDENT CHARLES-J.-F. H?NAULT: M?moires . Paris, 1854.

GUSTAVE LARROUMET: Marivaux, sa vie et ses oeuvres d'apr?s de nouveaux documents. Paris, Hachette et Cie. The editions of 1882 and 1894.

LESBROS DE LA VERSANE: ?loge historique. In the Esprit de Marivaux. Paris, Gogu? et N?e de la Rochelle, 1782.

REN? LAVOLL?E: Marivaux inconnu . Paris, Imprimerie de la soci?t? anonyme de publication, p?riodiques, 1880.

JULES LEMA?TRE: Impressions de th??tre. Deuxi?me et quatri?me s?ries. Paris, H. Lec?ne et H. Oudin, 1888 and 1890.

M. DE LESCURE: ?loge de Marivaux. In the Th??tre choisi de Marivaux. Paris, Firmin-Didot et Cie., 1894.

CHARLES PALISSOT: ?loge de Marivaux. In le N?crologe des hommes c?l?bres de France, par une soci?t? de gens de lettres. Paris, Moreau, 1767.

PAUL-E.-A. POULET-MALASSIS: Th??tre de Marivaux. Bibliographie des ?ditions originales et des ?ditions collectives donn?es par l'auteur. Paris, P. Rouquette, 1876.

WILHELM PRINTZEN: Marivaux, sein Leben, seine Werke und seine litterarische Bedeutung. M?nster, 1885.

FRANCISQUE SARCEY: Preface to vol. 1 of the Th??tre choisi de Marivaux. Paris, Librairie des Bibliophiles, E. Flammarion successeur. 1892.

L'ABB? NICOLAS-CHARLES-JOSEPH DE TRUBLET: M?moires. Amsterdam, 1739.

LE JEU DE L'AMOUR ET DU HASARD

COM?DIE EN TROIS ACTES

ACTEURS.

M. ORGON. MARIO. SILVIA. DORANTE. LISETTE, femme de chambre de Silvia. ARLEQUIN, valet de Dorante. UN LAQUAIS.

ACTE I

SC?NE PREMI?RE.

SILVIA, LISETTE.

SILVIA.

Mais, encore une fois, de quoi vous m?lez-vous? Pourquoi r?pondre de mes sentiments?

LISETTE.

SILVIA.

Le non n'est pas naturel? Quelle sotte na?vet?! Le mariage auroit donc de grands charmes pour vous?

LISETTE.

SILVIA.

Taisez-vous; allez r?pondre vos impertinences ailleurs, et sachez que ce n'est pas ? vous ? juger de mon coeur par le v?tre.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet