The Trials of Love in Marivaux’s Theatre

THE TRIALS OF LOVE IN MARIVAUX'S THEATRE ROBERT J. NELSON In a Marivaux play the ever-present surprise de l'anumr is followed by an epreuve. In early plays like Arlequin poli par !'anumr (I720) or La Double Inconstance (I723), in middle plays like La Seconde Surprise de l'amour (1727) or Le leu de l'anumr et du hasard (1730), in late plays like Les Famses Con~dences (1737), L'Epreuve (1740) or La Dispute (1744), the complicated intrigues are all so many tests of the innocent heart by the suspicious spirit. In the very early Arlequin poli par !'am02£r of 1720 Silvia, in love for the first time, is warned by her more experienced cousin that a too-ready show of love will soon cool the lover. The alerted Silvia then tells her beloved Arlequin " ". faisons un marche, de peur d'accident. Toutes les fois que vous me demanderez si j'ai beaucoup d'amitie pour vous, je vous repondrai que je n'en ai guere, et cela ne sera pourtant pas vrai; et quand vous voudrez me baiser la main, je ne Ie voudrai pas, et pourtant j'en aurai envie" (Sc. I I)l In La Double Inconstance of 1723, the Prince has loved Silvia since his first sight of her (which occurred in the pre-running time of the play) but, until the very last moments, he keeps his real identity as Prince a secret from her, "pour essayer," as he finally tells her, "de ne devoir votre tendresse qu'it la mienne" (III, 9). Le leu de l'amour et du hasard of 1730 obviously involves a double epreuve. "Dorante arrive ici aujourd'hui," says the anthropophobic Silvia, "si je pouvais Ie voir, {'examiner un peu sans qu'il me connM' (I, 2). But her change of place with her suivante only matches Dorante's change of place with his valet by which he hopes to "saisir quelques traits du caractere de notre future et la mieux connahre" (I, 4). In Les Fausses Con~dences of 1737, still unsure of Dorante's love, which is presumed to have been made known to her in spite of his wishes, Araminte says to the wily Dubois that, in a quandary about what to do about Dorante, "j'ai envie de lui tendre un piege" (II, 12). The trap in question is the acceptance of another, socially more acceptable suitor's offer of marriage which she dictates to the tormented Dorante who serves her as intendant. The secretary begins Volume XXXVI, Number 3, April, 1967 238 ROBERT J. NELSON to feel ill, the dictation stops, and the mistress leaves the distressed lover to ask himself: "Ne serait-ce point aussi pour m'eprouver?" (II, 13) . L'Epreuve of 1740 is almost all epreuve and no surprise de l'amour. Its hero, Lucidor, presents his beloved Angelique with two other suitors as prospective husbands-and, in principle, he could go On ad nauseam, because, as he says, (ftout sur que je suis de son CceUT, je veux savoir a quoi je Ie dOis, et si c'est l'homme riche, ou seulement moi qu'on aime : c'est ce que j'eclaircirai par l'epreuve ou je vais la mettre" (Sc. I). Finally to go beyond L'Epreuve, which many consider Marivaux's last good play and the One which obviously rings all the changes of the theme of the test or trial more or less explicit in all his work, there is La Dispute of 1744. Here, for reasons I hope to make clear in my further discussion, the "preuve precedes or is simultaneous with the surprise de l'amour. To answer the question which sex is mOre prone to infidelity, the Prince tells his lovely interlocutor, Hermiane, that, some eighteen or nineteen years before, his father" ... resolut de savoir a quoi s'en tenir, par une epreuve qui ne laissih rien adesireI" ( Sc. 2). The "preuve was to raise four young people, two men and two women, in isolation from the world and each other, teaching them language and providing them with other opportunities, but preserving them from other potentially corrupting influences. The king...