Le Prince travesti, ou, L’illustre aventurier by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (review)

Over a period of twenty years into the 1740s, Marivaux demonstrated his mastery of the remarkable theatrical instrument that was Luigi Riccoboni’s new Italian theatre in Paris (from 1716). This play (1724) is the fourth of those that he created for this monopoly company to come down to us complete, and the first in an essentially non-comic genre exploiting a seriously treated love interest and political imbroglio in which the very Italian motif of disguise figures significantly. Given this essential seriousness, the prominent presence of the unreal clown figure Harlequin as a sometimes dangerously gormless servant is surprising, and Henri Coulet rightly begins his comprehensive Introduction with a discussion of genre. He concludes, tentatively and not without humour, that this is a ‘tragi-comédie manquée’ (p. 19), with no more convincing source, despite connections to Cornelian comédie héroïque, than the Italian canevas of 1716, Arlequin bouffon de cour. The happy end arrives, after possibilities of imprisonment and even death prompted by accidental rivalry between the Princess of Barcelona and her friend Hortense for the affections of Lélio (the eponymous hero, the Prince of Léon in disguise), when the princess conquers her passions and resolves to do her duty by marrying her erstwhile enemy, the King of Castile, hitherto present in disguise as his own ambassador. Such an overtly theatrical plot reflects an age when political power was personal, and outcomes were assumed to be within the power of individual moral decision. A major aspect of the play is an exploration of the theme of ambition, legitimate when princes aspire to success for their state, illegitimate and dangerous as represented by the self-serving minister of the princess, Frédéric. Ignored for more than a century and a half after 1733, the play began to appeal once more to audiences in the twentieth century, becoming part of the Comédie-Française repertory in 1949 and thereafter commanding the attention of a series of famous directors, as Coulet briefly and helpfully describes (p. 176). This level of interest by theatre people speaks of the appeal of the play’s themes despite the passage of time, and of Marivaux’s theatrical brilliance in presenting them. Bringing to bear a long experience and appreciation of Marivaux’s work in his fine historical Introduction, Coulet also supplies a useful résumé of the plot, an informative chronology of the author’s career, sixteen pages of footnotes, mostly pertinent points of language, and ten pages of bibliography, modestly described as ‘éléments’ but more than adequate to guide undergraduate and postgraduate alike. In short, this is a very welcome addition to university library resources.