Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de (1688–1763), French dramatist, the dialogue of whose plays is characterized by a peculiarly paradoxical and sensitive style later known as
marivaudage, first contemptuously, then in admiration of its superb subtlety. His first success came with a one-act comedy,
Arlequin poli par l'amour (1720), seen at the
Comédie-Italienne. He continued to write for that theatre with such plays as
La Surprise de l'amour (1722);
La Double Inconstance (1723);
Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard (1730);
Les Fausses Confidences (1737); and
L'Epreuve (1740). He also wrote occasionally for the
Comédie-Française, where
La Seconde Surprise de l'amour (1727) and
Le Legs (1736) were well received.
Marivaux's delicate, psychological theatre, in which the major emphasis is on the female roles, was not on the whole popular with his contemporaries, who preferred the cruder emotions of
La Chaussée's comédie larmoyante. Lost sight of during the period preceding the French Revolution, he came back into favour again with the Restoration, when his plays had a considerable influence on the work of Alfred de
Musset. It was not, however, until the 20th century that his work was fully appreciated. His plays were then frequently revived at the Comédie-Française, and he had an unexpected success at the
Marigny Theatre in the 1940s–1950s, when Madeleine
Renaud proved herself the perfect interpreter of Marivaux's heroines. Although French companies have performed Marivaux's plays both in London and in New York with some success, the subtlety of his dialogue makes it almost impossible to translate him adequately into English.
