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Extracts from his Works, with an hiftorical Life of the Author. 8vo. Paris. 1769.

HE works of Marivaux are too well known, even in this kingdom, to make an account of these extracts neceffary; and their merit is too generally acknowledged, to require a critical examination to afcertain it. The extracts feem to have been well felected; they confift of characters, letters, thoughts, and reflections on various fubjects, which are scattered in his works, but have no neceffary dependance upon preceding or fubfequent parts, nor any connection with them that appears to be broken when they are read as diftinct pieces. There are alfo fome short tales and effays, both moral and entertaining. The life of Marivaux, which is prefixed, is a new work, compiled principally from anecdotes communicated by perfons of the first reputation, who were his intimate acquaintance; and of that, therefore, we fhall give fuch an abftract as we hope will be entertaining to our Readers.

Peter Carlet de Marivaux was born in the parish of St. Gervais at Paris, in the year 1688. His father was of a good family in Normandy, his fortune was confiderable, and he fpared nothing in the education of his fon, who difcovered uncommon talents, and a moft amiable difpofition. He did not chufe literature, fays the Writer of his life, as a profeffion, but he was drawn into it, by its natural power over him, and he became an author, not lefs to the furprise of himself than others.

His first work was a romance called the Modern Don Quixotte, in which there is much wit and humour, though it is not equal to other pieces of the fame kind which he produced afterwards.

Soon after he had left college, he was in company where the writing a good comedy was faid to be a very difficult task: Marivaux inconfiderately anfwered, that he thought it was eafy; and fomebody prefent replied, that he talked like a young man. This reproach, which was well-deserved, piqued him, and in one day he drew the sketch of a dramatic performance called the Prudent Father. Having fhewn it to a friend, who encouraged him to finish the work, he completed it in eight days. This rapidity of compofition is the more remarkable, as it was in verfe, and if it did not wholly excufe the faults and defects with which the piece abounds, it was at least an earnest of what the Author would be able to effect with more leifure and experience.

Among the early performances of Marivaux, is Himer Traveftie, which feems to have been intended to fhew the facility with which the moft ferious and important fubjects may be

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turned into ridicule. The power of Scarron's comic romance confists more in the turn and expreffion, than in the things expreffed; that of the Travestie more in the things expreffed, than in the turn and expression.

Marivaux, in the year 1720, when he was about thirtytwo years old, attempted Tragedy. He wrote the death of Hannibal, which was reprefented, but not received with fufficient applaufe to encourage him to proceed: from this time he indulged the natural propenfity of his genius, which led him rather to the gay and agreeable, than the mournful and folemn. He alone fuftained the Italian theatre for a confiderable time, and he wrote for the French with equal fuccefs. Almost all his pieces have kept their ground upon the ftage ever fince, and feem to give new pleafure in the reprefentation. Thofe which, in his own opinion, deferved preference, are, The Double Inconftancy, two pieces called The Surprife of Love, The Mother turned Confidante, The Rafh Vows, The Plain Dealer [ies Sinceres], and the Ifland of Slaves; and the public judgment has confirmed his own.

Character having been exhausted, Marivaux applied himself to produce incident and intrigue; in which he may be faid to have been his own model. If all his comedies had not equal fuccefs, it must be allowed that he has, in all, fubjected imagination to prudence, and wit to decency, having never used either but

in the service of virtue.

The Inland of Reafon, or The Little Men, a very ingenious comedy of this Author, was represented by the French comedians in 1727, but without fuccefs. A fiction against the fenfes could not be admitted: the fpectators could not fuppofe thofe to be pigmies, whom they faw of the common ftature. But tho' this piece, for the reafon affigned, could not fucceed upon the ftage, it cannot fail to give pleasure in the closet.

Marivaux is accused of copying himself; and the Marquis d'Argens has fomewhere faid, that all his pieces may be called, The Surprife of Love; but the Writer of his life fays the reproach is not just.

Marivaux's first pieces were anonymous; he kept himself concealed with great care, and was at last discovered by an accident. He had given his first Surprife of Love to the Italian theatre, and the players did not perfectly enter into the spirit of the dialogue. Mademoiselle Sylvia, an actress of great abilities, was fentible of her defect, but could not fatisfy herself with any attempt to remove it. One of her friends, who was also a friend of Marivaux's, happened one night to be upon the ftage, and the faid to him very often, "I would give all the world to know the author of this piece." The friend gave no intimation that he

knew

knew the Author, but with fome difficulty prevailed upon him to pay Sylvia a vifit. They found her at her toilet, and after the first civilities, Marivaux, feeing a pamphlet lie near her, expreffed a defire to know what it was; it is the Surprife of Love, fays Sylvia, a charming comedy, but I am very angry with the author: we fhould play it a thousand times better if he would but read it to us. Marivaux took up the book, and began to read fome of Sylvia's part; fhe was immediately ftruck with the precifion, tafte, and turn of his pronunciation, which at once discovered new fentiment, and enabled her to fupply all the defects of which she had been confcious, and more. "You fhew me, Sir," said fhe, with great expreffion of furprife and pleasure, "all the beauties of my part, you enlighten me with new fentiment, you read as I wished it to be read, and as I feel that it ought to be acted; you are certainly the author of the picce, or the devil." Marivaux replied, dryly, that he was not the devil; The immediately drew the inference, and thus was Marivaux, for the first time, known as a dramatic writer.

Marianne, and The Fortunate Peafant [Payfan Parvenu] are two celebrated novels, of this Author: it is fcarce neceffary to apprife our Readers, that Marivaux did not write the 12th part of Marianne, and that he compofed only the five first books of The Payfan Parvenu; the difference of the ftyle being too manifeft to be overlooked. Of The Payfan Parvenu we fhall only fay, that the hero of the piece, being introduced into the great world, the author was afraid of the application that might be made of what honeft Truth fhould dictate to his pen; and his principles led him to prefer a quiet life to the fame he would have acquired by finishing a work which was fo ingeniously begun.

The Carriage in a Slough [Voiture Embourbée] and The Reformed Coquet, are alfo performances of this Author, which fhew his great fkill in humour, and perfect acquaintance with the human heart.

His French Spectator did him great honour, and in England placed him in the fame rank with the celebrated La Bruyère. In this work he has happily expofed, under a variety of images, the general depravity of manners, the falfehood of friendship, the artifices of ambition, and the mifery of avarice; the ingratitude of children, the capricious tyranny of parents, the trea chery of the great, the inhumanity of the rich, and the wickedness of the poor: both fexes, and every age and condition, may find a faithful picture of their vices or defects in this work; but the Author treated his fubject in a manner fuitable to his character, and the fame amiable qualities appear in his writings as in his life. His temper was rather quiet and referved, yet he had all the arts of pleafing in converfation. He was remarkable

for

for the strictest probity, a noble difinterestedness, and an unaffected modefty; he had a quick and elegant fenfibility, was affable and candid, and fcrupulously careful to avoid every thing both in his conduct and converfation that might give offence.

In the year 1743 he was unanimously elected member of the French academy, and his works have been collected and publifhed in twenty-one volumes, duodecimo.

The Writer of his life having thus finished his account of the Author, proceeds to relate feveral particulars of the Man.

When Marivaux was about eighteen years old, he conceived a violent paffion for a young lady of fortune, who was about the fame age; fhe was exceedingly beautiful, but feemed altogether unconscious of her beauty; this ftruck Marivaux with furprise and admiration, and his attachment to her became every hour more tender and more ftrong: but it happened, unfortunately, that one day he furprised this rare example of ingenuous fimplicity before a looking-glafs, talking to herself, and practifing all the leers and finiles which the fuppofed would set off her pretty person to the greatest advantage. Marivaux was exceedingly mortified to have been the dupe of art, when he supposed himfelf the admirer of nature; and though a treaty of marriage. was then nearly concluded, he broke off the match, and forbore his vifits at once, without affigning the reafon. To this incident, fays the Writer of his life, perhaps we are indebted for all the philofophical reflections which he made upon the secret motives of human action, and the characters which they form, during the reft of his life.

Upon this occafion he is faid to have conceived a difguft, not for his miftrefs only, but for the fex: it wore off, however, by degrees, and having remained fingle about fifteen years, he married in the year 1721, a young lady of a good family, whofe name was Martin. For this lady he appears to have had the moft ardent and tender affection. He had the misfortune to lose her in 1723, a lofs which he regretted to the laft day of hist life.

She left him one daughter, an only child, who took the veil in the Abbey du Threfor. The late duke of Orleans, who knew the mediocrity of Marivaux's circumftances, and who honoured his benevolence and generofity, gave the young woman a portion, and defrayed all the expences of her profeffion.

To give a young woman a fortune, and then fhut her up for life in a nunnery, is a mixture of kindnefs and cruelty fo abfurd, that reasonable beings could be betrayed into it only by fuperftition, that offspring of fear and folly, which has converted our glory into fhame, rendering religion contemptible, and virtue mifchievous.

Marivaux

Marivaux had, by a penfion from the king's privy-purse, about two hundred pounds fterling a-year, which in France would at that time have afforded him not only the neceffaries, but the conveniencies of life, if he had been lefs fenfible to the misfortunes of others, and lefs liberal in relieving them: he spent scarcely half his income upon himself, the rest he laid out upon those who wanted it more.

But Marivaux, with all his amiable and all his great qualities, was by nature the lazieft creature in the world, and one of his letters, which has never before been publifhed, contains a defence of his difpofition.

I acknowledge, fays he, my dear friend, that I am lazy, and that I enjoy that ineftimable bleffing which fortune could not take from me, though the has left me little elfe. I should indeed have had more of other things, if my lazinefs had always been uniform and fteady; if I had not, for a moment, ceafed to be lazy, rather than hear fome folks grumble, who were thought to be wifer than myfelf: is not this a pleasant proof that it is rational to be lazy, and that lazinefs is innocent of moft that is laid to her charge! To remain what I was, was the only condition upon which I fhould keep what I had, and what I had fhould keep me. But my good friends would not reft till they had, as they faid, improved the golden opportunity of the times, for doubling, and trebling, and quadrupling my patrimony. I was half afhamed of appearing to disadvantage by doing nothing, and half bewitched with the notion that a youth just entering life, fhould be over-ruled by the advice of the experienced and prudent, whofe authority every one affected to treat with refpect: and fo I fuffered them to difpose of my fortune as they pleafed, to fell in order to buy, and became fatally bufy to execute the projects which they had formed for my advantage. O facred! O falutary floth! if I had continued under thy influence, I fhould not have written fo many idle tales, but I fhould have enjoyed more days of felicity, than [ have now fuffered minutes of affliction. Inactivity, my friend, will not make you richer than you are, but neither will it make you poorer. In a ftate of reft you may preferve what you cannot augment, and I know not whether, fometimes, what we have is not augmented, as a reward for virtuous infenfibility to the charms of wealth.'

From this letter feveral inferences may be drawn, which the Writer of the life would have done well to confider: it appears that Marivaux inherited his father's fortune, which is faid to have been confiderable; that he loft it by venturing in projects of the fame kind with our South-fea fcheme; that he became an author for fubfiftence, and may therefore be truly reprefented afterwards as having no revenue but his penfion, which is not

here