VI INTRODUCTION

Marivaux's f ather belonged to an honorable f amily , originally from Normandy, and one which had occupied judicial positions. He went to Riom, shortly after his son's birth, and then to Limoges, where he was employed in the treasury department. It was unfortunate to drop from the magistracy, la robe, to la finance y but his son's éducation, although he knew "little Latin and less Greek," seems to hâve been fairly well provided for, as we know that he studied law for a time. He did not, however, follow the profession of a lawyer, but, at the âge of eighteen, produced a comedy which gave some indication of future talent. He didjnot dévote himself to literature at this time, but for several years led a jpleasant life in Paris in the literary salons of Mme. de Lambert and. Mme, dfi Tencin.

The celebrated Hôtel de Rambouillet had been the first literary salon in France, and had greatly contributed to the refinement

(of French Hterature, which is so eminently social and over which women hâve exerted such a marked influence. Molière criticized rightly the affectation and pedantry of the false précieuses, but the genuine ones did great good by honoring men of letters, whatever their condition in life, receiving in their salon La Rochefoucauld and Voiture, the duke and the small bourgeois, and requiring a politeness in conversations, which was expressed also in literature. During the personal reign of Louis XIV the only salon possible was Versailles, but, when Louis died in 171 5, society regained its liberty, and there were numerous literary salons in the eighteenth century, where the influence of wpmen was'supraner Thëfé îs no clôubt that Marivaux derived great advantage from his contact with the witty men and women / whom he met at Mme. de Lambert's, at Mme. de Tencin's, and \ later at Mme. Geoffrin's. The surroundings of a writer, the milieu in which he lives, are of such importance in studying Jus /works that we must understand that Marivaux was a man of V the eighteenth century, a man who frequented the literary sa- ^ Ions of that âge, and who was enabled to observe with amused J indulgence the customs and manners of his times and the f cibles