A Selection from the Comedies of Marivaux | Page 9

their misfortunes, if he was unable to alleviate them. "Quoi! voir les besoins d'un honn��te homme, et n'��tre point en ��tat de les soulager, n'est-ce pas les avoir soi-m��me? Je serai donc pauvre avec les indigents, ruin�� avec ceux qui seront ruin��s, et je manquerai de tout ce qui leur manquera," he exclaims in the thirteenth feuille of the _Spectateur_, and it was this spirit of generosity that led him to deprive himself often of the necessities of life for the sake of giving to others, and even, at times, to give unwisely.
The following anecdote, related by both Lesbros de la Versane[42] and d'Alembert[43], goes to show how far his love of giving sometimes led him. One day he was accosted by a beggar, who seemed to him so young and strong that he was indignant, and, with a desire to shame him, asked him why he did not work. "H��las! monsieur, si vous saviez combien je suis paresseux!" was the unexpected answer of the youth. Marivaux, who hated all deceit, was so struck by the na?ve frankness of the reply that he gave him money to continue his idle way of life.
Another incident has come down to us from the same Sources[44]. A young actress, lacking in beauty and talent, had entered upon a career which Marivaux saw meant failure, and, to preserve her from the inevitable end, he persuaded her to enter a convent and provided the necessary funds, although at the price of great self-sacrifice.
Meanwhile Marivaux had married, at the age of thirty-three, a Mlle. Martin, "d'une bonne famille de Sens,"[45] whom he had the misfortune to lose within two years (in 1723), and whom he "regretted all his life."[46] She left him with an only daughter, who later became a nun and took the veil at the Abbaye du Tr��sor.
The Duke of Orl��ans, son of the Regent, through fondness for Marivaux, generously met all of the expenses of her installation.
Marivaux numbered among his faithful friends, La Motte, Fontenelle, Helv��tius, Mme. de Lambert, Mme. de Tencin, Mme, de Bez, and, toward the end of his life, Mlle. de Saint-Jean, and, had it not been for their generous aid, he would have almost lacked the necessities of life, not to mention the means for his charities. Through the efforts of Mme. de Tencin, he received an annuity of three thousand livres from Mme. de Pompadour, who had the delicacy, however, to spare his pride by allowing him to attribute the gift to the generosity of Louis XV. The chagrin, caused by the discovery that the pension came, not from the king, but from the favourite, is said to have hastened his death, which followed a few months later.
This was not the only allowance that he received, for his income in this way amounted to "some four thousand _livres_," and with this sum he could have been quite comfortable "had he been less sensitive to the misfortunes of others and less liberal; but he spent only fifteen hundred for his own needs, and the rest was employed for those of others."[48] His friend Helv��tius helped to swell the sum of his annual income, but, although he had succeeded in prevailing upon Marivaux to accept of his benevolence, the latter had at once too much self-respect and too much respect for his friend to feel bound for that reason to smother his own feelings and ideas. "One day, in a dispute, he quite lost his temper with Helvetius, who accepted this attack with the most philosophical tranquillity and contented himself by saying, when Marivaux had departed: 'How I would have replied to him, if I were not indebted to him for having been kind enough to accept of my services!'"[49] A charming reply, which speaks well for the hearts of both men. At another time, when Marivaux was ill, Fontenelle, fearing lest he might be in need of money, brought him a hundred _louis_, but Marivaux, deeply moved at his friend's generosity, yet too independent to accept it, said simply: "I regard them as received; I have made use of them, and I return them to you with gratitude." [50]
Such a character was not likely to sue for the favour of the great. Only three of his writings, and these among his early works, contain dedications--_l'Hom��re travesti_ to the Duke de Noailles, la Double Inconstance to Madame de Prie, and the second _Surprise de l'Amour_ to the Duchess du Maine.[51] His whole life exemplified the thought contained in these words from the _Spectateur fran?ais_:[52] "Quand on demande des graces aux puissants de ce monde, et qu'on a le coeur bien plac��, on a toujours l'haleine courte," and we shall see this same attitude characterizing his relations with the French Academy.
There were at this time in Paris, besides the Opera, three