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Marivaux's Place in the Development of Character Portrayal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
When in 1710-11 the Sir Roger de Coverley papers appeared in the Spectator, the art of the novel seemed to have been discovered. The wonder is that people did not sooner awaken to a realization that a new form of art had been created. The faithful description of life and manners was there, the interest of character and incident was also present. The essays needed but to have been thrown into the form of a continuous narrative to have given us at least the germ of the modern novel. As a matter of fact, however, the actual appearance of the novel was delayed for nearly three decades.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1912
References
page 168 note 1 “The direct link between Addison as a picturesque narrative essayist, and Richardson, as the first great English novelist, is to be found in Pierre de Marivaux (1688-1763), who imitated the Spectator, and who is often assumed, though somewhat too rashly, to have suggested the tone of Pamela.” Edmund Gosse, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, London, 1896, p. 243.
page 169 note 1 In 1728 the periodical was revived by Marivaux under the title L'Indigent Philosophe ou l'Homme sans souci (seven numbers); and again in 1734 under the title Le Cabinet du Philosophe (eleven numbers).
page 170 note 1 In the Spectator, No. 459, Addison even upholds the claims of morality to be more important than those of religion.
page 171 note 1 Marivaux's half-humorous characterization of himself is almost exactly parallel to Addison's in No. 1 of the Spectator.
page 172 note 1 In No. 205 of the Spectator Addison gives a list of 25 essays in the periodical dealing with various follies of women. Swift thought too much attention was given to them. “Let him fair-sex it to the world's end!” he wrote to Stella, Feb. 8, 1711-12.
page 172 note 2 Jean Fleury, Marivaux et Marivaudage, Paris, 1881, p. 45.
page 173 note 1 “Deuxième lettre a madame M. …” These essays are reprinted in Marivaux's collected works (Vol. 9) under the title Pièces Détachées.
page 174 note 1 Le Spectateur Français, Feuilles 17, 18, 19.
page 174 note 2 No. 459.
page 174 note 3 No. 441.
page 174 note 4 Le Spectateur Français, quinzième Feuille.
page 175 note 1 Marivaux et Marivaudage, p. 265.
page 175 note 2 Quinzième Feuille.
page 176 note 1 Quinzième Feuille.
page 176 note 2 “On peut dire qu'il a inauguré pour eux la critique littéraire.” A. Beljame, Le Public et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre au Dix-huitième Siècle, Paris, 1897, p. 311.
“As the great and only end of these my speculations,” wrote Addison in No. 58 of the Spectator, “is to banish vice and ignorance out of the territories of Great Britain, I shall endeavor as much as possible to establish among us a taste of polite writing.'
page 176 note 3 E. g., in Nos. 39, 40, 41, 42.
page 176 note 4 In the essays upon Milton's Paradise Lost.
page 177 note 1 E. g., No. 253 on Pope's Essay on Criticism; No. 290 and 400, upon Philips's The Distressed Mother and Pastoral Verses respectively; and No. 523, upon the Miscellany of Pope and Philips.
page 177 note 2 Montesquieu's Lettres Persanes are reviewed in Huitième Feuille; La Motte's Romulus in Troisième Feuille, his Inez de Castro in Vingtième Feuille.
page 177 note 3 Septième Feuille.
page 177 note 4 The Spectator, No. 592.
page 177 note 5 Septième Feuille.
page 177 note 6 Septième Feuille.
page 178 note 1 Marivaux; sa Vie et ses Œuvres, p. 402.
page 178 note 2 Marivaux's lack of logical method was apparently a temperamental defect. Both his novels are incomplete.
page 179 note 1 “Mais l'esprit logique et ami de la règle qui inspire le Spectateur anglais lui donne un mérite qui manque trop au Spectateur Français. … Addison ne laisse jamais de sujets en l'air, comme Marivaux; il traite tout dans la juste mesure, jusqu'au bout d'un développement régulier.” Marivaux; sa Vie et ses Œuvres, p. 403.
page 179 note 2 Troisième Feuille.
page 179 note 3 No. 535.
page 179 note 4 No. 578.
page 179 note 5 Sixième Feuille.
page 180 note 1 The influence of the Spectator on the Continent was very great. Besides the French imitations, there were German, Italian, and Russian periodicals on the same plan as The Spectator. Those of Germany began with the Discourse der Maler, Zurich, 1721. Altogether 182 such publications were started in Germany before 1760. In Italy we hear of Gozzi's Observatore, 1761-1762. In Russia, Alexander Romald, in his Tableau de la Littérature Russe (St. Petersburg, 1872, p. 67) mentions “Une foule de publications périodiques qui parurent de 1769 à 1774. Le meilleur de tous était le Peintre dans lequel des articles de critique et de polémique alternaient avec d'autres ayant un fond plus sérieux.” See T. S. Perry, English Literature in the Eighteenth Century, p. 180.
page 181 note 1 In Perry's History of English Literature in the Eighteenth Century, p. 321, the character of Pamela is compared with that of Marianne to the great disadvantage of the latter. It is hard to see, from reading the two novels, that any such marked difference really exists.
page 181 note 2 Mrs. Barbauld wrote of Pamela, “We admire her guarded prudence, rather than her purity of mind. She has an end in view, an interested end, and we can only consider her as the conscious possessor of a treasure, which she is wisely resolved not to part with but for its just price.” Quoted by Austin Dobson, Samuel Richardson, pp. 34, 35.
page 181 note 3 Feuilles 17, 18, 19.
page 182 note 1 Feuille 18.
page 182 note 2 Œuvres Completes, Paris, 1825, tome 9, p. 64.
page 183 note 1 La Vie de Marianne, Œuvres Complètes de Marivaux, Paris, 1825, Tome 6, pp. 64, 65.
page 183 note 2 Dixième et Onzième Feuilles.
page 183 note 3 Marivaux et le Marivaudage, Paris, 1881, p. 317.
page 184 note 1 Compare the letter addressed to the implacable father (Onzième Feuille) with Clarissa's posthumous letter to her father (Letter cix).
page 184 note 2 Richardson did not read French.
page 184 note 3 “A ce sujet, les témoignages abondent; hostiles ou favorables à Marivaux, tous les critiques du siècle dernier s'accordent à déclarer que la Vie de Marianne a inspiré Pamela et Clarisse Harlowe. … Cependant, il est visible que Richardson a pris dans la Vie de Marianne l'idée et le caractère principal de Pamela.” M. Larroumet, Marivaux, sa vie et ses Œuvres, Paris, 1894, pp. 314 and 315.
page 185 note 1 See for example Samuel Richardson by Austin Dobson, London, 1902, pp. 48-50.
page 185 note 2 Œuvres de Marivaux, Paris, 1781, Tome vi, p. 330. The passage is quoted, and the translation borrowed from Samuel Richardson, A Critical Study, by Clara L. Thomson, London, 1900, p. 151.
page 185 note 3 Fielding speaks of Marivaux's novels in Joseph Andrews, Book iii, Chap. i.
page 185 note 4 Sterne's admiration for Marivaux is testified to in the Letters and Miscellanies published after his death. See The Complete Works and Life of Laurence Sterne. The Clonmel Society edition, Vol. iii, Letters and Miscellanies, p. 16.
page 186 note 1 “He was unfortunately too prone—and a long course of moral self-indulgence had confirmed him in it—to the habit of caressing his own sensibilities.” Laurence Sterne, M. D. Traill, New York, 1882, p. 157.
page 186 note 2 “When he came to write, he carried over into literature the art of Reynolds and Garrick. His characters are depicted not only by what they say and do, but by the tones in which they speak, and by the ways in which they sit, stand, and walk. … He reduced gesture to an art.” W. L. Cross, Introduction to Vol. ii of the Complete Works and Life of Laurence Sterne, The Clonmel Society edition.
page 186 note 3 A case in point is the scene where Marianne, having been slightly injured by Valville's horses, is visited by a surgeon in Valville's house whither she has been carried. It will be found on page 82 of Volume 6 of Œuvres Completes de Marivaux, Paris, 1825.
page 187 note 1 Joseph Hall's Characters of Virtues and Vices (1608) was translated into French in 1619.
page 187 note 2 Jean de La Bruyère's Les Caractères de Theophraste traduits du Grec; avec les Caractères, ou les Mœurs de ce Siècle was published in 1688.
page 187 note 3 Number 77 of The Spectator contains a translation of one of La Bruyère's “Characters.” Upon the relation of Addison to La Bruyère see my article, “La Bruyère's Influence upon Addison.” Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, vol. xix, 1904.