Marivaux numbered among his faithful friends, La Motte, Fontenelle, Helvetius, 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 Helvetius 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’Homere 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 francais:[52] “Quand on demande des graces aux puissants de ce monde, et qu’on a le coeur bien place, 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 theatres, [53] —­the Theatre-Francais (known also as the Comedie-Francaise), the Theatre-Italien (or Comedie-Italienne), and the Theatre de la Foire, to name them in order of importance.