[135] CE N’EST NON PLUS A MOI A QUI VOUS REPONDEZ QU’A QUI NE VOUS PARLA JAMAIS, ’Your answers are no more addressed to me than to some one who never spoke to you.’  A very complicated and unwieldy phrase.  See Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard, note 175 and note 176.

[136] COMME VOTRE AVERSION M’ACCOMMODE, ’How cruelly your aversion treats me.’ Accommoder (Littre, 4 deg.), antiquated.

[137] DIFFICILE.  The text of 1740 gives different, which would make no sense here. Difficile, moreover, is the general rendering.

[138] DE RESTE, ‘Only too well.’  Notice the difference in meaning between this expression and du reste or au reste (’moreover’).

[139] CE QUE JE PENSE.  Some of the later editions give the more complete expression, ce que j’en pense.

[140] AUX.  The use of the preposition a after avoir regret is less frequent to-day than that of de.

LES FAUSSES CONFIDENCES

[1] ARAMINTE.  A young widow of independent character, in whose mind the prejudice of rank and wealth is not so great as to be insurmountable.  One of Marivaux’s favourite types.

[2] MONSIEUR REMY.  The uncle of Dorante, a man of rough exterior and crusty humour, frank to an extreme, overbearing with his nephew, but ready to take his part, a regular burbero benefico (with which character of Goldoni’s comedy, compare).

[3] PROCUREUR.  See le Legs, note 126.

[4] MADAME ARGANTE.  An imperious, selfish, vain, old woman, of the type Marivaux generally chooses for the mothers in his comedies.

[5] ARLEQUIN.  When this play passed to the stage of the Comedie-Francaise, the name of Arlequin, familiar to the Italian comedy, was changed to Lubin, and his dress modified to suit the new role.  See le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard, note 2.

[6] DUBOIS.  A “real creation” among the valets of Marivaux.  Like Lepine of le Legs, he is quite above the station of the traditional valet, and may well be called Monsieur Dubois.  The intrigue of the piece is entirely in his hands, and is carried out with the shrewdness and dexterity of an able man of affairs.

[7] JOAILLIER.  One who works in, or sells, joyaux (’jewels’), ’a jeweller.’

[8] DETOURNEZ.  Used in the sense of derangez (Littre, 10 deg.).

[9] N’EN FAITES PAS DE FACON.  The en nowadays would be considered superfluous, and facon would be put in the plural.  The use of en is peculiar in this case, for it refers to the idea partly expressed by Dorante.  It stands for Ne faites pas de facons parce que je me derange pour vous.

[10] HONNETE, ‘Polite,’ ‘civil.’  Notice the use of the singular, following the rule that after the pronouns nous and vous, when these pronouns designate a single person, even if the verb is plural, the adjective remains singular.