difficulty; it has been said that his lovers “s’aiment le plus tard qu’ils peuvent, et se marient le plus tot qu’il est possible.” [106] With the respect which we have seen in Marivaux for the marriage relation, we are not surprised to note in his characters such fear of poorly assorted unions, that it is only with much questioning into their own and each other’s hearts, and with manifold misgivings, that they are brought at last to say the final word.

Marivaux is the first of the French writers of comedy to treat love seriously,[107] but, though he freed the theme from the malice or flippancy with which it had been treated by his predecessors, he was nevertheless a stranger to that intense and passionate love that we have come to associate with the romantic drama.  Some have gone so far as to say that it is not amour at all that he portrays, but only amour-propre.  It is a gentle, courtly love, respectful, almost reverential, though not confiding.  “Marivaux pense et dit de l’amour ce qu’en pensait, ce qu’en disait l’auteur de la premiere partie de ce Roman de la Rose,

  Ou l’art d’Amour est toute enclose.

Par sa fine sentimentalite, par sa casuistique amoureuse, par son gout pour l’allegorie, Marivaux aurait fraternise, au XIIIe siecle, avec le suave Guillaume de Lorris."[108] His drama is eminently psychological.  “J’ai guette dans le coeur humain,” says Marivaux “toutes les niches differentes ou peut se cacher l’amour lorsqu’il craint de se montrer, et chacune de mes comedies a pour objet de le faire sortir d’une de ces niches."[109]

The absence of the broad comic of Moliere, Regnard, or Beaumarchais is conspicuous.  The comedies of Marivaux rarely provoke more than a smile, and never bursts of merriment.  The pathetic is no less lacking, and yet the interest never flags.  Where, then, is their charm?  It lies in the brilliant dialogue and in the interest Marivaux has been able to awaken in the psychological development of love in the hearts of the chief characters.  With so much similarity, it is yet wonderful to note the variety that the author has been able to introduce into his comedies, which some critics and envious ones of his time have dubbed, one and all, as so many Surprises de l’amour, D’Alembert, who was often so just, and at times so unjust, towards Marivaux, blames him for having made but one comedy in twenty different fashions,[110] but is fair enough to quote the author’s own defence of the accusation, “Dans mes pieces, c’est tantot un amour ignore des deux amants, tantot un amour qu’ils sentent et qu’ils veulent se cacher l’un a l’autre, tantot un amour timide, qui n’ose se declarer; tantot enfin un amour incertain et comme indecis, un amour a demi-ne, pour ainsi dire, dont ils se doutent sans etre bien surs, et qu’ils epient au-dedans d’eux-memes avant de lui laisser prendre l’essor.  Ou est en cela toute cette ressemblance qu’on ne cesse de m’objecter?"[111]