A Selection from the Comedies of Marivaux

by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux

[53] MALEPESTE. See le Legs, note 48.

[54] AVANT QUE DE. See le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard, note 93.

[55] IL N'Y AVOIT PLUS PERSONNE AU LOGIS, 'He was quite unconscious.' (Littré, "logis," 1°.)

[56] D'ÉPIER. Later editions print qu'épier, as d'épier would not be admissible in modern French. Que de rêver… que d'épier would be the most natural modern form.

[57] PAYOIS BOUTEILLE = Payais à boire.

[58] LA COMÉDIE. The Comédie-Française, or Théâtre-Français, then, as now, the leading theatre in Paris.

[59] DÈS QUATRE HEURES. The performance did not begin before five o'clock, in the eighteenth century,

[60] DANS L'HIVER. The modern form is en hiver.

[61] JURANT PAR CI PAR LÀ, 'Swearing every now and then.'

[62] AUX TUILERIES. The Cours-la-Reine, in the Champs-Elysées, the Tuileries gardens, and the Palais-Royal, with its covered galleries and its garden, were the fashionable resorts of promenaders in the eighteenth century.