Marivaux, Pierre

Marivaux, Pierre (Carlet de Chamblain de)

(born Feb. 4, 1688, Paris, France—died Feb. 12, 1763, Paris) French playwright. Born into an aristocratic family, he joined Paris salon society, which he described in his journalistic writings. The loss of his fortune in 1720 and the death of his young wife a few years later prompted him to embark on a serious literary career. He wrote his first plays, including the tragedy Annibal (1720), for the Comédie-Française, but he preferred to write for the Italian commedia dell'arte theatre in Paris, for which he produced Harlequin Brightened by Love (1723) and The Game of Love and Chance (1730). His nuanced feeling and clever wordplay became known as marivaudage. He also wrote the satirical plays Isle of Slaves (1725), Isle of Reason (1727), and The New Colony (1729).