m him, and which he supposed had been written off-hand. Here
are rough draughts, said he, which do him no credit: henceforth, he may
make minutes of his letters for whomsoever he likes, but he shall receive
no more of mine. He left the house instantly, and never returned."[15]

At the age of eighteen[16] (1706), and shortly after leaving college,
Marivaux made his debut in literature as the result of a discussion in
which he maintained that a comedy was not a difficult thing to write. Upon
being challenged to prove his point, he set to work, and, a few days
later, brought to the company a comedy in one act, entitled _le Pere
prudent et equitable, ou Crispin l'heureux fourbe_. It is the only one of
Marivaux's comedies written in verse, which form of composition he adopted
the better to test himself and to demonstrate his claim; but he took good
care not to give to the public his comedy, "pour ne pas perdre en public,"
he said, "le pari qu'il avait gagne en secret,"[17] and it was not until
nearly fifteen years later, when he had reached the age of thirty-two,
that he entrusted a work to the stage. He did well to keep this comedy
from the public, for it contained little that gave promise of genius,
being juvenile in character, dull and faulty in versification, and
largely, though poorly, imitated from Moliere and Regnard.

It must have been shortly after this that Marivaux returned to Paris to
continue his studies, and possibly to prepare himself for the life of a
literary dilettante. His means were sufficient to enable him to indulge
his taste in this way. Here we find him admitted to the salon of Mme. de
Lambert, held in her famous apartments, situated at the corner of the rue
Richelieu and the rue Colbert, and now replaced by a portion of the
Bibliotheque Nationale. It was a rendezvous of select society on
Wednesdays, and particularly of the literary set on Tuesdays, and among
its habitues may be mentioned such men as Fontenelle, d'Argenson, Sainte-
Aulaire, La Motte, and President Henault. "It was," says Fontenelle, "with
few exceptions, the only house which had preserved itself from the
epidemic disease of gambling, the only one in which one met to converse
reasonably and even with _esprit_ upon occasion."[18] Its influence was
inestimable upon literary questions of the time, and it might be
considered almost as the antechamber of the French Academy. The envious
dubbed it _un bureau d'esprit_, and its form of _precios