, they saw themselves obliged by the
Court to abandon, in turn, dialogue and even monologue, and to depend upon
placards as a means of expressing the plot to the audience. However, in
spite of difficulties and opposition the Theatre de la Foire maintained
its ground.

Among the authors writing for the Theatre-Francais were such celebrities
as Crebillon _pere_,[59] Voltaire, Destouches, etc. No lesser names than
those of Lesage and Piron were the support of the Theatre de la Foire. It
remained for Marivaux to render illustrious the Italian stage[60].

Here it was, then, on the fourth of March, 1720, that he made his debut
before the public with a comedy in three acts, _l'Amour et la Verite_. It
may be recalled that _Crispin l'heureux fourbe_ had been presented only in
private. Perhaps to give himself confidence in a line as yet almost
untried, and which, after his boasting of fourteen years before and his
rather unsuccessful attempt, he had come to consider as not so "easy"
after all, he may have sought the aid of one of his co-workers on the
_Mercure_. At any rate, the play was written in collaboration with the
Chevalier de Saint-Jory, and was the only piece in which Marivaux accepted
similar aid, "except for the musical diversions of his plays."[61]
_L'Amour et la Verite_ failed to please the public, but, as it was never
printed, we cannot judge of its merits.

However, that same year, Marivaux amply retrieved himself in the exquisite
fairy-play of _Arlequin poli par l'Amour_, a comedy in one act, presented
at the Theatre-Italien, October 20, and which Jules Lemaitre characterizes
as perhaps of all his plays "the most purely poetical, in spite of the
excess of _esprit_, and the one in which fancy is the freest."[62] It was
greeted by the public with enthusiasm, and even such severe critics of
Marivaux as La Harpe could find little to say against it,--that it "lacked
intrigue" and had a "weak denouement " possibly, but after all that he had
made of Harlequin, "of that ideal personage, who up to that time had only
known how to provoke laughter," an "interesting" character "by making him
in love."[63]

The plot of the play is as follows: A fairy, enflamed with love for
Harlequin, on account of his beauty, has caused him to be brought to her
realm, but, in spite of all her charms and graces and her assiduous
attentions, she cannot awaken love in him, nor change him from the rude
and clownish fellow that he is; and it is