, pursed in a half-smile, they form the most striking features of
the countenance, and serve to give it that characteristic of _finesse_ so
peculiar to the man. The well-developed brow, the full cheeks, and faint
suggestion of a double chin, the powdered hair, the black silk coat, the
lace _jabot_, are all in keeping with our conception of this French
dramatist, whom a competent critic[1] of to-day has classed as greater
than any of his contemporaries in the same field, than Beaumarchais,
Voltaire, Regnard, Le Sage, and second only to Moliere, Corneille, and
Racine. Marivaux, whose rehabilitation has come but slowly, and in spite
of many critics, occupies a place to-day, not only with the ultra-refined,
but in the hearts of the theatre-going public, which, I doubt not, even
the most enthusiastic admirers among his contemporaries would not have
dared to hope for him; for, next to Moliere, no author of comedies appears
so often upon the stage of the Theatre-Francais as does the author of _le
Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard_.

In the very heart of Paris, and just back of the Hotel de Ville, stands
the church of Saint-Gervais, a church of comparatively little fascination
to the general student of art or history, although its mingling of
Flamboyant and Renaissance styles may attract the specialist in
architecture: but to the student of literary history it has a greater
interest, for it is here that "poor Scarron sleeps." and it was in this
parish that Pierre Cariet de Chamblain de Marivaux was born, and in this
church, doubtless, that he was christened, although the register of
baptism was destroyed at the time of the burning of the archives of the
Hotel de Ville, in May, 1871.

The date of his birth was February 4, 1688, a year noteworthy as
introducing to the public the first edition of the _Caracteres_ of La
Bruyere, with whom Marivaux has often been compared. His father was of an
old Norman family, which had had representatives in the _parlement_ of
that province.[2] Since then the family had "descended from the robe to
finance," following the expression of d'Alembert.[3] Ennobled by the robe,
they had assumed the name de Chamblain, but unfortunately the latter name
was common to certain financiers, and, to still better distinguish
themselves, the family had adopted the additional name of Marivaux.[4]
There seems, however, to have been no connection between them and the
lords of Marivaux (or Marivaulx), a branch of the house