Winning the heart of the beloved became the stage for a theater of maskings and unmaskings (what's new?). A unique invention for attaining the goal in this environment of artifice evolved. "Think of it as an
18th-C. 'Love Potion No. 9' ," the Abbé
(who, in spite of his mystical preoccupations, is into American 50's and 60's rock music, and has been spotted blowing along the Rue Vaugirard with earphones and attitude!)
once remarked. Marivaudage of course, instead being in the form of a drink, is applied verbally, through elegance and indirection. Such a series of exchanges,
"un enchaînement des repliques",
thus acquired a certain "precious" character, utilizing double-entendre and sharp nuance, and became designated as "marivaudage". For an example with a short discussion, click here!.
The Abbé has further observed that it is the gradual unmasking of adoration (see Adorer), that is the essence of marivaudage. If, in its most esssential
form, marivaudage aims at coaxing love from the beloved by means of stratagems, then it also captures one of the essential contradictions of Paris -- of the light and shadow sides of the city that is romantic and enchanted but also somehow calculating and remorseless. Everyone is or wants to be in love or loved, everyone understands
the Rules of the Game
and yet almost all rules can be broken in the pursuit of l'amour. And there is no threat of the contemporary phenomenon of "stalking" in Marivaux: a heart in love is a heart ennobled, and its primary law is to obey the wishes of the beloved. But how much closer is such a heart to abasement and humiliation by consequence of its own nobility!
Mastery of marivaudage -- if one can transpose it out of the 18th-C. and into our terms -- is no guarantee that one's heart will not be broken. But it can increase one's level of skill at the game! Saint-Sulpice hopes you will enjoy the bizarre conformity to our own world, of Marivaux's vision of the heart.