ughing at me, and I do not know why, for on
that day I was no more ridiculous than usual." Upon an assurance from
Marmontel that he was not the object of their amusement, he declared that
he believed him, but it is doubtful whether he ever quite forgave him or
forgot the fact.

This habit of suspiciousness grew upon Marivaux with age; but we must
return to his early years at Paris and to his first literary attempts,
after this long digression, which has served, I hope, to give something of
an idea of the _milieu_ in which he moved, and of the influences at work
upon the formation of his talent.

He had made his debut, as has been said, with _le Pere prudent_ in 1706.
This was followed a few years later by three mediocre novels. The first of
these, written in 1712, though not published" until 1737, appeared under
the several titles of _Pharsamon_, _les Folies romanesques_, and _le Don
Quichotte moderne_, and was, as one of the titles discloses, an attack
upon the romantic novel, as exemplified in those of Mlle. de Scudery. It
must not be considered a parody, but rather a weak imitation of Cervantes'
_Don Quijote_. He was no more successful in _les Aventures de..., ou les
Effets surprenants de la sympathie_ (1713-1714), written, in much the same
style, or in _la Voiture embourbee_,[31] which appeared between the two
publications of the former. This latter follows a familiar device: that is
to say, one of the personages of the main narrative begins a story. which
is continued by another when he reaches the end of his imagination, and so
on. The purpose of the story was to turn to ridicule romantic love, but,
following the expression of Fournier, it advanced only "cahin-caha, comme
le pauvre coche dont il contait les accidents, et il finit par s'embourber
avec lui."[32] He somewhat redeemed himself in 1715 with _le Triomphe de
Bilboquet, ou la Defaite de l'Esprit, de l'Amour et de la Raison_, a fancy
inspired by the game of cup and ball, so much in vogue at that period that
it threatened to usurp the time and rights of conversation, and had even
made its way upon the stage, in which simple matter Marivaux found
occasion for moral observation.

In 1717 he allied himself with _le Nouveau Mercure_, a paper devoted to
the interests of the _Modernes_ as against those of the _Anciens_. This
quarrel over the comparative merits of the ancient and modern writers,
begun in the first half of the seventeenth century with the abbe de B