said that Diderot succeeded better in two
small pieces, _La Piece et le Prologue_ and _Est-il Bon? Est-il
Mechant?_ which were never acted. It should perhaps also be explained
that the peculiarity of what was almost indifferently called _tragedie
bourgeoise_ and _comedie larmoyante_ is the choice of possible
situations in real life, which neither of the two conventional
treatments of heroic tragedy and comedy purely comic can afford. Many
writers followed La Chaussee and Diderot. Of these the most important
perhaps was Saurin, who, not content with regular tragedy and comedy,
obtained much success with _Beverley_, an adaptation of Moore's
_Gamester_, of which Diderot wrote an unacted version.

_L'Ecole des Bourgeois_ and _L'Embarras des Richesses_, by D'Allainval,
one of the few French writers who experienced the privations of their
English contemporaries in Grub Street, are good pieces, and so are the
short _La Pupille_ and the _Originaux_ of Fagan, a clerk in the public
service, who, like Lesage and Piron (Colle and Panard may be added),
wrote vaudevilles, _parades_, etc. for the Theatre de la Foire. In the
titles of most of these pieces the close following of Moliere, which was
usual, and wisely usual, during the first half of the century, may be
noticed.

[Sidenote: Marivaux.]

The same tradition is observed in one of the best comedies of the
century, the _Mechant_ of Gresset, which, like his poem of _Ver-Vert_,
had a great success, and deserved it, being equally good as literature
and as drama. Marivaux, without, perhaps, attaining as positive an
excellence, was more original, and very much more productive. The
fullest edition of his dramatic works contains thirty-two pieces, and
even this is not complete. Several of them, _Le Jeu de l'Amour et du
Hasard_, 1730, _Le Legs_, 1736, _Les Fausses Confidences_, 1737, have
continued to be popular. All the work of Marivaux, dramatic and
non-dramatic, is pervaded more or less by a peculiarity which at the
time received the name of Marivaudage. This peculiarity consists partly
in the sentiment, and partly in the phraseology. The former is
characteristic of the eighteenth century, disguising a considerable
affectation under a mask of simplicity, and the latter (sparkling with
abundant, if somewhat precious wit) is ingeniously constructed to suit
it and carry it off.

Of the three greatest literary names of the time, Diderot, it has been
seen, tried the theatre not too ha