The early 1720s had been very important…
January 1730 CE
The early 1720s had been very important for French playwright Pierre de Marivaux; he has written a comedy (now mostly lost) called L'Amour et la vérité, another comedy, Arlequin poli par l'amour, and an unsuccessful tragedy, Annibal (printed 1737).
He had in about 1721 married a Mlle. Martin, but she had died shortly thereafter.
He had meanwhile lost all of his inheritance money when he invested it in the Mississippi scheme; his pen now became almost his sole resource.
Marivaux has a connection with both the fashionable theaters: Annibal had played at the Comédie Française and Arlequin poli at the Comédie Italienne.
He has also endeavored to start a weekly newspaper, the Spectateur Français, to which he was the sole contributor, but his irregular work ethic had killed the paper after less than two years.
Thus, for nearly twenty years, the theater, especially the Comédie Italienne, is to be Marivaux's chief support.
His plays are well received by the actors of the Comédie Française, but are rarely successful there.
The Game of Love and Chance (French: Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard), a three-act romantic comedy by Marivaux, is first performed January 23, 1730 by the Comédie Italienne.
In this play, a young woman is visited by her betrothed, whom she does not know.
To get a better idea of the type of person he is, she trades places with her servant and disguises herself.
However, unbeknownst to her, her fiancé has the same idea and trades places with his valet.
The "game" pits the two false servants against the two false masters, and in the end, the couples fall in love with their appropriate counterpart.
Like many of Marivaux's other comedies, The Game of Love and Chance makes use of stock characters from the Commedia dell'arte.
Arlequin is featured in this play.
Lisette, who appears in other Marivaux plays, also takes on a stock personality as the feisty servant.
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