'Abundant, if Somewhat Precious Wit'

In Wednesday’s post I quoted an 1895 profile of Max Beerbohm in which the anonymous writer referred to Beerbohm’s reputed “passion for paradox and marivaudage.” This was the first time I had ever published a word with a definition unknown to me: marivaudage. I couldn’t even guess its meaning. I checked the OED but left it undefined because I was curious to see the reaction of readers, most of whom I assumed would likewise be ignorant of its meaning. As Nige put it in a comment: “Marivaudage! There’s a wonderful word, and new to me.” 

When I encounter a previously unknown word I normally take a guess based on context then consult the dictionary. Marivaudage left me baffled. The OED: “Exaggerated sentiment expressed in affected language, after the style of Marivaux; a verbose and affected style.” Another perplexity: I recognized the name “Marivaux” but had never read any of his work and wasn’t even certain when he was alive. Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763) was a French playwright and novelist, who appears never to have had much of a reputation in the English-speaking world.

 

The dictionary’s first citation, from a letter by Horace Walpole, dates from two years after Marivaux’s death: “an established term for being prolix and tiresome” – certainly not terms one would use to describe Beerbohm’s prose. Next, from 1882, is a passage from George Saintsbury’s Short History of French Literature:

 

“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 exists 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.”

 

A very mixed review. The final citation is drawn from Frederic Raphael’s Byron, a 1982 biography of the poet: “Their romance dwindled into a matter more of ardent marivaudage than of passionate demonstration.”

 

Again, unjust when applied to Beerbohm but useful when considering thousands of insufferably precious rom-coms.