Oświeceni się śmieją: O «Próbie» Marivaux
The Enlightened Laugh: Marivaux’s «L’Épreuve»

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses a late play by Pierre de Marivaux: L'Épreuve (The Test), which premiered in 1740 at Comédie-Italienne. The piece is situated in the context of the author’s life and work, with particular regard to his conflict with Voltaire and his relations with Riccoboni’s actors. L'Épreuve is approached as exemplifying Marivaux’s typical comedy, in which under a seemingly light and trivial plot lies a “dark image of the human soul”, quite remote from Enlightenment optimism: fausse gaieté, to borrow the term used by Lech Sokół. The article offers an analysis of the characters’ motivations, focusing on the function of playing with their social position in the eponymous test. The interpretation – examples of marivaudage, dramaturgic solutions, the construction of the characters, and the finale – is based on an unpublished Polish translation by Jerzy Radziwiłowicz, juxtaposed with the French original. The article also discusses the Polish reception of L'Épreuve: in the theatre (Teatr Polski, Poznań, 1985), in the TV (Teatr Telewizji, 1985) and in the radio (Teatr Polskiego Radia, 2013), and addresses the differences between three Polish (unpublished) translations: by Stanisław Hebanowski, Ewa Bułhak, and Jerzy Radziwiłowicz.

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