Loading credits…
Hannibal takes refuge with Prusias in Nicomedia, where a promise that he will marry Laodice is challenged by Roman ambassador Flaminius, who also desires her. Marivaux uses the Roman's abuse of political power for private ends to expose imperial hypocrisy.
A fairy tries to make Arlequin love her, but he falls for Silvia, a shepherdess. With help from the fairy’s servant Trivelin, the pair outwit the fairy and plan to marry.
Raised by a fairy, Félicie asks for the gift of pleasing others. Her passionate love threatens to overwhelm her, and the fairy intervenes to discipline her.
Lucidor, a wealthy Parisian, tests whether Angélique loves him or his money by arranging for his valet, disguised as a rich suitor, to ask for her hand.
Eight shipwrecked French newcomers arrive on an island whose reasonable inhabitants grow to ordinary size as they recognize and correct their faults. The play satirizes vanity, deception, and self-interest through the visitors' changing stature.
After a shipwreck, two masters and their enslaved attendants arrive on an island where their social roles are reversed. The servants expose their masters’ conduct; the pairs ultimately reconcile and return to their original roles.
Hannibal takes refuge with Prusias in Nicomedia, where a promise that he will marry Laodice is challenged by Roman ambassador Flaminius, who also desires her. Marivaux uses the Roman's abuse of political power for private ends to expose imperial hypocrisy.
A fairy tries to make Arlequin love her, but he falls for Silvia, a shepherdess. With help from the fairy’s servant Trivelin, the pair outwit the fairy and plan to marry.
Raised by a fairy, Félicie asks for the gift of pleasing others. Her passionate love threatens to overwhelm her, and the fairy intervenes to discipline her.
Lucidor, a wealthy Parisian, tests whether Angélique loves him or his money by arranging for his valet, disguised as a rich suitor, to ask for her hand.
Eight shipwrecked French newcomers arrive on an island whose reasonable inhabitants grow to ordinary size as they recognize and correct their faults. The play satirizes vanity, deception, and self-interest through the visitors' changing stature.
After a shipwreck, two masters and their enslaved attendants arrive on an island where their social roles are reversed. The servants expose their masters’ conduct; the pairs ultimately reconcile and return to their original roles.
After a conquered group takes refuge on an island, men establish a government that excludes women. The women form their own council and challenge their dependence, though the comedy ends with a promise that their rights and interests will be respected.
An aristocratic prince stages an experiment to determine whether men or women were the first to be unfaithful. Four orphans, two boys and two girls, are raised in isolation and then released together to discover love, sex, and jealousy.
The prince kidnaps Silvia from her beloved Arlequin, intending to marry her. His servant Flaminia uses flattery and disguise to turn each lover toward someone else, and the prince’s revelation lets Silvia and Arlequin end their engagement and marry their new partners.
A young Parisian woman, promised in marriage to Lelio without having met him, disguises herself as a knight and befriends him. Lelio seeks her help to escape a marriage contract with a countess, but the disguised woman exposes his mercenary plans and asserts her independence.
Two sisters dress alike and hide their faces behind masks during a walk in a park. Their lover Ergaste mistakes one sister for the other, producing a series of misunderstandings before the sisters disappear together.
After being betrayed, Lélio renounces love and withdraws to the countryside, while the widowed countess also refuses to love. Their servants Arlequin and Columbine scheme to bring them together; they fall in love themselves, and the play ends with three couples united.
Rosimond travels from Paris to marry Hortense, a provincial woman chosen by his parents. Expecting her to be impressed by his courtly reputation, he treats her impertinently; Hortense decides she will not marry him unless he changes his manners.
Angélique loves Dorante but resists marrying a wealthy middle-class man because of her aristocratic rank. Dorante tests her by proposing a disguised alternative suitor; when her father offers her younger sister instead, Angélique reveals that she cannot bear to lose Dorante.
On the day of Angélique and Éraste's wedding, Merlin improvises a comedy with fellow actors. The one-act play uses rehearsal and performance to create confusion between theatrical fiction and reality.
Financially ruined Dorante loves the wealthy widow Araminte. His former valet Dubois engineers false confidences, portraits and letters to make Araminte believe Dorante's passion is sincere; amid competing marriage plans and a legal case, the deceptions eventually lead Araminte to admit her love and Dubois to claim victory.
Two couples pride themselves on absolute sincerity but use it mainly to criticize others. When the Marquise and Ergaste become romantically involved, their candid remarks wound each other; she ultimately turns to Dorante, while Ergaste marries Araminte.
In an unfinished prose tragedy, Ibrahim tells captive Greek princess Irène that Mahomet intends to marry her. Irène rejects the sultan’s offer and despises Ibrahim for serving the Turks; Mahomet then arranges her marriage to Lascaris, while Roxane and Lascaris profess love.
A young woman and her fiancé each disguise themselves as servants to judge one another before marriage. They fall in love without recognizing each other’s status, while their servants imitate their masters and become a second couple.
Léonide, Princess of Sparta, disguises herself as a man to enter the home of her enemy Hermocrates, where she has fallen in love with Agis, the rightful heir she plans to restore to the throne. To remain there, she invents shifting identities and entangles Hermocrates and his sister Hesione in her scheme before revealing herself and asking Agis to marry her.