His childhood was passed at Riom in Auvergne, where his father had been appointed director of the Mint.  Gossot declares that Marivaux was six years of age when he was taken to Riom,[6] but does not give his authority for the statement.  It is certain, however, that he was so young at the time that some of his contemporaries supposed he had been born there.[7] Marivaux received his early education at Riom, and later at Limoges, where the family went to dwell, and where his father was perhaps again connected with the Mint.

His biographers differ with regard to the education he received.  His earliest biographer, de La Porte, maintains that his father “ne negligea rien pour l’education de son fils, qui annonca de bonne heure, par des progres rapides dans ses premieres etudes, cette finesse d’esprit qui caracterise ses ouvrages."8] Lesbros de la Versane gives the same testimony:  “Ses heureuses dispositions lui firent profiter de celle (the education) qu’il recut,” and adds:  “Il fut admire de ses maitres, et il a fait les delices de tous ceux qui l’ont connu."[9] There is no reason why we should not accept the testimony of one who, in general, is so judicious in his statements as is de La Porte, and, particularly, when the adverse testimony comes from so evidently prejudiced a writer as Palissot.[10]

D’Alembert follows the testimony of Palissot and others, although he confesses that they are “in truth very ill disposed” towards Marivaux, and adds that perhaps they have very unjustly accused him of ignorance of Latin.  Their pardoning him his lack of knowledge of Greek, d’Alembert cleverly ascribes to that “indulgent equity” which does not require of one’s fellows that which one lacks himself.[11] The following extract from the Spectateur will prove that, while Marivaux could read the Greek writers in translations only, he was able to read Latin in the original:  “Si c’est une traduction du grec, et qu’elle m’ennuie, je penche a croire que l’auteur y a perdu; si c’est du latin, comme je le sais, je me livre sans facon au degout ou au plaisir qu’il me donne."[12] It is also known that he completed his law studies and might have practiced, but for the hatred which he, in common with so many other young litterateurs in times past, had conceived for the profession.

Admitted early to the best society of Limoges, Marivaux enjoyed advantages from which he gained the polish that made him acceptable in the Paris salons of which he was later an habitue, When he was but seventeen years of age there occurred an incident, which, if it did not have so serious an effect upon his life as he himself believed, at least was not without its influence in fostering that spirit of observation and inquiry, not to say scepticism, with regard to the motives that influence his fellow man, which was so prominent a characteristic of this writer.  Marivaux describes the incident in the first feuille of the Spectateur francais, and, inasmuch as the sketch gives an excellent idea of the man, I translate it in full.