Among the authors writing for the Theatre-Francais were such celebrities as Crebillon _pere_,[59] Voltaire, Destouches, etc. No lesser names than those of Lesage and Piron were the support of the Theatre de la Foire. It remained for Marivaux to render illustrious the Italian stage[60]. Here it was, then, on the fourth of March, 1720, that he made his debut before the public with a comedy in three acts, _l'Amour et la Verite_. It may be recalled that _Crispin l'heureux fourbe_ had been presented only in private. Perhaps to give himself confidence in a line as yet almost untried, and which, after his boasting of fourteen years before and his rather unsuccessful attempt, he had come to consider as not so "easy" after all, he may have sought the aid of one of his co-workers on the _Mercure_. At any rate, the play was written in collaboration with the Chevalier de Saint-Jory, and was the only piece in which Marivaux accepted similar aid, "except for the musical diversions of his plays."[61] _L'Amour et la Verite_ failed to please the public, but, as it was never printed, we cannot judge of its merits. However, that same year, Marivaux amply retrieved himself in the exquisite fairy-play of _Arlequin poli par l'Amour_, a comedy in one act, presented at the Theatre-Italien, October 20, and which Jules Lemaitre characterizes as perhaps of all his plays "the most purely poetical, in spite of the excess of _esprit_, and the one in which fancy is the freest."[62] It was greeted by the public with enthusiasm, and even such severe critics of Marivaux as La Harpe could find little to say against it,--that it "lacked intrigue" and had a "weak denouement " possibly, but after all that he had made of Harlequin, "of that ideal personage, who up to that time had only known how to provoke laughter," an "interesting" character "by making him in love."[63] The plot of the play is as follows: A fairy, enflamed with love for Harlequin, on account of his beauty, has caused him to be brought to her realm, but, in spite of all her charms and graces and her assiduous attentions, she cannot awaken love in him, nor change him from the rude and clownish fellow that he is; and it is not until he meets with Silvia, the shepherdess, that love is seen to be more potent than all the charms of fairy-land to make of simple Harlequin, as of Hawthorne's Faun, a man. The developing influence of love is the theme of the comedy, and, although the development is rapid, as befits a play, it is nevertheless by graduated stages. Each meeting of the lovers fans the flame, and the need of secrecy but stimulates their wit, until, at last, by a cunning wile, Harlequin gains possession of the fairy's wand and with it, of her power. This, of course, brings about the natural denouement, and the play ends to the satisfaction of the lovers.