Mme de Merteuil and M. de Prévan: Scandal and Antagonism

The Marquise de Merteuil and M. de Prévan are linked by an antagonism whose decisive recorded scene is a public reversal. After an earlier, unspecified “adventure” involving Prévan, he had not appeared in public; when he returns, the crowd’s treatment of the two makes their conflict a spectacle and leaves Merteuil isolated. The account does not detail the earlier episode, so the precise origin of their opposition remains unstated here.

The Public Reversal

The scene takes place after Merteuil returns from the country and attends the Italian Comedy Theatre, where she has her own box. She is alone, and no man comes to join her during the performance. In the crowded salon afterward, she sits on an empty bench; the women already there rise together and leave her by herself. The gesture turns social exclusion into a visible collective judgment, applauded by the men present and followed by louder murmurs and reported jeers.

Prévan enters at that moment. Men and women gather around him and applaud, effectively carrying him through the crowd toward Merteuil. The contrast is pointed: the woman left conspicuously alone faces the man publicly welcomed back. The account says she appeared not to see or hear the reaction and did not change expression, but its reporter doubts that this detail is reliable. The humiliation, by contrast, is presented as unmistakable and lasts until her carriage is announced; the jeering intensifies as she departs.

Reputation and Reinstatement

The scene reverses their public standing. Merteuil’s earlier absence from the company has not protected her from its judgment; on this return, the women’s coordinated withdrawal and the men’s approval mark her as disgraced. Prévan, who had likewise been absent after the earlier affair, receives the crowd’s approval instead. Officers from his corps welcome him that evening, and his restoration to his post and rank is confidently expected. The account thus shows public opinion operating not merely as talk but as a force that can isolate one person while helping restore another.

Aftermath and Limits of the Record

The report connects the humiliation in time with Merteuil’s sudden severe fever the following night. Smallpox is diagnosed soon afterward, described as confluent and of a very bad character. The narrator also notes that the scandal may damage her pending lawsuit, but presents that consequence as a possibility rather than a settled result. Later news confirms that Merteuil survives the illness but is disfigured and loses an eye; she then loses the suit unanimously, with costs, damages, and restitution awarded to the minors opposing her. These later reversals deepen the account of her fall, but the evidence does not establish that Prévan caused either the illness or the legal defeat.

The episode’s force lies in the sharply staged contrast between ostracism and acclaim. It records the public consequences of the antagonism without fully recounting its original cause, and makes the crowd’s response—not a private exchange between the two—the clearest measure of their changed positions.