« Dans la foule du monde » : faire vivre le hors-scène

Interrogating the relationship to the offstage in La Mariane, La Mort de Sénèque, and Osman, this article explores on the one hand Tristan L'Hermite’s fondness for hypotyposis, which allows him to scatter a multitude of crowd effects throughout his plays and thus establish a collective horizon for his fables. On the other hand, by focusing on the symmetry and contrast between these different stories, he shows that, in addition to “populating” the plays, they participate more widely in their dramatic tension.