Abstract: Tristan’s tragedies are linked to poetry, to the “madness” of passion, the “dazzlement” of Petrarchan love. According to a conception emanating from Antiquity, the beloved lady appears to the eyes of the poet as a mirror of the wonders of the universe; but beware the errancies of an obsessional contemplation. For then, far from being an instrument of knowledge, as it is it for the page, the gaze risks serving deadly impulses, all the brutality of which is revealed by the mad hero.
