Abstract: Is “Le châtiment de Tartufe” (“The Punishment of Tartufe”) a caricature of Rimbaud taking aim at the figure of Napoleon III or a text-mask and satire of a cumbersome poetic elder, Victor Hugo? From an acrostic encrypted in the poem which forms the word « Juste » (Just) and which invites us to recognize Hugo as the designated target of the text, the author strives to demonstrate how, using the art of concealment, Rimbaud denounces the hypocrisy and the pretensions to Voyance of the man of Guernesey.
