Ambiguity and Concealment in La Folie du sage (1645) by Tristan L’Hermite

This article suggests that the omnipresent themes of ambiguity and concealment in La Folie du sage are comparable to a system of rhetoric that allows us to see the heterodox nature of content that we might not otherwise grasp. It encourages us to consider Tristan as subversive, by showing how dramatic and rhetorical techniques can lead us to seek out a transgressive layer of meaning that the author could not reasonably have made explicit. By dressing Ariste in the guise of folly, Tristan is making numerous allusions not only to radical stoicism and to material epicureanism, but also to the notion of religion as political imposture.