Il (ne) faut (pas) parier : Le jeu et sa morale dans Le Page disgracié (1643)

Abstract

Gambling holds a central place in Tristan L’Hermite’s Le Page disgracié (1643). It is gaming, together with his passion for novels, that causes the disgrace of the protagonist, who is forced to flee to England and wander at length from place to place. A close analysis of this work shows that the author engages with a traditional and Christian-inspired moral criticism of gaming. And yet the work often passes for a libertine novel, which requires a detailed reflection on the value that Tristan L’Hermite attributes to gambling and to its criticism: should the novel be read as ironical or as using a libertine strategy of concealment? Or should we construe it as a religiously-inspired discourse revealing a vanitas? How are we to understand the apparent ambivalence of this deceptively simple and playful text? Perhaps the key to the novel lies in the identification of a model of wisdom drawn from Erasmus: Saint Socrates, embodied by two major figures met by the young man in his wanderings, the philosopher-alchemist whom he meets at the beginning of his exile and the “good old man” who soothes him on his return to France. As this patronage is brought to the fore, the deep consistency that lies at the heart of Tristan L’Hermite’s works from the 1640s suddenly comes to light.

Keywords

• Tristan L’Hermite
• Le Page disgracié
• La Mort de Sénèque
• La Folie du Sage
• Socrates
• Le Socrate chrestien