Portrait de Charles VI en Nabuchodonosor. Positionnements rhétoriques dans les Dialogues de Pierre Salmon et Charles VI

Abstract

Crapelet, to date the only publisher of the Dialogues de Pierre Salmon et Charles VI in 1833, was suprised at the apparent indulgence with which the king tolerated the “impertinence” of his counselor, who goes as far as to liken him to Nebuchadnezzar, a king who, like him, was mad. This tolerance was attributed to the king’s madness. An attempt is made here to correct the presuppositions of this reading, which today still continues to influence the perception of the text and its iconography. Our approach falls within the pragmatics of a statement : the madness of the king, the reality of which cannot be contested, takes on in reality a strategic role in the rhetorical device which underlies the whole manuscript. What to Crapelet was a suspect comparison occurs in a topic of deliberative rhetoric that presupposes the Prince’s humility and wisdom ; the presumed weakness of the Prince is thus inverted into royal humility taking part in moral conversion and political reform.