Abstract
This stylistic study focuses on lines 269 to 306 of La Suite du Menteur by Corneille. The passage has less to do with the main plot than with a transversal and metaliterary perspective: connecting The Suite with The Liar, justifying its somewhat enigmatic title, commenting, not without self-deprecation, on the writing, the representations and the effect of the previous comedy. Like a palimpsest, one of those ancient parchments from which the writing has been removed in order to superimpose another text, the micro-narrative of the play mentioned by Cliton forms a strong compositional, thematic and rhythmic unity and perfectly illustrates Corneille’s questioning, which beginning’s play will experiment and exemplify: topical dialectic of being and appearance, but also principles of literary creation and the nature of the comic, which Corneille renews here by multiplying specular games and mise en abyme effects.