Droll Stories from the Abbeys of Touraine | Page 3

statement. You may however, if you wish, distribute this etext in
machine readable binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- cessing or
hypertext software, but only so long as *EITHER*:
[*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and does *not*
contain characters other than those intended by the author of the work,
although tilde (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may be used
to convey punctuation intended by the author, and additional characters
may be used to indicate hypertext links; OR
[*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at no expense into
plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent form by the program that displays
the etext (as is the case, for instance, with most word processors); OR
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at no additional
cost, fee or expense, a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form
(or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small
Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits
you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate
your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is due.
Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg
Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following
each date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual
(or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU
DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning
machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright
licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money
should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon

University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

Etext prepared by Ian Hodgson, [email protected] and Dagny,
[email protected]

DROLL STORIES COLLECTED FROM THE ABBEYS OF
TOURAINE Volume I: THE FIRST TEN TALES
by HONORE DE BALZAC

CONTENTS
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
THE FIRST TEN TALES
PROLOGUE THE FAIR IMPERIA THE VENIAL SIN HOW THE
GOOD MAN BRUYN TOOK A WIFE HOW THE SENESCHAL
STRUGGLED WITH HIS WIFE'S MODESTY THAT WHICH IS
ONLY A VENIAL SIN HOW AND BY WHOM THE SAID CHILD
WAS PROCURED HOW THE SAID LOVE-SIN WAS REPENTED
OF AND LED TO GREAT MOURNING THE KING'S
SWEETHEART THE DEVIL'S HEIR THE MERRIE JESTS OF
KING LOUIS THE ELEVENTH THE HIGH CONSTABLE'S WIFE
THE MAID OF THILOUSE THE BROTHER-IN-ARMS THE VICAR
OF AZAY-LE-RIDEAU THE REPROACH EPILOGUE

TRANSLATORS PREFACE
When, in March, 1832, the first volume of the now famous Contes
Drolatiques was published by Gosselin of Paris, Balzac, in a short
preface, written in the publisher's name, replied to those attacks which
he anticipated certain critics would make upon his hardy experiment.
He claimed for his book the protection of all those to whom literature
was dear, because it was a work of art--and a work of art, in the highest
sense of the word, it undoubtedly is. Like Boccaccio, Rabelais, the
Queen of Navarre, Ariosto, and Verville, the great author of The

Human Comedy has painted an epoch. In the fresh and wonderful
language of the Merry Vicar Of Meudon, he has given us a marvellous
picture of French life and manners in the sixteenth century. The gallant
knights and merry dames of that eventful period of French history stand
out in bold relief upon his canvas. The background in these life-like
figures is, as it were, "sketched upon the spot." After reading the
Contes Drolatiques, one could almost find one's way about the towns
and villages of Touraine, unassisted by map or guide. Not only is this
book a work of art from its historical information and topographical
accuracy; its claims to that distinction rest upon a broader foundation.
Written in the nineteenth century in imitation of the style of the
sixteenth, it is a triumph of literary archaeology. It is a model of that
which it professes to imitate; the production of a writer who, to
accomplish it, must have been at once historian, linguist, philosopher,
archaeologist, and anatomist, and each in no ordinary degree. In France,
his work has long been regarded as a classic--as a faithful picture of the
last days of the moyen age, when kings and princesses, brave
gentlemen and haughty ladies laughed openly at stories and jokes
which are considered disgraceful by their more fastidious descendants.
In England the difficulties of the language employed, and the
quaintness and peculiarity of its style, have placed it beyond the reach
of all but those thoroughly acquainted with the French of the sixteenth
century. Taking into consideration the vast amount of historical
information enshrined in its pages, the archaeological value which it
must always possess for the