The Tales of the Heptameron, Vol. I | Page 2

originals until the Société des Bibliophiles Français
entrusted this delicate task to M. Le Roux de Lincy, whose labours led
to some most valuable discoveries, enabling him to produce a really
authentic version of Margaret's admired masterpiece, with the
suppressed tales restored, the omitted passages reinstated, and the
Queen's real language given for the first time in all its simple
gracefulness.
It is from the authentic text furnished by M. Le Roux de Lincy that the
present translation has been made, without the slightest suppression or
abridgment. The work moreover contains all the more valuable notes to
be found in the best French editions of the Heptameron, as well as
numerous others from original sources, and includes a résumé of the
various suggestions made by MM. Félix Frank, Le Roux de Lincy, Paul

Lacroix, and A. de Montaiglon, towards the identification of the
narrators of the stories, and the principal actors in them, with
well-known personages of the time. An Essay on the Heptameron from
the pen of Mr. George Saintsbury, M.A., and a Life of Queen Margaret,
are also given, as well as the quaint Prefaces of the earlier French
versions; and a complete bibliographical summary of the various
editions which have issued from the press.
It may be supposed that numerous illustrated editions have been
published of a work so celebrated as the Heptameron, which, besides
furnishing scholars with a favourite subject for research and speculation,
has, owing to its perennial freshness, delighted so many generations of
readers. Such, however, is not the case. Only two fully illustrated
editions claim the attention of connoisseurs. The first of these was
published at Amsterdam in 1698, with designs by the Dutch artist,
Roman de Hooge, whose talent has been much overrated. To-day this
edition is only valuable on account of its comparative rarity. Very
different was the famous edition illustrated by Freudenberg, a Swiss
artist--the friend of Boucher and of Greuze--which was published in
parts at Berne in 1778-81, and which among amateurs has long
commanded an almost prohibitive price.
The Full-page Illustrations to the present translation are printed from
the actual copperplates engraved for the Berne edition by Longeuil,
Halbou, and other eminent French artists of the eighteenth century,
after the designs of S. Freudenberg. There are also the one hundred and
fifty elaborate head and tail pieces executed for the Berne edition by
Dunker, well known to connoisseurs as one of the principal engravers
of the Cabinet of the Duke de Choiseul.
The Portrait of Queen Margaret placed as frontispiece to the present
volume is from a crayon drawing by Clouet, preserved at the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Ernest A. Vizetelly.
London,

1893.

Explanation of the Initials appended to the Notes.
B.J...Bibliophile Jacob, i.e. Paul Lacroix.
D.....F. Dillaye.
F.....Félix Frank.
L.....Le Roux de Lincy.
M.....Anatole de Montaiglon.
Ed....E. A. Vizetelly.

MARGARET OF ANGOULÊME, QUEEN OF NAVARRE.

I.
Louise of Savoy; her marriage with the Count of Angouleme-- Birth of
her children Margaret and Francis--Their father's early death--Louise
and her children at Amboise--Margaret's studies and her brother's
pastimes--Marriage of Margaret with the Duke of Alençon--Her
estrangement from her husband-- Accession of Francis I.--The Duke of
Alençon at Marignano-- Margaret's Court at Alençon--Her personal
appearance--Her interest in the Reformation and her connection with
Clement Marot--Lawsuit between Louise of Savoy and the Constable de
Bourbon.
In dealing with the life and work of Margaret of Angouleme (1) it is
necessary at the outset to refer to the mother whose influence and
companionship served so greatly to mould her daughter's career.

1 This Life of Margaret is based upon the memoir by M, Le Roux de
Lincy prefixed to the edition of the Heptameron issued by the Société
des Bibliophiles Français, but various errors have been rectified, and
advantage has been taken of the researches of later biographers.
Louise of Savoy, daughter of Count Philip of Bresse, subsequently
Duke of Savoy, was born at Le Pont d'Ain in 1477, and upon the death
of her mother, Margaret de Bourbon, she married Charles d'Orléans,
Count of Angoulême, to whom she brought the slender dowry of
thirty-five thousand livres. (1) She was then but twelve years old, her
husband being some twenty years her senior. He had been banished
from the French Court for his participation in the insurrection of
Brittany, and was living in straitened circumstances. Still, on either side
the alliance was an honourable one. Louise belonged to a sovereign
house, while the Count of Angoulême was a prince of the blood royal
of France by virtue of his descent from King Charles V., his
grandfather having been that monarch's second son, the notorious Duke
Louis of Orleans, (2) who was murdered in Paris in 1417 at the
instigation of John the Bold of Burgundy.
1 The value of the Paris livre at