The first printed version of the famous Tales of Margaret of Navarre,
issued in Paris in the year 1558, under the title of “Histoires des
Amans Fortunez,” was extremely faulty and imperfect. It comprised but
sixty-seven of the seventy-two tales written by the royal author, and
the editor, Pierre Boaistuau, not merely changed the order of those
narratives which he did print, but suppressed numerous passages in them,
besides modifying much of Margaret’s phraseology. A somewhat similar
course was adopted by Claude Gruget, who, a year later, produced what
claimed to be a complete version of the stories, to which he gave the
general title of the _Heptameron_, a name they have ever since retained.
Although he reinstated the majority of the tales in their proper
sequence, he still suppressed several of them, and inserted others in
their place, and also modified the Queen’s language after the fashion
set by Boaistuau. Despite its imperfections, however, Gruget’s version
was frequently reprinted down to the beginning of the eighteenth
century, when it served as the basis of the numerous editions of the
_Heptameron_ in _beau langage_, as the French phrased it, which then
began to make their appearance. It served, moreover, in the one or the
other form, for the English and other translations of the work, and down
to our own times was accepted as the standard version of the Queen
of Navarre’s celebrated tales. Although it was known that various
contemporary MSS. were preserved at the French National Library in
Paris, no attempt was made to compare Gruget’s faulty version with the
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._