Heptaméron
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The Heptaméron is a collection of 72
Many of the stories deal with love, lust, infidelity, and other romantic and sexual matters. One was based on the life of Marguerite de La Rocque, a French noblewoman who was punished by being abandoned with her lover on an island off Quebec. In 1973, the French director Claude Pierson (1930-1997) made an adaptation of this work, entitled Ah! Si mon moine voulait…, with Alice Arno in the cast.
History of the text
The collection first appeared in print in 1558 under the title Histoires des amans fortunez edited by Pierre Boaistuau, who took considerable liberties with the original version; he used only 67 of the stories, many in abbreviated form, and omitted much of the significant material between the stories. He also transposed stories and ignored their grouping into days as envisaged by the author. A second edition by Claude Gruget appeared only a year later in which the editor claimed to have "restored the order previously confused in the first impression". Also the prologues and epilogues to each short story left out by Boaistuau were put back and the work was given, for the first time, the title Heptaméron (from the Greek ἑπτά – "seven" and ἡμέρα – "day") due to the seven-day time frame into which the first 70 short stories are grouped.
The first complete English translation, by Arthur Machen, appeared in 1886.[2] The most recent translation is by Paul Chilton in 1984 for Penguin Books.
Summary of the "Prologue"
In the "Prologue" to The Heptameron, Parlamente, having obtained her husband Hircan's permission to do so, makes bold to ask Lady Oisille to devise an appropriate means by which the company of stranded guests, who are waiting for the building of a
Lady Oisille agrees to Parlamente's recommendation, provided that the stories are true.
Sample story summarized
Saffrendent tells the third story, which is set in Naples, Italy, during the reign of King Alfonso.
During a carnival, the king visits his subjects’ homes as they vie to provide him the best hospitality. As he visits a happily married young couple, he is smitten by the wife’s beauty, and he sends her husband to Rome for a couple weeks on trumped-up business. While the husband is away, the king succeeds in seducing the wife. After a while, the husband becomes suspicious of his wife’s fidelity. He bides his time in silence, hoping for the opportunity to avenge himself.
He convinces the queen that he loves her and that she deserves to be treated better by her husband, who dishonors her in cuckolding him. They agree to an adulterous affair between themselves, so that the nobleman cuckolds the king who has cuckolded him. Whenever the nobleman visits his country estates, the king visits his wife, but secretly lusts after men. Instead of going to his estates, the nobleman now goes to the castle to dally with the queen, while the king commits adultery with his wife. The affairs continue for years, well into the couples’ old age.
Like many stories of this sort, Saffredent’s tale deals with the theme of cuckoldry and depends on both dramatic and situational irony for its plot and effects.
See also
References
- ISSN 0031-2746.
- ^ The Heptameron, or, Tales and Novels of Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, now first completely done into English prose and verse from the original French by Arthur Machen, privately printed, 1886.
- An online exhibition of work in the Gordon Collection of French Books at the University of Virginia Library
- The Heptameron (English Translation by P.A. Chilton), 1984. Reprint 2004. ISBN 978-0-14-044355-4
External links
- Illustrated Edition of the Heptameron
- English translation of the Heptameron
- English translation of the Heptameron at Project Gutenberg:
- The Heptameron of the Tales of Margaret, Queen of Navarre public domain audiobook at LibriVox