Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 11-30-08
Marguerite de Navarre
/Marguerite d'Angouleme (1492-1549)
========================================================================
"NOW I OBSERVED THE MAJESTY OF KINGS."
========================================================================
Marguerite was born into the royal family of France; her brother Francis, two years younger, was in line for the throne, but only if the reigning king had no heir. The two children were raised in Angouleme by their widowed mother, Louise de Savoie, and educated together. When Marguerite was 17, she was married to Charles, Duke of Alencon. For six years Marguerite lived quietly at Alencon; the couple had no children.
In 1515, Francis became king; he continued the campaigns to conquer northern Italy that the French had been conducting since the year of his birth, and during his absences his mother acted as regent. Marguerite was often traveling with the court, and, in the early 1520s, she became involved in the movement for the reform of the church, meeting and corresponding with the leading reformers of the period.
Francis was captured by Emperor Charles V of Spain in 1525 and taken as hostage to Madrid. Shortly after, Marguerite's husband died of wounds received in the battle in which Francis was captured. Since their mother was acting as regent and so could not leave France, Marguerite went to Madrid to work for Francis' release.
In 1527 Marguerite married Henri d'Albret, King of Navarre (though most of his kingdom was in Spanish hands). She was 10 years older than her husband and they seem to have had little in common, but the marriage produced two children: a daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, (who would become the next Queen of Navarre) and a son who died five months after his birth.
Marguerite had begun to write devotional poetry as early as 1523 (including one long poem, Dialogue en forme de vision nocturne); but it wasn't until after the death of her son in 1530 that she allowed a poem to be published, Miroir de l'ame pecheresse (Mirror of the sinful soul).
The publication of Miroir and Marguerite's contacts with reformers worried some church leaders but, for a while at least, Francis supported her. During the 1530s she wrote secular and religious lyrics, as well as plays that were staged at her court and elsewhere. She also played an active role in influencing Francis' policies. Toward the end of the decade, though, Francis began to act against the reformers who were Marguerite's friends, and her influence with him waned, although it was never completely lost. Marguerite now spent more time at her own court in Alencon and in her husband's lands in the southwest, and she continued to write. It was probably in the early 1540's that La Coche, ou le Debat de l'amour (The coach, or the debate on love) and Le triomphe de l'agneau (The triumph of the lamb) were written.
After Francis' death in 1547, Marguerite published a two-volume
collection of her works: Les Marguerites de la Marguerite
des princesses tresillustre royne de Navarre (The pearls
of the pearl of princesses...) and Suyte des Marguerites.....
Both volumes included plays, lyrics, and longer poems ---- examples
of each of the genres she had used. She then wrote her two final
poems: Le navire (The ship), a dramatic dialogue on Francis'
death; and Les prisons, which in many ways reviews her
entire life. She continued to work on a collection of tales that
had been begun some years earlier, one inspired by Boccaccio's
Decameron. This last was unfinished at her death but published
ten years later as Heptameron des nouvelles.
Most of Marguerite's poems and letters have not yet been translated
into English, but enough is available to show the reader a fuller
picture of the witty author of the Heptameron.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Miroir de l'ame pecheresse
Comedie des quatre femmes
La Coche, ou le Debat de l'amour
Le triomphe de l'agneau
Les prisons
Heptameron des nouvelles
Information about secondary sources.
========================================================================
1. Complete translations of the Heptameron (neither based on the most complete edition; for that, see P.A. Chilton's 1984 version below, under "In print"):
(a) The first volume of a five-volume translation, The Heptameron of the Tales of Margaret, Queen of Navarre (1894); you can link to the other four volumes. Click on "On the Heptameron" for an 1892 essay by George Saintsbury. At the end of Volume 5, see "The Supposed Narrators of the Heptameron Tales" for some conjectures on the identity of the story-tellers, as well as an annotated bibliography of early editions. All five volumes include engravings from a 1778-81 edition by S. Freudenberg.
(b) The Heptameron of Margaret, Queen of Navarre, translated by Walter K. Kelly (c.1855). You can link to Navarre's opening chapter, here called "Introduction," and to the tales and comments of the story-tellers of each of the eight days (although there are omissions and the translation is sometimes inaccurate). The "Preface" and "Memoir" are by Kelly.
3. Parts of Heptameron from other translators:
(a) A link to the text of The Fortunate Lovers: Twenty-seven Novels of the Queen of Navarre (1887), translated by Arthur Machen, with an introduction and notes by Agnes Mary Frances Robinson; you can also download the book as a PDF file.
(b) From Chilton, the fourth tale of the first day (Tale #4), with the conversation that follow it.
4. Links to each of the pages of Barry Collett's 2000 study A Long and Troubled Pilgrimage: The Correspondence of Marguerite d'Angouleme and Vittoria Colonna, 1540-1545. The entire study is of interest, but link to "Appendix B" for Collett's translation of three letters by Navarre and two by Colonna; "Appendix D" will give you the original Italian of the five letters (for more on Collett's book, see "Secondary sources").
5. A third of the way down the page, a passage from a letter, written at what Navarre calls "my advanced age," on the effects of reading the Bible.
6. Complete works in French:
(a) The 1531 Miroir de l'ame pecheresse.
(b) A link to the text of Dernieres Poesies de Marguerite de Navarre (1896), edited by Abel Lefranc; it includes the complete Les prisons (p.121) and Le navire (p. 385); see the "Table des Matieres" near the end for the pages numbers of the other poems. You can download the book as a PDF file.
(c) At the left, links to each section of the Heptameron; and under those, links to five tales that have appeared in some manuscripts but whose attribution is not certain.
7. Also in French, lyrics and lines from verse dramas:
(a) Fourteen links: to 12 individual lyrics; and to two collections of chansons spirituelles (verses written to be set to existing music): the first collection, Pensees de la reine de Navarre, made up of 17 poems written in 1547 while Marguerite was traveling across France trying (unsuccessfuly) to reach Francis before his death; the second collection, Autres pensees, made up of 12 poems written in the months after her brother's death.
(b) Two other poems: "J'ai longuement senti dedans mon coeur"; and lines from Comedie du Desert, one of the biblical plays Navarre wrote for presentation at her court.
(c) "Si quelque injure l'on vous dit," (the portrait shown here can be seen more clearly in #12 below.)
(d) Lines from a longer poem "Belle ame de mon corps, bel esprit de mon ame."
8. Original editions:
(a) Links to the individual pages of the two 1547 volumes: Marguerites de la Marguerite des princesses tresillustres royne de Nauarre, and the Suyte des Marguerites (for the contents and for the page numbers of individual works, see the bibliography at #9a below). Suyte des Marguerites begins in images 541-60; La Coche, ou le Debat de l'amour (with illustrations) begins in images 801-20.
(b) With a biography, links to some pages of other early printed editions of the works: the 1558 Les Marguerites, and the 1560 Heptameron (including all of the Prologue and tales #2 & #40).
(c) A colored illustration from a different early edition of La Coche. (The caption given here speaks of Marguerite's meeting musicians; however, her own directions to the first illustrator describe the group at the left as her courtiers, "men and women... talking and laughing together.")
9. Essays:
(a) Click on "Traduction" for a translation of Regine Reynolds-Cornell's 2003 essay on Marguerite, followed by a bibliography of her writings, valuable because it gives the complete contents of her collections, Les Marguerites de la Marguerite des Princesses and Suyte des Marguerites. (At the same site, a 2004 biography by Mary Beth Winn of Louise de Savoie, useful for its description of Marguerite's early life.)
(b) A link to the text of Hugh Noel Williams' 1916 biography, The Pearl of Princesses; The Life of Marguerite d'Angouleme, Queen of Navarre; although recent research calls into question some of the details, Williams does quote substantially from Marguerite's correspondence. You can also download the work as a PDF file.
(c) "'Tout mon office':Body Politics and Family Dynamics in the Verse Epitres of Marguerite de Navarre" (2001), by Leah Middlebrook, discusses Marguerite's relationship with her mother and brother by looking at poems she wrote between 1528 and 1530.
(d) "Appeals for Pity in the Heptameron" (2001) by Mary J. Baker, looks at the opening and at several of the tales to illustrate Marguerite's Christian view of the quality of mercy and to compare that with Montaigne's more secular view. Baker gives the original and her own translation of passages cited.
(e) "Guilty Sisters: Marguerite de Navarre, Elizabeth of England, and the Miroir de l'ame pecheresse" (2000), by Susan Snyder, speculates on the significance of Marguerite's use of the word "sister" in her early poem (and, briefly, on Elizabeth Tudor's 1544 translation of the work).
(f) "Magdalen's skull: allegory and iconography in Heptameron 32" (1994) by Francois Rigolot, discusses the tale in which an unfaithful wife is forced to drink out of her murdered lover's skull; Rigolet deals with both the tale and the story-tellers' comments on it.
(g) "'Voicy nouvelle joye...': Evangelical Humanism in the Poetry of Marguerite de Navarre" (1993), by Kenneth Lloyd-Jones, who finds in the poems, especially in the third book of Les Prisons, Marguerite's view of free will.
(h) "Personal Ties: Book I of Marguerite de Navarre's Les Prisons" (1991), by Sheri Wolfe Valentine, gives a close reading of the first part of the poem, seeing it as an expression of Marguerite's lack of fulfillment in human relationships.
(i) "Narrating the 'Truth': The Problematics of Verisimilitude in the Heptameron Prologue" (1989), by Dora E. Polachek, analyzes the work's opening to show both the author's creation of the illusion of reality and the undermining of that illusion.
(j) An English-language review by Cathleen M. Bauschatz of a 2000 French edition of Les Comedies bibliques, the four plays probably wriiten in the 1530s (Comedie de la Nativite de Jesus Christ, Comedie de l'Adoration des Trois Rois a Jesus Christ, Comedie des Innocents, and Comedie du Desert).
10. Other reviews (for excerpts from Shell, see "In print"; for information on the other books' treatment of Marguerite, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Sara Jayne Steen on Marc Shell's 1993 modernized transcription of Eizabeth Tudor's translation of Miroir de l'ame pecheresse, Elizabeth's Glass: with "The glass of the Sinful Soul" (1544)....
(b) Mary B. McKinley on the 2006 biography by Patricia F. Cholakian and Rouben C. Cholakian, Marguerite de Navarre: Mother of the Renaissance
(c) Dora E. Polachek on Barbara Stephenson's 2004 study, The Power and Patronage of Marguerite de Navarre.
(d) Jeannine Olson on Carol Thysell's 2000 study, The Pleasure of Discernment: Marguerite de Navarre as Theologian; elsewhere, another review, this by Mary B. McKinley.
(e) Jon Hays on Robert D. Cottrell's 1986 study, The Grammar of Silence: A Reading of Marguerite de Navarre's Poetry. (And at another site, Anne Lake Prescott on a 1995 French translation of Cottrell's book.)
(f) Patricia Phillippy on Janet Levarie Smarr's 2005 study, Joining the Conversation: Dialogues by Renaissance Women; and, halfway down the page, another review, by Reinier Leushuis.
(g) Jane Hedley on Margaret W. Ferguson's 2003 study, Dido's Daughters: Literacy, Gender, and Empire in Early Modern England and France, and another review, by Lynn Wood Mollenauer.
(h) Lisa Neal on the 1993 essay collection, Critical Tales: New Studies of the Heptameron and Early Modern Culture.
11. A 2002 bibliography
of secondary sources on Marguerite.
12. Contemporary portraits:
(a) An oil painting believed to be of Marguerite and attributed to Jean Clouet. If it is Marguerite, shown in full court dress, it was made before the 1530 death of her son.
(b) A colored drawing, probably from the 1530s.
(c) Another colored drawing, attributed to Francois Clouet.
(d) A c.1544 portrait, showing Marguerite in the dark clothing worn in her later years.
========================================================================
In print
[Marc Shell's study includes both a facsimile and a modern-spelling transcription of the original manuscript of Elizabeth Tudor's 1544 translation of Miroir, which differs in some ways from the published edition available online. A substantial introduction provides historical background on both Marguerite and Elizabeth:]
Shell, Marc. Elizabeth's glass: with "The glass of the
Sinful Soul" (1544) by Elizabeth I, and "Epistle dedicatory"
& "Conclusion" (1548) by John Bale. Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, c1993. (xv, 365 p.: ill.)
LC#: DA356 .S54 1993; ISBN: 0803242166
Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-353) and index.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Behold rather the matter and excuse the speech."
-------------------------------------------------------------
[From Shell's modernized version, Marguerite's opening, "To the Reader":]
If thou dost read this whole work, behold rather the matter and excuse the speech, considering it is the work of a woman which has in her neither science nor knowledge but a desire that each one might see what the gift of God doth when it pleaseth Him to justify the heart of a man. [p.113]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"And now I can call thee son, father, spouse, and brother."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[The major theme of Miroir is the multiple relationship of the human with God:]
Thou hast done so much for me, and yet art Thou not content to have forgiven me my sins, but also given unto me the right gracious gift of grace. For it should suffice me (I coming out of such a danger) to be ordered like a stranger; but Thou dost handle my soul (if so I durst say) as a mother, daughter, sister, and wife. [p.117]
Now, my Lord, if Thou be my father, may I think that I am Thy mother? For I cannot perceive how I should conceive Thee, which hast created me. But Thou didst satisfy my doubt when in preaching (stretching forth Thy hands) Thou didst say: "Those that shall do the will of My Father, they are my brethren and mother."
I believe then... that through love I have begotten Thee. Therefore without any fear will I take upon me the name of a mother: Mother of God. O sweet virgin Mary, I beseech thee be not sorry that I take up such a title.... For thou art His corporeal mother and also (through faith) His spiritual mother. Then I (following thy faith with humility) am His spiritual mother. [pp.120-121]
Now I have Thee, my father, for the defense of the foolishness of my long youth. Now have I Thee, my brother, to succor my sorrows wherein I find no end. Now have I Thee, my son, for the only stay of my feeble age. Now have I Thee, true and faithful husband, for the satisfying of my whole heart and mind. [p.134]
----------------------------------------------
"I do set by hell and sin not a straw."
----------------------------------------------
[Given this three-fold binding relationship, the sinful soul can rely on God:]
Then, believing and trusting in the power that God hath, I do set by hell and sin not a straw. For whereof can sin annoy me, unless it be to show how my God is merciful, strong, mighty, and vanquisher of all the evil which is within my heart? [p.140]
========================================================================
[This anthology includes a modern-English translation of Miroir de l'ame pecheresse by Melanie E. Gregg. Gregg also gives a useful introduction and bibliography. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Writings by pre-revolutionary French women: [from Marie de
France to Elizabeth Vigée-Le Brun] / Anne R. Larsen and
Colette H. Winn, editors (Garland reference library of the humanities;
v. 2111. Women writers of the world; v. 2.)
New York : Garland Pub., 2000. (xxiii, 592 p.: ill., facsims.)
LC#: PQ1113 .W75 2000; ISBN: 0815331908
========================================================================
Comedie des quatre femmes
[Regine Reynolds-Cornell has translated seven of the plays
written by Marguerite between 1535 to 1949; there are informative
introductions to the book and to each play:]
Theatre profane / Marguerite of Angoulme, Duchess of Alenton
and of Berri, Queen of Navarre; translated with an introduction
and notes by Regine Reynolds-Cornell (Carleton Renaissance plays
in translation; 25). Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions, 1992. (237 p.)
LC#: PQ1631 .A27 1992; ISBN:189553707X, 1895537061
Includes bibliographical references
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"My heart is my own; my faith is not meant to be given or
sold."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[From "Comedy for Four Women," performed c.1542 (the title is not Navarre's; she simply called it "a farce"). In the play, two married women and two girls discuss love; here the girls sing, respectively rejecting and praising love. As in La Coche (below), there is no decision as to who is right or wrong:]
First girl:
Virtuous liberty
I guard readily
With no distraction.
For love and folly
From melancholy
Cannot be parted.
When I hear talking,
Coming and going,
These foolish lovers,
I end up laughing.
And I tell myself
That they are wretched.
Away with affection:
Away with passion
That can break one's heart
My heart is my own;
My faith is not meant
To be given or sold....
I shall remain free,
Not taking the risk
Of falling in love.
Let love who so wants;
We shall in the end
Turn away from them. [ll.262-79,
334-39; pp.100-102]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"For the servitude, the care, and the pains of love mean
to me joy and liberty."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second girl:
A virtuous love
(Not at all sinful)
I want to defend;
'Tis no less seemly
Than fair and pleasant,
As one must keep it....
Without love, a man
Is very much like
A lifeless image.
Without love, woman
Is sullen, odious,
Unpleasant and foolish.
For love, in tourneys,
Lances are tilted,
Horses are spurred,
High leaps must be jumped,
And dance performed.
For the servitude
The care, and the pains
Of love mean to me
Joy and liberty,
As long as I see
My sweet friend always. [ll.340-45,
352-63, 412-17; pp.102104]
========================================================================
La Coche, ou le Debat de l'amour; & Le triomphe de l'agneau
[In this book are Hilda Dale's translations of both La Coche ou le Debat de l'amour, and Le triomphe de l'agneau. Included with the first are the directions written by Navarre for the eleven illustrations to be used. The introduction to Triomphe is by Simone de Reyff (translated by Martha Ritchie and Dale); the other introduction and the notes are Dale's. The bibliography includes earlier English-language studies:]
Marguerite, Queen, consort of Henry II, King of Navarre. The
coach and The triumph of the lamb / translated and introduced
by Hilda Dale with the collaboration of Simone de Reyff (Elm
Bank modern language studies). Exeter: Elm Bank, 1999. (vii,
142p. ill.)
LC#: PQ1631.C6 E5 1999; ISBN:1902454049
Includes bibliographical references
La Coche
---------------------------------------------------------
"...lost the sweet pleasure of the flowing pen."
---------------------------------------------------------
[The opening words of the narrator, "Queen Marguerite":]
Now, having lost all feeling in my heart,
All memory of blind Love, the conqueror,
His exploits, his achievements and his name;
And having lost all power and all fame,
Lost the sweet pleasure of the flowing pen
To which by inclination I was drawn,
I found myself alone....
....[S]o soft and mild it was
I cannot think that any heart---save mine---
However full of anger and distress
Could fail to find relief in such a place
Where shunning company, I had withdrawn
To share no longer in their merriment.
For to the heart that knows no happiness
The sight of others' pleasure is but pain.
So where the grass grew shorter down a path,
Not wanting to be followed or converse
With anyone, I hastened out of sight,
Quickly, as if I felt no weariness.
Along my way I met a countryman
And stopped to question him about the year:
What were his hopes, what profit would it bring;
What had he done, was doing, planned to do;
What of his wife and children, house and home.
I asked about his leisure and his work,
And listening to his answers pleased me more
Far more than what had once delighted me. [lines
1-7,15-34; pp.27-28]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"I will take up my pen and will do better than I ever did."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[Three sad ladies, dressed in black (as is the Queen), approach, and Marguerite asks them to tell her what is wrong. They answer that they had wished her to write of their complaint but that they feared she had become too tired to write as she had in the past. She responds:]
"I pray you, ladies, do not think that I
Through weakness ceased to write so long ago;
In truth I thought there was no single trick
Of all those played by Love upon his friends
That had not found a place in what I wrote
And in my time been told of or endured"
And then I said, "I will take up my pen
And will do better than I ever did
If you will tell me what my them will be." [ll.115023;
p.30]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Listening to the argument of one I was convinced...; and
then...."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[In the meadow each of the three women tells her story: one distrusts her lover; another has been abandoned by her lover (who is now pestering the first woman); and the third is perfectly happy with her lover but feels obliged to leave him out of loyalty to her two unhappy friends. Each, of course, believes that she suffers the most, and is irritated that her friends do not agree. When it begins to rain, all get into a coach to return to Navarre's court:]
Now wishing to dispel their differences
And bring these ladies into full accord,
I urged them as we drove to seek a judge
Who could and would consent to hear their views.
For, listening to the argument of one
I was convinced at once that she was right;
And then, another having told her tale,
Without the need for any advocate,
I was this time of her opinion.
Therefore to keep these three in unity
A mind both sound and steady was required.
For my own part I undertook to use
Whatever skill I had (too slight I fear)
To make a record of their arguments,
Although less well than I could wish. [ll.1037-51;
p.57]
-------------------------------------------------------
"...what love brings, its pleasure or distress."
-------------------------------------------------------
[In the coach, the women discuss who should be their judge. Marguerite says that her writing will not be good enough to show to the king (her brother), and when someone suggests that she be judge, she declines:]
"My fifty years of life, my failing strength,
Time past, all these require me to forget,
The better to reflect on death's approach
Without regret or care in retrospect
For what love brings, its pleasure or distress." [ll.
1220-24; p.62]
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Which one can show she feels the greatest love?"
--------------------------------------------------------------
[It is finally decided that the Duchesse d'Etampes, Marguerite's friend and the king's longtime mistress, should be asked to judge, so after Navarre has written this report, she gives it to the Duchesse with this request:]
...[T]hey would like you to decide for them
Which one can show she feels the greatest love,
And in her heart the greatest pain and grief.
Is it the one who, faithful but unsure
About one love, always repels another?
Or is it she, alone, her lover gone,
Who suffers an unbearable distress?
Or lastly, she who leaves a perfect man
To be like her two friends, no different
In word or deed, and keep the unity
Which loyal love has made of their three hearts? [ll.1367-77;
pp.66-67]
Le triomphe de l'aigneau
---------------------------------------
"...to show the reason why...."
---------------------------------------
[After calling on Christ's followers to praise him (and warning his enemies away), Navarre prays for help in telling her story:]
Since my desire is now to celebrate
Thy triumphs, Word divine, impart to me
Such sweet accords and lofty harmonies
That no defect shall may my song to Thee.
To sing Thy praises, Lord, is my intent
If by Thy Spirit Thou inspire my pen....
Thus, trusting, Lord, in Thy abundant grace
And knowing Thou wilt guide and lead me on,
I will begin to show the reason why
Thou first didst have compassion on mankind. [ll.25-30,
35-38; p.87]
----------------------------------------------------
"In name a man, in sense a thorough ass."
----------------------------------------------------
[Triomphe is a kind of salvation history, describing the rule of Sin, Death, and Law in the time before Christ, finally defeated by his act of redemption. At times though, Navarre speaks of her contemporaries, here of those who argued that because man's passions are so strong, he is not responsible for his actions (an idea that will recur in the frame discussions of the Heptameron). Navarre disagrees:]
Brute man relies on other errors too,
In which the Flesh supports him heartily:
On no good grounds he constantly maintains
A specious argument he claims is true:
That what our own free will does not control
Cannot be called an evil or a vice.
And thus we hear that ignoramus claim
(In name a man, in sense a thorough ass)
It is insulting to his perfect state
To seek to punish what is nature's work.
And similarly, someone might affirm
That, if a mass of rampant bush or briar
Is spreading all around his orchard trees
So that as grower he sees his profits fall,
Those bushes must not be dug out or checked
Because they were set there by Nature's hand. [ll.303-18;
p.94]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We must not foolishly attempt to... comprehend his ways."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Navarre apparently believed that few who were not Christians could be saved and that even among nominal Christians many would not be among the "elect." She seems uneasy, though, with that belief; she cannot defend it, only accept it:]
Moreover, in the Scriptures we are told
That those who do not know will not be known,
And rightly so, with no exceptions made.
And if a man has not the privilege
Of knowing the requirements of the Law,
And in his ignorance will turn to sin,
He still must perish, knowing not the Law;
God does not reason as we do ourselves. [ll.295-302;
pp.93-94]
[And on the damnation of those not among the "elect":]
And though our earthbound sight cannot attain
To understanding of these things, we must
Accept the word of the Almighty, yield
To his commands, though Antichrist says "No."
We must not foolishly attempt to claim
His power or seek to comprehend his ways,
Impenetrable judgements hidden thoughts; [l.403-09;
p.96]
------------------------------------------------------------------
"...words that everyone would hear and comprehend."
------------------------------------------------------------------
[After Christ had ascended to heaven, the angels, praising him, described how false learning would be replaced by his true teaching. Marguerite is almost surely also thinking of those of her contemporaries who relied on abstruse theology instead of the scriptures, "your Book":]
Like those who stupify themselves with wine,
Who never cease their bestial drunkenness,
The more they try to to reason and to know,
The more they show how senseless is their sense;
And so, because man's nature is to be
Made drunk by false ideas, the more they sought
To trust their book of nonsense and not you,
The more extreme was their absurdity....
But since your language, noble and sublime,
Was new and strange to man, the Lord decreed,
So that his praise and glory be enhanced,
That you who are his true, authentic voice,
Should through your incarnation speak in words
That everyone would hear and comprehend;
Through you the secret would be understood,
Which for so long was sealed within your Book,
At last unsealed and opened wide by you. [ll.1237-44,
1254-62; p.115]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Heavenly doctrine... issued from the minds of simple folk."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Near the end of the poem, Marguerite describes the result of Christ's apostles being gived the ability to speak to and be understood by people of many languages:]
The World was filled with wonder then, amazed
By what it heard when from each mouth there came
The mighty voice of that great power divine;
When from those human hearts full-flowing streams
Of heavenly doctrine poured abundantly
And issued from the minds of simple folk. [ll.1609-14;
p.123]
========================================================================
[Dale has also translated Les prisons, an allegory in which a male narrator describes three successive prisons from which he has been freed: changeable human love, worldly wealth and honor, and pride in human learning. Dale's introduction is thorough and her notes detailed:]
The Prisons of Marguerite de Navarre / translated by Hilda
Dale. Reading: Whiteknights Press, 1989. (xix, 152 p.)
LC#: PQ1631 .P713 1989; ISBN: 0704901145
Includes bibliographical references (p.151-152).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"...would permit me to transgress because I had the means
to make amends."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[After his first prison, human love, had been destroyed by fire, the narrator found that with wealth, he could do whatever he liked and still be acceptable to churchmen:]
And so quite soon there came into my mind
Lady Hypocrisy who settled there
And told me how much I should be revered
If I was pious and generous to the church.
Believing her, I thought I could rely
On churches and the chantries I would build
To keep my memory alive in stone,
And I would gain through those same stones the bliss
Of true salvation; for I thought those chants
Would purge me of my greatest trespasses
And even would permit me to transgress
Because I had the means to make amends:
A few pence would suffice to have Mass said
And leave me free to break my promises;
Or if I failed to keep my marriage vows
I still could be absolved by making gifts---
Some money, artefact or precious shrine
Brought from great Cairo by King Charlemagne.
[ll.231-48; pp.25-26]
----------------------------------------------------------
"Believing now that women should be used...."
----------------------------------------------------------
[He came to accept the worldly view of women:]
For never did I wish to bind my heart
Again or love and serve another friend,
Believing now that women should be used,
Not idolized nor wooed with flattery,
But rather used as beasts are by their kind,
No passion there....
Though I shall never marry, no indeed,
Nor let myself be bound by any ties
To wife or mistress or revered lady;
I'll have them all, today or any time,
And they shall give me pleasure when I will. [ll.309-14,
334-38; pp.27-28]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The most used craft and guile, knowing the shortest way
to reach the top."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[And of power:]
Now I observed the majesty of kings
And emperors, their triumphs and display,
Their power to command, authority
To take, without a simple "by your leave";
How they are served, receive obedience
Often from those who hate them bitterly:
So long as, under God, they keep their power,
So long their subjects serve them and obey....
I saw men rising, climbing step by step,
Until they gained supreme authority.
Some came to high estate by force of arms,
While other sought to reach it through their friends
And make their way through influence and wealth;
Some rose through learning and integrity,
But they were few; the most used craft and guile,
Knowing the shortest way to reach the top.
[ll.353-60; 385-92; pp.28-29]
--------------------------------------------------------
"Among them all was one, a woman's work."
--------------------------------------------------------
[Having realized that worldly ambition was also a prison, the narrator became a scholar. At first, he was happy gathering all human knowledge and proud of what he has attained; gradually, though, he learned that there was knowledge beyond the human, and that for this, intellectual training was not enough. He began to look at books based on Scripture, and found an old, anonymous work written by a woman. Navarre didn't know who the woman was; scholars now agree that it was Marguerite Porete, and the book Miroir des simple ames:]
Among them all was one, a woman's work,
Composed some hundred years ago and filled
With such a burning charity, a flame
So bright that love was its whole argument,
From first to last the substance of her words;
And, reading it, one felt the foolish pride
That filled the heart was burnt away, consumed
By that great love which strikes so suddenly
That from the rock the living water springs.
How ready to receive such love she was,
And take it to her heart, wherein it burned
And fired the hearts of those to whom she spoke.
How well she knew, touched by the Spirit's breath,
The friend, true friend, whom she called graciousness,
Her own Far-Near---the best of names for Him
Whom more than any other we must love....
Gracious Far-near! Oh, she who names you thus
Described you better, so it seemed to me,
Than many a learned man whose days were spent
In study of his books; I marveled then
How that could be--a lowly maiden's mind
So wondrously endowed with heavenly grace!
For those whose studies have been long and hard
Must have the due reward of so much work
And be extolled for labouring as they did
To make their own a knowledge so divine;
Not so with her, a woman, ignorant,
Who seemed to have no scholarship, a mind
Untutored in the ways of any school
Except the Spirit's light, the Comforter;... [ll.1315-1330;
1375-1388, pp.84-86]
========================================================================
[Another translation of Les Prisons, by Claire Lynch Wade, perhaps most useful for the original French text it gives:]
Les Prisons / Marguerite de Navarre; [translated by] Claire
Lynch Wade. A French and English ed (American university studies.
Series II, Romance languages and literature, 0740-9257; vol.
99). New York: P. Lang, 1989. (xxi, 141 p.)
LC#: PQ1631 .P713 1989; ISBN: 0820408026
Includes indexes. Bibliography: p. 136-141.
========================================================================
[An easily available translation, by P.A. Chilton, of Heptameron des nouvelles; Chilton gives a useful introduction, brief information on the various story-tellers, and a summary of each tale. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
The Heptameron / Marguerite de Navarre; translated with an
introduction by P.A. Chilton (Penguin classics). Harmondsworth,
Middlesex, England; New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books, 1984.
(542 p.)
LC#: PQ1631.H3 E5 1984; ISBN: 014044355X
Bibliography: p. 41-44.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I have seen couples like this live together with no regrets."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Five men and five women found themselves stranded in the Pyrenees; to pass the time, they decided to tell each other stories, as Boccaccio's characters had done in the Decameron. Between the tales, the story-tellers commented on the story they had just heard, revealing a variety of views on love, marriage, and religion. The last story of the fourth day was on a young man who married above his station; it led to an exchange about marriage. Among the men, Saffredent is a cynic, Dagoucin a young idealist, and Geburon an older sophisticate; the woman Parlemente usually expresses what seem to be Navarre's own views:]
"It astonishes me," Saffredent said, "that anyone should so disapprove of an ordinary gentilhomme, who after all used neither subterfuge nor coercion other than devoted service, merely because he succeeded in marrying a woman of high birth. For all the philosophers assert that the lowliest of men is worth far more than the highest born and most virtuous woman in the world."
"The reason is," said Dagoucin, "that in order to maintain peace in the state, consideration is given only to the rank of families, the seniority of individuals and the provisions of the law, and not to men's love and virtue, in order that the monarchy should not be undermined. Consequently, in marriages between social equals which are contracted according to the human judgement of the family concerned, the partners are often so different in the feelings of the heart and in temperament that far from entering into a state leading to salvation, they frequently find themselves on the outskirts of Hell."
"Equally," said Geburon, "there have been many couples who are extremely close in their feelings and in their temperament, couples who marry for love without considering differences of family and lineage, and who have never stopped regretting it. Great but indiscreet love of this kind frequently turns into violent jealousy."
"In my opinion," said Parlamente, "neither of these kinds of marriages is praiseworthy. If people submit to the will of God, they are concerned neither with glory, greed, nor sensual enjoyment, but wish only to live in the state of matrimony as God and Nature ordain, loving one another virtuously and accepting their parents' wishes. Even though there is no condition in life that is without some tribulation, I have seen couples like this live together with no regrets." [pp.373-74]
========================================================================
[These are the print versions of the two translation available online:]
The Heptameron of the tales of Margaret, Queen of Navarre;
newly tr. into English from the authentic text of m. Le Roux
de Lincy, with an essay upon the Heptameron by George Saintsbury,
M.A., also the original seventy-three full-page engravings designed
by S. Freudenberg, and one hundred and fifty head and tail pieces
by Dunker.... London, Printed for the Society of English Bibliophilists,
1894. (5 v. front. (port.) illus., 73 pl.)
LC#: PZ3.M3368 H15
---------------------
Heptameron of Margaret, queen of Navarre; [translated by]
Walter K[eating] Kelly. London, Pub. for the trade, [1855] (2
v. in l. front. (port.) plates.)
LC#: PZ3.M3368 H3
========================================================================
[Catherine Randall's study looks at the objects described in the Heptameron (tapestries, tableware, religious figures, et al.) to see what Marguerite's treatment of them reveals of her evangelical theology and of her organization of the tales. Randall also looks at contemporary writers who influenced or were influenced by her. Individual tales are discussed throughout the book (see the index under "nouvelles). (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Randall, Catharine. Earthly treasures: material culture and
metaphysics in the Heptameron and evangelical narrative (Purdue
studies in Romance literatures; v. 40). West Lafayette, Ind.:
Purdue University Press, c2007. (ix, 354 p.: ill.)
LC#: PQ1631.H4 R36 2007; ISBN: 9781557534491
Includes bibliographical references (p. 333-344) and index
-----------------------
[This is a literary biography of Marguerite by Patricia F. Cholakian and Rouben C. Cholakian, whose goal is to "find her life in her work" (p. 309). The result, if sometimes unconvincing in finding autobiography in individual tales of the Heptameron, is a useful introduction to Marguerite's life and times. Most valuable are Patricia Cholakian's translations from as-yet-untranslated poems, plays, and correspondence, with all originals given in the notes. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Marguerite de Navarre: mother of the Renaissance / Patricia
F. Cholakian and Rouben C. Cholakian. New York: Columbia University
Press, c2006. (xix, 412 p., [12] p. of plates: ill., 1 map)
LC#: DC112.M2 C56 2006; ISBN: 0231134126
Includes bibliographical references (p. [315]-399) and index
----------------------
[Although this essay collection is directed at instructors who use in their teaching the works from the "Other Voice in Early Modern Europe" series, Rouben Cholakian's contribution, "Marguerite de Navarre: Religious Reformist," may be of interest to the general reader in its discussion of Navarre's religious views as revealed in Miroir de l'ame pecheresse and Heptameron. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Teaching other voices: women and religion in early modern
Europe / edited by Margaret L. King and Albert Rabil, Jr (Other
voice in early modern Europe). Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2007. (vii, 244 p.: ill.)
LC#: BL458 .T43 2007; ISBN: 9780226436326
Includes bibliographical references (p. [217]-233) and index
---------------------
[Barbara Stephenson has studied Marguerite's extant correspondence (886 letters to and from her, written between 1516 and 1549) to see what it reveals about her use of political power. In her discussion Stephenson translates passages from letters not otherwise available in English (the French original is also given). Perhaps of special interest to the general reader are the chapters on Marguerite's letters to her brother Francis and on her correspondence with religious reformers. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Stephenson, Barbara. The power and patronage of Marguerite
de Navarre (Women and gender in the early modern world). Aldershot,
Hants, England; Burlington, VT, USA: Ashgate, c2004. (xi, 214
p.: map)
LC#: DC112.M2 S74 2004; ISBN: 0754606988
Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-207) and index
---------------------
[Two of the chapters of Janet Levarie Smarr's study of Italian and French writers between 1450 and 1600 include discussion of Navarre's work. "Dialogue & Spiritual Counsel" analyzes two poems, Dialogue en forme de vision nocturne (c.1524) and Le navire (1547) and briefly speaks of two late plays. A later chapter, "Many Voices," discusses the interaction between men and women in the Heptameron, both in the tales and in the conversations of the narrators. The book's first chapter explains Smarr's conception of "dialogue," and the last looks at the relationship among the writers discussed (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Smarr, Janet Levarie. Joining the conversation: dialogues
by Renaissance women. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
c2005. (312 p.)
LC#: PN1551 .S55 2005; ISBN: 0472114352
Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-303) and index
---------------------
[In an earlier article on the ways that women poets of the 1500s adapted to their own use Petrarch's themes, Smarr analyzes Navarre's poem "Miroir de Jhesus Christ crucifie" (aft.1547); Smarr shows Navarre applying the blazon (the detailed physical description of the beloved) to a spiritual beloved, Jesus. Smarr gives her own translation of quoted passages. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Smarr, Janet Levarie. Substituting for Laura: Objects of desire
for Renaissance women poets. Comparative Literature Studies,
38: 1 (2001), 1-30.
LC#: PN851 .C63; ISSN: 0010-4132
----------------------
[Anne Lake Prescott's essay in this collection, "Family
Grief: Mourning and Gender in Marguerite de Navarre's Les
Prisons," considers the various reasons (literary, religious,
psychological, philosophical) that Navarre might have had for
making the narrator of her late poem a male. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Grief and gender, 700-1700 / edited by Jennifer C. Vaught with
Lynne Dickson Bruckner. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
(xii, 310 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN682.G74 G75 2003; ISBN: 0312293828, 031229381X
Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-298) and index
----------------------
[One chapter of Margaret W. Ferguson's study is "Making
the World Anew: Female Literacy as Reformation and Translation
in Marguerite de Navarre's Heptameron," which uses
an analysis of the 67th tale (the 7th tale of the 7th day) as
a way of looking at Navarre's role as a religious reformer. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Ferguson, Margaret W. Dido's daughters: literacy, gender, and
empire in early modern England and France. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, c2003. (xiv, 506 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN471 .F45 2003; ISBN: 0226243117, 0226243125
Includes bibliographical references (p. [435]-483) and index
----------------------
[Leah Middlebrook's article (also available online) discusses Marguerite's relationship with her mother and brother, as shown in three poems she sent to them between 1528 and 1530. Middlebrook gives the original and her translation of passages from the poems. The article also provides useful background information on the period and on how Marguerite was affected by public events.(See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Middlebrook, Leah. "Tout mon office:" Body
Politics and Family Dynamics in the verse epitres of Marguerite
de Navarre. Renaissance Quarterly, 54 (2001), 1108-41.
LC#: CB361 .R45; ISSN:0034-4338
----------------------
[Carol Thysell's study focuses on Heptameron as a response to John Calvin's theology. For the general reader, the last two chapters are perhaps the most useful, discussing the moral views presented by some of the ten story-tellers. Thysell also has interesting things to say about Les Prisons; use the book's index to find these:]
Thysell, Carol. The pleasure of discernment: Marguerite de
Navarre as theologian (Oxford studies in historical theology).
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, c2000. (viii, 181
p.: port.)
LC#: PQ1631.H4 T49 2000; ISBN: 0195138457
Includes bibliographical references (p.155-175) and index
-------------------
[In this print version of a work available online, Barry Collett studies the extant letters (two by Navarre and three by Vittoria Colonna) exchanged between 1540 and 1545. Collett sees the correspondence as illustrating the efforts of moderate Catholics both to reform their church and to find a spirituality suitable to the laity. Appendices give the five letters in the original Italian and in English. Unfortunately, the book has no index:]
Collett, Barry. A long and troubled pilgrimage: the correspondence
of Marguerite d'Angoulême and Vittoria Colonna, 1540-1545
(Studies in reformed theology and history; new ser., no. 6).
Princeton, NJ: Princeton Theological Seminary, c2000. (xix, 155
p.)
LC#: BR305.2 .C63 2000; ISBN:1889980099
Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-155)
------------------
[The essays in this collection, edited by John D. Lyons and
Mary B. McKinley, reflect the variety of modern critical views
of Heptameron; one especially useful to the general reader
is Philippe de Lajarte's "The Voice of the Narrators in
Marguerite de Navarre's Tales":]
Critical tales: new studies of the Heptameron and early modern
culture / edited by John D. Lyons and Mary B. McKinley. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, c1993. (xii, 296 p.)
LC#: PQ1631.H4 C75 1993; ISBN: 0812232062
Includes bibliographical references (p.[281]-286) and index.
-------------------
[Paula Sommers' study discusses in detail Miroir de l'ame pecheresse and Les Prisons, as well as three other poems not yet translated. The final chapter, "Trajectories," deals with the role of women in the poems. The quotations from the poems are not translated, but the discussion makes their meaning clear:]
Sommers, Paula. Celestial ladders: readings in Marguerite
de Navarre's poetry of spiritual ascent (Travaux d'humanisme
et Renaissance; no 233). Geneve: Droz, 1989. (118 p.)
LC#: PQ1632 .S66 1989
Includes index. Bibliography: p. [111]-116.
------------------
[Robert D. Cottrell's study of the poetry is broader in coverage than Sommers'; he summarizes and discusses not only the major works but also most of the plays and the poems not yet translated into English. Cottrell quotes extensively and gives the original of all his translations:]
Cottrell, Robert D. The grammar of silence: a reading of Marguerite
de Navarre's poetry. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of
America Press,1986. (xii, 338 p.)
LC#: PQ1632 .C68 1986; ISBN: 0813206154
Bibliography: p. [313]-329. Includes index
========================================================================
Updated 11-30-08