Reading, Writing & Correcting: Marguerite de Navarre’s Feministic Project in L’Heptaméron

There is no more apt illustration of the premise that books are unlike other objects for women than the one provided by Marguerite de Navarre. Upon reading a volume that she admired, this Renaissance woman of letters had it translated from Italian to her native French for dissemination to a greater readership. Indeed, the sister of the King of France was so inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron, a collection of novellas, that she commenced work on her own version of the same. The fictional world inside her L’Heptaméron (1559), so named because unfinished at the time of Marguerite’s death, similarly highlights the special role of books for women. Not only does the author add two female storytellers to the group of ten (changing Boccaccio’s three to five) in order to increase the influence of feminine points of view, but each day, it is a woman of the group at Sarrance who leads the others in devotions through her reading of the Bible--this, despite the fact that the study of Scripture by the unordained was condemned by Church authorities.¹ Yet Marguerite de Navarre does not demonstrate the special relationship between women and books simply by reading, encouraging the reading of and writing a book; with L’Heptaméron, the Queen unambiguously imitates the Decameron and its complex structure of framed narratives, thereby re-writing several conclusions implicit in this Italian masterpiece and giving voice to a feminist perspective.²

Following Boccaccio’s example, Marguerite’s storytellers, or devisants, set out to determine a common pastime. According to Parlamente, often cited from among the work’s protagonists as the voice of Marguerite within the collection, it will be necessary for this spontaneous gathering of genteel personages to find a diversion in order to “adoucir l’ennui que nous porterons durant notre longue demeure” (Navarre 45). Hircan’s wife outlines the dual objectives of the consummate communal activity sought: “Si nous n’avons quelque occupation plaisante et vertueuse, nous sommes en danger de demeurer malades” (45). The depiction of Parlamente’s character as “never lazy nor melancholic” (45) ensures the soundness of her advice. Ennasuite, another of the women of the group, focuses on amusement, and concurs with Parlamente on the need for such a “plaisant exercice pour passer le temps” (45). Declaring, in its absence, the potential for tragedy, Ennasuite warns of the possible pernicious outcome of inaction: “autrement nous serions mortes le lendemain” (45). While her use of the conditional suggests her own confidence in their ability to avoid such a disastrous end, the feminine past participle employed to describe the fatal consequences confirms that it is women who would most suffer--even die--if deprived of such a merry vocation. By both characterizations, it is the dread of boredom resulting in illness or even death (for the women of the group) that inspires the pastime of storytelling in L’Heptaméron.³

Although two full centuries and one border removed, the King’s sister places her collection directly and explicitly in the literary tradition of the Decameron. Her use of the famous Boccaccian structure unmistakably announces its model. As Marguerite’s readers would have undoubtedly heard of her illustrious predecessor, her specific mention of Boccaccio’s work is not especially surprising. What becomes noteworthy, then, is Marguerite’s specified modification. One rule is assigned to the storytellers of the monastery in Sarrance: they must tell “true” stories, of which they were a witness or heard first-hand.⁴ This stipulation suggests an implicit rejection of the authority of the Boccaccian model. Mihoko Suzuki contends moreover that the rule to tell only “véritables histoires” establishes the “correction” of Boccaccio as Marguerite’s objective from the outset (231).

To a far greater degree than her Italian counterpart, the Queen of Navarre desired her tales to be instructive. Luigi Monga suggests that whereas “Boccaccio’s enjoyment in storytelling makes his moral lesson largely parenthetical to his narrative setting. . . Marguerite, instead, is constantly and solely attentive to the educational values of the material that she selects. . .” (131...