The Heptameron Selected Tales

Like the exuberant storytellers of Boccaccio's Decameronand Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,the ten men and women who narrate the tales of The Heptameronoffer captivating glimpses of a vanished world. They have taken refuge in a Pyrenean abbey, where they pass their time in a storytelling battle of the sexes. Ranging from highly romantic to downright bawdy, and from deeply spiritual to profane, these tales form a vivid portrait of life and attitudes during the transition from medieval to modern times in sixteenth century France. Brimming with murder, adultery, remorse, and revenge, they continue to enthrall readers in the twenty-first century.

Introduction to the Dover Edition

v

1 (I): The misdeeds of the wife of a certain proctor, who had a bishop for her gallant

1

(6)

2 (II): The wife of a muleteer had rather death than dishonour

7

(2)

3 (III): Of a lustful King of Naples, and how he met with his match

9

(5)

4 (IV): Of a young man who attempted the honour of a princess, and the poor success of his adventure

14

(6)

5 (V): How two Grey Friars were by one poor woman left in the lurch

20

(2)

6 (VIII): Of one who on his own head engrafted horns

22

(3)

7 (IX): A relation of a perfect love, and the pitiful end thereof

25

(4)

8 (X): Florida, hard pressed by her lover, virtuously resists him, and on his death takes the veil

29

(27)

9 (XI): Of a very privy matter

56

(1)

10 (XII): A Duke of Florence would have his friend prostitute his sister to him; but in place of love meets with death

57

(5)

11 (XIV): A very pleasant piece of cozenage done by my lord Bonnivet

62

(5)

12 (XVI): A love persevering and fearless meets with due reward

67

(3)

13 (XVII): King Francis shows his courage that it is well approved

70

(3)

14 (XVIII): A notable case of a steadfast lover

73

(3)

15 (XXI): The steadfast and honourable love of Rolandine, who after many sorrows at last finds happiness

76

(15)

16 (XXII): How a wicked monk, by reason of his abominable lust, was at last brought to shame

91

(8)

17 (XXIII): How the lust of a Grey Friar made an honest gentleman, his wife, and his child to perish miserably

99

(6)

18 (XXV): How a young Prince secretly had pleasaunce of the wife of a sergeant-at-law

105

(3)

19 (XXVI): The love of an honourable and chaste woman for a young lord, and the manner of her death

108

(11)

20 (XXX): A man takes to wife one who is his own sister and daughter

119

(4)

21 (XXXI): The horrid and abominable lust and murder of a Grey Friar, by reason of which his monastery and the monks in it were burned with fire

123

(4)

22 (XXXII): The notable manner in which a gentleman punished his wife whom he had taken in adultery

127

(3)

23 (XXXIII): The hypocrisy of a parson, who having got his sister with child concealed it under the cloak of holiness

130

(2)

24 (XXXV): Of a rare case of spiritual love, and a good cure for temptation

132

(5)

25 (XXXVI): How the president of Grenoble came to make his wife a salad

137

(2)

26 (XXXIX): In what manner my lord of Grignaulx exorcised an evil spirit

139

(2)

27 (XL): Wherein is given the cause wherefore Rolandine's father made build the castle in the forest

141

(2)

28 (XLII): How the virtuousness of a maid endured against all manner of temptation

143

(7)

29 (XLIII): Of a woman who was willing to be thought virtuous, but yet had secret pleasure with a man

150

(4)

30 (XLV): How a tapestry-maker gave a wench the Innocents, and his pleasant device for deceiving a neighbour who saw it done

154

(3)

31 (XLIX): A pleasant case of a gentlewoman that had three lovers at once, and made each to believe himself the only one

157

(4)

32 (LII): How an apothecary's prentice gave two gentlemen their breakfast

161

(1)

33 (LIII): How a lady by too close concealment was put to shame

162

(4)

34 (LV): How a widow sold a horse for a ducat and a cat for ninety and nine

166

(2)

35 (LVI): Of a cozening device of an old friar

168

(3)

36 (LX): How a man, for putting too great trust in his wife, fell into much misery

171

(3)

37 (LXL): Of the shamelessness and impudency of a certain woman who forsook her husband's house to live with a canon

174

(4)

38 (LXVI): A lord and lady sleeping together were mistaken by an old dame for a prothonotary and a servant maid, and were sharply reproved of her

178

(1)

39 (LXVII): How a woman trusted in God amidst the lions

179

(2)

40 (LXX): In the which is shown the horrid lust and hatred of a Duchess, and the pitiful death of two lovers

181

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