badly interpreted and slandered by the
malice of fastidious persons. Take, therefore, in good part our hasty
labour, and be not too close a censor of another's work until thou hast
examined thine own.

_To the most Illustrious and Virtuous Princess_, Madame Jane de Foix,
Queen of Navarre,

Claud Gruget, her very humble servant, presents salutation and wishes of
felicity. (1)

I would not have interfered, Madam, to present you with this book of
the Tales of the late Queen, your mother, if the first edition had not
omitted or concealed her name, and almost entirely changed its form, to
such a point that many did not recognise it; on which account, to
render it worthy of its author, I, as soon as it was divulged, gathered
together from all sides the copies I could collect of it written by
hand, verifying them by my copy, and acting in such wise that I arranged
the book in the real order in which she had drawn it up. Then, with the
permission of the King and your consent, it was sent to the press to be
published such as it should be.

Concerning it, I am reminded of what Count Balthazar says of Boccaccio
in the Preface to his _Courtier_(2) that what he had done by way of
pastime, namely, his _Decameron_, had brought him more honour than all
his other works in Latin or Tuscan, which he esteemed the most serious.

1 This preface was inserted in the edition issued in 1559
by Claud Gruget, who gave the title of "_Heptameron_" to
Queen Margaret's tales.

2 The _Libro del Cortegiano_, by Count Baldassare
Castiglione, was the nobleman's _vade-mecum_ of the period.
First published at Venice in 1528, it was translated into
French in 1537 by J. Colin, secretary to Francis I.--Ed.

Thus, the Queen, that true ornament of our century, from whom you do
not derogate in the love and knowledge of good letters, while
amusing herself with the acts of human life, has left such beauteous
instructions that there is no one who does not find matter of erudition
in them; and, indeed, according to all good judgment, she has surpassed
Boccaccio in the beautiful Discourses which she composes upon each
of her tales. For which she deserves praise, not only over the most
excellent ladies, but also among the most learned men; for of the three
styles of oration described by Cicero, she has chosen the simple one,
similar to that of Terence in Latin, which to every one seems very easy
to imitate, though it