er lover from her husband, who was blind of one eye

VII. The craft of a Parisian merchant, who saved the reputation of the
daughter by offering violence to the mother

Appendix to the First Day

ENGRAVINGS

To face page Queen Margaret of Navarre. Frontispiece.

Prologue: The Story-tellers in the Meadow near The Gave. By S.
Freudenberg

FIRST DAY.

Tale I. Du Mesnil learns his Mistress's Infidelity from her Maid. By S.
Freudenberg

II. The Muleteer's Servant attacking his Mistress. By S. Freudenberg

III. The King Joking upon the Stag's Head being A fitting Decoration. By
S. Freudenberg

IV. The Princess's Lady of Honour hurrying to her Mistress's Assistance.
By S. Freudenberg

V. The Boatwoman of Coulon outwitting the Friars. By S. Freudenberg

VI. The Wife's Ruse to secure the Escape of her Lover. By S. Freudenberg

VII. The Merchant transferring his Caresses from the Daughter to the
Mother. By S. Freudenberg

PREFACE.

The first printed version of the famous Tales of Margaret of Navarre,
issued in Paris in the year 1558, under the title of "Histoires des
Amans Fortunez," was extremely faulty and imperfect. It comprised but
sixty-seven of the seventy-two tales written by the royal author, and
the editor, Pierre Boaistuau, not merely changed the order of those
narratives which he did print, but suppressed numerous passages in them,
besides modifying much of Margaret's phraseology. A somewhat similar
course was adopted by Claude Gruget, who, a year later, produced what
claimed to be a complete version of the stories, to which he gave the
general title of the _Heptameron_, a name they have ever since retained.
Although he reinstated the majority of the tales in their proper
sequence, he still suppressed several of them, and inserted others in
their place, and also modified the Queen's language after the fashion
set by Boaistuau. Despite its imperfections, however, Gruget's version
was frequently reprinted down to the beginning of the eighteenth
century, when it served as the basis of the numerous editions of the
_Heptameron_ in _beau langage_, as the French phrased it, which then
began to make their appearance. It served, moreover, in the one or the
other form, for the English and other translations of the work, and down
to our own times was accepted as the standard version of the Queen
of Navarre's celebrated tales. Although it was known that various
contemporary MSS. were preserved a