NARRATING THE 'TRUTH':

As many critics have demonstrated, any attempt to deal with the problem of realism in the Heptaméron must begin with a close analysis of the work's prologue.^[1] It is in the prologue that Marguerite de Navarre introduces what has been described as an obsession to "dire vrai" (Tetel, 1981 455),^[2] revealed by the phrase "si ne diray rien que pure verité" (11),^[3] whose repetition will echo throughout her novellas. The prime focus in this paper will be to analyze Marguerite's attempt to create a true to life fiction, worthy of belief and contemplation through an examination of the techniques she employs in the prologue in order to realize her goal. In the second part of the discussion we will deal with how the prologue introduces serious interference to this goal while in the very process of painstakingly constructing it.

Marguerite's first step in creating credibility is imposing a framework upon her stories, a tradition she inherited from the Italian novellieri. Referring to the framework of the Decameron, Boccaccio writes, " . . . since it is impossible without this memoir to show the origin of the events you will read about later, I really have no alternative but to address myself to its composition" (49-50).^[4] And Castiglione in The Courtier in a similar vein explains, "Nor will it be beside the purpose in order to continue the story in logical order, to describe the occasion of the discussions that took place" (40)^[5]. It is obvious that the cadre allows a certain unity to be imposed on a collection of varied stories; what is more interesting, however, is how this technique furthers the goal of verisimilitude. By stressing the cause of the events and the "occasion" of the discussion to follow, an author immediately lends a degree of plausibility to his or her inventions. This becomes apparent, for example, when one examines a work such as Les Cent nouvelles nouvelles, a collection of stories where, instead of a framework, the reader finds rather a table of contents summarizing each tale, after which one is plunged immediately into the stories. With no raison d'être given for the material which is to follow, the reader's first reaction is to see it more as "made up" than true. On the other hand, with its insistence on providing a reason for the stories' existence, a framework incorporates the stories into an organized universe and imparts to them a reality which those of an imaginary universe cannot, or better yet, are not required to have. When a work refers to "logical order" and origins and causes, as is definitely the case in the Heptaméron prologue, the reader can be fairly well assured that there will be no fantastic or supernatural elements in what is to follow. It is in this way that the author begins to impose upon the stories a bridle of reality constraints which the reader is led to perceive immediately.

By the very notion of framework, then, Marguerite sets the first trap for capturing the reader's belief. The choice of setting will further reinforce this purpose. Instead of inventing a decor, Marguerite, in the manner of her Italian predecessors, will choose one already existing and familiar to her readers. It will be Cauterets, a spa in the Pyrenees, during the first three weeks of September, the height of the tourist season, during which time a flood will occur, causing all the guests to flee for their lives. That this setting is the height of authenticity is a point made by most critics, perhaps the most strongly by Lucien Febvre:

L'illusion topographique est parfaite . . . 1^erseptembre, 21 septembre: le 21, c'est l'équinoxe; ce sont les pluies torrentielles, comme il en peut tomber à Cauterets; c'est l'eau découlant de toutes parts, ruisselant le long des pentes abruptes de la vallée, arrivant en trombe, du val de Lutur, du val de Marcadou, du val de Gaube, dévalant les pentes du Pégère, enflant le gave rendu furieux, emportant les loges et les cabanes dressées pour les baigneurs--finalement, mettant ceux-ci en fuite, littéralement (181).^[6]

In order to reinforce her goal of evoking further belief on the reader's part concerning the stories she is about to relate, Marguerite will immediately introduce modifications within the framework establishment technique. Even though her first sentence describes the spa's waters as "choses si merveilleuses que les malades habandonnez des medecins s'en retournent tout guariz" (1), her second sentence clearly announces the restraint that she will exercise: "Ma fin n'est de vous declarer la scituation ne la vertu desdits baings, mais seullement de racompter ce qui sert à la matiere que je veulx escripre" (1). Marguerite could well have developed the notion of the waters' marvelous curative powers with stories of lame people, blind beggars, and madmen, just as Boccaccio detailed the virulence of the plague with vivid tales, such as the one of the two pigs, who, "in their wonted fashion," cavorted with some contagion-infested rags in the street, and shortly after, "they began to writhe as though they had been poisoned, then they both dropped dead to the ground, spreadeagled upon the rags that had brought about their undoing" (51-52). Such stories lend a certain degree of playfulness to a prologue. Even though Boccaccio asserts the veracity of the goings-on in Florence--"I am one of the many people who saw it with their own eyes"--(51) after a number of his eye-witness accounts, many of which evoke laughter, the reader begins to question this statement and can see it more as a tongue in cheek remark than one meant to be taken seriously. In a sense, the stories in Boccaccio's prologue can thus be perceived as just the beginning of the tall tales to follow.

Marguerite's aims differ. Whereas in the Decameron it is a full 24 paragraphs before the storytellers are presented, Marguerite begins to introduce hers with the beginning of the second paragraph. Details of the setting will be given not as mere description of decor, but as an opportunity to show her characters grappling with the hardships caused by the setting, thus highly individualizing each of them and giving the reader certain immediate insights into the nature of their personalities.

Using the setting as a means of character delineation, Marguerite first introduces Oisille, most likely as a foreshadowing of the central role she will play throughout the work. In the midst of collapsing bridges and frantic searchings for new roads out of the flooded spa, she is singled out by a resoluteness of purpose which has enabled her to overcome the fear which is possessing everyone else. She is determined to reach her destination: "Oisille se delibera d'oblier toute craincte par les mauvais chemins jusques ad ce qu'elle fut venue à Nostre-Dame de Serrance" (2). In spite of her age, the old widow survives, even though "la pluspart de ses gens et chevaulx demorerent mortz par les chemins . . . " (2). This bout with the elements not only singles out her strong will, but also prevents the possibility of the reader's classifying Oisille as a stereotype of the religious person, and thus ceasing to take her seriously. Specifically, her desire to reach Nôtre-Dame de Serrance is not an act of religious fervor or one inspired by the superstitious belief in the miracle which purportedly took place there. Rather, her voyage is prompted by strictly human motivations: first, out of curiosity, "de veoir le devot lieu dont elle avoit tant oy parler," (2) and second, out of a common sense practicality acquired through years of experience which have enabled her to see beyond the facade of pristine innocence projected by monasteries:" . . . elle estoit seure que s'il y avoit moyen d'eschapper d'un dangier, les moynes le debvoient trouver" (2).

In similar fashion the setting is employed as a means of delineating the other nine characters. Dagoucin and Saffredent, for example, are not characterized solely by the fact they are "deux gentilz hommes qui estoient allez aux baings . . . pour accompagner les dames dont ils estoient serviteurs" (2). By virtue of the brigand experience, they too demonstrate a lack of fear, in direct contrast to their innkeeper ("[ce] pauvre homme qui avoit sa part de la paour" (2). It is through this incident as well that Hircan demonstrates his valor and physical strength, as he, Longarine's dying husband and their servants "se deffend[ent] vertueusement" (3).

Marguerite's insistence on differentiating and individualizing her characters will prevent the reader from overlooking their importance in the stories to follow. Furthermore the storytellers in this manner cease to be mere variations of stock figures, and by virtue of their presentation, are meant to be experienced as credible human beings rather than fictitious ones in a fabricated universe, manipulated by an artist.

The illusion of reality is further strengthened with the discussion of what the group of ten will do with their time, for upon finding out that it will require at least ten days to complete the bridge, "la compaignie commença fort à s'ennuyer" (6). They decide upon the following, and it is Oisille who summarizes what they are looking for, and what will be the function of the novella: "ung passetemps qui vous puisse delivrer de vos ennuyctz" (7). By diverting the minds of the storytellers from their perilous and sorrowful adventures, the stories will be therapeutic, and the fact that they will be relating truth is a point made clear when Parlamente establishes the rules for the game.

First of all, the ten will be carrying out an exercise originally proposed by François I and his court: to compile a work in the manner of the Decameron --d'en faire autant" (9) The one essential difference, however, will result in an entirely different creation: "c'est de n'escripre nulle nouvelle qui ne soit veritable histoire" (9). To guard against the slightest possibility of artifice, the King stipulated that no men of letters be allowed to participate, because "le Dauphin ne voulloit que leur art y fut meslé, et aussi de paour que la beaulté de la rethoricque feit tort en quelque partye à la verité de l'histoire" (9).^[7] The assembled group at Saint Serrance, according to Parlamente, has the opportunity to complete the project which the court was unable to begin. Thus, each storyteller will be bound to the same rules: each will relate an incident seen with his or her own eyes, or else heard told "à quelque homme digne de foy" (10). Before beginning a story, the teller will often allude to the veracity of what is about to be related, as does Simontault with, "si ne diray rien que pure verité" (11).

On a deeper level, such remarks, with their emphasis on the spoken language (dire vs. écrire) will also valorize the authenticity of what will be related. The storytellers' claims to be "speaking from the heart," as it were, are meant to be in direct contrast to the rhetorical embellishment and distortion which can arise in a written work where art intervenes, to which the king alluded.

We have seen the skilled way in which Marguerite intertwines frame, setting, characters in order to heighten the illusion of reality she wishes to create. Now, with this overt insistence on the supremacy of truth over art in the tales, she adds yet another reason for suspending one's doubts about the work's veracity and validity. Or does she?

Pierre Jourda's observation that Marguerite "veut forcer la confiance des lecteurs" (786)^[8] is a point defended by most critics. Lucien Febvre illustrates copiously how in the prologue Marguerite has masterfully created an illusion which is true to life topographically, biographically, and anecdotally. It is only recently, however, that critics have begun to delve into what Jourda noted as a peculiarly striking feature of the Heptaméron: "On ne peut cependant s'empêcher d'être frappé de l'insistence avec laquelle la Reine s'attache à affirmer la véracité absolue des faits qu'elle rapporte" (767). In a sense, the lady protesteth too much. It is precisely because of this overly robust attempt to show that all is true that Marguerite raises doubts in the reader's mind, doubts which she, in fact, is perhaps also experiencing as she examines the "passetemps" which she is creating. A closer analysis of the prologue will reveal that Marguerite is undermining her strongest assertions while she is in the very process of corroborating them.

Destroying Credibility

We have shown how throughout the prologue Marguerite has provided the reader with coherent reasons for all which is taking place. It was a well known fact that Cauterets was subject to flooding during the third week of September. Nomerfide's and Ennasuite's misfortunes are equally likely since bears were indeed prevalent in the area. In other instances Marguerite gives painstaking details to make everything that is happening logically tenable. Thus, it is not merely the "vehemence de l'eaue" (1) which causes the bridges to collapse, but the fact that they are only made of wood is also underlined. How, then, does one explain that God's name is mentioned no fewer than thirteen times, and in a series of incidents, is depicted as the agent responsible for the happenings? After the brigand episode, for example, Parlamente and her group "prindrent le chemin où Dieu les conseilloit, sans savoir lequel ilz devoient tenir" (3). Symontault is saved from drowning not simply because he was strong enough to reach the shore, but because "Dieu voulut qu'il fut si près de la rive, que le gentil homme . . . saillit dehors sur les durs cailloux." (p.5) He is then discovered at a shepherd's house because "ce soir là Dieu y amena [un] bon religieux" (5).

Marguerite seems to be working against herself as well in her character delineations. Even though the storytellers are highly individualized, they all have one important thing in common: they are survivors. Death has surrounded all of them, and yet they have been spared. This "compaignye miraculeusement assemblée" (6) is, in a sense, on the terrestrial plane, Marguerite's equivalent of God's "élus." And thus, the stories they will recount and their commentaries upon them will be almost apostolic. But how far does Marguerite pursue the development of the chosen nature of the group? It is almost immediately that she casts an ironic glance upon her chosen. When they are all assembled, they praise God, for "en se contentant des serviteurs, [11] avait saulvé les maistres et maistresses" (5). Ennasuite carries this line of reasoning further with her remark," . . . pour perte de serviteurs ne se fault desesperer, car l'on en recouvre assez . . . " (7). Furthermore, after having been spared from death, they almost immediately begin to panic at the prospect of having nothing to do for ten days. The need for finding a "plaisant exercice pour passer le temps"--and finding it fast--is so crucial that, otherwise "nous serions mortes le lendemain" (7).

By casting doubts on the specialness of her "gens de bien," Marguerite will also begin to undermine the value of their stories. What kind of truth can the tales contain if the narrators themselves are so well versed, in their daily lives, in the art of deception? Marcel Tetel's inciteful observation that "the protagonists in the novellas move about in a world of screens that shield their true thoughts and intentions from others"(74)^[9] can be equally well applied to describe the ten storytellers. For example, having been informed that he will "command" the group by being the first to recount a tale, Simontault has someone in particular in mind when he makes the seemingly innocent and polite remark, "Pleut à Dieu . . . que je n'eusse bien en ce monde que de pouvoir commander à toute ceste compagnie" (10). For Parlamente, however, his remark is all too clear. She knows it is addressed to her, but in order to mask her feelings in turn (after all, her husband Hircan is present), "[elle] se print à tousser; parquoi Hircan ne s'apperceut de la couleur qui lui venoit aux joues . . . " (10). Furthermore, as for the group's ranking of the tales as being a superior gift to bring back to the court than "ymaiges" or "patenostres" (10), Marguerite brings into question whether this is really a worthwhile activity in which to be engaged. The need for diversions is seen by Hircan as a way to forget "mil folles pensées" (8). Is not their search for a pastime, given Marguerite's ironic manner of describing it, akin to Pascal's later description of what motivates humankind to search frantically for something to do with its time, that is, its life:

Rien n'est si insupportable à l'homme que d'être dans un plein repos, sans passions, sans affaires, sans divertissements, sans application. Il sent alors son néant, son abandon, son insuffisance, sa dépendance, son impuissance, son vide. Incontinent, il sortira du fond de son âme l'ennui, la noirceur, la tristesse, le chagrin, le dépit, le désespoir (Pascal, fr. 131, 586).^[10]

It is Oisille who senses that what the group is really in search of is a way of living life joyously (8), in order to reach an inner plenitude. Marguerite seems to be questioning the value of her own creative activity of writing as a valid means of attaining this goal. There is no truth that she, as a human, can possibly arrive at, for it is not in the domain of humankind to ever know Truth, let alone create it. It is Oisille alone who has reached an inner balance. She is "joyeuze et saine," reflecting a total harmony of body and mind, because of her discovery. After having explored the various pastimes available to humankind she has found only one valid means of avoiding "ennuy":

Je prends la Saincte Escripture et la lys, et, en voiant et contemplant la bonté de Dieu, qui pour nous a envoié son filz en terre annoncer ceste saincte parolle et bonne nouvelle . . . je chante de cueur et prononce de bouche les beaux psealmes et cantiques que le Saint Esperit a composé au cueur de David et des autres aucteurs (7).

Eciture, parole, nouvelle, auteur: all is couched in ambiguity and multiple meanings. A close reading of the prologue reveals that the true model for writing which Marguerite proposes is God's word. Marguerite consistently underlines the superiority of His écriture, and seems to be bitterly aware of the inferiority of any human work--most definitely including the one she is in the process of creating--when compared with the Word and Truth of God. The only true author, then, is God, who according to the long tradition of Christian rhetoric, chooses someone on earth as a vessel through which to pour His grace. As George Kennedy has pointed out, "In the most extreme form he needs no knowledge, no skill: God provides the words" (64).^[11] The beauty and harmony of God's compositions to which Oisille refers ("les beaux psealmes et cantiques que le Saint Esperit a composé au cueur de David . . . ") also serve to underscore the special status God accords to those who embody His words. They alone can speak from the heart, because God has chosen them as His vessel. An early description of Gregory the Great serves well as an elaboration of the notions expressed by Oisille:

The truest mark of the sanctity of the man and what is greatly to be admired is that all his writings show a remarkable unearthly skill, with Christ speaking through him . . . What was said of Christ may well be applied to him, 'Grace is poured into thy lips . . . ' Through this man of God as through a living voice we hear today that sweet mellifluence (Jones 112-113).^[12]

As we have seen Marguerite in no way leads us to believe that it is God's spirit which is transmitting itself through her, as it did through His authors. "Si ne diray rien que pure verité" becomes an empty formula for Marguerite.

It is not surprising that Marguerite's novellas lean heavily toward the spiritual after the fourth day, and that the storytellers devote more time to the reading and commentary of Scriptures. At the outset of their enterprise the reading of Scriptures seemed merely a mark of deference to Oysille. As Hircan put it, "Vous [Oisille] qui estes la plus antienne, nous lirez au matin de la vie que tenoit nostre Seigneur, et les grandes et admirables euvres qu'il a faictes pour nous pour après disner jusques, à vespres, fault choisir quelque passetemps qui ne soit dommageable à l'ame, soit plaisant au corps; et ainsi passerons la journée joieusement" (8). Whereas initially the line of demarcation between the two is clear and trouble free, Scriptures progressively acquire the power of radically transforming the storytelling process. Thus, in the prologue to the sixth day, Oisille's reading of the Epitre de Saint Jean not only causes them to lose all sense of time ("La compaignye trouva ceste viande si doulce, que, combien qu'ilz y fussent demye heure plus qu'ilz n'avoient esté les aultres jours, si leur sembloit-il n'y avoir pas esté ung quart" (328), but inhibits as well the word of the storyteller next in line. After lunch, when Oisille asks who will begin, Longarine answers:

Je donne ma voix à Madame Oisille; elle nous a ce jourd'huy faict une si belle leçon, qu'il est impossible qu'elle ne die quelque histoyre digne de parachever la gloire qu'elle a merité à ce matin (328).

In the prologue to the eighth and final day, Oisille keeps the group longer than ever before, and when she is finished with the Canonique de Saint Jehan, the listeners' reactions are unanimous: "elle [Oisille] s'acquicta si tres bien, qu'il sembloit que le Saint Esperit, plein d'amour et de douceur, parlast par sa bouche" ( 421). After lunch, they express doubts that their creations will match the excellence of those told previously: "[ils]s'en allerent . . . parlant encore de la journée passée, se defians d'en pouvoir faire une aussi belle" (421). Fittingly, instead of the usual ten, only two stories will follow. The rules of the game which the prologue established for the storytellers stipulated that the first activity would be the reading of Scriptures.^[13] Thus the novellas will always be overshadowed by Scriptures which not only take precedence, but in the end will eclipse the novella entirely.

Clearly much of the prologue's ambiguity and difficulty in establishing a true to life fiction derive from Marguerite's essentially ambivalent approach to the creative endeavor in the secular realm. The True Word has been spoken and recorded and the Acts worthy of contemplation can be found therein. The best one can do is to decipher what has been given, and live life accordingly. Even though she demonstrates remarkable technical skill in creating the illusion of reality, Marguerite's underlying belief in the supremacy of God's word will transform her work and will in fact undermine the goals which she initially sets up. Whereas it has often been claimed that the twentieth century writer's grappling with writing and creativity derives from the problematics of a universe where God is dead, Marguerite's doubts and inhibitions are due to the fact that in her world, God and His word are overpoweringly alive. It is for this reason that she seems to be continually questioning her work, while in the very process of constructing it.

^[1]For a sampling of critical literature dealing with the prologue and issues of realism see Gladys Ely, "The Limits of Realism in the Heptaméron of Marguerite de Navarre," Romanic Review 43 (1952): 3-11; Yves Delèque, "Autour de deux proloques: L'Heptaméron est-il un anti-Boccace?" Travaux de linguistique et de littérature, Centre de Philologie et de Littérature Romanes de l'Université de Strasbourg, 4 (1966): 23-37; Claude-Gilbert Dubois, "Fonds mythique et jeu des sens dans le 'prologue' de l'Heptaméron," Etudes seizièmistes offertes à V.-L. Saulnier, ed. Robert Aulotte (Genève: Droz 1980), 151-168; Philippe de Lajarte, "Le Prologue de l'Heptaméron et le processus de production de l'oeuvre," La Nouvelle française à la Renaissance, ed. Lionello Sozzi (Paris: Slatkine, 1981): 397-423; Glyn P. Norton, "Narrative Fiction in the Heptaméron Frame Story" La Nouvelle française à la Renaissance, 436-447; Paula Sommers, "Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron: The Case for the Cornice," The French Review, LV11, 6 (1984): 786-793; John D. Lyons, "The Heptaméron and the Foundation of Critical Narrative," Yale French Studies 70 (1986): 150-163.

^[2]Marcel Tetel, "L'Heptaméron: Première nouvelle et fonction des devisants," La Nouvelle française à la Renaissance, ed. Lionello Sozzi (Paris: Slatkine, 1981), 449-458.

^[3]All my references to Marguerite de Navarre's text are from L'Heptaméron ed. M. François (Paris: Editions Garnier Frères, 1967). Where there is emphasis added, it is my own.

^[4]Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron. Trans. G. H. McWilliams (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972).

^[5]Baldesar Castiglione, The Courtier. Trans. George Bull (Great Britain: Penguin Books, 1967).

^[6]Lucien Febvre, Autour de l'Heptaméron: amour sacré, amour profane (Paris: Gallimard, 1944).

^[7]For a discussion of the significance of emphasizing "verité de l'histoire" over "beauté de la rethoricque" see Sandro Sticca, "Boccaccio and the Birth of the French Nouvelle," Forum Italicum, XI, 2-3, June-September 1977, 238-39; for a discussion of the "dire vrai" topos in the medieval tradition, see Jeanette Beer, Narrative Conventions of Truth in the Middle Ages (Genève: Droz, 1981).

^[8]Pierre Jourda, Marguerite d'Angoulême, Duchesse d'Alençon, Reine de Navarre (1492-1549), étude biographique et littéraire (Paris: Champion, 1930).

^[9]Marcel Tetel, Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron: Themes, Language and Structure. Durham: Duke University Press, 1973.

^[10]Blaise Pascal, . Oeuvres complètes. Ed. Lafuma. (Paris: L'Intégral, 1963).

^[11]George Kennedy. "Forms and Functions of Latin Speech, 400-800." Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Proceedings of the Southeastern Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Number 10, Summer 1979. Ed. George Mallary Masters. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984), 45-73.

^[12]Charles W. Jones, Saints' Lives and Chronicles in Early England, Containing The Oldest Life of Pope St. Gregory by a Monk of Whitby. (Cornell: Cornell University Press, 1947).

^[13]See Jane Wells Romer, "The Heptameron of Marguerite de Navarre: Scriptural Context and Structure," Diss. Chapel Hill, 1977 for a discussion of the relationship of the Bible to the structure of the Heptaméron. Of particular interest is the Appendix (123-146) entitled "Biblical quotations, paraphrases, allusions, and reminiscences in the Heptaméron."