it le feu qu'Amour m'a prepare,
En la baisant.

Bref, mon esprit, sans congnoissance d'ame,
Vivoit alors sur la bouche a ma dame,
Dont se mouroit le corps enamoure;
Et si la levre eust gueres demoure
Contre la mienne, elle m'eust succe l'ame,
En la baisant.

There is the devout meditation of Oisille, and that familiarity with the
Scriptures which, as Hircan himself says, "I trow we all read and
know." And then there is the note given by two other curious stories of
Brantome. One tells how the Queen of Navarre watched earnestly for hours
by the bedside of a dying maid of honour, that she might see whether the
parting of the soul was a visible fact or not. The second tells how
when some talked before her of the joys of heaven, she sighed and said,
"Well, I know that this is true; but we dwell so long dead underground
before we arise thither." There, in a few words, is the secret of _THE
HEPTAMERON_: the fear of God, the sense of death, the voluptuous longing
and voluptuous regret for the good things of life and love that pass
away.

George Saintsbury.(1)

London, October 1892.

1 As I have spoken so strongly of the attempts to identify
the personages of the _Heptameron_, it might seem
discourteous not to mention that one of the most
enthusiastic and erudite English students of Margaret,
Madame Darmesteter (Miss Mary Robinson), appears to be
convinced of the possibility and advisableness of
discovering these originals. Everything that this lady
writes is most agreeable to read; but I fear I cannot say
that her arguments have converted me.--G. S.

_DEDICATIONS AND PREFACE_,

PREFIXED TO THE FIRST TWO EDITIONS OF THE TALES OF THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE.

_To the most Illustrious, most Humble, and most Excellent Princess_,

Madame Margaret de Bourbon,

Duchess of Nevers, Marchioness of Illes, Countess of Eu, of Dreux,
Retelois, Columbiers, and Beaufort, Lady of Aspremont, of Cham-Regnault,
of Arches, Rencaurt, Monrond, and La Chapelle-d'Angylon, Peter
Boaistuau surnamed Launay, offers most humble salutation and perpetual
obedience.(1)

1 This dedicatory preface appeared in the first edition of
Queen Margaret's Tales, published by Boaistuau in 1558 under
the title of _Histoires des Amans Fortunez_. The Princess
addressed was the daughter of Charles, Duke of Vendome; she
was wedded in 1538 to Francis of Cle