collection of tales on a plan similar to that of Boccaccio, and, in imitation of the title of her worthy teacher's work, called it The Heptameron (L'Heptameron). Afterwards she repudiated all this and became of the 'melodiously-pious' sort,[1] supporter of the Reformation, friend of Calvin, &c. These tales were not published in her life-time; but after her death, a friend of hers into whose hands they had fallen, thought fit to embalm her memory by giving them to the world. Alas!
"The evil that we do lives after us,
The good is often buried with our lives."
The prose imitator of Boccaccio was to be succeeded by an imitator who should call in the additional embellishment of verse. Jean de la Fontaine, author of Fables well known, and used largely in schools, published also, about the year 1670, a collection of short tales in verse, entitled Contes et Nouvelles en vers. They appeared in two series: the first consisted of translations from Boccaccio and Machiavelli; and the other contained the putrid products of the author's own brain, mixed with a few adaptations from The Heptameron and the Cent N'ouvelles Nouvelles; in which La Fontaine modernized the language and, in some cases, altered the plots; but carefully retained all the prurient imagery, and added some of his own to heighten it.
Let us pass now to Scarron—author of Le Roman Comique and Virgile Travesty; also of much else that has floated down to oblivion since his time. The former of these works contains the adventures of a company of strolling players, and has been pronounced to be very witty; but I think, unless we allow obscenity to be wit, it must forego that claim. The incidents of the tale are far too filthy to be alluded to; and I shall therefore forbear to quote, or even make reference to them. The other, Virgile Travesty, is, as the title denotes, a burlesque of the Æneid of Virgil, every noble thought in
- ↑ Of her poems,—published under the title of Marguerites de Marguerite—much in Madame Guion's style, with less, however, of asceticism, I hope to speak elsewhere.
