ABSTRACT
In his prologue to Gargantua, Rabelais urges readers to look beyond the frivolous exterior of his mock epic, which he likens to a Silenus box with grotesque fi gures on the outside (“pinctes au-dessus de fi gures joyeuses et frivoles”),1 and to extract instead its sustantifi cque mouelle. This marrow, he contends, is the allegorical content of his work which holds horrifi c secrets about his country’s religion and political life: “Here you will fi nd an individual savour and abstruse teaching which will initiate you into certain very high sacraments and dread mysteries, concerning not only our religion, but also our public and private life.”2 Whether one takes Rabelais seriously or not, clearly Marguerite de Navarre makes no such claims about her Heptaméron: not only is her masterwork devoid of an authorial preface that might explain her intention, but, as we have seen, Jeanne d’Albret goes out of her way to stress the work’s apolitical nature in her correspondence, referring to the nouvelles as romans jovials or amusing stories.3 Using a strategy diametrically opposed to that of Alcofrybas, who emphasizes his seemingly burlesque text’s allegorical content, the queen’s daughter directs our gaze to the outside rather than the inside of Marguerite’s short stories.4 If we credit Jeanne’s account, the nouvelles are frivolous bagatelles purposely lacking in political and theological content out of deference to the queen’s husband and brother, who found de Navarre’s gift for attracting controversy tiresome. Indeed, we do not normally consider the Heptaméron a political text.5
