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The Way of Imperfection: Laughter and Mysticism in Marguerite de Navarre’s L’Heptaméron

... cheminons rians toujours. (1) In his classic book on rationalist thought in the sixteenth century, Henri Busson notes that the complexity of Marguerite de Navarre's religious belief, blending Catholic, Protestant, Libertine, and neo-Platonist ideas into one curious mixture, gives her work a mysterious hue that is comparable to the enigmatic smile that shines in her eyes in the portrait by Jean Clouet. (2) What Busson in particular discerns in Marguerite de Navarre's smile is the enigma of her unique, personal belief that sharply diverges from dominant dogmatic forms of religious faith (from Catholicism and Calvinism alike), even if she herself never broke with Catholicism. Busson calls this form of belief "mysticism," whose sources he detects in the teachings of the "Spirituals" (followers of the Beguines and the Beghards), in the letters of Guillaume Briconnet (the bishop of Meaux and the principal promoter of an ecclesiastical reformation that dies in 1524), and in the teachings of Medieval mystics. Although more recent studies have yielded new insights into Marguerite de Navarre's religious ideas, confirming the influence of Briconnet and of her readings of Medieval mystics such as Marguerite Porete, my point of departure will be Busson's suggestion that her ambition in L'Heptameron "to draw from licentious tales moral teachings" likens her works to the procedures of Quintin and Pocque, the Spirituals who enjoyed her patronage. (3) Although we possess no extant works by Quintin and Pocque, Calvin's polemical treatise directed against them and Max Guana's learned introduction to the Cymbalum mundi showing that these four obscure dialogues are of "spiritual" inspiration provide us with clues about their allegorical procedures. Poque and Quintin, along with Bonaventure de Periers (the supposed author of the Cymbalum mundi), were Marguerite's contemporaries and benefited from her patronage. It has been shown that she was influenced by the view of the Spirituals that desire, even sexual desire, can be redeemed by grace, (4) but it remains a question if her book L'Heptameron relies on similar allegories to transmit her religious message. Calvin cites the Spirituals' "manieres" and "styles," which he calls a "gerson a part" and "vne langue sauuage" similar to the chirping of birds. (5) More specifically, he reproaches them for taking words of ordinary language but giving them an allegorical sense impossible to understand: "ilz en deguisent tellement la signification, que iamais on ne sait quelle est le subject de la matiere dont ilz parlent, ne que c'est qu'ilz veulent affirmer ou nier." (6) The Cymbalum mundi, according to Max Guana's cogent analysis, is a literary exercise in speaking in allegories that constitute an additional layer beyond their Lucianesque form, one which is hard to crack except for those who have been initiated into the author's radical religious views. (7) Does Marguerite de Navarre also "veil" her message in this way with seemingly ordinary tales about human desire and sin? Or is it rather, as Busson's wording seems to suggest, that she wants audiences to "draw" spiritual meaning from her stories through an interpretative exercise that goes beyond the translation of an oblique "jargon" into meaningful statements, as one would draw spiritual significance from Scripture? Critics who acknowledge the religious significance of L'Heptameron also often note that this significance is eroded by the essentially modern and worldly literary form that these "critical tales" (8) represent, and even more so by the interpretative game generating a multiplicity of opinions and interpretations, in which the truly religious kernel of Marguerite de Navarre's thought no longer plays part. (9) My reading does not so much aim at inverting the current interest in the secular significance of interpretation by shifting to its dogmatic content, but rather at showing how in it allegorical writing and reading practices get absorbed into--and transformed by--a literary culture of storytelling and interpretation. …