The Heptameron - Day 8
Heptameron Day 8
We have now arrived to the 8th and last day of the Heptameron. The main characters - Oisille, Hircan, Parlamente - gather once more to tell the stories. As before, they are to each tell one story - ten in all. But their stories will remain forever untold. Marguerite de Navarre died before she could finish her great work, and so only 2 of the ten stories were told, and the next two days were not even begun.
The Eighth Day
On the Eighth Day the narrators tell of the greatest yet truest follies that each can remember
When morning was come they inquired whether their bridge (1) were being well advanced, and found that it might be finished in two or three days. These were not welcome tidings to some among the company, for they would gladly have had the work last a longer time, so as to prolong the happiness that they enjoyed in this pleasant mode of life. Finding, however, that only two or three such days were left, they resolved to turn them to account, and begged the Lady Oisille to give them their spiritual nourishment as had been her wont. This she forthwith did, but she detained them longer than usual, for before setting forth she desired to finish reading the canonical writings of St. John; and so well did she acquit herself of this, that it seemed as if the Holy Spirit in all His love and sweetness spoke by her mouth. Glowing with this heavenly flame, they went to hear high mass, and afterwards dined together, again speaking of the past day, and doubting whether they could make another as fair.
1 The allusion is to the bridge over the Gave spoken of in the General Prologue (ante, vol. i. p. 25-6).—M.
In order to set about it, they retired to their own rooms until it was time to repair to their Chamber of Accounts on the Board of Green Grass, where they found the monks already arrived and in their places.
