The Heptameron Summary - Day 8

This is the final day of the Heptameron. The Eighth day is incomplete, only two stories being known to have survived. As originally planned, the book would have actually contained an additional 8 stories for this day plus ten each on the 9th and 10 days. However Marguerite de Navarre died before she could finish her book.

The members of the company wake up to find that the repairs to the bridge are almost finished and they will be able to go home soon. The news is not welcomed by everyone, as some would have enjoyed continuing with the stories and camaraderie. The image of the bridge leading the narrators away is perhaps a fitting though unintentional metaphor for the fact that death was coming to claim the author before she could finish her book.

The theme of the last day of the Heptameron was supposed to be the greatest follies, the Renaissance equivalent of epic fails. However only two of the stories were completed.

THE FIRST TALE (Story 71)

Parlamente starts the evening off with the story of a woman, the wife of the saddler of the Queen of Navarre. She was seriously ill, unable to speak and confined to what everyone thought was her death bed. Her unfeeling husband began to fondle one of his maids right in front of her. This so angered the woman that she suddenly recovered, rose from her bed and began and began shrieking at them. The woman recovered and spent her days often making her husband's life hell.

THE SECOND TALE (Story 72)

The final tale of the Heptameron is told by Dagoucin about a monk who shamefully seduced a young nun and made her pregnant.