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THE Heptameron 's sixty-seventh tale recounts the harrowing experience of a woman who accompanies her husband on Captain Roberval's exploratory voyage to Canada. Her husband, a mechant traitre (458), betrays the captain and is to be put to death, but his life is spared on account of his wife's pleas and faithful service. The couple is abandoned on an island full of betes sauvages et cruelles (459), where the husband eventually falls ill and dies from their brutal existence. In contrast, the woman manifests great physical and spiritual strength--her constancy and faith are rewarded as Captain Roberval's crew subsequently discover her and take her back to France where she is publicly honored for her perseverance and devotion. While some critics have categorized the tale as simple and contrived, this particular novella exemplifies Marguerite's ability to convey complex notions in a brief narrative. (1) This paper will argue that Marguerite's nouvelle not only details the account of Mme de Roberval's adventures, but that it is also rich with allusions to the most heated controversies of Renaissance France. Despite the tale's brevity, Marguerite evokes central points of contention in both the Debate about Women and the heated dispute over religious reform. Knowing that he has earned the reputation of a misogynist, Simontaut introduces the Heptameron's sixty-seventh tale by stating, Il me semble, a vous ouir parler que hommes prennent plaisir a ouir mal dire des femmes, et suis sur que vous me tenez de ce nombre-la. Parquoi j'ai grande envie d'en dire bien d'une afin de n'etre pas de tous autres tenu pour medisant (458). He begins the narrative by alluding to men's pleasure in disparaging women and by stating that his tale will distance him from the other men who speak poorly of the female sex. Despite his promise to speak favorably of women, Simontaut explicitly recalls the misogynistic representations of women as and weak beings both in the introduction and the conclusion of the story. His mention of the sexe fragile (458) in his introduction and his declaration at the tale's conclusion that the virtues God places in women are greater given that le sujet est plus (460) need to be examined closely. The negative connotations associated with the term infirme serve to recall the ongoing debates in the querelle des femmes over the female body and the Catholic Church's emphasis on woman's purportedly weak physical nature. The fact that the tale begins and ends with emphasis on the anti-female sentiments that were prevalent in Renaissance society, literature, and religion encourages the reader to be particularly mindful of these issues throughout the narrative. Despite Simontaut's insistence on women's moral and physical infirmities, the historically based tale casts doubt on such opinions as it presents a strong female protagonist alongside a weak male character. (2) In Marguerite's tale the wife is consistently represented as both morally and physically stronger than her spouse on every level. Like her husband, she courageously endured les perils de la mer (458). In their harsh surroundings, she labored alongside him in constructing their home and in fighting off and killing wild animals. They subsist on what they can hunt and forage; however her husband was unable to porter telle nourriture (459) and consequently became ill. The tale specifies the details of the husband's demise: [...] a cause des eaux qu'ils buvaient devint si enfle qu'en peu de temps il mourut (459). The fact that the plural pronoun ils is used here unequivocally establishes that the woman was also satisfying her thirst with these very waters. However her physical fortitude clearly exceeded that of her husband since she proved more capable of withstanding the trials of the harsh environment while he rapidly fell ill and perished. She undoubtedly experienced great physical suffering given that Simontaut refers to her corps emmaigri et demi-mort (459), but she manifests greater physical resilience than her husband nonetheless. …
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