Although he reinstated the majority of the tales in their proper
sequence, he still suppressed several of them, and inserted others in
their place, and also modified the Queen's language after the fashion
set by Boaistuau. Despite its imperfections, however, Gruget's version
was frequently reprinted down to the beginning of the eighteenth
century, when it served as the basis of the numerous editions of the
_Heptameron_ in _beau langage_, as the French phrased it, which then
began to make their appearance. It served, moreover, in the one or the
other form, for the English and other translations of the work, and down
to our own times was accepted as the standard version of the Queen
of Navarre's celebrated tales. Although it was known that various
contemporary MSS. were preserved at the French National Library in
Paris, no attempt was made to compare Gruget's faulty version with the
originals until the Societe des Bibliophiles Francais entrusted this
delicate task to M. Le Roux de Lincy, whose labours led to some most
valuable discoveries, enabling him to produce a really authentic version
of Margaret's admired masterpiece, with the suppressed tales restored,
the omitted passages reinstated, and the Queen's real language given for
the first time in all its simple gracefulness.
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