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Margaret, Queen of Navarre, 1492-1549

"The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. I. (of V.)"

The contents
of the _Marguerites_, to take the order of the beautiful edition of
M. Felix Frank, are as follows: Volume I. contains first a long and
singular religious poem entitled _Le Miroir de l'Ame Pecheresse_, in
rhymed decasyllables, in which pretty literal paraphrases of a large
number of passages of Scripture are strung together with a certain
amount of pious comment and reflection. This is followed (after a
shorter piece on the contest in the human soul between the laws of the
spirit and of the flesh) by another poem of about the same length as the
_Miroir_, and of no very different character, entitled _Oraison de L'Ame
Fidele a son Seigneur Dieu_, and a shorter _Oraison a Notre Seigneur
Jesus Christ_ completes the volume. The second volume yields four
so-called "comedies," but really mysteries on the old mediaeval model,
only distinguishable from their forerunners by slightly more modern
language and a more scriptural tone. The subjects are the Nativity, the
Adoration of the Three Kings, the Massacre of the Innocents, and the
Flight into Egypt.


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