May it therefore please you, my Lady, to graciously accept of this
little offering, as an eternal proof of my obedience and most humble
devotion to your greatness, pending a more important sacrifice which I
prepare for the future.
Peter Boaistuau, surnamed Launay, To the Reader.(1)
1 This notice follows the dedicatory preface in the edition
of 1558.
Gentle Reader, I can tell thee verily and with good right assert (even
prove by witnesses worthy of belief) when this work was presented to me
that I might fulfil the office of a sponge and cleanse it of a multitude
of manifest errors that were found in a copy written by hand, I was only
requested to take out or copy eighteen or twenty of the more notable
tales, reserving myself to complete the rest at a more convenient season
and at greater leisure.
However, as men are fond of novelties, I was solicited with very
pressing requests to pursue my point, to which I consented, rather by
reason of the importunity than of my own will, and my enterprise was
conducted in such fashion, that so as not to show myself in any wise
disobedient, I added some more tales, to which again others have since
been adjoined.
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