In regard to myself, I can assure thee that it would have been less
difficult for me to build the whole edifice anew than to mutilate it in
several places, change, innovate, add and suppress in others, but I
was almost perforce compelled to give it a new form, which I have done,
partly for the requirements and the adornment of the stories, partly to
conform to the times and the infelicity of our century, when most human
things are so exulcerated that there is no work, however well digested,
polished, and filed, but it is badly interpreted and slandered by the
malice of fastidious persons. Take, therefore, in good part our hasty
labour, and be not too close a censor of another's work until thou hast
examined thine own.
_To the most Illustrious and Virtuous Princess_, Madame Jane de Foix,
Queen of Navarre,
Claud Gruget, her very humble servant, presents salutation and wishes of
felicity. (1)
I would not have interfered, Madam, to present you with this book of
the Tales of the late Queen, your mother, if the first edition had not
omitted or concealed her name, and almost entirely changed its form, to
such a point that many did not recognise it; on which account, to
render it worthy of its author, I, as soon as it was divulged, gathered
together from all sides the copies I could collect of it written by
hand, verifying them by my copy, and acting in such wise that I arranged
the book in the real order in which she had drawn it up.
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