--ED.
12 The Dauphin here mentioned is Francis I.'s second son,
who subsequently reigned as Henry II. He became Dauphin by
the death of his elder brother on August 10, 1536. The
Dauphiness is Catherine de' Medici, the wife of Henry, whom
he married in 1533; whilst Madame Margaret, according to M.
de Montaiglon, is the Queen of Navarre herself, she being
usually called by that name at her brother's Court. M.
Dillaye, who is of a different opinion, maintains that the
Queen would not write so eulogistically of herself, and that
she evidently refers to her brother's daughter, Margaret de
Berry, born in 1523, and married to the Duke of Savoy.--Ed.
Now I heard not long since that the two ladies I have mentioned,
together with several others of the Court, determined to do like
Boccaccio, with, however, one exception--they would not write any
story that was not a true one. And the said ladies, and Monseigneur the
Dauphin with them, undertook to tell ten stories each, and to assemble
in all ten persons, from among those whom they thought the most capable
of relating something.
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