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Appeals for pity in the Heptameron

Renascence, Spring 2001 by Baker, Mary J

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vous estes homme saige et experiments et d'eage, pour congnoistre et eviter le mal; moy, jeune et sans experience nulle de la force et puissance d'amour. Vous avez une femme qui vous cherche, estime et ayme plus que sa vie propre, et j'ay ung mary qui me fait, qui me hait et me desprise plus que chamberiere. Vous aymez une femme desja d'eage et en mauvais poinct et moins belle que moy; et j'ayme ung gentil homme plus jeune que vous, plus beau que vous, et plus aymable que vous. Vous aymez la femme d'un des plus grands amys que vous ayez en ce monde et Payme de vostre maistre, offensant d'un coasts l'amitye et de l'autre la reverence que vous devez a tous deux; et j'ayme ung gentil homme qui West a rims lye, sinon a l'amour qu'il me porte. Or jugez sans faveur lequel de nous deux et le plus punissable ou excusable ....

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[you are a mature, experienced older man who can recognize and avoid what is wrong; I am young, with no experience of the force and power of love. You have a wife who seeks your company, who esteems and loves you more than her own life, and I have a husband who avoids me, and who hates and scorns me more than a chambermaid. I love a gentleman younger than you, better looking than you, and more pleasant than you. You love the wife of one of the best friends you have in the world, and someone who is at the same time the mistress of your monarch; therefore you are betraying on the one hand friendship, and on the other hand the respect you owe both of them. I love a gentleman who has no attachments except for the love he has for me. Now, judge impartially, which one of us most deserves to be punished and which one should be excused .... ] (124)

The husband, who is initially rendered speechless by these "propos pleins de verite [remarks full of truth]" (124), ultimately takes pity on his wife, and does not punish her. Despite the fact that she has argued persuasively, she has injected deceit into this combined appeal to reason and pity. The following morning she laughs when she tells a concerned demoiselle in her service that "il West poinct ung meilleur mary que le mien, car il m'a creue a mon serment [there's no husand better than mine, for he believed everything I swore to him]" (124). What might seem to be a legitimate appeal for pity on one's own behalf, an appeal bolstered by a rational argument, is devalorized when a deceitful intent is apparent. The wife's intent to deceive undermines the legitimacy of her argument.

As we have seen, those who attempt to evoke pity on their own behalf are portrayed as manipulative or disingenuous, or even deliberately deceitful and hypocritical. Conversely, in one important story, the refusal to make an appeal for pity on one's own behalf is validated, and as a consequence the value of reason, truth, and good conscience is affirmed. In tale 21, Rolandine, speaking to her mistress, defends her secret marriage to the batard [bastard], and underscores the rationality of her decision to marry him: "apres avoir bien pese tout le bien et le mal qui m'en peut advenir, je me suis arrest& a la partye qui m'a semble la meilleure [after weighing the advantages against the harm that might come to me, I settled on the course of action that seemed the best to me]" (169). The Queen is stunned by this "parole tant veritable [these truthful words]" and is herself unable to reply "par raison [rationally]" (169). In fact, she responds emotionally-she starts to cry, and reproaches Rolandine for not herself making an emotional appeal to her: "Malheureuse que vous estes . . . vous parlez audatieusement, sans en avoir la larme a l'oeil [Wretch that you are ... you speak boldly without a tear in your eye]" (169). For Rolandine, such an appeal would not be indicated in her case, since truth is on her side: "je n'ay advocat qui parle pour moy, sinon la verite [I have no advocate to speak for me except the truth]" (169). In her particular circumstances, weeping would be hypocritical. Indeed, such an appeal to emotion would make sense only if she did not have a clear conscience:

Appeals for pity in the Heptameron

Renascence, Spring 2001 by Baker, Mary J

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