Appeals for pity in the Heptameron

Renascence, Spring 2001 by Baker, Mary J

Unlike stories in the Heptameron which give us examples of appeals for pity on one's own behalf that are tainted with self-interest, manipulation, hypocrisy, or deceit, "Par divers moyens on arrive a pareille fin" provides us with cautionary examples implying that one might want to deliberate carefully before making an appeal for pity, but for reasons that have nothing to do with such vices, and everything to do with the unreliabilty and unpredictability of the human beings to whom such an appeal is made. Whereas Marguerite considers motives, and evaluates individuals making such appeals, Montaigne looks here at those to whom the appeals are made, and suggests that their motives are indecipherable.2 In sum, what is a moral issue in certain Heptameron stories is in part a practical problem in Montaigne's essay.

Lastly, one significant area in which Marguerite's position is undeniably different from that of Montaigne pertains to mercy. Unlike Montaigne, Marguerite validates individuals who demonstrate the Christian quality of mercy. David Quint's recent discussion of the ethical and political implications of the "quality of mercy" in the Essais is pertinent here." Quint argues that Montaigne gives "a new role for an ethical humanism when accord on Christian principles no longer seems possible" (xiii), and that Montaigne himself, with his "pliant goodness," becomes the model for ethical and political behavior (30). Examination of appeals for pity in the Heptameron helps substantiate some of Quint's claims about the "newness" of Montaigne. Marguerite de Navarre, critical of appeals for pity on the basis of their association with such sins as hypocrisy and deceit, and supportive of acts of Christian mercy, clearly articulates positions where accord on certain Christian principles can still be assumed.

NOTES

1) See William Nelson.

2) Marguerite does nevertheless owe a debt to rhetoric, as several critics have noted. For example, Gisele Mathieu-Castellani points out that certain rhetorical figures carry the ideology of the text (32), though she does not provide a systematic discussion of these figures. Francis Goyet looks at the relationship between rhetoric and truth, and claims that the rhetoric of the first story in the Heptameron privileges one point of view over another. Goyet further argues that Marguerite, as an omniscient narrator, would like to situate herself as a sovereign judge who alone can decide the moment when the sinner is definitively hardened (endurci) and therefore unpardonable (irremissible) (165).

3) Eliane Kotler claims that in the HeptamEron the sentiment most universally shared by all the players seems to be that of pity (498), but her treatment of the topic is limited, and she does not address the topic of appeals for pity. Emma Stojkovic Mazzariol notes that many different kinds of stories can fit under the broad designation of "piteuses histoires," but her discussion is quite general, and she also does not examine the specific category of appeals for pity.