The Art of the Narrative
The overarching theme which unifies all the tales told as part of the collection is related to the concept of storytelling. A frame story collects five men and five women together in an abbey who then share stories with each other. It is the telling of the story rather than the stories themselves that are greatest interest. Each succeeding story is introduced at the end of the preceding story, usually as a sort of commentary upon a critique of that story. Each story ends with a moral of some sort and usually this lesson becomes fodder for discourse and criticism. Another unifying element is that the bulk of the stories are introduced as being “true” but with the names changed.
Franciscans and Cordeliers
The Franciscans are, of course, one of the most famous order of monks and Cordeliers are a particular Franciscan order which was founded by St. Francis of Assisi. Both the general and the specific monkhoods here come in for some rather vicious treatments in some of the stories by a handful of the narrators. What is most interesting about this thematic persecution of these monasteries is that Marguerite of Navarre was herself Roman Catholic who nevertheless came under pressure at various points for expressing opinions which showed a decided affinity for certain Protestant tenets.
Deception and Trickery
Most of the tales are stories of romantic or, at the very least, about love or sex. And underlying that unites the bulk is that deception in the ways of life. All of the stories are prefaced with a sort of one-sentence tagline that acts a summary of what is to come and a random sampling of just those summaries indicates the extent to which deception and trickery permeates these narratives:
"A hypocritical Prior tries every means to seduce a Nun, but at last his villainy is discovered.
A Secretary, thinking to dupe a certain person, was himself duped.
Incest of a priest who got his sister with child under the cloak of sanctity, and how it was punished.
Hypocrisy of a Court Lady discovered by the dénouement of her amours, which she wished to conceal."
These summaries also reveal the extent of the subjects covered by the stories. Deception, lust, adultery, hypocrisy and highly questionable activity by ecclesiastical figures dominate the plots revealed in these stories. Keep that in mind when remembering that nearly all the stories are prefaced by their narrators with the caveat that though names have been changed, they are purporting to related events which actually happened through the mediation of the author, the Queen of Navarre and brother to the King of the France.
