Translation as Violation: A Reading of Pierre Boaistuau's <i>Histoires tragiques</i>

This article examines Pierre Boaistuau's Histoires tragiques, a sixteenth-century translation and adaptation of six of Bandello's Novelle into French. Pierre Boaistuau is best known for the scandal surrounding his much-criticized edition of Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron, published in 1558. Presenting the novellas under the title of Histoires des amans fortunez, with only a veiled reference to the author herself, Boaistuau made liberal changes to the original text thus incurring the wrath and public reprimand of Jeanne d'Albret, Marguerite's daughter. This article argues that the Histoires tragiques, written within one year of the humiliation of this scandal, may be read as Boaistuau's literary response not only to Jeanne d'Albret's chastisement of him but also to the vision of female empowerment presented by Marguerite de Navarre in the Heptaméron.