THE CHRONICLE He began his career by rewriting the work of the chronicler Jean le Bel; Gui de Blois, among others, supplied him with addi tional information. His own notes, taken from information ob tained in his travels, gave him more details, and when in 1374 Gui married Marie de Namur, Froissart found in the bride's father, Robert de Namur, one who had himself largely shared in the events which he had to relate. He, for instance, is the authority for the story of the siege of Calais and the six burgesses. Froissart remained for twelve years at Lestines, or at Beaumont, arranging and writing his chronicles. During this period, too, he composed his Espinette amoureuse, and the Joli Buisson de jonesce, and his romance of Meliador. He also became chaplain to the count of Blois, and obtained a canonry of Chimay. After this appointment we hear nothing more of Lestines, which he probably resigned.
In 1386 his travels began again, when he accompanied Gui to his castle at Blois, in order to celebrate the marriage of his son Louis de Dunois with Marie de Berry. He wrote a pastourelle in honour of the event. Then he attached himself for a few days to the duke of Berry, from whom he learned certain particulars of current events, and then, becoming aware of what promised to be the most mighty feat of arms of his time, he hastened to Sluys, where the French were collecting an enormous fleet, and making preparations to repeat the invasion of William the Conqueror. But there was no invasion of England. In Flanders Froissart met many knights who had fought at Rosebeque, and could tell him of the troubles which in a few years desolated that country, once so prosperous. He stayed at Ghent, among those ruined merchants and mechanics, for whom, as one of the same class, he felt a sym pathy never extended to English or French, perhaps quite as un fortunate, and he devotes 30o chapters to the Flemish troubles. This portion of the chronicle was written at Valenciennes. During this residence in his birthplace his verses were crowned at the "puys d'amour" of Valenciennes and Tournay.
This part of his work finished, he determined on making a journey to the south of France in order to learn something new. On this occasion he rode first to Blois; on the way he fell in with two knights who told him of the disasters of the English army in Spain ; one of them also informed him of the splendid hospitality of Gaston Phoebus, count of Foix, on hearing of which Froissart resolved to seek him out. Arrived at Foix he discovered that the count was at Orthez, whither he proceeded in company with a knight named Espaing de Lyon, who, Froissart found, had not only fought, but could describe.
The account of those few days' ride with Espaing de Lyon is the most charming, the most graphic, and the most vivid chapter in the whole of Froissart. Every turn of the road brings with it the sight of a ruined castle, about which this knight of many memories has a tale or a reminiscence. The whole country teems with fighting stories. Froissart never tires of listening nor the good knight of telling. "Sainte Marie!" cries Froissart in mere rapture. "How pleasant are your tales, and how much do they profit me while you relate them ! And you shall not lose your trouble, for they shall all be set down in memory and remembrance in the history which I am writing." Arrived at length at Orthez, Froissart introduced himself to the count as a chronicler. He heard much from the count, and there was a good deal, too, to be learned of people about the court. One knight recently returned from the East told about the Genoese occupation of Famagosta; two more had been in the fray of Otterbourne ; others had been in the Spanish wars.
Leaving Gaston at length, Froissart assisted at the wedding of the old duke of Berry with the youthful Jeanne de Bourbon, and was present at the reception given to Isabeau of Bavaria by the Parisians. He then returned to Valenciennes, and sat down to write his fourth book. While engaged in the events of the year 1385 he found that his notes taken at Orthez and elsewhere on the affairs of Castile and Portugal were incomplete. He has tened to Bruges, where, he felt certain, he should find some one who would help him. There was, in fact, at this great commercial centre, a colony of Portuguese. From them he learned that a cer tain Portuguese knight, Dom Juan Fernand Pacheco, was at the moment in Middelburg on the point of starting for Prussia. He instantly embarked at Sluys, reached Middelburg in time to catch this knight, introduced himself, and conversed with him uninter ruptedly for the space of six days, getting his information on the promise of due acknowledgment. During the next two years he seems to have had trouble with his seigneur Gui de Blois, and even to have resigned his chaplaincy. He next calls Robert de Namur his seigneur, and dedicates to him, in a general introduc tion, the whole of his chronicles. We then find him at Abbeville, trying to learn all about the negotiations pending between Charles VI. and the English. He was unsuccessful, either because he could not get at those who knew what was going on, or because the secret was too well kept. He next made his last visit to England, where, of ter 4o years' absence, he naturally found no one who remembered him. He stayed in England some months, seeking in formation on all points from his friends Henry Chrystead and Richard Stury, from the dukes of York and Gloucester, and from Robert the Hermit.
On his return to France, he found preparations going on for that unlucky crusade, the end of which he describes in his Chron icle. It was headed by the count of Nevers. After him floated many a banner of knights, descendants of the crusaders, who bore the proud titles of duke of Athens, duke of Thebes, sire de Sidon, sire de Jericho. They were going to invade the sultan's empire by way of Hungary ; they were going to march south ; they would reconquer the holy places. And presently we read how it all came to nothing, and how the slaughtered knights lay dead outside the city of Nikopoli. In almost the concluding words of the Chronicle the murder of Richard II. of England is described. His death ends the long and crowded Chronicle, though the pen of the writer struggles through a few more unfinished sentences.
The Man and His Work.—The rest is vague tradition. He is said to have died at Chimay in 1410 and to have been buried at the church of St. Monegunda. It is further said that he died in poverty so great that his relations could not even afford to carve his name upon the headstone of his tomb ; not one of his friends, not even Eustache Deschamps, writes a line of regret in remem brance ; the greatest historian of his age had a reputation so limited that his death was no more regarded than that of any com mon monk or obscure priest. Among his friends were Guillaume de Machault, Eustache Deschamps and Cuvelier, a follower of Bertrand du Guesclin. It is probable that he knew Chaucer, with whom Deschamps maintained a poetical correspondence ; there is nothing to show that he ever made the acquaintance of Christine de Pisan. The selection of his own poems published by Buchon in 1829 includes the Dit dou florin; the Debat don cheval et don leerier, written during his journey in Scotland ; the Dittie de la flour de la Margherite; a Dittie d'amour called L'Orlose amou rens, in which he compares himself, the imaginary lover, with a clock; the Espinette amoureuse, which contains a sketch of his early life, freely and pleasantly drawn, accompanied by rondeaux and virelays ; the Buisson de jonesce, in which he returns to the recollections of his own youth ; and various smaller pieces.
There has never been any difference of opinion on the distinctive merits of his Chronicle. It presents a vivid and faithful drawing of the things done in the 14th century. No more graphic account exists of any age. No historian has drawn so many and such faith ful portraits. They are, it is true, portraits of men as they seemed to the writer, not of men as they were. Froissart was uncritical; he accepted princes by their appearance. Who, for instance, would recognize in his portrait of Gaston Phoebus de Foix the cruel voluptuary, stained with the blood of his own son, which we know him to have been? Froissart, again, had no sense of historical re sponsibility; he was no judge to enquire into motives and con demn actions ; he was simply a chronicler. He has been accused by French authors of lacking patriotism. Yet it must be remem bered that he was neither a Frenchman nor an Englishman, but a Fleming. He has been accused of insensibility to suffering. In dignation against oppression was not, however, common in the 14th century; why demand of Froissart a quality which is rare enough even in our own time? Yet there are moments when, as in describing the massacre of Limoges, he speaks with tears in his voice.
As regards his personal character, Froissart depicts it himself for us. Such as he was in youth, he tells us, so he remained in more advanced life; rejoicing mightily in dances and carols, in hearing minstrels and poems ; inclined to love all those who love dogs and hawks; pricking up his ears at the uncorking of bottles,—"Car au voire prens grand plaisir"; pleased with good cheer, gorgeous apparel and joyous society, but no commonplace reveller or greedy voluptuary,—everything in Froissart was ruled by the good which he set before all else; and always eager to listen to tales of war and battle. As we have said above, he shows, not only by his success at courts, but also by the whole tone of his writings, that he possessed a singularly winning manner and strong personal character. He lived wholly in the present, and had no thought of the coming changes. Born when chivalrous ideas were most widely spread, but the spirit of chivalry itself, as inculcated by the best writers, in its decadence, he is penetrated with the sense of knightly honour, and ascribes to all his heroes alike those qualities which only the ideal knight possessed.
The first edition of Froissart's Chronicle was published in Paris. It bears no date; the next editions arc those of the years 1505, 1518 and 152o. The edition of Buchon, 1924, was a continuation of one commenced by Dadier. The best modern editions are those of Kervyn de Lettenhove (1863-77) and Simeon Luce (1869-88) ; for bibli ography see Potthast, Bibliotheca hist. medii nevi, i. (1896). An abridg ment was made in Latin by Belleforest, and published in 1672. An English translation was made by Bourchier, Lord Berners, and pub lished in London, 1525. See the "Tudor Translations" edition of Berners (19oI) , with introduction by W. P. Ker; and the "Globe" edition, with introduction by G. C. Macaulay 0913). The translation by Thomas Johnes was originally published in 18o2—o5. For Froissart's poems see Scheler's text in K. de Lettenhove's complete edition ; Melia dor has been edited by Longnon for the Societe des Anciens Textes See also Madame Darmesteter (Duclaux), Froissart (1894). Froissarts Cronycles, translated out of the French by Sir John Bour chier, Lord Berners, 7 vol. Oxford (1927-28) .