FROISSART'S CHRONICLES. The 'Chronicles' (Chroniques) of Froissart deserve in many respects to hold the first place among historical compositions of their kind. They purposed to be a record of all that was memor able in the long struggle between France and England that filled the last three-quarters of the 14th century, so far as it could be dis covered by a man with a prodigious curiosity and thirst for information and very fortunately placed for securing it. For their author en joyed the protection of Philippa of Hainaut, queen of Edward III, from his arrival in Eng land in 1361 till her death, and later had suc cessively as patrons, Duke Wenceslaus of Lux embourg and Count Guy of Blois; he lived in the company of great lords and ladies; he trav eled much in England, Scotland, France and Italy; he followed the Black Prince to Aqui tania in 1367 and the Duke of Clarence to Milan in 1368. Born in the 19th century Froissart would have been the prince of reporters and interviewers. He had a very keen scent for a "story,' and a sharp eye for the color and move ment of the life of camps and of courts, which he knew thoroughly and loved passionately. He shared unquestioningly the rather hollow ideals of knighthood of that troubled, post chivalric age, bequeathed by the generations that had created the romances of chivalry but gone to seed and emptied of their first inspira tion. The interest of life appears in the Chron icles, as in those romances, to centre in adven ture. Personal exploits, feats of arms, jousts, tournaments, pageants, the glitter of armor and the clash of lance and sword and spear fill their pages and are reported with such spirit, zest and relish that they live again with vivid and colorful reality. And in equal measure the persons led in endless procession before us are made alive and real. The portraits, sketched in bold, firm, rapid, telling lines, distinct both in outward form and spiritual features, are almost the most solid and admirable part of the work. But the Chronicles are no true his
tory. Froissart, though sincerely anxious to present the truth, was quite without critical sense, and we must not look in his pages for exact facts of date and place, which are not infrequently sadly distorted. He was equally without historical vision, and his narration wholly lacks perspective and illuminating glimpses into the meaning of the events of which he was the spectator. Chameleon-like, he takes on the color of the opinions that surround him, now English and Burgundian (in the first book of the Chronicles, inspired by Philippa of Hainaut and composed mainly in England), now French (in the three other books, and in a later redaction of the first, undertaken when his patron was French). Living in the society of the nobility he has their attitude and point of view; he has no more interest in the un privileged people than if they did not exist, and the Chronicles have little or no information for us as to the life and condition of the great masses or the role they were playing more and more. But with all their short comings and omissions the Chronicles are a faithful mirror of the later 14th century and a most precious source of knowledge about it.
The manuscripts that we possess of the Chronicles represent several redactions, for Froissart was continually gathering new mate rials. For the first book he drew largely upon the Chronicles of Jean Lebel, even transcribing whole passages. For the expedition of the Black Prince in Aquitania he consulted the nar rative of Chandos. The standard edition is that of Kervyn de Lettenhove (29 vols., Brus sels, 1870-77). The Chronicles have long been accessible to English readers in translation.