tifie, ainsi en labourant sur cette matière, je m'habilite et me délite." He is really and truly a chronicler by vocation, and his chronicles may be termed a vast biography of himself. Not only is he a frequent and interesting figure in his pages-often an interlocutor -but on all of them he impresses the stamp of his personality. Suppress his opinions and sympathies he cannot. Moreover, by virtue of his intimacy with many of the leading actors, he has succeeded in identifying himself with the events of the age, so that there might be some propriety in re-christening his work, Froissart and his Times. Were there space to attempt an analysis of the Chronicles-omitting the introductory section from 1325 to 1356-it would be delightful to trace the chief episodes of a life which, though not the life of a student, was wholly dedicated to the historical calling. "Je suis un historien." In speaking thus, I do not forget that Froissart was a poet also, but, compared with his greater achievements in prose, his verse naturally appears Diplomacy. as a graceful accomplishment, a parergon, if not as a means to an end. With his poems he puts the various courts he visits into good humour. They form a bond of union between himself and the great people. For instance, he meets with a patron in Wencelas, Duke of Brabant. This feeble prince has a penchant for literature. He writes poetry. By a master-stroke of policy Froissart, who can versify with most French poets of the day, touches up the composition, and having added other poems of his own, forms the whole into a romance entitled Y Méliador, or Le Chevalier au Soleil d'Or. Anon Froissart finds himself at Béarn, at the court of the Count de Foix, and "Là, toutes les nuits je lisoie Et me dist: 'C'est un beaus mestiers, At Avignon he loses his purse, and forthwith he writes a witty poem-Le Dit du Florin-in lieu of a beggingletter. Again, in England, he presents the ill-fated Richard II. with a copy of Méliador. The volume, both outwardly and inwardly, was worthy of the King's acceptance. "Car il estoit enluminé, escript et historié, couvert de velours vermeil à dix clous. d'argent dorés, avec roses d'or au milieu et deux grands fermails dorés et richement ouvrés de roses d'or." The king inquires the subject of the work, and Froissart answers, "Love!" Richard, delighted at this response, at once dips into the book, while he bestows on the poet substantial tokens of his favour in the shape of a heavy goblet, silver-gilt, and a hundred nobles. Froissart, then, employs his poetical talents as leverage, as a sort of enchantment, by dint of which he procures his own advancement, and, at the same time, provides himself with opportunities for carrying on his great work under the most auspicious circumstances. Froissart's master in history was Jean le Bel, canon of Saint Lambert, at Liége, who wrote a chronicle exFroissart's tending from 1326 to 1361.1 It is worthy master. of remark that this worthy priest initiated Froissart into the art, not only of history, but of life. Here we have to do with no minstrel or jongleur eking out a precarious existence by recitations, and approximating in his condition to sheer mendicancy. Nothing of the kind. Le Bel, according to a contemporary, Jacques de Hemricourt-author of Le Miroir des Nobles de Hesbaye-lived in lordly style, with rich habits, horses, serving-men, and squires; and, finally, 'tis said of him, "Si ly fist Diex la grasce qu'il vesquit tot son temps en prospériteit et en grant santeit et fut ancien de quatre-vingts ans ou plus quant il trespassat." What Hemricourt says of Le Bel serves as a reminder of Froissart's account of his own journeys in Italy, where, after the wedding of Lionel Duke of Clarence, he travelled "en arroi de suffisant homme." In every sense, therefore, Jean le Bel may be regarded as harbinger of Froissart, whom he even preceded in a visit to that "terra incognita"-Scotland. Froissart, it seems, was born in 1337 at Valenciennes. The chronicler did not set much store by local ties. He is, in fact, more truly cosmopolitan than almost any writer that can be named; but this circumstance 1 The complete MS. of this chronicle was discovered, as lately as 1862, by M. Paulin Paris in the library of Châlons-sur-Marne. Méliador also has only recently been discovered, by M. Lougnon. does not in any way detract from his debt to a neighbourhood rich in literary associations, where, on festal days, "la vraie fleur de chevalerie" assembled in the great halls of Mons, of Valenciennes, of Beaumont, to listen to recitations in prose or verse. Froissart tells us nothing about his parentage, and considering his general garrulity, it is hardly surprising that the suspicion has occurred to some minds that he was illegitimate. Like so many masters of prose, Froissart began with poetry; and in his poems may be found a picture of his youth either as it was or as it fashioned itself in his dreams. Not less gay than his predecessor, he was fond of "caroles" and tourneys, but he had not yet attained the age of twenty when an event occurred which struck his imagination most powerfully, and made it impossible that he should devote his talents solely to love-lyrics. In 1356 was fought the battle of Poitiers. Five years later the treaty of Brétigny enabled Froissart to proceed to London, where he was received in audience by his exalted countrywoman, Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England; and to her he presented a book he had written on the heroic events of the war just terminated. This book is lost, and nothing is known respecting its character. M. Kervyn thinks it was in verse; M. Paulin Paris, in prose. One thing is certain that, as a novice in history, Froissart followed timidly in the footsteps of Jean le Bel. After the year 1361, at which Le Bel's chronicle ends, Froissart has to trust his own resources, or, in his own words, "vole désormais de ses propres ailes." Although this dependence on the older writer was not ill-advised, seeing that Le Bel possessed a firsthand acquaintance with many of the inThe "editions." cidents, Froissart appears to have felt the obligation as irksome; and in his later recensions, when personal inquiry had given him greater assurance, he exerted himself to eliminate from his work this incommodious foreign element. It will be well to deal with these successive "editions," or, as they may be termed, "rifacimenti," consecutively. The Chroniques have not come down to us in anything like a simple form,-in a form, that is to say, finally approved by the author. They consist of four principal divisions. The first, which is also by far the most important, extends from 1325 to 1378; the second, from 1378 to 1385; the third, from 1385 to 1388; the fourth, from 1388 to 1400. The whole is contained in manuscripts of the age of Froissart, but, as between these manuscripts, there exist many noticeable variations. These variations are no mere textual errors attributable to carelessness or stupidity in the copyists. They are changes deliberately introduced by Froissart himself, who, at three different epochs, undertook a complete revision of his work. By "work" must be understood mainly Book the First. The matter is rendered yet more complicated by the fact that the first "edition" reveals three "phases," or, if you prefer, is composed of three instalments-the original nucleus (1356-60), to which he added, between 1369 and 1373, the events that had happened since 1360, together with the earlier period treated by Le Bel; and, afterwards, the events of the |