Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/836

800 FROISSART Philippa dead, Froissart looked around for a new patron. Then he hastened back to his own country and presented himself, with a new book in French, to the duchess of Brabant, from whom he received the sum of 1C francs, given in the accounts as paid uni Frissardo didatori. The use of the word uni does not imply any meanness of posi tion, but is simply an equivalent to the modern French sieur. Froissart may also have found a patron in Yolande de Bar, grandmother of King Rend of Anjou. In any case he re ceived a substantial gift from some one in the shape of the benefice of Lestines, a village some three or four miles from the town of Binche. Also, in addition to his cure, he got placed upon the duke of Brabant s pension list, and was entitled to a yearly grant of grain and wine, with some small sum in money. It is clear, from Froissari s own account of himself, that he was by no means a man who would at the age of four or five and thirty be contented to sit down at ease to dis charge the duties of parish priest, to say mass, to bury the dead, to marry the villagers, and to baptizs the young. In these days, and in that country, it does not seem that other duties were expected. Preaching was not required, godli ness of life, piety, good works, and the graces of a modern ecclesiastic were not looked for. Therefore, when Froissart complains to himself that the taverns of Lestines got 500 francs of his money, we need not at once set him down as either a bad priest, or exceptionally given to drink. The people of the place were greatly addicted to wine ; the taverniers de Lestines proverbially sold good wine; the Flemings were proverbially of a joyous disposition " Cuux de Hainaut chant-cut a pleines gorges." Froissart, the parish priest of courtly manners, no doubt drank with the rest, and listened if they sang his own, not the coarse country songs. Mostly he preferred the society of Gerard d Obies, provost of Binche, and the little circle of knights within that town. Or, for it was not incumbent on him to be always in residence, he repaired to the court of Coudeuberg, and became " moult frere et accointe" with the duke of Brabant. And then came Gui de Blois, one of King John s hostages in London in the old days. He had been fighting in Prussia with the Teutonic knights, and now, a little tired of war, proposed to settle down for a time in his castle of Beaumont. This prince was a member of the great house of Chatillon. He was count of Blois, of Soissons, and of Chimay. He had now, about the year 1371, an excellent reputation as a good captain. In him Froissart, who hastened to resume acquaintance, found a new patron. More than that, it was this sire de Beau mont, in emulation of his grandfather, the patron of Jean le Bel, who advised Froissart seriously to take in hand the history of his own time. Froissart was then in his thirty-sixth year. For twenty years he had been rhyming, for eighteen he had been making verses for queens and ladies. Yet during all this time he had been accumulating in his retentive brain the materials for his future work. He began by editing so to speak, that is, by rewriting with additions the work of Jean le Bel; Gui de Blois, among others, supplied him with additional information. His own notes, taken from information obtained in his travels, gave him more details, and when in 1374 Gui married Marie de Namur, Froissart found in the bride s father, Ilobert de Namur, one who had himself largely shared in the events which he had to relate. He, for in stance, is the authority for the story of the siege of Calais and the six burgesses. Provided with these materials, Froissart remained at Lestines, or at Beaumont, arranging and writing his chronicles. During this period, too, he composed his Espinette Amoureuz, and the Joli tiuisson de Joncsce, and his romance of Mcliador. 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 these quiet pursuits he passed twelve years, years of which we hear nothing, probably because there was nothing to tell. In 1386 his travels began again, when he accom panied Guito his castle at Blois, in order to celebrate the mar riage of his son Louis de Dunois with Marie de Berry. He wrote &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, be coming aware of what promised to be the most mighty feat of arms of his time, he hastened to Sluys in order to be on the spot. At this port the French were collecting an enormous fleet, and making preparations of the greatest magnitude in order to repeat the invasion of William the Conqueror, They were tired of being invaded by the English, and wished to turn the tables. The talk was all of conquering the country and dividing it among the knights, as had been done by the Normans. It is not clear whether Froissart intended to go over with the invaders ; but as his sympathies are ever with the side where he happens to be, he exhausts himself in admiration of this grand gathering of ships and men. " Any one," he says, " who had a fever would have been cured of his malady merely by going to look at the fleet." But the delays of the duke of Berry, and the arrival of bad weather, spoiled everything. There was no invasion of England. In Flanders Froissart met many knights who had fought at Kosebeque, and could tell him of the troubles which in a few years desolated that country, once so prosperous. He set himself to ascertain the history with as much accuracy as the comparison of various accounts by eye witnesses and actors would allow. He stayed at Ghent, among those ruined merchants and mechanics, for whom, as one of the same class, he felt a sympathy never extended to English or French, perhaps quite as unfortunate, and he devotes no fewer than 300 chapters to the Flemish troubles, an amount out of all proportion to the comparative importance of the events. 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 considered what to do next. There was small chance of anything important hap pening in Picardy or Hainault, and he determined on mak ing a journey to the south of France in order to learn some thing new. He was then fifty-one years of age, and being still, as he tells us, in his prime, " of an age, strength, and limbs able to bear fatigue," he set out as eager to see new places as when, 33 years before, he rode through Scotland and marvelled at the bravery of the Douglas. What he had, in addition to strength, good memory, and good spirits, was a manner singularly pleasing, and great personal force of character. This he does not tell us, but it comes out abund antly in his writings ; and, which he does tell us, he took a singular delight in his book. " The more I work at it," he says, " the better am I pleased with it." 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 hospitalities and generosity of Gaston Phoebus, count of Foix, on hearing of which Froissart resolved to seek him out. He avoided the English provinces of Poitou and Guienne,and rode southwards through Berry, Auvergne, and Languedoc. 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.