Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/837

FEOISSAKT 801 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 lost no time in presenting his credentials to the count of Foix. Gaston Phcebus was at this time fifty-nine years of age. His wife, from whom he was separated, was that princess, sister of Charles of Navarre, with whom Guillaume de Machault carried on his innocent and poetical amour. The story of the miserable death of his son is well known, and may be read in Froissart. But that was already a tale of the past, and the state which the count kept up was that of a monarch. To such a prince such a visitor as Froissart would be in every way welcome. Mindful no doubt of those paid clerks who were always writing verses, Froissart introduced himself as a chronicler. He could, of course, rhyme, and in proof he brought with him his rom ance of Meiiador; but he did not present himself as a wandering poet. The count received him graciously, speedily discovered the good qualities of his guest, and often invited him to read his Meiiador aloud in the evening, during which time, says Froissart, " nobody dared to say a word, because he wished me to be heard, such great delight did he take in listening." Very soon Froissart, from reader of a romance, became raconteur of the things he had seen and heard ; the next step was that the count himself began to talk of affairs, so that the note-book was again in requisi tion. 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 wed ding of the old duke of Berry with the youthful Jeanne de Bourbon, and was present at the grand reception given to Isabeau of Bavaria by the Parisians. He then returned to Valenciennes, and sat down to write his fourth book. A journey undertaken at this time is characteristic of the thorough and conscientious spirit in which he composed his work ; it ill ustrates also his restless and curious spirit. While engaged in the events of the year 1385 he became awire that his notes taken at Orthez and elsewhere on the affairs of Castile and Portugal were wanting in completeness. He left Valenciennes and hastened 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 certain 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 Middclburg in time to catch this knight, introduced himself, and conversed with him uninterruptedly for the space of six days, getting his information on the promise of due acknowledgment. Dur ing the next two years we learn little of his movements. He seems, however, to have had trouble with his seigneur Gui de Blois, and even to have resigned his chaplaincy. Froissart is tender with GUI S reputation, mindful of past favours, and remembering how great a lord he is. Yet the truth is clear that in his declining years the once gallant Gui de Blois became a glutton and a drunkard, and allowed his affairs to fall into the greatest disorder. So much was he crippled with debt that he was obliged to sell his castle and county of Blois to the king of France. Froissart lays all the blame on evil counsellors. " He was my lord and master," he says simply, " an honourable lord and of great reputation ; but he trusted too easily in those who looked for neither his welfare nor his honour." Although canon of Chimay and perhaps curd of Lestines as well, it would seem as if Froissart was not able to live without a patron. He next calls Robert de Naniur his seigneur, and dedicates to him, in a general introduction, the whole of his chronicles. We then iiud 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, after forty years absence, he naturally found no one who rememb3red him. Here he gave King Richard a copy of his " traite s amoureux," and got favour at court. He stayed in England some months, seeking information on all points from his friends Henry Chrysteadand Richard Stury, from the dukes of York and Gloucester, and from Robert the Hermit. On his return to France, he found preparations going on j for that unlucky crusade, the end of which he describes in his Chronicle. 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 de scribed. His death ends the long and crowded Chronicle, though the pen of the writer struggles through a few more unfinished sentences. The rest is vague tradition. He is said to have died at Chimay ; 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- i brance ; the greatest historian of his age had a reputation i so limited that his death was no more regarded than that of any common monk or obscure priest. "We would willingly place the date of his death, where his Chronicle ! stops, in the year 1400; but tradition assigns the date of 1410. WTiat date more fitting than the close of the century for one who has made that century illustrious for ever? Among his friends were Guillaume de Machault, Eustache Deschamps, the most vigorous poet of this age of decadence, and Cuvelier, a follower of Bertrand du Guesclin. These i alliances are certain. It is probable that he knew Chaucer, j with whom Deschamps maintained a poetical correspond ence ; there is nothing to show that he ever made the acquaintance of Christine de Pisan. Froissart was more proud of his poetry than his prose. Posterity has reversed this opinion, and though a selection of his verse has been published, it would be difficult to find an admirer, or even a reader, of his poems. The selection published by Buchon in 1829 consists of the Dit dou Florin, half of which is a description of the power of money ; the Debat dou Cheval et dou Levrier, written during his journey in Scotland ; the Dittie de la Flour de la Maryherite; a Dittie d Amour called L Orlose Amoureus, 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 vire- lays ; the Buisson de Jonesce, in which he returns to the recollections of his own youth : and various smaller pieces. IX. 101