entertainment from any other books than novels of romances; which require not any exertion of thought, but tickle the imagination throughout with whatever is most fitted, in the easiest manner, to excite various emotions. Nay, even the readers of novels and romances, if ever they have in the course of their lives read any thing of real history, must be gratified, and even charmed with Froissart: for there is as much gallantry, love and adventure in the Chronicles of Froissart, as in any romance, Don Quixote scarcely excepted; with this difference, that in the history, the gallantry, love, and enterprises, were real. A refined gallantry, and delicate sense of honour, are the great moving principles of the various scenes described; scenes, which take faster hold on the imagination than fictitious scenes, however pompous and splendid, because they are described with the circumstantiality of truth and nature. It was predicted by Lord Bacon, and it has been fully verified, "that when physics shall be grounded on experiment, their effects will as far excel the pretended powers of magic, as the actions of Cæsar, or Alexander, surpassed the fabulous achievements of Arthur of Britain, or Amadis de Gaul." In like manner, and on the same grounds, it may be truly affirmed, that the heroism, gallantry and enterprise pourtrayed by Froissart, are more fitted to awaken, move, and agitate the soul, than any of the vague. and flimsy, though extravagant, conceits of novellists, who spin, labyrinthical threads of love, incident, and adventure, out of their own brains, in their own closets. Froissart's Chronicles absolutely afford more amusement of this kind, were the instruction to be derived from matter of fact and truth entirely out of the question. He wrote in times, and of times, when all the world was persuaded that love was the incentive to the most brilliant actions of courage and virtue. Froissart exhibits scenes as passing before our eyes, in a style and manner easy, familiar and colloquial, like that of Bishop Burnet, who, in the History of His own Times, introduces us into the company, and to the fire-sides, as it were, of the persons whose counsels and actions he relates. He relates what he saw or heard from the persons themselves, or those who were well acquainted with them, or who had otherwise the best means of knowing the truth. His descriptions are picturesque and lively. He tells you not only the substance of what was said on such and such an occasion, but the very words in which it was said. We have a very just criticism, or judgment, of the characteristic style and manner of Froissart, in the quotation from Chaucer, which Mr. Johnes has prefixed to this publication as a motto, on the title page: Who so shall telle a tale after a man, He moste reherse as neighe as ever he can, CHAUCER'S PROLOGUE. Τε It is this manner of " telling a tale," as nearly as possible, that the law requires in evidence given before courts of justice. It may be questioned whether the truth and general interests of history have, in every respect, been promoted by the invention of printing. Books are so multiplied, and so easy to be come at, that the historian makes the world, as it were, come to him, instead of his going out into the world. Before the invention of printing, from Herodotus to Froissart, we find historians travelling into different countries, conversing with men distinguished by offices and rank in life, with philosophers and men of letters, and by all other means in their power exploring the truth, for long courses of time, and some times for their whole lives. For the information they received, they gave information in return. They were welcome guests, and very much cares ed by nobles, princes and kings. They were the great intelligencers on all subjects. If a gentleman has a mind, in our day, to know what is going on in the world, he sits down in his elbow chair, in his slippers and night gown, and calls for a newspaper, a magazine, a review, or an annual register. It was not so before the invention of printing. Before this, literary men were entertained in the houses of the great, and even at the courts of sovereign princes, in Italy, France, England, and every country of Europe, in proportion to its civilization. Thus Froissart, who was a man of unbounded curiosity respecting the history of the times, and the state of the world, and who was a great traveller, was well received by the. first circles, or rather the very first circle, of society wherever he went. He lived, particularly, a long time in the court of Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III. King of England. The ardour for study, countenanced and patronized by the court, was at this time so great in England, that there were then, as we are informed by Speed, in his Chronicle, not fewer than 30,000 students in the University of Oxford only *. During Froissart's residence in Great Britain, he not only made many excursions in England and Wales, but penetrated even into the Highlands. In Holland he remained for six months. He has been accused, both by the French and some Scotch writers, of partiality for the English; but, on the whole, his candour, as well as his unwearied industry, and the exquisite charm of his manner, are generally acknowledged. To these observations, preliminary to what we have farther, and more particularly to notice, in reviewing the publication before us, it may be proper for the information, or for prompt. ing the récollection of some of our readers, here to mention that Froissart was a Canon, and Treasurer of a Collegiate Church in Hainault; that he was not only an eminent historian, but also a great poet; GREAT, at least, if we reckon by the number of his verses, What was the occupation of all these young men ? To learn very bad Latin, and still worse logic. B 2 HUME'S HIST, EDWARD III. very very few of which have been published; and that he possessed, what is sometimes an adjunct of a poetical genius, a quick sensibility to sensual enjoyment: which is not only recorded of him, but which, indeed, appears in his writings. He was a man of lively parts, and lively feelings. The Chronicles of Froissart extend from 1326 to 1400. They have been abridged by Sleidon, and continued by MonStrelet down to 1446. Though there be little, if any, sense in modern dedications, when books are composed, not at the particular desire or expence of any individual, but for the eye, as well as under the patronage of the public, yet there appears to be a degree of propriety in the dedication of these volumes to Lord Thurlow. "For," (says Mr. Johnes to his Lordship) had not your friendship expressed so favourable an opi nion on perusing the first chapters, I should have abandoned the pro secution of the work; therefore, if the public now find in it either interest or pleasure, they will be indebted to your Lordship." Mr. Johnes, in a preface to the first edition, which was in quarto, tells us, that several MSS. in his own library had been collated with the printed copies, and that the same thing had been done with those in the British Museum, A person is now employed at Breslau, in collating the celebrated manuscript there, which has been supposed to be the only one unmutilated. Should it prove so, we are informed, the additions will be printed at the end of the work. "The engravings are traced from the finest illuminations in our own libraries, and in that [we presume meaning those] of France. By unforeseen accidents, the plates are irregularly given, and they must not be bound up until the whole be completed.' In an Advertisement to the present edition, it is stated, “that in addition to what has been said in the preceding Advertisement, some errors and inaccuracies, which had been overlooked through haste or inadvertence at the time of translating, as far as they have been discosered, stand corrected." To the present edition is prefixed the Life of Froissart, corrected from Mr. Jolines's former translation from the French of M. de la Curne de St. Palaye, with other preliminary matter. This other preliminary matter, consists in "An Essay on the Works of Froissart, and a Criticisin on the History of Froissart; both by M. de la Curne: and an Account of the Poetry of Froissart, by an Anonymous Writer, in the Memoires de l'Academie." As this preliminary matter could not be prepared in time for the first, or quarto edition, it will be given in a supplement, with the additions from the Breslau manuscript, parts of which are arrived. They will, when complete, be printed in octavo, to accompany this edition, and not only the translation, but the original French, for the sake of the authority. Mr. Johnes returns his best thanks to the Rev. Henry Boyd, the translator of Dante (whose original poems were criticised in the 93d Number of our Review), for the obliging manner in which he furnished him, at a very short notice, with Versions of the Remains Remains of Froissart's Poetry. Froissart was born at Valenciennes, A. D. 1337. It is supposed by some, from a passage in his poems, that his father's name was Thomas, and that he was a painter of arms. But this is only conjecture; for, as his biographer observes, attentive as he was to inform us of the most minute particulars of his life, he does not say one word of his family. This, indeed, is a matter of extremely little importance or interest, at least to readers of these times; and we should not have taken any notice of it, if it had not been for the purpose of observing of how much importance it appears to have been in the sight of his biographer, who labours to trace his descent to some noble stem, in the very teeth of very palpable evidence of the contrary. If Froissart had sprung from a noble family, he would not have been long in telling us of it. But," says La Curne de St. Palaye, "we find in his history, a FROISSART MEULLIER, a young knight from Hainault, who signalized himself by his valour at the siege of the Castle of Figueras in Spain, which the English and Gascons attacked in 1381. His country and name induce me to believe that our historian might be a relation of his, and, like him, sprung from a noble family." Men are indeed very easily induced to believe what coincides with their own wishes, whims, or prejudices." "His infancy announced what he would one day be; he early mani fested that eager and inquisitive mind, which during the course of his life never allowed him to remain long attached to the same occupations, nor to continue long in the same place. ده. "The different games suitable to that age, of which he gives us a picture equally curious and amusing, kept up in his mind a natural propensity to dissipation, which during his early studies must have tried the patience, as well as exercised the severity of his masters. "He loved hunting, music, assemblies, feasts, dancing, dress, good living, wine, and women: these tastes, which almost all showed themselves from twelve years of age, being confirmed by habit, were continued even to his old age, and perhaps never left him. Neither the serious thoughts nor the affections of Froissart being yet sufficiently engaged, his love for history filled up the void, which his passion for pleasure left; and became to him an inexhaustible source of amusement. "He had just left school, and was scarcely twenty years old, when at the entreaty of his dear lord and patron Sir Robert de Namur, Knight, Lord of Beaufort, he undertook to write the history of the wars of his own time, more particularly of those which ensued after the battle of Poitiers. Four years afterwards, having gone to England, he presented a part of this history to Queen Philippa of Hainault, the wife of Edward III. Young as he then was, he had already travelled into the most dis tant provinces of France. The object of his visit to England, was to tear himself from an attachment which had tormented him for a long time. This passion took possession of his heart from his infancy; it lasted ten years, and sparks of it were again rekindled in a more advanced age, in spite of his bald head and white hairs.” 1. During the five years he was attached to the service of the Queen of England, Philippa, he travelled at her expence, not only to different parts of England, and to Scotland and Wales, but to various parts of Europe. The objects of his travels beyond our seas, seem to Mr. de St. Palaye, to have been a research after whatever might enrich his history. He draws this conclusion from a Preface, which is found at the head of the fourth volume, in several MSS. of the Chironicles of Froissart.; and also, as we are informed by Mr. Johnes, in some printed editions, "at the request, wish, and pleasure, of that Most High and Noble Prince, my very dear Lord and, Patron Guy, Count de Blois, &c. &c. I John Froissart, &c. &c. am again awakened, and entered into my workshop, to labour and work at the grand and noble matters that, in former times, occupied my attention, which treat of and examine the facts and events of the wars between France and England, and all their allies and adherents, as they clearly appear from the treaties which have been made and completed until this very day of my being again awakened." We shall not stop to go along with our biographer through the particulars of Froissart's life, especially as the most important of these are mentioned, sometimes more than once, in the course of his Chronicles. We hasten to Froissart himself; though we cannot pass unnoticed La Curne's (for this is shorter than Mr. de St. Palaye) Essay on his Works, nor his Criticism on his History. I. In the Essay, La Curne points out the views with which Froissart wrote his Chronicles, the care he took to be informed of all the events which were to make a part of them, and the rules he had imposed on himself in writing them. In this he does not simply propose to give such an idea of our historian as only to satisfy curiosity: his object is, that the Essay (which he here calls these Memoirs), should serve as an introduction to those who may be induced to read him, and that they should render him more easy, more interesting, and more, instructive. He divides his subject into nine heads. The general Plan of Froissart's History. 2. A more detailed Plan of this History. 3. Division of the four volumes of Froissart into Chapters, and of the first volume into several parts. 4. Did Froissart make these divisions. 5. The time which Froissart employed in the composition of his History. 6. The inquiries Froissart made to compose his History, and the pains he took on this subject. 7. What end Froissart proposed to himself in writing his History; and what rules he laid down to himself in its composition. 8. The Chronology of Froissart. 9. Of the first thirty years which Froissart has treated of at the beginning of his History after John le Bel, that is to say, from 1326 to 1356. It is evident that some of these articles, instead of serving as an introduction to Froissart, that "may render him more easy, interesting, and instructive," cannot themselves be either easy, interesting, or instructive, without some acquaintance with the history to which they relate. A like observation may be made on the criticism. But two |