Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/834

 798 FBOISSAET Sambre, to the west of the forest of Ardennes. Early in the 14th century the castle and seigneurie of Beaumont fell into the hands of Jean, younger son of the count of Hainault. With this Jean, sire de Beaumont, lived a certain canon of Liege called Jean le Bel, who, fortunately, was not content simply to enjoy life. Instigated by his seigneur he set himself to write contemporary history, to tell &quot; la pure veriteit de tout li fait entierement al manire de chroniques.&quot; With this view, he compiled two books of chronicles. And the chronicles of Jean le Bel were not the only literary monuments belonging to the castle of Beau mont. A hundred years before him Baldwin D Avernes,the then seigneur, had caused to be written a book of chronicles or rather genealogies. It must therefore be remembered that when Froissart undertook his own chronicles, he was not conceiving a new idea, but only following along familiar lines. Some 20 miles from Beaumont stood the prosperous city of Valenciennes, possessed in the 14th century of important privileges and a nourishing trade, second only to places like Bruges or Ghent in influence, population, and wealth. Beaumont, once her rival, now regarded Valenciennes as a place where the ambitious might seek for wealth or advance ment, and among those who migrated thither was the father of Froissart. He appears from a single passage in his son s verses to have been a painter of armorial bearings. There was, it may be noted, already what may be called a school of painters at Valenciennes. Among them were Jean and Colin de Valenciennes and Andre Beau-Neveu, of whom Froissart says that he had not his equal in any country. The date generally adopted for his birth is 1337. In after years Froissart pleased himself by recalling in verse the scenes and pursuits of his childhood. These are pre sented in vague generalities. There is nothing to show that he was unlike any other boys, and, unfortunately, it did not occur to him that a photograph of a schoolboy s life amid bourgeois surroundings would be to posterity quite as inter esting as that faithful portraiture of courts and knights which he has drawn up in his Chronicle. As it is, we learn that he loved games of dexterity and skill rather than the sedentary amusements of chess and draughts, that he was beaten when he did not know his lessons, that with his companions he played at tournaments, and that he was always conscious a statement which must be accepted with suspicion that he was bora &quot; Locr Dieu et servir le moncle.&quot; In any case be was born in a place, as well as at a time, singularly adapted to fill the brain of an imaginative boy. Valenciennes, at the present day a dull town, was then a city extremely rich in romantic associations. Not far from its walls was the western fringe of the great forest of Ardennes, sacred to the memory of Pepin, Charlemagne, Roland, and Ogier. Along the banks of the Scheldt stood, one after the other, not then in ruins-, but bright with ban ners, the gleam of armour, and the liveries of the men at arms, castles whose seigneurs, now forgotten, were famous in their day for many a gallant feat of arms. The castle of Valen ciennes itself was illustrious in the romance of Perceforest: there was born that most glorious and most luckless hero, Baldwin, first emperor of Constantinople. All the splendour of mediaeval life was to be seen in Froissart s native city: on the Willis of the Salle le Comte glittered perhaps painted by his father the arms and scutcheons beneath the banners and helmets of Luxembourg, Hainault, and Avesnes ; the streets were crowded with knights and sol diers, priests, artisans, and merchants-; the churches were rich with stained glass, delicate tracery, and precious carv ing; there were libraries full of richly illuminated manu scripts on which the boy could gaze with delight ; every year there was the/eteof thcpuy d Amour de Valenciennes, at which he would hear the verses of the competing poets ; there were festivals, masques, mummeries, and moralities. And, whatever there might be elsewhere, in this happy city there was only the pomp, and not the misery, of war ; the fields without were tilled, and the harvests reaped, in secu rity ; the workman within plied his craft unmolested for good wage. But the eyes of the boy were turned upon the castle and not upon the town ; it was the splendour of the knights which dazzled him, insomuch that he regarded and continued ever afterwards to regard a prince gallant in the field, glittering of apparel, lavish of largesse, as almost a god. The moon, he says, rules the first four years of life ; Mercury the next ten; Venus follows. He was fourteen when the last goddess appeared to him in person, as he tells us, after the manner of his time, and informed him that he was to love a lady, &quot;belle, jone, et gente.&quot; Await ing this happy event, he began to consider how best to earn his livelihood. They first placed him in some commercial position impossible now to say of what kind which he simply calls &quot; la marchandise. &quot; This undoubtedly means some kind of buying and selling, not a handicraft at all. lie very soon abandoned merchandise &quot; car vaut mieux science qu argens &quot; and resolved on becoming a learned clerk. He then naturally began to make verses, like every other learned clerk. Quite as naturally, and still in the character of a learned clerk, he fulfilled the prophecy of Venus, and fell in love. He found one day a demoiselle reading a book of romances. He did not know who she was. but stealing gently towards her, he asked her what book she was reading. It was the romance of Cleomades. He remarks the singular beauty of her blue eyes and fair hair, while she reads a page or two, and then one w r ould almost suspect a reminiscence .of Dante &quot; Adont laissames nous le lire.&quot; He was thus provided with that essential for soldier, knight, or poet, a mistress, one for whom he could write verses. She was rich and he was poor ; she was nobly born and he obscure ; it was long before she would accept the devotion, even of the conventional kind which Froissart offered her, and which would in no way interfere with the practical business of her life. And in this hopeless way, the passion of the young poet remaining the same, and the coldness of the lady being unaltered, the course of this passion ran on for some time. Nor was it until the day of Froissart s de parture from his native town that she gave him an interview and spoke kindly to him, even promising, with tears in her eyes, that &quot;Doulce Pensee&quot; would assure him that she would have no joyous day until she should see him again. He was eighteen years of age ; he had learned all that he wanted to learn ; he possessed the mechanical art of verse ; he had read the slender stock of classical literature acces sible ; he longed to see the world. He must already have acquired some distinction, because, on setting out for the court of England, he was able to take with him letters of recommendation from the king of Bohemia and the count of Hainault to Queen Philippa, niece of the latter. He was well received by the queen, always ready to welcome her own countrymen; he wrote ballades and virelays for her and her ladies. But after a year he began to pine for another sight of &quot; la tres douce, simple, et quoie,&quot; whom he loved loyally. Good Queen Philippa, perceiving his altered looks and guessing the cause, made him confess that he was in love and longed to see his mistress. She gave him his conge on the condition that he was to return. It is clear that the young clerk had already learned to ingratiate himself with princes. The conclusion of his single love adventure is simply and unaffectedly told in his Trettie de VEspinette Amoureuse. It was a passion conducted on the well-known lines of conven-