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EDITOR'S NOTE

FROISSART was born at Valenciennes about 1337, and after some practice in romance and poetry, began to write history, describing the French wars, at the age of twenty. We first hear of him in England as the secretary of Philippa of Hainault; and he was, on his own showing, introduced to the court of David II. of Scotland in 1364. He attended the Black Prince in 1366, and in 1368 was present at the nuptials of Lionel, Duke of Clarence. A copy of his Chronicle, intended for a son of Edward III., was intercepted by the Duke of Anjou. Previous to 1384, he became an attendant at the court of the Duke of Brabant, whom he assisted in composing the romance of Meliador, or The Knight of the Golden Sun. He finished the second volume of the Chronicles in 1388; and in 1390 seems to have recommenced, in Flanders, the writing of his history. He revisited England in the late summer of 1394; and five years later had to mourn the death of his benefactor, Richard II., which provided the theme of his latest labours. It is uncertain how long Froissart survived the death of Richard and the conclusion of his Chronicle. He was then about sixty years old, and died shortly after the French biographers speak of him as mort à Chimay vers 1410"; although some accounts prolong his life as late as 1420.

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Sir Walter Scott, who was much indebted to this best of all the romantic chroniclers, has admirably characterized his writings for us.

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"Whoever has taken up the chronicle of Froissart," says Scott, "must have been dull indeed if he did not find himself transported back to the days of Cressy and Poictiers. In truth, his history has less the air of a narrative than of a dramatic representation. figures live and move before us; we not only know what they did, but learn the mode and process of the action, and the very words with which it was accompanied. This sort of colloquial history is