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either from his own observation, or the credible informations of others, easily procured suitable materials for a history, which professed only to deal in sensible objects, and those of the most splendid and conspicuous kind. He was familiarly known to two kings of England, and one of Scotland'. But the court which he most admired was that of Gaston earl of Foix, at Orlaix in Bearn; for, as he himself acquaints us, it was not only the most brilliant in Europe, but the grand center for tidings of martial adventures". It was crouded with knights of England and Arragon. In the mean time it must not be forgot that Froissart, who from his childhood was strongly attached to carousals, the music of minstrells, and the sports of hawking and hunting", cultivated the poetry of the troubadours, and was a writer of romances°. This turn, it must be confessed, might have some share in communicating that romantic cast to his history which I have mentioned. During his abode at the court of the earl of Foix, where he was entertained for twelve weeks, he presented to the earl his collection of the poems of the duke of Luxemburgh, consisting of sonnets, balades, and virelays. Among these was included a romance, composed by himself, called MELIADER, or THE Knight of THE SUN OF GOLD. Gaston's chief amusement was to hear Froissart read this romance every evening after supper. At

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well as SUNG at feasts. So Wace in the
Roman du Rou, in the British Museum,
above mentioned.

Doit l'en les vers et les regestes,
Et les estoires LIRE as festes.

Froissart brought with him for a present to Gaston Earl of Foix four greyhounds, which were called by the romantic names of Tristram, Hector, Brut, and Roland. Gaston was so fond of hunting, that he kept upwards of six hundred dogs in his castle. M. de la Curne, ut supr. p. 676. 678. He wrote a treatise on hunting, printed 1520. See Verdier, Art. GASTON Comte de Foix. In illustration of the former part of this note, Crescimbeni says, "Che in molte nobilissime famiglie Italiane, ha 400 a più anni, passarono' i nomi de' Lancil

his introduction to Richard the Second, he presented that brilliant monarch with a book beautifully illuminated, engrossed with his own hand, bound in crimson velvet, and embellished with silver bosses, clasps, and golden roses, comprehending all the matters of AMOURS and MORALITIES, which in the course of twenty-four years he had composed'. This was in the year 1396. When he left England the same years, the king sent him a massy goblet of silver, filled with one hundred nobles.

As we are approaching to Chaucer, let us here stand still, and take a retrospect of the general manners. The tournaments and carousals of our antient princes, by forming splendid assemblies of both sexes, while they inculcated the most liberal sentiments of honour and heroism, undoubtedly contributed to introduce ideas of courtesy, and to encourage decorum. Yet the national manners still retained a great degree of ferocity,

lotti, de' Tristani, de Galvani, di Galeotti, delle Isotte [Isoulde], delle Genevre, e d'altri cavalieri, à dame in esse TAVOLA RITONDA operanti," &c. Istor. Volg. Poes. vol. i. lib. v. p. 327. Venez. 4to.

I should think that this was his romance of MELIADER. Froissart says, that the king at receiving it, asked him what the book treated of. He answered d'Amour. The king, adds our historian, seemed much pleased at this; and examined the book in many places, for he was fond of reading as well as speaking French. He then ordered Richard Crendon, the chevalier in waiting, to carry it into his privy chamber, dont il me fit bonne chere. He gave copies of the several parts of his chronicle, as they were finished, to his different patrons. Le Laboureur says, that Froissart sent fifty-six quires of his ROMAN AU CRONIQUES to Guillaume de Bailly an illuminator; which, when illuminated, were intended as a present to the king of England. Hist. ch. vi. En la vie de Louis duc d'Anjou. p. 67. seq. See also Cron. i. iv. c. i.-iii. 26. There are two or three fine illuminated copies of Froissart now remaining among the royal manuscripts in the British Museum. Among the stores of Henry the Eighth at his manor of Bedington in Surry, I find the fashionable reading of the times exem

plified in the following books, viz. “Item, a great book of parchmente written and lymned with gold of graver's work De confessione Amantis, with xviii other bookes, Le premier volume de Lancelot, FROISSART, Le grant voiage de Jerusalem, Enguerain de Monstrellot," &c. MSS. Harl. 1419. f. 382. Froissart was here properly classed.

Froissart says, that he accompanied the king to various palaces, "A Elten, a Ledos, a Kinkestove, a Cenes, a Certesée et a Windsor." That is, Eltham, Leeds, Kingston, Chertsey, &c. Cron. liv. iv. c. 119. p. 348. The French are not much improved at this day in spelling English places and names.

Perhaps by Cenes, Froissart means SHENE, the royal palace at Richmond. -ADDITIONS.]

Cron. f. 251. 252. 255. 319. 348. Bayle, who has an article on Froissart, had no idea of searching for anecdotes of Froissart's life in his CHRONICLE. Instead of which, he swells his notes on this article with the contradictory accounts of Moreri, Vossius, and others: whose disputes might have been all easily settled by recurring to Froissart himself, who has interspersed in his history many curious particulars relating to his own life and works.

and the ceremonies of the most refined courts in Europe had often a mixture of barbarism, which rendered them ridiculous. This absurdity will always appear at periods when men are so far civilised as to have lost their native simplicity, and yet have not attained just ideas of politeness and propriety. Their luxury was inelegant, their pleasures indelicate, their pomp cumbersome and unwieldy. In the mean time it may seem surprising, that the many schools of philosophy which flourished in the middle ages, should not have corrected and polished the times. But as their religion was corrupted by superstition, so their philosophy degenerated into sophistry. Nor is it science alone, even if founded on truth, that will polish nations. For this purpose, the powers of imagination must be awakened and exerted, to teach elegant feelings, and to heighten our natural sensibilities. It is not the head only that must be informed, but the heart must also be moved. Many classic authors were known in the thirteenth century, but the scholars of that period wanted taste to read and admire them. The pathetic or sublime strokes of Virgil would be but little relished by theologists and metaphysicians.

SECTION XII.

THE most illustrious ornament of the reign of Edward the Third, and of his successor Richard the Second, was Jeffrey Chaucer; a poet with whom the history of our poetry is by many supposed to have commenced; and who has been pronounced, by a critic of unquestionable taste and discernment, to be the first English versifier who wrote poetically. He was born in the year 1328, and educated at Oxford, where he made a rapid progress in the scholastic sciences as they were then taught: but the liveliness of his parts, and the native gaiety of his disposition, soon recommended him to the patronage of a magnificent monarch, and rendered him a very popular and acceptable character in the brilliant court which I have above described. In the mean time, he added to his accomplishments by frequent tours into France and Italy, which he sometimes visited under the advantages of a public character. Hitherto our poets had been persons of a private and circumscribed education, and the art of versifying, like every other kind of composition, had been confined to recluse scholars. But Chaucer was a man of the world: and from this circumstance we are to account, in great measure, for the many new embellishments which he conferred on our language and our poetry. The descriptions of splendid processions and gallant carousals, with which his works abound, are a proof that he was conversant with the practices and diversions of polite life. Familiarity with a variety of things and objects, opportunities of acquiring the fashionable and courtly modes of speech, connections with the great at home, and a personal acquaintance with the vernacular poets of foreign countries,

a Johnson's DICTION. Pref. p. 1.

opened his mind, and furnished him with new lights. In Italy he was introduced to Petrarch, at the wedding of Violante, daughter of Galeazzo duke of Milan, with the duke of Clarence and it is not improbable that Boccacio was of the party. Although Chaucer had undoubtedly studied the works of these celebrated writers, and particularly of Dante, before this fortunate interview; yet it seems likely, that these excursions gave him a new relish for their compositions, and enlarged his knowledge of the Italian fables. His travels likewise enabled him to cultivate the Italian and Provencial languages with the greatest success; and induced him to polish the asperity, and enrich the sterility of his native versification, with softer cadences, and a more copious and variegated phraseology. In this attempt, which was authorised by the recent and popular examples of Petrarch in Italy and Alain Chartier in Franced, he was countenanced and assisted by his friend John Gower, the early guide and encourager of his studies. The revival of learning in most countries appears to have first owed its rise to translation. At rude periods the modes of original thinking are unknown, and the arts of original composition have not yet been studied. The writers therefore of such periods are chiefly and very use

The earl of Salisbury, beheaded by Henry the Fourth, could not but patronise Chaucer. I do not mean for political reasons. The earl was a writer of verses, and very fond of poetry. On this account, his acquaintance was much cultivated by the famous Christina of Pisa; whose works, both in prose and verse, compose so considerable a part of the old French literature. She used to call him, "Gracieux chevalier, aimant dictiez, et lui-meme gracieux dicteur." See M. Boivin, Mem. Lit. tom. ii. p.767. seq. 4to. I have seen none of this earl's Ditties. Otherwise he would have been here considered in form, as an English poet.

Froissart was also present. VIE DE PETRARQUE. iii. 772. Amst, 1766. 4to. I believe Paulus Jovius is the firstwho mentions this anecdote. Vit. Galeas. ii.p.152.

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d Leland Script. Brit. 421.

Gower, Confess. Amant. 1. v. fol. 190. b. Barthel. 1554.

And grete wel Chaucer, when ye mete,
As my disciple and my poete:
For in the flowers of his youth,
In sundrie wise as he well couth,
Of dites and of songes glade
The which he for my sake made, etc.

[Francis Thynne in his letter to Speght (ap. Todd's Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer) has justly observed, that these lines are uttered by Venus; and consequently, that the inference drawn from them is wholly unfounded. Chaucer had published all his poems, except the Canterbury Tales, previous to the appearance of the Confessio Amantis. -EDIT.]

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