J 79^* memoirs of yean Froifsart. a.f^ 



hardi (a pourpoint) worth twenty gold florins ; and 

 at Ferrara, from Peter i. king of Cyprus, a present 

 of twenty ducats. The same year, having lost his 

 protectrefs queen Philippa, he returned to his owa 

 country ; but ever governed by his rambling pafsion, 

 went through Germany to lengthen the road. 



On his return he obtained the curacy of Lestines. 

 Of all the actions of our good curate Froifsart, during 

 his ministry there, one only is known, and he tells it 

 us himself, which is, that the taverukeepers of Les- 

 tines had 500 livres of his money. Ha was still curate, 

 when by letters from the duke of Anjou, sealed the 

 1 2th December 1381, fifty-six quires of his chronicle 

 were seized, which he was getting illuminated for 

 Richard 11. at that time at war with France. This 

 fact is taken from a manuscript journal of the bifhop 

 of Orleans, chancellor to the duke of Anjou. 



Froifsart having afterwards attached himself to 

 Wenceslaus de Luxembourg, duke of Brabant, collec- 

 ted the songs and roundelays of that prince with some of 

 his own poetry, under the name of Melindor, or the 

 knight of the golden sun ; after the death of Wen- 

 ceslaus, who did not live to see the work completed, 

 Froifsart r.as made clerk of the chapel to Guy count 

 of Blois. One finds him in the years 1385, 1386, and 

 1387, sometimes in the neighbourhood of Blois, at 

 others in Touraine. He was anxious to visit the 

 southern provTnces of the kingdom, which were at 

 that time the theatre of warlike exploits ; and having 

 letters of recommendation from the count of Blois, he 

 went to Gaston Phoebus, count of Foix and Bearne, a 

 good prince, but a bad poet, who received him with 



