1^01. memoirs of J'ean Frotjsarf. igj 



Froifsart, to whom flie appeared amiable, bj dint 

 of reading romances, was desirous of beginning his 

 own, and making her his heroine. He made his de- 

 claration bj a ballad, which without doubt was 

 thought pretty ; but it did not hinder the lady from 

 marrying another a Ihort time afterwards. It was 

 to alleviate this pafsion he made his second journey- 

 to England. The reception he met with, the plea- 

 sures that were procured him, not being able to 

 triumph over his love, he came back to Valenciennes 

 to his mistrefs ; but Hymen was not more favou- 

 rable to him than Cupid. Hr was not more happy 

 than before, and neither Froifsart nor his mistrefs 

 could be cured, one of his pafsion, the other of her 

 cruelty. 



Froifsart was naturally inclined to love, as the 

 character of all his poetry fhews. He is said to have 

 succeeded particularly in pastorals ; but in the ma- 

 nuscripts before us, we have not seen one that would 

 not have tired the reader, from the numberlefs allu- 

 sions to the affairs of the day, by the irregularitv, 

 and above all by the obscurity of the stile. It ap- 

 pears that in the early ages of our literature, it was 

 not extraordinary for priests, and even monks, to dis- 

 cufs in their writings very different subjects from 

 divine love. In these times, before and after Froif- 

 sart, people of fajliion were so ignorant, that the 

 laity were, as by agreement, called rustics. With 

 regard to science there was tliat distinction made, 

 which ancient Rome made through policy, who cal- 

 led all the v/or:d barbarians, vhat were not citizens 

 of Rome. Nov.', as love was the common subject to 



