326 



F ROBISHER FROISS A RT. 



and a Latin epitaph on him. His sons, Jerome and 

 .Mm, and his grandsons, Arnbrosius and Aurelius, 

 continued his business. 



FROBISHER, SIR MARTIN, an eminent navigator, 

 was born near Doncaster, in Yorkshire. He was 

 brought up to the sea, and, acquiring great skill in 

 navigation, the discovery of a north-west passage to 

 the Indies excited his ambition, and, after many 

 fruitless attempts to induce merchants to favour his 

 project, he was enabled, by the ministers and court- 

 iers of queen Elizabeth, to fit out a private adven- 

 ture, consisting only of two barks of twenty-five tons 

 burden each, and a pinnace of ten tons. In this en- 

 terprise, he entered the strait which has ever since 

 been called by his name, and returned to England 

 with some black ore, which being supposed to con- 

 tain gold, induced queen Elizabeth to patronize a 

 second voyage, and lend a sloop of the royal navy of 

 200 tons for the purpose. The delusion was even 

 kept up to a third expedition ; but all of them proved 

 fruitless. In 1585, Frobisher accompanied Sir Fran- 

 cis Drake to the West Indies ; and, at the defeat of 

 the Spanish armada, he commanded one of the largest 

 ships in the fleet, and was honoured with knighthood 

 for his services. In the years 1590 and 1592, he 

 commanded squadrons against the Spaniards, and 

 took many rich prizes. In 1594, he was sent with 

 four ships of war to the assistance of Henry IV. of 

 France, against the Spaniards and leaguers, when, in 

 an attack on a fort near Brest, he received a wound, 

 of which he died on his return home. 



FROG. See Rana. 



FROG-FISH ; a species of lophius, deriving its 

 name from a resemblance of the head and mouth to 

 that of a toad or frog. Few fishes have a more hi- 

 deous appearance than this. The head, which is flat, 

 and furnished with an enormous mouth, constitutes 

 more than a third of the whole animal ; the teeth 

 are very numerous, sharp, and moveable, and the 

 cavity of the mouth is occupied by a large, fleshy 

 tongue ; skin, thin and loose-tuberculate on the back 

 and edges of the jaws ; scales, imperceptible ; dor- 

 sal fins, two ; pectorals, large and fleshy, somewhat 

 resembling paws ; several moveable rays project from 

 the head, which are moved about in the water, while 

 the animal is concealed beneath the surface of the 

 mud, to decoy small fishes within the scope of its 

 jaws, which are then suddenly opened, and its prey 

 swept into them by the mass of water which rushes 

 into the mouth. The sluggish and inactive habits of 

 the frog-fish are well known ; and, indeed, were it 

 not for stratagems similar to the above, the animal 

 could never obtain its nourishment, being quite in- 

 capable of exerting sufficient activity to overtake, in 

 pursuit, the fishes which constitute its principal food. 

 Its voracity is proportionate to its inactivity, render- 

 ing it very injurious to the fisheries by the multitude 

 of small fry which it devours. The stomach is very 

 large ; the intestines short. In length, the frog-fish 

 seldom exceeds four feet, the breadth being in the pro- 

 portion of one-third or more. From the pectoral fins, 

 the body decreases very rapidly in diameter towards 

 the tail. Wounds inflicted by the spines are said to 

 l>e very venomous. The apertures of the gills are 

 small, and defended by an overlying membrane ; and, 

 consequently, these fishes are capable of existing 

 many hours out of the water without much apparent 

 suffering. 



FRO1SSART, JOHN, a French poet and historian, 

 was born in 1337, at Valenciennes. He received a 

 liberal education, being destined for the church. But 

 his inclination for poetry soon'appeared, and was ac- 

 companied by a great passion for the fair sex, and a 

 fondness for feasts and gallantry ; so that in his life 

 and adventures, as well as in his writings, he gives us 



a true picture of the gay and thoughtless character 

 of his countrymen at that time. At the age of 

 twenty, encouraged by his beloved lord and master, 

 Messire Robert de Namur, he began to write a his 

 tory of the wars of his time, which occupation, as he 

 took several journeys to examine himself the theatre 

 of the events he was about to relate, served in some 

 measure to cure him of a passion he had conceived 

 for a lady, young and charming, but far above his 

 rank, with whom he had become intimate, in conse- 

 quence of reading poetry and romances with her. 

 The marriage of this lady, soon after, made him so 

 unhappy, that he went over to England, where he 

 was received with great favour, Philippa of Hainault, 

 wife of Edward III., declaring herself his patroness. 

 She afforded him the means of returning to France, 

 where he lived near the object of his passion. Soon 

 after, he returned to the court of England, always 

 open to the gay poet and narrator of chivairic deeds. 

 During that time he visited Scotland, and was enter- 

 tained by William, earl of Douglas. In 1366, he ac- 

 companied the Black Prince to Aquitaine andBour- 

 deaux, and even wished to follow him in his campaign 

 in Spain, against Henry of Trastamare. He afterwards 

 went with the duke of Clarence to Italy, when this 

 prince married the daughter of Galeazzo Visconti, 

 and directed the entertainment which Amadeus VI. 

 of Savoy gave in honour of his master. After the 

 death of his protectress, Philippa, Froissart gave up 

 all connexion with England, and, after many adven- 

 tures as a diplomatist and soldier (for whose duties, 

 as he says himself, he was very little fitted), he be- 

 came household chaplain to Wenceslaus, duke of 

 Brabant, who was himself a poet, and of whose 

 verses, united with some of his own, he formed a sort 

 of romance, called Meliador. On the deaf* of Wen- 

 ceslaus, he entered the service of Guy, count of 

 Blois, who induced him to continue his chronicles ; 

 on which account he took a journey to the court of 

 count Gaston Phebus, count of Foix, that he might 

 hear from the mouth of the knights of Bearne and 

 Gascony, at that court, an account of their deeds. 

 On his way, he made acquaintance with Messire E- 

 paing du Lion, a good knight, who had served in all 

 the wars, and who communicated to him all his infor- 

 mation with so much openness and naivete, that the 

 part of Froissart' s chronicles, founded on these ac- 

 counts, is one of the best portions of his works, in 

 respect to tone and style. He returned to England, 

 during the reign of Richard II., a son of the Black 

 Prince. After the dethronement of this monarch, he 

 went to Flanders, where he died in 1401. His his- 

 torical writings, which reach down to 1400, are 

 strongly marked with the characteristic features of 

 his active life. They are precious documents, exhi- 

 biting the character and manners of his age. Of all 

 the copies of his historical works, which are found 

 in different libraries, the best and most perfect is that 

 at Breslaw, which is prized so highly, that, when 

 this city surrendered to the French, in 1806, it was 

 expressly stipulated, in the articles of capitulation, 

 that this manuscript should remain in the city. 

 Froissart's poems are also preserved in manuscript, 

 in the royal library at Paris. Of his Chronicles of 

 France, England, Scotland, Spain, and Brittany, from 

 1326 to 1400 (continued to 1498 by an anonymous 

 writer), an edition was published at an early period 

 in Paris, in 4 vols. quarto, and was reprinted in 1503, 

 1514, 1518, and 1530. Other editions have appeared 

 at Paris and at London, and an English translation 

 by Thomas Johnes, in 1803, with a supplement in 

 1810. There has also been a translation into the 

 Flemish tongue, by G. P. van der Loo. The new 

 edition of the writings of Froissart, begun by Dacier, 

 was interrupted by the revolution, 



