presents a real plot, in Froissart the plot is replaced by
two exempla: a pseudomythological love story told by
Flos and an allegorical vision experienced by Rose, in
which we can made out the real story of the imprisoned
Wenceslas.
The Joli buisson de Jonece is the longest and most
ambitious of Froissart’s dits (5,442 lines, with twenty-
seven inserted poems). It is a dream vision that Frois-
sart, aged thirty-fi ve, had on November 30, 1373. In
his dream, populated by mythological and allegorical
fi gures, Youth leads him to an allegorical Bush. Awak-
ened, the poet realizes the real danger and turns his
thoughts toward the Virgin, whom he praises in a lai.
She becomes “li Buissons resplendissans” (I. 5,402)
and her Son” [e]st li feus plaisans,/Non ardans,/Mais
enluminans” (ll. 5,407–10).
Like the Orloge, the Temple d’honneur (1,076 lines)
does not contain any inserted lyrics. In this allegorical
dream, Honor marries his son, Desire, to Lady Plaisance.
Froissart calls this poem not a dit amoureus, but tret-
tié de moralité. Indeed, most of the trettié consists of
Honor’s long moral sermon on love and marriage. It is
quite possible that the Temple is indeed an egithalamium
celebrating a real couple.
Besides these fi ve dits, Froissart composed six shorter
lyrico-narrative poems. The Dit dou bleu chevalier (504
lines) tells, in a complicated metric scheme, the efforts of
the poet to console a lovesick knight dressed in blue (the
color of fi delity). The Joli mois de mai (464 lines with
three lyric insertions) is a purely lyrical composition
in which the poet, addressing a nightingale, extolls the
beauty of his ladylove. Purely lyrical also is the Dit de la
margueritte (192 lines): the poet sings the praise of his
fl ower-ladylove. The Plaidoirie de la rose et de la vio-
lette (342 lines) is a perfect example of Froissart’s ability
to fl atter: these two fl owers ask the court of France to
decide which of them is more worthy of praise. The
court, presided over by “noble et haulte Flour de Lys”
(l. 308) and seconded not only by the usual allegorical
fi gures of Prowess, Youth, Sense, Gemerosity, and oth-
ers, but also by the dukes of Berry, Burgundy, Eu, and
La Marche, will some day pronounce a judgment on all
fl owers, even on Froissart’s fl ower, the daisy.
More apparently autobiographical are the last two
dits presented without inserted lyrics or mythological
allusions. The Debat dou cheval et dou levrier (92 lines)
shows Froissart returning from Scotland and overhear-
ing a discussion between his horse and his greyhound on
the joys and sorrows of their respective existences. The
Dit dou fl orin (490 lines) is a debate between Froissart
and the last of his coins left from a dissipated fortune.
The poet tells us about the eighty fl orins that he received
from the count of Foix and, more importantly, informs us
that during his stay in Orthez, Froissart read each night,
for eleven weeks, a passage of his Méliador to the count.
If in his lyric and lyrico-narrative poetry Froissart
adheres closely to the literary canons established by
Machaut, his verse romance Méliador is perhaps more
“original,” for it is a conscious return to a much earlier
tradition. Its other claim to originality lies in Froissart’s
insertion of seventy-nine lyric poems from the pen
of his patron Wenceslas of Luxembourg. While most
14th-century romances are recastings or continuations,
usually in prose, Méliador’s subject is new, though it
is composed in the traditional octosyllabic couplets.
The romance of more than 30,000 lines (unfi nished and
with two lacunae) is set in a youthful Arthurian court
and could be called the “enfances de la Table Ronde.”
It depicts the innumerable adventures, chiefl y jousting
and chance armed encounters, of innumerable knights-
errant, but the main plot is easily discernible: Hermione,
princess of Scotland, is promised to the knight who
proves himself most valiant in a series of tournaments
organized by the ladies. Méliador, son of the duke of
Cornwell, is an ideal knight-errant. At the end, he wins
not only Hermione but also the Scottish kingdom, while
his companions win lesser princesses. Méliador, begun
in the early 1360s and completed only after the death of
Wenceslas in 1383, refl ects the geography and ideology
of Froissart’s early service in Great Britain. As a frank
glorifi cation of chivalry, with its implied desire to revive
it in Froissart’s own time, Méliador is a powerful link
between his poetry and the greatest accomplishment of
his life, his idealizing, and “restoratory” Chroniques.See also Charles IV; Chaucer, Geoffrey; Edward
III; John, Duke of BerryFurther Reading
Froissart, Jean. Les œuvres de Froissart—Chroniques, ed. Joseph
M.B.C. Kervyn de Lettenhove. 25 vols. in 26. Vols. 1–17,
Brussels: Devaux, 1867–73; Vols. 18–25, Brussels: Closson,
1874–77. [The only complete, but idiosyncratic, edition of
the chronicles.]
——. Chroniques de Jean Froissart. 15 vols. Vols. 1–8, part 1,
ed. Siméon Luce. Vol. 8, parts 2–11, ed. Gaston Raynaud. Vol.
12, ed. Léon Mirot. Vol. 13, ed. Léon Mirot and Albert Mirot.
Vols. 14 and 15, ed. Albert Mirot. Vols. 1–4, Paris: Renouard,
1869–73. Vols. 5–7, Paris: Renouard, H. Loones, successeur,
1874–78. Vols. 8–11, Paris: Renouard, H. Laurens, successeur,
1888–99. Vol. 12, Paris: Champion, 1931. Vols. 13–15. Paris:
Klincksieck, 1957–75. [Vols. 1–8 contain Book 1 with vari-
ants; Vols. 9–11, Book 2 with variants; Vols. 12–15, most of
Book 3 (up to 1389). This “national edition,” begun in 1869,
is still “in progress.”]
——. Ballades et rondeaux, ed. Rae S. Baudoin. Geneva: Droz,
1978.
——. Le paradis d’amour; L’orloge amoureus, ed. Peter F.
Dembowski. Geneva: Droz, 1986.
——. L’espinette amoreuse, ed. Anthime Fourrier. Paris: Klincks-
ieck, 1972.
——. La prison amoureuse, ed. Anthime Fourrier. Paris: Klincks-
ieck, 1974.FROISSART, JEAN