MEMOIRS 'THIS 3L1FU OF FROISSARXL JoHN'FROISSART, prieft, canon, andtreafurer of the collegiate church of Chimay, hiftorian and poet, was bom in Valenciennes, a town in Hainauit* about the year 1837. This1 date, which appears contradicted by one fingle pafiage in his Chronicle, is confirmed by a number of others, as well in his. Chronicle, as in his manufcript poems. Attentive as he was to inform m of the molt minute particulars of his life, he does not fey one word relative to his family. It can only be conjeétured, from a pafiage in his poems, that his father!s name was Thomas, and that he was a painter of heraldry. We find 4m his Hiftory a Froiflart Meullier, a young knight Jfrom Hainault, who fignalized himfelf by his valour at the fiege of the cattle of Figueras, in Spain, which the Englifh andGafcons attacked in 1381. His* country and name induce me to believe that our hiftorian might be a relation of his, and like him fprung from a noble family. . ^ . Froifiart is defcribed as a knight, at the beginning of « manufcript in the abbey of St Germain des Prez; but as he has not this title in any other manufcript, though we have fome of the molt ancient and moft authentic,, it feems-probable that - the. copyHt, has given it-to-him. from his. own .authority. -B