*G4 /entire "figures of men or animals in ftrange poftures, and alfo fome ftriklng falling figures. The moft of this kind are at the bottom of the page,— in fome at the fide, when full ; alfo the Burgundy arms, divided obliquely by a red ftroke, with die chain of the order ; an owl on the helmet, which in books of heraldry is wanting, and two bears as fupporters : at thé fide, coats of mail and ertfigns,—on thefe the above-mentioned motto. AU are manifeftly painted by feveral artifts. In the firft volume the moft are very bad, not being reckoned of beautiful colouring : in the remaining three volumes, on the contrary, fo much the more excellent ; and on account of • the extremely fine ftrokes of gold -every where brought in for heightening die light, very remarkable. Of Froiflart's life we find a ihort account in the General Scholar's Lexicon, from the there -noticed fources, particularly Bayie's DiCtionn. t. ii. p. 512, 513.ed. 1730. Monfieur de la Curne de St Palaye, in the Mémoires de r Académie des Infcriptions, has given the moft circumftantial from the Chronicle itfelf and his unprinted poems, from other fources, and from Chaufepié DiCtionn. t. ii. p. 87, SI. verbatim, and by abridgment ; Mr Sinner in Catalogo Codd. MSS. Bibliothecae Bernenfis, t ii. p. 220, 230 ; Hamberger in the fourth part of the Notices, pu 639, 643. As I have not the Memoirs themfelves at hand, fo I have only been able, in the following fketch of the moft remarkable circumftances of his life, to avail myfelf of the abridgment from them in the catalogues of Chaufepié and Mr Sinner. John -Froiflart, pricft, canon and treafurer, in the colegiate church at Chimay in Hainault, was born at Valenciennes about the year 1337. With all the care which at-other times he has taken in the relation of the minuteft circumftances of his life, he has mentioned nothing concerning his defcent. We can conjecture only from one place in his poems, that his father was called Thomas, and was a Mazoner of arms. He already fhewed in his youth a ruling paffion for diverfions and pleafures : in the fequel, his confiant bias for the chace, mufic, fociety, dancing, wke and love, fuffered itfelf to -be moderated by his greater predilection'for perfecting an accurate hiftory of his time,. which he undertook iri the .twentieth year of his-age, at the -requeft of Robert of Namur, lord of