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contains different shaped particles, round, oval, long, square, angular, kidney-shaped, heart-shaped, &c. varying according to the food taken in. In consequence of this important discovery, the practitioner has only to direct such food as may contain the particles that Archæus may stand in need of. For example: Are the kidneys diseased? Then prescribe stews and broths, made of ox, deer, and sheep's kidneys. Asthmas require dishes prepared from the lungs of sheep, deer, calves, hares, and lambs. Are the intestines diseased? Then prescribe tripe, boiled, fried, or fricasseed. When this practice has become general, Archæus will be enabled to remove every disease incident to the human body, by the assistance of the cook only. And as all persons, from the palace to the cottage, will receive the benefit of my discovery, I shall expect a Parliamentary reward, at least equal to what was given to Mrs. Stevens, Dr. Jenner, and Dr. Smyth. On the last revision of the college dispensatory, among other things of less moment, such as ordering fomentations to be made with distilled water, the name of Archæus was changed into Anima Medica, as more expressive of a Maid Servant of all Work. With men of deep researches, I will not dispute the propriety of the alteration, as I conceive that such a violence could not be done but after serious investigation."-Pp. 119-122.

This extract may give the reader some idea of the lively manner in which Ignotus has handled his subject. In fact, the whole book is very entertaining, and excites no small degree of interest, especially if read about an hour before dinner. The medical remarks are excellent, although apparently too indulgent towards the gourmand. The author stands completely exculpated from the charge of Dr. Last against the regular physicians, who "drenched the bowels of Christians with pulse and water, as if they were the tripes of a brute beast." Thus it is remarked, “as a singular circumstance, that persons of a gouty habit should be most fond of high-seasoned dishes;" but the singularity would have vanished, had the proposition borne, that the persons most fond of high-seasoned dishes usually have a gouty habit. It was not, however, to be expected, that with a stoical severity, Ignotus should bluntly attack the very critics on whose verdict his fame must depend. He is not sparing of gentle hints for their welfare; and compounds on the part of Archæus for three days' high living, with at fourth day's temperance, and occasionally some gentle physic.

"Where truth commands, there's no man can offend,
That with a modest love corrects his friend;

So the reproof has temper, kindness, ease,
Though 'tis in toasting bread, or butt'ring peas."

In fine, as long as a man thinks more frequently and more seriously about his dinner than about anything else, as was the unvaried opinion and practice of Dr. Johnson, so long will the parsley wreath won by Ignotus remain unblighted. The work is with great propriety dedicated "To those gentlemen who freely give two guineas for a turtle-dinner at the tavern, when they might have a more wholesome one at home for ten shillings." A fatted hog, the emblem, perhaps, of one of these worthy patrons, decorates the frontispiece. And so we take leave of Ignotus, in the words of Beaumont and Fletcher, as of " a gentleman extraordinarily seen in deep mysteries; well read, deeply learned, and thoroughly grounded in the hidden knowledge of all sauces, sallads, and pot-herbs whatsoever."

JOHNES'S FROISSART.*

[Edinburgh Review, January, 1805.]

Ir has long been, and we fear will long remain, a reproach to the literary character of Britain, that so very little has been done for the preservation of her early historians. A uniform edition of our chronicles, corrected from the best manuscripts, and elucidated by suitable notes and references, might surely be expected from our colleges; and a wealthy and patriotic public would encourage and reward the undertaking. Since, however, it is the fate of so many of our historians to slumber in manuscript and black letter, we ought to view, with indulgent gratitude, the exertions of an individual who has drawn from .obscurity the most fascinating of this venerable band. Whoever has taken up the chronicle of Froissart, must have been dull indeed if he did

*Sir John Froissart's Chronicles of England, France, and the adjoining Countries, from the latter part of the Reign of Edward II to the Coronation of Henry IV. Newly Translated from the best French editions, with Variations and Additions from many celebrated Manuscripts. By THOMAS JOHNES.* 4 vols. 4to. 1803-5 At the Hafod Press.

* [ Thomas Johnes, Esq., justly celebrated for his liberal and extensive patronage of literature and the arts, and the manifold local improvements introduced into Wales, first sat in Parliament for the county of Radnor, and was afterwards returned five times for the county of Cardigan, of which he was also the lord-lieutenant. In 1801 he translated and published The Life of Froissart, By St. Palaye. He afterwards established a private printing press in his superb residence at Hafod, where he executed his edition of Froissart. This was followed by an equally wellillustrated edition, in 5 vols. 4to, of The Chronicles of Monstrelet, Froissart's continuator, to which he prefixed a Biographical preface. Mr. Johnes also translated and published Brocquiere's Travels to Palestine, 4to and 8vo, and the Memoirs of John Lord de Joinville, 2 vols. 4to. He died 23d April, 1816, in his 67th year.]

not find himself transported back to the days of Cressy and Poitiers. In truth, his history has less the air of a narrative than of a dramatic representation. The figures live and move before us; we not only know what they did, but learn the mode and process of the action, and the very words with which it was accompanied. This sort of colloquial history is of all others the most interesting. The simple fact, that a great battle was won or lost, makes little impression on our mind, as it occurs in the dry pages of an annalist, while our imagination and attention are alike excited by the detailed description of a much more trifling event. In Froissart, we hear the gallant knights of whom he wrote, arrange the terms of combat and the manner of the onset; we hear their soldiers cry their war-cries; we see them strike their horses with the spur; and the liveliness of the narration hurries us along with them into the whirlwind of battle. We have no hesitation to say, that a skirmish before a petty fortress, thus told, interests us more than the general information that twenty thousand Frenchmen bled on the field of Cressy. This must ever be the case, while we prefer a knowledge of mankind to a mere acquaintance with their actions; and so long also must we account Froissart the most entertaining, and perhaps the most valuable historian of the middle ages. Till now, his chronicles have only existed in three black letter editions printed at Paris, all, we believe, very rare; in that which was published by Denys Sauvage about 1560, and reprinted in 1574; and finally, in an English translation by Bourchier Lord Berners, which, we believe, sells for about twenty guineas, and is hardly ever to be met with.* Under these circumstances, we are bound to receive with gratitude every attempt to give more general access to the treasures of Froissart, especially as the size of his chronicles prohibits the idea of an edition undertaken with the usual views of profit. Mr. Johnes, the present translator, we understand to be a gentleman of fortune, whose hours of leisure and retirement are dedicated

* [Richard Pynson, 2 vols. fol. London, 1525.-A reprint of Lord Berners's Froissart, with a Memoir of the Translator, was published by the London trade in 1812, 2 vols. 4to. The copy of this edition, in the Abbotsford library, has this autograph, "Gualteri Scott, liber charissimus," on the blank leaf fronting the titlepage.]

to literary research, and who sends the present volume forth from his private press at Hafod. Like his predecessor Lord Berners, he is probably pricked on to his undertaking "by the love and honour which he bears to our most puissant sovereign, and to do pleasure to his subjects both nobles and commons," and like that good baron, he "prays them that shall default find, to consyder the greatness of the historie and his good will that asks nothing else of them for his great labour, but of their curtesye to amende where nede shall be, and yet for their so doing prays to God finally to send them the bliss of Heaven." If, therefore, in the course of our present investigation, we find it neccessary to descend into the lists with so gentle a knight, he may rest assured that the arms we employ shall only be those of courtesy.

The present translation of Froissart will consist, when finished, of four large quarto volumes. The best authorities have been resorted to for various readings, and large additions are in many places made from manuscripts in the translator's library.

It appears to us an omission of some consequence, that nothing is told the English reader of the history of Froissart himself, the mode which he took to acquire the knowledge of the events he narrates, the distribution of his history into books, and the arrangement of his chronology. We are the more disappointed in this respect, because the translator could be no stranger to three Mémoires on these subjects published in the Transactions of the Academie Royale, vols. 10, 13, 14, by Mons. de la Curne de Ste Palaye. We are tempted in some degree to supply this defect, by giving, chiefly from these authorities, a short sketch of the life and character of this venerable historian.

Jean Froissart, priest canon and treasurer of the collegiate church of Chimay, was born at Valenciennes about 1337. He was the son, as is conjectured from a passage in his poems, of Thomas Froissart, a herald painter, no inconsiderable profession in those days, and which required a good deal of such knowledge as was then in fashion. The youth of Froissart, from twelve years upwards, as in his poems he has frequently informed us, was spent in every species of elegant indulgence. "Well I loved," says he, "to see danses and carolling, well to hear minstrelsy and

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