Jean Froissart and the Fabric of History

• Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I: Representations - Froissart and the discourse of history: Telling the truth: the discourse of history; Chronicle, history, romance; Of verse and prose . . . The 'lost' chronicle; History and ideology in fourteenth-century France; Knight, Magnate, King and Clerk: Froissart's vision of aristocratic and military society; War and chivalry; Kings, barons, clerks, and peasants; Part II: Transgrassions - L'estoire and its fortunes: Bending the truth: "Ceci n'est pas un conte" - Froissart, Mérigot Marchès, and the well-ordered narrative; Anecdote, tale, and nouvelle; Black, white, and grey - a tomb embellished; The quest for truth: "Je, sire Jehan Froissart, fay narracion . . ." -Froissart-Scriptor and the metaphor of the journey; Knife, key, bear, and book: poisoned metonymies and the problem of translatio; The transmission of truth: the theme of translatio in the later Chroniques; 'Jones et à venir': promise or folly in the young king; Magnates, Marmousets, and marmousets; Translatio militii; Part III: Image-building - The rewriting (and re-reading) of Book I: Re-writing the past: dramatic 'landscape' in the Rome Manuscript; The Orwell 'landscape' and the invasion of 1325; Sources, significance, tradition; Meliador and the Isle of Man; Creating an image: Edward III in the Rome Manuscript; A changing ethos; The apprentice king; "A tout le mains faites asambler vous hommes et vostre consel": Edward III and his counsellors; Confiance, vaillance . . . et sagesse? Li senglers de Windesore; Lessons and trials: Edward the wise; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index

`One reads and rereads Peter Ainsworth's densely textured volume on Froissart's Chroniques with a growing sense of gratitude for the riches it contains ... this book offers a fresh conceptualization of the "literariness" of the Chroniques and identifies evolutionary stages in both Froissart's discursive practices and his attitudes toward chivalry ... Ainsworth's volume offers a relatively broad audience access to the problems and achievements of recent scholarship while making its own distinguished contribution ... Ainsworth's focus is consistently literary throughout.'Studies in the Age of Chaucer