HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

CONTEMPORARY AND ‘EYEWITNESS’ HISTORY 269the upheaval of the battlefield, sketching in the play of light on helmsand lances, and brushing in the color of heraldic pennants flutteringin the wind. He knew also how best to convey the emotions of hischaracters, often by means of a simple gesture or silent gaze in themidst of a tableau vivant rendered dramatic by recourse to passagesof direct speech.Alongside the substantial accounts of gallantry often featured inmanuals of literary history or anthologies of set pieces (Crécy andPoitiers, the Six Burgesses of Calais, 55 Charles VI’s fit of madness inthe forest of Le Mans, etc.), one comes across more uncertain passagesthat are less susceptible to easy contextualization. A numberof narrative developments in Book III spring to mind where Froissartmerges his historical presentation with other forms of narrativeaccount: travel journal incorporating lively dialogue, report, anecdote,gossip, exemplum or mythological tale. A prime instance of thisricher, more troubling, textuality is the chronicler’s repeated attemptsto shed light on the circumstances of the murder of the young heirof Foix-Béarn by his father Gaston Phébus. The chronicler hereincludes himself as a participant in the gradual weaving of his narrativeduring the long ride across the countryside of Béarn. Froissartcontinually interrogates his travelling companion Espan de Lion, whoconstantly puts off getting to the heart of the matter until Froissartis forced to find out the ‘true’ details of the crime from an alternativesource. It is an old squire who, after much hesitation, finallyagrees to recount his version of the facts to the chronicler. Thisaccount is thus a narrative at second hand, such that the ‘facts’ inquestion undergo a remodelling that serves both to mask and mythologizethem. The same procedure is used in Froissart’s account ofthe bewitching of Pierre de Béarn, which is in turn marked by therecirculation of the myth of Acteon, of which Froissart was so fondand which reappears in his romance Meliador as well as in one ofhis longer narrative dits. 56It is also worth underscoring the interest inherent in the threemajor redactions of Book I of the Chroniques, from the historical but55This episode has lost none of its appeal to French audiences. See Jean-MarieVoeglin’s Les Bourgeois de Calais. Essai sur un mythe historique, Albin Michel, coll.“Evolution de l’humanité” (Paris, 2001), reviewed in Le Monde des Livres du 24 mai2002, p. VII.56Zink (1980).