The first edition of Froissart’s Chronicles was published in Paris. It bears no date; the next editions are those of the years 1505, 1514, 1518 and 1520. The edition of Buchon, 1824, was a continuation of one commenced by Dacier. The best modern editions are those of Kervyn de Lettenhove (Brussels, 1863-1877) and Siméon Luce (Paris, 1869-1888); for bibliography see Potthast,Bibliotheca hist. medii aevi, i. (Berlin, 1896). An abridgment was made in Latin by Belleforest, and published in 1672. An English translation was made by Bouchier, Lord Berners, and published in London, 1525. See the “Tudor Translations” edition of Berners (Nutt, 1901), with introduction by W. P. Ker; and the “Globe” edition, with introduction by G. C. Macaulay. The translation by Thomas Johnes was originally published in 1802-1805. For Froissart’s poems see Scheler’s text in K. de Lettenhove’s complete edition;Méliadorhas been edited by Longnon for the Société des Anciens Textes (1895-1899). See also Madame Darmesteter (Duclaux),Froissart(1894).
The first edition of Froissart’s Chronicles was published in Paris. It bears no date; the next editions are those of the years 1505, 1514, 1518 and 1520. The edition of Buchon, 1824, was a continuation of one commenced by Dacier. The best modern editions are those of Kervyn de Lettenhove (Brussels, 1863-1877) and Siméon Luce (Paris, 1869-1888); for bibliography see Potthast,Bibliotheca hist. medii aevi, i. (Berlin, 1896). An abridgment was made in Latin by Belleforest, and published in 1672. An English translation was made by Bouchier, Lord Berners, and published in London, 1525. See the “Tudor Translations” edition of Berners (Nutt, 1901), with introduction by W. P. Ker; and the “Globe” edition, with introduction by G. C. Macaulay. The translation by Thomas Johnes was originally published in 1802-1805. For Froissart’s poems see Scheler’s text in K. de Lettenhove’s complete edition;Méliadorhas been edited by Longnon for the Société des Anciens Textes (1895-1899). See also Madame Darmesteter (Duclaux),Froissart(1894).
(W. Be.)
FROME,a market town in the Frome parliamentary division of Somersetshire, England, 107 m. W. by S. of London by the Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 11,057. It is unevenly built on high ground above the river Frome, which is here crossed by a stone bridge of five arches. It was formerly called Frome or Froome Selwood, after the neighbouring forest of Selwood; and the country round is still richly wooded and picturesque. The parish church of St John the Baptist, with its fine tower and spire, was built about the close of the 14th century, and, though largely restored, has a beautiful chancel, Lady chapel and baptistery. Fragments of Norman work are left; the interior is elaborately adorned with sculptures and stained glass. The market-hall, museum, school of art, and a free grammar school, founded under Edward VI., may be noted among buildings and institutions. The chief industries are brewing and art metal-working, also printing, metal-founding, and the manufacture of cloth, silk, tools and cards for wool-dressing. Dairy farming is largely practised in the neighbourhood. Selwood forest was long a favourite haunt of brigands, and even in the 18th century gave shelter to a gang of coiners and highwaymen.
The Saxon occupation of Frome (From) is the earliest of which there is evidence, the settlement being due to the foundation of a monastery by Aldhelm in 705. A witenagemot was held there in 934, so that Frome must already have been a place of some size. At the time of the Domesday Survey the manor was owned by King William. Local tradition asserts that Frome was a medieval borough, and the reeve of Frome is occasionally mentioned in documents after the reign of Edward I., but there is no direct evidence that Frome was a borough and no trace of any charter granted to it. It was not represented in parliament until given one member by the Reform Act of 1832. Separate representation ceased in 1885. Frome was never incorporated. A charter of Henry VII. to Edmund Leversedge, then lord of the manor, granted the right to have fairs on the 22nd of July and the 21st of September. In the 18th century two other fairs on the 24th of February and the 25th of November were held. Cattle fairs are now held on the last Wednesday in February and November, and a cheese fair on the last Wednesday in September. The Wednesday market is held under the charter of Henry VII. There is also a Saturday cattle market. The manufacture of woollen cloth has been established since the 15th century, Frome being the only Somerset town in which this staple industry has flourished continuously.
FROMENTIN, EUGÈNE(1820-1876), French painter, was born at La Rochelle in December 1820. After leaving school he studied for some years under Louis Cabat, the landscape painter. Fromentin was one of the earliest pictorial interpreters of Algeria, having been able, while quite young, to visit the land and people that suggested the subjects of most of his works, and to store his memory as well as his portfolio with the picturesque and characteristic details of North African life. In 1849 he obtained a medal of the second class. In 1852 he paid a second visit to Algeria, accompanying an archaeological mission, and then completed that minute study of the scenery of the country and of the habits of its people which enabled him to give to his after-work the realistic accuracy that comes from intimate knowledge. In a certain sense his works are not more artistic results than contributions to ethnological science. His first great success was produced at the Salon of 1847, by the “Gorges de la Chiffa.” Among his more important works are—“La Place de la brèche à Constantine” (1849); “EnterrementMaure” (1853); “Bateleurs nègres” and “Audience chez un chalife” (1859); “Berger kabyle” and “Courriers arabes” (1861); “Bivouac arabe,” “Chasse au faucon,” “Fauconnier arabe” (now at Luxembourg) (1863); “Chasse au héron” (1865); “Voleurs de nuit” (1867); “Centaurs et arabes attaqués par une lionne” (1868); “Halte de muletiers” (1869); “Le Nil” and “Un Souvenir d’Esneh” (1875). Fromentin was much influenced in style by Eugène Delacroix. His works are distinguished by striking composition, great dexterity of handling and brilliancy of colour. In them is given with great truth and refinement the unconscious grandeur of barbarian and animal attitudes and gestures. His later works, however, show signs of an exhausted vein and of an exhausted spirit, accompanied or caused by physical enfeeblement. But it must be observed that Fromentin’s paintings show only one side of a genius that was perhaps even more felicitously expressed in literature, though of course with less profusion. “Dominique,” first published in theRevue des deux mondesin 1862, and dedicated to George Sand, is remarkable among the fiction of the century for delicate and imaginative observation and for emotional earnestness. Fromentin’s other literary works are—Visites artistiques(1852);Simples Pèlerinages(1856);Un Été dans le Sahara(1857);Une Année dans le Sahel(1858); andLes Maîtres d’autrefois(1876). In 1876 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Academy. He died suddenly at La Rochelle on the 27th of August 1876.
FROMMEL, GASTON(1862-1906), Swiss theologian, professor of theology in the university of Geneva from 1894 to 1906. An Alsatian by birth, he belonged mainly to French Switzerland, where he spent most of his life. He may best be described as continuing the spirit of Vinet (q.v.) amid the mental conditions marking the end of the 19th century. Like Vinet, he derived his philosophy of religion from a peculiarly deep experience of the Gospel of Christ as meeting the demands of the moral consciousness; but he developed even further than Vinet the psychological analysis of conscience and the method of verifying every doctrine by direct reference to spiritual experience. Both made much of moral individuality or personality as the crown and criterion of reality, believing that its correlation with Christianity, both historically and philosophically, was most intimate. But while Vinet laid most stress on the liberty from human authority essential to the moral consciousness, the changed needs of the age caused Frommel to develop rather the aspect of man’s dependence as a moral being upon God’s spiritual initiative, “the conditional nature of his liberty.” “Liberty is not the primary, but the secondary characteristic” of conscience; “before being free, it is the subject of obligation.” On this depends its objectivity as a real revelation of the Divine Will. Thus he claimed that a deeper analysis carried one beyond the human subjectivity of even Kant’s categorical imperative, since consciousness of obligation was “une expérience imposée sous le mode de l’absolu.” By his use ofimposéeFrommel emphasized the priority of man’s sense of obligation to his consciousness either of self or of God. Here he appealed to the current psychology of the subconscious for confirmation of his analysis, by which he claimed to transcend mere intellectualism. In his language on this fundamental point he was perhaps too jealous of admitting an ideal element as implicit in the feeling of obligation. Still he did well in insisting on priority to self-conscious thought as a mark of metaphysical objectivity in the case of moral, no less than of physical experience. Further, he found in the Christian revelation the same characteristics as belonged to the universal revelation involved in conscience, viz. God’s sovereign initiative and his living action in history. From this standpoint he argued against a purely psychological type of religion (agnosticisme religieux, as he termed it)—a tendency to which he saw even in A. Sabatier and thesymbolo-fidéismeof the Paris School—as giving up a real and unifying faith. His influence on men, especially the student class, was greatly enhanced by the religious force and charm of his personality. Finally, like Vinet, he was a man of letters and a penetrating critic of men and systems.
Literature.—G. Godet,Gaston Frommel(Neuchâtel, 1906), a compact sketch, with full citation of sources; cf. H. Bois, inSainte-Croixfor 1906, for “L’Étudiant et le professeur.” A complete edition of his writings was begun in 1907.
Literature.—G. Godet,Gaston Frommel(Neuchâtel, 1906), a compact sketch, with full citation of sources; cf. H. Bois, inSainte-Croixfor 1906, for “L’Étudiant et le professeur.” A complete edition of his writings was begun in 1907.
(J. V. B.)
FRONDE, THE,the name given to a civil war in France which lasted from 1648 to 1652, and to its sequel, the war with Spain in 1653-59. The word means a sling, and was applied to this contest from the circumstance that the windows of Cardinal Mazarin’s adherents were pelted with stones by the Paris mob. Its original object was the redress of grievances, but the movement soon degenerated into a factional contest among the nobles, who sought to reverse the results of Richelieu’s work and to overthrow his successor Mazarin. In May 1648 a tax levied on judicial officers of the parlement of Paris was met by that body, not merely with a refusal to pay, but with a condemnation of earlier financial edicts, and even with a demand for the acceptance of a scheme of constitutional reforms framed by a committee of the parlement. This charter was somewhat influenced by contemporary events in England. But there is no real likeness between the two revolutions, the French parlement being no more representative of the people than the Inns of Court were in England. The political history of the time is dealt with in the articleFrance:History, the present article being concerned chiefly with the military operations of what was perhaps the most costly and least necessary civil war in history.
The military record of the first or “parliamentary” Fronde is almost blank. In August 1648, strengthened by the news of Condé’s victory at Lens, Mazarin suddenly arrested the leaders of the parlement, whereupon Paris broke into insurrection and barricaded the streets. The court, having no army at its immediate disposal, had to release the prisoners and to promise reforms, and fled from Paris on the night of the 22nd of October. But the signing of the peace of Westphalia set free Condé’s army, and by January 1649 it was besieging Paris. The peace of Rueil was signed in March, after little blood had been shed. The Parisians, though still and always anti-cardinalist, refused to ask for Spanish aid, as proposed by their princely and noble adherents, and having no prospect of military success without such aid, submitted and received concessions. Thenceforward the Fronde becomes a story of sordid intrigues and half-hearted warfare, losing all trace of its first constitutional phase. The leaders were discontented princes and nobles—Monsieur (Gaston of Orléans, the king’s uncle), the great Condé and his brother Conti, the duc de Bouillon and his brother Turenne. To these must be added Gaston’s daughter, Mademoiselle de Montpensier (La grande Mademoiselle), Condé’s sister, Madame de Longueville, Madame de Chevreuse, and the astute intriguer Paul de Gondi, later Cardinal de Retz. The military operations fell into the hands of war-experienced mercenaries, led by two great, and many second-rate, generals, and of nobles to whom war was a polite pastime. The feelings of the people at large were enlisted on neither side.
This peace of Rueil lasted until the end of 1649. The princes, received at court once more, renewed their intrigues against Mazarin, who, having come to an understanding with Monsieur, Gondi and Madame de Chevreuse, suddenly arrested Condé, Conti and Longueville (January 14, 1650). The war which followed thiscoupis called the “Princes’ Fronde.” This time it was Turenne, before and afterwards the most loyal soldier of his day, who headed the armed rebellion. Listening to the promptings of his Egeria, Madame de Longueville, he resolved to rescue her brother, his old comrade of Freiburg and Nördlingen. It was with Spanish assistance that he hoped to do so; and a powerful army of that nation assembled in Artois under the archduke Leopold, governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands. But the peasants of the country-side rose against the invaders, the royal army in Champagne was in the capable hands of César de Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin, who counted fifty-two years of age and thirty-six of war experience, and the little fortress of Guise successfully resisted the archduke’s attack. Thereupon, however, Mazarin drew upon Plessis-Praslin’s armyfor reinforcements to be sent to subdue the rebellion in the south, and the royal general had to retire. Then, happily for France, the archduke decided that he had spent sufficient of the king of Spain’s money and men in the French quarrel. The magnificent regular army withdrew into winter quarters, and left Turenne to deliver the princes with a motley host of Frondeurs and Lorrainers. Plessis-Praslin by force and bribery secured the surrender of Rethel on the 13th of December 1650, and Turenne, who had advanced to relieve the place, fell back hurriedly. But he was a terrible opponent, and Plessis-Praslin and Mazarin himself, who accompanied the army, had many misgivings as to the result of a lost battle. The marshal chose nevertheless to force Turenne to a decision, and the battle of Blanc-Champ (near Somme-Py) or Rethel was the consequence. Both sides were at a standstill in strong positions, Plessis-Praslin doubtful of the trustworthiness of his cavalry, Turenne too weak to attack, when a dispute for precedence arose between theGardes françaisesand thePicardieregiment. The royal infantry had to be rearranged in order of regimental seniority, and Turenne, seeing and desiring to profit by the attendant disorder, came out of his stronghold and attacked with the greatest vigour. The battle (December 15, 1650) was severe and for a time doubtful, but Turenne’s Frondeurs gave way in the end, and his army, as an army, ceased to exist. Turenne himself, undeceived as to the part he was playing in the drama, asked and received the young king’s pardon, and meantime the court, with themaison du roiand other loyal troops, had subdued the minor risings without difficulty (March-April 1651). Condé, Conti and Longueville were released, and by April 1651 the rebellion had everywhere collapsed. Then followed a few months of hollow peace and the court returned to Paris. Mazarin, an object of hatred to all the princes, had already retired into exile. “Le temps est un galant homme,” he remarked, “laissons le faire!” and so it proved. His absence left the field free for mutual jealousies, and for the remainder of the year anarchy reigned in France. In December 1651 Mazarin returned with a small army. The war began again, and this time Turenne and Condé were pitted against one another. After the first campaign, as we shall see, the civil war ceased, but for several other campaigns the two great soldiers were opposed to one another, Turenne as the defender of France, Condé as a Spanish invader. Their personalities alone give threads of continuity to these seven years of wearisome manœuvres, sieges and combats, though for a right understanding of the causes which were to produce the standing armies of the age of Louis XIV. and Frederick the Great the military student should search deeply into the material and moral factors that here decided the issue.
The début of the new Frondeurs took place in Guyenne (February-March 1652), while their Spanish ally, the archduke Leopold William, captured various northern fortresses. On the Loire, whither the centre of gravity was soon transferred, the Frondeurs were commanded by intriguers and quarrelsome lords, until Condé’s arrival from Guyenne. His bold trenchant leadership made itself felt in the action of Bléneau (7th April 1652), in which a portion of the royal army was destroyed, but fresh troops came up to oppose him, and from the skilful dispositions made by his opponents Condé felt the presence of Turenne and broke off the action. The royal army did likewise. Condé invited the commander of Turenne’s rearguard to supper, chaffed him unmercifully for allowing the prince’s men to surprise him in the morning, and by way of farewell remarked to his guest, “Quel dommage que des braves gens comme nous se coupent la gorge pour un faquin”—an incident and a remark that thoroughly justify the iron-handed absolutism of Louis XIV. There was no hope for France while tournaments on a large scale and at the public’s expense were fashionable amongst thegrands seigneurs. After Bléneau both armies marched to Paris to negotiate with the parlement, de Retz and Mlle de Montpensier, while the archduke took more fortresses in Flanders, and Charles IV., duke of Lorraine, with an army of plundering mercenaries, marched through Champagne to join Condé. As to the latter, Turenne manœuvred past Condé and planted himself in front of the mercenaries, and their leader, not wishing to expend his men against the old French regiments, consented to depart with a money payment and the promise of two tiny Lorraine fortresses. A few more manœuvres, and the royal army was able to hem in the Frondeurs in the Faubourg St Antoine (2nd July 1652) with their backs to the closed gates of Paris. The royalists attacked all along the line and won a signal victory in spite of the knightly prowess of the prince and his great lords, but at the critical moment Gaston’s daughter persuaded the Parisians to open the gates and to admit Condé’s army. She herself turned the guns of the Bastille on the pursuers. An insurrectional government was organized in the capital and proclaimed Monsieur lieutenant-general of the realm. Mazarin, feeling that public opinion was solidly against him, left France again, and the bourgeois of Paris, quarrelling with the princes, permitted the king to enter the city on the 21st of October 1652. Mazarin returned unopposed in February 1653.
The Fronde as a civil war was now over. The whole country, wearied of anarchy and disgusted with the princes, came to look to the king’s party as the party of order and settled government, and thus the Fronde prepared the way for the absolutism of Louis XIV. The general war continued in Flanders, Catalonia and Italy wherever a Spanish and a French garrison were face to face, and Condé with the wreck of his army openly and definitely entered the service of the king of Spain. The “Spanish Fronde” was almost purely a military affair and, except for a few outstanding incidents, a dull affair to boot. In 1653 France was so exhausted that neither invaders nor defenders were able to gather supplies to enable them to take the field till July. At one moment, near Péronne, Condé had Turenne at a serious disadvantage, but he could not galvanize the Spanish general Count Fuensaldana, who was more solicitous to preserve his master’s soldiers than to establish Condé as mayor of the palace to the king of France, and the armies drew apart again without fighting. In 1654 the principal incident was the siege and relief of Arras. On the night of the 24th-25th August the lines of circumvallation drawn round that place by the prince were brilliantly stormed by Turenne’s army, and Condé won equal credit for his safe withdrawal of the besieging corps under cover of a series of bold cavalry charges led by himself as usual, sword in hand. In 1655 Turenne captured the fortresses of Landrecies, Condé and St Ghislain. In 1656 the prince of Condé revenged himself for the defeat of Arras by storming Turenne’s circumvallation around Valenciennes (16th July), but Turenne drew off his forces in good order. The campaign of 1657 was uneventful, and is only to be remembered because a body of 6000 British infantry, sent by Cromwell in pursuance of his treaty of alliance with Mazarin, took part in it. The presence of the English contingent and its very definite purpose of making Dunkirk a new Calais, to be held by England for ever, gave the next campaign a character of certainty and decision which is entirely wanting in the rest of the war. Dunkirk was besieged promptly and in great force, and when Don Juan of Austria and Condé appeared with the relieving army from Furnes, Turenne advanced boldly to meet him. The battle of the Dunes, fought on the 14th of June 1658, was the first real trial of strength since the battle of the Faubourg St Antoine. Successes on one wing were compromised by failure on the other, but in the end Condé drew off with heavy losses, the success of his own cavalry charges having entirely failed to make good the defeat of the Spanish right wing amongst the Dunes. Here the “red-coats” made their first appearance on a continental battlefield, under the leadership of Sir W. Lockhart, Cromwell’s ambassador at Paris, and astonished both armies by the stubborn fierceness of their assaults, for they were the products of a war where passions ran higher and the determination to win rested on deeper foundations than in thedégringoladeof the feudal spirit in which they now figured. Dunkirk fell, as a result of the victory, and flew the St George’s cross till Charles II. sold it to the king of France. A last desultory campaign followed in 1659—the twenty-fifth year of the Franco-Spanish War—and the peace of the Pyrenees was signed on the 5th of November. On the 27th of January1660 the prince asked and obtained at Aix the forgiveness of Louis XIV. The later careers of Turenne and Condé as the great generals—and obedient subjects—of their sovereign are described in the articleDutch Wars.
For the many memoirs and letters of the time see the list in G. Monod’sBibliographie de l’histoire de France(Paris, 1888). TheLettres du cardinal Mazarinhave been collected in nine volumes (Paris, 1878-1906). See P. Adolphe Chéruel,Histoire de France pendant la minorité de Louis XIV(4 vols., 1879-1880), and hisHistoire de France sous le ministère de Mazarin(3 vols., 1883); L. C. de Beaupoil de Sainte-Aulaire,Histoire de la Fronde(2nd ed., 2 vols., 1860); “Arvède Barine” (Mme Charles Vincens),La Jeunesse de la grande mademoiselle(Paris, 1902); Duc d’Aumale,Histoire des princes de Condé(Paris, 1889-1896, 7 vols.). The most interesting account of the military operations is in General Hardy de Périni’sTurenne et Condé(Batailles françaises, vol. iv.).
For the many memoirs and letters of the time see the list in G. Monod’sBibliographie de l’histoire de France(Paris, 1888). TheLettres du cardinal Mazarinhave been collected in nine volumes (Paris, 1878-1906). See P. Adolphe Chéruel,Histoire de France pendant la minorité de Louis XIV(4 vols., 1879-1880), and hisHistoire de France sous le ministère de Mazarin(3 vols., 1883); L. C. de Beaupoil de Sainte-Aulaire,Histoire de la Fronde(2nd ed., 2 vols., 1860); “Arvède Barine” (Mme Charles Vincens),La Jeunesse de la grande mademoiselle(Paris, 1902); Duc d’Aumale,Histoire des princes de Condé(Paris, 1889-1896, 7 vols.). The most interesting account of the military operations is in General Hardy de Périni’sTurenne et Condé(Batailles françaises, vol. iv.).
FRONTENAC ET PALLUAU, LOUIS DE BUADE,Comte de(1620-1698), French-Canadian statesman, governor and lieutenant-general for the French king inLa Nouvelle France(Canada), son of Henri de Buade, colonel in the regiment of Navarre, was born in the year 1620. The details of his early life are meagre, as no trace of the Frontenac papers has been discovered. The de Buades, however, were a family of distinction in the principality of Béarn. Antoine de Buade, seigneur de Frontenac, grandfather of the future governor of Canada, attained eminence as a councillor of state under Henri IV.; and his children were brought up with the dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII. Louis de Buade entered the army at an early age. In the year 1635 he served under the prince of Orange in Holland, and fought with credit and received many wounds during engagements in the Low Countries and in Italy. He was promoted to the rank of colonel in the regiment of Normandy in 1643, and three years later, after distinguishing himself at the siege of Orbitello, where he had an arm broken, he was mademaréchal de camp. His service seems to have been continuous until the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia in 1648, when he returned to his father’s house in Paris and married, without the consent of her parents, Anne de la Grange-Trianon, a girl of great beauty, who later became the friend and confidante of Madame de Montpensier. The marriage was not a happy one, and after the birth of a son incompatibility of temper led to a separation, the count retiring to his estate on the Indre, where by an extravagant course of living he became hopelessly involved in debt. Little is known of his career for the next fifteen years beyond the fact that he held a high position at court; but in the year 1669, when France sent a contingent to assist the Venetians in the defence of Crete against the Turks, Frontenac was placed in command of the troops on the recommendation of Turenne. In this expedition he won military glory; but his fortune was not improved thereby.
At this period the affairs of New France claimed the attention of the French court. From the year 1665 the colony had been successfully administered by three remarkable men—Daniel de Rémy de Courcelle, the governor, Jèan Talon, the intendant, and the marquis de Tracy, who had been appointed lieutenant-general for the French king in America; but a difference of opinion had arisen between the governor and the intendant, and each had demanded the other’s recall in the public interest. At this crisis in the administration of New France, Frontenac was appointed to succeed de Courcelle. The new governor arrived in Quebec on the 12th of September 1672. From the commencement it was evident that he was prepared to give effect to a policy of colonial expansion, and to exercise an independence of action that did not coincide with the views of the monarch or of his minister Colbert. One of the first acts of the governor, by which he sought to establish in Canada the three estates—nobles, clergy and people—met with the disapproval of the French court, and measures were adopted to curb his ambition by increasing the power of the sovereign council and by reviving the office of intendant. Frontenac, however, was a man of dominant spirit, jealous of authority, prepared to exact obedience from all and to yield to none. In the course of events he soon became involved in quarrels with the intendant touching questions of precedence, and with the ecclesiastics, one or two of whom ventured to criticize his proceedings. The church in Canada had been administered for many years by the religious orders; for the see of Quebec, so long contemplated, had not yet been erected. But three years after the arrival of Frontenac a former vicar apostolic, François Xavier de Laval de Montmorenci, returned to Quebec as bishop, with a jurisdiction over the whole of Canada. In this redoubtable churchman the governor found a vigorous opponent who was determined to render the state subordinate to the church. Frontenac, following in this respect in the footsteps of his predecessors, had issued trading licences which permitted the sale of intoxicants. The bishop, supported by the intendant, endeavoured to suppress this trade and sent an ambassador to France to obtain remedial action. The views of the bishop were upheld and henceforth authority was divided. Troubles ensued between the governor and the sovereign council, most of the members of which sided with the one permanent power in the colony—the bishop; while the suspicions and intrigues of the intendant, Duchesneau, were a constant source of vexation and strife. As the king and his minister had to listen to and adjudicate upon the appeals from the contending parties their patience was at last worn out, and both governor and intendant were recalled to France in the year 1682. During Frontenac’s first administration many improvements had been made in the country. The defences had been strengthened, a fort was built at Cataraqui (now Kingston), Ontario, bearing the governor’s name, and conditions of peace had been fairly maintained between the Iroquois on the one hand and the French and their allies, the Ottawas and the Hurons, on the other. The progress of events during the next few years proved that the recall of the governor had been ill-timed. The Iroquois were assuming a threatening attitude towards the inhabitants, and Frontenac’s successor, La Barre, was quite incapable of leading an army against such cunning foes. At the end of a year La Barre was replaced by the marquis de Denonville, a man of ability and courage, who, though he showed some vigour in marching against the western Iroquois tribes, angered rather than intimidated them, and the massacre of Lachine (5th of August 1689) must be regarded as one of the unhappy results of his administration.
The affairs of the colony were now in a critical condition; a man of experience and decision was needed to cope with the difficulties, and Louis XIV., who was not wanting in sagacity, wisely made choice of the choleric count to represent and uphold the power of France. When, therefore, on the 15th of October 1689, Frontenac arrived in Quebec as governor for the second time, he received an enthusiastic welcome, and confidence was at once restored in the public mind. Quebec was not long to enjoy the blessing of peace. On the 16th of October 1690 several New England ships under the command of Sir William Phipps appeared off the Island of Orleans, and an officer was sent ashore to demand the surrender of the fort. Frontenac, bold and fearless, sent a defiant answer to the hostile admiral, and handled so vigorously the forces he had collected as completely to repulse the enemy, who in their hasty retreat left behind a few pieces of artillery on the Beauport shore. The prestige of the governor was greatly increased by this event, and he was prepared to follow up his advantage by an attack on Boston from the sea, but his resources were inadequate for the undertaking. New France now rejoiced in a brief respite from her enemies, and during the interval Frontenac encouraged the revival of the drama at the Château St-Louis and paid some attention to the social life of the colony. The Indians, however, were not yet subdued, and for two years a petty warfare was maintained. In 1696 Frontenac decided to take the field against the Iroquois, although at this time he was seventy-six years of age. On the 6th of July he left Lachine at the head of a considerable force for the village of the Onondagas, where he arrived a month later. In the meantime the Iroquois had abandoned their villages, and as pursuit was impracticable the army commenced its return march on the 10th of August. The old warrior endured the fatigue of the march as well as the youngest soldier, and for his courage and prowess he received the cross of StLouis. Frontenac died on the 28th of November 1698 at the Château St-Louis after a brief illness, deeply mourned by the Canadian people. The faults of the governor were those of temperament, which had been fostered by early environment. His nature was turbulent, and from his youth he had been used to command; but underlying a rough exterior there was evidence of a kindly heart. He was fearless, resourceful and decisive, and triumphed as few men could have done over the difficulties and dangers of a most critical position.
SeeCount Frontenac, by W. D. Le Sueur (Toronto, 1906);Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV, by Francis Parkman (Boston, 1878);Le Comte de Frontenac, by Henri Lorin (Paris, 1895);Frontenac et ses amis, by Ernest Myrand (Quebec, 1902).
SeeCount Frontenac, by W. D. Le Sueur (Toronto, 1906);Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV, by Francis Parkman (Boston, 1878);Le Comte de Frontenac, by Henri Lorin (Paris, 1895);Frontenac et ses amis, by Ernest Myrand (Quebec, 1902).
(A. G. D.)
FRONTINUS, SEXTUS JULIUS(c.A.D.40-103), Roman soldier and author. In 70 he was city praetor, and five years later was sent into Britain to succeed Petilius Cerealis as governor of that island. He subdued the Silures, and held the other native tribes in check till he was superseded by Agricola (78). In 97 he was appointed superintendant of the aqueducts (curator aquarum) at Rome, an office only conferred upon persons of very high standing. He was also a member of the college of augurs. His chief work isDe aquis urbis Romae, in two books, containing a history and description of the water-supply of Rome, including the laws relating to its use and maintenance, and other matters of importance in the history of architecture. Frontinus also wrote a theoretical treatise on military science (De re militari) which is lost. HisStrategematicon libri iii.is a collection of examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history, for the use of officers; a fourth book, the plan and style of which is different from the rest (more stress is laid on the moral aspects of war,e.g.discipline), is the work of another writer (best edition by G. Gundermann, 1888). Extracts from a treatise on land-surveying ascribed to Frontinus are preserved in Lachmann’sGromatici veteres(1848).
A valuable edition of theDe aquis(text and translation) has been published by C. Herschel (Boston, Mass., 1899). It contains numerous illustrations; maps of the routes of the ancient aqueducts and the city of Rome in the time of Frontinus; a photographic reproduction of the only MS. (the Monte Cassino); several explanatory chapters, and a concise bibliography, in which special reference is made to P. d Tissot,Étude sur la condition des agrimensores(1879). There is a complete edition of the works by A. Dederich (1855), and an English translation of theStrategematicaby R. Scott (1816).
A valuable edition of theDe aquis(text and translation) has been published by C. Herschel (Boston, Mass., 1899). It contains numerous illustrations; maps of the routes of the ancient aqueducts and the city of Rome in the time of Frontinus; a photographic reproduction of the only MS. (the Monte Cassino); several explanatory chapters, and a concise bibliography, in which special reference is made to P. d Tissot,Étude sur la condition des agrimensores(1879). There is a complete edition of the works by A. Dederich (1855), and an English translation of theStrategematicaby R. Scott (1816).
FRONTISPIECE(through the French, from Med. Lat.frontispicium, a front view,frons,frontis, forehead or front, andspecere, to look at; the English spelling is a mistaken adaptation to “piece”), an architectural term for the principal front of a building, but more generally applied to a richly decorated entrance doorway, if projecting slightly only in front of the main wall, otherwise portal or porch would be a more correct term. The word, however, is more used for a decorative design or the representation of some subject connected with the substance of a book and placed as the first illustrated page. A design at the end of the chapter of a book is called a tail-piece.
FRONTO, MARCUS CORNELIUS(c.A.D.100-170), Roman grammarian, rhetorician and advocate, was born of an Italian family at Cirta in Numidia. He came to Rome in the reign of Hadrian, and soon gained such renown as an advocate and orator as to be reckoned inferior only to Cicero. He amassed a large fortune, erected magnificent buildings and purchased the famous gardens of Maecenas. Antoninus Pius, hearing of his fame, appointed him tutor to his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. In 143 he was consul for two months, but declined the proconsulship of Asia on the ground of ill-health. His latter years were embittered by the loss of all his children except one daughter. His talents as an orator and rhetorician were greatly admired by his contemporaries, a number of whom formed themselves into a school called after him Frontoniani, whose avowed object it was to restore the ancient purity and simplicity of the Latin language in place of the exaggerations of the Greek sophistical school. However praiseworthy the intention may have been, the list of authors specially recommended does not speak well for Fronto’s literary taste. The authors of the Augustan age are unduly depreciated, while Ennius, Plautus, Laberius, Sallust are held up as models of imitation. Till 1815 the only extant works ascribed (erroneously) to Fronto were two grammatical treatises,De nominum verborumque differentíisandExempla elocutionum(the last being really by Arusianus Messius). In that year, however, Angelo Mai discovered in the Ambrosian library at Milan a palimpsest manuscript (and, later, some additional sheets of it in the Vatican), on which had been originally written some of Fronto’s letters to his royal pupils and their replies. These palimpsests had originally belonged to the famous convent of St Columba at Bobbio, and had been written over by the monks with the acts of the first council of Chalcedon. The letters, together with the other fragments in the palimpsest, were published at Rome in 1823. Their contents falls far short of the writer’s great reputation. The letters consist of correspondence with Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, in which the character of Fronto’s pupils appears in a very favourable light, especially in the affection they both seem to have retained for their old master; and letters to friends, chiefly letters of recommendation. The collection also contains treatises on eloquence, some historical fragments, and literary trifles on such subjects as the praise of smoke and dust, of negligence, and a dissertation on Arion. “His style is a laborious mixture of archaisms, a motley cento, with the aid of which he conceals the poverty of his knowledge and ideas.” His chief merit consists in having preserved extracts from ancient writers which would otherwise have been lost.
The best edition of his works is by S. A. Naber (1867), with an account of the palimpsest; see also G. Boissier, “Marc-Aurèle et les lettres de F.,” inRevue des deux mondes(April 1868); R. Ellis, inJournal of Philology(1868) andCorrespondence of Fronto and M. Aurelius(1904); and the full bibliography in the article by Brzoska in the new edition of Pauly’sRealencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, iv. pt. i. (1900).
The best edition of his works is by S. A. Naber (1867), with an account of the palimpsest; see also G. Boissier, “Marc-Aurèle et les lettres de F.,” inRevue des deux mondes(April 1868); R. Ellis, inJournal of Philology(1868) andCorrespondence of Fronto and M. Aurelius(1904); and the full bibliography in the article by Brzoska in the new edition of Pauly’sRealencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, iv. pt. i. (1900).
FROSINONE(anc.Frusino), a town of Italy in the province of Rome, from which it is 53 m. E.S.E. by rail. Pop. (1901) town, 9530; commune, 11,029. The place is picturesquely situated on a hill of 955 ft. above sea-level, but contains no buildings of interest. Of the ancient city walls a small fragment alone is preserved, and no other traces of antiquity are visible, not even of the amphitheatre which it once possessed, for which a ticket (tessera) has been found (Th. Mommsen inBer. d. Sächsischen Gesellschaft d. Wissenschaften, 1849, 286). It was a Volscian, not a Hernican, town; a part of its territory was taken from it about 306-303B.C.by the Romans and sold. The town then became apraefectura, probably with thecivitas sine suffragio, and later a colony, but we hear nothing important of it. It was situated just above the Via Latina.
(T. As.)
FROSSARD, CHARLES AUGUSTE(1807-1875), French general, was born on the 26th of April 1807, and entered the army from the École Polytechnique in 1827, being posted to the engineers. He took part in the siege of Rome in 1849 and in that of Sebastopol in 1855, after which he was promoted general of brigade. Four years later as general of division, and chief of engineers in the Italian campaign, he attracted the particular notice of the emperor Napoleon III., who made him in 1867 chief of his military household and governor to the prince imperial. He was one of the superior military authorities who in this period 1866-1870 foresaw and endeavoured to prepare for the inevitable war with Germany, and at the outbreak of war he was given by Napoleon the choice between a corps command and the post of chief engineer at headquarters. He chose the command of the II. corps. On the 6th of August 1870 he held the position of Spicheren against the Germans until the arrival of reinforcements for the latter, and the non-appearance of the other French corps compelled him to retire. After this he took part in the battles around Metz, and was involved with his corps in the surrender of Bazaine’s army. General Frossard published in 1872 aRapport sur les opérations du 2ecorps. He died at Château-Villain (Haute-Marne) on the 25th of August 1875.
FROST, WILLIAM EDWARD(1810-1877), English painter, was born at Wandsworth, near London, in September 1810. About1825, through William Etty, R.A., he was sent to a drawing school in Bloomsbury, and after several years’ study there, and in the sculpture rooms at the British Museum, Frost was in 1829 admitted as a student in the schools of the Royal Academy. He won medals in all the schools, except the antique, in which he was beaten by Maclise. During those years he maintained himself by portrait-painting. He is said to have painted about this time over 300 portraits. In 1839 he obtained the gold medal of the Royal Academy for his picture of “Prometheus bound by Force and Strength.” At the cartoon exhibition at Westminster Hall in 1843 he was awarded a third-class prize of £100 for his cartoon of “Una alarmed by Fauns and Satyrs.” He exhibited at the Academy “Christ crowned with Thorns” (1843), “Nymphs dancing” (1844), “Sabrina” (1845), “Diana and Actaeon” (1846). In 1846 he was elected Associate of the Royal Academy. His “Nymph disarming Cupid” was exhibited in 1847; “Una and the Wood-Nymphs” of the same year was bought by the queen. This was the time of Frost’s highest popularity, which considerably declined after 1850. His later pictures are simply repetitions of earlier motives. Among them may be named “Euphrosyne” (1848), “Wood-Nymphs” (1851), “Chastity” (1854), “Il Penseroso” (1855), “The Graces” (1856), “Narcissus” (1857), “Zephyr with Aurora playing” (1858), “The Graces and Loves” (1863), “Hylas and the Nymphs” (1867). Frost was elected to full membership of the Royal Academy in December 1871. This dignity, however, he soon resigned. Frost had no high power of design, though some of his smaller and apparently less important works are not without grace and charm. Technically, his paintings are, in a sense, very highly finished, but they are entirely without mastery. He died on the 4th of June 1877.