Counting Your Blessings in Froissart’s “Debate of the Horse and the Greyhound”
Counting Your Blessings in Froissart’s “Debate of the Horse and the Greyhound”

Author(s): Anastasija Ropa
Subject(s): History, Cultural history, Middle Ages
Published by: Trivent Publishing
Keywords: Froissart; Debat dou cheval et dou levrier; animal dialogue; book of hunting; hippiatry; medieval pets; companion animals; human-animal relations.
Summary/Abstract: Dialogues and debates between animals, or narratives that feature animals acting as human beings, have a long tradition in European literature, going back to Aesop’s fables. However, Jean Froissart’s “Debat dou cheval et dou levrier” [Debate between the horse and the greyhound] is different in that it presents the discussion from the animals’ point of view. The two companion animals debate the advantages and disadvantages of each other’s position, considering such issues as duties, capacities to perform their respective duties, rewards and punishments, feeding, as well as general and medical care accorded to the horse and the greyhound. Unsurprisingly, each animal argues that the other’s burden is lighter and the benefits are more bountiful, at the same time highlighting one’s own hardships and obligations. The article examines the information provided by each animal in light of other evidence from literature, hippiatric treatises and hunting books as well as illuminations to elucidate Froissart’s representation of the lives of the horse and the greyhound and the animals’ relations to their human owner.

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