the theatre, which consequently
has never attained a successful foothold in French Canada. Sacred
music, so essential a feature of a Roman Catholic service, has been
always cultivated with success.

The _chansons populaires_, which have been so long in vogue among the
people of all classes in the province of Quebec are the same in spirit,
and very frequently in words, as those which their ancestors brought
over with them from Brittany, Normandy, Saintonge, and Franche-Comte.
Some have been adapted to Canadian scenery and associations, but most
of them are essentially European in allusion and spirit. The Canadian
lumberer among the pines of the Ottawa and its tributaries, the _Metis_
or half-breeds of what was once the great Lone Land, still sing
snatches of the songs which the _coureurs de bois_, who followed Duluth
and other French explorers, were wont to sing as they paddled over the
rivers of the West or camped beneath the pines and the maples of the
great forests. It is impossible to set the words of all of them to the
music of the drawing-room, where they seem tame and meaningless; but
when they mingle with "the solemn sough of the forest," or with the
roar of rushing waters, the air seems imbued with the spirit of the
surroundings. It has been well observed by M. Gagnon, a French
Canadian, that "many of them have no beauty {452} except on the lips of
the peasantry." There is "something sad and soft in the voices that
imparts a peculiar charm to these monotonous airs, in which their whole
existence seems to be reflected."

I give below the most popular and poetical of all the Canadian ballads,
and at the same time a translation by a Canadian writer:[2]

A LA CLAIRE FONTAINE. TRANSLATION.

A la claire fontaine Down to the crystal streamlet
M'en allant promener, I strayed at close of day;
J'ai trouve l'eau si belle Into its limpid waters
Que je m'y suis baigne. I plunged without delay.
Lui ya longtemps que je t'aime, I 've loved thee long and dearly,
Jamais je ne t'oublierai. I 'll love thee, sweet, for aye.

J'ai trouve l'eau si belle Into its limpid waters
Que je m'y suis baigne, I plunged without delay;
Et c'est au pied d'un chene Then 'mid the flowers springing
Que je m'suis repose. At the oak-tree's foot I lay.

Et c'est au pied d'un chene Then 'mid the flowers s