Srcrion IL., 1901. [19] Trans. R. 8. C. 
IL. Charles Heavysege. 
By Mr. LAWRENCE J. BURPEE. 
(Communicated by Mr. D. C. Scott.) 
(Read May 22nd, 1901.) 
Charles Heavysege, poet and dramatist, was born in the county of 
Yorkshire, England, on the 2nd May, 1816. He was married in 1843, 
and emigrated to Canada, with his family, in 1853, settling in Montreal, 
where he continued his occupation as a wood-carver. He afterwards 
became a reporter on the staff of the Montreal Witness, which position 
he held almost up to the time of his death, in 1869." 
Heavysege was not a man of action. He took no part in politics 
or public affairs. His influence, so far as it was felt at all in his day, 
was purely intellectual. He was a thinker and a poet. It is therefore 
with his works, rather than with the man, that we are chiefly concerned. 
Nevertheless, before proceeding to a consideration of his dramatic and 
lyrical poetry, it may be interesting to glance briefly at the man himself, 
his personality, his life, and the conditions under which he worked. 
While this cannot, of course, affect the actual value of his achievement 
in poetry, it may help us to a clearer understanding of its relative value, 
as the life-work of one whose efforts towards a noble end were made 
under grievous disadvantages, and in the midst of a peculiarly unsym- 
pathetic environment. 
Data bearing on the personal side of Heavysege is extremely 
meagre. He had few friends, and even to those few he never con- 
sciously revealed himself. His was one of those rare natures, self-con- 
tained, self-reliant, which seem to feel little need of human support or 
sympathy, content if they be but allowed to live out their lives in their 
own way. 
The following biographical notes have been gathered mainly from 
the few surviving friends and relations who knew Heavysege with some 
degree of intimacy. 
One of these friends describes him as a man of.medium height, 
somewhat stooped, with a sallow complexion, aquiline nose, gray and 
earnest eyes, and light hair. Elsewhere he is said to have been “a small, 
very reticent man, who walked along the streets wholly wrapped up in 

+ He left a widow (who died last year, in Winnipeg, at the age of 83), 
and three daughters. See Appendix A. 
Sec. II., 1901. 2. 
