22 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
even in the poets. Dramatic poetry engrossed his attention. At his 
request I once lent him some of the Greek dramatists in English, but 
(save the Iphigenias of Euripides) he did not seem much impressed 
by anything that he read there. Shakespeare he had read more than 
any other author, and, of course, he must have studied the Old 'Testa- 
ment. In his quiet way he was strongly set in his opinions. This was 
frequently exemplified while he was preparing the Boston edition of 
Saul. Against the advice of friends, some of whom were (ex-officio 
at least) men of large knowledge and practised judgment, he retained 
passages that, for reasons given, were unsatisfactory to others. Indeed, 
he never willingly consented to sacrifice a line that he had once penned. 
His most successful venture in publication was, however, that in which 
he accepted most largely the suggestions of friendly criticism. I mean 
Jephthah’s Daughter. | 
“I did not see much of the poet for a couple of years afterwards, as 
T soon left Montreal, but on my return, in 1859, I renewed acquaintance 
with him, and one of the first things he told me when-I saw him again 
was that he had written a drama (a drama with a purpose, he called it)* 
and that he thought of publishing it. Early in the summer of 1860 it 
was brought out. He was good enough to present me with a copy.” 
Mr. Reade again left Montreal about this time, and while away 
received occasional letters from Heavysege, in one of which the dra- 
matist writes (March 14th, 1862) :— 
“T have no news worth communicating, except the circumstance of my 
having given a reading from Saul, in Nordheimer’s Hall, should be considered 
such. There was no reason to be dissatisfied with either the number or the 
behaviour of the audience.” 
Mr. Reade continues:— During my hurried visits to Montreal 
I sometimes met Heavysege. I remember once (1865, I think) meeting 
him and retiring for a chat to one of the squares. He was (I think) 
then connected with the Witness. I met him again in the spring of 
1867, on Beaver Hall Hill, and we exchanged a few words. On the Ist 
July, 1867, I met him on Haymarket (now Victoria) Square, and there, 
amid the thunders of Colonel Stevenson’s artillery, he regaled me with 
his views on dramatic poetry. In the summer of 1872 I was for a short 
time his co-worker. We met occasionally up to the time of his last 
illness and death, and I often heard of him from his good friend, George 
Martin. I attended his funeral in July, 1876. Among those present 
were the late Hon. Thomas White, Mr. John Redpath Dougall, John E. 
Logan, the late John Lesperance, the late George Martin, the late 
Thomas D. King, and a number of others, literary men and journalists.” 


1 Count Filippo; or, The Unequal Marriage. 
