Sechon II., ISUG. [ 77 ] Trans. R. S. C, 



V. — Footnotes to Canadian Folksongs. 



By William Wood, of Quebec. 



(Read May 23, 1894, and communicated by Dr. Stewart, F.R.S.C.) 

 (Re- written, October, 1896.) 



I. 



Collection. 



Collectors of folklore so often lament that they have begun their 

 work too late, and they so often find themselves mere gleaners of the little 

 that has escaped the natural decay in fields once white with a harvest 

 which no one ever thought of reaping, that some sort of a prose variant 

 of the chanson des 7' egrets is usually expected to form a part of every 

 well-conducted preface. Just now, folklore is quite one of the proper 

 things to dabble in, and, as the general reader is nothing if not fashion- 

 able,.it will be a consolation for him to know that, in turning his attention 

 to Canadian folksongs, he will be sure to find enough irrej)arable loss to 

 give him plenty of the dainty sweet of melancholy. As we read in Mr. 

 Gagnon's delightful book ' of the diificulties of collection thirty years a2:o, 

 or note in Dr. Larue's most interesting essay,- written about the same 

 time, the many references to the bygone glories of the folksong, we find 

 only too convincing a 2)roof of that state of rapid transition from the old 

 order to the new, when the folk begin to be self-conscious and the collector 

 realizes that opportunity is bald behind. 



It is to the collections of Mr. Gagnon and Dr. Larue that student and 

 general reader alike mvist turn for information. Both works are exactly 

 what the}' profess to be — a rather uncommon literary virtue ; and both 

 are quite admirable within their limits. But their limitations unfor- 

 tunately prevent their being regarded as, in any way, final contributions 

 to folklore. Dr. Larue's paper is an essay, well written indeed, in 

 exactly the right way and most fully and aptly illustrated by quotations ; 

 but still only an essay. Mr. Gagnon's contribution is longer and more 

 important, and it has gone through three editions. He has given us of 

 his best, and that best is so good that it is hard to see how anyone work- 

 ing on the same lines can ever better it ; but then, as he says himself,'^ "Ic 

 nombre de nos chansons populaires est incalculable " and '-'ce volume en 

 contient juste cent." 



It is, of course, too late now to make any approach to an ideal 

 edition, so far as collection is concerned ; and there is as vet so much 



