82 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



In Boileau's account of a famous drinking-bout/' though 



Un docteur est alors au bout de son latin, 



^vine is still the best aid to knowledge, for 



On est savant quand on boit bien, 

 Qui ne sait boire ne sait rien. 



Old Dr. Fischart, of bibulous memory, invokes the spirit of wine in a way 

 quite alien to the Canadian folksinger : 



Nun bist mir recht vvillkommen, 

 Du edler Rebensaft ; 

 Ich hab' gar wohl vernommen, 

 Du bringst mir siisse Kraft ; 

 Liisst mir mein G'muth nicht sinken, 

 , Und stilrkst das Herze mein, 



Drum wiillen wir dicli trinken, 

 Und allé friihlich seyn.'-" 



And Goethe, in writing 



Drum, Briiderchen ! Ergo bibamus, 



was only following the time-honoured custom of innumerable versifying 

 scholars in mixing dead and living languages together in the praise of 

 wine. Gaudeamus, laudamus, vivamus are words constantly occurring in 

 the refrains of drinking-songs ; so are Bacchus, Yenus and many more ; 

 and all are used with an evident knowledge of their j^roper sense and 

 fitness. What M. Tiersot Says'-^ of the French drinking-song may be said 

 with even more truth of the Canadian — "la chanson à boire n'est pas un 

 genre de chanson pop\daire." 



III. 

 The Folksong Proper. 



Impersonality is of the very essence of the folksong. " Ce livre," 

 says Mr. Gagnon,'^'^ " n'est pas du tout mon œuvre. C'est l'œuvre de ce 

 compositeur insaisissable qu'on appelle le jjeuple." And Signor Pitre tells 

 us that the Sicilians will not sing a song at all if they know who the 

 author is. Even in the case of songs, usually of a humorous nature, where 

 the author devotes the last verse to revealing or hinting at, his identity — 



Qui a fait cette jolie chanson ? 



the imi)ei'sonal note is the dominant one : the author, instead of trying to 

 impress his own point of view u])()n others, simply giving voice to the 

 thought and feeling of his folk. And even in the love-song — though 

 love is personal Ijefore all else — the impersonal note is clearly struck : 

 the lover sings of his own joys and pain in his own wa}', but never with- 

 out an undertone which tells of the burden common to his folk at large. 

 It is partly a cause, partly an etfect. of this iini>ersonality that the folk- 



