lOO ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Spain, and u Breton maiden can sympathize with her love-forsaken 

 Sicilian sister who pined away and died after being serenaded with dispetti 

 and sfide, songs of challenging suspicion, attront and ridicule."^ The 

 Flemish lover sings his song because he cannot rest until he has done it, 

 although he knows beforehand the pain that the singing of it will surely 

 cost him : 



Ik vinde my bedwongen dat ik zingen moet, 

 Ja, dat ik zingen moet, 



Een liedeken van minne die my treuren doet, 

 Ja, die my treuren doet.'"' 



The French themselves — les vieux Gaulois — take things differently. 



The Franks of Chlodion were so intent upon enjoying the songs and 



dances at the marriage-feast of one of their great chiefs, that they never 



discovered the approach of otitis till his legionaries charged down on 



them ; and so the Eomaus won their tirst battle in GauJ.'"" It has been, 



said : 



Toujours content et sans souci, 

 C'est l'ordre de Crambambuli ; 



and of this jolly order are the gaulois songs of Canada. One might 



suppose that in love, at all events, there would be little enough of the 



'•sans souci." But the French and Canadian Cupids are rarely blind. I 



do not mean to say that either French or Canadian love-songs are 



strangers to melancholy altogether-rPerrette ^'" knows onl}^ too well that 



sometimes 



Les enfants sans souci 

 Ils sont bien loin d'ici ; 



much less do I mean to say that they are strangers to the faithfulness of 

 lovers — does not the princess scout the idea that love can hang upon the 

 issue of the fight, and is only to be given to the victors : 



S'ils gagnent la bataille 



Ils auront nos amours. 



— " Qu'ils perdent on qu'ils gagnent 



Ils les auront toujours." "- 



But 1 do believe that there is little, if any, exaggeration in M. Tiersot's 

 remarks upon the general influence of (/auloiserie}"^ " La satire est 

 tellement au fond de notre esprit national qu'elle étend son influence 

 jusque sur nos chansons d'amour. Rarement on trouvera dans ces der- 

 nières, une déclaration d'amour vraiment sincère et sans arriôre-j^ensée, 

 un accord absolu de deux cœurs qui s'aiment." 



However unwelcome to the lover of poetry when it comes in as an 

 intruder, (jauloiserie is unrivalled in its proper sphere, whether in 

 Canada or in France. Native Canadian t/auloiserie is very little behind the 

 French ; witness the amusing account of how 



Dans l'comté de Klmonski, 

 A rék'Ction nouvelle, 

 Jacquot Hug's s'est présenté."^ 



