[wood] footnotes to CANADIAN FOLKSONGS 107 



A tliird daiiisel will not descend to piirticulars : 



Ma fille promettez-moi donc 

 De n'jamais aimer les garç-ons. 

 — J'estim'rais mieux que la maison 

 Serait en cendre et en charbons, 

 Et vous mon pèr' sur le pignon : 

 Vous vous chaufferiez les talons. 



Le beau temps s'en va, 



Le mauvais revient ; 

 Je n'ai pas de barbe au menton 



Mais il m'en vient. ^''^ 



A comparison between the French and Canadian variants of Marianne 

 s'en va-t-au moidin^^- or, still better, Petite Jeanneton,^^"' will at once 

 show where the line is drawn in the different countries. < 



The gauloiserie which turns the love-song into a chanson de galanterie 

 is seen in Papillon, tu es volage ! ^^* and some others ; but, as we saw 

 in examining- the influence of humour, there really are some Canadian 

 Chansons d'amour, which may be truly classed as love-songs, ]mre and 

 simple. These have little of the sympathetic imagery ol the Italian 

 songs or the fiery and rather sententious passion of the vSpanish, and 

 they can hardl}' give us anything so touching in its artless simplicity 

 as this : 



Y a ben sept ans que ze se amoureusa 



D'on bravou labori : 

 Rien que d'y va son labourazou 



Me fa ben plasi.^*' 



They are generally coloured by a lighter fancy and sung with a more 

 lilting measure ; but they have as true a sincerity of their own as many 

 of a greater intensity. In the metamorphosis ^^^ the lovers delight in 

 toying with the risks by the way. because they feel that the end is 

 certain, and in A la Claire Fontaine '^' we know they will be all the more 

 in love afterwards for having fallen out over the " bouquet de roses.'' 

 The lover Au bois du rossignolet '''** may be trifling a little, and so may 

 the soldier who makes the not unusual military promise : 



Adieu, belle Françoise, 

 Adieu, belle Françoise ! 

 Je vous épouserai. 

 Au retour de la guerre. 

 Si .j'y suis respecté.^''" 



Perhaps, too, it may be the ''love that is too hot and strong" which 

 ''runneth soon to waste." that drives '' le fils du roi" to exclaim — 



Bergère on non je veux la voir 

 Ou que mon cheval crève ! '•'" 



