32 JOHN LBSPERANCE 



At aboïit the same time there appeared a serio-comic poem, modelled somewhat on 

 Boileati's Lddrin, aud treating of certain ecclesiastical controversies and troubles that 

 occvirred in 1^28. The author was Abbé Etienne Marchand, curé of Boucherville from 

 1*732 to 1*7*74, and, as we shall see later on, he too can boast of a namesake who has success- 

 fully cultivated the comic muse. After the publication of this vs'ork, there is an interval 

 of silence covering exactly one hundred years. This was the momentous epoch of Indian 

 wars, of the couqiiest, of the American invasion, and of the bitter struggle for constitu- 

 tional rights that raged betwixt the victors and the vanquished. Epigrams, satires and 

 political dithyrambs abound, chiefly after the establishment of the journal, Le Canadien, in 

 1806 ; but nothing has come down to us of that serene character which peace and pros- 

 perity alone can produce. It was onlj' in 1830 that a volume of epistles aud miscellaneous 

 poems was put forth by Michel Bibaud, who may be termed the father of French Canadian 

 verse, as he was the first of French Canadian historians. The work is very luiequal, as are 

 all the other productions of this eccentric writer, but it is not at all devoid of interest. 



Singularly enoiigh, it was another historian who followed in his footsteps, and 

 Garneau's superior talents at once gave a form aud inspiration to the national poetry. All 

 the compositions of this gifted man, the first of which appeared in 1835, are of a high 

 order of merit, but I shall mention only his Dernier Huron, because it contains an image of 

 the most original aud pathetic beaiity. The poet represents the Last of the Hixrons 

 standing on a hillock and marshalling the phantoms of his lost warriors. Suddenly, he 

 fancies that a shadow passes before him, and the bones of the buried braves seem to rattle 

 lender his feet, and the Indian blood bubbles in his veins. But, alas ! it was all a mockery ; 

 at the foot of the hill he saw only the scythe of the mower : 



" Perfide illusion! Au pied de la colline 

 C'est l'acier du faucheur ! " 



It is au exquisite contrast. Gai'neau derived the idea of his poem from a painting by a 

 native artist, Plamondon of Tariolin, the last of the pure-blood of the Hurons of Lorette. 

 To this picture was awarded the first prize in a competition established by the Literary aud 

 Historical Society of Quebec, in 1838, and it was pvirchased by Lord Durham, at that time 

 governor-general. 



The biographer of G-arneau may be regarded as his poetical successor. M. Chauveau, 

 the distinguished President of the Royal Society, has not produced mvich verse, although I 

 learn with pleasure that he is at present bestowing his leisiire upon an elaborate poem of 

 a religious character ; but the little that we have is worthy of himself, and I can assign no 

 higher praise. His ode (1861) to Donnacona, the chief of a Quebec tribe, treacherously 

 cai^tured aud conveyed to France by Jacques Cartier, is full of spirit, and the first stanza 

 presents a noble picture : 



" Stadaconé dormait sur son fier promontoire; 

 Ormes et pins, forêt silencieuse et noire, 



Protégeaient son sommeil. 

 Le roi Donnacona, dans son palais d'écorce. 

 Attendait, méditant sur sa gloire et sa force, 



Le retour du soleil." 



