F. X. GARNEAU-AS A POET (1) 



I am indebted to the veteran of French Canadian 

 literature, Hon. P. Chauveau, for a copy of the essay 

 on early French poetry, read by him at Ottawa, on the 

 26th May, 1883, before the Eoyal Society of Canada. 

 It covers twenty folio pages of the " Transactions " of 

 the Society. As a youthful record of the graphic 

 Canadian Parnassus, it seems a truly valuable addition 

 tg our literature. Mr. . Chauveau successively passes 

 in review the writers whose effusions have found an 

 appropriate niche in the " Eepertoire National," com- 

 piled by Mr. J. Huston, from 1845 to 1850. He begins 

 his discourse with a mention of the first poetical piece, 

 " Le Tableau de la Mer," written about 1734 by Mon- 

 sieur Jean Tache — the ancestor of the late Sir E. P. 

 Tache — once a leading spirit in our little commercial 

 world under the Bourbons and whose country-house 

 was located on the Ste. Foye road, on the domain, to 

 which its owner, Major Samuel Holland, gave the name 

 of " Holland's Farm " about 1780. His city residence 

 and offices stood on the lot now covered by the 

 Quebec Morning Chronicle building. 



Let us, at the outset, tender our grateful thanks to 

 Mr. Huston, for having rescued from oblivion, at no 

 small labor and expense, the pristine poetical outfit of 

 French Canada, by collecting and printing it in those 

 three bulky volumes which constitute the Repertoire 

 National. 



(1) " Etude sur les Poesies de Frangois-Xamer Garneau et 

 sur les commencements de la PoSsie Frangaise du Canada, par 

 M. Chauveau, President de la SocUU Royale du Canada, &c." 



