CANADIAN LITERATURE. A classifica tion under which is grouped the large company of writers, both French and English, who are connected with the Canadas by birth or by resi dence. The expression is open to some objection, but has been adopted for the sake of conven ience. French Canada. comprising mainly the Province of Quebec, long severed from France. has developed an interesting phase of French literature, and English Canada, comprising, so far as her literature is concerned, mainly the Maritime Provinces and ,Ontario, has her own traditions and history.
French Canada.—Canada was first settled by the French, who established their largest col onies in the valley of the Saint Lawrence. Que bec early became the centre of some culture. The Jesuit college founded there in 1635 an ticipated Harvard by one year. In 16:39 an Frsnline convent was also opened. and later in the century Laval, the famous Bishop of Que bec, established his seminaries, which have since developed into the great Roman Catholic uni versity. The first books. written by explorers and. Roman Catholic missionaries, deal with discovery. tradition, and history. Champlain (q.v.), the founder of Quebec (160S). published many admirable narratives, beginning with a description of his first voyage, 1599-1601. His works, frequently issued in Paris during the Seventeenth Century. have been carefully edited by Laverdiere (6 vols., Quebec, 1S70). . Lescar bot (q.v.). who bore a part in the settlement at Acadia (Nova Scotia), published the interest ing llistoire de la Nouvelle France (Paris. 1609), to which was added a collection of poems called Les noises dr la Yourelle France. Other works produced under the French ri.ginie are: Gabriel SaganEs (;rand voyage (Paris. 1632) : Pierre Boueher's 11(rurs ct productions dr la Nouvelle France (Paris. 1864) ; the narratives of missionary adventure known as the Relations des .lt'suites, edited, with English translation. by R. G. Thwaites (71 vols.. Cleveland. Ohio, I S96-1901 ) : La Potherie's llistoire dr 1' I me rique Septcntrionale dcpuis 1.i.3j jusqpiti 1701 (3 vols., Paris, 1722) : the Jesuit Infitan's ilreurs des saurages anu^riquains (Paris, 1724); and Lc Clercq's Etablissement of la fog (2 vols., Paris, 1691 ; English translation by .1. G. Shea, New York, 1SS1). The line of these early writers closes with Charlevoix (q.v.), a Jesuit traveler, whose Ilistoire rt description (On% rale dr. la Yourellr France (3 cols., Paris.
1744; English translation by G. Shea, 0 vols., New York, 1866-72) is a work of great merit. Taken altogether. the hooks composed by priests and officials form a body of history unequaled in interest and style by anything produced elsewhere in America during the same period. The pea-antry. too, brought with them from Brittany and Normandy many popular songs which in course of time became imbued with the scenery and spirit of the new land. Orally transmitted from generation to genera tion, they were written down at a later period. A collection of these popular songs was edited, with music, by Ernest Gagnon ( Quebec, 1805), and a translation was made by William McLen nan under the title Songs of Old Canada (Montreal, 188(i). Of them, one of the choicest is the love song. with interlocked stanzas, be ginning, "A in claire fontaine." By the Treaty of Paris (1703) Canada passed into the hands of the English. Then followed a period of strife and bickering which (lid not close until 1867, when the provinces were united under the name of the Dominion of Canada. Awakened by the civilization of her conquerors, French Canada, which still holds to her own language. produced her first native-born writers. Among them were several historians of their country. Michel Bibaud was the earliest, with the Ilistoire do Canada sous in domination fruneaisc (Montreal. 1837), and the Ilistoire du Canada sous la domination anglaise (Montreal. 1844). In 1845 Francois Xavier Carneau published the first volume of his llistoire du Canada, front the dis covery to his own time. This great work, com pleted in 1852, is regarded by the French as the standard authority on their history. Other ad mirable histories have been written by J. B. A. Ferland, a priest and professor of Laval Univer sity; the Abb• Faillon. a Sulpician priest, born in France. but long a resident of Canada Louis Tor cotte, who was connected with the legislative library of Quebec; Benjamin Suite (q.v.). a pro lific contributor to the periodical press and learned societies: the Alibi; Casgrain, who has given much attention to the time of Montealm and and whose POcrinage at pays d'Eran geline was crowned by the French Academy in 188S: and the Tanguav, sometime profes sor of a•ehasilogy in Laval University, and au thor of the Diet ionna ire fp'nialogique des families eanadicnnes, a work of immense research.