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CANADA.
A DESCRIPTIVE POEM
BY CORNWALL BAYLEY
Edited by D.M.R. Bentley
EXPLANATORY
NOTES
The
primary purpose of these Explanatory Notes is twofold:
to explain or identify words and phrases that might
be obscure to modern readers of Canada, and
to call attention to words, phrases, and passages that
allude to or, as the case may be, derive from the works
of other writers. In this latter category, the
notes are intended to complement the Introduction, where
emphasis is placed less on local verbal and phrasal
echoes than on the large patterns and assumptions that
link Canada both with the writers and ideas
of Bayley’s own time or earlier with later developments
in the Canadian literary continuity. Quotations
from Cowper, Goldsmith, Milton, Pope, and Thomson—the
poets most frequently echoed in the diction, tone, and
poetic texture of Canada—are from the
Globe edition of The Poetical Works of William Cowper,
edited by William Benham (London: Macmillan, 1889),
Arthur Friedman’s edition of The Collected
Works of Oliver Goldsmith, IV (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1966), Merritt Y. Hughes’ edition of John
Milton’s Complete Poems and Major Prose
(New York: Odyssey Press, 1957), the Twickenham edition
of Alexander Pope’s Pastoral Poetry and an
Essay on Criticism, edited by E. Audra and Aubrey
Williams (London: Methuen; New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1961), and James Sambrook’s edition of
James Thomson’s The Seasons (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1961). Quotations from Charlevoix’s
Journal and Weld’s Travels—the
travel writings upon which Bayley makes large levies—are
from the following editions: P. de Charlevoix, Journal
of a Voyage to North-America. Undertaken by Order of
the French King. Containing The Geographical Description
and Natural History of Canada. Together with An
Account of the Customs, Characters, Religion, Manners
and Traditions of the Original Inhabitants. In
a Series of Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres,
2 vols. (London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1761), and Isaac
Weld, Travels through the States of North America
and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, During
the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797, 4th ed., intro.
Martin Roth, Series in American Studies (1807; rpt.
New York and London: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1968).
Quotations from the Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin
(1801) are taken from the enlarged third edition, Poetry
of the Anti-Jacobin: Comprising the Celebrated Political
and Satirical Poems . . . , ed. Charles [Page
33] Edmonds (1852; rpt. London: Sampson Low,
Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1890). Numerous
references are also made in the notes to D.M.R. Bentley’s
editions of Thomas Cary’s Abram’s Plains:
A Poem and J. Mackay’s Quebec Hill; or,
Canadian Scenery. A Poem. In Two Parts
that were published by the Canadian Poetry Press in,
respectively, 1986 and 1988. Quotations and translations
from Horace’s Odes are taken from the Loeb Classical
Library edition of Horace, The Odes and Epodes,
with an English translation by C. E. Bennett.
Other quotations in the notes are taken, where possible,
from first, standard, or definitive editions.
In compiling these notes, extensive
use has been made of the Oxford English Dictionary,
the Gage Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical
Principles, The Columbia Encylopedia,
3rd. ed., and the Historical Atlas of Canada:
From the Beginnings to 1800, ed. R. Cole Harris,
as well as of numerous, specialized works on English,
American and Canadian literature, and history, and Amerindian
anthropology.
Title
Canada.
A Descriptive Poem, Written at Quebec, 1805.
In Bayley’s time, the word
Canada referred to the two provinces into which Quebec
was divided by
the Constitutional Act of 1791: Lower Canada (corresponding
roughly to present-day
Quebec) and Upper Canada (corresponding roughly to present-day
Ontario). For a discussion of the biographical
circumstances of
the poem’s composition “at Quebec, 1805,”
see the Introduction, pp. xi- xvi.
Epigraph
“Pro
Caris Amicis.”—Hor. Ode. The epigraph
is taken from Ode IV, ix, 51 by the
Roman poet and essayist Horace (65-8 B.C.). Translated
by C.E. Bennett
as “for cherished friends,” it occurs at
the conclusion of the Ode in a
statement about the nature of happiness: “Not
him who possesses much, would
one rightly call the happy man; he more fitly gains
that name who knows
how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, to
endure hard poverty,
and who fears dishonour worse than death, not afraid
to die for cherished
friends or fatherland.” [Page 34]
Dedication
For
a discussion of Bayley’s dedication of Canada
to his future wife, Helen Eliza
Jones, see the Introduction, p. xv.
ORNAMENT
A person who adorns or adds beauty to his or
her place or time.
Advertisement.
3
“Bagatelles” Trifles; things
of no value or importance; light verses.
3-4 press . . . circle of . .
. acquaintance See the Introduction, pp.
xiii-xvi for a
discussion of the printing of Bayley’s
poems.
5 candid
“Free from malice; not desirous to find faults”
(Johnson).
5-6 Youth . . . School-boy
Bayley was 21 years old when he wrote Canada
and this
Advertisement to his volume.
7 errors in his Poem
on Canada . . . See the list of Editorial
Emendations
that follows the poem in the present edition.
Plan of the Poem.
The general and particular debts of Canada
to Weld’s Travels are
discussed in the Introduction, pp. xiii, xix, and xxxiv-xxxv
and presented in
detail below (see, for 355 describes Cape Diamond (so
named by Jacques
Cartier for the mica, quartz, and feldspar that he mistook
for diamonds and
gold) as “situated one thousand feet above the
level of the river, and the
loftiest part of
the rock [on the north shore of the St. Lawrence] on
which the city
[of Quebec] is built . . . .” Bayley’s reference
in his Plan to the “Civil and
Religious liberties” of the “Canadians”
(that is, the French-Canadians) is an
echo of Weld, Travels, I, 356-357: “
. . . if a country as fruitful as it is
picturesque, a genial and healthy climate, and a tolerable
share of civil and
religious liberty, can make people happy, none ought
to appear more so
than the Canadians
. . . .” Panegyric: a formal speech
or poem in praise of
a person or place. [Page 35]
Poem
1-28
Bayley’s description of the view from Cape Diamond
combines elements
from Weld’s Travels, I, 354—356
(and see also the quotation at 13, below)
and Shakespeare’s King Lear, IV, vi,
11-24 (Edgar’s putative account of
the view from Dover Cliffs). Weld writes: “I
must not conclude this letter
without making mention of the scenery that is exhibited
to the view, from
various parts of the upper town of Quebec, which, for
its grandeur, its
beauty,
and its diversity, surpasses all that I have hitherto
seen in America,
or indeed in any other part of the globe. In the variegated
expanse that is
laid open before you, stupendous rocks, immense rivers,
trackless forests
and cultivated plains, mountains, lakes, towns, and
villages, in turn strike
the attention, and the senses are almost bewildered
in contemplating the
vastness of the scene. Nature is here seen on
the grandest scale and it is
scarcely possible for the imagination to paint to itself
any thing more
sublime
than the several prospects presented to the sight of
the delighted
spectator. From Cape Diamond . . . [a] greater
extent of country opens
upon you, and the eye is . . . enabled to take in more
at once, than at any
other place; but to me it appears, that the view from
the cape is by no
means
so fine as that, for instance, from the battery; for
in surveying the
different objects below you from such a stupendous height,
their magnitude
is in a great measure lost, and it seems as if you were
looking at a draft of
the country more than at the country itself. It
is the upper battery that I allude
to, facing the bason, and is about three hundred feet
above the level of the
water. Here, if you stand but a few yards from
the edge of the precipice,
you may look down at once upon the river, the vessels
upon which, as they
sail up to the wharfs before the lower town, appear
as if they were coming
under your very feet. The river itself, which
is between five and six miles
wide, and visible as far as the distant end of the island
of Orleans [about
six kilometers downstream from Quebec], where it loses
itself amidst the
mountains that bound it on each side, is one of the
most beautiful objects in
nature, and on a fine still summer’s evening it
often wears the appearance
of a vast mirror, where the varied rich tints of the
sky, as well as the images
of the different objects of the banks, are seen reflected
with inconceivable
lustre. The southern bank of the river, indented fancifully
with bays and
promontories,
remains nearly in a state of nature, cloathed with lofty
trees;
but the opposite [Page 36] shore is
thickly covered with houses,
extending . . . in one uninterrupted village, seemingly,
as far as the eye can
reach. On this side the prospect is terminated
by an extensive range of
mountains, the flat lands situated between them and
the villages on the
banks not being visible to a spectator at Quebec, it
seems as if the
mountains
rose directly out of the water, and the houses were
built on their
steep and rugged sides.” Edgar’s speech
runs as follows:
How
fearful
And
dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down
Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice, and yond tall anchoring bark
Diminsh’d to her cock—her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge,
That
on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes
Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more,
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.
As discussed in the Introduction, pp. xix-xx these passages
were joined by
a third in Bayley’s mind—Johnson’s
note on Edgar’s speech that is quoted
at 1n., below.
1
steep th’ascent Cf. Milton, Paradise
Lost, IV, 172: “th’ascent of that steep
savage Hill . . . .”
1 brow
The “Projecting” (2) edge of the hill, above
the “‘Precipice’” (1n.) and
“gulf below” (2). Cf. Luke 4.29: “
. . . and [they] led him unto the brow of the
hill whereon the city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong.”
1n. Bayley’s note is taken
from Johnson’s comment on the opening lines of
Edgar’s speech (quoted at 1, above) in his 1765
edition of The Plays of
William Shakespeare: “This description
has been much admired since
the time of Addison, who has remarked, with a poor attempt
at pleasantry,
that ‘he who can read it without being giddy has
a very good head or a
very bad one’. The description is certainly
not mean, but I am far from
thinking it wrought to the utmost excellence of poetry.
He that [Page 37]
looks from a precipice finds himself assailed by one
great and dreadful
image of irresistible destruction. But this overwhelming
idea is dissipated
and enfeebled from the instant that the mind can restore
itself to the
observation of particulars and diffuse its attention
to distinct objects. The
enumeration of the choughs and crows, the samphire-man,
and the
fishers, counteracts the great effect of the prospect,
as it peoples the
desert of intermediate vacuity and stops the mind in
the rapidity of its
descent through emptiness and horror.”
3 falt’ring
Trembling, quivering.
3 strand
Land bordering the river.
9 Reason’s
laws See Pope, Satires, V, 117:
“ . . . all reason’s laws . . . ”
and
Milton, Paradise Lost, IX, 654: “ . .
. our Reason is our Law . . . ”
10 transient
Temporary; momentary; brief.
11 A thousand charms
See Pope, Essay on Criticism, 339: “In
the bright
Muse tho’ thousand charms conspire . . . .”
11 raptur’d
Enraptured, ecstatic. See Pope, Odyssey,
I, 558: “In his
raptured soul the vision glows . . . .”
13 glittering
spire See Milton, Paradise Regained,
IV, 54: “ . . . Turrets and
Terraces, and glittering Spires . . . ”; Pope,
Windsor-Forest, 377-378:
“Augusta’s glitt’ring
Spires increase, / And Temples rise . . . ”; and
Weld,
Travels, I, 316 (describing the view from Mount
Royal): “A prodigious
expanse of country is laid open to the eye . . . . On
the left below you,
appears the town of Montreal, with its churches, monasteries,
glittering
spires, and the shipping under its old walls . . . .”
Weld, Travels, I, 336
describes the churches of Lower Canada in glowing terms:
“ . . . most of
them have spires, covered, according to the custom of
the country, with tin
that . . . never becomes rusty. It is pleasing
beyond description to
behold . . . the spires of the churches sparkling through
the groves with
which they are encircled . . . .”
13 the rampart’s
massy tower At this time, there were six
bastions
(“tower[s]”) on the fortified western wall
(“rampart”) of Quebec (see the
map in Weld, Travels, I, facing 342).
“Massy” is a word frequently used by
Milton; see, for example, Paradise Lost, I,
285.
14
cannon frowning on opposing power Weld,
Travels, I, 343-344 describes
the armaments in Quebec as follows: “There are
several . . . batteries
here.... The principal battery . . . points towards
the bason . . . . this battery
is flanked by another . . . that commands the passes
from the lower town.”
frowning: looking threateningly.
18 in pigmy semblance
Seeming very small. [Page 38]
20 checquer’d
scene A view characterized by alternate light
and shade; a
variegated landscape. See Pope, Windsor-Forest,
17-18: “Here waving
Groves a checquer’d Scene display, / And part
admit and part exclude the
Day . . . .”
21-24 Although Bayley’s metaphor
is strained in these lines, his meaning
seems clear enough: the countryside around Quebec is
a beautiful
manifestation of the world created by God and here personified
as a regal
and munificent Creation.
22 vales
Chiefly a poeticism in Bayley’s day (though less
so in North
America): fairly extensive tracts of lowland between
ridges of hills; valleys.
22 garniture of fields
See Beattie, The Minstrel, I, ix: “The
pomp of groves,
and garniture of fields.” The third stanza of
Bayley’s “Ode on the death of
JAMES BEATTIE, L.L.D. Author of the Minstrel
. . . Written in imitation of
and chiefly collected from that Poem”
(pp. 23-24) reads: “The warbling
groves—the garniture of fields . . . .”
garniture: ornaments of the land-
scape.
23 Beauport
One of the oldest settlements in Canada and, in Bayley’s
day, a
bustling market town.
23 Orlean’s
charms The attraction of the Île d’Orleans
(see the quotation
from Weld’s Travels at 1-28, above) were
frequently remarked by
emigrants and visitors to Canada in the eighteenth and
nineteenth
centuries. See Cary, Abram’s Plains,
430-433, Mackay, Quebec Hill, I,
265-286, and the notes to the latter lines in the Canadian
Poetry Press
edition of the poem.
25 primæval
Belonging to the first ages of the world.
26 vesture
Clothing. See, in conjunction with the “wood
primæval” as
“nature’s child” (25), John Dyer,
Grongar Hill, 99: “Thus is nature’s
vesture
wrought . . . .”
27-28 whilst Alps on Alps arise, /
And bound the prospect to our wearied
eyes. See Pope, Essay on Criticism,
231-232: “Th’ increasing Prospect
tires our wandering Eyes, / Hills peep o’er
Hills, and Alps on Alpsarise!”
Pope is describing the ascent of “the Heights
of arts.”
29-34
For a discussion of these important lines, see the Introduction,
pp.xviii-
xxii.
35 no classic wreaths
await This is an odd turn of phrase, but
its gist seems
to be that no historical or literary signs of distinction
are discernible in the
relatively new (as opposed to “ancient”)
“state” (36) of Canada. Inspired
by Peter Kalm’s Travels into North America,
[Page 39] Mackay reasons
upon lines parallel to Bayley in the early part of Quebec
Hill; see, I, 41-44:
“The Antiquarian here may search in vain / For
walls erected in Severus’
reign; / Or lofty tow’rs that their declension
show, / Or cities built some
thousand years ago . . . .”
36 annals
Historical records. Charlevoix, Journal,
II, 232 comments that the
Indians have “no annals.” See also
the quotation from Edward Stillingfleet
under “Note Referred to in the Poem on Canada,
95n.” below.
37-38 night . . . / . . . Chaos
Night and Chaos are several times linked by
Milton in Paradise Lost, as for example, in
II, 894-895 (“ . . . Night / And
Chaos, Ancestors of Nature . . . ”) and
III, 18 (“ . . . I sung of Chaos and
Eternal Night . . . ”). Pope is
also fond of the pairing, as in The Dunciad
I,
12 and IV, 2 (“ . . . Chaos and eternal Night
. . . ”).
38 oozy bed
See Pope, Windsor-Forest, 329: “Oozy
Bed.” And cf. Cary,
Abram’s Plains, 105: “oozy bottom.”
38n. Genesis 1.2: “And the earth was
without form and void; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of
the waters.”
39-42 Cf. Cary, Abram’s Plains,
48-75.
40 animates Gives
life to. Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, VIII,
150-151: “ . . . Male
and Female Light, / Which two great sexes animate the
World . . . .”
43 gale
“A wind not tempestuous, but stronger than a breeze”
(Johnson).
44 stately Pines
Cf. Mackay, Quebec Hill, I, 314: “ .
. . stately pines . . . .”
44 dale
Valley.
45 Weld, Travels,
I, 381-389 gives a quite detailed account of the “sugar
maple” and its economic potential, as does Charlevoix,
Journal, I, 191-
194. Cf. Mackay, Quebec Hill, I, 283-284:
“The maple-trees their liquid
treasure pour, / And, by imparting, but increase their
store . . . .”
46 spontaneous Produced
naturally, without cultivation or labour.
47 lengthen’d
Made longer, presumably by a recession of water (after
the
Flood?).
48 dull Stupid
or slow, or—on the basis of an apparent parallel
with “sleek”
(49) and“shaggy” (50)—flat and unappealing.
48 Bear Charlevoix,
Journal, I, 182-187 describes bears and the
Indians’
methods of hunting them at some length.
49 Elk See
Charlevoix, Journal, I, 197-202 for a parallel
account of the elk
and the Indian method of hunting it.
50 Buffaloe
Either the North-American bison or the musk-ox, both
of [Page
40] which are described in detail by
Charlevoix, Journal, I, 203-206.
51-54
Mammoth See the Introduction, pp. xxiv-xxv
for a discussion of the
relation between Bayley’s description of this
large elephant-like pre-
historic creature and Thomas Jefferson’s account
of it in Query VI;
“Productions Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal”
in his Notes on the State of
Virginia: “Of [our quadrupeds] the Mammoth,
or big buffalo, as called by
the Indians, must certainly have been the largest.
Their tradition is, that he
was carniverous, and still exists in the northern parts
of America.”
Jefferson then recounts an Indian legend of “the
animal whose bones were
found at the Saltlicks, on the Ohio [River]” that
includes the destruction by a
herd of Mammoths of “‘the bear, deer, elks,
buffaloes, and other animals,
which had had been created for the use of the Indians’”
and ends with the
last surviving Mammoth “‘bound[ing] over
the Ohio, over the Wabash, the
Illinois, and finally over the great lakes, where he
is living to this day.’” “It
is
well known,” remarks Jefferson as a prelude to
his speculations on the
dimensions, distribution, and nature of the Mammoth,
“that on the Ohio,
and in many parts of Amerian further north, tusks, grinders,
and skeletons
of unparalleled magnitude, are found in great numbers
. . . .” In a letter
discussion of the relative sizes of American and European
animals
Jefferson adds: “The bones of the Mammoth which
have been found in
America, are as large as those found in the old world.
It may be asked,
why I insert the Mammoth, as if it still existed?
I ask in return, why I should
omit it, as if it did not exist? Such is the œconomy
of nature, that no
instance can be produced of her having permitted any
one race of her
animals to become extinct; or her having formed any
link in her great work
so weak as to be broken. To add to this, the traditionary
testimony of the
Indians, that this animal still exists in the northern
and western parts of
America, would be adding the light of taper to that
of the meridian sun.
Those parts still remain in their aboriginal state,
unexplored and
undisturbed by us, or by others for us.”
In his Memoirs of Mammoth, and
Various Other Extraordinary and Stupendous Bones,
of Incognita, or
Non-Descript Animals Found in the Vicinity of the
Ohio, Wabash,
Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Osage, and Red
Rivers, a work published
in 1806 following the deposit of the bones of its title
in the Liverpool
Museum, Thomas Ashe records that a Mr. Peale has long-since
set up in
Philadelphia a skeleton that he “dignified . .
. with the name mammoth”
(“Memoir I,” p. 6). Bayley’s
description of the Mammoth combines
elements of the accounts of Leviathan and [Page
41] Behemoth (a
creature frequently linked with the elephant) in Job
40. 20 and 23 (“Surely
the mountains bring him forth food . . . .Behold, he
drinketh up a river, and
hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan
into his mouth.”) and
Paradise Lost, VII, 412-416 and 470-472 (“
. . . there Leviathan, / Hugest
of Living Creatures . . . seems a moving Land, and at
his Gills / Draws in,
and at his Trunk spouts out a Sea . . . ”; “
. . . scarce from his mould /
Behemoth biggest born of Earth upheav’d
/ His vastness . . . .”
51
brutal train Animal class.
55-56 and n. No source has yet been
found for Bayley’s description of the
rattle-snake as suicidal, but his use of the words “crested”
and “folds” has
a distinctly Miltonic resonance; see, for instance,
Paradise Lost, IX, 496-
498 (part of the description of Satan in the guise of
the Serpent): “ . . . on
his rear, / Circular base of rising folds, that tow’r’d
/ Fold above fold a
surging Maze, his Head / Crested aloft . . . ”
crested: characterized by a
crest or raised ridge.
56 brake
A clump of bushes.
57 provident
Foreseeing. The intelligence of the beaver was
almost
proverbial (cf. Cary, Abram’s Plains,
25: “ . . . learned beavers . . . ”) but
Bayley may have had in mind Charlevoix, Journal,
Letter V (“Of the
Beaver’s of Canada”), where the creature
is praised for, among other
things, its “foresight” (I, 158).
See also Milton, Paradise Lost, VII, 485-
486: “ . . . The Parsimonious Emmet, provident
/ Of future . . . .”
57 lot
Destiny; condition.
58 gran’ries
stow’d Filled his storehouse.
Bayley’s suggestion that the
beaver fills its storehouse with grain is misleading;
see Charlevoix,
Journal, I, 161: “ . . . wood of a soft
texture . . . . These they lay up in piles .
. . .”
58 cot
Small house or shelter: lodge.
59 The murd’rous
Wolf See Charlevoix, Journal, I,
206-207 for an account
of the “wolves in Canada.”
59 whelms
Covers completely.
60 limpid flood
Clear water.
61 The Fox that lurks
in ambush for his prey In his Journal,
I, 207-208,
Charlevoix describes the foxes of Canada as hunting
“water-fowl after a
very ingenious manner”—in effect, “lurk[ing]
in ambush” for them.
62 Squirrels
See Charlevoix, Journal, I, 209 for the “three
different sorts” of
squirrel to be found in North America.
62 pilfering
Stealing (in small quantities). [Page 42]
63 innumerous
Countless, innumerable. Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost,
VII, 453-
455: “The Earth . . . teem’d at a Birth
/ Innumerous living creatures . . . .”
64 tyrants
Cruel, violent or wicked rulers.
65 ancient Lords
Masters or rulers in time long past or early in the
world’s
history.
66 told
Possibly a misprint; certainly an unusual usage: disclosed,
made
known.
66 savage
Uncivilized, with connotations in this context of ferocity.
66 hordes Specifically,
groups of the “roving Tartars” who, in his
Note
Referred to in the Poem on Canada, 95n.,
Bayley gives as the
“probable” origin of the “native Americans”;
more generally, the word can
refer to groups of any nomadic tribe.
67 Of sex regardless
Indifferent to distinctions between males and females,
and see Introduction, p.1, n.54.
68 brethren clans
Tribal groups claiming descent from a common ancestor.
Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, II, 901: “
. . . several Clans . . . .”
68 to wage eternal
war Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 121
(Satan is speaking):
“ . . . To wage by force or guile eternal War
. . . .”
71 wild . . . undomestic
Uncivilized (by European standards, but not, note,
relative to the “savage hordes” of 66-68),
and unattached to a fixed home
and settled home life.
72 In form superior
and in reason great! A resonantly Miltonic
line; cf.
Paradise Lost, I, 591-592 (“ . . . his
form had yet not lost / All her Original
brightness . . . ”); VII, 508-509 (“ . .
. Sanctity of Reason, . . . erect /
. . . Stature . . . ”); and IX, 1130-1131 (“
. . . Sovran Reason claim’d /
Superior sway . . . ”). Weld, Travels,
II, 227-228 and 248-260 has many
positive things to say about the physical appearance
and mental qualities
of the Indians, particularly the males.
73-74 Weld, Travels, II, 259-260
comments favourably on the designs and
colours with which the Indians decorate their utensils,
weapons, and
clothes. “The embroidery upon their moccasins
and other garments shows
that the females are not less ingenious in their way
than the men,” he
writes, and “[t]heir porcupine quill work would
command attention in any
country in Europe.” And, he adds, “Trinkets
or ornaments for dress . . .
they despise, unless somewhat similar . . . to what
they themselves are
accustomed to wear, and fashioned exactly to their own
taste . . . ” (See
also II, 231-238, and the quotation at 76, below.) [Page
43]
75 snow-sandals
Snowshoes.
76 See Weld, Travels
II, 231: “They [the Indian men] ornament this
solitary
lock of hair with beads, silver trinkets, etc. and on
grand occasions with
feathers.”
77-84 Weld, Travels, II, 264-265
and 276-279 depicts the Indians as far from
the “cold and phlegmatic” beings that they
first appear and, rather, as
people who are sensitive to a wide spectrum of feelings,
including those of
“Revenge” and “Rage” that Bayley
emphasizes. “[A] word in the slightest
degree insulting will kindle a flame in their breasts,
that can only be
extinguished by the blood of the offending party; and
they will traverse
forests for hundreds of miles . . . to gratify their
revenge,” he says,
remarking later: “I fear . . . that in the opinion
of many people, all the good
qualities which they possess, would but ill atone for
their revengeful
disposition, and for the cruelties which, it is well
known, they sometimes
inflict upon the prisoners who have fallen into their
power in battle.” Weld
gives instances of the killing and “torturing
. . . [of] prisoners” by Indians,
and twice refers to their practice of scalping their
victims (II, 230-231 and
276). See also Introduction, pp. xxvii and li
n. 65.
77-78 passions . . . alternate power
See Goldsmith, The Traveller, 55: “ .
. .
Thus to my breast alternate passions rise . . . ”
and Pope An Essay on
Criticism, 375: “ . . . Alternate passions
fall and rise!”
83 and n. “Jealousy, the injur’d
lover’s hell,” Milton, Paradise
Lost, V, 448-
450: “ . . . but in those hearts [of Adam
and Eve before the Fall] / Love
unlibidinous reign’d, nor jealousy / Was understood,
the injur’d Lover’s
Hell.”
84
dark distrust Cf. Milton, Paradise
Lost, IX, 6-7 “ . . . foul distrust, and
breach / Disloyal on the part of Man [after the Fall]
. . . .”
84 vacant blasts
Empty curses, with a possible allusion to the recriminations
of Adam and Eve after the Fall in Paradise Lost.
85 humanity
Humaneness: compassion, benevolence, kindness.
85 trace
Discern; make out.
86 stamps Distinguishing
marks or qualities.
87 patriot virtues Cf.
Goldsmith, The Traveller, 200: “. . .
patriot passion . . . .”
87-88 Bayley appears to be suggesting that
the qualities given in 89 are the
products both of the Indians’ devotion to their
country (“patriot”) and of their
own inner resources (“self-born”).
Weld, Travels, II, 264-265 attributes the
apparent “indifference” of the Indians to
“any thing [Page 44] terrible,”
including extreme physical pain, to the “astonishing
command . . . they
acquire over themselves” as a result of ideals
“forcibly inculcated on them
from their earliest youth . . . .” See Robertson,
The History of America, II,
234-235 for the Indians’ “love of their
country” and Jefferson, Notes, Query
VI for their “bravery,” “honour,”
and stoicism.
90 ease
Absence of pain, painful effort, or the burden of hard
work.
90 too lofty for controul
Too dignified or high in its aspirations to be
dominated. Robertson, The History of America,
II, 233 lists among the
virtues of the Indians a “spirit of independence”
that is “Incapable of
controul.” “[D]isdaining to acknowledge
any superior,” Robertson writes,
the Indian’s “mind . . . acquires such elevation
by the consciousness of its
own freedom that he acts on some occasions with astonishing
force, and
perseverance, and dignity.”
91-94 ripened by refinement’s
hand . . . Brought towards a mature perfection
both culturally and spiritually (see 92-94) by a process
of cleansing
(“refinement”) that would presumably remove
the defects of character
described at 77-84.
95-124 See Introduction, pp. xxvi-xxviii
and 95n., below for Bayley’s views on
the origins and history of the Indians.
95 Perchance
Perhaps.
95n. See below for the annotation to the
Note Referred to in the Poem on
Canada, 95n.
95 ere
Before.
96 science
Knowledge. See the “Sun of Science”
in 115.
97 vagrant hordes
Roving tribes (see the note to 66, above). See
Weld,
Travels, II, 25 for the aversion of the Indians
“to a settled life, and to regular
habits of industry” and their fondness for “roving
about, and procuring
sustenance by hunting rather than by cultivating the
Earth . . . .”
98 civil Settled
and civilized as opposed to roving and barbaric.
99 expell’d
Cast out (from “civil life”).
101 offspring Progeny;
descendants; children.
102 Genius . . . Glory
The quasi-mythological gods of natural ability and high
achievement.
103 superstition Irrational
religious belief.
105-106 and n. The spirit . . . dread
. . . Weld, Travels, II, 285-286
comments
only briefly on the religious beliefs of the Indians:
“The [Page 45] Indians . .
. seem almost universally to believe in the existence
of one supreme,
beneficent, all-wise, and all-powerful spirit, and likewise
in the existence of
subordinate spirits, both good and bad. The former
having the good of
mankind at heart, they think it needless to pay homage
to them, and it is
only to the evil ones, of whom they have an innate dread,
that they pay their
devotions, in order to avert their ill intentions .
. . . Each individual repeats
a prayer, or makes an offering to the evil spirit, when
his fears and
apprehensions suggest the necessity of him so doing.”
Charlevoix,
Journal, II, 144 also writes of the Indians’
belief in good and evil spirits (or
“genii”), and comments as follows on their
views of thunder: “These people
are equally ignorant of the nature of thunder; some
taking it to be the voice
of a particular species of men, who fly in the air,
while others imagine the
noise proceeds from certain unknown birds. According
to the
Montagnais, it is the effort of a certain genius, in
order to vomit up a
serpent he has swallowed . . . .” The “ancients”
to whom Bayley refers in
his note could be the Manicheans (followers of Manes,
c. 216-276) who
perceived the world as a scene of perpetual conflict
between the “two
principles” of good and evil, light and darkness.
107-108 and
n. . . . after death Weld,
Travels, II, 286 writes that “The belief
of
a future state, in which they are to enjoy the same
pleasures as they do in
this world . . . seems to be very general amongst [the
Indians].”
Charlevoix, Journal, II, 153-155 describes
the Indians’ “country of souls”
as an “imaginary Elysium” (in Greek mythology,
the place where those
favoured by the gods go after death to enjoy a pleasant
life), and explains
that in order to get to it “They have . . . vast
difficulties to surmount, and are
exposed to prodigious dangers by the way. They
above all things talk
much of a river they have to pass, and on which many
have been
shipwrecked . . . .”
107 impending Overhanging.
109 phantoms of a purer creed
Ghosts of a former—and better—system of
religious belief.
111 meridian Noon,
mid-day.
112 beam’d around
A curious usage: shone forth; turned its light.
113f. nature’s course, and time’s
declining date . . . It was a widely-held
belief
in Bayley’s day (see, for example, C.F. Volney’s
The Ruins; or, a Survey
of the Revolutions of the Empires [1795; original
French version, 1791],
passim and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias”
sonnet), that,
throughout the world and history, civilizations had
prospered and [Page
46] declined according to “natural”
laws of growth and decay or—to put
the matter differently—according to the laws of
“fate” (114) that lay beyond
the control of man. Bayley may have been thinking
specifically of
Charlevoix, Journal, I, 53, 57: “Who
can seriously believe that Noah and
his immediate descendants [the ancestors of the Indians,
as of everyone
else in Christian view] knew less than we do [about
navigation] . . . ”?
“Why then should we be surprised that the Americans,
so long unknown to
the rest of the world, should have become barbarous
and savages . . . ”?
See also the discussion under Note Referred to in
the Poem on Canada,
95n., below.
113 declining date
Period of sinking or falling off towards an end.
115 Sun of Science
See the notes to 96 and 111, above.
116 glory Light, but
see also the note to 102, above.
117 wherefore . . . ?
For what cause or reason? on what account? why?
118 Canadia Poeticism:
Canada.
118-120 and n. The Quebec Gazette
for Thursday, October 20, 1785 records
two “darken’d Sabbath[s],” the first
on October 9 of that year and the
second (following a dark Saturday) on October 16 (not
17 as stated by
Bayley). The latter is described as follows: “Sunday
morning the 16th was
quite calm and foggy till about 10 o’clock, when
there arose some wind
from the Eastward which partly expell’d the fog;
in about half an hour after
it became so dark that ordinary print could not be read
within doors; this
was followed by a squall of wind and rain when it brighten’d
up again.
From 5 till about 10 minutes after 12, the darkness
was so great that the
Ministers in the English and Presbyterian Churches were
obliged to stop
till they got candles. From two o’clock
till about 10 minutes after, it was as
dark as at midnight when there is no moon-light.
From 43 till about 50
minutes after three o’clock, it was total darkness;
and from 35 til 45
minutes after four, it was very dark. The people
in this city dined by candle
light, and spent a part of the afternoon in lighting
up and extinguishing
them . . . . As these wonderful Phenomena have
been the subject of much
conversation, and given rise to various conjectures,
we flatter ourselves
some of the curious, skill’d in meteorological
observations, will furnish us
with their opinions thereupon for our next.”
The next issue of The Quebec
Gazette (October 27) contains a similar report
from Montreal dated
October 28. It concludes with the speculation
of a Dr. Serre of Montreal
that “ . . . the only cause of this phenomenon
was the inflammation of some
neighbouring mines, whose thick smoke being [Page
47] condensed in
the air was driven by the wind over this region.”
120 transported ‘Carried
away’ by excitement or intense emotion.
122 bewilder’d Confused,
tangled.
125-126 Cf. Cowper, The Task, VI
(“Winter Walk at Noon”) 6-7: “How
soft the
music of those village bells / Falling at intervals
upon the ear . . . .”
125 hamlet Small village;
cluster of houses in the country.
127 erst Earlier; formerly.
128 desert Uncultivated
and relatively unpopulated.
129-130 Here and in the lines that follow, Bayley
is generally indebted for his
account of “The colonization of Canada by the
French Missionaries” (Plan
of the Poem) to the Histoire et déscription
générale de la Nouvelle
France (1744) by Pierre François-Xavier
de Charlevoix (1682-1761),
whom he mentions in his note to 142. A Jesuit
historian, Charlevoix spent
four years (1705-1709) in Quebec and returned to North
America in 1720-
1722 to undertake the journey through New France and
parts of what
would become the United States that he records in his
Journal d’un
voyage fait par l’order du Roi dans l’Amérique
Septentrionale, published
as the third volume of his Histoire . . . de la
Nouvelle France. Although
the Histoire was not translated into English
until well into the nineteenth
century (John Gilmary Shea’s translation appeared
in 1868-1870 and has
since between twice reprinted), the Journal was
published in a number of
English translations beginning in the 1760s. For
“Charlevoix’s account of
the sufferings of the Missionaries” (142n.), see
especially (in Shea’s
translation; rpt. [1962]): I, 76, 124-125; II, 114-121
and ff.; 158-173
(particularly 172-173, Father Bressani’s sufferings);
183-184; 195-196
(the killing of Father Jogues by tomahawk); 210-213
(the death of Father
Daniel); and 219-225 (the torturing and death of Fathers
Brébeuf and
Lallemant). See also the remainder of Volume II
and parts of Volumes III
and IV in Shea’s translation.
131
How chang’d the scene! Thomson,
“Summer,” 784: “How chang’d
the
scene!”
131 mutual love Milton,
Paradise Lost, IV, 726-727: “ . . . happy
in our mutual
help / And mutual love . . . .”
133 The darted tomahawk, no longer
known The word “darted” can mean
either thrown or pierced. See Weld, Travels,
II, 244-245: “The expertness
of the Indians in throwing the tomahawk is well known
. . . . The common
tomahawk is nothing more than a light hatchet, but the
[Page 48] most
approved sort has on the back part of the hatchet, and
connected with it in
one piece, the bowl of a pipe, so that when the handle
is perforated, the
tomahawk answers every purpope [sic] of a pipe
. . . . That formerly given
to the Indians by the French traders . . . had a large
spike on the back of
the hatchet; very few of these instruments are now to
[be] found amongst
them . . . .”
133-136 and n. Isaiah 2. 4: “And he
shall judge among the nations, and shall
rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords
into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not
lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
Cf. Cary, Abram’s Plains,
60-61: “Bid tomahawks to ploughshares yield the
sway, / And skalping-
knives to pruning-hooks give way . . . .”
135 the slave’s sad throes
Some of the Indian tribes, including the Huron,
owned slaves.
137 Gallia Poeticism:
France
139-140 and n. Neither John (d. c. 1498)
nor Sabastian (fl. c. 1485-1557)
Cabot seems to have come up the St. Lawrence as far
as Quebec. Nor
does it seem likely that, being Italian, either of them
would have exclaimed
“Quel Bec” (‘What a Beak’).
According to Charlevoix, Histoire (trans.
Shea), I, 50 and Journal, I, 100 and Weld,
Travels, I, 342, Quebec derives
its name from “the word . . . which signifies
in the Algonquin tongue, a
sudden contraction of the river” (Weld).
Bayley is presenting a garbled
version of the legend that, in the words of John Lambert
(who was in
Lower Canada in the winter of 1806-1807), “The
name of Quebec . . .
originated from the Norman language, and that one of
the persons who
accompanied M. de Champlain on his expedition up river
[in September,
1535], on his arriving in sight of the peninsula, formed
by the rivers of St.
Lawrence and St. Charles, exclaimed ‘Quel bec!’
‘what a point!’” (Travels
through Lower Canada and the United States of North
America in the
Years 1806, 1807, and 1808 [1810], I, 32).
Point Levi is “the point
situated opposite to that on which Quebec stands . .
. ” (Weld, I, 346).
141 forfeit breath
Breath (that is, life) lost or given up as a consequence
of
premature death.
142 new-invented Miltonic:
see, for example, Paradise Lost, III, 89 (“new
created World”) and VII, 617 (“new-made
World”). Bayley is presumably
referring to the imaginative methods devised by the
Indians for torturing
and killing the French missionaries.
143 hallow’d
Blessed; dedicated. [Page 49]
143 and n. Bayley’s allusion is not
to The Task (1785) by the intensely religious
English poet William Cowper (1731-1800), but to the
same writer’s
“Hope,” 459-464:
See Germany send
forth
Her sons to pour it [Salvation] on the farthest north:
Fired with a zeal peculiar, they defy
And plant successfully sweet Sharon’s Rose
On icy plains, and in eternal snows.
As a note by Cowper makes explicit, these lines refer
to “The Moravian
missionaries in Greenland . . . .”
144 yet-untempted
Thereto untried by missionaries.
146 Britannia
Poeticism: Britain.
147 laurel wreath Emblem
of military victory.
148 consecrate Dedicate.
148 olive Emblem
of peace.
150 deplore Lament;
regret deeply.
153 vanquish’d clime
Conquered region.
154-158 See Cary, Abram’s Plains, 434-451
for a similar conviction that the
French Canadians were better off after the British conquest
of New
France (New France, specifically Quebec, “open’d
[her] gate” to the
“Victors” in 1759) than they have been under
French rule.
157 Albion Poeticism:
England.
159 trump Trumpet.
161 ovation’s pomp
A procession, display, or celebration (“pomp”)
accorded
to a military leader whose achievements are not of the
highest caliber (an
“ovation” being, in Roman times, a lesser
thing than a “triumph” proper).
162 bedews Dampens.
162 sable-vested bier
Black-covered carriage for bearing the dead to the
grave. 165-176 and ns. Wolfe . . . The
reference is, of course, to General
James Wolfe (1727-1759) who died on the Plains of Abraham
outside
Quebec after being assured of the victory of his forces
over those of the
French General, Montcalm. The Battle of the Plains
of Abraham was
fought on September 12, 1759 after Wolfe and his men
had used the
cover of [Page 50] darkness (see Weld,
Travels, I, 346) to sail up the St.
Lawrence past Quebec and ascend the pathway leading
to the plains, thus
thwarting both the city’s natural defenses (“the
mountain’s height / The
barrier rocks . . . ”) and its man-made ones (“Nature
and art . . . beheld in
vain . . . ”). The “carnage”
on both sides was extensive: two hundred and
seventy British killed and twelve hundred wounded, with
French casualties
estimated at over a thousand killed or wounded.
Bayley’s description of
Wolfe’s conduct during the Battle is oblique but
accurate: he led his
soldiers on foot rather than on horseback (“The
aid of pride he scorn’d . . .
”) and he did by all accounts succumb to death
only after hearing of the
retreat of the French through the “they fly—they
fly” of a messenger. See
Cary, Abram’s Plains, 300-331 for a parallel
account of the Battle of the
Plains of Abraham and the Death of Wolfe that might
have been known to
Bayley.
172
clangor Loud noise.
173-174
“Hope awhile bade England’s name farewell,”
/ And Valour
shudder’d as her warrior
fell Cf. Thomas Campbell, The Pleasures of
Hope, I, 381-382: “Hope, for a season,
bade the world farewell, / And
Freedom shriek’d—as Kosciusko fell!”
175 reclin’d in Victr’y’s
bosom died Cf. Cowper, The Task,
II (“The Time-
Piece”), 242-243: “ . . . Wolfe upon the
lap / Of smiling Victory that moment
won . . . .”
177-178 See Weld, Travels,
I, 346: “The spot where the illustrious hero [Wolfe]
breathed his last is marked with a large stone, on which
a true meridional
line is drawn.” It was not until 1832 that
a monument commemorating
Wolfe’s victory and death was erected on the Plains
of Abraham.
180 standard
Banner, flag.
181-188 The Plan of the Poem makes clear
that these lines refer to “The
repulse of the American army under [General Richard]
Montgomery [1738-
1775]” in 1775-1776. The rout of the Americans
was achieved by a
combination of the Canadian winter and British forces
under Major-
General Sir Guy Carleton, later Lord Dorchester.
Montgomery was killed
during the invasion.
181-182 recreant hurl’d / An host
from hence (the rebels of the world)
Miltonic: Paradise Regained, III, 138 (“
. . . Turn’d recreant to God . . . ”;
“recreant”: unfaithful, false); Paradise
Lost, I, 44-45 (“Him [Satan] the
Almighty Power / Hurl’d headlong . . . from th’Ethereal
Sky . . . ”); and
Paradise Lost, I, 37-38 (“ . . . cast
him out from Heav’n, [Page 51]
with all
his Host / Of Rebel Angels . . . ”).
183 serpent fangs of jealous strife
In the Miltonic context of the foregoing,
this phrase carries strong suggestions of Satan in his
rôles as jealous
rebel and destructive serpent in Paradise Lost.
185 maddn’ing Causing
uncontrollable anger.
185 tribe Race (contemptuous)
186 Shunn’d Avoided
from fear. Cf., in conjunction with the surrounding
lines,
Cowper, “Charity,” 236-239: “I was
a bondman on my native plain, / Sin
forged, and ignorance made fast, the chain; / Thy lips
[Charity] . . . / Taught
me what path to shun, and what pursue . . . .”
186 fancied . . . romantic
Deceptive; illusory; fictitious; unreal.
187-188 and ff. See Introduction, pp. xxix-xxx
for a discussion of Bayley’s
attitude to the American political experiment.
189 sequester’d
Sheltered; secluded.
190 Hudson . . . Potomac
The Hudson and Potomac rivers, both of which are
in the eastern United States (and both of which are
described by Weld in
the first volume of his Travels), are so steeped in
American history and
legend as to be almost synonymous with the nation through
which they
flow; certainly, they carry this weight in these lines.
190 lave Bathe; wash.
191 Columbia’s genius
America’s spirit
191 sway Power
of rule or command; authority; dominion.
193 Eagle A bird
associated with war and violence, and an emblem of the
United States.
196 paricidal
Directed towards the murder of a father, parent, or
ruler.
200 spurn Reject
with contempt.
200 filial duty
The duty of a son or daughter towards his or her parents(s).
Cf.
Shakespeare, King Lear, III, iv, 14: “Filial
ingratitude!” See also
Cordelia’s speech on filial duty in I, i, 97-106.
202 abjur’d Renounced;
repudiated; rejected.
204, 204n. and f. Ferments arise;
imprison’d factions roar . . . The
United
States was rife with political unrest and division in
the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries, when, among other things,
fears of revolution
and violence of the sort experience in France during
the so-called Reign of
Terror (1793-1794) led to the enactment of the Alien
and Sedition Laws
(1798) under which many Americans were prosecuted and
imprisoned.
The accession of Thomas Jefferson (see the note to 214
and n., below) to
the Presidency in 1801 began a new era of democracy
in American
politics, one seen by Jefferson’s detractors [Page
52] (Bayley included)
as predicated on a tyranny of the masses or “despot
rabbles” (206). See
the Introduction, pp. xxixf. for Bayley’s adherence
to an essentially
conservative position that emphasized order, authority,
religion, and the
rule of the upper classes over anarchy, liberty, atheism,
and the rule of the
people (“Democracy”). Bayley’s
line is taken from The Traveller, or a
Prospect of Society (1794) a poem by Oliver
Goldsmith (c. 1730-1774)
which compares various European countries in terms of
their political,
economic, and social conditions (The Traveller,
306: “ . . . Ferments
arise, imprison’d factions roar . . . ”).
205-206
despot Despotic: tyrannical; arbitrary.
207 career Course.
208 the weak republic
The United States
209 and n. fragil bark Fragile
boat. The ancient and common metaphor and
topos of the ship of state is central to Horace’s
Ode I, xiv, the third and
fourth stanzas of which are invoked by Bayley’s
note: “Thy canvas [O ship]
is no longer whole, nor hast thou gods to call upon
when again beset by
trouble. Though thou be built of Pontic pine,
a child of far-famed forests,
and though thou boast thy stock and useless name [“genus
et nomen
inutile”], yet the timid sailor puts no faith
in gaudy sterns. Beware lest thou
become the wild gale’s sport!” (Bennett’s
translation).
209 main Ocean.
211 blasts Strong,
gusting winds.
214 and n. nature’s second night
Death; the death of civilization (see “Sun of
Science” at 115, and the note to 96, above). Cf.
Shakespeare, Macbeth,
II, ii, 39: “ . . . great nature’s second
course [sleep] . . . .” Bayley’s view of
the species of democracy advanced by Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826),
President of the United States from 1801 to 1809, is,
of course, highly
biased. In the terms of his own day, a Republican
rather than a Federalist
(the party with which Bayley’s views align him),
Jefferson is now regarded
as one of the greatest of American presidents whose
democratic
philosophy set the course of his country’s history.
217 and f. Gallia’s blood-stain’d
coast The coast of France, stained with the
blood of the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror
(see the note to 204
and f., above) and the Napoleonic Wars. In October,
1805 the British fleet
under Nelson defeated the French at the Battle of Trafalgar.
See George
Canning and others, “New Morality,” 306
in Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, p.
283: “ . . . Where at the blood-stain’d
board expert [Page 53] [Talleyran]
plies . . . ”
218 her former boast
Presumably the call to Freedom, equality, and fraternity
at the time of the French Revolution (1789).
219 Lo! Behold; see;
look.
219 “the men without a God”
See Canning, “New Morality,” 317-318, Poetry
of the Anti-Jacobin, p. 283: “
. . . LEPAUX;—whom atheists worship; at
whose nod / Bow their meek heads the Men without
a God.” The footnote
to these lines reads:“The Men without a God—one
of the new sects
[spawned by the French Revolution]. Their religion
is intended to consist
in the adoration of a Great Book, in which all the virtuous
actions of the
society are to be entered and registered. ‘In
times of civil commotion they
are to come forward to exhort the citizens to unanimity,
and to read them a
chapter out of the Great Book. When oppressed
or proscribed, they are
to retire to a burying-ground, to wrap themselves up
in their great-coats,
and wait the approach of death,’ &c.”
220 unerring Certain,
sure.
221-222 and n. Voltaire The
French author and philosopher François Mari
Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778) is most likely to be
remembered today for
his political romance Candide (1759), though
he also wrote several plays
and many other works of a literary, historical, scientific,
sociological, and
philosophical nature. Educated in Paris at the Jesuit
Collège Louis-le-
Grand (where he was indeed tutored by Louis Le Jay,
whose remark
Bayley probably quotes from an anonymous translation;
see 234 and n.,
below), Voltaire spent much of his life fighting for
the rights of the victims of
political and religious persecution. At least residually
a Christian, he
nevertheless advocated a form of Deism (see the note
to 228 and n.,
below), for the ruling élite of society and,
in the end, refused to sign the full
recantation of certain of his works that would have
secured him a Christian
burial. His famous statement “Écrasez l’infame!”
(‘Crush the infamous
thing!’ [see again the note to 234 and n., below])
may have been directed
against either the Roman Catholic Church in particular
or against the
French ancien régime in general; certainly
it did not endear him to the
proponents of established order. Among his friends
were Lord
Bolingbroke (see the note to 228 and n., below) whom
he met while exiled
in England in the seventeen twenties, and Frederick
II of Prussia (see the
note to 223 and n., below), whose court he attended
in the seventeen
forties and early seventeen fifties. At Kell’s
Analyses et critiques des
ouvrages de M. de Voltair avec plusieurs anecdotes
intéressantes . . .
was published [Page 54] in 1789.
223-224 and n. Fredrick of Prussia
A friend and patron of Voltaire (see the
preceding note), Frederick II or Frederick the Great
of Prussia (1712-
1786; King, 1740-1786) was a talented military leader,
a gifted writer, an
“enlightened despot,” and an atheist.
During the Seven Years War (1756-
1763) he was allied with Britain against France, Austria,
and others, and
incurred various victories and defeats. Among
his writings on politics,
history, tactics, and philosophy is a refutation of
Machiavelli. To an extent
liberal and progressive, he was tolerant in matters
of religion and instituted
a number of reforms and improvements in his own country.
He bettered
the lot of the serfs on his own estates, albeit not
in Prussia as a whole. His
court at Sans Souci (French: ‘without care’)
was renowned for its French
flavour and for its free thinkers.
223 Sophist Specious
reasoner. Cf., in conjunction with the surrounding
lines, Beattie, The Minstrel, I, xli: “Hence!
ye, who snare and stupefy the
mind, / Sophists, of beauty, virtue, joy, the bane!
. . . Who spread your filthy
nets in Truth’s fair fane, / And ever ply your
venom’d fangs amain!”
225
unhallow’d See the note to
143, above.
226 “To crush the wretch”
Bayley’s rendition of Voltaire’s “Écrasez
l’infame!”
(see the note to 221-222 and n., above).
226 savior’s
Christ’s.
227 Le-Paux Louis Marie
de la Révelliève-Lépeaux (1753-1824)
was the
president of the French revolutionary Directory between
1795 and his
forced resignation in 1799. He was bitterly hostile
to Christianity, which he
proposed to supplant as a civilizing agent by a new
religion called
Theophilanthropy, the invention of the English Deist
David Williams.
Canning’s “New Morality,” 314-355,
Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, pp.283-
285 contains a lengthy rant against “LEPAUX”
(see the notes to 219,
above and 227 and 232, below), ending with an invitation
to Thomas
Hobbes’ Leviathan (“Hugest of living
things that sleep and swim”) to
“praise LEPAUX” with “puffing”
and “spouting,” and a suggestion that the
reader “fill up the blanks” (“With_____,
_______, and _______, in thy
train”) with the names of“creeping creatures”
of his own choosing, a
suggestion taken up by Bayley in this portion of Canada.
227 Paine A “serpent”
indeed from Bayley’s perspective, the American
thinker and writer Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was a supporter
of the
[Page 55] American Revolution (The
American Crisis [1776-1783]), a
defender of the French Revolution (The Rights of
Man [1791-1792]), and
a deistic critic of the Bible (The Age
of Reason [1794-1795]). See
Canning, “New Morality,” 344-345, Poetry
of the Anti-Jacobin, p.285: “All
creeping creatures, venomous and low, / PAINE, WILLIAMS
[see the note
to 227, above], GODWIN, HOLCROFT, praise LEPAUX!”
228 and n. Anthony Ashley Cooper (1671-1713),
the third Earl of Shaftesbury,
is the English politician and heterodox philosopher
who first used the term
“moral sense” to describe what he saw as
man’s innate capacity for
benevolence, by which a harmony is achieved between
the individual and
society. His Characteristics of Men, Manners,
Opinions, Times, first
published in 1711, was frequently reprinted in the eighteenth
century and
later. Henry St. John (1678-1751), Viscount Bolingbroke,
another English
politician and philosopher, was, as already noted (221-222
and n., above)
a friend of Voltaire. His political activities
included temporary support of
the Jacobites against George I and among his published
works is the Idea
of a Patriot King (1749), an argument in favour
of a kind of “Tory
democracy.” Both Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke
are discussed at length in
A View of the Principal Deistical Writers
that Have Appeared in England
in the Last and Present Century .
. . (1754-1756; 4th. ed. 1764) by the
English Theologian John Leland (1691-1766). The deists
(a term nearly
synonymous with freethinkers) of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries
regarded formal religion and the revealed truth of the
Bible as superfluous,
holding that reason and the evidence of nature sufficiently
demonstrate the
existence of God.
230 blast Curse; blight;
destroy.
230 with Along
with.
232 and n. This line is taken from the following
passage in Canning’s “New
Morality,” 328-333, Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin,
p. 284:
‘Couriers and Stars, Sedition’s
evening host,
Though Morning Chronicle and Morning Post,
Whether ye make the Rights of Man your theme,
Your country libel, and your God blaspheme,
Or dirt on private worth and virtue throw,
Still, blasphemous or blackguard, praise LEPAUX!”
[Page 56]
The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, a compendium
of all the poetry printed in
The Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner,
an aggressively conservative
periodical published in London between November, 1797
and July, 1798
(when it was replaced by The Anit-Jacobin Review
and Magazine), made
its first appearance in 1801, and was frequently reprinted
thereafter. The
authors of the poems included (in addition to Canning)
John Hookham
Frere, the Marquis of Wellesley, and the Earl of Carlisle.
233
hapless Unfortunate; unlucky; luckless.
234 and n. Robespier One
of the leaders of the French Revolution (and of the
Jacobin Club), Maximilien Marie Isidore Robespierre
(1758-1794) was a
member of the revolutionary Committee of Public Safety
that inaugurated
the Reign of Terror, a phenomenon with which his name
is inseparably
connected. He was guillotined by fellow revolutionaries
on July 28, 1794.
The Abbé Barruel mentioned by Bayley in his note
was the French author
of a four volume work translated in 1797 as Memoirs
Illustrating the
History of Jacobinism. The first volume
of this work contains several
references to Voltaire’s “écrasez
l’infame” (which the anonymous
translator renders as “ ‘crush the wretch!’”
[I, 27]), as well as the remark by
Le Jay (“‘Unfortunate young man, you will
one day come to be the
standard-bearer of Infidelity’” [I, 2] that
Bayley remembers at 220n.
Judging by the following passage (Memoirs,
I, 41), the “maxim” that
Bayley had in mind was not Robespierre’s but Voltaire’s:
“No precept is
oftener repeated by Voltaire than ‘strike but
conceal the Hand. . . . [T]he
monster must fall pierced by a hundred invisible
hands; yes, let it fall
beneath a thousand repeated blows.’”
Proscription: action or decree
condemning someone to death or banishment.
235 murder’d Louis
Louis XVI (1754-1793), King of France from 1774
until
his death at the hands of revolutionaries on January
21, 1793.
236 and f. A foreign Despot
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was born in
Corsica the year after the island was ceded to France
and, thus, not
technically “foreign,” at least to that
country. (A further twist to the question
of Napoleon’s citizenship is provided by Corsica’s
union with Britain in
1794.) He crowned himself Emperor of the French
on December 2, 1804
(“Despot”: absolute ruler; tyrant) and in
1805 proclaimed himself King of
Italy (“Italia”). In the same year
he defeated the Austrians at Ulm on the
Danube and the combined Austrians and Russians under
Emperor
Francis II and Tsar Alexander I [Page 57]
at Austerlitz. Thereafter the
Austrians were forced to submit to the harsh terms of
the Treaty of
Pressburg and the Russians, though they continued the
war against
Napoleon, had to withdraw all their troops from Austria.
While “Europa’s
empires” thus “totter[ed] on their base,”
Britain’s strength was growing,
particularly at sea, where Nelson had defeated Napoleon’s
fleet at
Trafalgar in October, 1805 (see the note to 217 and
f., above). In view of
the situation in the winter of 1805-1806 when Canadawas
written and
published, Bayley can hardly be faulted for thinking
that the task of
defeating Napoleon in the coming years would fall to
Britain “alone” (243-
246).
237-238 thro’ the eastern coast
/ Depopulation leads his murdering host
Presumably, the eastern coast of Italy. Depopulation:
devastation;
pillaging; reduction of population; unpeopling.
Cf. Goldsmith, The
Traveller, 397-402: “Have we not seen
. . . opulence, her grandeur to
maintain, / Lead stern depopulation in her train . .
. ?”
244 To shake corruption from her
Venal throne Thomson, “Autumn,”
1066-
1069:“ . . . thy pathetic Eloquence!
that . . . Of honest Zeal th’indignant
Lightning throws, / And shakes Corruption on her
venal Throne.” Venal :
corruptly mercenary; unprincipled in its dealings.
246 and n. 1 Chronicles 21.22: “Then David
said to Ornan, Grant me the place
of this threshing-floor, that I may build an altar therein
unto the Lord: thou
shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague
may stayed from the
people.” See also Psalm 124. 2,4: “If
it had not been the Lord who was on
our side . . . .Then the waters had overwhelmed us .
. . .” (and, passim, the
account of the food in Genesis 6-9).
249 abjuring Rejecting;
disclaiming.
252 Cf. Thomson, “Spring,”
1163: “ . . . Ease and alternate Labour . . .
.”
253-254 Cf. Weld, Travels,
I, 338: “Some of the lower classes of the French
Canadians have all the gaiety and vivacity of the people
of France; they
dance, they sing, and seem determined not to give way
to care . . . .” Cf.
Goldsmith, The Traveller, 243-244: “How
often have I led thy sportive
choir [choir: band of dancers, or singers and dancers]
/ With tuneless pipe,
beside the murmuring Loire.” The Loire River,
the longest in France, is
almost synonymous with French culture and history.
255-259 See Weld, Travels, I, 336,
338 on the “custom . . . of the country”
and
I, 396 on the sudden transformation from winter to spring
at the end of
April or in May: “The snow soon disappears . .
. . The scene which
presents itself on the St. Lawrence at this season is
most tremendous.
[Page 58] The ice first begins to crack
from side to side, with a report as
loud as that of a cannon . . . . [I]f in going
down [the mounds of ice] happen
to strike against any of the rocks along the shore the
crash is horrible . . . .”
256 annual vows to pleasure and
to May Spring festivals; May-day
celebrations.
257 icy chain
Cf. Cary, Abram’s Plains, 142-143: “
. . . here dreary winter
reigns, /And bars the liquid way with icy chains
. . . .”
258 caverns Large
subaqueous caves.
260-266 Cf. Weld, Travels, I, 397 on
the speed and fertility of the Canadian
spring: “The rapid progress of vegetation in Canada,
as soon as the
winter is over, is most astonishing . . . . In
a few days the fields are clothed
with the richest verdure, and the trees obtain their
foliage. The various
productions of the garden come in after each other in
quick succession,
and the grain sown in May affords a rich harvest by
the latter end of July.
This part of the year . . . is delightful beyond description;
nature . . . puts on
her gayest attire . . . .”
260 Creation
The capitalization indicates that Bayley viewed the
renewal of
life in spring as a re-enactment of God’s primal
act of creation as
described in Genesis I.
260
vegetates Develops; nourishes itself.
262 harrow Plough.
262 inverts the soil
Turns over the earth. See William Shenstone, Elegies,
XIX, i: “Again the lab’ring hind [peasant]
inverts the soil . . . .”
264 three-fold harvests
See Weld, Travels, I, 379-380 on the fertile
soil and
“plentiful crops” in the St. Lawrence valley.
three-fold: three times as great
or as much.
264 meed Reward.
265 embryo Immature,
undeveloped.
266 favor’d Unusually
blessed or advantaged.
267-272 See Weld, Travels, I, 397-398
on the “fervor” (intense heat; glowing
condition) of the Canadian summer: “ . . . in
July and August the weather
becomes warmer, and a few days often intervene when
the heat is
overcoming; during these months the mercury sometimes
rises to 96˚
[Fahrenheit].”
269-272 and n. No source has yet been found
for Bayley’s fanciful description
of the humming-bird folding its wings in a flower in
response to the intense
heat.
269 plaintive Sad-sounding;
complaining.
270 Sportive Playful.
[Page 59]
270 Zephyr Wind;
breeze. In Greek mythology, Zephyrus or Zephyr was the
personification of the west wind.
271 roseate hue
Coloured like a rose (pink, red, pale crimson)
272 honied dew Sweet
liquid: nectar.
273-276 Cf., in conjunction with 293-294,
Thomson, “Winter,” 234-238: “ . .
.
ere the languid Sun / Faint from the West emits his
Evening Ray, / Earth’s
universal Face, deep-hid, and chill, / Is one wide dazzling
Waste, that
buries wide/ The Works of Man.”
275 interminable shade
Endless or boundless darkness. Cf. Thomson,
“Summer,” 691-692: “ . . . interminable
Meads / And vast Savannahs . . . .”
276 Depopulation
Devastation (see the note to 237-238, above).
276 sombrous
Sombre: depressingly dark.
277 spoils Strips.
277 hoary Grey;
grayish white.
278 Fancy . . . Contemplation
Personifications of imagination and thought.
279 luxuriant
Exuberant; abundant; colourful.
280 prospect
View; scene.
280 trace Discern;
describe.
280-282 and n. Probably William Grant (1744-1805),
a prosperous merchant,
seigneur, officer, and politician who owned several
properties in Lower
Canada, including “a farm on Île Sainte-Hélène,
near Montreal”; but
possibly David Alexander Grant (the son of William’s
elder brother David),
who supervised his “uncle’s milling, shipbuilding,
and seigneurial interests
in the Montreal region” from the property on the
Île Sainte-Hélène (DCB,
V,
369-370). In his Travels, II, 64, Lambert
writes that St. Helen’s Island
“belongs [in 1806-1807] to the Baroness de Longueil:
this lady married a
gentleman by the name of Grant, and brought him very
extensive and
valuable landed property. Since his death, it has been
divided between
her and the children.” That William Grant
died after a short illness on
October 5, 1805 may indicate either that Bayley is addressing
his nephew
or one of his sons in 280-282 or, as seems more likely,
that at least this
portion of the poem was written before Grant’s
death. The singling-out of
Grant for praise in Canada may also indicate
that Bayley had some, as
yet undiscovered, connection with him. Bayley’s
description of St. Helen’s
Island recalls Cowper, The Task, III (“The
Garden”), 628-632: “To deck the
shapely knoll / That . . . appears / A flowery island
. . . must be deemed a
labour due / To no mean hand, and asks the touch of
taste.” [Page 60]
282 protub’rance
Rounded prominence; hill (and see the quotation at 283-
294, below).
282 assiduous
Constant; unfailing.
283-294 Montrèal’s mountain heighth
. . . summits Weld, Travels,
I, 315-317
states that the view from the highest of the “two
or three considerable
mountains” (Bayley’s “summits”)
on “the island of Montreal” is “grand
beyond description,” but describes it nevertheless,
and in terms which
obviously provided Bayley with the basis of his “exhaustless
view” (and
see also the quotations at 13, above and 290, below):
“A prodigious
expanse of country is laid open to the eye, with the
noble river St.
Lawrence winding through it, which may be traced from
the remotest part
of the horizon. The river comes from the right,
and flows smoothly on, after
passing down the tremendous rapids above the town, where
it is hurried
over huge rocks [Bayley’s “shed” (292)?]
. . . . [S]everal little islands in the
river near the town, partly improved, partly overgrown
with wood [see 282],
add greatly to the beauty of the scene . . . .
Such an endless variety and
such a grandeur is there in the view from this part
of the mountain, that
even those who are most habituated to the view, always
find it a fresh
subject of admiration whenever they contemplate it .
. . .”
285-286 and n. One of the most famous and wealthy
figures in the fur-trade,
Simon McTavish (c. 1750-1804) established his office
in Montreal in c.
1776 and thereafter played a principal rôle in
the North West Company
(see the note to 421 and n., below). In 1793 he married
a French-
Canadian woman named Marie-Marguerite Chaboillez and
in 1803 began
to build a large house on the slopes of Mount Royal.
He did not live to see
his mansion finished, however, for he died unexpectedly
on July 6, 1804,
having expressed the wish that he might be buried on
his own property.
This request was carried out and, in Bayley’s
words, “widow’d
love . . . rais’d husband’s grave”
near the unfinished McTavish Mansion
(now the site of a monument in the fur-trader’s
memory). Lambert,
Travels, II, 68, describes the McTavish house
and mausoleum as they
were in 1806-1807: “A large handsome stone building,
belonging to the
widow of the late Mr. McTavish . . . stands at the foot
of the mountain, in a
very conspicuous situation. Gardens and orchards have
been laid out, and
considerable improvements made, which add much to the
beauty of the
spot. Mr. McTavish is buried in a tomb a short distance
from his house on
the side of the mountain, in the midst of a thick shrubbery.
A [Page 61]
monumental pillar is erected over the vault, and may
be seen a long way
off.” McTavish’s widow married a Major W.
Plenderleath in England in
January, 1808. For further details of McTavish’s
life and death, see the
entry on him in DCB, V, 560-567 and Edgar Andrew
Collard, “Simon
McTavish’s Burial Place Still Intact on Mountain
Slope,” The Gazette
(Montreal), February 21, 1941, p. 10.
287
exhaustless Inexhaustible.
289 plenteous Fertile;
productive.
289 buzy Probably
a misprint for “busy”, but conceivably a
misprint for “buzzy”
(humming).
290 La-Prairie’s spire
See Weld, Travels, I, 317: “La Prairie
with its large
church on the distant side of the [St.Lawrence] river
. . . .” In different
places (see, for example, I, 288 and 305) Weld spells
the name of the
village on the South shore, opposite Montreal “La
Prarie” and “La Prairie.”
290 azure Sky-blue.
292 shed Ridge
of high ground dividing two valleys; divide (and see
283-294, above).
294 beams departing day
Cf. Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard,” 1: “The curfew tolls the knell
of parting day . . . .”
296 Cf. Thomson, “Summer,”
1700-1701: “ . . . the lambent Lightnings shoot
/
Across the sky . . . .”
296 innocuous Harmless.
299 ungenial Not
favourable, kindly, or pleasant. The Thomsonian
tenor of
the ensuing passage suggests a source for this word
in the “ungenial pole”
of “Winter,” 998. See also the quotation
from Weld’s Travels under Plan
of the Poem, above.
300 equinoctial Occurring
at or near the time of the equinox (one of the two
periods of the year, in spring and fall, when the days
and nights are equal
in length); said especially of the gales (and rains)
prevailing about the time
of autumn equinox (September 22-23).
301-303 These lines are strongly reminiscent
of passages in “Winter” where
Thomson ascribes health-giving qualities to the cold
air of that season
(see “Winter,” 694-713 and 304, below) and
depicts the “various Sport /
And Revelry . . . ” (760f.) that it makes possible.
See also Cary, Abram’s
Plains, 505-511 and 544-546 and, for “Winter
in Canada . . . [as] the
season of general amusement . . . [when] every one devotes
himself to
pleasure,” Weld, Travels, I, 391-393.
Weld also comments (I, 389-390) on
the pure air and healthy climate of Lower [Page
62] Canada.
301 keener air
Cf. Goldsmith, The Traveller, 186: “
. . . Keen air . . . .”
keener: sharper; colder; and Thomson,
“Winter”, 223: “Keener
Tempests.”
303 frame Body;
constitution.
303 invigorated Strengthened;
animated; given energy.
304 Brace every nerve and flush
in every cheek Cf. Thomson, “Winter,”
700,
709: “ . . . the new-strung Nerves . . . . A stronger
Glow sits on the lively
Cheek . . . ”
305 tractless Trackless:
pathless or, in a rarer but perhaps more apposite
sense, featureless.
305 resplendent Shining;
brilliant; splendid.
307-308 . . . Arrested pause
. . . Cf. Thomson, “Winter,” 723-725:
“An icy gale .
. . in its mid Career / Arrests the bickering Stream.”
309 gothic Resembling
medieval, as opposed to classical, architectural
forms: irregular, crude; “romantic” (see
the note to 355, below). Cf.
Cowper, The Task, III (“The Garden”),
641: “Without it [elegance], all is
gothic . . . ” and V (“The Winter Morning
Walk”), 110-111: “Here [in a
frozen water fall] glittering turrets rise, upbearing
high / (Fantastic
misarrangement!) . . . .”
311 vagrant Moving
hither and thither.
313 flaky weight
Cf. Thomson, “Winter,” 147: “flaky
Clouds.”
315 animation
Vitality; liveliness.
316 color-changing hare
The North-American varying hares, Lepus arcticus
(the Arctic hare) and lepus groenlanicus (the
Greenland hare) turn white in
winter.
317 covert Shelter;
cover (such as a thicket). Cf. Thomson, “Winter,”
137-
142: “ . . . the plumy Race, / Tenants of the
Sky . . . seek the closing Shelter
of the Grove . . . .”
317 man rears his butchering blow
See Weld, Travels, I, 395: “ . . . as
soon
as the frost sets in they generally kill cattle and
poultry sufficient to last
them till the return of spring. The carcasses
are buried in the ground, and
covered with a heap of snow, and as they are wanted
they are dug up;
vegetables are laid up in the same manner . . . .”
319 ought Aught:
anything.
320 whirlwinds
Rotating or whirling winds. Cf., in conjunction
with the “torrent”
of the ensuing line, Goldsmith, The Traveller,
207: “ . . . the loud torrent,
and the whirlwind’s roar . . . ” and Thomson,
“Winter,” 269-270: “In this dire
Season, oft the Whirlwind’s Wing / Sweeps up [Page
63] the Burthen of
whole wintry Plains . . . .”
321 torrent Violent
downpour, either in the form of a stream or precipitation.
321 convulsive
With violent physical disturbance.
322 For “hapless,” “cot,”
and “whelm,” see respectively the notes
to 233, 58,
and 59, above.
323 swain Peasant.
324-326 market teeming with his gain
. . . See Weld, Travels, I, 395:
“The
markets in the towns are always supplied best at this
season [winter], and
provisions are then also the cheapest; for the farmers
having nothing else
to engage them, and having a quantity of meat on hand
[see the quotation
from Weld at 317, above] that is never injured from
being sent to market,
flock to the towns in their carioles in great numbers,
and always well
supplied.” 325-332 Carrioles
The term carriole or cariole was used to
refer to a wide variety of dog-and horse-drawn sleighs,
from market carts
to stage coaches. Two passages in Weld’s
Travels very clearly supplied
Bayley with the basis for his descriptions of carrioles
and their practical
and social uses, as well as their effects on “strangers”:
“The market of
Quebec is extremely well supplied with provisions of
every kind . . . . It is a
matter of curiosity to a stranger to see the number
of dogs yoked in little
carts, that brought into this market by the people who
attend it. The
Canadian dogs are found extremely useful in drawing
burthens . . . . [T]heir
strength is prodigious . . . . People, during the winter
season, frequently
perform long journeys on the snow with half a dozen
or more of these
animals yoked in a cariole or sledge” (I, 353-354);
“By means of their
carioles or sledges, the Canadians transport themselves
over the snow,
from place to place, in the most agreeable manner, and
with a degree of
swiftness that appears almost incredible; for with the
same horse it is
possible to go eighty miles in a day, so light is the
draft of one of these
carriages, and so favourable is the snow to the feet
of the horse. The
Canadian cariole or sledge is calculated to hold two
persons and a driver;
it is usually drawn by one horse; if two horses are
made use of, they are
put one before the other . . . . The carioles glide
over the snow with great
smoothness . . . . The rapidity of the motion, with
the sound of . . . bells and
horns appears to be very conducive to cheerfulness,
for you seldom see a
dull face in a cariole. The Canadians always take
advantage of winter
seasons to visit their friends who live at a distance,
as traveling is then so
very expeditious; and this is [Page 64]
another circumstance which
contributes, probably not a little, to render the winter
so extremely
agreeable in their eyes” (I, 392-393).
325
burthens Burdens: loads.
326 lawn Untilled
ground; open space.
328 well-pointed
Well-directed; well-steered.
331 car Vehicle:
cariole.
333-378 See Weld, Travels, I, 391:
“The inhabitants meet in convivial parties
at each other’s houses [during the Canadian winter],
and pass the day with
music, dancing, card-playing, and every social entertainment
that can
beguile the time.” A further passage in Weld,
II, 9 may have contributed to
Bayley’s characterization of the elderly “sire”
and his audience in this
passage, and, moreover, furnished inspiration for some
of its incidents
and details: “a spirit of enterprize is not wanting
amongst the Canadians;
they eagerly come forward when called upon, to traverse
the immense
lakes of the western regions; they laugh at the dreadful
storms on those
prodigious bodies of water; they work with indefatigable
perseverance at
the oar and the pole in stemming the rapid currents
of the rivers . . . . The
spirit of the Canadian is excited by vanity: he delights
in talking to his
friends and relatives of the excursions he has made
to those distant
regions; and he glories in the perils which he has encountered
. . . .”
Bayley follows Weld, II, 8-9 in emphasizing the French-Canadian
love of
home, family, and friends (a quality that Weld finds
lacking in the
Americans), but here, as elsewhere (see the note to
403, below)
downplays their supposed “vanity.” See also
Thomson, “Winter,” 89-93 for
a “taleful” peasant by an “enlivening
blaze” on a winter’s night.
334 draught Drink.
334 beguile While
away pleasantly.
335 hoary-headed
Grey- or white-haired.
335 sire Elderly
man; person of some note or importance.
336 Allures Attracts;
tempts.
338 abode House;
home. Cf. Thomson, “Winter,” 293: “
. . . blest Abode of
Man . . . .”
339-340 Cf. Thomson, “Winter,”
297-305 (the famous description of the
“Swain” lost in the “wilderness”):
“Then throng the busy shapes into his
Mind, / Of cover’d Pits . . . Of faithless bogs
. . . . These check his fearful
steps . . . .”
341 shock Sudden
and violent blow.
342 light canoe
Weld, Travels, II, 18-19 describes the construction
of [Page
65] birch-bark canoes, remarking that
“A canoe made in this manner is so
light, that two men could easily carry one on their
shoulders . . . ”; indeed,
“they are so light,” he says, “that
they are apt to be overset by the least
improper movement of the persons in them” (and
see also II, 242-243).
343-344 and n. Like Thomas Moore (see Introduction,
p. xiii), Bayley was
perhaps drawn to the “songs” of the “Voyageurs”
(the canoe- and boat-
men, usually French Canadian, Métis, or Indian,
who crewed the vessels of
the inland fur trade) by Weld, Travels, II,
51: “The French Canadians have
in general a good ear for music, and they sing duets
with tolerable
accuracy. They have one very favourite duet amongst
them, called the
‘rowing duet,’ which as they sing they mark
time to, with each stroke of the
oar; indeed when rowing in smooth water, they mark the
tune of most of
the airs they sing in the same manner.” Cf. Mackay,
Quebec Hill, I, 207-
211.
344 batteaux French:
boats. See Weld, Travels, I, 331: “A
bateau is a
particular kind of boat, very generally used upon the
large rivers and lakes
in Canada. The bottom of it is perfectly flat,
and each end is built very
sharp, and exactly alike. The sides are about four feet
high, and for the
convenience of the rowers, four or five benches are
laid across,
sometimes more, according to the length of the bateau.
It is a very heavy
awkward sort of vessel, either for rowing or sailing
. . . .”
345 roving fancies
See Weld, Travels, II, 25 for the fondness
of the Indians
and French Canadians for “roving about”
(and also the quotation at 333-
378, above).
346 histories
Stories.
347-348 Ontario Weld,
Travels, II, 74-83 describes “the most
easterly” of the
Great Lakes at length, noting its “great expanse”
and observing that parts
of his voyage on it from Kingston to Niagara “differed
in no wise from one
across the ocean . . . .”
348 stream Water;
ocean.
349-350 Weld does not describe the most
westerly of the Great Lakes in his
Travels, but he does mention the British “military
post” on “the Island of St.
Joseph, in the Straits of St. Mary, between lakes Superior
and Huron . . . ”
(II, 107, 105), the possible source of Bayley’s
notion of a “British fleet / . . .
on [the] inland ocean’s distant sheet . . . .”
sheet: expanse of water. Weld
(II, 67-69 and 145) does describe the “King’s
ships” on lakes Ontario and
Erie.
351-354 Bayley’s notion of Lake Erie
as “wild” may derive from Weld’s [Page
66] accounts of the “dangerous
storms” that he experienced on it in
Travels, II, 141-147, 155-161, and 296-308.
In Travels, II, 63, Weld
observes that “On Lake Erie . . . the settlements
are increasing with
astonishing rapidity, both on the British and on the
opposite side.” See
also Campbell, The Pleasures of Hope, I, 324-331:
On Erie’s banks, where tigers steal along,
And the dread Indian chants a dismal song,
Where human fiends on midnight errands walk
And bathe in brains the murderous tomahawk;
There shall the flocks on thymy pasture stray,
And shepherds dance at Summer’s opening day;
Each wandering genius of the lonely glen
Shall start to view the glittering haunts of men . .
. .
352
proves Demonstrates; establishes
(though the context suggests that
“proves” may be
an abbreviation of “improves” made necessary
by the
metre).
352
deserts Uninhabited and uncultivated
tracts of land; wilderness.
353-354 and n. Cf. Weld, Travels, I,
159-160: “As I passed through this part of
the country
[Virginia], I observed many traces of fires in the woods,
which are
frequent, it seems, in the spring of the year.
They usually proceed from
the negligence of people who are burning brushwood to
clear the lands . . . ”
(Weld proceeds to describe in memorable length one such
fire).
355-372 Bayley’s description of Niagara
Falls combines details from Weld,
Travels, II, 108-135 (Letter XXI: “Description
of the River and Falls of
Niagara
. . . ,” for which see the notes below) with words
and phrases
taken from Thomson’s description of a waterfall
in “Summer,” 590-598 (cf.
especially Bayley’s “shakes the echoing
shore” [356], “rolls” [363],
“lengthen’d
sheet” [365], “hoary white” [366],
and “rocks below” [367]):
SMOOTH to the shelving Brink a copious Flood
Rolls fair, and placid; where collected all,
In one impetuous Torrent, down the Steep
It
thundering shoots, and shakes the Country round.
At first, an azure Sheet, it rushes broad; [Page
67]
Then whitening by Degrees, as prone it falls
And from the loud-resounding Rocks below
Dash’d in a Cloud of Foam, it sends aloft
A hoary Mist, and forms a ceaseless Shower.
Cf. Cary, Abram’s Plains, 29-33 and Mackay,
Quebec Hill, I, 97-102.
355 wild romantic
See Thomson, Preface (Appendix B in Sambrook’s
edition of The Seasons), 89-92: “The
wild romantic Country was [the]
Delight
[of ancient and modern poets].” Johnson defines
“romantic” as
“Fanciful; full of wild feeling,” citing
Thomson’s “Spring,” 1027-1028. To
the
very extent that they are “wild”—that
is, untamed and violent (see the note
to 351-352, above)—Niagara Falls are “romantic”—emotionally
appealing
and poetically inspirational according to the theories
of the sublime that
were current in Bayley’s day.
355-356 roar . . . echoing shore
Weld, Travels, II, 112-113: “ . . . .an
hundred
times . . . did we stop our carriage in hopes of hearing
the . . . thundering
sound [of Niagara Falls] . . . . [Y]et it is nevertheless
. . . true, that the
tremendous
noise of the Falls may be distinctly heard, at times,
at the
distance
of forty miles . . . .”
356 and n. Bayley’s reference is to
The Traveller, 411-412: “Where wild
Oswego
spreads her swamps around, / And Niagara stuns with
thund’ring
sound,” where the metre dictates that the principal
stress falls on the
penultimate
syllable—thus, Ní-a-gá-ra. But see
Weld, Travels, II, 317-318:
“I should have mentioned to you before, that both
the Indians and the white
Americans pronounce the word Niagara differently from
what we [British]
do. The former lay the accent on the second syllable,
and pronounce the
word full and broad as if written Nee-awg-ara. The American
likewise lay
the accent on the second syllable; but pronounce it
short, and give the
same
[s]ound to the letters I and A as we do. Niagara,
in the language of
the neighbouring Indians, signifies a mighty rushing
or fall of water.” See
also Notes and Queries, VI (December 11, 1852),
555, VII (January 8,
1853), 50, VII (February 5, 1853), 137, IX (June 17,
1854), 573 and X
(December
20, 1854), 533-544 for a debate on the correct pronunciation
of
Niagara, the conclusion being that it was “Yankee”
to pronounce it
Niágara
and British to pronounce it Niagára (a pronunciation
held by two
writers, and then denied by another, to be authentically
Indian). [Page 68]
357-364 See Weld, Travels,
II, 115-116: “For the first few miles from Lake
Erie,
the breadth of the [Niagara] river is about three hundred
yards . . . ;
but the current is so extremely rapid and irregular,
and the channel so
intricate, on account of the numberless large rocks
in different places
[Bayley’s ‘wat’ry maze’ (357)],
that no vessels other than bateaux ever
attempt to pass along it. As you proceed downward
the river widens, no
rocks are to be seen either along the shores or in the
channel, and the
waters glide smoothly along, though the current continues
very strong. The
river runs thus evenly . . . as far as Fort Chippeway,
which is about three
miles above the falls; but here the bed of it again
becomes rocky, and the
waters are violently agitated by passing down successive
rapids . . . . I
must . . . , however, observe that it is only on each
side of the river that the
waters are so much troubled . . . . The river forces
it ways amidst the rocks
with redoubled impetuosity, as it approaches towards
the falls . . . .” See
also, II, 119 (“Niagara River, between this part
of Lake Erie and the falls
receives the waters of several large creeks . . . ”);
125 (“The shore is . . .
found strewed with trees, and large pieces of timber,
that have been
swept away from the saw mills above the falls, and carried
down the
precipice . . . ”); and 130 (“ . . . circumstances
denote that some great
disruption has taken place along this part of the river
[below the Falls] . . .
there are evident marks of the action of water upon
the sides of the banks,
and considerably above their present bases”).
360 inundated
Overflowing or flooded with water.
361 massy Solid;
large.
365-372 and n. See Weld, Travels,
II, 116-117: “ . . . at last coming to the brink
of the tremendous precipice, [the water] tumbles headlong
to the bottom
without meeting with any interruption from rocks
in its descent . . . . [T]he
river does not rush down the precipice in one unbroken
sheet, but . . . is
divided by islands into three distinct collateral falls”;
and 127-129 “ . . . you
might proceed behind the prodigious sheet of water that
comes pouring
down . . . , moreover, caverns of a very considerable
size have been
hollowed out of the rocks at the bottom of the precipice,
owing to the
violent ebullition of the water . . . . [M]y breath
was nearly taken away by the
violent whirlwind that always rages at the bottom of
the cataract,
occasioned by the concussion of such a vast body of
water against the
rocks . . . . The rocks at bottom are . . . loosened
by the constant action of
the water upon them . . . .” For the “watery
smoke” of the spray from the
Falls, see II, 113, 127 and [Page 69]
for the “rainbow form’d in the spray”
II, 132: “Just as we left the foot of the great
fall the sun broke through the
clouds, and one of the most beautiful and perfect rainbows
that ever I
beheld was exhibited in the spray that rose from the
fall.” Bayley may also
have remembered Weld’s description of the rainbow
at Montmorenci
Falls, below Quebec City: “The spray . . . is
considerable, and when the
sun happens to shine bright in the middle of the day,
the prismatic colours
are exhibited in it in all their variety and lustre.”
(I, 358).
373-378 and
n. Weld several times uses the word “stupendous”
(a trigger word
for the sublime) with reference to Niagara Falls in
his Letter XXXI, but see
especially Travels, II, 112: “ . . .
these stupendous Falls.” Bayley’s
description
of the response of the “aged sire” to the
sublimity of the Falls is
clearly based on Weld, II, 128-129: “No words
can convey an adequate
idea of the awful grandeur of the scene at this place.
Your senses are
appalled
by the sight of the immense body of water that comes
pouring
down so closely to you from the top of the stupendous
precipice, and by the
thundering sound of the billows dashing against the
rocky sides of the
caverns
below; you tremble with reverential fear, when you consider
that a
blast of the whirlwind [see the quotation at 365-372
and n., above] might
sweep you from off the slippery rocks on which you stand,
and precipitate
you into the dreadful gulf beneath, from whence all
the power of man could
not extricate you; you feel what an insignificant being
you are in the
creation,
and your mind is forcibly impressed with an awful idea
of the
power
of that mighty Being who commanded the waters to flow.”
The
allusion
in 378 is to the final line of the “Hymn”
(called “A Hymn on the
Seasons”
in many editions) that follows The Seasons
by the English poet
James Thomson (1700-1748): “But I lose / Myself
in HIM, in LIGHT
INEFFABLE!
/ Come then, expressive Silence, muse HIS Praise.”
380 bigot Unreasonably
narrow in religious creed, ritual, or opinion.
381-382 See 1 Corinthians 13.13: “And
now abideth faith, hope, and charity,
these three; but the greatest of these is charity”
and Titus 13:14: “ . . . our
Saviour Jesus Christ: Who gave himself for us, that
he might redeem us
from all iniquity . . . .”
383 disdains not
Does not scorn or refuse.
384 simple One
or more of several senses of this word are possible
here:
honest; plain; humble, either (or both) spiritually
or (and) socially.
385-396 In Travels, I, 370-371
and 415 (see Introduction, p. xli, n. 75), Weld
writes warmly of the spirit of religious toleration
in Canada, but [Page 70]
he has mixed comments on the behavior of the country’s
“landlord[s]” and
on the seigneurial system generally: “The extent
of seigniorial rights in
Canada
. . . seems to be by no means clearly ascertained, so
that where
the seignior happens to be a man of rapacious disposition,
the vassal is
sometimes compelled to pay fines, which, in strict
justice, perhaps, ought
not to be demanded” (I, 400-401).
387 griping Grasping,
avaricious.
388 sweet abode
Cf. Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, 1: “SWEET
AUBURN” (and see the note at 338, above).
389 monopolizing hand
The hand that gains or holds exclusive possession.
Cf. Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, 37-39:
“Amidst the bowers the
tyrant’s
hand is seen, . . . One only master grasps the whole
domain . . . .”
390 crafty famine
Widespread starvation caused by the cunning of the
“landlord”
and “wretch.”
391-396 Cf. Goldsmith’s depiction
of the “poor houseless shivering female”
who,
“her virtue fled, / Near her betrayer’s
door . . . lays her head” in The
Deserted Village, 325-336.
395 brutal Inhuman.
399 independence Freedom
to enjoy a comfortable life without being
subordinate
to or working for others.
400 The genial stove
See, Weld, Travels, I, 393: “ . . . by
means of stoves
[the Canadians] keep their habitations as warm and comfortable
as can
be desired.”
400 cleanly Habitually
kept clean. Cf., in conjunction with the “genial
stove”
of 400 and the “faithful wife” and “offspring”
(children) of 401, Goldsmith,
The Traveller, 192-196: “He . . . / Smiles
by his cheerful fire, and round
surveys / His childrens looks . . . / While his lov’d
partner . . . / Displays her
cleanly platter on the board . . . .”
401 stage Ages.
403-404 His neat Calash . . . not for
vain parade Cf. Weld, Travels,
I, 306:
“The calash is a carriage very generally used
in Lower Canada; there is
scarcely a farmer indeed in the country who does not
possess one: it is a
sort of one horse chaise, capable of holding two people
besides the
driver
. . . . The harness for the horse is always made in
the old French
taste . . . ; it is studded with brass nails, and to
particular parts of it are
attached
small bells, of no use that could ever discover but
to annoy the
passenger.” Bayley seems to be at pains to counter
Weld’s assertion that
French Canadians are given to “vanity” (I,
[Page 71] 338; II, 4 and 9) not
least in the decoration of their “carioles”
(see the note to 325-332, above):
“The shape of the carriage is varied according
to fancy, and it is a matter
of emulation amongst the gentlemen, who shall have the
handsomest one.”
405 arpent French:
a measure of length (58.5 metres) or area (.342
hectares). Here the term probably refers to a field
or farm.
405-406 See Weld, Travels, I, 395
and II, 3, for the hardiness of the “small . .
. but
extremely serviceable” “Canadian horses.”
407 press’d Milked
408 downy flock
A Thomsonian periphrasis: sheep with feathery-soft wool.
408 self-made
Home-made; homespun.
409 babbling brook
Chattering stream.
413-414 the empress of the world . .
. Rome (a Republic until 30 B.C. and an
Empire
thereafter until its fall) gradually expanded its dominions
through
military conquest, notably in the last period of the
Republic (70-30 B.C.)
under Julius Caesar (c. 102-44 B.C.), who brought Rome’s
“conqu’ring
scourge” (whip; lash) to, among other places,
Britain.
415 and n. Tully’s pillars
Tully is the name by which Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-43 B.C.), the great Roman orator and statesman,
was known in the
eighteenth century. He is mentioned and discussed
frequently in The
Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788)
by the English
historian
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794); see particularly Chapter
XLIV
(where
Gibbon refers to Cicero’s “incomparable
genius” and “the portico”
—that is, colonnade or porch— from which
“the Roman civilians learned to
live, to reason, and to die”) and Chapters LXIX-LXXI
where “porticoes” are
again mentioned, this time in a summary discussion of
the “triumph of
barbarism
and religion” in Rome and the various uses to
which certain
buildings were put during the process (including “fortress[es],”
“monasteries”
and places of inquisition).
417-419 and n. Albion . . . Caesar .
. . See the note to 413-414, above.
Bayley’s citation of Horace’s Ode II, xiv
seems to be an error. The phrase
“inhospitable shores” suggests a reference
to Ode III, iv, 33: “visam
Brittannos
hospitibus feros . . . ” (‘I’ll visit
all unscathed the Britons, no
friends to strangers . . . ’), but see also (on
the possibility of a compositor’s
substitution of “2” for “4”
in the footnote) Ode IV, xiv, 43-44: “te belusos
qui
remotis / obstrepit Oceanus Britannis . . . ”
(‘the Ocean teeming with
monsters,
that roars around the distant [Page 72]
Britons . . . ’). (Odes I,
xxi, 15, xxv, 30, and III, v, 3 also contain references
to the conquest of
Britain.) Cf. Cowper, “Boadicea. An Ode,”
32-33: “‘Regions Caesar never
knew / Thy posterity shall sway . . . .’”
419
hemispheres Halves of the earth.
The Eastern hemisphere (the half containing
Europe, Asia, and Africa) was known to Caesar, but the
Western
hemisphere (America) was not.
421 British sons
Cf. Thomson, “Winter,” 681: “BRITANNIA’S
sons.”
421 and n. Weld, Travels, I, 317-330
gives a detailed description of the activities
of the North West Company, the Montreal-based fur-trading
syndicate
that was organized between 1775 and 1783 by Simon McTavish
(see
the note to 285-286 and n., above) and others (see the
note to 427- 430
and n., below), and absorbed by the Hudson’s Bay
Company in 1821.
422 polish’d Cultured;
refined; elegant.
423-424 and n. a dreary scene . . . between
Here and in surrounding phrases (“Europe’s
charms” [423] and “then-distant”
[426]), Bayley echoes, not “Goldsmith’s
traveller [The Traveller],” but the same
poet’s The Deserted Village,
341-345: “To distant climes, a dreary scene, /
Where half the convex
world intrudes between . . . . Far different there from
all that charm’d before
. . . .” dreary: gloomy, uninteresting.
426 barrier Fortified
frontier (or, perhaps, merely frontier).
427-430 and n. Although Weld neither met
Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820) nor
read his “journal” (which was first published
in December, 1801 as Voyages
from Montreal on the River St.Lawrence, through
the Continent of
North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans
. . . , he gives an accurate
account based on hearsay of the explorer’s journey
“to the Pacific Ocean”
(Travels, I, 321-325). It was on his “second
expedition” in 1792- 1793
that Mackenzie, “a partner in the house at Montreal”
(the NWC) between
1795 and his return to Britain in 1799, “came
to the Pacific Ocean, not
far from Nootka Sound,” missing Captain James
Cooke by a matter of weeks.
427 exalted Noble;
elevated in character.
428 undescried
Unseen; undiscovered. Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost,
I, 290: “
. . . to descry new Lands, / Rivers or Mountains . .
. .”
431-432 Tiber’s wave . . . wash’d
fair Freedom’s grave See Gibbon,
Decline and
Fall, LXXI for an account of the damage done to
Rome—including the destruction
of “edifices,” “palaces,” and
“temples”—by various floodings of
the
Tiber river both before and [Page 73]
“after the fall of the Western empire”
(together with its “arts” and “Freedom”).
Horace, Ode I, ii, 13-20 also
treats of a destructive flooding of the Tiber. See also
Pope, Windsor- Forest,
273: “ . . . what Tears the River shed . . . .”
435 golden reign
Golden age: the first and best age of the world in which,
according
to many ancient poets, mankind lived in an ideal state
of innocence,
happiness, and prosperity—hence, the period in
which a nation or
country is at the highest stage of its achievement and
excellence.
436f. the Poet’s tributary strain
. . . See the Introduction, pp. xxxvii-xxxviii
for a
discussion
of the relation between Bayley’s song of praise
for the St. Lawrence
and various poems of tribute by Horace. Another context
for this portion
of Canada is Pope’s Windsor-Forest,
where the word “strain[s]” appears
three times (311, 427, 434) and reference is made to
the “Tributary
Urns” (338) of the Thames and to “Albion’s
Golden Days” (424; see
Canada, 435). Pope elevates the Thames
above other famous rivers of
history and literature, and offers the following salute
to “Peace”:
Hails Sacred Peace! hail long-expected Days,
That Thames’s Glory to the stars shall
raise!
Tho’ Tyber’s Streams immortal Rome
behold,
Tho’ foaming Hermus swells with Tydes
of Gold,
From Heav’n it self tho’ sev’nfold
Nilus flows,
And Harvests on a hundred Realms bestows;
These no more shall be the Muse’s Themes,
Lost in my Fame, as in the Sea their Streams.
(355-362)
441
resistless tide Irresistible current.
Cf. Pope, Essay on Criticism, 630: “
. . . restless, with a thundering Tyde!” and Thomson,
“Winter,” 96-97: “ . . . the
rous’d-up
River pours along: / Resistless, roaring, dreadful,
down it comes
. . . .”
442 craggy Steep
and ragged. Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, II,
289 (“craggy Bay”)
and IV, 547 (“craggy cliff”).
444 rich Plentiful;
abundant; abounding in resources.
445 Chaudiere
See, in conjunction with the “romantic”
of the preceding line, Weld’s
description of the Chaudière river, which enters
the St. [Page 74] Lawrence
above Quebec City: “The banks of the La Chaudiere
. . . are covered
with trees of the largest growth, and amidst the piles
of broken rocks,
which lie scattered about the place, you have some of
the wildest and
most romantic views imaginable . . . . When the river
is full, a body of water
comes rushing over the rocks of the precipice [Chaudière
Falls] that astonishes
the beholder . . . ” (I, 360).
446 Montmorenci See
Weld, Travels, I, 357-358: “ .
. . the River Montmorenci
. . . runs into the St. Lawrence, about seven miles
below Quebec
. . . . [It] runs in a very irregular couse . . . [and]
except at the time of floods,
is but scanty . . . . [After the Falls] it flows with
a gentle current . . . .”
447 Cartier’s bending woods
Bayley is probably referring to the river named
for
the French explorer Jacques Cartier (1491-1557), who
wintered at what is
now Quebec city during his second voyage to the New
World in 1534- 1535.
The (Jacques-) Cartier River flows to the north and
west of Quebec, entering
the St. Lawrence some 30 kilometres up River from the
city. bending:
inclined.
448 Saguenay The
Saguenay River flows east from Lake St. John to join
the St.
Lawrence at Tadoussac, down river from Quebec City.
449 Chamblee
Chambly, a village visited by Weld (Travels,
I, 305) “on account
of seeing the old castle [or “fort”] built
there by the French,” stands near
the mouth of the “Chambly or Sorell River,”
which flows from Lake Champlain
into the St. Lawrence between Quebec and Montreal.
450 and n. Sorelle Also
called William Henry (after the son of King George III),
“the
town of Sorelle” (or Sorel) stands on the south
shore of the St. Lawrence
at the mouth of the river of the same name (see previous
note); Weld,
Travels, I, 333-334 describes it as “having
been laid out about the year
1787, and on an extensive plan, with very wide streets
and a large square,”
and notes that its port “affords good shelter
for ships from ice . . . .”
451
Kingston Weld, Travels, II,
64-72 describes this town, “at the mouth of a
deep
bay, at the north eastern extremity of Lake Ontario,”
in some detail, noting
that it contains a “fort . . . of stone . . .
consist[ing] of a square with
four bastions” (Fort Frontenac or Cataraqui).
452 and n.
In 1793, Toronto was chosen by Sir John Simcoe as the
capital of
Upper Canada and named York. It is mentioned
under both names by
Weld, who also describes the resentment caused by the
“removal of the
seat of government from [Niagara] to Toronto”
(Travels, II, 88). [Page
75]
453-454 and n. Cape Cape
Diamond, the “most elevated part of the point”
upon which Quebec stands and the location of the British
garrison. “The
Cape is strongly fortified,” observes Weld, Travels,
I, 349, “and may be
considered as the citadel of Quebec . . . . The evening
and morning guns,
and all salutes and signals, are fired from hence.”
453 impending Literally,
overhanging: ‘hanging over one’s head’;
near at
hand.
455 gothic Medieval.
456 Corinthian flowers
Acanthus flowers, the typical embellishment of the
ornate architectural style that takes its name from
the infamously wealthy
and profligate ancient Greek city of Corinth.
457 equipage The trappings
of rank, office, or social position. Cf. Pope,
Essay on Man, II, 44: “ . . . strip off all
her equipage of Pride . . . ,” Cowper,
The Task, VI (“The Winter Walk at Noon”),
702: “ . . . The gilded
equipage . . . ,” and Cary, Abram’s
Plains, 491 (of Lord Dorchester,
governor of Quebec from 1786 to 1794): “
. . . all the glare of equipage
disdains.”
457 liveried train
Uniformed servants.
459 porter Gate-keeper;
door-keeper.
460 Spurns Rejects
with contempt.
461 riot A noisy
instance of loose living. See Thomson, “Winter,”
322-325:
“ . . . the gay licentious Proud . . . in giddy
Mirth, / And wanton, often cruel,
Riot . . . ” and 632-645: “The Sons of Riot
. . . ” and their destructive
activities and ostentatious apparel (“gaming,”
“gaudy Robes,” and so on).
463 dissipation
Debauchery; intemperance; vicious, or merely trivial,
amusement. In conjunction with the preceding lines,
see Cowper, The
Task, II (“The Time Piece”), 769-770:
“ . . . the united powers / Of fashion,
dissipation, taverns, stews.”
465 peaceful muse
Cf. Cary, Abram’s Plains, 460 (of the
“muse”):
“ . . . peaceful parallels she draws . . . .”
467-468 and n. See Weld, Travels, I,
352 for a brief and condescending
description of the Jesuit Seminary in Quebec, which
was founded in 1663
by François Xavier de Laval, the first bishop
of Quebec, and subsequently
became the nucleus of Laval University.
468 science Knowledge.
Cf., with the remainder of the line, Johnson, “The
Vanity of Human Wishes,” 50: “With cheerful
wisdom and instructive mirth.”
469-484 and n. See Weld, Travels, I, 352: “The
nunneries [in Quebec] are
[Page 76] three in number . . . . The
largest of them, called L’Hopital
General, stands in the suburbs, outside the walls .
. . .” The Hôpital Général
was founded in 1692.
470 vestal robes
Virginal clothes: nuns’ habits. See Cowper, The
Task, IV
(“The Winter Evening”), 554: “ . .
. a spot upon a vestal’s robe . . . .”
472 cælestial love
Celestial love: heavenly love; love of a divine nature.
In
Paradise Lost, Milton frequently uses the word
“celestial,” but never in
combination with “love.”
474 standard Flag,
or sculptured image.
477 night Darkness:
ignorance.
478 dawn of intellectual light
See the note to 115, above.
479 amidst Surrounded
by; beneath.
480 reproof Shame;
disgrace.
482 female vot’ries
Women bound by vows to a religious life: nuns.
483 intervening
Between other things.
485-488 and ns. Weld, Travels,
II, 16-17 concludes his account of a visit to the
Ursuline Convent in Trois Rivières on the north
shore of the St. Lawrence
between Quebec and Montreal with a description of the
artifacts made by
the nuns: “After some time was spent in conversation,
a great variety of
fancy works, the fabrication of the sisterhood, was
brought down for our
inspection, some of which it is always expected that
strangers will
purchase, for the order is but poor. We selected
a few of the articles
which appeared most curious . . . . It is for their
very curious bark-work that
the sisters of this convent are particularly distinguished.
The bark of the
birch tree is what they use, and with it they make pocket-books,
work-
baskets, dressing-boxes, &c. &c. which they
embroider with elk hair, died
of the most brilliant colours. They also make models
of the Indian canoes,
and various war-like implements used by the Indians.”
487 gauze Very thin,
transparent fabric.
487 imag’d Imagined.
488 decks the shrines with many
a mimic bower Decorates the saints’
shrines with imitation arbours.
489-496 Cf. Weld, Travels, II,
13-14: “On ringing a small bell [in the chapel
of
the Ursuline Convent in Trois Rivières], a curtain
at . . . [a] lattice was
withdrawn . . . . The fair Ursuline, who came to the
lattice, seemed to be
one of those unfortunate females that had at last begun
to feel all the
horrors of confinement, and to lament the rashness of
that vow which had
secluded her for ever from the world, and from the [Page
77] participation
of those innocent pleasures, which, for the best and
wisest of purposes,
the beneficent Ruler of the universe meant that his
creatures should enjoy.
As she withdrew the curtain, she cast a momentary glance
through the
grating . . . then retiring in silence, seated herself
on a bench in a distant
part of the coeur [of the chapel]. The melancholy and
sorrow pourtrayed in
the features of her lovely countenance, interested the
heart in her behalf,
and it was impossible to behold her without partaking
of that dejection
which hung over her soul, and without deprecating at
the same time the
cruelty of the custom which allows, and the mistaken
zeal of a religion that
encourages an artless and inexperienced young creature
to renounce a
world, of which she was destined, perhaps, to be a happy
and useful
member, for an unprofitable solitude, and unremitted
penance for sins
never committed.” Elsewhere Weld observes that
in Lower Canada “Both
men and women are sunk in ignorance and superstition,
and blindly
devoted to their priests” (I, 339). See also Cary,
Abram’s Plains, 372-397
on the life-denying vows of the “vestals”
of the Hôpital Général in Quebec
and Lambert, Travels, II, 17-24, for the sequel
to Weld’s account of the
“fair Ursuline,” and details of the razing
by fire in 1806 and the rebuilding
by 1808 of the Ursuline Convent in Trois Rivières.
494
active virtue In contrast to contemplative
or—to borrow Milton’s phrase
from Areopagitica—“fugitive and
cloistered virtue”: moral excellence that
shows itself in outward action or in deeds performed
in the ‘real’ world.
499 angel office Angelic
(i.e., pure, innocent) place, with the sense also of
office as divine service of worship.
502 nor limits nor controul
See the note to 90, above.
505-508 See the Introduction, pp. xiv-xv
for the probable identity of the woman
whose name is elided here.
510 seraph Angel.
511 palm In classical
times, a branch of palm was carried as an emblem of
victory or triumph.
512 orient ray
Eastern light: light from that point in the sky in which
the sun
rises. Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, II, 399;
IV, 644: VI, 15 (“orient beam[s]”)
and VII, 254 (“orient light”). [Page
78]
Note Referred to in the Poem on Canada,
95n.
The
works to which Bayley refers in this note are, in the
order of their mention (and without comment when Bayley
himself summarizes their position): the so-called autobiography
of the American frontiersman Daniel Boone (1734-1820),
which appeared in John Filson’s The Discovery,
Settlement and Present State of Kentucke (1784;
rpt. 1966) and contains an Appendix entitled “An
Account of the Indian Nations inhabiting within the
Limits of the Thirteen United States, their Manners,
Customs, and Reflections on their Origin”; Travels
from St. Petersburg in Russia, to Diverse Parts of Asia
(1763) by the Scottish traveller and doctor John
Bell (1691-1780); A View of Society in Europe, in
its Progress from Rudeness to Refinement; or Inquiries
Concerning the History of Law, Government, and Manners
(1788) by the Scottish historian Gilbert Stuart (1742-1786);
De Origine Gentium Americanum (1642; transl.
1884 as On the Origin of the Native Races of America)
by the Dutch humanist Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), which
argues for the descent of the Indians from the Norwegians
and Chinese; the Journal d’un voyage fait
par l’ordre du Roi dans L’Amerique Septentriole
by the French Jesuit Pierre de Charlevoix (see the note
to 129-130, above), which was translated as the Journal
of a Voyage to North America in 1761 and contains
a “Preliminary Discourse on the Origin of the
Americans” that discusses the origins theories
of most of the early authors mentioned by Bayley from
an unquestioningly Christian perspective (see Introduction,
pp. xxv-xxix); De Originibus Americanis Libri Quatuor
(1652) by the Dutch historian Georg Horn (Georgius Hornius
[1620-1670]; called George de Hornn by Charlevoix),
which argues that American was populated first by Scythians,
then by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Chinese, and
finally by Jews and Christians (see Charlevoix, Journal,
I, 32-47); L’Histoire du Nouveau Monde ou
Description des Indies Occidentales (1625) by another
Dutch historian Joannes de Laët (1593-1646), which
argues for the origin of the Amerindians in Sythia-Tartary,
with possible later migrations from Wales, Polynesia,
and Spain; Origines Scaræ; or, A Rational
Account of the Grounds of Christian Faith, as to the
Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures, and the
Matters therein Contained (1662) by the English
clergyman Edward Stillingfleet (1635-1699), which adopts
a Christian perspective while arguing that there is
not “yet sufficient information” to theorize
definitively about “the peopling of [Page
79] that cast continent of America”
(p. 575; and see below); Natural Theology; or, Evidences
of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity collected
from the Appearances of Nature (1802) by the English
theologian (and lecturer at Bayley’s college in
Cambridge [Christ’s]) William Paley (1743-1805);
and Enquiries Touching the diversity of Languages
and Religions, through the chiefe parts of the world
(1614) by the English astronomer Edward Brerewood
(1635-1699), which again adopts a Christian perspective
but argues that “the innumerable people of . .
. many Nations . . . inhabit[ing] . . . the huge continent
of America” are of “the same off-spring”
as the “Nations of Asia” who go
under the name ”Tartars” (pp. 95-96
[1635 ed.], an argument also summarized in Charlevoix,
Journal, I, 15-16). Mentioned by Bayley in
the note to line 95 but not in his endnote is the Scottish
historian and churchman Willian Robertson (1721-1793),
whose History of the Discovery and Settlement of
America (1777) was many time reprinted (9th ed.,
1800) and contains a lengthy section (Book IV) in the
native Americans, including a discussion on their origins
that accords with the position found in Canada
(and in Charlevoix, Horn, Stillingfleet, and Brerewood):
the Indians are descended from the same source as all
other peoples in Noah and, behind him, Adam (9th ed.
[1800], II, 25-26); they came to North America from
Asia by way of the nearest point between “the
old an new continents” at their northern extremity
(II, 36-45); and they resemble in many ways the Tartars
who are “accustomed to roam over [the] extensive
plains” of Asia (II, 236; the source, very likely,
of the fifth paragraph of Bayley’s endnote).
In its amused tone, Bayley’s endnote echoes Robertson’s
skepticism about the proliferation of theories in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries regarding the origin
of the American Indians: “There is hardly any
nation from the north to the south pole, to which some
antiquary, in the extravagance of conjecture, has not
ascribed the honour of peopling America. The Jews,
the Canaanites, the Phoenecians, the Carthaginians,
the Greeks, the Scythians, are supposed to have settled
the western world. The Chinese, the Welsh, the
Spaniards are said to have sent colonies thither . .
. ” (II, 27-28). Robertson also observes
that the American Indians have no “annals or traditions”
(ibid.) of their early history, a view which
accords with that of Stillingfleet to which Bayley refers
in the sixth paragraph of his endnote: “ . . .
in general it appears from the remaining traditions
in the Flood [among the Indians], and
many Rites and Customes used among them, that they had
the same [Page 80] original with us,
and that there can be no argument brought against it
from themselves, since some Authors tell us,
that the eldest Accounts and Memoirs
the have, do not exceed 800. years backward; and therefore
their testimony can be of no validity in a matter of
so great Antiquity, and the Origine of
Nations is”(Origines Sacræ [1662],
pp. 577-578). Stillingfleet proceeds to argue
that the “gradual decay of knowledge
and increase of Barbarism” among
the Indians since the time of the Flood is attributable
to three major factors: the “want of certain records
to preserve the ancient history”; the “gradual
increase of Idolatry”; and the “Confusion
of Languages at Babel” (pp.
578-579); see Genesis 11. 1-9). Brerewood, Enquiries
(1635), p. 97 notes that “in their gross
ignorance of letters, and of arts, in their idolatry,
and the specialties of it, in their uncivility, and
many barbarous properties, . . . [the American Indians]
resemble the old and rude Tartars, above all
the nations on earth,” and later (p. 102) observes
that, like the Tartars, the Indians “have no records,
nor regard of their ancestors, and lineage.”
Robertson also makes the point that in the environment
in which the Indians found themselves in North America
their “arts and sciences” (Bayley’s
phrase) would decline without being entirely lost, and
he makes a great deal (Book IV, passim) of
the influence of “climate and local circumstances”
in altering “their manner of living, . . . [and]
even their bodily appearance” for the worse (see
especially), The History of America[1800],
II, 238-244). [Page 81]
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