Picturesque Quebec, By James Macpherson Le Moine










































































































































 -  We are not surprised when we find that a theatrical
    company found it worth their while to take up their - Page 16
Picturesque Quebec, By James Macpherson Le Moine - Page 16 of 231 - First - Home

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We Are Not Surprised When We Find That A Theatrical Company Found It Worth Their While To Take Up Their Abode There.

Among the pieces played we find Home's 'Douglas' and Otway's 'Venice Preserved.' The doors were opened at five o'clock and the entertainment began at half-past six!

The frequenters of the 'Thespian Theatre' were a select and privileged class, and only subscribers were admitted. Private theatricals were much in vogue; and, indeed, there was every variety of amusement which climate could allow or suggest, or the lovers of frolic devise. Nor were bards wanting to celebrate these festivities, witness the following extract from a 'carioling song:'

"'Not all the fragrance of the spring, Nor all the tuneful birds that sing, Can to the Plains the ladies bring, So soon as carioling.

"'Nor Venus with the winged Loves, Drawn by her sparrows or her doves, So gracefully or swiftly moves, As ladies carioling,"

"Another poet, whose mind was evidently less healthily braced by out- door exercise, gives us a very different picture of the recreations of the period. It occurs in the course of an essay in versification called 'Evening.'

"'Now minuets o'er, the country dance is formed See every little female passion rise, By jealousy, by pride, by envy warmed, See Adam's child the child of Eve despise.

"'With turned-up nose Belinda Chloe eyes, Chloe Myrtilla with contempt surveys, "What! with that creature dance!" Cleora cries, "That vulgar wretch! I faint - unlace my stays.

* * * * *

"'Now meet in groups the philosophic band, Not in the porch, like those of ancient Greece, But where the best Madeira is at hand From thought the younger students to release

"'For Hoyle's disciples hold it as a rule That youth for knowledge should full dearly pay, Wherefore to make young cubs the fitter tool Presuming sense by Lethean drafts they slay.

* * * * *

"'With all the fury of a tempest torn, With execrations horrible to hear, By all the wrath of disappointment borne, The cards, their garments, hair, the losers tear.'

"The winner's unfeeling composure is described in another verse, and

"'Now dissipation reigns in varied forms Now riot in the bowl the senses steeps, Whilst nature's child, secure from passion's storms, With tranquil mind in sweet oblivion sleeps.'

"It is to be hoped, for the honour of the ladies and gentlemen of old Quebec, that 'Asmodeus' was under the malign influence of envy, hatred and all uncharitableness when he wrote those cynical verses. If he wrote the truth we cannot be too thankful that the Chloes and Cleoras are dead and buried.

"Who was Miss Hannah MacCulloch? She was a young lady once; and, if we may believe her panegyrist, was a beauty in her day. The acrostic in her honor is anonymous, and occasion is taken in the course of it to almost mention some other young ladies by the way of making a climax of her charms. The poet seems to have been inspired by indignation at the insinuations of 'Asmodeus,' for he begins thus.

"'Muses, how oft does Satire's vengeful gall Invoke your powers to aid its bitter sting,'

and then he prefers his own claims to the favor of the Nine

"'Sure you will rather listen to my call, Since beauty and Quebec's fair nymphs I sing'

"It seems his petition was heard, for he forthwith begins his laudation:

"'Henceforth Diana in Miss S - ps - n see, As noble and majestic is her air, Nor can fair Venus, W - lc - s, vie with thee, Nor all her heavenly charms with thine compare.

"'Around the B - ch - rs Juno's glory plays, Her power and charms in them attract our praise Minerva, who with beauty's queen did vie And patronized all the finer arts, Crowned the McN - ls with her divinity, Crowned them the queens of beauty and of hearts.

"'Unto fair F - m - n now I turn my song, Lovely in all she says, in all she does, Lo! to her toilet see each goddess throng, One cannot all, but each a charm bestows Could all these beauties in one female be, Her whom I sing would be the lovely she.'

"This effusion provoked more criticism than many a book of poetry is subjected to nowadays, and the censors were in their turn criticized by others. Montreal even took part in this literary tournament. But we are left in the dark as to its effect on the spirits, tempers or destinies of Miss MacCulloch and her sister belles.

"It would seem that the author was a young clerk or merchant of Quebec, as one of the critics spitefully tells him not to desert his shop. The ladies themselves do not escape, one writer suggesting that they are coquettish enough already without making them more so. The Montreal correspondent is warned off as an intruder, and told that he had better have saved his ninepence of postage money. Just imagine this silly acrostic furnishing gossip for Quebec and matter for the Gazette for two months!

"As another note of the state of society at that time may be mentioned occasional advertisements for the sale of negro lads and wenches, or of rewards for the recovery and restoration of missing ones. Slavery was not abolished in Lower Canada till 1803. In Upper Canada, as a separate province, it hardly ever existed. Did the manumitted blacks remain in Canada after their liberation, or did they seek a more congenial climate?

"For education there does not seem to have been any public provision, but private schools for both sexes were numerous. These were probably expensive, so that the poorer classes were virtually debarred from the advantages of learning. The instruction of Catholic children was in the hands of the clergy, and it may be that in some of the conventual schools a certain number were admitted free of expense or at reduced rates. It would appear that some of the young ladies were sent to English boarding-schools, if we may judge by advertisements in which the advantages of these institutions are set forth.

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