DANGÉ, FRANÇOIS, a musician accepted as a boarder by the Jesuits of Quebec in 1662. Father Jérôme Lalemant in the Journal des Jésuites spells the surname “dangé” and “d’Anger”; J.-E. Roy gives it as “d’Augé” or “d’Auger.”

The Jesuits began to accept college students as boarders in 1659; their policy was to finance “each only for the period of a year, so that they might be able to extend the charity to several.” (Gosselin, in Canada and Its Provinces, XVI, 362, speaks of the “seminary” but as that was not founded until 1663 he must mean “college.”) The Jesuit college had “about a score” of boarders in 1663. Lalemant wrote with reference to November 1662: “About this time, we received as boarders francois dangé, a musician, and la Marque, out of charity; for they knew not what would become of them.” At Christmas of that year, the singers had been treated to a liberal share of beer and wine. “This made Amador so hoarse that he could not sing any more on the feasts; the same happened to other musicians, françois d’Anger and others.” Lalemant’s last reference to Dangé mentions that “On the 15th or 16th [December 1663] françois, the musician returned. We undertook to feed him out of charity, and Monseigneur the Bishop or the parish to supply him with vestitum [clothes].” The Jesuits’ treatment of this young musician testifies to the importance they attached to musical talent.

Helmut Kallmann