Mededelingen van het Cyriel Buysse Genootschap 11

[p. 115]

17

Jan. 2, 1886

...

Flemish literature, whose sphere of action is perceptibly enlarging, contributes two works of literary criticism: ‘Literatuur en Kunst’ (‘Literature and Art’), by Sleeckx, and ‘Derde Schetsenboek’ (‘Third Sketchbook’), by Max Rooses. The latter treats especially of the Flemish contemporary authors and poets, and also includes a lengthy study on Taine.

In the world of history Frans de Potter has commenced a history of the town of Ghent and its monuments in his ‘Gent van de Vroegsten Tijd tot Heden’ (‘Ghent from Early to Present Times’), and has also published a Flemish sixteenth century chronicle attributed to Jan van den Vivere, and very curious as relating to the period of the religious wars. Nap. de Pauw continues ‘Reke[n]ingen’ (‘City Rolls’) of Ghent at the time of James van Artevelde (1336-49). Odilon Perier and Vanden Daele have written a life of Lie[ve]n Bauwens, who introduced cotton-spinning machinery into Belgium; and Paul Fredericq has published the first volumes of his ‘Nederlanden onder Keizer Karel’ (‘The Netherlands under the Emperor Charles V’).

Among the poetical works may be cited the last volume of ‘Nagelaten Gedichten’ (‘Posthumous Poems’), by Prudens van Duyse, and the first volume of the works of a living and very fertile poet, Em[m]anuel Hiel. A very clever young beginner, Dr. Simons, has turned his attention to the adventures of Bonapartes in a poem he calls ‘Napoleon-Cyclus’, and another young poet, Pol de Mont, already one of our most gifted and productive has issued a volume entitled ‘Fladderende Vlinders’ (‘Flying Butterflies’). The reading of the first four cantos of Julius de Geyter's fine epic poem ‘Keizer Karel’ (‘Charles V’) by the author at Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp was quite an event in the poetical world. It is a most highly original production. The same poet has also published a new edition of his translation into modern verse of that chef d'oeuvre of Flemish thirteenth century literature ‘Reinaert de Vos’.

[p. 116]

One of the founders of the Flemish movement after 1830, the late Jan van Rijswijck, left at his death a number of writings, both in prose and verse, of which a curious collection is just about to be offered to the public. But the most important work of the year and the one that has excited the most general notice is Miss Virginie Loveling's new tale ‘Sophie’. It is a most vivid picture of clerical tyranny in Flanders of late years, during which our Catholic clergy, like those of Ireland, have thrown themselves heart and soul into politics, and have rendered the yoke of the Flemish rural population almost impossible to be borne. The vigour and artistic force of this tragic picture are admirable. The first edition of ‘Sophie’ was exhausted in a few weeks, which is a fact almost unprecedented in Flemish literature, the number of whose readers is comparatively restricted.

ÉMILE DE LAVELEYE - PAUL FREDERICQ
[translated by Editor⁽¹⁾]

(1) Tot 1901 was de redacteur Norman MacColl; daarna werd zijn plaats ingenomen door Vernon Rendall.