Mededelingen van het Cyriel Buysse Genootschap 11

19

July 2, 1887

...

M.J. Stecher, professor in the University of Liège, has given us a remarkable ‘Histoire de la Littérature Néerlandaise en Belgique,’ a conscientious work, highly recommended to all those desirous of forming an idea of the literary activity of the Flemings in Belgium from the twelfth century up to the present day.

This Flemish literature, full of life though it be, has produced nothing very new during this first half of 1887. Besides new volumes of verse by Miss Helene Swarth, M.J. Stinissen, M.H. van Offel, and M.L. Mercelis, we may mention the new edition of ‘Verzamelde Gedichten,’ by M. Julius Vuylsteke, one of the most vigorous and original poets of Flanders. M. Callebert and M. de la Gravière in their receuil ‘Een Bloemenkrans’ (‘A Garland of Flowers’) have collected some extracts in prose and in verse of more than fifty young Flemish writers of both sexes born since 1850. This shows us that Flemish literature is not on the point of becoming extinct through scarcity of writers. Among the new novels may be remarked ‘Gelukkig’ (‘Happy’), by M. Gustaaf Segers; ‘Betzy,’ by a lady who writes under the name ofVera Diximus; ‘Guustje en [Z]ieneken,’ by M. Cyriel Buysse; and a remarkable book by M. Edmond de Geest, ‘Dwars door 't Leven’(‘Through the Life’), which traces with a powerful realism various scenes in the life of the workmen of Ghent and of collieries of Hainault.

A few dramas have been produced by different authors - by M. Hendrik Peeters, M. Gittens, M. de Tière, M. Aug. Hendricx, M. de

[p. 119]

Quecker, M.P. Kints, &c. M. Hendrik Baelden's historical drama in verse, ‘Christina Borluut,’ has been specially remarked. The Jesuit father A.M. Verstraeten has made a careful study of the great Dutch dramatists of the seventeenth century.

M. Frans de Potter is still working at his history of the city of Ghent, ‘Gent van den Vroegsten Tijd tot Heden’; and has published besides a study which we recommend to students of folklore, ‘Huiselijke Godsdienst onzer Voorvaderen’ (‘Domestic Religion of our Ancestors’), in which he enumerates the old Catholic customs of the Flemings. M. Alfred Seresia, professor in the University of Ghent, has drawn from the curious revelations of the chronicles of Gregory of Tours the elements of his book ‘Kerk en Staat onder de Frankische Koningen’ (‘Church and State under the Frank Kings’).

We shall close with the mention of a few important publications on the philology of the Netherlands: ‘Schatten uit de Volkstaal’ (‘Treasures of the Popular Language’), by M. l'Abbé Am. Joos, in which several thousands of popular proverbs and locutions are given and explained; ‘Woordenboek van het Bargoensch,’ a curious dictionary of the slang of Flemish robbers, composed by M. Is. Teirlinck. Finally, M.K. Stallaert has published the first two numbers of his learned ‘Glossarium’ of the terms used in jurisprudence during the Middle Ages, such as they are found in the ancient charters and documents of Flanders, Brabant, and Limburg. It is a work of remarkable erudition.

ÉMILE DE LAVELEYE-PAUL FREDERICQ
[translated by Miss Taylor]