Mededelingen van het Cyriel Buysse Genootschap 11

20

July 7, 1888

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Flemish literature, which seems daily to grow in favour with the French public in Belgium, is no longer confined as it was formerly, within the limits of the novel or of poetry. M.E. de Neve and M.C. de Neve have brought out ‘Zieleleer en Opvoedkunde’ (‘Psychology

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and Pedagogy’). M. Frans de Potter has continued his great history of the monuments and institutions of the city of Ghent, ‘Gent van den Vroegsten Tijd tot Heden,’ and with his collaborator M.J. Broeckaert has published the forty-first volume of his history of Flemish villages, ‘Geschiedenis van de Gemeenten der Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen.’ In his ‘Aldenardiana en Flandriana’ M. Edmond Van der Straeten has collected a great number of curious notes on the city of Oudenaerde and on Flanders generally. In ‘Jan Breidel en Pieter de Coninc’ M. le Chanoine A. Duclos has treated, from the Catholic point of view, the history of the two Bourgeois heroes of 1302, to whom a superb monument has lately been raised at Bruges, opposite the Belfry. M.J. Welvaarts has narrated the history of the commune of Arendock; M. Leopold Plettinck has written on the career of the well-known painter and historian Karel van Mander (1548-1606); and an author who signs himself K.J.F. has related the adventures of a missionary of Ghent, Ignatius Toebast (1648-1684).

M. Karel Stallaert has edited a most curious Flemish mystery play of the fifteenth century, ‘De Sevenste Bliscap van Maria’ (‘The Seventh Joy of the Virgin Mary’). M.Em. Vanden Berghe-Loontjes has written the history of the old Chamber of Rhetoric of Roulers. Some pious person has published the posthumous works of M.K.L. Ternest. M. Amaat Joos has studied the grammar of two old Flemish authors, Jacob van Maerlant of the thirteenth century, and an Antwerp lady Anna Bijns who wrote poems in the sixteenth century. M.J. Samyn has published the dictionary of botanical names in West Flanders (‘Kruidwoordenboek’) which was left in manuscript by the late Dean De Bo.

For some time past folk-lore has been much cultivated in Flanders, thanks chiefly to the poet Pol de Mont and to Prof. Aug. Gittée, who edit a review Volkskunde, which we highly recommend to foreign specialists. M. Aug. Gittée has recently issued, for the special use of students of Flemish folk-lore, an excellent ‘Vraagboek tot het Zamelen van Vlaamsche Folklore.’ (‘Grandmother's Book of Stories’), by M. Julius Sabbe and M. Vermast, and ‘Vertelsels van Jan [I]ederman’ (‘Stories of John Everyman’), an anonymous volume - have been recently published.

A number of authors have written for the theatre: M. Emiel van Goethem, M. Julius Hoste, M.P. Geiregat, M. Hendrik Peeters,

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M.H. Baelden, M. Aug. Hendrickx, M. de Quecker, M. Nestor de Tière, M. Pol Anri, M.J. Verschueren, and M. Frans Gittens. The great Italian drama of the last-named play[w]right, ‘Parisina,’ was much noticed by the critics. As in a former play, ‘Jane Shore,’ this gentleman has studied Shakespeare with profit to himself.

A most curious posthumous work of the great novelist Hendrik Conscience is ‘Geschiedenis mijner Jeugd’ (‘History of my Youth’). The author relates with the greatest charm ad truthfulness how he at last emerged from extreme poverty, and became a Flemish writer and the founder of the literary renascence of his country after the Revolution of 1830. Madame Courtmans, one of the veterans of Flemish literature, has published four new novels; and a young and most promising author, M. Reimond Stijns, two novels that have been much remarked. We may mention also the recueils of Mdlle. Marie Belpaire, of M. Frans van Kuyck, and Dr. Renier Snieders, who has just died. The last was a very fertile Ultramontane writer.

Besides the verses of M.L. Leefson, of M.K. Pieters, of M.Is. Albert, and of M.A.J.M. Janssens, we must mention ‘In Noord en Zuid’ (‘In North and South’), some idyl[l]s and other poems by M. Pol de Mont; ‘Makamen en Ghazelen,’ imitations of Arab poetry by Jan Ferguut, the pseudonym of M. Jan van Droogenbroeck; ‘Stemmen uit het Hart’ (‘Voices of the Heart’), by M. Omer Wattez; and ‘Verhuizen,’ a rural idyl[l] by Hilda Ram, the pseudonym of Mlle. Mathilde Ramboux.

But the strongest and most brilliant work we have had since July, 1887, is the historical epopee of M. Julius de Geyter, ‘Keizer Karel en het Rijk der Nederlanden’ (‘The Emperor Charles V. and the Kingdom of the Netherlands’). The author has adopted the Flemish metre of the Middle Ages, and has traced the history of our provinces under the famous emperor in his most impressive manner. This work has made a great sensation also in Holland.

ÉMILE DE LAVELEYE-PAUL FREDERICQ