Mededelingen van het Cyriel Buysse Genootschap 11

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21

July 6, 1889

...

Flemish literature like French literature has lost two of its principal representatives: Dr. Nolet de Brauwere, a writer in prose and verse who was renowned for his caustic wit; and Jan van Beers, the greatest of the Flemish poets of the preceding generation, whose death has been mourned both in Holland and in Belgium as a common loss. Jan van Beers was a faithful portrayer of contemporary life in Flanders. He excelled in idyl[l]s and in touching epopees, whose heroes always belonged to the small bourgeoisie of Antwerp or to the robust peasantry of the Campine. He was the singer of the lowly. In Belgium his poems were almost as popular as the novels of Conscience, and in Holland his vogue was greater still.

The eldest son of the poet Prudens van Duyse (who died 1859) has had the filial piety to publish an anthology (‘Bloemlezing’) of the principal works of that fertile and powerful writer; while some friends of a young poet, Albrecht Rodenbach, who died in the flower of his youth a few years ago, have likewise collected his scattered works (‘Gedichten’). Besides the new volumes of verse by MM. de Queker, L. Buyst, and R. Vande Casteele, we must mention a collection of poems which stand above all competition: the ‘sneeuwvlokken’ (‘Snowflakes’) of Mlle. Hélène Swarth, a somewhat monotonous writer, yet full of feeling, and possessing a perfect mastery of the form in which she writes.

The most important dramatic work of the twelve months is a passionate drama of love called ‘Palma's Dochter’ (‘The daughter of Palma Vecchio’), by M. Frans Gittens, of which the author himself gave some readings in Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp, meeting with great success everywhere.

Madame Courtmans and M.P. Geiregat, two of our veteran novelists, have written several new works. Among the novels of the younger generation we must mention ‘Ruwe Liefde’ (‘Violent Love’), by M. Reimond Stijns; ‘Cilia’ by M.I. Teirlinck; ‘Schimmen en Schetsen’ (‘Silhouettes and Sketches’), by M. Brans; ‘Segher Janssone’, an historical romance of the fourteenth century, by M. Fr.

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van Cuyck; and ‘Vlaamsche Beelden’ (‘Flemish Portraits’), by M. Bultynck.

History is more and more cultivated by Flemish writers. M. Julius Vuylsteke has reprinted in volume form his brilliant studies on Jacques and Philip van Artevelde and other Flemish heroes of the Middle Ages. M. Frans de Potter has continued issuing his important history of the monuments and institutions of the history of Ghent. M.A. de Cock has utilized the discoveries of the ‘Bibliotheca Belgica,’ and produced an interesting monograph on the great mathematician Simon Stevin. The history of Belgium in the eighteenth century has been the theme of several authors. For instance, M.L. Mathot has studied the reign of the Emperor Charles VI; M. Sleeckx has devoted himself to the reigns of Joseph II and of his mother the Empress Maria Theresia, and the epoch called the Patriots' epoch; M.J. Staes has related the lamentable failure of the Belgian Republic of 1790; and M.J. Samyn has described, with too much partiality, the excesses of the French conquest and occupation of Flanders between 1792 and 1802. The Recollet friar Van Puymbroeck has sketched a history of his convent in Ghent from 1224 to 1888. M. Paul Fredericq has edited, in conjunction with his pupils of the Ghent University, a collection of 450 annotated papers concerning the repression of heresy and the Inquisition in the Netherlands before the reign of Charles V. This publication bears the title of ‘Corpus Documentorum Inquisitionis Haereticas Pravitatis Neerlandicae (1025-1520).’ Finally, a Jesuit father, A.M. Verstraeten, has written a detailed account of the life of Father Beckx, the twenty-second general of his order, who was born in Sichem, in Brabant, and who died recently.

Turning to contemporary history, we may name the memoirs (‘Mijn Gedenkboek, 1836-1886’) of M. Edm. Lauwers, which contain some curious anecdotes; and a third volume of the collection of prose works (‘Verzamelde Prozageschriften’) of M. Julius Vuylsteke, the leader of Flemish Liberals. This book contains some political and historical discourses which are remarkable as regards both matter and form. The curious letters of the Catholic and Flemish missionary Vyncke supply an account of his apostolic mission in Central Africa.

In literary history we have to note the appearance of a very mediocre monograph by M. Haerynck on the great didactic poet of

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the fourteenth century, Jan van Boendale, and of the praiseworthy study of M.G. Segers on Vondel, the prince of our poets in the seventeenth century. An excellent essay on Jan van Beers is due to M. Pol de Mont. It should be added that the first numbers of the ‘Biografisch Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Letterkunde’ supply articles on Flemish writers, most carefully compiled by M.F.J. Vanden Branden, of the Antwerp archives.

Two big books have just appeared which deserve to occupy a paragraph by themselves, because they denote a much wider range on the part of their authors than is common in Flemish literature, and because they are written in a brilliant and original style. In the first volume of his ‘Losse Schetsen, uit de Letterkundige Geschiedenis van onzen Tijd’ (‘Sketches of Contemporary Literary History’) M. Pol de Mont (whose name is already mentioned above) a young poet of great talent, has criticized the evolution of poetry in Germany, and also some well-known writers of the present time, such as Felix Dahn, Carmen Sylvan &c. M. Max Rooses, although he writes in French also, is above everything else an admirable master of Flemish prose. His style is copious and richly coloured. His last book, ‘Op Reis Naar Heinde en Ver’ (‘From Far and Near’), relates his impressions of travel during his artistic tours in Spain, in England, in Denmark, in Sweden, in Finland, at St. Petersburg, at Hildesheim, at Ratisbon, at Weimar, at Amsterdam, and in some comparatively unknown parts of Belgium and French Flanders. To the well-known author of the history of painting in Antwerp, the pictures and other works of art which he describes with rare originality are of paramount interest. At the same time he gives sketches of the landscape and picturesque accounts of local life and manners.

ÉMILE DE LAVELEYE-PAUL FREDERICQ
[Miss Taylor]