Mededelingen van het Cyriel Buysse Genootschap 11

25

July 1, 1893

...

The Flemish literature of the past twelve-month furnishes, as usual, a number of volumes in verse and prose. Among the former I may piek out the ‘Poëzie’ of Mlle. H. Swarth, a Dutch lady educated in Belgium, whose sonnets are distinguished by exquisite beauty of form; the ‘Verzamelde Gedichten’ of the late L. Kettman, who used to print his fresh and highly original verses under the pseudonym of Floris van Westervoort; and the ‘Dichtoefeningen’ (‘Essays in Poetry’) of Abbé Guido Gezelle, the chief of the particularist school in West Flanders. Of the novels I may mention ‘De Boer der Schranse’, by M.L. Smits, a successful picture of the life of the peasantry in the neighbourhood of Antwerp, and a masterly work of

[p. 130]

fiction by Mlle. V. Loveling, ‘Eene Idylle’, which has been much read in Holland.

Some young men of letters who dream of diverting Flemish literature into new paths have followed the example of the similar coterie in Holland who some years ago started their revolutionary organ, De Nieuwe Gids, and have commenced a journal styled Van Nu en Straks (Of To-Day and To-morrow), which has not as yet achieved the success they anticipated. M.N. de Pauw has printed some curious unpublished poetry of the Middle Ages, and M.F. van Veerdeghem has discovered and brought out a highly interesting religious drama of the seventeenth century, ‘De Menschwordingh’.

On turning to history we find M.F. de Potter continuing his elaborate history of the streets and monuments of Ghent, while M.J. Vuylsteke has finished publishing the communal accounts of that city in the stormy days of Philip van Artevelde. M.J. Frederichs has compiled an interesting monograph on the Battle of the Spurs (‘Slag van Kortrijk’), following the labours of Kohier, the German general (see Athen. No. 3264), and of Prof. Pirenne.

To dramatic and musical criticism some contributions have been made. The Nestor of Flemish letters, M.D. Sleeckx, who at seventy-five preserves all his literary vigour, has written a monograph on Guillen de Castro, while M.E. de Bom, one of the editors of Van Nu en Straks, has devoted an essay to Ibsen, and M. Pol de Mont, the well-known Antwerp poet, has compiled a biography of Peter Benoit, the chief of the Flemish school of music, whose powerful compositions have been performed successfully in France, Holland, England, and Germany. M.O. van Hauwaert has written the annals of the Flemish theatre in the eighteenth century.

M.J. Micheels has published a large volume on Prudens van Duyse, one of the chief Flemish poets of the literary revival that immediately followed the revolution of 1830; and to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Jan Frans Willems, the father of the Flemish movement in Belgium, the powerful association founded in his honour some forty years ago has collected in a volume and distributed to its members three studies by MM. Max Rooses, Julius Vuylsteke, and G. Bergmann, relating the life and endeavours of that celebrated patriot. An idea of the extent of the Flemish literary movement - which before 1830 had been, so to say, sterile for a couple of centuries - may be formed by running through the ‘Vlaamsche Bibliographie’, of which

[p. 131]

the first volume has appeared, edited by M.F. de Potter, under the auspices of the Académie Royale Flamande.

The most important work that has appeared in the last twelve months seems to be that of M.A. Prayon van Zuylen, ‘De Belgische Taalwetten Toegelicht’, which is designed to furnish an account of the laws on the official use of the two national languages. In his first volume, the only one that has been issued, the compiler supplies a history of the secular struggle of the Flemings in defence of their language against the invading French. He goes back to the Middle Ages and the Dukes of Burgundy in the fifteenth century in order to explain the origin of the conflict. Then he descants upon the Spanish, Austrian, and French rules; the restoring measures adopted by William I, King of the Netherlands, after Waterloo; the French reaction which was the result of the revolution of 1830; and the growing remonstrances of the Flemings, who since 1873 have extorted from the Belgian Chambers a series of laws, guaranteeing at length to the Flemings the free use of their native language in the courts of justice, in the civil service, and in the public schools. All who take an interest in the awakening of European nationalities, and in the changes in the contest between languages in this century, will do well to peruse the very complete and interesting narrative of M. Prayon. The only fault that I have to find with him is that he has not displayed sufficient impartiality in dealing with the most recent events, in which he has himself in a certain degree taken part.

PAUL FREDERICQ
[Editor]