Mededelingen van het Cyriel Buysse Genootschap 11

30

July 2, 1898

...

Flemish literature has produced its harvest of verse and prose. In poetry first appearances are to be noted, like those of MM. R. de Cneudt, van Hanswijck, van Haute, Reinaard, and Anemona.

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Among the veterans I may select for mention the archaic poetry of M. Pol de Mont, ‘Van Jezus’ (‘On Jesus’); the poems in the West Flemish dialect, ‘Rijmsnoer om en om het Jaar’ (‘Anthology of the year’), by M. l'Abbé Guido Gezelle; a fresh volume of poetry for children entitled ‘Kinderlust,’ by M. Theo Coopman; a new volume by Miss Hilda Ram; and a collection of very unequal verse by M. Jan Boucherij, ‘Gedichten en Gezangen.’

By the side of the prose volumes of clerical tendency by Mlle. E. Belpaire and MM. Em. de Grave and A. Sevens, I must note four works of true originality: ‘Madeleine,’ by Miss Virginie Loveling, the celebrated novelist, who gives us a fine and original study of a very complex female temper; ‘Wrakken’ (‘Wreek’), by M. Emmanuel de Bom; ‘Aan 't Minnewater,’ by M. Maurits Sabbe, a decidedly taking sketch of the life of the inhabitants of Bruges; and ‘Schoppenboer’ (‘The Knave of Spades’), by M. Cyriel Buysse, the Flemish Zola, who once again brings before us unabashed the crime and shame of the brutalized peasants and coarse poachers of certain parts of Flanders.

Three pieces of real originality stand out from the crowd of dramatic works; ‘De Bruid van Quinten Metsys’ (‘The Bride of Quinten Metsys’), by M. Hendrik de Marez; ‘Koning Hagen,’ by M. Hubert Melis; and ‘Starkadd’ by M. Alfred Hegenscheidt. MM. J.W. Muller and L. Scharpé have undertaken to publish the inedited pieces of a highly original Flemish dramatist of the commencement of the sixteenth century, Cornelis Everaert of Bruges. These present a faithful picture of the time and manners in the Netherlands at the beginning of the reign of Charles V. MM. K. Deflou and E. Gailliard have printed a third report on their researches in England to recover Flemish manuscripts of the Middle Ages. In two official discourses M.H. Claeys has commended the poet Ledeganck and the philologist David, two of the founders of the school of Flemish literature after the Belgian Revolution of 1830. M.F. Vanden Weghe has studied the transformations in the teaching of the mother tongue in Flemish Belgium since 1830. M. Emiel Vliebergh has explained the operation of the laws on the official use of the national languages in Switzerland, and his work has derived a fresh interest at the moment from the recent discussion of the Belgian Chambers on a law by which the Flenjish language has been recognized as an official language of the kingdom by the

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side of the French. In future the text of the laws will have to be passed in the two languages and so published in the official Moniteur.

Besides several monographs of local history, the ‘Generaal Vander Meersch’ of M.A. Vermast, the books of a popular sort on the Guerre des Paysans by MM. Osw. Robijns, Pattijn, and Opdebeeck, and a biography of Mgr. Seghers, who was head of the Roman Catholic missions of Alaska, by M. Maurice de Baets, the first rank must be accorded to a capital study by M.J. Cuvelier and C. Huysmans, ‘Toponymische Studie over de Oude en Nieuwere Plaatsnamen der Gemeente Bilsen’ (on the old and modern names of the village of Bilsen in Limburg). The writer of this article has published the second volume of his ‘Geschiedenis der Inquisitie in de Nederlanden,’ dealing with the fourteenth century and the curious sects of the Flagellants, Dancers, Beghards, Beguines, &c.

The most original book published in Flemish during the twelve months is the ‘Geschiedenis van Vooruit’ (the Socialist club of Ghent), by a working tailor of that city, M. Paul de Witte. It recounts the origin and development of the Socialist party in Ghent, and introduces the famous agitator Anseele and all his colleagues. The author has himself taken part in the movement throughout, but he shows that he can be impartial, and tells his tale with great charm, geniality, humour, and penetration. The style is surprisingly good for a simple working man who possesses no regular intellectual culture. ...

PAUL FREDERICQ
[Tr. Editor]