BELGIAN LITERATURE 2 n 



Road ofJoy(igoS) was followed by the volumes of sketches and stories called About my- 

 self and others (1910), Ancient Stories of Gods and Emperors, Poets and Hetairs (1911), 

 Short Arabesks (1911), The Swallows flown down (1911) and Ancient Tourism (1912), a 

 travelling story from old Egypt. 



Amongst women novelists J. Reyneke van Stuwe (b. 1874) is still very productive. 

 She has published Behind the World (1908), Free Power (1909), The Illusion of the dead 

 (1910), The Children of House Ter Aar (1911) and Mater Triumphatrix (1911), the latter 

 as the third volume of the series " Poor Woman." Next to her must be mentioned 

 Margo Antink (b. 1869), who in collaboration with her husband Carel Scharten wrote 

 A House full of People (1908) and Foreign Rulers (1911); Ina Boudier-Bakker (b. 1875) 

 to whom we owe the beautiful books Poverty (1909), The Withered Plant (1910) and 

 Blossom (1912) ; Anna van Gogh-Kaulback, the author of Mother, Tides (1911), For Two 

 Lives (1912); and Anna de Savornin Lohman (b. 1868), who wrote Reminiscences and 

 For the Honoiir of God with the sequel From Christian Circles (1911). 



Very few Dutch dramas have been written of late years that lay claim to something 

 more than transitory value. The public was much interested in Frederik van Eeden's 

 social-satiric dramasr Ysbrand and The Promised Land (1908). Ina Boudier-Bakker's 

 The Highest Law (1907) met with great success, as was also the case with Marcellus 

 Emants' The Power of Dullness and Odours (1909) and with Willem Schiirmann's Forty 

 and The Violiers (1911). Excelling all these, however, especially as regards the tech- 

 nical qualities of his plays, there is Herman Heyermans, though his dramas are far from 

 being of equal value. He put on the stage The Rising Sun, The Sleeping Beauty (1909), 

 Beschuit met Muisjes (a rusk with aniseed comfits, the customary delicacy when a child 

 is born; 1910) and Gliick Auf (1911), the latter a stirring picture of the misery and 

 dangers of the mine-workers' trade. 



See Dr. G. Kalff, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Letterkunde (7 vol.; 5 vol. have appeared, 

 Groningen, 1905-1912); Dr. J. te Winkel, De Ont-wikkelingsgang der Nederlandsche Letterkunde 

 (4 vol.; 2 vol. have appeared, Haarlem, 1908-1912); Dr. C. G. N. de Vooys, Historische Schets 

 van de Nederlandsche Letterkunde (5th edition, Groningen, 1912) and Tijdschrift voor Neder, 

 landsche Taal en Letterkunde (Leyden, 1881-1912). (H. ZONDERVAN.) 



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.' : ..i BELGIAN LITERATURE 



Maurice Maeterlinck's play L'Oiseau Bleu (1911) is the outstanding contribution of 

 Belgian French literature during 1910-12. It was first performed at Moscow, then in 

 London (translated as The Blue Bird) and later in Paris and New York. The writer's 

 poetic imagination and serene philosophy have contributed to make his play intensely 

 popular. Emile Verhaeren's tragedy Helene de Sparte was published first in German, 

 translated by Stephan Zweig, then in Russian, and appeared in French, in 1912, when 

 it was performed in Paris. Verhaeren's forcible and rather rugged style is perhaps not 

 absolutely suited to the subject he treats. His new poems, however, Les Rythmes sou- 

 verains (1910), Les Villes a pignons (1910), Les Fleures du Soir (1911), Les Bles monants 

 (1912) and Les Plaines (1911), are as intense in feeling and vitality as his earlier work. 

 In Les Libertins d'Anvers, Legende et Histoiredes Lo'istes, Georges Eekhoud has told the 

 story of the heretic sects in Antwerp in the XVI century. In this book, Eekhoud, 

 according to his custom, exalts his native city in her vices as well as in her virtues. A 

 tragedy in four acts by Camille Lemonnier, Edenic, set to music by Leon du Bois, was 

 performed in Antwerp in 1912 with great success. The poem, written in blank verse, 

 has all the charm of Lemonnier's vivid imagination and forcible style. Albert Giraud's 

 La Frise empourpree (1912) is a collection of poems, in which their author remains 

 faithful to the Parnassian tradition. Iwan Gilkin published in 1911, poems called La 

 Nuit, the first of three volumes, of which the others will be called L'Aube and La Lumiere. 

 Gregoire Le Roy, in his collection of poems called Le Rouet et la Besace, illustrated by 

 himself, deals with the sufferings of the poor. " Jean Dominique " (pseudonym of Mile. 

 Marie Closset), whose last volume of poems is called Le puits d'Azur (1912), is undoubt- 



1 See E. B. Hi, 680. 



