nth February, IQ14. 



Professor J. A. Lindsay, M.A., M.D., F'.R.C.P., President, 

 in the Chair. 



"MAETERLINCK." 



By Professor D. L. Savory, M.A., Professor of French and 



Romance Philology in the Queen's University, Belfast. 



The Chairman, who was received with applause, said it gave 

 him more than ordinary pleasure to be the medium of introducing 

 to that audience his colleague and friend. Professor Savory. 

 Since he came amongst them Professor Savory had earned a 

 distinguished reputation as an eminent scholar and as a most able 

 lecturer. Equally at home in the English or French languages, 

 whether he employed one or the other, Professor Savory always 

 spoke with eloquence, with lucidity, and with power. The lecturer 

 of that evening had chosen a subject of singular interest. 

 Maeterlinck was one of four or five outstanding figures in Euro- 

 pean letters. He was one of that select company of writers who 

 had the ear of Europe, he (the Chairman) might also say of the 

 civilised world. He achieved fame at a comparatively early age. 

 He was born in the year 1862. Famed as a dramatist, as a 

 thinker, and as a literary artist, his works were characterized by a 

 rare individuality, by ethical idealism, and by a mystical charm, 

 which gave them, he thought, a unique place in literature. He 

 supposed there could be little doubt that he was the most eminent 

 writer that Belgium had ever produced. He took his place to-day 

 with Anatole France, with Hauptmann, and with d'Annunzio as 

 one of the greatest literary figures of his age, and he (the Chair- 

 man) thought the audience would agree with him that the lecturer 

 could not have chosen any subject on which they would mpre 



