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 ^
 
 \
 
 FLEMISH LITERATURE
 
 LONDON 
 
 PlilNTBl) BY SPOTTISWOOBE AND CO. 
 
 ITEW-STREET SQrABE
 
 A SKETCH 
 
 THE niSTORY 
 
 FLEMISH LITERATURE 
 
 ITS CELEBRATED AlITHORS 
 
 TBOM THE TWELFTH CENTUET DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME 
 
 BY OCTAVE DELEPIEREE, LL.D. 
 
 CompUci) frnin J'^lcmtsl; Sources 
 
 LONDON 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 
 
 18G0
 
 FT 
 D--7 A^ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 Origin of the Language. — First Use in Official Dociuuents. — Traditioiis, 
 Songs, Ballads, Romances, Epics Page I 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Jacques van Maerlant and his Works. — Jean I., Duke of Brabant. — 
 Jean van Helu. — Melis Stoke. — Jean de Klerk. — Scientitic Works. 
 — Jean Ruysbroek. — Mai-tin van Thorout. — Legendary Writings. — 
 Milo. — Tragedies, Comedies, Farces. — Satirical Songs and Poems 36 
 
 CIL\P. III. 
 
 Disturbed State of the Country. — Contests w^ith France. — Purity of 
 the Flemish Language deteriorated. — Chambers of Rhetoric. — Pil- 
 grims. — Introduction of the Drama. — The "Landjuweel" and 
 " Haegspel." — Burgundian Drama. — Allegorical Pieces. — The "Re- 
 frain." — Anna Byns, Casteleyn, \'an Ghistelle, Fruytiers, &c. — 
 Government of the Duke of Alva. — Translation of the Psalms of 
 David. — Yiin der Voort. — Ilouwaert and his Works. — Celebrated 
 Preachers. — Luther's Doctrines opposed. — Dathenus, Mamix, &c. Gl 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Sptmish Dominion in the Low Countries. — Its depressing Effect on 
 Literature. — Condition of the Country. — Emigration from the 
 Southern Provinces. — licvival of Literatiu-e. — Ilooft, Coster, Brcdero, 
 &c. — Adaptation of Biblical Subjects to the Stage. — Tran.slation of 
 the Bible. — Hcinsius, ^'au der Noot, "N'ondel, &c. — Ilooft and hi.^ 
 
 a88197
 
 vi • CONTENTS. 
 
 Works. — Poetry of Cats. — Yau Zevecote. — Attempted Subversion 
 of the Flemisli Language. — Flemish Works prohibited. — Literaiy 
 Progress paralysed. — Ymmeloot. — Ecclesiastical Influence on the 
 Literatiu-e of the Spanish Provinces. — Transslations from the Latin. — 
 De Wr^C; De Yos, &c. — Pastoral Poems. — The Opera. — Comedies 
 of De Couiucq. — Intolerance of the Religious Drama. — Ogier and 
 his Works . . . . . . . . . . Page 102 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Influence of French Literature. — Its Opponents. — Jean Lambrecht. — 
 Antonides. — Descartes. — Spinosa. — Yan der Borcht- — Attempt to 
 establish a Theatre at Brussels. — Dramatists. — Peys, &c. — Didactic 
 Poetry. — Poirters. — Yloers, Croon, &c. — Religious Poetry. — Dun- 
 kirk Chamber of Rhetoric. — Pels. — De Swaen. — Poets of Bruges. — 
 Labare. — Pastoral Poetry. — Wellekens. — Poot. — Literature of the 
 South. — Poetry of Holland. — Feitama. — The Brothers Yan Haren. 
 
 — Prose Writers. — Philology. — Meyer. — Stevens. — Ten Kate. — 
 Huydecoper .......... 149 
 
 CHAP. YI. 
 
 Brussels Academy of Science founded. — Favours French Literatui'e. — 
 Lucrece van JNIerken. — Simon van Winter. — Influence of the Opera 
 
 — Neyts. — Cammaert. — Philology. — Leyden. — Kluit. — Bellamy. — 
 " Little Rose." — Nieuwland. — Yan .Vlplieu. — Failure of Blank Yerse. 
 — Influence of the Revolution. — University of Louvain. — Effects of 
 French Domination. — Decree against the official Use of Flemish. — 
 Struggles in favoiu' of the National Language. — Yerhoeven. — Yan 
 Daele. — The Flemish Stage. — Hofman. — Intellectual Movement in 
 Holland. — Siegenbeck. — Wieland. — Yander Palm. — Borger. — 
 Forensic Eloquence. — Meyer. — Influence of German Literature. — 
 Feith. — Tollens. — Helmers. — Bilderdyk. — Kinker. — Flemish re- 
 established in the Courts. — Obstacles to its Progi'ess. — Willems. — 
 Ledeganck. — Conscience . . . . . . . .173
 
 FLEMISH LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTEE, I. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE LANGUAGE. — FIRST USE IN OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. — 
 TRADITIONS, SONGS, BALLADS, ROMANCES, EPICS. 
 
 Before we give a sketch, of Plemish Literature, we 
 deem it necessary to say a few words on the Dialect 
 itself, of which little is clearly known. Elemish is 
 not the obscure remains of an extinct idiom, like 
 the Basque and Bas Breton languages ; it is not 
 either a dialect of the widely spread Germanic 
 tongue. It forms a part of the two principal 
 branches of this last idiom, made use of along 
 the coasts of the Northern and Baltic Seas, from 
 Dunkirk to Konigsberg, and from Elensbourg in 
 Denmark to the Hartz Mountains. 
 
 It is called Low Dutch (Niederdeutsch) because 
 it was and is spoken in the Low Countries and in 
 Low Germany ; while the other branch of the same 
 
 B
 
 2 FLEMISH LITERATURE. ciiAr. i. 
 
 mother tongue wliicli extends over the higher and 
 mountainous parts of those countries, in Switzer- 
 land, Austria, Saxony, &c., is called High Butcli 
 (Hochdeutsch). 
 
 This is not only proved by the study of the general 
 history of the literature of Europe, but by the fact 
 that the people in the North as Avell as in the South 
 had formerly only one word to express their idiom, 
 Dletsch or Deutsch. The word MemiscJi (Vlaemsch) 
 is posterior to the sixteenth century ; and the word 
 Hollandsch, made use of to express the name of the 
 language spoken in Holland , is altogether of modern 
 origin. Till the end of the seventeenth century, the 
 idiom spoken in Holland as well as in Belgium was 
 called Flemish. The English have still only one 
 word, Dutch, for the language spoken in Holland as 
 well as in Elanders. 
 
 It is rather a curious fact that a country w^hich 
 has produced in modern times a very popular novel- 
 writer*, and poets known all over Germany f in 
 olden times, a far-famed satirical poem|, mediaeval 
 
 * Conscience, whose works liave been translated into Englisb, 
 German, French, and Danish, and form part of the English and 
 Trench railway -library books. 
 
 t Van Duyse, Snellaert, Willems, &c. 
 
 X Renard the Fox, of which the scene is principally laid in 
 Flanders, the oldest manuscript known written in Low Dutch, 
 and ascertained by the latest philological discussions to belong to 
 Belgium.
 
 CHAP. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 3 
 
 romances* , fables, proverbs, and emblems in verse f, 
 historical rliymecl clironicles|, and so forth, should 
 not occupy even the smallest place in the vast range 
 of English sketches of the various literatures of 
 Europe. Ilallam, in his introduction to The 
 Literature of Europe, has in a great measure over- 
 looked Dutch authors, quoting only a few names of 
 European celebrity, of comparatively recent times, 
 and he has altogether omitted Elemish writers and 
 their works. 
 
 The well-merited fame of his book, and its great 
 authority, suggested to us the idea of making up 
 in some degree for this omission, and of giving 
 to the English public a sketch of these neglected 
 authors. 
 
 It is true that the extent of country where the 
 Low Dutch or Elemish is spoken is comparatively 
 small, and that it cannot compete with the riches of 
 tlie three great modern languages, English, German, 
 and Erench, Avhich surround it on all sides ; but 
 this does not justify to studious minds the utter 
 indifference manifested towards the acquisition of 
 some knowledge of its ancient literature. Other 
 
 * Floris and Blanchejloery tlie Knight of the Swrvn, &c. 
 
 f Jacob Cats, whose emblems and proverbs have lately been 
 presented to the public in an English dress by Messrs. Longmaa 
 & Co. 
 
 X Van Maerlant, Van Ilelu, &c. 
 
 b2
 
 I ILEMlSii LITERATUKE. ciui'. i. 
 
 northern tongues are labouring under tlie same 
 difficulties, and daily losing ground before the 
 German, or Iloclideutsch ; but the study of their 
 literature, however circumscribed, is not therefore 
 utterly abandoned by foreigners. In Denmark and 
 Sweden the national writers are constantly opposing 
 the invasion of German books. One of the most 
 celebrated Danish authors, the poet CEhlenschlager, 
 has himself translated his best works into German, 
 and it is only then that he acquired a European 
 reputation and fame. " When Iiorite in Danish, ^^ 
 says he, with a sad heart, in the introduction to 
 one of his books, " I write only for six hundred 
 persons." 
 
 But this is no reason why the literature of an 
 ancient language should be ignored, or its treasures 
 remain uninvestigated. "We hope, therefore, that 
 the short sketch which we here present to the 
 public will not be without interest to English 
 readers ; and we shall be glad if they consider the 
 time as not altogether lost which gives them some 
 little insight into the works of the principal ancient 
 Elemish authors. May we help to insure for these 
 in England a small share of that renown which 
 they formerly obtained abroad, and which we think 
 they would not fail to acquire in England, were 
 they better known and more prominently brought 
 forward.
 
 CHAiM. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 5 
 
 Dr. Boswoi'tli *, in speaking of the division into 
 Low and High German, says the former is more 
 soft and flowing than the latter. It changes the 
 High German sch into s, the harsh sz into t^ and 
 delights more in simple vowels. The High German 
 dialect, on the contrary, is distingnished by its 
 predilection for diphthongs, and rough, hard, and 
 aspirated consonants, especially by the harsh pro- 
 nunciation of sch, st, sz, &c. 
 
 The coexistence of the Low Dutch and of the 
 High Dutch, or Avhat we call German, is historically 
 proved since the eighth century. The form in 
 which the Pagans renounced their old creed and 
 became Christians, a form prescribed in the Council 
 of Liptines (742), is so like the dialect of the Nether- 
 lands that it hardly requires the alteration of a 
 few letters to make it perfectly intelligible to the 
 Plemings.f 
 
 It is perhaps well to state here, once for all, with 
 Dr. Bosworth, that when we speak of Elemish we 
 designate the language called in general Dutch, by 
 
 * The Origin of the English, Germanic, and Scandinavian Lan- 
 guages and Nations, &c., p. 13. 
 
 f Forsachislu Biabohc ? — Ec forsacho Diabolce. — End all am 
 cUabol-gelde ? — End allum Diabol loerJcum? — Gelobista in God 
 Almechiyen Fadcur? 
 
 This is the Low Dutch : — Versacks u den Duvel? — Ik vermke 
 den Duvel. — End alien Duveh-gilden ? — End uUe Duvels Werken? 
 — Gelof't u in God Ahnuchlujen Fader ? 
 
 J5 :5
 
 6 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. i. 
 
 the English. Flemish and Dutch, especially in their 
 earliest form, may be considered the very same 
 language. In the thirteenth century — because of 
 the flourishing state of the Elemings, and the care 
 of their writers to observe great purity in their 
 diction, and to express correctly the gender and in- 
 flection of words — this improved form of the Dutch 
 Ian2:ua2:e was denominated Flemish. Even at the 
 present day it is nothing more than the Dutch of 
 the preceding century. The same similarity is 
 shown in many other works of the ninth and tenth 
 centuries, which we will pass over, not to give too 
 much space to philological discussions, and hasten 
 to say a few preliminary words on the origin of the 
 people whose national tongue was the Elemish or 
 Niederdeutsch. 
 
 In the first ages of the Christian era, we find in 
 the east and north of the Low Countries, inhabitants 
 of Saxon and Eriesland extraction. The Pranks 
 showed themselves to the north-east; these were 
 Low Germans, like the former, but for political 
 purposes they amalgamated the allied High German 
 with their own language, giving their own name to 
 this foreign dialect. These three nations, the Saxon, 
 Eriesland, and Erank, having each furnished its 
 contingent to the formation of the Elemish or 
 Netherlandish nation, their respective tongues co- 
 operated in the formation of that idiom.
 
 CHAP. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 7 
 
 At the time of the downfall of the E;oman Em- 
 pire, it was assailed on all sides l)y German nations. 
 Goths, Burgnndians, Alemanni, Eranks, and others, 
 attacked it from the Continent ; Saxons, Pries- 
 landers, and Normans by sea, and when the fatal 
 hour had at last struck for the tyrants of the world, 
 those Avho had possessed themselves of their spoils 
 turned their arms against each other. The Eranks, 
 aspiring to universal dominion, remained every- 
 where the masters, and under the sceptre of Charle- 
 magne there arose a new Empire of the West, of 
 much greater extent than that over which the eagle 
 of the Coesars had floated. 
 
 These nations embraced the Christian religion at 
 different epochs, and under divers influences. The 
 conquerors, and, in the first rank, the Goths, rallied 
 at an early period round the new civilisation, whilst 
 it was only under Charlemagne that the Saxons and 
 Erieslanders suffered any other worship than that 
 of their ancestors to be imposed upon them ; even 
 long after the death of this monarch, Christianity 
 had in Elanders but a precarious existence. No 
 literary monument of those times has descended to 
 us, and without the Scandinavian books of theo- 
 gony, without the Edda, we should have very little 
 acquaintance with the religious dogmas of the 
 Elcmiugs or Nederlanders. 
 
 In the fifth century, Ulphilas, a bishop of the Mo}- 
 
 li 4
 
 S FLEMISH LITEllATURE. chap. i. 
 
 so-Gotlis, translated the Bible ; some fragments of it 
 have come clown to us. They exhibit the Gothic as 
 a dialect composed of High and Low German. Prom 
 the seventh to the eighth century, a Prankish 
 translation of a work on the nativity of Christ, by 
 the Spanish bishop, Isidore, has been collected, as 
 well as a translation of the rules of St. Benedict in 
 Alemannic, a dialect of High German still harsher 
 than the Prank. None of these works are written 
 in an idiom that can be said to have been spoken 
 by the people of the Low Countries, although it is 
 true that the Gothic possesses many of the forms 
 essentially belonging to the Plemish. But history 
 and literary monuments disclose to us a dialect, the 
 traces of which, after a lapse of ten centuries, have 
 continued stamped upon two languages, spoken by 
 nations removed from each other, and which de- 
 monstrates that in earlier times the British Isles 
 and the Low Countries were united by closer ties 
 than those of commerce. In fact, the Pagan an- 
 cestors of the Plemings received their missionaries 
 from the Anglo-Saxons. Pither these pious men 
 issued from the nation itself, or were Gauls or 
 others who went first to Pngland to learn the lan- 
 guage which they were afterwards to employ in the 
 Low Countries. This fact is a sufficient indication 
 that the inhabitants of the whole of the lower coast 
 of the North Sea, Saxons, Prieslanders, and Anglo-
 
 cuAi'. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 9 
 
 Saxons participated in one common mode of life, 
 and that the preachers from beyond the sea saw in 
 the Xederlanders members of one same family, 
 only separated by ancient national creeds. 
 
 At the time of the dominion of the Pranks, these 
 relations diminished under the influence of the 
 semi-Roman civilisation of the governing* people. 
 
 The most ancient literary relic that the Elemish 
 language has a right to claim, is a fragment of a 
 translation, in prose, of the Psalms, written during 
 the dynasty of Charlemagne. Others could be 
 mentioned, but only, it must be admitted, as re- 
 flecting back the normal form of the language, and 
 the prosody of the Low German, in those remote 
 times. Such are the Oath of Pidelity taken by the 
 Saxons to the conqueror JVitiklncl ; the poem of 
 Helland, which is in alliterative lines ; a Harmony of 
 the Gospels ; the Lay of Hlldehrand. The curious 
 may read fragments of many of these ancient 
 authors in the first volume of Wackernagel's 
 Deutsches Lesebuch. 
 
 The struggle between Paganism and Christianity 
 was prolonged in the country along the North Sea 
 until the eleventh century, when a new social 
 movement occurred to change the face of the West. 
 
 The Crusades, in establishing intimate relations 
 among all Christian countries, modified by this 
 contact the form of their languages. It is in this
 
 10 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. i. 
 
 age that the Plemish language quitted its embryo 
 state, in order to attain shortly after a great de- 
 velopment, giving an unquestionable proof of the 
 high degree of civilisation and wealth enjoyed at 
 this period by the people of the Low Countries. 
 
 From the beginning of the thirteenth century 
 public deeds began to be drawn up in the national 
 language. We will quote a few lines from one of 
 them, in order to give the proof of a most extra- 
 ordinary fact in the history of modern languages : 
 we mean to say, that after a lapse of more than 
 six hundred years, the very same words and gram- 
 matical, construction are those made use of by the 
 Flemings of to-day, and are perfectly intelligible to 
 the people of the Low Countries, where Flemish is 
 spoken. 
 
 We quote from a charter of Brussels, a.d. 1299, 
 from the Book of Privileges of that town, and 
 which is printed in a literary collection of the learned 
 J. F. Willems.* 
 
 " Ic Heinric, bi der gratien Goods, FCertoghe van 
 Brabant, ende ic Heinric syn oudste sone, wi doen 
 u kennen die gescrifte alien den genen die un syn, 
 ende die nacomende syn, dat wi overmids vroeden 
 rade onser mannen en der Scej)renen, en der ge- 
 sworne van Bruesele desen coren (keuren) hebben 
 
 * Yerliandelmg over de Nederduytsclio tael en letterkuude, &.c. 
 Antwerp, 2 vols. iSvo. ISID — 1824.
 
 CHAP. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 11 
 
 gesct Linncn Brucsclc Li brouwen en dc bi cede 
 onser nianue cnde gcmeinlec den Poertercn van 
 Bruesele desen core (keureu) te houden om gemcine 
 orbore endc vordane meer in deser manieren." 
 
 Literal English. 
 " I, Henry, by the grace of God, Duke of Brabant, 
 and I, Henry, his eldest son, we make this writing 
 known to all those who now are, and who are to 
 come, that we, in consequence of the wise counsel 
 of our men, and of the Sheriffs, and of the sworn of 
 Brussels, these statutes have established in Brussels, 
 through the fidelity and oath of our men, and also 
 the citizens (burghers) of Brussels, these statutes 
 are to keep for general convenience — and for the 
 future, more in this Avise." 
 
 It is also in the same century that Van Maerlant, 
 Willem van TJtenhove, and many others less known, 
 gave a brilliant impulse to the language through 
 their poetical writings. But before we enter into 
 some details on the works of these two leaders of 
 Flemish literature, let us say a few words on two 
 poems belonging by their subject to the cycle of 
 Charlemagne, although the time of their composi- 
 tion is not quite ascertained. They are called 
 Charles and Elegast, and Floris and Blanchejloer. 
 The first is an original composition, the second a 
 free imitation.
 
 12 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. i. 
 
 The narrative of Charles and Megast is as follows. 
 One night an angel appeared to Charlemagne, or- 
 dering him to rise and become a highway robber. 
 The monarch, at first astonished, believes it to be a 
 dream, and pays no attention to the injunction. 
 But the angel repeats the order, and Charles is 
 forced to recognise the finger of God. He obeys. 
 On his road he meets a knight clad in black armour, 
 and mounted on a charger, also black. It is 
 Elegast^ proscribed by the king on account of his 
 irresistible propensity to the profession of a robber, 
 a pastime much in favour at that time with many 
 of the nobility. 
 
 They both ride on in company, and Charles is not 
 long before he ascertains that this man, hunted 
 down like a wild beast, is more attached to his 
 suzerain than are many of his courtiers. 
 
 They arrive before the castle of Eggeric, one of 
 the king's chief vassals. Elegast, who to his call- 
 ing of robber unites the talent of subjecting all 
 persons and things to his enchantment, casts into a 
 deep sleep every living being within the precincts 
 of the castle. But when he wishes to carry off the 
 saddle belonging to Eggeric, the bells with which it 
 is ornamented make so much noise, that the vassal 
 and his spouse are awakened. 
 
 The latter declares that the noise is imaginary, 
 and that the mind of her husband is only disturbed
 
 CHAP. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 13 
 
 by agitating tliouglits ; Eggeric then avows to licr 
 that he is at the head of a conspiracy which is to 
 break out on the following day, and to end in the 
 assassination of the king. The lady, related to 
 King Charles, tries to dissuade her husband from 
 this wicked project. Eggeric, as a last argument, 
 strikes her on the face with so much violence that 
 the blood gushes from her nose. 
 
 Elegast steals towards the bed of the married 
 couple, receives into his glove the blood of the lady, 
 and pronouncing some magic words, the wdiole 
 castle is again plunged in sleep. He then relates 
 to the king all that he has overheard. Charles, 
 forewarned, takes his precautions, and at the mo- 
 ment when Eggeric with his friends and vassals 
 penetrates into the royal dwelling, he is arrested. 
 The king having ascertained on all points the 
 truth of Elegast' s statement, punishes the traitor, 
 whilst on the other hand he reinstates his faithful 
 servitor in the possession of his rights and pro- 
 perty. 
 
 Charles then understands why on that night God 
 had forced him to appear in the character of a 
 robber. 
 
 Floris and Blcmchejloer is the charming and 
 sweet picture of the love of the son of a Moorish 
 king, and a Erankish girl of noble birth, carried 
 off during an inroad of the infidels into Erance,
 
 U FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. i. 
 
 and 1)roiiglit up at the Court of King Pcniis. After 
 several years of reverses, Ploris ascended tlie throne 
 of his father, was converted to the religion of 
 Blanchefloer, whom he espoused, and by whom he 
 had Berthe, the mother of Charlemagne. To give 
 an analysis of this poem, would be, in a manner, 
 to touch with withering hand a flower of the gar- 
 land which wreathes the brow of the poet Thierri 
 d'Assenede. We will only affirm with the editor, 
 Hoffman von Fallersleheii , that in all our literature, 
 ancient and modern, few poems can be compared 
 to this in delicacy and finish of execution, clear- 
 ness of style, and felicity of expression. In passing 
 into Plemish literature, this production has become 
 a precious gem, worked with all the skill of a con- 
 summate artist. In those countries subject to the 
 influence of Prankish dominion, Charlemagne was 
 the centre of a cycle of national Christian poems ; 
 on the other hand, England wished also to have 
 her Christian and national hero. To the popular 
 tales of Britain was added the name of Arthur, 
 and the legends of the Bound Table rapidly in- 
 creased, and contended for favour with the national 
 poems of Prankish countries. 
 
 The B,ound Table was an order of chivalry which 
 owed its origin to the following facts. 
 
 The legend relates that Philip the Apostle, 
 having directed his steps towards Gaul to preach
 
 CHAP. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 15 
 
 tlic Gospel, sent his companion, Joseph of Arima- 
 thea, on the saoie errand to England, who carried 
 there the holy Chalice, named the Gracd. This 
 was the cup that Jesus Christ had used at the last 
 supper, and in which Joseph of Arimathea had re- 
 ceived the blood of the Saviour while nailed to the 
 Cross. Joseph bequeathed this precious relic to 
 his son and namesake, Bishop Joseph, who was the 
 first to institute the Order of the Holy Chalice, or 
 rather, of the Ptound Table. During the celebra- 
 tion of the festivals, the initiated seated them- 
 selves round a table, on Avhich the precious Yasc 
 was placed. One seat remained vacant; it was 
 that which Jesus Christ had occupied, and which 
 was reserved for a descendant of Joseph, named 
 Galaad ; it was called the place of Galaad. 
 Several ambitious members attempted to occupy 
 it, but in vain ; they were all swallowed up in the 
 bowels of the earth, until the fourth century 
 gave birth to this Galaad, so long desired, who 
 effectively took possession of the reserved seat. The 
 respect, mingled with terror, which this history 
 inspired throughout England, induced the great 
 King Arthur to institute an Order of the Ptound 
 Table, for the flower of the knii^hts of his kin"-- 
 dom. He caused a table, on the model of that of 
 Joseph, to be constructed, and whenever the mem- 
 bers of the Order held their sittings, the place of
 
 ]r, FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. i. 
 
 Jesus was left vacant. Everything Avas in con- 
 formity with the legend; only the holy Chalice, 
 the principal object on which the Order had been 
 founded, was wanting : it was lost ; it had dis- 
 appeared, it was said, on account of the sins which 
 desolated the kingdom. At any cost it must be 
 recovered. Here begins a series of the most ad- 
 venturous journeys and exploits, in which the 
 knights of the Round Table signalise themselves 
 in their search for the precious object on which 
 the peace and honour of England depend. The 
 recital of these glorious deeds became in such vogue 
 throughout the country, that he was considered 
 destitute of all education who did not know by 
 heart the chronicle of the Brut, the Hrst source 
 of the Legend of King Arthur. 
 
 The earliest importers of this chronicle on the 
 Continent appear to have been the Elemings, and 
 especially some colonists established since 1108 in 
 Glamorgan. Count Philip of Alsace (who died in 
 1191), a prince enthusiastic for the Crusades, as is 
 well known, finding in the exploits of Arthur and 
 his knights an incitement to his own bravery, caused 
 some Erench epic poems upon the English heroes to 
 be composed by Artesian poets, whom he had in his 
 pay. These poems were shortly afterwards trans- 
 lated into Elemish by others of his subjects. These 
 translations are for the most part lost, if we can
 
 CHAP. I. ELEilTSH LITERATURE. 17 
 
 believe tlicm to be the poems of which Macrlant 
 and the poets who succeeded him speak, and 
 which are the Sahii Graal, the Tristram, the Gale- 
 hot, the Yioem, the Lenval, and the Farcival. 
 Although they were highly appreciated, although 
 they represent their heroes as affixing a more ele- 
 vated stamp upon chivalrous life, and giving to 
 their exploits these three noble aims, God, his Lady, 
 and his Prince, the poems of the cycle of King 
 Arthur appear notwithstanding to be confined to 
 narrow limits. Wliilst on all sides we find nu- 
 merous fragments belonging to epics of the time of 
 Charlemagne, the period of Arthur, by its subdivi- 
 sion, has left scarcely any traces. Eortunately three 
 epic poems have escaped the wreck. They are 
 the Fergiiut, the Lancelot, and the TFalewein. 
 The first, imitated probably from a romance in 
 prose, has only 6,000 verses, whilst the second, 
 although it has descended to us in an incomplete 
 state, in a single manuscript, presents us with nearly 
 50,000. IFerguut is the son of a farmer, but his 
 personal qualities and courage make him worthy to 
 be a knight ; his exploits and adventures procure 
 him the favour of King Arthur, and the hand of 
 the lovely Galicne. The Lancelot is the corre- 
 sponding poem to Tristram ; the tone of the latter 
 is elegiac, whilst animation and gaiety pervade the 
 former. The Lancelot recounts the loves of the 
 

 
 18 FLEMISH LITERATURE. ciiAr. i. 
 
 kniglit of this name and the fair Genevra, the 
 spouse of King Arthur, his prowess, and that of 
 Prince Gauvin, Perceval and others ; it concludes 
 with the death of King Arthur. This poem, 
 although translated from the Prench, contains 
 nevertheless several episodes which its editor, the 
 learned JoncTihloet, has not found in the original 
 manuscript. Composed at the end of the twelfth 
 century, it can only at the utmost have heen 
 half a century later that the Plemish translation 
 appeared, since Maerlant speaks of it as of a well- 
 known work. It is the same with the Walewein, 
 a part of which, an author pretends, was translated, 
 not from the Prench, but from the Gallic. The 
 translation having been made by two writers, Pen- 
 nine and Yostaert, it is possible that the latter was 
 posterior to the former by nearly half a century, 
 since the only manuscript existing bears the date of 
 1350 ; this date may, however, apply to the trans- 
 lation rather than to the original. 
 
 No less celebrated than the paladins of Charle- 
 magne and King Arthur, we find in the Middle 
 Ages the heroes of ancient Greece, and particularly 
 the defenders of Troy and the conqueror of the 
 empire of Darius. The exploits of Hector and 
 Alexander were sung and recited throughout the 
 whole of Europe, as deeds belonging to the age of 
 Christianity, and even to the national history of a 
 
 J
 
 CHAP I. FLEMISH LITEllATUEE. 19 
 
 race among Avliomwc may single out the " Braban- 
 90ns," whose princes passed for descendants of 
 some companion in misfortune to ^neas. These 
 poems form the subjects of a fourth period, sur- 
 named the Classic, because in ancient times Greece 
 was the country where civilisation, shone with the 
 greatest splendour. 
 
 In the Middle Ages, the masterpieces of Athenian 
 and Eyoman literature were not unknown to the 
 Germanic nations. Some fragments of a translation 
 of the jEneicl haye been lately found, a translation 
 which ascends to the twelfth century. Tlierri cVAs- 
 senede speaks of the works of Juvenal, and Ovid's 
 Art of Love, as of books that were placed in the 
 hands of yoath. Maerlant cites Homer with re- 
 spect, and as a great master of poetry. The poems 
 of the classic age are, however, not translations 
 from the Greek. That of the destruction, of Troy 
 is simply an epic of the Middle Ages, and the Greek 
 and Trojan heroes are Christian, knights. This 
 poem, written with spirit and ease, is said, accord- 
 ing to the most recent researches, to be the work 
 of two authors, — of Siger Dicregodgaf, who is sup- 
 posed to have composed the first part from Latin 
 authorities, and of Maerlant, who wrought out the 
 rest from the French work of BenoU de St. Maure. 
 It was believed, until then, that each of these tAvo 
 authors had written a poem of his own, since in 
 
 c 2
 
 20 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. i. 
 
 the first part is found tlic name of Siger, and 
 Maerlant acknowledges liaving composed, before 
 1270, a poem on the foundation and destruction of 
 Troy. Probably this poet, of whom we shall shortly 
 speak more fully, wrote his work previous to the 
 middle of the thirteenth century, before his mind 
 had taken t]iat direction which soon impressed 
 itself on the whole of Flemish literature. The 
 same remark applies to his poem of Alexander, 
 which at the request of a noble lady he translated, 
 or rather imitated, from the Latin of Philippe de 
 Castellione. 
 
 It is probable that the classic age was not limited 
 solely to the poems of Alexander and the Trojan 
 War ; there are indications that render it probable 
 that the Plemish celebrated the exploits of Jason 
 and the Argonauts, as well as the legendary lives 
 of the first Roman emperors. 
 
 After having enumerated so many Prench, Breton, 
 Greek, and Roman heroes, we may add, that in the 
 Middle Ages, Flemings and Prieslanders, Braban- 
 cons and Dutch, still took pleasure in reading 
 the Nihelimgen, the Godreon, the Hildebrant, and 
 other epic poems belonging to generations lost in 
 the abyss of ages. Some of the national traditions 
 which belong more particularly to Planders, and 
 which have been probably embodied in these last 
 works, still exist. It is probable that the history
 
 cuAP. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 21 
 
 of Frederick and his 3Iotlier, the recital of the 
 deeds of arms of Baudouin Bras-de-fer, against the 
 King of Prance, rest upon '' sagas " sung hy some 
 Elemish poet. Perhaps the Flcmdrys, a frag- 
 ment of which was found by the learned German 
 Mone, and since lost, w^as a poem of this kind. 
 The following very ancient song, almost Homeric 
 in its form, relates to one of those terril)lc w^ar- 
 riors renowned for their cruelty, before Christianity 
 was preached in Planders : — 
 
 " The Lord lialewyn knows a song ; all those who heard it 
 were attracted towards him. 
 
 " It was once heard by the daughter of the king, who was 
 so beloved by her parents. 
 
 " She presented herself before her father : ' Oh ! father, 
 may I go to the Lord Halewyn ? ' 
 
 " ' Oh ! no, my child, no ; they who go to him never come 
 back again.^ 
 
 " She presents herself to her mother : ' Oh ! mother, may I 
 go to the Lord Halewyn ? ' 
 
 " ' Oh ! no, my child, no ; they who go to him never come 
 back again, ^ 
 
 '^ She presents herself to her sister : ' Oh ! sister, may I go 
 to the Lord Halewyn ? ' 
 
 '' ' Oh ! no, sister, no : they who go to him never come 
 back again.' 
 
 " She presents herself to her brother : ' Oh ! brother, may I 
 go to the Lord Halewyn? ' 
 
 " ' Little care I where thou goest, provided thou preservest 
 thine honour and thy crown.' 
 
 c 3
 
 22 TLEMISH LITERATUKE. ciur. i. 
 
 " She goes up into her chamber ; she clothes herself in her 
 best garments. 
 
 '' What does she put on first ? A shift finer than silk. 
 
 " What does she gird round her lovely waist ? Strong 
 bands of gold. 
 
 " What does she put upon her scarlet petticoat ? On 
 every seam a golden button. 
 
 " What does she place on her beautiful fair hair ? A mas- 
 sive golden crown. 
 
 " What does she put upon her Idrtle ? On every seam a 
 pearl. 
 
 " She goes into her father's stable, and takes out his best 
 charger. She mounts him proudly, and so, laughing and 
 singing, rides through the forest. When she reaches the 
 middle of the forest, she meets the Lord Halewyn. 
 
 " ' Hail !' said he, approaching her, 'Hail! beautiful virgin, 
 with eyes so black and brilliant.' 
 
 " They proceed together, chatting as they go. 
 
 " They arrive at a field in which stands a gallows. The 
 bodies of several women hang from it. 
 
 "^ The Lord Halewyn says to her, ' As you are the loveliest 
 of all virgins, say, how will you die ? The time is come.' 
 
 " ' It is well ; as I may choose, I choose the sword. 
 
 " ' But first of all, take off your tunic, for the blood of a 
 Aargin gushes out so far, that it might reach you, and I should 
 be sorry.' 
 
 " But before he had divested himself of his tunic, his head 
 rolled off and lay at his feet : his lips stiU murmured these 
 words : 
 
 " ' Go down there into that corn-field, and blow the horn, 
 so that my friends may hear it.' 
 
 " ' Into that corn-field I shall not go, neither shall I blow 
 the horn. I do not follow the counsel of a murderer.'
 
 ciur. I. FLEMISH LITEEATURE. 23 
 
 " ' Go tlien down luulcr the gallows, and gather tlic balm 
 which you shall find there, and spread it over my bloody 
 throat/ 
 
 " ' Under the gallows I shall not go, on your bloody 
 throat I shall spread no balm. I do not follow the counsel 
 of a murderer/ 
 
 H " She took the head up by the hair, and washed it at a 
 clear fountain. 
 
 '' She mounted her charger proudly, and laughing and 
 singing, she rode through the forest. 
 
 " When she reached the middle of the forest, she met the 
 mother of Halewyn. ' Beautiful virgin, have you not seen 
 my son ? ' 
 
 " ' Your son, the Lord Halewyn, is gone hunting ; you will 
 never see him again. ^ 
 
 " ' Your son, the Lord Halewyn is dead. I have his head 
 in my apron, which is red with his blood.' 
 
 " And when she arrived at her father's gate, she blew the 
 horn like a man. 
 
 " And when her father saw her, he rejoiced at her return. 
 
 " He celebrated it by a feast, and the head of Halewyn 
 was placed on the table." 
 
 William Grimm piiblislied some years ago a frag- 
 ment of a German epic poem which he entitled 
 Miidolfi from the name of the hero. Rudolf was a 
 Plemish count who took part in the siege of As- 
 calon, in Palestine, 1148. The poem is evidently 
 translated from the Plemish, a point worthy of 
 remark, for the same thing has happened to a 
 nnmher of other Plemish productions, some of 
 which were original, others translated from the 
 
 c 4
 
 24. FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. i. 
 
 Prench, while very few German pieces of the Middle 
 Ages have passed into Netherlandish literature. 
 Among the poems which have heen thus trans- 
 planted beyond the Rhine, besides the ancient epic 
 of the Godreon, of which we have already spoken, 
 we may cite Ogier le Dcmois, Henaud de Mon^ 
 talhan, Ilalagys, and Les Enfants de Limhourg. 
 This latter poem contains a series of adventures 
 which take place in the Greek Empire, and which 
 afford much interest with regard to art, customs, 
 and creeds. It appears that the author was a 
 certain Hendrick, who lived in the middle of the 
 fourteenth century, although some critics fix his 
 birth a century earlier. 
 
 If in all these romances, Avhich record adventures, 
 patriotic souvenirs, national customs and manners 
 occupy but little space, we possess, on the other 
 hand, a poem which in itself alone eclipses the 
 three cycles held in most honour in the Middle Ages, 
 we speak of the poem of Reinaert. 
 
 The celebrated brothers Grimm have long since 
 drawn the distinction between natural and arti- 
 ficial poetry (Natur-und Kunst-gedichten). The 
 first, sprung from the people, reflects accurately 
 its habits, its social life, while the artificial poem 
 is evidently stamped with the conventional forms 
 of the author's education. The first is the simple 
 garment, the second a more or less elaborate
 
 CHAP. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 25 
 
 attire. To girc birth to sncli a poem as tlie 
 Reinaert, it Avas essential that a people should 
 be in the enjoyment of social independence, in no 
 wise the slaves of their masters, and in whom 
 the influence of a simple, homely life should not 
 be extinct. There could not exist among them any 
 of those degenerate sons, estranged from tlieir 
 country by ties which in our day alienate men 
 from the national interests of hearth and home. In 
 Planders, more than in any other country, were 
 these elements combined. While they preserved 
 their love of independence, a distinctive feature in 
 the German and E;Oman people, the Flemings, 
 whom this same desire of personal freedom had 
 attracted in large masses into towns, acquired a 
 real well-being and prosperity which enabled them 
 still to retain their free and unfettered mode of 
 life. 
 
 Hence sprang the first part of the Reinaert, stand- 
 ing alone in its simplicity and nationality, and for 
 that very reason grand and sublime. The author 
 had undergone neither the rigours of tlie cloister 
 nor the unreasonable demands of caste imposed by 
 the nobles ; and if he belonged to either of these 
 classes, only the more merit is due to him. 
 
 In the second part of the Reinaert we see de- 
 veloped a remarkably philosophical genius, and a 
 profound acquaintance Avith the fable of classic
 
 26 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. i. 
 
 nations, of wliicli frequent use is made. In a Avord, 
 it is more erudite than the first poem. 
 
 In both its forms the 'Reinaert is the Epic of the 
 People, contradistinguished from chivalrous poetry ; 
 and its national characteristics betray themselves 
 even in the style of the translation. Whilst the 
 poems of other periods pass into High German, for 
 the benefit of tlie nobles beyond the E-hine, the 
 Heinaert, on the contrary, finds a Low Saxon trans- 
 lator, who makes this masterpiece familiar to the 
 citizens of the Hanseatic Towns. 
 
 In the fifteenth century an English translation 
 was made from an edition in prose ; and have we 
 not seen in our own days Goethe, the great modern 
 German poet, devoting his muse to reproduce in his 
 own language these Elemish verses of the twelfth 
 century ? The Erench, who in the Middle Ages 
 were still half Pranks, have composed several 
 Branches of the Heinaert (Branches du Kenard). 
 
 The right of the Plemings to the entire poem 
 was for a long time contested. Some pretended 
 that the Heinaert was a translation from the Prench ; 
 others wished to make the Low Saxon translation 
 pass for an original work. Willems, whose prema- 
 ture loss has been so keenly felt in Plemish litera- 
 ture, cast into this chaos of opinions the wand of his 
 perspicacity, and irrevocably decided the question to 
 the advantage of Planders.
 
 CHAP. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 27 
 
 The poem was first written in the old Elemish 
 dialect, says Bosworth, in his Origin of the Dutch, 
 affording a fine and very early specimen of the lan- 
 guage. 
 
 The Flemish manuscript is undoubtedly the ori- 
 ginal, of which the famous Low Saxon Beiiiecke 
 Vos, published at Lubeck, 1498, is a free translation. 
 The old prose editions of Meinecke Vos, printed at 
 Gouda, 1479, and at Delft, 1185, appear to be only 
 a careless translation of the Elemish poem, preserv- 
 ing even, in many instances, the metre and rhyme 
 of the original. 
 
 The English version, by William Caxton, 1481, 
 was made from the Gouda edition. By the indefa- 
 tigable researches of 3Ir. J. U. JFillems, it appears 
 clear that the first part of the Plemish Beinaert 
 was written about 1150; and by recent inqui- 
 ries, as Avell as by the preface to his modernised 
 Flemish Beinaert de Vos, (Eecloo, 1834,) it is con- 
 cluded that Willem van TJtenhoven, a priest of 
 Ardenbourg, was the real author of the second 
 part, which was composed about the year 1250. 
 Jacob van 3Iaerlant, the father of the Flemish 
 chroniclers and poets, of whom more will be said 
 anon, complains, as early as 1270, of the alterations 
 and additions made by copyists of BeinaerVs merry 
 jests and tricks. 
 
 The poem of the Beinaert was the fore-runner of
 
 28 TLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. i. 
 
 a new era, struggling against ancient ideas. Per- 
 tile, abounding in anticipations of intellectual and 
 moral progress, it had no leaning towards that soft 
 sentimental poetry which had, until then, been pre- 
 dominant. Like those flowers which thrive only 
 in the caresses of the breeze in the happy sun- 
 shine, this style of poetry languished and faded 
 under the breath of political passions, and under 
 the iniiuence of cold reason. The Reinaert was the 
 expression of the good sense of the people, it was 
 the straightforward intelligence of the many op- 
 posed to the vices of the nobles, and the irregu- 
 larities of the monks, and it clothed itself in the 
 caustic form of satire, armed with all the superiority 
 of talent which personal freedom never fails to en- 
 gender. The Heinaert, in short, was popular feel- 
 ing, expressed in the grandeur of an epic poem ; it 
 was Philosophy yet ignorant of its own existence, 
 and too young to array itself in the cloak of argu- 
 ment. 
 
 In order to complete the history of this very re- 
 markable work, we think we cannot do better than 
 follow the learned Dr. Bosworth, who has investi- 
 gated the subject with great care. 
 
 The numerous editions *, as well as the complaint 
 
 * We have, among modern works, tlie erudite volume of Rei- 
 nardus Vulpes of F. T. Mone, Stutgardt, 1832. Also Meon's 
 highly interesting collection of nearly all the parts of the fables
 
 CHAP. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 29 
 
 of Waltlierus clc Coinsi, Prior of Vic-sti7'-aisnc, in 
 his Louanges de Notre Dame and Miracles cle la 
 Vierge, that Menard was preferred to the reading 
 of legends, sufficiently show how many pens it has 
 employed, and at what an early period this cele- 
 brated poem served for entertainment and instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 A slight comparison of the Elemish Reinaert de 
 Vos, with all the former productions, must lead to 
 the conviction, that whatever use its author may 
 have made of the works of his predecessors, he has 
 far surpassed them all, and has composed a chef- 
 d^ceiivrCi fully deserving the eulogium Avhich the 
 most competent judges have bestowed upon it. It 
 is important both for matter and composition, and 
 if it were the only interesting and valuable work 
 existing in the Elemish, it alone would fully repay 
 the trouble of learning that tongue. Mr. T. E. 
 Willems, in his edition of this poem *, has proved 
 not only its true Elemish origin, but shown also, 
 
 and tales of The Fox, treated by various French autliors, 4 vols. 
 8vo., Paris, 1S26. The learned researches of T. Grimm are pub- 
 lished under the title of Reinhart-Fuchs, Berlin, 1831, printed 
 from an old Flemish manuscript preserved at Stutgardt; and last, 
 not least, Reinaert de Vos, published by T. F. "Willems, in Ghent, 
 from the MS. bought at Heber's sale. 
 
 * From a very ancient manuscript purchased by the Belgian 
 Government. A French translation of it was published by us in 
 Brussels, 1S38, with literary notices on the French editions of the 
 same poem.
 
 30 TLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. i. 
 
 how easy and flowing the versification is, in a lan- 
 guage which woukl be far more valued, were it 
 better known. 
 
 Events were moving rapidly towards the point 
 where all power seemed likely to become invested in 
 the Commons, leaving the rulers only a shadow of 
 authority. Are we to attribute to this ardent po- 
 pular thirst for liberty, the indifference manifested 
 by the Plemish princes for their national language 
 and literature? We are tempted to think so. 
 History portrays many Counts of Inlanders attach- 
 ing to their court Prench poets, and encouraging 
 them to compose voluminous works, whilst few 
 among them deigned to lend an ear to the strains 
 of ^Flemish minstrelsy. Thus Louis de Nevers, 
 demanding from the depths of his prison of Mont- 
 argis, a Flemish education for his children, appears 
 to us to stand out majestically in the annals of 
 Planders, for he alone, among the princely race, 
 feelingly appreciated the vital poAvers of the nation. 
 What a contrast between these foreign rulers over 
 subjects whose customs and habits they cannot 
 understand, and those Dukes of Brabant, those 
 Lieutenant-Generals of the Empire, who, although 
 sons-in-law to kings of Erance, are not merely 
 satisfied with protecting the language as the na- 
 tional right of a great people, but who take a pride 
 in ennobling it, in raising it to a level with the
 
 ciiAr. I. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 31 
 
 Latin tongue for state purposes, and wlio even em- 
 ploy it themselves to cliarm the leisure hours of the 
 fair sex of the duchy, in preference to the foreign 
 language of the Troubadours. 
 
 It is under the reign of Guy de Dampierre that 
 we first become fully acquainted with the merits of 
 a man who was destined to give a new phase to 
 Plcmish literature, to substitute didactic works for 
 sentimental poetry. His name is Jacques van 
 Maerlant. Before him, poetry was a vagrant art, 
 which, in the long winter evenings, took refuge in 
 the chimney corner of the great feudal castle, 
 where it served to amuse and console the young 
 maiden, who repaid the efforts of the poet by a 
 sympathetic tear of compassion. In summer, the 
 muse gambolled in the meadows, side by side with 
 the fair damsel. Disdaining cities, the minstrel 
 of that period was to be seen wherever noble blood 
 presided, and it was an exception when he occa- 
 sionally condescended to bestow a few favours on the 
 most eminent among the plebeian classes. At court 
 he was ever welcome, the prince loaded him with 
 benefits, and sought to make him one of his retinue, 
 for it was often to the minstrel's art alone that he 
 was indebted for his fame. 
 
 The nobility were scattered over the level country, 
 enclosed in their strongholds ; even the princes 
 rarely dwelt in cities. At a later period, we see
 
 32 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. r. 
 
 poetry aud song following the nobles into towns, 
 and even placing themselves under the protection 
 of the wealthy citizen. 
 
 In the age of chivalry, the wandering poet was 
 called Sprelier^ Segger, or Vinci er. The two first 
 terms are equivalent to that of story-teller (con- 
 teur)^ the third to that of TrouvGre, Trouhadour, 
 The rewards which he received from the great, con- 
 sisted of money, horses, and clothes. The nobleman 
 often divested himself of his robe, to place it on 
 the shoulders of the minstrel, and the latter, in his 
 turn, took a pride in wearing it upon all great occa- 
 sions, to encourage fresh listeners to imitate such 
 generous examples. (Roquefort, JPoesie Frcmgalse 
 dans le VI''"'' et 13'^'"' siecles.) He travelled alone 
 or with a companion, and in the latter case he 
 took the name of Gezel, which is equivalent to 
 minstrel. 
 
 The encouragement given by the nobles to itine- 
 rant poets so extensively increased the number of the 
 Trouv^res, that the gifts bestowed on them sensibly 
 diminished ; hence there resulted material priva- 
 tion on the one side, and slackened esteem on the 
 other. Besides, this wandering and vagabond life 
 led to a corruption of morals, which went hand in 
 hand with the gradually increasing distresses of 
 the Msecenates. The demoralisation augmented to 
 such a degree, that in Prance, for instance, these
 
 ciiAP. I. PLEMISH LlTEllATUllE. 33 
 
 wandering' minstrels associated themselves with 
 mountebanks and leaders of tame animals, and it 
 was under tlie reign of Philip Augustus that the 
 ridiculous Royalty of Piddlers was set up. In the 
 Low Countries many gezellen were condemned to 
 capital punishment for theft and other crimes. 
 These Avere the last examples of the ruin to Avhich 
 the race was speedily brought. 
 
 The professional character of the Spreker, Zegger, 
 or Gezel, sufficiently explains Avhy they neither wrote 
 nor declaimed very long poems. This honour was 
 reserved for the sedentary poet attached to a court, 
 or to some great noble. Honoured with the title 
 of ^OQi par excellence, he Avas then called Dlchter, 
 although instances exist of his being still styled 
 Spreker. We possess the works of several Sprekers, 
 consisting chiefly of Sproken (tales, fables, satires, 
 allegories, and amatory poems), inspired by various 
 circumstances, and written for all ranks of society, 
 for the nobility, the cloister, the citizens, and even 
 for the lower classes. Of the v/andering poets Avho 
 lived before Maerlant, very few have bequeathed 
 their names to posterity. They have taken as much 
 pains to conceal themselves as the authors of great 
 epics, as if, before the ascendancy of the burgher 
 class, there was no merit in being a Flemish poet. 
 It is only in the course of the fourteenth century 
 that we find the names of Augustynken, of Lodewike, 
 
 D
 
 34 TLExMISH LITERATURE. cuap. i. 
 
 of Jean mm Holla nt, of Jean Dllle, of Colpaert, 
 of Fieter van Tersele, of Giiillaume van lUlde- 
 gaertshergc, of Baudoin van der Loren. This latter 
 was cotemporary with Philippe van Artevelde, and 
 probably a companion in arms with the celebrated 
 Plemish captain. He possessed an ardent soul, 
 lived only for liberty and his country, was a real 
 poet, seeking out untrodden paths, and following 
 them up with success. The learned M. Blommaert 
 has published a part of the works of Van der Loren. 
 Among the Elemish metrical tales, there is a 
 collection which deserves to be especially men- 
 tioned. It is the Minneloej) (Cours d' Amour). It 
 consists of m ')re than fifty love-stories, which the 
 author has formed into a whole, by classing his 
 tales in order, and according to the different degrees 
 of love which they represent, and which he divides 
 into four kinds : constant love, noble and pure love, 
 licit and illicit love. The Mlnneloej:), of which 
 Dire Potter (a nobleman probably by birth) is the 
 author, is not simply a collection of tales ; it is 
 enriched by interesting observations, by a com- 
 parison of the various degrees of love, and argu- 
 ments on their inherent worth. In this point of 
 view, the collection may be considered as the im- 
 mediate forerunner of Howaertj and of Cats, or 
 rather, as holding a middle position between these
 
 CHAP. 1. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 35 
 
 didactic poets and the autlior of the Romance of 
 the Hose, that allegorical poem which made so 
 much stir in the Middle Ages, and which has had 
 the honour of heing translated from the Erench 
 into almost every language of Europe. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 FLEMISH LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 JACQUES VAN MAERLANT AND HIS WORKS. — JEAN I., DUKE 01' BRABANT. 
 — JEAN VAN HELU. — MELIS STOKE. — JEAN DE KLERK. — SCIENTIFIC 
 ■WORKS. — JEAN RUYSBROEK. — MARTIN VAN THOROUT. — LEGENDARY 
 WRITINGS. — MILO. — TRAGEDIES, COMEDIES, FARCES. — SATIRICAL 
 SONGS AND POEMS. 
 
 When, in the middle of the thirteenth century, 
 Jacques van Maerlant appeared, chivahy was on 
 the decline, and another phase of ideas only awaited 
 a signal, to dethrone that which, during three 
 centuries, had constituted the strength of central 
 Europe. The towns continued to increase in power, 
 and exercised over the princes and nohles an irre- 
 sistible influence. The unfortunate issue of the 
 expeditions to the Holy Land had dispelled many 
 a dream of glory and of fame. The indifference 
 evinced for exploits beyond the sea had gained 
 such a point, that the appeals of the best poets, and 
 the most eloquent orators, no longer stirred the 
 souls of men. The demoralisation had reached its 
 height. " The world is drawing to an end," ex- 
 claims Maerlant. " We have reached the days 
 foretold by the Apostle. Men no longer love 
 anything but themselves. Provided they possess 
 wealth, they are indifferent to the means of ac- 
 quirement ; provided they are amused, it is of little
 
 CHAP. H. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 37 
 
 importance whether they listen to falsehood or to 
 truth. If we are only handsomely dressed, say 
 they, that we dine Avell, that the wine is plentiful, 
 that we sleep softly, it is all that any of us require, 
 whether priests or laymen; — egotism alone rules." 
 This energetic language, unusual as it was to the 
 ears of the Flemish, acted gradually upon their 
 minds, which soon ahandoned lighter reading for 
 books of history and science. The useful prevailed 
 over the merely entertaining. 
 
 Jacob van Maerlant was born at Damme*, a not 
 inconsiderable port of Flanders, at a period when 
 that country had reached its highest point of pros- 
 perity and fame (1235-1300). He was distin- 
 guished as a poet, a philosopher, and an orator. 
 He wrote for the people. His "\;\orks were read 
 everywhere, studied, and even translated into Latin. 
 All the subsequent writers acknowledged his in- 
 fluence. His name is still revered by his country, 
 and is ever coupled Avith the epithet of Father of the 
 Flemish poets. He first destined himself to the 
 Church t, and it is probably then that he acquired 
 his vast erudition ; but soon disgusted by the de- 
 pravity of the clergy]:, he wandered about as a 
 
 * He says himself, in one of liis poems, that bo is a Eleming: 
 
 " Ende cm dat ic Vlamiuc ben." 
 
 f Eevue Trimestrielle, sixieme annie, torn. ii. 
 X To liave an idea of which at this period, see the skotdi given 
 
 D 3 
 
 08819*?
 
 38 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. ii. 
 
 Minnesingerj visited Brabant, Holland, Zeland, &c., 
 and it seems that during his travels he fell in love 
 Avitli a lady of the name of Gotlle, to whom he 
 dedicated one of his finest chivalric romances, 
 Alexandre. 
 
 Arrived at a mature age, Van Maerlant gave up 
 the composition of works on love and chivalry, and 
 from henceforth devoted himself to sacred and pro- 
 fane history. He taught his countrymen phy- 
 siology, medicine, and natural history ; he wrote 
 on the duties of man, demonstrating that a title of 
 nobility is something more than a sheet of parch- 
 ment, and that the virtue of a priest does not lie in 
 his tonsure. It was not without reason that his 
 cotemporaries gave him the glorious designation of 
 " Pather of the Plemish poets :" and if his didactic 
 genius dealt a hard blow to poetical romance, we 
 are disposed to forgive him, in consideration of the 
 salutary influence which this great man exercised 
 over the moral condition of the Belgians. He broke 
 down the barrier which separated the educated 
 classes from the people, by adapting into his native 
 tongue, for their instruction, the best works of the 
 time. 
 
 " What !" says he, in a poem on St. Pranciscus, 
 
 "by Jacques de Vitrj, in liis Historia Orientnlis apud Bongars' Gesta 
 Dei per Francos.
 
 CHAP. n. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 39 
 
 " the reading of the Bible is forhidden to the 
 people, and they listen to the adventures of Tristan 
 andl/cnmcelot, imaginary characters and personages ; 
 and throughout the world love and war stories are 
 read, and the Gospel is thought to he too grave, 
 because it teaches truth and justice ? " 
 
 Van Maerlant undertook to publish for the 
 people a sort of encyclopedia, long before that word 
 had been invented. He wrote it in verse, in order 
 that its precepts might be the more easily engraved 
 on the minds of all. The first part is entitled Flowers 
 of Nature.^ After this, he composed his greatest 
 work. The Historical Mirror, where, in four parts 
 and thirty-one books, he gives the history of the 
 world from the Creation to the thirteenth century. 
 It appeared in 1283, and although taken in a great 
 measure from the Speculum Historiale of Vincentius 
 Bellovacensis, Van Maerlant aimed at a very dif- 
 ferent result. Vincentius treated his subject, as he 
 says, ad fidei nostrce dogmatis instructionem. Our 
 author, on the contrary eschewed all that was 
 scholastic and dogmatic, selecting only such matter 
 as would possess an interest for laymen, and for the 
 
 * It contains sixteen book?, divided as follows : 1, of Men; 2, 
 of Quadrupeds ; 3, of Birds ; 4, of the Marvels of the Sea ; 5, of 
 Fishes; 6, of Serpents; 7, of Insects; 8, of Trees; 9, of JMedical 
 Plants ; 10, of the Vegetable Kingdom ; 11, of Fountains ; 12, of 
 Precious Stones ; 13, of the seven Metals. The work was trans- 
 lated from Cantipral.mws de Nataris Bervm. 
 
 1) 4
 
 40 FLEMISH LITEUATURE. chap. ii. 
 
 people. His Mym hibel *, or Bible in verse, written 
 some years previously, caused him to be persecuted 
 by the clergy, and he had to justify himself before 
 the Pope. But notwithstanding, he persevered in 
 the attainment of the great object he had in view, 
 viz. the education of the people. 
 
 The three great works which we have just men- 
 tioned, contain the epitome of all that is most 
 useful, and of a practical interest for mankind in 
 the fourteenth century. 
 
 We see, then, by the works of Maerlant, that the 
 aim of this author was entirely humanising, that 
 his own fame was less his object than the welfare 
 of his country ; had it been otherwise, he would 
 certainly have given a bolder flight to his poetical 
 genius, for he was a true poet when withheld by 
 no restraints, and he possessed sufficient vigour to 
 raise the art of versification to a high degree of 
 perfection. 
 
 Besides his larger works, Maerlant wrote a great 
 number of small poems divided into stanzas ; among 
 others, Het Boucsken van den ILoute ; or, De clrie 
 Gaerden (The Book of the Wood; or. The Three 
 Gardens), a marvellous tale of the cross of the 
 Saviour, probably a work of his early youth ; Van 
 
 * Taken from the Biblia Scholastica, by Petrus Comestor, to 
 wliicli Van Maerlant added the New Testament, and the War of 
 tlie Eomans against tlie Jews under the Emperor Titus.
 
 CHAP. ir. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 41 
 
 ons Keren K'ljnscheide (Of the Infancy of Our 
 Saviour) ; Van den Lande van Oversee (Of the 
 Country beyond the Sea). 
 
 The most original and poetical of his works is 
 unquestionably the Wapcn Martin, a poem in 
 dialogue and stanzas, which treats of the inequali- 
 ties of the conditions of life, and of the corruption 
 into which the nobility and clergy had fallen. 
 Sometimes the poet takes the tone of satire, at 
 others he affects the lyric style. The Wapen Martin 
 consists of scarcely more than a thousand verses, 
 but the design is patriotic and the language lofty. 
 We have already shown that the poem of the Beinart 
 precedes by a century the principal works of our 
 author, and that he himself speaks of the greater 
 number of the chivalrous poems as having been 
 already dispersed throughout the whole of Planders. 
 
 To give a specimen of the satirical vein of Van 
 Maerlant, we here translate a passage of what he 
 calls The Complaint. 
 
 " Is Antichrist already come into the world, 
 and have his disciples prepared the way before 
 him ? If I dared, I would say yes 1 * Let a 
 cunning serf become a judge, and if he be only 
 possessed of gold, he will be listened to in the 
 
 * " The world Is drawing to its end," liad lie already said iu his 
 prologue to Sinie Franciscus.
 
 42 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. ii. 
 
 council of princes. Does a fool become a grain the 
 wiser by increasing the size of his tonsure even 
 to his ears ? 
 
 " Almighty God ! I implore Thy aid. I wish to 
 speak of the humiliation of the first tonsure, of 
 that of St. Peter at Antioch, when he was cast into 
 a dungeon, because he sought to reclaim an erring 
 people. In our days, the tonsure is only a source 
 of traffic to those cormorants whom nothing can 
 satiate. I believe a race so greedy of gain was 
 never before beheld. 
 
 " How many wolves have become shepherds to 
 the precious flock for which Christ shed His blood ! 
 They have adopted short clothing, large swords, long 
 beards, sumptuous garments, and ride fine chargers. 
 They make use of the sacred possessions of the 
 Church for the purposes of personal pride and 
 vanity. 
 
 " They go and gather grapes in the vineyard of 
 the Lord, and reap for themselves the richness of 
 the harvest. It is they, and such as they, who 
 preach benevolence to the people, but they care 
 not if their flock tremble with cold, and cry out 
 from hunger, owing to their lack of charity. Prom 
 this cause proceed the lamentations of the poor, 
 ' Ah, Lord, wilt Thou not have pity upon me, 
 that I starve not?' So do they call out, hungry, 
 sick, and naked. And you, you in the meanwhile.
 
 CHAP. 11. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 43 
 
 who are seated in the enjoyment of your braziers, 
 suffer them not to warm themselves in your pre- 
 sence. You thrust from you those whom you are 
 bound to protect, and you appropriate the property 
 of the holy Church, to which you have never had 
 any right. 
 
 " Listen to your sentence. You are accused. 
 Your limbs are clothed in garments belonging to 
 the poor ; all your efforts are strained for the ac- 
 quisition of wealth. Your hands are always closed. 
 The poor complain that you refuse them when they 
 come to you for alms. You msh to walk in the 
 steps of the nobles. But your pride shall be 
 humbled. How severe was the retribution of the 
 rich man, when he entreated the beggar Lazarus to 
 cool his lips ! " 
 
 Whilst the Counts of Planders, sometimes hostile, 
 sometimes friendly to the Kings of France, are con- 
 tending against patriotic feeling, we find the Dukes 
 of Brabant, on the contrary, like enlightened 
 princes, calling upon the people in their own 
 language to participate in the lustre of their 
 crown. "We have already named Jean I., a prince 
 as refined as brave, who sang in the Flemish 
 tongue to the beauties of his court. Wlllcms 
 has published the twelve pretty love-songs that 
 remain to us from the most ancient Flemish poet 
 known among crowned heads.
 
 44 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap.ii. 
 
 To give a specimen of the poetry of tlie tliirteentli 
 century, and likewise of tlie slight difference ex- 
 isting between the language of that remote period 
 and the actual Elemish, let us quote one of the 
 songs of Jean I., Duke of Brabant, who died in 
 1294. 
 
 The following is a literal translation of the text : 
 
 " Early one morning in May 
 I arose ; 
 In a beautiful little orcliard 
 I wislied to amuse myself. 
 I found there three young maidens. 
 Full of grace and beauty. 
 They sang alternately 
 Harba lori fa, harba lori fa, harba lori fa. 
 
 " When I saw these charming flowers 
 In this little orchard. 
 And heard the notes of the sweet music 
 Chaunted by the pretty maidens. 
 My heart was so elated. 
 That I also joined in chorus, 
 Harba lori fa, harba lori fa, harba lori fa. 
 
 " I then bowed to the handsomest. 
 Who was standing under a tree. 
 My arm found itself around her. 
 Then at the same moment 
 I wished to kiss her on the mouth. 
 But she exclaimed, ' Away, away, away ! ' 
 Harba lori fa, harba lori fa, harba lori fa.^^
 
 CHAP. II. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 45 
 
 " Eens meicn morgens vroege 
 Was ic upgestaen, 
 In een scocn bocmgardekin 
 Soucl ic spelen gaen^ 
 Dacr vant ic drie jougfrouwcn slacii ; 
 Si 'waren so wale gcdacn^ 
 Dene sane vore. dander sane na : 
 Harba lori fa^ &e. &c. 
 
 " Doe ic vcrsacli dat scone cruut 
 In den boemgardekin, 
 Ende ie verlioorde dat soete gelnut. 
 Van den mageden fyn. 
 Doe verblide dat lierte myn 
 Dat ic moeste singen me : 
 Harba lori fa," &c. &c. 
 
 This prince, more tliaii any other, encouraged 
 poets at his court, and it seems certain that Van 
 Helu was one of its ornaments. Jean van Helu, 
 who was present at the battle of "Woeringue, in 
 what capacity we know not, composed, on this me- 
 morable feat of arms, a remarkable historical poem, 
 which he dedicated to the betrothed of Jean I., the 
 Princess Margaret of England. He wrote it for 
 the princess, in order, said he, that the wish to 
 become acquainted with the deeds of her fatlier-in- 
 law might inspire her with the desire to learn the 
 Flemish language. 
 
 The Battle of Woeriuf/ue bears all the charac- 
 teristics of an epic poem, and will be considered as
 
 46 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. ii. 
 
 such by those who know how to compare nations 
 and epochs. The purity and simplicity of the style 
 of this work of Van Helu justify the favour with 
 which it has been received in Belgium since Willems 
 has introduced it to a wider public, by giving a 
 more careful and well-annotated edition.* 
 
 It is well known that this battle was fought on 
 the 12tli June, 1288, by Jean of Brabant, called 
 the Victorious, against the Archbishop of Cologne, 
 and that the result was the annexation of Lim- 
 bourg to the possessions of the victor. We will 
 quote, to give an idea of the poetry, the speech 
 which Jean I. addressed to his soldiers before the 
 battle : — 
 
 *' Bemember to-day the valour of your ancestors! 
 They were never known to fly, or to abandon their 
 prince ! Soldiers ! follow their example, and glory 
 will be your reward. This day you shall see me 
 victorious or dead ! God knows that I wished for 
 peace, so He v/ill not forsake me. My horse being 
 one of the best, you will constantly see me at your 
 head. Take care that the enemy does not take me 
 in flank or in the rear. I shall myself take care of 
 those who attack me in front. One word more, if 
 you see me surrender, or fly, kill me on the spot." 
 
 We also claim the title of Epic, for another poem 
 
 * Bymkroiiyk vuu Jan van Helu. Brussels, 4tc. 1836.
 
 CHAP. ir. TLEMISII LITERATURE. 47 
 
 composed in Brabant, The War of Grimherguc, l)y 
 an anonymous author. It contains nearly 13,000 
 verses. The subject of the poem is the wars of 
 the Dukes of Brabant against the Lord of Grim- 
 herguc, and the ruin of the latter with all his 
 family. Contrary to the usual course of the epic, 
 the hero of this poem is vanquished. It is a licence 
 on the part of tlie poet which has been justified by 
 its success. In fact, our anonymous author has 
 centred the whole interest on the Berthouds ; we 
 desire victory for them, although we see in the 
 opposite army, suspended to the branches of an old 
 willow, a cradle, in which reposes an orphan, four 
 years old, whose future depends upon the issue of 
 the battle : the author scarcely touches upon this 
 dramatic episode. The Berthouds appear every- 
 where as the bravest of the brave, true models of 
 intrepid and independent knights. There arc some 
 tedious parts in Van Helu, but many more in the 
 anonymous author ; the decisive battle occuj)ies no 
 less than four thousand verses. Only two copies 
 exist of this poem, the oldest of which has been 
 made by Espinoy in 1620. 
 
 JIiiydelwpei\ a learned Dutchman, published in 
 the middle of the last century a Flemish chronicle 
 written by Metis Stoke, a cotemporary of Maerlant, 
 who completed his Toetical Chronicle (Bym 
 Kronyk) in 1305. It was begun before the year
 
 48 ELEMlSn LITERATURE. cuap. ii. 
 
 1296, as it is dedicated to Count Elorens the Eiftli, 
 who died in that year. 
 
 This work was published in 1591, and again in 
 3 vols. 4to., in 1772, by Suydelcoper, with valuable 
 notes. 
 
 Melis Stoke was a priest of the church of 
 Utrecht, in the service of Elorens V., who was a 
 great patron of national literature. The style of 
 this author is as pure as that of Maerlant, whose 
 works probably served as models to the Dutch 
 chronicler. 
 
 In the southern provinces, we see Jean de Klerk 
 of Antwerp, encouraged by the princes and nobles 
 of Brabant, writing histories and didactic poems. 
 He dedicated to Duke Jean III. his Brabmitsche 
 Yeesten (History of Brabant), a chronicle in rhyme, 
 of several thousand verses, written in a popular 
 style, and without pretension. This chronicle was 
 afterwards continued up to the time of the House 
 of Burgundy, by an anonymous author, under the 
 superintendence of the historian A. Thymo. 
 
 With the exception, perhaps, of a romance of 
 chivalry, which he translated, Jean de Klerk fol- 
 lowed the footsteps of Maerlant. Besides his great 
 historical Avork, and the Deeds of King JEdward III. 
 of England^ he edited two didactic poems, Der 
 Leelten Spiegel (The Mirror of the Laity), in 1330, 
 and the Dietsclie Doctrinael (The Plemish Doc-
 
 ciiAr. II. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 19 
 
 ti'inal), ia 1345. These two works, written in a 
 forcible and pure style, exercised a great influence 
 over the popular mind. It was at this time that 
 the Dukes of Brabant, and the Counts of Holland, 
 interested themselves especially in the instruction 
 of the people, and that the institution of a brother- 
 hood, for parochial education, was established at 
 Deventer by Geert Grocle (Gerardus Magnus), the 
 friend of E/uysbroek, and the distinguished pupil 
 of the famous Gerson, of the Sorbonne, and which 
 spread itself through all the Low Countries, and 
 through the Lower E-liine and Westphalia. First 
 and second-class schools multiplied everywhere, 
 and produced many instructive works, such as the 
 distichs of Cato, the Dietsche Lucidariiis, and others 
 of the same kind. Works on medicine and phy- 
 siology also appeared in great numbers ; they afford 
 a fresh proof of that love for the natural sciences 
 Avhicli is still a peculiar feature of the Elemish 
 character. Besides the great work of Maerlant, of 
 which we have already spoken, and which is the 
 principal production of the Middle Ages, on natural 
 history, we possess works in rhyme, the Natuer- 
 kunde van het Jleelal (The System of Nature), at- 
 tributed to the Brabanter Gheraert van Lienhout ; 
 JDe Craclit der Mane (The Lunar Influence), 
 of Heinric van Ilollant; Astroiioiuice en Fleubo- 
 tomia, of Claeskyn ; IleimeUcheit van Man en Vron; 
 
 E
 
 50 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. ii. 
 
 Der Vromven Seimelicheit ; and a Chiromancie hj a 
 certain priest, Van den JSamme. There are not 
 wanting also works in prose, on medicine and X)liy- 
 siology, of the fourteenth century : such are the pro- 
 ductions of Jean Ypermans, a treatise on chiromancy, 
 and another on physiognomy. Between romantic 
 and didactic literature, between the literature of 
 the nobility and that of the citizens, monastic 
 wjorks take their place, partaking of the one ele- 
 ment or the other, always indicating an ascetic 
 object, and giving to everything a peculiar colour- 
 ing; investing worldly, even Pagan objects, with a 
 Christian signification, and filling the expansions of 
 the soul with the sacred fire of love. Por instance, 
 we see amongst other works, the Voyage of Saint 
 Brandain, an amusing piece of mental folly, a con- 
 fused mixture of traditions belonging to the history 
 of old Planders, and of geographical errors, the 
 whole attributed to a fictitious being who is placed 
 in the rank of the saints. Then again we have the 
 Miracle of Tlieopliilus^ the Faust, the Don Juan of 
 the Middle Ages ; these are so many proofs that a 
 lover of a life of adventure, weary of the world, 
 did not forswear his taste for the fantastic when he 
 put his foot on the threshold of the cloister. Again, 
 we read of a nun composing mystic songs, so full 
 of ardour, that they seem rather addressed to a 
 living being than to Heaven. At this period the
 
 cuAP. II. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 51 
 
 licence of tlie cloister had readied its heiglit, and 
 the zeal for study had everywhere relaxed. Some 
 few men of piety vindicated with dignity the cause 
 of morality and religion, so shamefully outraged by 
 those who professed themselves its supporters. One 
 of the foremost in the Low Countries in denouncing 
 this corruption was Jean Hmjshroeh^ of blessed 
 memory, Prior of the Abbey of Groenendale, near 
 Brussels. This remarkable man, born in Brabant 
 in 1293, of noble parents, was noted for his ele- 
 gant construction of Elemish prose. Ruysbroek be- 
 longed to that class of choice intellects in the four- 
 teenth century, who gave themselves up to the 
 spirit of mysticism, a spirit essentially salutary at 
 a time when the irregularities of the clergy had 
 reached their climax. His numerous writings are 
 preserved, many of them in his own hand. In spite 
 of their value with respect to style as W'cll as to 
 tone and feeling, although they have acquired the 
 rare distinction of being translated into the Bo- 
 manic dialects, the writings of Buysbroek remain 
 still in manuscript, with the exception of one, Ket 
 Cieraet der GeesteWccr Briiloft, printed at the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century. Some years 
 before Buysbroek, in the time of Maerlant, there 
 lived in the Abbey of Eenhame, near Audcnarde, 
 Martin van Thoroiit^ a man as pious as he was 
 erudite, a writer in a pure and correct style. He 
 
 E 2
 
 52 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. ii. 
 
 had already attained an advanced age, when, in 
 1290, he finished one of his poems. Except a 
 translation of the distichs of Cato, his writings are 
 for the most part legends, particularly the legends 
 of St. Enstache, St. Werner, St. Agatha, St. Cathe- 
 rine, and others. His contemporary, William, a 
 monk of the Abbey of AiSigem, wrote, about the 
 year 1260, the life of St. Ludgarde, and a certain 
 brother Gerard, that of St. Christine the Miracu- 
 lous. The legends, according to what we have just 
 said, must have been numerous, although we can 
 now count but few of them, for besides those we 
 have enumerated, and the life of St. Erancis, by 
 Maerlant, we are only acquainted with the collection 
 entitled Der Ystorien JBloeme (The Elower of His- 
 tories), and the fragment of a martyrology. The 
 life of St. Amand, by Gilles de Wevel, of Bruges, 
 who put the finishing stroke to this poem in 136G, 
 belongs rather to the history of Elanders. The 
 authors who wrote on the life of our Lord, as well 
 in prose as in verse, are not less numerous. 
 Already some of these legends, all of which do not 
 rest upon accredited authority, have been published; 
 that by Professor Meyer, of Groningue, from a 
 manuscript in the library at Liege, is one of the 
 most ancient, if not the most ancient, legend in 
 prose, that Elemish literature is acquainted with up 
 to this day.
 
 HAP. ir. FLEMISU LITERATURE. 53 
 
 When we carry our attention back to the mo- 
 nastic life and society of those times, we perceive 
 in the Elemish works of the middle of the four- 
 teenth century, a phenomenon hitherto unmen- 
 tioned in modern literature ; this is the apparition 
 of a theatre, strictly speaking, of tragedies, come- 
 dies, and farces, cultivated as part of classical 
 literature. A manuscript in which these produc- 
 tions are preserved dates from the beginning of the 
 fifteenth century, but evidently they are only copies 
 of the original pieces, which go back as far as the 
 middle of the fourteenth century, when the national 
 life of Planders was in its highest state of vigour. 
 They are ten in number, of whicli four are trage- 
 dies, written perhaps by a single author, who was 
 probably not the first to acquaint our ancestors 
 with scenic amusements. One of these pieces is 
 an allegorical subject, written in Latin, by a 
 Elemish monk named Ililo ; it is an imitation, 
 adapted to the theatre, of a dispute between Spring 
 and Winter. He also wrote, in the middle of the 
 ninth century, a life of St. Amand, in verse. 
 
 In the manuscript aboA^e mentioned, the pieces 
 are found already prepared for the stage, so that a 
 long tragedy is always followed by a little farce. 
 They are preceded by a prologue common to both, 
 which gives rise to the supposition that they might 
 have belonged to a Spreker, who represented them 
 
 £ 3
 
 54 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. ii. 
 
 with liis Gezellen. We will not discuss the manner 
 in which these pieces were performed. The author 
 tells us that the representations took place in the 
 upper part of a house, that the time between the 
 principal piece and the farce was sufficient to enable 
 the spectators to take refreshment, and that they 
 returned the next day, probably for the two succes- 
 sive representations. The three principal pieces are 
 entitled, Esmoreit of Sicily, the Duke of Brunsidck, 
 and Lancelot of Denmark. In order to make the 
 arrangement of these pieces understood, we will 
 endeavour to give an analysis of the first. • 
 
 The astrologer of a Mahometan king reads one 
 night in the stars that a son has just been born to 
 the King of Sicily, who will kill the Sultan, his 
 master, after having married his daughter and made 
 her abjure the religion of Mahomet. Master 
 Platus, the astrologer in question, devises a means 
 of frustrating destiny ; he will himself go to Sicily 
 and possess himself of the young prince by strata- 
 gem or gold. The Sultan will bring him up in his 
 palace, will make a good Mussulman of him, and 
 permit him to think that they are father and son. 
 
 In another place, also in Sicily, the birth of this 
 infant disturbs the repose of interested relatives. 
 Robert, the nephew of the king, in a paroxysm of 
 jealousy, wishes to kill his little cousin. He carries 
 him off, and at the moment when he is about to
 
 CHAP. 11. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 55 
 
 put his dark design into execution, Master Platus 
 presents himself before him, and proposes to pur- 
 chase the child and convey it into a Mahometan 
 country. The bargain is soon concluded, and the 
 astrologer carries the infant to Damascus to his 
 master, who makes the child pass for a found- 
 ling, and confides it to the care of his daughter 
 Damietta. 
 
 In the meantime the Court of Sicily is lost in 
 conjectures at the disappearance of the young 
 prince. Robert accuses the queen, who, according 
 to him, has committed this crime because another 
 has usurped her place in the affections of her grey- 
 bearded husband. The king, furious against his 
 guilty spouse, overwhelms her with abuse, and 
 delivers her up to his nephew, who thrusts her 
 into prison. 
 
 Esmoreit, the abducted child, has just attained his 
 eighteenth year. One day, wandering in the royal 
 gardens of Damascus, he expresses his astonishment 
 that the heart of his sister, the beautiful Damietta, 
 has not yet expanded to the sentiment of love. He 
 asks himseK if she does not nourish some secret 
 passion. At this moment the princess and her 
 attendant approach ; she has not perceived Esmoreit, 
 and in an unguarded moment she reveals to her 
 companion the secret of his birth. What a blow 
 to him ! Erom the lips of Damietta herself he 
 
 E 4
 
 56 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. n. 
 
 learns that lie is only a foundling, perhaps of base 
 extraction, brought without doubt from a distant 
 country. Suddenly his determination is taken; 
 whatever may happen, he Avill discover those who 
 have so inliumanly abandoned him. At this de- 
 claration Damietta can no longer conceal her 
 feelings : she exhausts every artifice to prevent the 
 departure of Esmoreit ; but all her reasonings, all 
 the emotions they excite in him, only strengthen his 
 resolution. Einally he promises to return. Dami- 
 etta then restores to him the scarf in which he was 
 enveloped on his arrival from his father's court, and 
 advises him to cover his head with it in order that 
 it may serve as a sign of recognition. 
 
 Thus attired, Esmoreit begins his journey, and 
 hastens from country to country. When arrived 
 in Sicily, he passes near a tower, from the top of 
 which a female prisoner calls to him, and asks from 
 whence he comes, and from whom he received the 
 scarf that he wears. " By Mahomet ! " he replies, 
 *' this scarf enveloped me when I was abandoned in 
 my infancy. I wear it thus in my adventurous 
 journey, in the hope of meeting with some person 
 in whom it may awaken a remembrance." " With- 
 out doubt," exclaims the prisoner, "this scarf is the 
 work of my own hands, and you are my child, you 
 are Esmoreit." " And who are you ? " replies the 
 young man ; " and who then is my father ? " •
 
 CHAP. n. PLEMISH LITERATURE. 57 
 
 The mother then gives tlie narrative of her mis- 
 fortunes. Esmoreit has a perception of the intrigues 
 of the traitor who covets the crown, and whose 
 machinations tend to the ruin of a king and a royal 
 prince. 
 
 The next scene begins by a monologue of Ptobert. 
 The king, having recovered his son, Robert has 
 reason to fear lest his plots should be discovered, 
 and expresses his regret that he did not kill the 
 prince rather than expose his life. However, no 
 suspicion rests upon him, and the king trusts him 
 with the mission of restoring the queen to liberty, 
 and conducting her back to court. Esmoreit is re- 
 quested to relate his adventures, and Robert, like 
 a bold courtier, expresses at every pause his indig- 
 nation. " Xow, my son," said the king, " you 
 must abjure Mahomet, and believe in Mary and in 
 God, whose goodness makes the grass of the fields 
 to grow." " Provided," answered Esmoreit, '' He 
 preserves Damietta, Avho has taken care of my life, 
 and whom I love beyond everything." 
 
 The scene is then changed to Damascus. Damietta 
 complains of the lengthened absence of Esmoreit. 
 Has he met with death, or pleasures that have made 
 him forget his gentle friend? She will know the 
 truth, even should she be obliged to traverse the 
 whole earth. She confides her design to Master 
 Platus, who consents to accompany her. Disguised
 
 58 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. ii. 
 
 as Christian pilgrims, they arrive at the Court of 
 Sicily, where Damietta again finds Esmoreit. So 
 many proofs of love and fidelity fill np the measure 
 of the young prince's happiness. The old monarch 
 profits by this circumstance to place the crown upon 
 the head of his son. At this sight, E^ohert hastens 
 to pay his court to the future queen, hut as he ad- 
 vances towards her, Flatus recognises and unmasks 
 the traitor. Robert attempts to deny everything ; 
 the astrologer overwhelms him with proofs. Robert, 
 disconcerted, appeals ''to the judgment of God ;^^ 
 but no one will enter the lists with him, and he 
 soon loses all hope of escaping the vengeance that 
 Esmoreit has sworn to take upon the author of his 
 mother's sufferings : he undergoes the punishment 
 of traitors, and the gallows puts an end to the life 
 of the wretched man. 
 
 We see that Art has known how to give action 
 and interest to this piece, to which neither the 
 Duke of Brunswick nor Lancelot are inferior. In 
 the latter fidelity triumphs over the most revolting 
 humiliations. The Duke of Brimsivick is the history 
 of that mysterious sympathetic link in which lovers 
 delight to believe. 
 
 The farces contained in tliis collection turn for 
 the most part upon domestic misfortunes. They 
 depict the manners of the day as being coarse and 
 unbridled. Every observer who is without preju-
 
 CHAP. II. FLEMISU LITERATURE. 59 
 
 dice must perceive in these theatrical pieces traces 
 of a profound knowledge of the human heart, joined 
 to a ready imagination, and a talent of exposition 
 which denotes that this was not a first attempt at 
 the Drama. 
 
 Divers sanguinary contests broke out in Planders, 
 during the fourteenth century, between the burghers 
 and peasantry, and the nobles. 
 
 Many satirical songs and poems prove the hatred 
 which existed between the two classes. We will 
 give as an instance one of these pieces, composed 
 by a knight against his adversaries, who were known 
 under the name of Kerls, which was probably the 
 origin of the English word Churls. 
 
 " The Churls (Kerls) are the theme of our song. 
 They are evil-minded, and wish to lord it over the 
 knights. They wear long beards, and their clothes 
 are ragged. Their hoods are all awry on their 
 heads, and their stockings and shoes are in holes. 
 They eat clotted milk and bread and cheese all the 
 day long, and that is why the Churl is so stupid. He 
 over-eats himself. 
 
 " A great piece of rye-bread is quite enough for 
 him. He holds it in his hand as he goes to the 
 plough. He is followed by his wife in rags, with 
 her mouth stuffed half full with hemp, turning her 
 spindle, till it is time for her to go and prepare the 
 porringer for their meal. They eat clotted milk and
 
 60 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuAr. ii. 
 
 bread and clieese ail the day long, and that is why, 
 
 " To the merry-makings he goes. He thinks 
 himself a lord, and is ready to knock down all who 
 come in his way with his knotted club. He drinks 
 wine until he is quite drunk, and then is all the 
 world his own, — towns, villages, and lands. They 
 eat clotted milk and bread and cheese, and that is 
 why, &c. 
 
 " See the Churls go with their Zealand knives 
 showing from their pockets.* Oh! may they be for 
 ever cursed. Well shall we punish these Churls. 
 We shall ride our horses through their fields. They 
 have none but evil thoughts. We shall trample 
 them on the ground, and hang them. They cannot 
 escape us. They must bear the yoke again. They 
 eat clotted milk and bread and cheese, and that 
 is why the Churl is so stupid. He over-eats him- 
 self." 
 
 * Mr. Kervjn, in his Histoire de Flandre, and Mr. Louis de 
 Baecker, in Chants Historiques de la Flandre, have both repro- 
 duced that song with some variations, and both, curiously enough, 
 have made the same mistake as to the Zealand Knife, the one not 
 translating the vrord at all, and the other supposing it signifies a 
 stick, baton noueux.
 
 Gl 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 DISTURBED STATE OF THE COUNTRY. — CONTESTS WITH FRANCE. — PURITY 
 OF THE FLEMISH LANGUAGE DETERIORATED. — CHAMBERS OF RHETORIC. 
 — PILGRIMS. — INTRODUCTION OF THE DRAMA. — THE " LANDJUWEEL " 
 AND "HAEGSPEL." — BURGUNDIAN DRAMA. — ALLEGORICAL PIECES. — THE 
 "refrain." — ANNA BYNS, CASTELEYN, VAN GHISTELLE, FRUYTIERS, ETC. 
 — GOVERNMENT OF THE DUKE OF ALVA. — TRANSLATION OF THE PSALMS 
 OF DAVID. VAN DER VOORT. HOUWAERT AND HIS WORKS. — CELE- 
 BRATED PREACHERS. — LUTHER's DOCTRINES OPPOSED. DATHENUS, 
 
 MARNIX, ETC, 
 
 The Battle of Roosebeke, in wliicli the second 
 Artevelcle and liis companions succumbed to 
 numbers, was the last great enterprise of the 
 [Flemish against Prance. Half a century earlier, 
 Jacques Artevelde had raised a formidable league 
 against a country which had incessantly harboured 
 ambitious designs against Planders ; but the course 
 of events insensibly augmented Prench influence, 
 not only over this country, but over a great many 
 other adjacent provinces. The flames of civil war 
 and discord raged throughout the whole of the Low 
 Countries. Planders was divided into patriots and 
 partisans of Prance, into Claiiwaerts and Leila erts.* 
 
 * The first called so because they wore three lion's claws as 
 their badge ; tlie others because their red caps were erabroidered 
 ■with three fleurs-de-lis.
 
 62 TLEMISH LITERATURE. chap.iii. 
 
 In Holland the JSoelcschen and Kabeljaiiwsclwn ; 
 in Eriesland, the Schieringers and the Vetkoopers; 
 in Gueldres, the parties of Bronlcliorst and of 
 Hekeren, waged deadly war against each other. 
 The Duke of Brahant was childless. The Count of 
 Planders, a prince who showed an unconquerable 
 aversion to the language of his subjects, gave his 
 daughter, his only legitimate child, in marriage to 
 the Duke of Burgundy, and thus threw open to 
 this powerful sovereign the entrance to the Low 
 Countries. Taking a skilful advantage of the cri- 
 tical position of the different provinces, the Dukes 
 of Burgundy made themselves masters of them in a 
 few years, they were even upon the point of 
 founding a kingdom capable of maintaining glori- 
 ously the struggle against Prance. But the Bur- 
 gundian rule brought with it a scourge more 
 formidable than the armed battalions of our foes. 
 The Burgundians were a French people, and their 
 dukes aspired to the throne of the Valois. 
 
 The purity of the language had already deterio- 
 rated ; in Elanders by the double contact with the 
 French and with Hainault, and in Holland by the 
 transmission of the sovereign crown to the House 
 d'Avesnes. The spirit of imitation took possession 
 of the people, and the poets especially employed a 
 heterogeneous language, a visible sign of the decay 
 which had fastened upon the Netherlands. But 
 we will not anticipate events.
 
 CHAP. in. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 63 
 
 On the accession of the Ilouse of Burgundy, the 
 Sprelers and the Gezellen had for the most part 
 forgotten thek wandering life, and contracted more 
 sedentary habits. The spirit of association, so power- 
 ful at that time, could not fail to act upon the poets, 
 and the same causes which prompted men to unite in 
 order to train themselves to war, caused them also 
 to associate for important literary purposes. 
 
 Some writers date the origin of the Plemish 
 Chambers of Rhetoric from an advanced period of 
 the Middle Ages. The town of Diest lays claim to 
 the possession of a poetical society as early as 1302, 
 and according to their device, a Mou YInCIt, the 
 Catherinists * of Alost would date from the year 
 1107. These assertions are improbable, although 
 pilgrims returning from the Holy Land may have 
 given representations in these placeSj and tradition 
 may have augmented these chance meetings into a 
 permanent society. It is also likely that the towns 
 of Diest and Alost were for a time the residence of 
 bands of fiddlers. 
 
 We have just spoken of the pilgrims. Although it 
 may be inexact to assert that the drama was intro- 
 duced into the Netherlands by those who had 
 visited the Holy Land, — for it is to the Homans 
 that we are directly indebted for the theatre, which 
 at no period had entirely disappeared from that 
 
 * The Catherinists derived their name from St. Catherine, their patroness.
 
 64 TLEMlSIi LITERATURE. chap. iii. 
 
 country, — still it is incontestable that pilgrims, on 
 their return to Europe, gave scenic representations 
 of the life of our Lord. In the churches, on great 
 festivals, these representations concluded the Divine 
 service at Christmas, at the Epiphany, at Easter, 
 and at Pentecost. They were given either by 
 priests or hy Gezellen ; probably the clergy and the 
 laity mutually assisted in the same representation. 
 They also played in the public places on the days 
 of procession : thus Henri Bal, of Malines, at the 
 request of the Magistrate of Lierre, composed and 
 played with his companions from 1432 to 1475, at 
 various times in this city, the play of St. Gomare 
 and others. The Chamber of Pthetoric of Brussels, 
 La Fleur cle Ble, also played, in 1444, TJie First 
 Joy of the Virgin Mary, the most ancient Flemish 
 piece which has been discovered up to the present 
 day. 
 
 In our opinion, the Chambers of Rhetoric, or 
 dramatic and literary societies, owed their origin to 
 the Gezellen, whether their meetings were only 
 temporary, or whether, like the crossbow-men and 
 other corporations of this kind in the fourteenth 
 century, they had formed themselves into societies 
 and confraternities. Some authors believe that 
 they arose from the companies of crossbow-men ; we 
 are inclined to think that these latter, very flour- 
 ishing at that period, called in the Gezellen to
 
 CHAP. in. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 65 
 
 enliven by tlieir scenic performances their festivals, 
 Avliicli sometimes lasted several days. 
 
 It is in the first years of the reign of the House of 
 Burgundy that we see these companies form them- 
 selves and increase rapidly, throw themselves open 
 to competition, and receive subsidies from the 
 towns. In the year 1394, the city of Tour nay held 
 a literary meeting, at which the members of the 
 Flemish Chambers were invited to strive for pre- 
 eminence. But in the Walloon country these socie- 
 ties were not so universal as in Elanders, where 
 in a short space of time there was scarcely a town 
 to be found, or even a simple village, which 
 had not its Chamber of Bhetoric. From Elanders 
 the taste for these assemblies passed into Brabant. 
 John IV., the founder of the University of Louvain, 
 following the example of his cousin, the Duke of 
 Burgundy, encouraged arts and sciences. After 
 Brabant, Holland and Zealand took part in the 
 movement. 
 
 The object and tendency of the Chambers of 
 Hhetoric could not fail to attract the attention of 
 the people. We have seen in the preceding chapter, 
 that Maerlant, the great reformer of the literature 
 of the thirteenth century, and with him some 
 worthy contemporaries and successors, had given a 
 didactic direction to the public mind. The people, 
 it is true, always gifted with a sense of poetry, did
 
 66 FLEMISH LITERATURE. ciup. in. 
 
 not abandon the sentimental style, as we shall soon 
 have occasion to demonstrate ; but constrained in 
 their tastes by those who monopolised all intel- 
 lectual resources, they formed themselves upon this 
 new model, and literature took a deplorable direc- 
 tion with regard to form, expression and thought ; 
 and yet this school attained maturity, and produced 
 a people who dared to measure themselves with 
 the most formidable despot that Europe was ever 
 afflicted with before the nineteenth century ! 
 
 The Chambers of Rhetoric were divided into two 
 categories : the free and the not free. To be 
 declared free, two grants were necessary, one from 
 the principal authority of the place, who, of his own 
 accord, should engage to furnish subsidies ; the 
 other from the upper chamber {hoofdkamer), for so 
 the Al2^1ia and Omega of Ypres and the Fontaine of 
 Ghent were entitled. By the latter, the right to 
 be present at the meetings was secured. 
 
 The members of a chamber were divided into 
 chiefs, Hoof den t and into private members, Ka~ 
 oneristen or Kamerhroeders. The chiefs were called 
 JPrince, Mn^^eror, JDoi/en, Uoofdman, Facteur. There 
 was also a treasurer. Fiscal ^ to keep order, a stan- 
 dard-bearer and a jester. 
 
 The Facteur was the poet of the society. His 
 office consisted in composing poems and theatrical 
 pieces for great solemnities; in drawing up notes 
 of invitation, and solving questions proposed by
 
 ciup. in. FLEmSH LITERATURE. 67 
 
 other societies. He was obliged to teaeli the art of 
 rhetoric to the young men, and distributed to each 
 actor his part. Every Facteur had his device ; 
 generally an anagram of his name, by which he 
 was known throughout the country. The real head 
 of the chamber was the Frince, who enjoyed im- 
 mense privileges. The Facteur was never permitted 
 to read a poem without dedicating it to him. 
 
 The chambers occupied themselves with the com- 
 position of poems of diiferent kinds, which at 
 stated times they recited in public ; but the scenic 
 representations which took place on solemn festi- 
 vals, or at the opening of the provincial meetings, 
 were especially received with enthusiasm. These 
 meetings were held in general for the free chambers 
 of the same province. Among the large assemblies 
 of the middle of the sixteenth century, we may cite 
 the Landjuweel of 1539 at Ghent, for the Elemish 
 Chambers, the Landjuweel and the Saegspel of 
 1561 at Antwerp, for the Chambers of Brabant, 
 and the Landjuweel of the same date at Rotterdam, 
 for the Dutch Chambers. The term Landjuweel 
 (jewel of the country) signified the assemblage 
 which took place in the towns, or rather the tri- 
 umphal entry of these societies. The name of 
 JLaegspel (sport of the hedge) was given to the 
 solemn entry into a village, or into a town, for the 
 purpose of closing a Landjuweel. 
 
 E 2
 
 68 TLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. in. 
 
 Nothing could be more magnificent than these 
 festivities, given at the expense of the nobility and 
 of the citizens ; foreigners as well as natives of the 
 country hastened to witness them, and to join in 
 the general acclamation, and thousands of cavaliers, 
 vying in luxury and wealth, eagerly assembled 
 there ; amateurs also abounded, borne on triumphal 
 cars, and disputing the palm of science and of art. 
 The nobility were not long before they mixed in 
 these solemnities ; at first from idleness, then in 
 order to imitate those sovereigns who, like Henry 
 IV. of Brabant, and Phil ippe-le-Bel, were attached to 
 Memish literature and to national literary tastes ; 
 later, they found it convenient to consult together, 
 during these assemblies, upon the more serious 
 interest of the commonweal. 
 
 We have seen what was the relative position of 
 these provincial chambers towards each other, and 
 we have said tliat there were hoofdkamers, which 
 were privileged by the right of grants. 
 
 Philippe-le-Bel, laying down this fact as a prin- 
 ciple, and striving to give a uniform impulse to all 
 the Flemish Chambers, established at Malines in 
 1493 a sovereign Chamber, to which he appointed, 
 as sovereign Prince, his chaplain, Pierre Aelters. 
 The decree was passed, " according to a convention 
 of the different chambers, colleges, and confrater- 
 nities of the art of rhetoric in the Flemish tongue
 
 CHAP. III. FLEMISH LITERATURE. G9 
 
 in the Low Countries, at least the majority of them, 
 specially convoked for this purpose." In 1505 
 Aelters removed this sovereign Chamber from 
 Malines to Ghent, where he procured an altar for 
 it in the Prince's own chapel. It was to consist of 
 fifteen members, and the President or Prince was 
 the sovereign himself ; but as he could not always 
 . be present at the meetings, a Stadtholder (or lieu- 
 tenant) was elected. Pifteen pupils were obliged 
 to be instructed in the art of rhetoric, and as this 
 institution was partly religious, fifteen ladies were 
 admitted into it, in honour of the fifteen joys of 
 Mary. The general assemblies were held fifteen 
 times in the course of the year. This distinction 
 provoked the jealousy of the other chambers of 
 Ghent, the more so as the Fontaine lost thereby its 
 right of grant. They appealed to the Council of 
 Planders, and to the Grand Council at Malines, but 
 the Emperor Maximilian, in his quality of guardian 
 to his nephew Charles V., gave his decision on 
 tAvo separate occasions in favour of the sovereign 
 Chamber. This institution hardly survived the 
 Flemish princes, and Charles V. was its last chief. 
 It greeted the Prince of Orange's arrival in 1577, 
 and this was the last sign of vitality it gave. 
 
 The drama which the Burgundian dominion in- 
 troduced from Prance was entirely allegorical ; it 
 was a cold representation of vices and virtues suc- 
 
 F 3
 
 70 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. in. 
 
 ceetling to the drama of the Middle Ages, a feehle 
 link which connected ancient with modern tragedy. 
 The allegorical drama, or spel van sinne, was well 
 suited to the tendency of the Belgian mind, at once 
 religious and satirical, and the more the public 
 taste took the tone of criticism, the more it ac- 
 quired that reactionary character which terminated 
 in reform. From before the middle of the sixteenth 
 century the spirit of Luther ruled in Planders, and 
 manifested itself by the voice of the rhetoricians. 
 The greater number of the allegorical pieces played 
 at Ghent at the Landjuweel in 1539, upon the 
 question, " What is the greatest consolation to the 
 dying man ? " are cutting satires against the Pope, 
 the monks, indulgences, pilgrimages, &c. Thus, 
 from their first appearance, these pieces, authorised 
 by Charles V. himself, were prohibited, and it is 
 not without reason that the Landjuweel of 1539 
 was cited, as having first stirred up the literary 
 world in favour of reform. 
 
 Let us go back to the facts which in this age of 
 excitement crowd around us. 
 
 The dramas destined for competition being an- 
 swers to given questions, their number increased 
 considerably, and each society had its repertory. 
 This repertory has generally remained unpublished, 
 and even most of the authors of the published 
 pieces are only known by their device. Amongst
 
 cu.u'. III. TLEMISH LITERATURE. 71 
 
 those wlio liave written allegorical pieces in the 
 sixteenth century, are Byssaert van Splcref D^An- 
 denarde, and Guillcmme van Haecliti of Antwerp. 
 
 We may also point out as having fallen into the 
 same oblivion, the authors of the " esbattements," 
 satirists par excellence, the guardians of the farces 
 of the Middle Ages, in some respects more witty 
 and sarcastic, but certainly quite as immoral. 
 
 The Burgundian dominion made no great im- 
 provement in these matters. The pieces of Corneille 
 JEceraert, ayIio Avrote between the years 1509 and 
 1531 for the theatre of the I>rie Sanctinnen of 
 Bruges, are written in the same strain as those 
 which we have already passed in review. They are 
 '"^ fabliaux" put into a dramatic form: an aston- 
 ishing licence sometimes pervades them ; but this 
 was tolerated in dramatic writings, for our ancestors 
 seem to have had other ideas than ourselves upon 
 the manner in which the stage should act upon the 
 audience. They represented scandal and vice in all 
 their nakedness, and in the century of which wq. 
 are speaking, these were exhibited through the 
 prism of satire and burlesque : then, at the con- 
 clusion, came the moral application. A modern 
 audience, on the contrary, requires to be amused, 
 and will on no account listen to any application. 
 
 The pieces of Everaert that have remained unpub- 
 lished (and, it must be confessed, no one has been
 
 72 ELEMISH LITERATURE. chap. in. 
 
 bold enough to publish them) are about thirty in 
 number, almost all " esbattements " intermingled 
 with some sjjelen van simie, and tafelspelen, trifles 
 which were represented at the feasts of nobles 
 and of private individuals, compositions of divers 
 kinds, often bearing the impress of the religious 
 and political opinions of the day. Among the few 
 authors of "esbattements" whose names are known, 
 we will mention J. De Kmihher, of Brussels, and 
 Colyn van Myssel. 
 
 The favourite form of drama was not exclusively 
 such as we have mentioned above ; there were some 
 pieces which recalled the theatre of the Middle 
 Ages ; such as the Somulus of Van Diest, a poet of 
 Brabant, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. 
 This Homulus is a species of Don Juan, perhaps 
 the boldest conception we possess of that century ; 
 and justifies, even at the present day, the reception 
 it met with, and which procured it the honour of 
 being translated into Latin. The Saint Trudon, an 
 unpublished drama of Eastraets, of Limburg, full 
 of spirit and power, belongs rather to the so-called 
 religious class of plays. 
 
 The historical form was even well adapted to the 
 allegorical drama, which at once employed for its 
 purposes the Bible, ancient history and the annals 
 of the country. Among the authors of this style, 
 Ave may mention the priest Frangols Machet, whose
 
 ciiAr. III. FLEMISH LITERATURE 73 
 
 " Destruction of Sodom," played at Courtrai, lias 
 not yet been publislied ; Keyaert, Ilouwaert, Diiym, 
 and, perhaps, De Roovere, Manilius, and Van Man- 
 der, whose dramatic pieces have never been found. 
 Here the Senses, or Zlnnekens, are usually only two 
 in number, playing satirical and comic characters, 
 and in some respects taking the part of the chorus 
 in the Greek, or of the humble follower in the 
 French tragedies. It is thus that in Eiwas and 
 Dido of Houwaert, Jonstich van Herte, and Fame 
 van JEere^ real satires, the consuming passion of the 
 amorous couple is brought before us even while 
 they are uttering bitter sarcasms against the weak 
 Trojan prince, the frenzied queen, and the constancy 
 of women : and as at that time the public mind 
 was incessantly pre-occupied with the critical posi- 
 tion in which our country was placed, the poet did 
 not fear to interrupt the unity of the piece by 
 making direct allusions to the politics of the day. 
 
 If from the theatre we turn our eyes to that 
 other form of poetry so much cultivated by rhetori- 
 cal poets, viz., the Refrain (Referein), we see this 
 same tendency to an assimilation with the spirit of 
 the times, the earnest feeling of the people sculp- 
 tured in the couplets as upon blocks of granite. 
 Here, again, we find no names ; for what are a score 
 of names to thousands of poems, the production of 
 the popular mind, read and sung before assembled
 
 74 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. in. 
 
 cities ! What are a hundred names in a country 
 where innumerable towns and even hamlets counted 
 at least their Chamber of E-hetoric, and sought with 
 equal ardour to develope every intellectual faculty? 
 But the theatre was exclusively under the control 
 of the Chambers, while the Refrain, possessing 
 more individuality, made its way independently of 
 the multitude. Thus the theatrical pieces are, for 
 the most part favourable to reform, while the Re- 
 frain had sturdy supporters on the side of Kome ; 
 and if, in general, the Catholic Refrain does not 
 triumph over the advocates for reform, at least it 
 maintains an advantageous position, and Anna Byns 
 is acknowledged on all sides to have held a dignified 
 place at the head of the poets of the early part of 
 the sixteenth century, by the energy of her style, 
 the purity of her language, and the harmony of 
 her versification. 
 
 Anna Byns, a woman of extraordinary piety, was 
 a teacher at Antwerp, her native town, where she 
 died about the middle of the sixteenth century, at 
 an advanced age. She was the oracle of the Catho- 
 lics, who named her the Sapjjho of Brabant; a name 
 but little suitable, it is true, but perfectly justified 
 by the ideas of that period. They translated her 
 verses into the Latin tongue, and reprinted her 
 works during a century and a half. Certainly the 
 reputation of an author is ephemeral, especially
 
 CHAP. in. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 75 
 
 when party spirit sustains or lowers it, but we may 
 boldly assert — and onr judgment is safe, since we 
 find ourselves supported by all our critics — that the 
 reputation of Anna Byns has in no wise deterio- 
 rated. But let the reader judge for himself. Here 
 is a very close translation of one of her hymns : — 
 
 " When on tlie verdant mead you tread, 
 
 And soothe your heart with Nature's charms, 
 Think of the land above your head, 
 Which spring, and spring eternal warms ; 
 Where ripen fruits on earth unknown. 
 And flowers without blight or thorn. 
 How great that God whose word alone 
 Could thus the earth with flowers adorn ! 
 Let your mind cull those fadeless flowers, 
 Your heart that happy home desire, — 
 More brilliant glow those heavenly bowers 
 Than any monarch's rich attire. 
 And now is music all around ! 
 All things proclaim their Maker's praise ! " 
 
 Anna Byns shone in her greatest splendour under 
 the government of Margaret of Austria; that is to 
 say, at a time when the national language was in its 
 most degenerate state. Although this princess was 
 not in fact anti-national, and has even had several 
 pretty Flemish verses attributed to her, yet she Avas 
 active in propagating French notions. Brought up 
 at the court of Louis XI., she was enthusiastically 
 in favour of everything that Avas French. She
 
 7G FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. in. 
 
 attracted around her tlie nobility of tlie country, 
 whom she placed in contact with a crowd of French 
 courtiers; she encouraged Frenchmen of wit and 
 talent, with whom she disputed the palm of poetry, 
 and aided by the first musicians of Europe, and the 
 most renowned dancing-masters, her court became 
 a continued succession of festivities. In the midst 
 of this vortex of dissipation the people and their 
 language were forgotten, the nobility acquired a 
 half-foreign mode of communication, and the nation, 
 always inclined to imitate their superiors in rank, 
 accepted this jargon as the type of elegance and 
 refinement. The Flemish language which had al- 
 ready lost its primitive purity, soon became difficult 
 to be recognised, even when poets wielded the pen, 
 and as at court, where all was frivolity and coquetry, 
 so in literary circles, the true national feeling dis- 
 appeared from poetry, and gave place to vapid and 
 unmeaning ornament. 
 
 It Avas then that Casteleyn appeared, the legis- 
 lator of the Flemish Parnassus of this period. En- 
 dowed with more patriotism than poetical genius, 
 he wrote an Art of Foetry, called by him, after the 
 fashion of the time. Art of Mhetoric (Const van 
 Hhetoriken). It was rare in these days for a poet 
 to publish his works, for especial note was taken 
 of those who were bold enough to do so. Thus the 
 w^ork of Casteleyn, who was a priest and agent of
 
 CHAP. III. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 77 
 
 the Chamber Fax Vohis at Audenarde, only ap- 
 peared after the death of the author, hut it was 
 preceded by a reputation which he had the good 
 fortune to preserve during the whole of the Bur- 
 gundian epoch. It Avas the vade mecum both of 
 the factor and the pupils, divested of the exaggera- 
 tion of the schools. In imitation of Prance, from 
 whence we received them, the writers of the Low 
 Countries made use of an infinite variety of verses, 
 the names of which were equally barbarous and 
 trivial, and which Casteleyn had the good sense 
 to condemn in spite of the literary mountebanks. 
 The styles most extolled by him, were the 
 Ballad, the JRefrain, and the Snede. They were 
 poems divided into stanzas, the first from seven to 
 nine, the second from ten to twenty verses, while 
 the stanzas of the last were of an indefinite number. 
 The Refrain took its name from the last verse, 
 which usually recurred at the end of each stanza, 
 and was reckoned more or less perfect according to 
 its epigrammatic value. There were three diff'erent 
 kinds, the serious, the gay, and the amorous ("in't 
 AV}"se, in't zotte, en in't amoureuse"). The latter 
 was a mere flight of fancy, but the two former 
 represented the ideas and feelings of the day. It 
 is in the Refrain that Anna Byns, in a language of 
 singular purity for that epoch, hurls her energetic 
 epigrams against Luther and his adlierents. A
 
 7S FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iir. 
 
 meek vroman, whom faith rendered bold and cou- 
 rageous, she treated the language with such great 
 felicity, that her poems, obsolete as the gram- 
 matical form may be, have not ceased to please by 
 the harmony of the rythm and the simplicity and 
 elegance of the style. 
 
 A few years previously, Corneille van Ghistelle, 
 of Antwerp, had translated in verse the Comedies 
 of Terence, the Satires of Horace, the ^neid of 
 Virgil, and the Heroides of Ovid. His language is 
 pure, and his translation poetical, although not so 
 faithful as could be desired. 
 
 We must not forget to mention John Frny tiers, 
 who, besides many works in prose and verse, pub- 
 lished a rhymed translation of the book of JEccle- 
 siasticus, full of power and harmony. 
 
 Let us quote a few lines : — 
 
 " Who the boundless sky has spanned, 
 Or fathomed the deep sea, 
 Or watched the mighty Maker's hand, 
 In all His secresy ? 
 He is a King of power sublime, 
 Of harmony the cause ; 
 His tlu'one is Truth, more old than Time, 
 Obeyed with one applause." 
 
 Liberty of conscience was enthusiastically advo- 
 cated. Whilst the placards of Charles V. threat- 
 ened with the faggot a few poets and wretched
 
 CHAP. III. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 79 
 
 women, books were disseminated by thousands 
 among the people. It was a grand and noble 
 spectacle, this agitation of the popular mind, stimu- 
 lated by the art of printing, recently introduced 
 into every town of importance, and strengthened 
 moreover by uneasy anticipations of a future whicli 
 loomed more and more distinctly in the distance. 
 
 The desire of investigation necessitated the trans- 
 lation of the Bible into the vulgar tongue. This 
 task was confided to the University of Louvain. It 
 was a sort of compensation for the repeated affront 
 to the national feeling by the introduction of the 
 French tongue into the departments of high ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 In the meantime the E^eformation continued to 
 make progress ; the press took up the controversy, 
 and showed resistance in proportion to the restraints 
 imposed upon it. Those who perished victims to 
 their opinions were honoured as martyrs, and 
 hymns were chanted to their honour. Messire 
 Guillaume van Zuylen van Nyevelt published a 
 collection of the Psalms of David, which he had set 
 to music to the best known popular airs. These 
 psalms formed an essential part of the Protestant 
 service, replacing the Catholic rites. They were 
 greeted with such enthusiasm by the people, not- 
 withstanding every persecution, that in the year 
 when they appeared tliey underwent at Antwerp
 
 80 FLEMISH LITEHATURE. chap. in. 
 
 six different editions. Out of precaution, the well- 
 knoAvn songs were parodied, and wlien necessary 
 some other poetical compositions were substituted. 
 
 Considered as art. Van Zuylen's work is of the 
 highest interest. In the general degeneracy of the 
 language, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
 popular song remained, if we may so express it, 
 intact, and protected from the corruption of the 
 rhetoricians. It continued to be what it had been 
 in the preceding centuries, simple and natural with 
 respect to poetical composition and to musical ex- 
 pression. The romances, the ballads, the love-songs, 
 even the religious hymns, were indicative of an 
 independent people, leading a life of their own, 
 treading the path of progress without being dis- 
 turbed by ideas irrelevant to their simple mode of 
 existence. 
 
 Van Zuylen even sought to imitate the artless 
 simplicity of the popular song, and had the merit 
 of saving it from oblivion. But on the other hand, 
 in adopting the psalm, the primitive song was 
 forgotten, and the melody alone remained. The 
 Catholics imitated the Reformers ; their hymns were 
 set to popular airs, and the text of the greater 
 part of the old Plemish chants was lost for ever. 
 The moral sentiment, however, remained always 
 strongly impressed in the national character, and 
 during the great crisis of the sixteenth century, as
 
 cuAP. III. I'LEMISII LITERATURE. 81 
 
 well as Ijeforc this period, the didactic forin of 
 poetry continued to prevail. The years wliich pre- 
 ceded the appearance of Anna Byns, sterile in lite- 
 rary productions, and wliich may be regarded as 
 a season of repose in the midst of great social 
 agitation, these years forming the last half of the 
 fifteenth centviry, reckon among their eminent men 
 Jacob Vilt, of Bruges, Lambert Goetman, Gerard 
 Boelants, Thierry de Munster, and Jean van den 
 Dale. The works of these authors are Avorthy 
 of praise, for the purity of the language and the 
 elegance of the style ; the versification being yet 
 free from contact with the rhetoricians. The best 
 known among them is Jean van den Dale, who 
 carried off the prize allotted by the Chamber of 
 Uhetoric of Brussels, Ket Boeh (The Book). This 
 prize consisted of a precious ring given by Philippe- 
 le-Bon. There remain to us two poems of Van den 
 Dale, printed after his death, about the middle of 
 the sixteenth century; one is entitled Z)<? Hiiere vcoi 
 der Doodt (The Hour of Death), the other is called 
 Die Stove (The Bathing-house). 
 
 The subject of the latter poem is a conversation 
 between two women upon the difficulty of living at 
 peace with their husbands, and on the best means 
 of procuring domestic repose. The versification is 
 easy and harmonious. This work contained, un- 
 fortunately, ideas but little conformable to the 
 
 G
 
 82 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. hi. 
 
 requirements of the Duke of Alva ; Die Stove was 
 proliibited, and the works of the poet laureate 
 became literary curiosities. 
 
 Here is a ballad of the sixteenth century, edited 
 by TFillems, and of which the original is anterior 
 to Charlemagne : — 
 
 " ' I will return to my country/ says Master Hildebrand ; 
 ' who will show me the way to Bern, my native town ? That 
 country has become unknown to me since many a long day ; 
 for thirty years I have not seen Dame Godeline/ 
 
 '' ' Do you wish to return to your country ? ' says Prince 
 Abelor; 'you will find on the heaths a young and brave 
 Avarrior ; you will find on the frontier the young Hildebrand. 
 See, he advances towards you.^ 
 
 " ' If he dares to attack me, I cleave his buckler in twain, 
 and he shall have no reason to boast; I will cleave his 
 buckler in twain, with so fearful a stroke, that his mother 
 shall wail over him for a year.^ 
 
 " ' You shall not do so,^ says the noble Dideryk (Tlieo- 
 derick). 'I love the young Hildebrand with all my heart; 
 you shall salute him properly, such is my will, and he will let 
 you ride tranquilly by.^ 
 
 " At these words, the old Hildebrand entered a garden of 
 roses on the frontier ; on the frontier he met Hildebrand the 
 younger. 'What is that old man doing in my father's 
 country ? ' 
 
 " ' You wear a breastplate of pure metal, like the son of 
 a king : you rejoice my heart. You shall stay here and 
 rest yourself.' The old man laughed a strange laugh, and 
 replied : 
 
 " ' Shall I stay and rest here? All my life long I have
 
 CHAP. in. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 83 
 
 spoken only of Avar and of battles, only of war and of battles 
 throughout my journey ; I tell you, young man, on that 
 account is my beard nearly white.' 
 
 " ' That beard, I Avill tear it out, and I will strike you so 
 violently that the blood shall run down your checks : you 
 shall give me your breastplate and your buckler ; you are 
 my prisoner, and you may thank God that I spare your 
 life/ 
 
 " ' As to my breastplate and buckler, they suit me very 
 well ; and no one has ever yet intimidated me.' They ceased 
 their colloquy, and went out to fight with the sword ; what 
 they did you shall know. 
 
 " The youngest of the combatants gave the old man a 
 terrible blow, such as he had never received ; his horse drew 
 back twenty paces. ' A woman taught you to strike thus ! ' 
 
 " ' If I went to a school of women, it would be a shame to 
 me. In my country there are neither knights nor nobles. I 
 have, in my father's palace, neither knights nor companions, 
 and that which I have not yet learnt I am learning.' 
 
 " The old man waves his buckler, and strikes so, that the 
 sword of the young Hildebrand falls from his hand. Then he 
 takes him by the body, and throws him down on the grass. 
 
 " ' When one takes a pleasure in knocking one's self against 
 an ii'on pot, one ought to like punishment ; such is your case, 
 young man, you would measure yourself against me. Confess 
 yourself now, I will be your confessor, that you may escape 
 the wolves.' 
 
 " ' Wolves are wolves, they run about in the forest. I am 
 a brave youth of the Greek stamp ; my mother is named 
 Dame Godclinc, a noble princess, and Hildebrand is my 
 father.' 
 
 " ' Thy mother is named Dame Godclinc, a noble princess, 
 and Hildebrand is thy father ! Thou art then my son ? He 
 
 G 2
 
 84 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. hi. 
 
 raised the visor of his casque, he kissed him. Now I thank 
 God that I see thee again alive.^ 
 
 ^' ' Oh ! my father, my dear father, the wound which I 
 gave you, I shall feel it every day in my heart.' 
 
 " ' Enough, my son ; console thyself, I know a balm for 
 this wound. Let us go hence, and may God guide us on our 
 journey.' 
 
 " Those who saw them pass, asked, ' Who is that prisoner 
 whom you are conducting ? ' and they replied, ' It is a 
 wicked man — such another was never begotten by woman.' 
 
 " It was on a Saturday, at the hour of Vespers, that the 
 young Hildebrand entered the garden of roses ; he wore on 
 his casque a golden garland, and had by his side a beloved 
 father. 
 
 " He led him as if he were his prisoner, then made him sit 
 at table by his mother's side, ' INIy son, my dear son, your 
 conduct surprises me ; why do you place this prisoner near 
 me? ' 
 
 " ' My mother,' said he, ' my mother ! I Avill tell you 
 the truth ; down there, on the green heaths, he overthrew 
 me, and almost deprived me of life. It is the old Hildebrand, 
 my beloved father ! Take him in your arms, and bid him 
 welcome ! ' 
 
 " She took him in her arms, and gave him a kiss on his 
 movith. ' Now, I thank God that I see you once more 
 alive ! Let us depart from hence, and return to our own 
 country, to Bern, where we are well known.' " 
 
 "Witliout dwelling upon many otlier works, ex- 
 cellent as regards morality, but mediocre in a 
 literary point of view, we pass on to the govern- 
 ment of the Duke of Alva, tlie man whose
 
 CHAP. III. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 85 
 
 ostensible mission was to calm the political and 
 religious excitement in the Low Countries. 
 
 This arrogant and inflexible soldier was as un- 
 fortunate in the execution of his purpose as he was 
 persevering in his endeavours to destroy the na- 
 tional spirit of the Belgians. Instead of peace, he 
 hrouo'ht us civil war and the scaffold. Under the 
 government of this man, who caused ten thousand 
 heads to fall under the axe of the executioner, exile 
 became a boon. Possessed of a penetrating mind, 
 a single glance was sufficient to enable him to dis- 
 cover wherein lay the moral force of the people, 
 and a war against the language and literary insti- 
 tutions of the country was immediately resolved 
 upon. The duke began by writing his letters 
 patent to the Council of Brabant, in French ; but 
 this provocation passed by unheeded. He took the 
 most severe measures against the Chambers of 
 B/hetoric : his intention was to seize the first op- 
 portunity to destroy them all ; Ave have a proof of 
 this in his treatment of the Chamber of Malines. 
 After the horrible sack of this town in 1572, under 
 the command of his son, the Duke of Alva restored 
 its rights and privileges, but remained inflexible 
 in prohibiting the re-opening of the Chamber of 
 Bhetoric. The Burgomaster, Antoine van Stralen, 
 whom we have seen at the head of the celebrated 
 Landjuweel of 1562, was beheaded by his orders ; a 
 
 G 3
 
 86 FLEMISH LITEEATURE. cuap. in. 
 
 great number of rhetoricians sank under the tor- 
 ture, and a still greater number sought to avoid 
 this horrible death by flight. Trankenthal, Cologne, 
 "Wezel, Embden, in Germany, London and Norwich 
 in England, were filled with Elemish refugees, who 
 formed themselves into communities, remaining 
 faithful to their country, but their hearts swelling 
 with hatred against the foreign despot, then its 
 absolute ruler. These unhappy exiles sought con- 
 solation in religion, and employed themselves in 
 publishing Canticles and Psalms for Divine service. 
 We have seen that Van Zuylen van Nyewelt had 
 published the Psalms of David with the melodies 
 borrowed from popular songs ; it was a means of 
 facilitating the access of the reformed chants to the 
 people. Some years later, and wdien the above- 
 mentioned towns swarmed wdth Elemish fugitives, 
 a noble of Ghent, Jean TJtenhove, considering these 
 melodies profane, made a new translation of the 
 Psalms, a part of which he published during his 
 seclusion at Embden in 1557 and 1561. His com- 
 plete translation of the Psalms was considered by 
 the Protestants as the most suitable for their form 
 of worship, and it appeared in London in 1566, a 
 short time after the death of the author. Althoudi 
 much in request, this translation was soon replaced 
 by that of Dathenus, published in 1556, and re- 
 printed at Houen, at Delft, at Norwich, and else-
 
 CHAP. III. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 87 
 
 where. Tliis work, flowing in its versification, and 
 pure in style, surpassed, in the opinion of the 
 Dutch, all subsequent translations up to the end of 
 the last century, an epoch at which the Protestant 
 hymns were entirely remodelled in the Low Coun- 
 tries. Many superior to these had certainly been 
 published. In a literary point of view the work of 
 Dathenus was very inferior to that of Philippe de 
 Marnix, which had also the merit of being trans- 
 lated from the Hebrew text, whilst that of Dathenus 
 was from the translation of Clement Marot. But 
 the latter followed the colloquial idiom more than 
 Marnix ; and at the Council of Dordrecht (Synod 
 of Dort), held in 1618 and 1619, in the discussions 
 on the translation of the Bible, several grammatical 
 forms were adopted peculiar to West Planders, the 
 native country of Dathenus, and to Holland. It 
 must, moreover, be remarked, that the Protestants 
 preserved, so to say, a superstitious respect for the 
 work of the celebrated translator, even after the 
 introduction of the new hymns at the end of the 
 last century. 
 
 In 1565, another translation of tlie Psalms ap- 
 peared at Ghent in Marot' s style, by the painter 
 Luc de Deere, and in 1579 Guillaume van Haecht 
 published his collection for the Lutheran service at 
 Antwerp. The translation made by Marnix ap- 
 peared in the latter town in 1580. Other religious 
 
 G 4
 
 88 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iii. 
 
 hymns, for the use of sectarians, were written by 
 Plemiugs or by Braban9ons, among others by Jean 
 Praytiers, one of the councillors of the Prince of 
 Orange, and by Van Mander, the celebrated painter, 
 who, with his whole family, quitted his birthplace, 
 the market-town of Meulebeke, to live at Am- 
 sterdam, after this town had abandoned the cause 
 of the king. 
 
 Erom this short statement of the publication of 
 hymns non- Catholic, we may understand how great 
 must have been the religious agitation in Flanders 
 and Brabant. Dathenus and Hembyse reigned 
 supreme at Ghent, and during this remarkable 
 period the capital of Elanders established a school 
 for the use of the Beformers ; the professional 
 chairs were almost all occupied by Elemings, and 
 during its short existence it produced distinguished 
 pupils, the greater number of whom became after- 
 wards celebrated at Leyden and elsewhere. To the 
 list of didactic authors of the sixteenth century we 
 must add two names belonging to that brilliant 
 phalanx of men who, at a period when vigorous 
 spirits abounded, wielded at the same time the pen 
 and the sword. They are Jerome van der Voort, 
 of Antwerp, and J. B> Houwaert, of Brussels. The 
 first served in the army of the Prince of Orange, 
 and accompanied him in all his expeditions. After 
 having carried away a great many prizes at the
 
 ciiAP. III. TLEMISII LITERATURE. 89 
 
 literary meetings, lie wrote, during his military 
 career, a work in verse upon the miseries of human 
 life, remarkable for a deep insight into the human 
 heart, a healthy tone of philosophy, and an ener- 
 getic style. Houwaert, who remained a Catholic, 
 was also one of the avowed partisans of the Taci- 
 tame. He took an active part in the defence of* 
 Brussels, and the capture of tlie citadel of Antwerp 
 from the Spaniards. Besides his dramatic pieces, 
 which we have already had occasion to mention, he 
 composed several didactic poems, such as The 
 Gardens of the Virgins, The Course of the World, 
 Folitical Instructions, &c. The first of these works 
 is a series of sixteen hooks or cantos upon the 
 dangers to which the fair sex is exposed ; it tends 
 to demonstrate that love has no reality but when 
 it is centred in God. A great many exemplifications 
 taken from the Bible, from history, and from fables, 
 colour it witli a pleasant variety, often enlivened 
 by a harmonious refrain. Pew poems ever created 
 such a sensation or had such popularity. It was 
 thought at one time that a new Homer had ap- 
 peared in Brabant. The young girls of Brussels 
 presented the autlior with a crown of laurel, and a 
 crowd of poets of both sexes emulously tuned their 
 lyre to his honour. Houwaert was the predecessor 
 of Cats, to whom he appears to have served as a 
 model for the composition of The Nuptial Ring (De
 
 90 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. hi. 
 
 Ti'ouwring). He possessed the same facility in 
 composition, for he finished his work in a single 
 winter, in the midst of war, and in spite of his 
 military duties. With the exception of this one 
 point of resemblance, a comparison between these 
 two poets would be unjust, although it may be 
 truly said, that the literature of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury has been too much depreciated ; as if, all 
 things considered, the age of Hooft, of YOndel, and 
 of Cats, was not germinating in the productions of 
 the preceding century. 
 
 At this period of intellectual labour, prose was 
 not less cultivated than poetry, and we may say, to 
 its honour, that it was less profaned by the ad- 
 mixture of foreign elements. Almost all matters 
 appertaining to human intelligence were developed 
 in the [Flemish tongue, and at this epoch it is well 
 known that the Low Countries produced the most 
 eminent men of the age. Pulpit eloquence ac- 
 quired betimes a masculine energy, — an evident 
 proof of earnest application to the study of the 
 language, as well as to the subjects which were 
 sought to be propagated. The most celebrated 
 Plemish preacher of the fifteenth century whose 
 name has reached us, is Jean Brugman, of Kempen, 
 who died at Nimeguen in 1473, after having 
 preached in several towns of the northern Low 
 Countries. Harphius, who died at Malines in
 
 CHAP. III. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 91 
 
 1478, and Jean Storm, whose light was quenched 
 about the same time at Brussels, shone in this 
 phalanx of ascetic preachers, at the head of whom 
 we have already met with \an Kuyshrock, and 
 Avliere we also find the names of Taulerus, Brinker- 
 ink, Gerardus Magnus, or Do Grootc, Thomas-a- 
 Ivempis, and many others celebrated for their 
 eloquence. 
 
 This would not be the proper place to speak of 
 the vices which marked the preachers in general, 
 as well among the ascetics as the scholars ; it is, 
 however, worthy of mention, that the chief fault 
 of this period, the absurd medley of sacred and 
 profane subjects, shows itself in a much less degree 
 in the Flemish sermons than in those of France and 
 Italy. 
 
 When the spirit of Luther made its way into 
 the Low Countries, the mission of combating his 
 ideas was not suited to the gentle and contempla- 
 tive spirit of mysticism ; it required more energy, 
 more ardour of controversy, every means which 
 opposition could employ. The first champion 
 worthy of his success was Herenthals, who began 
 preaching at Ypres, in 1519. After him came 
 Corncille Adriacnssens, of deplorable memory, if 
 one may believe the infamies attributed to him 
 under the name of Broeder Cornells. Born at 
 Dort, in 1521, he for some time taught polite lite-
 
 92 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. in. 
 
 rature at Bruges, and became remarkable in the 
 pulpit for his declamations against Erasmus. He 
 thundered accusations of heresy against him with 
 that burlesque monastic eloquence which seduces 
 the multitude by its singularity, but not by any 
 devotional unction, in which he was utterly de- 
 ficient. Adriaenssens published his sermons at 
 Antwerp in 1556. 
 
 But the rapid and universal progress of the E-e- 
 formation seemed to take away from the Catholic 
 preachers the gift of eloquence. Encountering in 
 general only the incredulous or the fanatical, they 
 had at last no other weapons but bad jests or con- 
 troversial arguments. When at last the successes 
 of the Prince of Parma had restored to the King of 
 Spain his authority over the Belgian provinces, 
 preachers were then seen to mount the pulpit truly 
 worthy of the name. Such were Jacques van der 
 Borg, Costerus, and especially Adriani, of Antwerp, 
 whose sermons went through several editions. 
 
 During this state of disorder, the results obtained 
 by the Beformers cannot have been much more 
 satisfactory. We possess no information relative to 
 the oratorical talents of those who perished at the 
 stake, accused of heresy; but it is scarcely probable 
 that the sermons of Herman and of Dathenus were 
 more than denunciations against the king, the 
 Catholic worship, and its ministers. Dathenus,
 
 cuAP.iii. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 93 
 
 wlio wc liavo already mentioned, as a translator of 
 the Psalms, played too important a part during 
 these troublous times for us not to pause a moment 
 on his name. There are diiferent opinions as to 
 the manner of writing it, and as to his birth-place. 
 Born at Ypres, or at Poperingue, Pierre Dathenus 
 bore in his mother tongue the name of Daets or 
 Daeten. It is supposed that he was a monk, of the 
 order of the Carmelites, or of that of St. Prances or 
 St. Dominick ; even the year of his birth is un- 
 known. "With such mysterious antecedents, Da- 
 thenus was of an enterprising character, and an 
 ardent disposition, possessing a popular style of 
 eloquence, suited to gain over the masses. When 
 still young, he was persecuted for his opinions. 
 During his exile, he preached successively in 
 London, Prankfort, Prankenthal, and Heidelberg, 
 and assisted at several synods and congresses. On 
 his return to his native country, he travelled 
 through the Netherlands, evincing everywhere an 
 extraordinary activity, and attracting the mass of 
 the people by his sermons. He is accused of having 
 encouraged the Iconoclasts, which appears to us 
 probable enough, for he was on terms of intimacy 
 with the Prince Palatine, Prederic III., and fre- 
 quented his court when this prince, by a decree 
 of the 3rd October, 1565, a few months before the 
 churches in Belgium were pillaged, ordered and
 
 94 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. in. 
 
 organised the plunder of the Catholic cathedrals in 
 his territories. At Ghent, Dathenus contracted a 
 friendship for Hemhyse, sharing his opinions and 
 his energy. He passed into Holland, where he was 
 thrown into prison for having made use of expres- 
 sions insulting to the Prince of Orange. When he 
 regained his liberty, he returned into Germany, 
 where he changed his name for that of Pierre 
 Montanus, and employed himself in the practice of 
 medicine. He settled at Staden, near Bremen, and 
 ultimately at Elbing, where he died in 1590, re- 
 gretted by his new fellow-citizens, who erected a 
 magnificent tomb to his memory, surmounted by 
 his statue. 
 
 His life was tliat of a real genius. He was the 
 man of the people, called everywhere, abroad as 
 well as at home, to the most honourable posts ; 
 persecuted by some, beloved by others, and dying 
 at a distance from his native country, venerated 
 by those who had generouslj'' extended their hospi- 
 tality to him. His powerful influence over the 
 multitude he owed especially to his seductive elo- 
 quence ; but his zeal for the propagation of Pro- 
 testant principles also contributed to his popularity. 
 The eagerness that was shown to nominate him 
 President of the Synod of Dort, in 1570, sufficiently 
 indicates the confidence of the learned in his vast 
 acquirements.
 
 cuAu. III. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 95 
 
 When WG speak of Datlienus, the name of Thi- 
 lippe de Marnix presents itself to tlie mind. Drawn 
 towards each other hy their political views at a time 
 when opinions differed so widely, they both directed 
 their steps to the same goal, and with the same 
 ardour, although by different paths. While the 
 voice of Dathenus roused the people, and by its 
 vehemence drew them away from Eome and from 
 Spain, the writings of Marnix produced the same 
 results. Sprung from one of the first families of 
 the country, the very soul of the confederation of 
 the nobles, the intimate friend and counsellor ot 
 William of Orange, and renowned for his vast eru- 
 dition, it was by anonymous writings that he struck 
 the severest bloAvs at his adversaries. Laying aside 
 the vanity of an author, he felt that his voice would 
 be so much the more powerful if it should resound 
 as the universal expression of the nobility, the men 
 of learning, and of the people. He was the mys- 
 terious author of the patriotic song TVllhelmiis van 
 Nassauwen, and of the Roomsche Blekorf (The Hive 
 of the Koman Church). This last work, which 
 Marnix wrote during his exile, appeared in 1569. 
 It is, under an apologetic form, an outrageous 
 satire upon Catholic worship and institutions, cap- 
 tivating the mind of the reader both by the purity 
 and novelty of the style and the piquancy of the 
 recital.
 
 96 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. hi. 
 
 Marnixj Lorn in Brussels in 1538, gave a new 
 impulse to literature. With liim began an era 
 which presaged the sudden downfall of the litera- 
 ture of the rhetoricians, and the inauguration of 
 the age of Hooft and of Vtfndel. His prose far sur- 
 passed that of his predecessors : more concise in 
 style, it evinces a deeper philosophical study of the 
 ancients, from whom the writer borrows all the 
 poignancy which renders him the rival of Erasmus. 
 He is also superior to most of his contemporaries 
 in his perfect acquaintance with the language. In 
 consequence of the innumerable barbarisms intro- 
 duced during this period into the Flemish tongue, 
 a fatal licence necessarily prevailed. Marnix con- 
 tributed by his labours to the correction of gram- 
 matical errors, for the grammars of the day treated 
 almost exclusively of orthography. These treatises 
 were limited to three : the Elemish Orthography 
 [Nederlandsche Spellinghe), by Joos Lambrecht, 
 which appeared at Ghent in 1550; L' Ortographia 
 Linguce Belgicce, by Ant. Tsestich, or SexagiuSj at 
 Louvain, in 1576 ; and the Flemish Orthography 
 {NederdnUsche Ortliograpliie) , byPontus de Heuiter, 
 at Antwerp, in 1581. But already, at the end of the 
 preceding century, the " Brothers of Common Life" 
 had published grammatical precepts opposite to 
 their Latin grammars ; and it is probably to these 
 men, as commendable for their national feeling as
 
 CHAP. III. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 97 
 
 for their piety, that we owe those Latin-Flemish 
 dictionaries, among which the most ancient copies 
 go as far back as the year 1477. At a later period 
 we see Servilius in 1650, and Adrien Junius in 
 1577, facilitate by their dictionaries the study of the 
 classical authors of Eome, then the objects of the ex- 
 clusive admiration of the Belgians. But in these 
 lexicons the language itself Avas not explained ; this 
 essential task was at first undertaken for a single dia- 
 lect, that of Cleves, by G. van der Schueren, who 
 printed his Teutonista of Diiytschlencler at Cologne, 
 at the end of the fifteenth century, and afterwards 
 more generally by Christoffe Plantyn and by 
 Kilian. The latter especially opened a rich mine 
 to Elemish philologers, and his etymological dic- 
 tionary has continued to be the great standard of 
 reference in the historical study of the language. 
 About the middle of the sixteenth century, the 
 Society of Bhetoric of Amsterdam, Li liefde bloei- 
 gende, by the works of some of its members pub- 
 lished in the name of this association, placed itself 
 rapidly at the head of all the societies of the Low 
 Countries. Its first production was a grammar, in 
 which the preconised system of orthography is not 
 the result of a single dialect, as with Lambrecht 
 and Tsestich ; Spiegel, its supposed author, having 
 equally consulted philologers of Holland, Brabant, 
 
 and Planders. This chaml)cr also published a 
 
 H
 
 98 FLEMISH LITEKATUKE. ciiai>. hi. 
 
 course of logic {Riiyyh-beicerp van de Redekace- 
 ling) and a course of rhetoric [RederijcTc-kimst). 
 Although but lately established, it possessed even 
 then the three most remarkable literary men 
 among the Dutch, Spiegel, E-oemer Visscher, 
 and Coornhert. The latter devoted himself espe- 
 cially to elegant prose, and became the rival of 
 Marnix. His translatious of Cicero and Boece, 
 are distinguished for fidelity and purity of style, a 
 praise too seldom merited by the translators of the 
 first half of the fifteenth century. But the greater 
 the progress in the study of languages, the greater 
 the precision and elegance in the translations. In 
 general, prose had a great superiority over poetry. 
 To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to 
 compare the Odyssey by Coornhert, the Iliad and 
 the Georgics by Van Mander, the ^neid and the 
 Comedies of Terence by Van Ghistelle, with the 
 translations into prose either by the poets or the 
 classic prose writers. 
 
 In these times of stormy religious and political 
 discussions, the nation felt a renewed thirst for 
 poetry. Side by side with its Canticles, it breathed 
 forth amorous ditties and the tales of romance 
 which had been sung to the lyre of the last min- 
 strels, since become foot-soldiers, or lansquenets, 
 spread from hamlet to hamlet. The epic poems of 
 the times of the Crusades having ceased to satisfy
 
 CHAP. in. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 99 
 
 the people in their primitive form, they were trans- 
 lated into prose without entirely losing their 
 poetical essence. These romances occupied the 
 first place in what is called the blue lihrco'ij, still 
 much sought after throughout Germany. In these 
 old editions the reader is sometimes shocked by a 
 rhythmical cadence, and even by rhymes, melan- 
 choly remains of the ancient epic forms : but these 
 defects, which in that age of transition were not 
 regarded as such, are fully compensated for by 
 a simplicity of style which gives to the recital a 
 marvellous charm, acknowledged by all who have 
 emancipated themselves from the yoke of preju- 
 dice. Among the romances of this time we will cite 
 MariJcen de Nimegue, printed at Antwerp in 1514, 
 and written half in verse, half in prose. It is the 
 strange history of a female Eaustus, not less in- 
 teresting than that which has occupied for three 
 centuries the learned world. 
 
 By the side of the romances are ranged the 
 travels which at this period were made in eastern 
 countries. The most remarkable are those of Joos 
 van Ghistel, a noble of Ghent, who must not be 
 confounded with his namesake and contemporary, 
 Corneille, whom we have already noticed among 
 the translators of the classical poets of Rome. 
 
 In a literary point of view, the historians of this 
 period, worthy of mention, are few in number. 
 
 h2
 
 100 FLEMISH LITERATUEE. ciiap. iii. 
 
 The most celebrated belong to Elanders. Nicolas 
 DesparSj of Bruges, wrote a Ckronique of this 
 country, in an agreeable style, but it possesses to a 
 great degree the defect of the first half of the 
 sixteenth century to which it belongs ; that is to 
 say, it is crowded with borrowed terms and ex- 
 pressions. This chronicle, of which the tone is 
 completely national, and the defects attributable to 
 the partial education of the author, is a faithful 
 type of the language then in vogue among the 
 Plemish nobility. Another historian is also cited, 
 Marc van Yaernewyck, born at Ghent, where he died 
 at an advanced age. He wrote, amongst other 
 works, a History of Belgium (Historic van Belgis), 
 showing considerable erudition and research, but 
 wanting method in the arrangement. This work 
 is besides curious for its traditional portion, which 
 entitles certain parts of it to be classed under the 
 order of romance. 
 
 Before bringing this epoch to a close, we may 
 affirm, that, in the sixteenth century especially, 
 the Flemish people, who are fond of mingling the 
 love of the mysterious with the positive, devoted 
 themselves particularly to the study of natural 
 sciences, especially to botany. About the year 1540, 
 the celebrated German professor Euchs brought 
 out at Basle his New Herbarium (Den Nieuwen 
 Herbarius), the most ancient work of the kind
 
 CHAP. III. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 101 
 
 known in our literature ; he dedicated it to Mary 
 of Hungary, sister to Charles V. Ten years later, 
 Dodone, of Malines, published his great treatise 
 upon the same subject, which acquired an immense 
 popularity in the country, and was translated into 
 several languages by tlie most esteemed scholars. 
 
 H a
 
 102 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 SPANISH DOMINION IN THE LOW COTJNTKIES. — ITS DEPRESSING EPi'ECT 
 ON LITEEATUHE. — CONDITION OP THE COUNTRY, — EMIGRATION FROM 
 THE SOUTHERN PROVINCES. — REVIVAL OP LITERATURE. — HOOFT, COSTER, 
 
 BREDERO, ETC. — ADAPTATION OF BIPLICAL SUBJECTS TO THE STAGE. 
 
 TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. — HEINSIUS, VAN DER NOOT, VONDEL, ETC. — 
 HOOFT AND HIS 'WORKS.— POETRY OF CATS. — VAN ZEVECOTE. — ATTEMPTED 
 SUBVERSION OF THE FLEMISH LANGUAGE. — FLEMISH WORKS PROHIBITED. 
 — LITERARY PROGRESS PARALYSED. — YMMELOOT. — ECCLESIASTICAL IN- 
 FLUENCE ON THE LITERATURE OF THE SPANISH PROVINCES. — TRANS- 
 LATIONS FROM THE LATIN. — DE WREE, DE VOS, ETC. PASTORAL 
 
 POEMS. — THE OPERA. — COMEDIES OF DE CONJ.NCQ. — INTOLERANCE OF THE 
 RELIGIOUS DRAMA. — OGIER AND HIS WORKS. 
 
 History has rarely had to inscribe upon its tablets 
 a revolution more noble in its principles, more 
 glorious in its actions, or more happy in its results, 
 than the insurrection of the Low Countries against 
 the Spanish dominion. No revolution had so deeply 
 imbued the popular mind, nor had any political 
 overthrow ever been conducted with such a feeling 
 of national unity by all those whose intelligence 
 elevated them above the vulgar. But alas ! human 
 passions, still more than the military genius of the 
 common enemy, were the cause that only a portion 
 of the country reaped the fruits of these gigantic 
 efforts. Moral force sought support elsewhere, and 
 the provinces which had been the first to expel the
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 103 
 
 intruders, fell again successively under the yoke, 
 losing, with their liberty, their most illustrious 
 sons, and the encouraging example of their leaders. 
 The farther the sixteenth century advanced, the 
 more alarming was the aspect of emigration in the 
 Flemish provinces. Previous to the arrival of the 
 Duke of Alva, it was inconsiderable in proportion 
 to the large population of the country, but on the 
 appearance of this bloodthirsty tyrant, there was 
 a general flight, which continued during several 
 years, the men of talent and capacity being the 
 first to leave the country. The decrees of the 
 Prince of Parma contributed to depopulate the 
 land ; whenever a town fell into his power, he 
 granted to those who remained attached to the re- 
 formed worship a delay of two years to quit the 
 country. The Court of Madrid preferred to make 
 a desert of this beautiful territory rather than to 
 grant it liberty of conscience. The aspect of the 
 country was indeed distressing ; in the metropolis 
 of Planders horses grazed where busy streets had 
 been, and the wolves were literally masters of the 
 plains around the towns. Six thousand families of 
 Ghent received their passports. Wealth and talent 
 had retired before the enemy, to live in peace and 
 freedom beyond the Scheldt and the Mouse. At the 
 end of the century the United Provinces were en- 
 riched by a considerable number of preachers, 
 
 ]i 4.
 
 304 ILEMlSIi LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 theologians, teachers, printers, engravers, physicians, 
 lawyers, diplomatists, mathematicians, admirals, su- 
 perior officers, historians, and poets ; all either 
 Flemings or natives of Brabant. The University of 
 Leyden alone, received, successively, seventeen pro- 
 fessors belonging by birth to the southern provinces. 
 The noble family of Damman, of Ghent, counted 
 among its members seven preachers, the greater 
 number of whom emigrated to Holland. Marnix, 
 De Menin, and Aertsens were considered skilful 
 diplomatists, and were employed on different em- 
 bassies. The noble families of Van der Aa, d'An- 
 delot, Boisot, Van Dorp, De Fiennes, De Loen, De 
 Merode, Van Zuylen, and many others, produced 
 men who, to their last breath, fought on land and 
 sea for the independence of the Low Countries. 
 
 This multitude, of every rank and condition, con- 
 tributed greatly to the progress of civilisation, 
 concentrated in a single focus, and to the burst of 
 nationality which soon placed the United Provinces 
 in the first rank among modern nations, and ren- 
 dered its literature at the same time worthy of so 
 remarkable a country. Thus the towns vied with 
 the States-General in their reception of these thou- 
 sands of new citizens. Many of them had been 
 members of chambers of rhetoric : the towns of 
 Holland instituted new chambers for themselves, 
 distinguished from the original corporations by the
 
 cnAr.iv. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 105 
 
 name of Chambers of Planders or Brabant. They 
 existed at Amsterdam, at Haarlem, Leydcn, and 
 Gonda. With respect to art, these institutions con- 
 tinued to follow in the track indicated by Casteleyn, 
 whose works, as well as those of several otlier poets 
 of the preceding epoch, were reprinted at different 
 times at Rotterdam ; they were more occupied with 
 the magnificence of the meetings and public fes- 
 tivals than with the study of the language and 
 with the spirit of poetry and oratory, considered as 
 art. Nevertheless, if they made but little sensible 
 progress as regards form — and, in this respect, the 
 Dutch Chambers were as backward as those of the 
 emigrants — they possessed patriotism in an eminent 
 degree. The Brabant Chamber of Amsterdam, ict 
 leve rider jonste (generosity animates it), rivalled in 
 dramatic art the most illustrious native institutions; 
 it encouraged the first efforts of Vondel, the prince 
 of Elemish poets, who belonged to Antwerp, al- 
 though, accidentally, born at Cologne, where his 
 parents had first taken refuge. Besides Karel van 
 Mander, with whom we have made the reader ac- 
 quainted in the preceding epoch, the best known 
 among the emigrant rhetorical poets are Zacharie 
 Heyns, Jean Colm, and Abraham de Koningh. 
 
 Zacharie Heyns, born at Antwerp in 1570, a\ as 
 the son of Peter Heyns, who bequeathed to him 
 the love of archeology and geography. His pro-
 
 106 FLEMISH LITERATURE. en a p. i v. 
 
 fession was printer and engraver. Having passed 
 into Holland, he settled first at Amsterdam, and 
 afterwards at Zwolle, where he died in 1640. He 
 composed divers collections of didactic poems, in 
 which we meet with a happy mixture of erudition, 
 a healthy tone of philosophy, and a simple style. 
 Besides this, he displayed a wonderful energy in 
 the cause of the drama, wrote several pieces and 
 spelen van sinne, which were mostly represented by 
 the Chamber of Brabant at Amsterdam, and by the 
 Flemish Chamber at Haarlem. 
 
 With the revival of our literature, a notable 
 change ensued in the form of scenic performances. 
 The allegorical representations were lively allusions 
 to the vices of the age ; in the new drama these 
 characters were generally sustained by the people, 
 and uttered in their provincial jargon, which ren- 
 dered the contrast more striking, and shed over the 
 picture a spirited variety of colouring. The drama 
 of that day was a perfect representation of society : 
 man was there depicted under the different phases 
 of civilisation ; the upper classes were for a while 
 stripped of their conventional mask, and the people, 
 notwithstanding their rough exterior, were made to 
 utter the noblest sentiments. 
 
 The Greek chorus was adapted for this purpose, 
 following the example of the English, who were not 
 long, however, in relinquishing it. But the chorus,
 
 CHAP. IV. FLE]\IISH LITERATURE. 107 
 
 in fact, served less to impart to the audience the 
 secret feelings of the principal personages, than to 
 draw moral maxims from their actions. This latter 
 design was always kept in view in the last chorus, 
 called by Vondel " the moral of the play." 
 
 The principal poets who entered upon the new 
 dramatic career wore ITooft, Coster and Brcdcro. 
 The first, who is better known as a historian, and 
 to whom we must again revert, brought out his 
 Gerard van Velseii in 1G13, the same year in 
 which Coster published his T'ljslcen van der ScJiilden. 
 Coster was the real originator of the Amsterdam 
 Theatre. In his time the pieces were there repre- 
 sented by the Chambers of Elanders and Brabant. 
 Coster established, at his own expense, a new cham- 
 ber, named the Academy of Coster ; it was inaugu- 
 rated in 1617, but serious discussions having arisen 
 between the old and the new institutions, the magis- 
 trate thought it his duty to interfere. In 1632 tlie 
 two chambers were reconciled ; a new theatre was 
 built for them, which was opened in 1638 by the 
 representation of the Gishert van Amstel of Vondel. 
 
 In the time of Colm and of Do Koningh, the 
 Chamber of Brabant strove worthily with the an- 
 cient chamber, and with the academy of Coster. 
 With respect to art, the first of these two dramatic 
 authors scarcely deserves mention ; his versification 
 is harsh and his style obscure. Contrary to the
 
 108 ■ FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 generality of his contemporaricsj he preferred al- 
 legorical personages to the chorus. Like Hooft, 
 he disdained to introduce satirical characters into 
 tragedy. This novelty was tried by De Koningh, 
 and brought into practice by Bredero. 
 
 In truth, it seems more conformable to human 
 nature to look sometimes with a laughing eye on 
 those actions which lead too often to melancholy 
 results. It is the property of a happy organisation 
 to be able sometimes to jest at destiny, and the 
 sardonic smile of misfortune — the most tragical 
 expression, perhaps, which the soul can give — is 
 not far removed from the sad earnest gaze with 
 which we search the human heart and question the 
 coming events of time. It was so that England 
 acquired her Shakspeare, the Genius of Tragedy 
 pm' excellence, at least in modern ages. 
 
 In the Low Countries, Bredero carried this style 
 to its highest point. This writer represented so 
 faithfully the occurrences of common life, extracted 
 so skilfully the tragic matter from every-day events, 
 shed over everything so much cordial joviality, and 
 so much good humour, that we sincerely regret 
 not to see his manner more generally adopted on 
 the stage. A capital defect in the Belgian character 
 is the tendency to oscillate between different foreign 
 systems, to suffer themselves to be governed by a 
 narrow spirit which judges their own works of
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 109 
 
 genius according to the ruling taste of other nations. 
 It is thus that Bredero, and thus that even A^ondcl 
 fell, and later, all those whose writings did not adapt 
 themselves to the yoke of Boileau. Perhaps the 
 tragedies of Bredero perished under the accusation 
 which was brought against his comedies and farces. 
 The latter represented the manners of the day with 
 a licence quite in opposition to the ideas of the 
 present time, but which was then less offensive. It 
 is true that thunderbolts were launched from the 
 pulpit against the poet, but he alleged in his de- 
 fence the writings of the ancients, which were 
 everywhere offered to youth as models of art and 
 taste. The war against dramatic authors did not 
 stop here ; the theatre and the pulpit were then 
 two hostile camps, discharging against each other a 
 murderous fire. This animosity became invested 
 with a character of extreme bitterness, when, in 
 1630, Coster again brought upon the stage his 
 tragedy of Ijohigenie, directed against the clergy 
 of Amsterdam. Vondel had also a terrible oppo- 
 sition to encounter, not only against his JPalamcde, 
 which represented, under disguise, the death of 
 Oldenbarnevcld, but also against the tragedy of 
 Jjiicifer, which was banished the theatre through 
 the influence of the dominant clergy, although in 
 the contest the town-council declared in favour of 
 the poets. Vondel at least ought not to have en-
 
 110 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cjiap. iv. 
 
 countered objections ; on one side he represented 
 classic art, reconciling it as far as he could with 
 Cliristian ideas ; and on the other, his pieces flowed 
 from a source which also supplied the Reformers : 
 they were taken for the most part from the history 
 of the Bible. The inhabitants of Amsterdam hav- 
 ing been great gainers l)y the new order of things, 
 revelled in the prosperity of their metropolis, sud- 
 denly become so powerful ; but Vondel was the 
 child of misfortune, a foreigner by birth, and pro- 
 scribed by the town of his forefathers. The Bible 
 was the great consolation of the refugees, and Yondel 
 anticipated the wants of his companions in misfor- 
 tune, by choosing the subject of his tragedies from 
 the Holy Writings. 
 
 In this respect Abraham de Koningh may be 
 regarded as the precursor of Vondel. Having early 
 escaped from the pursuit of the Duke of Alva, he 
 also found a resource and consolation in adapting 
 biblical subjects to the stage. His three tragedies, 
 Achal), JepJite, and Samson^ the first of which was 
 played in 1612, do not deserve the complete oblivion 
 into which they have fallen. Nevertheless, it is 
 only in the choice of subjects that the pieces of De 
 Koningh have any resemblance to those of Vondel. 
 With the exception of Colm and two or three other 
 dramatic poets, the chorus was generally adopted ; 
 but Vondel has made the nearest approach to the
 
 cuAP. IV. TLEMISH LITERATURE. Ill 
 
 Greek tragedies Ly the poetical beauty with which 
 he has adorned the action, and the sublime cha- 
 racter with which he has invested the chorus. He 
 had strictly folloAved the rules of Aristotle with the 
 exception of unity of place. The other dramatic 
 poets paid no attention to these rules, some from 
 ignorance, others from contempt of what they 
 called pedantry, but especially, it appears to us, 
 because they formed another conception of the 
 pleasure which should result from the development 
 of an action. The Greek masters, in order to con- 
 centrate the misfortunes of a hero into one dramatic 
 effect, first impressed themselves deeply with their 
 subject, and with the struggles of this personage, 
 who was finally crushed beneath the decree of 
 Destiny; they thus excited two sentiments of the 
 most stimulating nature, fear and compassion. 
 Vondel arrived at the same result, although he did 
 not make Fate the basis of his tragedies. He had 
 recourse to Divine Providence, making use of that 
 beneficent conception in contrast to the cruelty of 
 the heathen ; but in the struggle this over-ruling 
 Providence leaves less freedom to the poAVcrs of 
 man, and for this very reason the situation of the 
 hero has less effect upon the exalted sentiments of 
 the spectator. It is perhaps to be deplored, tliat so 
 sublime a genius as Vondel should have considered 
 the Greek the only rational tragedy, for of all the
 
 ] 12 FLEMISH LIfERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 countries of Europe it is certainly the least suited 
 to the Low Countries. Thus, those who were in 
 appearance its greatest partisans imitated little of 
 it hut the chorus. Por instance, Guillaume van 
 Nieuwelandt, of Antwerp, and Jean de Valckgrave, 
 a physician at Courtrai, were the only persons who, 
 in the Spanish provinces, made any approach to 
 the Greek style. They both rejected the unity of 
 time and place ; Van NieuAvelandt even terminated 
 his dramatic career as he had commenced it, hy 
 avoiding, as far as possible, the Greek' conception 
 of the drama. He called Allegory to his assistance, 
 and bestowed on Love a colouring almost chivalrous. 
 In the first years of the seventeenth century es- 
 pecially, great efforts were made to give a more free 
 and elegant form to the Elemish language, and to 
 restore to it that stability of which it had been de- 
 prived under the House of Burgundy. The transla- 
 tion of the Bible into the vulgar tongue is a work 
 of the highest interest in this respect. It was by 
 the translation of sacred books that Luther estab- 
 lished the high- German language, and it is to an 
 analogous labour that Plemish is in a great measure 
 indebted for its present form. After many fruitless 
 attempts made at the same time by isolated scholars 
 and by ecclesiastical authorities, the General Synod 
 of Hort decided, in 1618, that a translation should 
 be made from the original Hebrew and Greek texts,
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 113 
 
 after the example of Marnix ; but his great age, 
 added to the important functions to which he was 
 called, obliged him to leave his work incomplete. 
 The new translators and revisers belonged for the 
 most part to Plemish and Braban9on emigrants : 
 they were Baudaert, of Deynse ; Thys, of Antwerp ; 
 Paukeel, of Bruges ; Walseus, of Ghent ; Van 
 Kerckhoven, surnamed Polyander, of Ghent ; Plan- 
 cius, of Dranoutre, near Ypres; Sebastian Damman, 
 of Ghent, and Gommarus, of Bruges, the leader of 
 that celebrated band which caused its dogmas to be 
 received as the religion of the state. The transla- 
 tion was completed by two Plemings, Baudaert and 
 Walaeus, and two Dutchmen, Bogerman and 
 Hommius. Thus any idea of making one dialect 
 prevail over another was removed. All these men, 
 devoted to the fundamental work of our new edifice, 
 the study of Plemish, were equally attached to the 
 higher branches of education, and enjoyed, as literary 
 or learned men, very great consideration. Baudaert, 
 among other works, wrote a general history, of 
 which the style is clear and precise ; Thys is known 
 by several works of controversy and history. Plan- 
 cius, the first professor of navigation at Amster- 
 dam, and the founder of the Dutch navy, deserves 
 to be cited in mathematical and physical sciences, as 
 the Avorthy rival of Simon Stcvin, tliat illustrious 
 scholar who so nobly avenged his mother tongue, 
 
 I
 
 IM FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 and to whom his native town of Bruges, after two 
 centuries of forgetfulness, has just erected a monu- 
 ment. 
 
 At this same Synod of Dort, the states of the 
 United Provinces nominated as their secretary 
 another celehrated Pleming, Daniel Heinsius, l)orn 
 at Ghent in 1580. Especially known in the re- 
 public of letters as a philologer and the author of 
 Latin works, he is no less remarkable for his 
 Plemish writings, above all for the impetus he gave 
 to versification. Prom the end of the sixteenth 
 century, the w^ant of a noble and energetic rhythm 
 had been sensibly felt. The " refrain," with its 
 unequal metre, possessed too little solemnity for 
 this age of gigantic struggles, and the ancient heroic 
 verse being forgotten, the Alexandrine was adopted. 
 The first who appears to have made use of it is 
 Jean van der Noot, of the noble Brabangon family 
 of this name, who died at Antwerp in 1590. This 
 new measure soon passed into Holland, where 
 the sire Jacques Duym, born at Louvain, and re- 
 siding at Leyden, was one of the first to adopt it. 
 But Duym was a better patriot than versifier, and 
 it required the musical ear and poetical genius 
 united to the philological mind of Daniel Heinsius, 
 to give to the heavy Alexandrine the harmony 
 requisite to please the Plemish ear. Although 
 Heinsius dedicated himself especially to classical
 
 cuAP. IV. FLEMISH LlTEllATUllE. 115 
 
 literature, liis national poetry formed the basis of an 
 era, not only in versification, but also in respect to 
 thought and expression, lie had even the glory of 
 seeing the Germans of the north seized with enthu- 
 siasm for his poetry, Avhicli incited them to form, 
 under the superintendence of Opitz, the Silesian 
 school, which reckoned among its adherents many 
 remarkable men. 
 
 The example of Heinsius was not altogether 
 favourable to national literature ; we regard it, on 
 the contrary, as having exercised an evil influence, 
 in the sense that this great man, imbued with 
 Greek and E-oman ideas, dressed up, in pretty 
 Flemish verses, thoughts eminently classical. He 
 neglected, or rather, as a consequence of his educa- 
 tion, he was devoid of the true patriotic spirit ; and 
 as he Avas one of the oracles of the learned world, 
 his example was contagious. From that time the 
 literature of Planders was tainted with an influence 
 essentially classical, which endowed the country 
 with many excellent works in prose and verse, but 
 whose exclusive character was incessantly deplored 
 by the most judicious men among the imitators of 
 the ancients. 
 
 Heinsius was of the number of those poets who 
 cultivated the friendship of the two sisters Marie 
 Tesselschade and Anna Visscher, the daughters of 
 the E/oemer Visscher, whom we must class among 
 
 I 2
 
 116 FLEMISH LITEUA.TURE. ciiAr. n. 
 
 the restorers of literature. They were two young 
 persons, uniting to the most amiable qualities and 
 noble dispositions the most varied talents. Pos- 
 sessing a thorough knowledge of several languages, 
 successfully cultivating the national poetry, excel- 
 lent musicians, and endowed with a peculiar talent 
 for writing and painting upon glass, something of 
 an ideal character hovered around them, which 
 attracted love and admiration. Heinsius and Cats, 
 Hooft and Yondel, Yan Baerle and Huygens, the 
 elite of the Plemish Parnassus, courted the artistic 
 society of these two young girls, who remained 
 simple and modest in the midst of the exaggerated 
 enthusiasm which they excited. Por a long time 
 they were the ornaments of the numerous literary 
 fetes that Hooft gave at his chateau of Muiden, 
 near Amsterdam. 
 
 Hooft, with Vondel and Cats, constituted the 
 triumvirate which ruled the golden age of Plemish 
 literature. This was under the stadth eldership of 
 Prince Prederic-Henry (1625-1647). All the learn- 
 ing of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is 
 connected with these three men of genius, the heads 
 of three schools. Hooft, generally less appreciated 
 in Belgium than his two rivals, deserves, neverthe- 
 less, to be attentively studied. His poetry, graceful 
 and flowing, full of sweetness and harmony when 
 it is inspired l^y the attractions of beauty, or the
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 117 
 
 charms of rural life, rises in tragedy to tlic sublime 
 in conception, and is adorned by the boldness and 
 vigour of his style. But in this brilliant phalanx, 
 Hooft is distinguished less by his poetical halo than 
 by his genius as a historian. His versification is 
 too much tinged by the early days of the Renais- 
 sance, when the tone adopted by authors wavered 
 between two systems. Besides, he is not altogether 
 free from the reproach of having imitated the tinsel 
 of Italian poetry. To appreciate him in all his 
 greatness, he must be known by his prose works, 
 especially by his historical labours : The Life of 
 Henry IV. ; The calamUons Consequences of the 
 Mevation of the 3IecUci ; and particularly by his 
 History of the Netherlands. Before him the noble 
 struggle against the Spaniards had been the theme 
 of more than one remarkable pen ; among others it 
 had been recorded by the celebrated Van Meteren, 
 of Antwerp, but no national historian possessed a 
 style on which he could suitably model his own. 
 Hooft, as a historian, studied the ancients just as 
 he had allowed himself as a poet to be fascinated 
 by the accents of Italy. He took Tacitus for his 
 model, and only translated this forcible and concise 
 historian after having read him over more than 
 fifty times. Hooft has been reproached with being 
 obscure, like his model, owing to his efforts to 
 appear concise; but how much on the other hand
 
 118 FLEMISH LITEUATURE. cuAr. iv. 
 
 lias he gained iii style ! In this respect he has not 
 yet been equalled, and other nations possess few 
 historians who can be compared to him in vigour 
 and vivacity. Full of dignity and philosophy, Hooft 
 rises on all occasions with his subject ; admirable 
 in his descriptions, he has the merit of being judi- 
 cious in the appreciation of causes and effects, and 
 although he may not lay claim to popularity, his 
 works are destined to live as long as the language 
 in which they are written. 
 
 Hooft was born at Amsterdam in 1581, and died 
 in 1047, a short time after the death of Prince 
 Frederic-Henry, to whom he had dedicated his his- 
 tory of the Netherlands, and some months before 
 the Treaty of Munster, which consolidated the ex- 
 istence of the republic of the United Provinces. 
 Vondel was born in 1587. He had not, like his ri- 
 val, the happiness of receiving a finished education, 
 but he was gifted by nature with an ardent soul and 
 an impressible imagination ; the circumstances in 
 which he passed his youth exalted this imagination 
 to a point which rendered him the sublimest poet 
 of the Low Countries. Vondel made his first ap- 
 pearance upon the Brabanpon Theatre, of Amster- 
 dam, by some very feeble plays, which were soon 
 forgotten for masterpieces of the first order. His 
 conceptions were inspired by the grave events of 
 the period. He was the leading man of his day.
 
 ciiAr. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 119 
 
 At one time, by his tragedy of JPalamkle^ he ia- 
 flicted a cutting satire on the execution of Barne- 
 vekl ; at another he hurled the thunderbolts of his 
 indignation under the name of Harpoon (ELarpoen), 
 or under that of Curnj-comh (Roskam) and of 
 Txommelpot, he pilloried the vices and follies of the 
 day. At other times he sang the heroic exploits of 
 the Prince of Orange, of Ruyter and of Tromp. 
 lie cultivated different styles with equal success. 
 Artless and simple before the cradle of a child, he 
 soared like the haughty eagle when inspired by a 
 noble feat of arms. We have already had occasion 
 to speak of his tragedies ; wo will add, that among 
 the choruses, sublime odes are to be met with, 
 comparable to the finest pieces of ancient and 
 modern times. Such is the chorus of the angels in 
 Lucifer^ a piece remarkable for the simplicity of the 
 plan and the boldness of the execution; also the 
 chorus of the "Clarisses," in Gyshert d'Amstel. In 
 his tragedies, Yondel gave to the Alexandrine verse 
 that variety of treatment which can alone render it 
 worthy of the subject, and in this respect, as well 
 as for expression, he was without an equal among 
 his contemporaries. As a poet, Yondel is not fault- 
 less, and his works have undergone pitiless criticisms. 
 But, in spite of these systematic attacks, and not- 
 withstanding a sort of conspiracy to lower this prince 
 of poets of the golden age of Plemish literature, 
 
 I 1.
 
 120 FLEMISH LITEIUTURE. chap. iv. 
 
 Vondel still retains his sceptre, and a comparison 
 with the different literatures of the day will only- 
 serve to sanction the judgment passed upon his 
 works by all true lovers of the beautiful. 
 
 Of all the emigrants, or descendants of emigrants, 
 established in Holland, Vondel was, perhaps, the 
 most tolerant of Catholic dogmas. It was no merit 
 at this period to appear religious, every one was 
 really so ; this motive, therefore, cannot have in- 
 duced Vondel, when arrived at an advanced age, to 
 become a convert to Catholicism. However that 
 may be, he was influenced in his decision neither 
 by honours, office, nor flattery ; it was rather the 
 current of his poetical genius which led him on to 
 the determination. He had long since published 
 his Mysteries of tlie Altar (Altaer Geheimenissen), 
 a didactic poem in three books, entirely in favour of 
 Catholicism. After this fact in his life, which made 
 so great a sensation and alienated many of his 
 friends from him, he composed his St. John the Pre- 
 cursor (Johannes deBoetgezant), an historical poem 
 in six books. He also finished some cantos of a 
 grand epic poem, the Constantiniade, the subject 
 of which was the conversion to Christianity of Con- 
 stantino the Great : this fragment is lost. In these 
 works, and others of the same class, we see the 
 .poetical genius of Vondel develope itself in all its 
 splendour, surprising us especially by the facility
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 121 
 
 with wliicli lie throws tlic most hrilliant colours over 
 the most dry and arid subjects. 
 
 Vondel was ninety-one years of age when he 
 gently fell asleep, February 5th, 1G79. 
 
 Cats also lived to the age of eighty-three. lie 
 was born in 1577. The qualities by which the 
 writings of this poet recommend themselves, are of 
 a totally different nature from those of his two 
 rivals. Here there is no force, none of that her- 
 culean energy, none of those representations which 
 inspire terror, and allure you through scenes of 
 bloodshed and tears, none of those metaphors con- 
 ceived in the exaltation of feeling. With Cats all 
 is calm ; his poetry resembles a limpid brook which 
 flows noiselessly over the even ground of Zorg- 
 vliet. It is the didactic poem in its simplest and 
 most artless form. Less prodigal of poetical fer- 
 vour, Cats acquired far greater popularity than his 
 two rivals. Eor two centuries the works of this 
 poet, so naively called by the people " The Book of 
 Cats," are found as often in the hut of the fisher- 
 man, and the cottage of the peasant, as in the 
 library of the scholar and the home of the wealthy : 
 they have even gone by the name of the " House- 
 hold Bible," — a praise which in certain respects 
 they deserve, being the emanation of a loving heart 
 and of profound and enlightened reflection. Wliat 
 Plcming, what Batavian is there, Avhose steps in the
 
 122 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 arduous path of life have not been sustained by 
 Cats ? "Where is the woman whose grief he has 
 not consoled ? 
 
 The poet of Zorgvliet must not be represented as 
 an anchorite working out his gloomy precepts in 
 the depths of his retreat. Both by taste and posi- 
 tion, Cats was one of the most sociable men of the 
 republic. Sprung from a distinguished family of 
 Zealand, he rose by degrees to the first dignity of 
 the state, that of Pensionary of HoUaud, a title 
 equivalent to that of Prime Minister, and which 
 he retained during fifteen years, until, at his own 
 request, his resignation was accepted, and he saw 
 himself replaced by the celebrated Jean de Wit. 
 Cats was a skilful lawyer, and one of the most 
 learned men of his time. Promoted by a neigh- 
 bouring country to the degree of Doctor of Law, 
 employed in various embassies, connected as a large 
 proprietor with persons of every condition, he ac- 
 quired, as a lawyer and as a public man, an immense 
 knowledge of men and of things. This was the 
 man who, without eclipsing any one, obtained an 
 unrivalled popularity in modern literature. Writ- 
 ing with extraordinary facility, and pre-occupied up 
 to the day of his death with the moral civilisation 
 of his fellow-creatures, Cats published a great 
 number of works, -among which the TVedd'mg Ring 
 (Trouwring) and Marriage (Houwelyck) are the 
 jirincipal. The Wedding Ring is a series of amorous
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 133 
 
 and conjugal adventures, full of interest and in- 
 struction ; Marriage depicts the different phases of 
 female life in six pictures, bearing tlie titles of 
 Virgin, 3Iisfress, Betrothed, ^Vife, Motlier, and 
 Widow. These two poems are interspersed with 
 prose, which gives them a striking peculiarity. By- 
 means of this artifice, the monotony of the recital, 
 which is sometimes extended beyond due limits, and 
 to which the peculiar versification of Cats singularly 
 lends itself, is skilfully broken to make way for an 
 agreeable variety. On the verge of the tomb. Cats, 
 — this man with a soul so disinterested, that on 
 resigning his office of Grand Pensionary he threw 
 himself on his knees before the assembled council 
 of the States-General, to thank God that He had 
 vouchsafed to grant him rest from his labours, — 
 Cats, we say, drew up his Confessions, full of child- 
 like simplicity, and of instructive lessons for prac- 
 tical life, as the last legacy of a man devoted to his 
 country and to humanity, the last act of an existence 
 consecrated to the endeavour to harmonise the en- 
 joyments of life with the duties of society. Cats 
 is pre-eminently the poet of the honest man and of 
 the people. He died in 1G60. 
 
 Everywhere practical and useful, everywhere 
 original and often sublime, Bilderdyk says of him : 
 
 " Good ])cloved fatlier Cats, 
 How mucli treasure dost thou contain ! "
 
 124^ FLEMISH LITERATUEE. chap. iv. 
 
 " Oh ! happy, happy he, whose generous soul can rise 
 Above the dross of wealth, or pomp, or vanities ; 
 Scorn splendour, pleasure, fame, and say, with honest pride, 
 I have ye not indeed, but yet am satisfied/' 
 
 Prom tlie sixteenth to the eighteenth century, 
 emblematical literature was sedulously cultivated 
 by men of learning in almost every country in 
 Europe. It was the favourite medium with the 
 wise and the good for the diffusion of the noblest 
 precepts of Christian morality. To render those 
 precepts more attractive, the aid of all the most 
 celebrated contemporary artists and engravers was 
 enlisted. Of all the eminent men who became 
 famous in this held of combined literature and art, 
 none achieved greater success, both as poet and 
 moralist, than Jacob Cats, whose memory, together 
 with that of Adrien van de Yenne, the illustrator 
 of his productions, will be cherished and honoured 
 as long as the Flemings and their language exist.* 
 
 It is in consequence of this just praise, that last 
 year a beautiful volume of the Moral Mnblems of 
 Cats, translated into English, was published in 
 London, where they were almost unknown. Not- 
 withstanding Sir W. Beechey, in his Zife of Mey- 
 nolds, states that Sir Joshua's richest store was 
 Jacob Cats' s book of emblems, which his grand- 
 
 * Notes on Books, &c. Longman & Co., Nov. 1859.
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 125 
 
 motlici'j a native of the Netlicrlauds, had brought 
 with her from that country. 
 
 Here we terminate this rapid sketch of the three 
 great types who manifested themselves in Flemish 
 literature at the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, Hooft, Vondel, and Cats. These three men 
 of genius had each their school, from whence issued 
 Avritings remarkable for style and for thought. 
 
 The most celebrated liistorian emanating from 
 the school of Hooft is Gerard Brandt, the author 
 of the History of the ^reformation and of the Lfo 
 of De Ruyter. Among the numerous imitators of 
 Vondel, he who approached the nearest to him was 
 Antonides, the author of a poem which may be 
 called epic, in honour of the town of Amsterdam 
 and of its commerce, entitled De Ystroom (The 
 Biver Y). In this poem we admire the boldness of 
 the conception, and the energy of tlie style ; but it 
 is sometimes overloaded with mytholagical images, 
 a defect to be imputed rather to the period than to 
 the poet in particular. Among the most remark- 
 able men of Holland and of the Spanish Low 
 Countries, Cats found many imitators ; it may even 
 be asserted, that he was for a long time the almost 
 exclusive model in Flanders and Brabant, under 
 the Spanish and Austrian rule. But before we 
 follow this school upon Belgian soil, we must pause 
 for a moment to speak of those who abandoned the
 
 12G FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap.iv. 
 
 banks of the Lys and Sdielclt, to breathe the air of 
 freedom on a territory disencumbered of the com- 
 mon enemy. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that the three great men 
 of whom we have just spoken, are closely connected 
 with Brabant, and especially with the town of 
 Antwerp. Vondel, born in Cologne, but of Antwerp 
 extraction, like Rubens, essayed his tragic genius 
 on the theatre of Amsterdam, and it is evident, 
 from his fine treatise in prose, entitled Introduction 
 to National ]?oetry, that he felt great interest in 
 the dialect of the town which was his cradle. 
 But where would our pen lead us, did we attempt to 
 speak of the happy influence exercised over lite- 
 rature in Holland by emigrants who were not, so- 
 called, literary men ? Who does not think of that 
 Jeremias de Decker, worthy to be placed by the 
 side of Vondel, having, like this prince of Memish 
 poets, sprung from a father, a native of Antwerp, 
 to whom he owed all his literary education ! Yan 
 Baerle, the celebrated Latin poet, but whose Plemisli 
 poems, although not numerous, will survive his Latin 
 productions, was also born at Antwerp. When 
 this queen of the Scheldt submitted to the arms of 
 Parnese, she had already lost a great number of her 
 children, and she received a final blow by the truce 
 of twelve years which closed the Scheldt to her, 
 and deprived her of innumerable families belong- 
 ing to the middle and industrious classes.
 
 cuAP. IV. TLEMISH LITERATURE. 127 
 
 Among those "wlio emigrated in these clays of 
 humiliation, Belgium lost her most nohle poet, 
 Jacques van Zevecote, justly named the prince of 
 his class. Van Zevecote was born at Ghent, Janu- 
 ary 16th, 1596. Passionately in love with a young 
 girl, his countrywoman, whom he celebrated under 
 the name of " Thaumantis," he had the grief of 
 seeing the object of his song prefer the more living 
 torch of Hymen to the ignis fatuus of the poet. 
 Of an irritable and impetuous disposition, rushing 
 from the excess of joy into the abyss of sorrow, the 
 poet, deeply wounded, shut himself up in a 
 monastery in his native town, under the habit of a 
 friar of St. Augustine. But the monk's cowl could 
 not stifle the tumult of his heart ; his ardent soul 
 chafed in the solitude of his cell ; the soil of Ghent 
 trembled and groaned like burning lava under the 
 feet of the angry poet. Scarcely eighteen years of 
 age, Zevecote quitted the cloister, and arming him- 
 seK with a pilgrim's staff, he endeavoured to forget 
 his unhappy love by a journey to Home. Before 
 quitting his native town, he addressed a last remem- 
 brance to his faithless mistress ; then, directing his 
 steps through Lorraine and Switzerland, beyond the 
 Alj)s, he visited the city of the Seven Hills, and re- 
 turned by Prance to his own country. This is the 
 first epoch of the poet's life. The amatory poems 
 of Zevecote are not numerous, but to compensate 
 for this, there reigns throughout them an admirable
 
 12S FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 ingenuousness and cleliglitful freshness of colouring. 
 Zevecote's style bears marks of the study that he 
 made of the poems of his cousin, Daniel Heinsius, 
 to whom he dedicated some verses at the age of 
 sixteen. Heinsius himself, as we have seen, made 
 the ancients his model, and Zevecote, manifesting 
 the same taste as his cousin, obtained for himself a 
 great reputation in Latin poetry. During the truce 
 of twelve years, Heinsius revisited his native town, 
 and Zevecote, Avhose ideas had not yet been turned 
 to the cloister, full of enthusiasm for the celebrated 
 professor of Leyden, wished to follow him as his 
 pupil, — a project which met with opposition from 
 his father. After his return from Rome, cured, prob- 
 ably, of his love, Zevecote nevertheless failed to find 
 happiness in Ghent, which he accused of being a 
 city ungrateful to its children; nor was he even 
 more contented in any part of Belgium, given up 
 as it was to the exactions of the Spanish Govern- 
 ment. He taught in the colleges of his order at 
 Ghent and Brussels until the year 1623 ; he then 
 set out for Leyden, with the intention of visiting 
 his cousin, or rather, of establishing himself in 
 Holland. He did so, and soon publicly professed 
 the reformed worship. In 1G26 he was appointed 
 to the chair of history and elocution at the Univer- 
 sity of Harderwyk, where he died on the iVth of 
 March, 1642, at the age of forty-six. This second
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 120 
 
 period of liis life Zevecote consecrated especially to 
 didactic poetry and to dramatic pictures. We are 
 indebted to him for a selection of emblems, charm- 
 ing little poems, unfolding with great brilliancy the 
 precepts of a healthy-toned philosophy. He devoted 
 his dramatic talent exclusively to the siege of Ley- 
 den ; he composed on this subject a tragedy, Ihe 
 Siege, and a tragi-comedy, Raising the Siege, two 
 pieces which were probably not destined for the 
 theatre. They are rather dramatic poems than 
 tragedies, and consist of monologues and choruses 
 following one another with marked regularity. 
 But their style is so energetic, and so rich in ima- 
 gery, that in this respect Zevecote yields to none 
 of his contemporaries. His invectives, however, 
 against the Spanish nation display too evidently 
 the hatred he bore to the tyrants of his country. 
 Here is a fine specimen of his vigorous style : — 
 
 " Have faith in tlie changeable winds, 
 Have faith in the unsteady child, 
 Have faith in the rolling waves, 
 Rely on the ice, or the moon ; 
 But beware of trusting those 
 Who never kept an oath. 
 
 " When they first wetted their lips, 
 They imbibed treason with 
 Their mother's milk ; 
 Therefore have many noble countries 
 Been ruined, depopulated, or 
 Brought under the yoke. 
 K
 
 130 FLEMISH LITERATUKE. cnAP.iv. 
 
 " The snow will cease to be cold. 
 The summer deprived of the rays 
 Of the sun, the clouds will be 
 Immovable, the huge sand-hills on the shore 
 Levelled, the fire will cease to burn, 
 Before you will find good faith 
 In the bosom of a Spaniard." 
 
 This was tlie last, but at the same time the most 
 violent, anathema uttered against those who had 
 destroyed Plemish nationality. But this cry did 
 not reach the land in which the early youth of the 
 poet had expanded. A sanitary line surrounded 
 the United Provinces, and prohibited the admission 
 of Plemish books upon Flemish soil. The national 
 language, which had, so to speak, identified itself 
 with the ideas of the innovators, gave umbrage to 
 the foreign chiefs, and even the Archduke Albert 
 himself, called iipon to govern as a sovereign 
 throughout the whole of the Low Countries, shared 
 this aversion to the Flemish tongue : the extreme 
 limit of condescension consisted in replying in high- 
 German to those Flemings who understood only 
 their own language. It does not appear that this 
 prince treated his "Walloon subjects with more 
 politeness : if historians are to be believed, he 
 never answered them but in Latin, German or 
 Spanish. In the interior, public spirit was sub- 
 dued and mastered, but on the frontiers an inde- 
 fatigable army of emigrants kept watch, waiting
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 131 
 
 for the opportunity to snatch from the hands of 
 the foreigner their fatherland, and to revive in it 
 a spirit of liberty and independence. The lion was 
 not yet inured to slavery, the chains which bound 
 him must be tightened. The printers and book- 
 sellers promised, upon oath, not to put in circulation 
 books considered inimical to the Catholic Paith; 
 the censorship permitted an immoral book to pass, 
 and forbade a work in which the mind of a profound 
 thinker endeavoured to disclose itself. 
 
 Belgium was thus prevented from participating 
 in the literary progress of which Holland was so 
 justly proud. Certain chambers of rhetoric, it is 
 true, replied here and there to questions proposed 
 by the meetings, and some few men preserved suffi- 
 cient independence to enter into correspondence 
 with the illustrious writers of the North, but these 
 isolated instances of intercourse, these passing re- 
 lations, exercised no influence over civilisation ; the 
 people saw their language neglected by those very 
 men who had taken upon themselves the task of 
 furnishing them with a class of literature distinct 
 from works of asceticism. The chambers v of rhe- 
 toric, whose privileges had been restored during 
 the truce of twelve years, found themselves para- 
 lysed in their efforts towards progress. A great 
 metamorphosis would have been necessary to enable 
 them to restore dignity to their language and their 
 
 K 2
 
 132 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 literature. They needed encouragement from high 
 quarters. Pormerly the sovereign himself had been 
 seen to confer rewards, and now the most insignifi- 
 cant courtier would have feared to compromise 
 his dignity by protecting an institution fallen 
 into disrepute. 
 
 National literature had not remained absolutely 
 stationary in the re-conquered provinces ; it had 
 received an impulse in Elanders and Brabant, and, 
 in spite of the ostensible favours granted to Belgian 
 Latin works, the genius of the nation still struggled 
 nobly in its distress. It is not permitted to tyranny 
 to curb suddenly a generous tendency, and a nation 
 does not pass immediately from liberty to the yoke 
 of servitude, any more than slaves at once take the 
 stamp of a free people. The progressive work of 
 civilisation was evident everywliere : in the fine 
 arts, in the sciences, and even in those hybrid pro- 
 ductions, sad echoes of the lays of Bome, chanted 
 in honour of other men and of other creeds. In 
 tlie midst of this general stir, the basis of the 
 movement, patriotism, could not remain in a state 
 of immobility. In spite of the forced separation 
 from Holland, in spite of the limited communica- 
 tion between the conquered provinces, and the want 
 of a literary' centre, the new modification in the 
 grammatical and prosodical forms showed itself 
 simultaneously everywhere. Daniel Heinsius, fol- 
 lowing the steps of A^an der Noot, had restored
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 133 
 
 to the Alexandrine verse a character more con- 
 formable to the genius of the Elemish language. 
 About the same time, similar attempts were made 
 by a native of Ypres, Jacques Ymmeloot, lord of 
 Steenbrugge. In 1614, this author published a 
 poem on the advantages of peace, with a preface in 
 which he speaks of the harmony of the iambic 
 verse. At a later period he developed more fully 
 his ideas upon the metre, in a work, the French 
 title of which is La France et la Flandre reformees ; 
 ou traite enseignant la vraye methode d'lme nouvelle 
 poesie frangoise et thyoise, harmonieuse et delectable. 
 Ypres, 1626. Considered from the point at which 
 Flemish versification has now arrived, the theory of 
 Ymmeloot is very defective, but it is, nevertheless, 
 true that his verses are harmonious and full of 
 vigour. According to him, the cause of the pre- 
 ference shown by so many poets to the Latin rather 
 than to the Flemish language, is to be attributed 
 to the fact, that the latter was without rhythm. 
 Some from fear, others from adulation, pleaded 
 this pretext to cover their defection from the 
 national cause. With every nation that is im- 
 pressed with a sense of its own dignity, language 
 is a ductile and malleable matter, not a dead body 
 on which the galvanism of genius is powerless. 
 
 The success and the example of Ymmeloot were 
 productive, however, of great results for Ypres. 
 
 K 3
 
 134 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 This town was for a time the centre of the literary 
 movement in Elanders, as Audenarde had formerly 
 been under Casteleyn. Ymmeloot asserts, that his 
 example produced in his native toAvn alone as many 
 Plemish poets as appeared in all the other parts of 
 the Spanish Low Countries. This exaggeration 
 would rather prove a general mania for turning 
 everything into verse, than the fact of a steady 
 progress in literature. However that may be, the 
 example of this noble innovator was fruitful in this 
 part of Planders, of which the city of Ypres was 
 the central point. Ymmeloot found formidable 
 rivals in the lord of Terdeghem, near Cassel, in 
 Jean Bellet, and in Claude de Clerck. 
 
 In a wider circle than the precincts of Ypres, the 
 latter might have distinguished himself preemi- 
 nently, for the distrustful measures of the Spanish 
 government had brought about the isolation of the 
 various central points of civilisation. His style 
 Avas fluent and full of wit. Chronicles assure us 
 that Cats held him. in high estimation ; that from 
 the extremity of Holland, this great man came to 
 Ypres to pass three days with the man of the 
 people; that he entertained him in a worthy manner, 
 and that these three days were spent in a continual 
 exchange of poetical improvisations. This anecdote 
 rests, chiefly, upon the popularity of Cats, the 
 model poet of the Spanish Low Countries, who
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 135 
 
 surpassed Vondel in the ideas in vogue at this period 
 among the Belgians. " You avlU one day equal 
 Cats," wrote the Archbishop of Malines, in his 
 pious simplicity, to the prince of our poets, Avho 
 had just dedicated to him Tlie Secrets of the Altar. 
 At that time Vondel was at the zenith of his fame, 
 and had published Lucifer, Falamedes and Jcphthaj 
 with several other masterpieces. But from a false 
 interpretation of the moral aim of poetry, no merit 
 was recognised except in didactic poems, which 
 presented in their versification a simple and even a 
 somewhat trivial form. The verses of Vondel, 
 vigorous and concise, demanded deep reflection on 
 the part of the reader, and reflection, in those days, 
 was suspected of leading to heresy and revolt. No 
 poet was better fitted to be set up as a model than 
 the amiable author of Zorgvliet^ and those who 
 gave to their imagination a more ardent flight, saw 
 themselves neglected, although they followed the 
 general current of ideas. It must also, in justice, 
 be acknowledged, that in the Spanish Low Countries 
 the cultivation of the language was already at too 
 low an ebb to admit of the favourable reception of 
 a clear and concise style. The poet was incompe- 
 tent to execute, and the people incapable of appre- 
 ciating. We find a striking instance of this in 
 Guillaume Caudron d'Alost (born in 1607, died in 
 1692). He was called the Poet Laureate, on account 
 
 K 4
 
 136 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 of the laurels he had gained in many literary assem- 
 blies in Planders and in Holland. An enemy to 
 uncouth words, he tortured his own language and 
 wished to walk in the steps of men who were better 
 versed in its knowledge. His study of the poets 
 was devoid of criticism, for in his works, to which 
 we cannot refuse a certain amount of merit, there 
 is less of Vondel than of Jean Yos. This Jean Vos 
 was a glazier of Amsterdam. To a great deal of 
 talent he united excessive exaggeration ; of a pre- 
 sumptuous character, he showed himself envious of 
 Yondel, whose defects he caricatured, without at- 
 taining the sublime beauties of this great master. 
 Those who aimed at the grandiose in style, followed, 
 indiscriminately, these two poets. Caudron thus 
 acted; he translated the Moscmiimda, a Latin tragedy 
 of Zevecote, and composed an original poem, enti- 
 tled, The Life of St. Catherine of Alexandria, 
 patroness of the Society of Khetoric at Alost, of 
 which society he was probably the poet. But poet 
 laureate though he was, and notwithstanding the 
 halo which surrounded him, Caudron did not induce 
 his countrymen to admire his works : they remained 
 unpublished until a change had taken place in the 
 national feeling, that is to say, towards the middle 
 of the eighteenth century. 
 
 Becoming from day to day more exclusively di- 
 dactic, and even dogmatic, the literature of the
 
 cuAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURH. 137 
 
 Spanish provinces fell under ecclesiastical influence. 
 The cloisters especially furnished a number of poets 
 and prose writers, uniting to the didactic a mys- 
 ticism sufficiently agreeable to the mind, if it had 
 not been vulgarised so as to become a type of its 
 own century. The first among these poets who 
 presents himself to our notice is Juste Harduyn, 
 an esteemed pupil of Juste Lipse, and cousin of 
 Zevecote. Born at Ghent in 15S0, Harduyn em- 
 braced the clerical profession, and was appointed 
 priest of the village of Andegem, near Termonde. 
 He is in general only known by his translations ; 
 but his style is superior to that of most of his 
 countrymen who published original works. The 
 most popular of his writings is a collection in prose 
 and verse, entitled Goddelyke TVenschen (Pious 
 Wishes), translated from the Latin of the Elemish 
 Jesuit, Hugo. They are the aspirations of an 
 ardent soul towards Jesus, uttered in passionate 
 language, which betrays an affection somewhat ter- 
 restrial. These effusions were very agreeable to 
 devout and contemplative minds, retired in cloisters 
 and convents, fatigued with the vicissitudes of life 
 at this period of political disorders. Poetry espe- 
 cially encouraged this tone of feeling; and if the 
 name of the Son of God did not occasionally unde- 
 ceive us, we should imacjine that we were readina' 
 the most ardent amatory verses.
 
 138 TLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 But this worldly colouring soon disappeared from 
 ecclesiastical poetry. It is found neither in Van 
 der Elst nor in Gheschier. The first, who was 
 vicar at Bouchout, in the " polders ^^ of Flanders, 
 published at Antwerp, in 1622, a selection of sacred 
 poetry [Gheestelycke Gedicliten), in which he passes 
 in review the different grades of society, and the 
 duties attached to each, as well as the vices which 
 disordered them. The other, who was cure of the 
 Convent of Beguins at Bruges, published a work in 
 verse at Antwerp (1643), entitled Des Wereldts 
 Froefsteen (The Touchstone of the World), a free 
 translation of a Latin work of Antoine a Burgundia. 
 Gheschier is wanting in sublimity; but Van der 
 Elst has much taste and feeling, and it is evident 
 that he caught his inspiration from his favourite 
 models, Heinsius and Cats. 
 
 The lay poets of this epoch gave themselves up 
 for the most part to the didactic style. Such were 
 Olivier de Wree, born in 1597, died in 1652, better 
 known as a historian, and his protege, Lambert de 
 Vos, both lawyers of Bruges. These two men, re- 
 nowned for their erudition, preferred the facetious 
 and satirical style, as possessing more vigour than 
 that to which Flanders was accustomed. In Bra- 
 bant, the Louvain professor. Van der Born (Erycus 
 Puteanus), and the first lawyers of Brussels, such 
 as Walhorn, Van der Borcht, and others, distin-
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 139 
 
 guished themselves in this species of composition, 
 so well received hy the people. The latter of these 
 poets was scarcely twenty years old when he pub- 
 lished a work remarkable for the accuracy of its 
 language and ideas. TJie Ilirror of Self-knowledge 
 (Der Spieghel der Eighen-kennisse) places the young 
 author at the head of the poets of his time. Two 
 years previously, in 1641, he had published The 
 Brussels Garden of Ci(pid (Den Brusselschen 
 Bloemhof van Cupido). Deprived of freedom of 
 thought, literature, when it passed from the di- 
 dactic, became of necessity personal. The theatre 
 remained, but in the Spanish Low Countries it was 
 subjected to a blind censorship which suffered vice 
 to pass free, and fettered all progress. 
 
 The classical drama was not suited to the taste of 
 the Belgian people, accustomed to see the nobles 
 constantly mixing among them, and regarding as 
 foreigners and aliens all those who did not frater- 
 nise with the middle classes. It was necessary that 
 the theatre should become romantic, either by a 
 direct emanation from the drama of the Middle 
 Ages, or by borrowing from other nations. "We 
 have already seen tlie manner in which Bredero and 
 those of his school conceived their art; others 
 mingled the styles of Bredero and Vondcl, until 
 the chorus was entkely given up ; then tragi-comedy 
 reigned for a time. At Antwerp, where scenic en-
 
 140 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 tertainments were chiefly cultivatecl, during the first 
 half of the seventeenth century, various representa- 
 tions were successively in favour. Prom 1617 to 
 1628, Van Nieuwelandt put upon the stage, tragedies 
 with choruses, sometimes entirely after the manner 
 of Vondel, at others presenting the most extrava- 
 gant union of the classic and the romantic. Ahout 
 the same period, Ysermans brought into vogue the 
 Pastoral and the Opera. Ahout 1635, De Conincq 
 imitated Lopez de Vega, while Strypen, Van den 
 Brande, and Van Engelen, kept to a style which 
 approaches that of Calderon. 
 
 The pastoral of the Italians is the eclogue of the 
 ancients dramatised. It is a picture of indolence, 
 of indifference towards all elevation of feeling and 
 idea, of sentimentality, and of egotism, — subjects well 
 chosen for a people whom it is desirable to lull to 
 sleep. Nevertheless, the Low Countries have pro- 
 duced very few pastorals, and Ysermans lias only 
 published the principal airs of his pieces. In 
 Planders the epoch was unfavourable to pastoral 
 poetry, notwithstanding the efforts made by several 
 writers to render it predominant. 
 
 Messbe Prederico de Conincq walked in the 
 steps of Lopez de Vega. As the Spanish poet 
 divided his pieces into three days, even when the 
 action included whole years, so our poet of Ant- 
 werp separated his comedies into three parts. The
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. IH 
 
 denomination " comedy" is nsed by liim in the 
 more extensive sense of drama, in the same manner 
 that the Plemiugs still attach to this word the idea 
 of play or spectacle. The comedies of De Conincq 
 are constructed upon the Spanish form, or what the 
 French call "comedies de cap et cVepee ;^^ the sub- 
 ject is well carried out, and they fix the attention of 
 the spectator. Like the greater part of the ro- 
 mantic school of those days, he produces a false 
 meretricious effect, by a play upon words truly 
 ridiculous. The distinguished personages declaim 
 in majestic Alexandrine verse, the subordinates 
 speak in doggerel, the valet plays the part of buffoon, 
 and the people, with their Grub-street philosophy, 
 replace the poetical action of the chorus. As 
 Vondel had endeavoured to reproduce on the stage 
 of Amsterdam the purity of the Greek theatre, so 
 De Conincq wished to transplant into Flemish soil 
 the Spanish comedy, with all its various character- 
 istics; influenced, probably, by the idea that a 
 homogeneous literature was suitable to all the coun- 
 tries belonging to the crown of Spain. He was, as 
 may be supposed, a clever courtier. He was the 
 first to give a foreign asj)ect to his Christian name, 
 convinced, doubtless, that the Flemish nobility 
 ought to identify itself with that of Spain. Thus 
 the contrast in the representations was most singu- 
 lar. The action takes place in Spain : everything is
 
 142 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuat. iv. 
 
 according to the Spanish fashion, — nocturnal visits, 
 abductions, outrages upon chastity, dagger-thrusts, 
 robbery, bravado, &c., — and in the midst of all this, 
 the veriest rabble of Antwerp declaim, in patois, 
 allusions to the events of the day. It is true that 
 we meet with this variety in Bredero ; but with 
 him, as later with Calderon, the characters have 
 nothing foreign but the name ; and therefore there 
 is less medley of the serious and the comic. This 
 confusion may, however, exceed all bounds, as in the 
 Mosalinde of Gerard van den Brande, in which the 
 comic scenes are drawn out to such an extent that 
 they form of themselves a separate piece. In the 
 comedies of De Conincq, intrigue predominates to 
 the detriment of sentiment, but the contrary is the 
 case in the dramas of his compatriots. Van den 
 Brande, Strype, and Van Engelen : unfortunately 
 these three writers are only known by one piece 
 each. At this epoch a dramatic author met with 
 more difficulties than encouragement ; the unani- 
 mous complaints against the " zoyles," and the 
 usual relinquishment of all effort after a first, or at 
 most a second trial, render it very probable that 
 a spirit of indolence impeded the progress of a civil- 
 ising literature. 
 
 The religious dramas, since then so multiplied, 
 bear the visible impress of the intolerance of that 
 epoch. This spirit manifested itself most forcibly
 
 CHAP. IV. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 113 
 
 in Holland, where all mental excitement was espe- 
 cially carried to extreme : we may convince our- 
 selves of this, by reading the tragedies of Oudaen. 
 This influence contributed rather to brutalise tlic 
 morals than to ennoble them. But people then 
 were not so scrupulous ; coarse manners were not 
 yet confined to the lower classes, nor were delicate 
 ears closed to discourse which would now offend 
 every man having any pretension to the quality 
 of refinement. 
 
 Ogier went still farther ; he introduced upon the 
 stage the coarsest language, and he made the entire 
 action to consist of that which with Bredero was 
 only a passing scene of gossip between common 
 people. The poet of Amsterdam excused himself, 
 by pleading the necessity of making every one 
 speak according to his station, and appealed to the 
 example of the ancients. The poet of Antwerp 
 arrived at the same result by opposite reasoning. 
 " It is necessary to represent vice on the stage," said 
 he, *' as the Bomans formerly on certain days intoxi- 
 cated their slaves and showed them to their children, 
 in order that they might at an early age become 
 inspired with a disgust for debauchery.'* And in 
 order that his Comedy of La Faillardlse should 
 not produce a bad effect, the poet takes care to re- 
 present *' the most dangerous and contemptible 
 characteristics of this vice." He hopes that the
 
 Ui FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. iv. 
 
 ladies, married or single, will not be alarmed at 
 seeing libertinism chastised, even when it wears the 
 garb of virtue, since it only serves to give a bril- 
 liancy to chastity to contrast it with vice, as when 
 one places the diamond by the side of glass. In 
 finishing his prologue, he begs the public to use 
 his work as a mirror. Ogier was aware that the 
 theatre ought to be a school of morals, not so much 
 for hearing virtue commended, as for exciting 
 the love of moral beauty by placing it side by 
 side with the hideousness of vice. It is in this that 
 the difference between the theatre and the pulpit 
 consists. " It is not an evil," he continues, " to look 
 at vice face to face ; on the contrary, it is the means 
 of deterring men from committing it." Undoubt- 
 edly, this proposition may be true for civilised man ; 
 but in order to arrive at this result, a higher degree 
 of moral feeling is requisite than is possessed by 
 the masses, who commonly, like untutored children, 
 accept with enthusiasm all that is most reprehen- 
 sible. In fact, there is much truth in the view 
 which the dramatist of Antwerp takes of the sub- 
 ject ; and the application he has made of it mili- 
 tates much in his favour. The stage demands action 
 and vivacity, but the sublimest representation of 
 morality leaves the spectator cold and indifferent. 
 The greater, on the other hand, the sufferings of 
 virtue, the more does the spectator applaud her
 
 cii-vr. IV. TLEMLSH LlTEllATUllE. 145 
 
 triumpli. Even lie who is imder the domiiiiou of 
 the actual vice represented on the stage will feel 
 himself touched and softened, and even if he ho 
 not corrected, he will he surprised into a disavowal 
 of the vice, hoth in his heart and hy his lips. But 
 that which we cannot expect from the stage is a 
 school of morals in which virtue is dogmatically 
 taught. The mission of the theatre is in truth that 
 indicated hy our author. 
 
 In whatever light we regard the works of Ogier, 
 they are to he numhered among the most remark- 
 ahle and meritorious of the epoch. As dramas, 
 they are distinguished hy vivacity and hy a con- 
 tinued vein of interest, and hy their fidelity in de- 
 picting the life of the people, devoid alike of ex- 
 aggeration and of extenuation. On the other hand, 
 the criticism of the follies of the day is at all times 
 so appropriate, that this author may justly he called 
 the censor of the people. 
 
 The liberty he took of dividing his pieces into an 
 indeterminate number of scenes, instead of sepa- 
 rating them into three or five acts, gives them a 
 peculiar character which is not without its charm. 
 The plot is weak, and turns usually upon a mis- 
 understanding ; hut here again the master mind 
 is apparent, which so well comprehended the men 
 of the age. It would he Avrong to expect from 
 Ogier an intrigue skilfully woven. It was not for 
 
 L
 
 146 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. iv. 
 
 courtiers that he drew liis pictures, but for honest 
 Plemisli citizens, for those who encouraged Teniers 
 and Ostade. And that, moreover, which denotes the 
 excellence of his taste in the midst of apparent ir- 
 regularities, is the care he takes to avoid that 
 puerile play of words which was extolled around 
 him under the name of poetry. 
 
 Born at Antwerp in 1619, Ogier was seventeen 
 years old when he composed his first piece. Gluttony. 
 He exposed upon the stage, each in their turn, the 
 divers social leprosies of the age, and published, to- 
 wards the end of his days, a collection, the piquant 
 title of which, The seven mortal Sins (De seven 
 Hooft-sonden), sufiiciently indicates the nature of 
 the subject. In his first pieces he had made use of 
 an uneven metre, after the example of Bredero ; 
 but Idleness and Avarice, written many years after 
 Gluttony, are in Alexandrine verse. This is a change 
 worthy of remark, it appears to us, and by no means 
 favourable to originality in comedy. As soon as 
 valets, peasants, or shopkeepers began to express 
 themselves in so regular and heavy a rhythm, it 
 was to be expected that the light style, which, 
 during half a century, had constituted the soul of 
 the theatres of Amsterdam and of Antwerp, should 
 disappear. The master affected the largest amount 
 of gravity, the valet imitated his master, the peasant 
 imitated the valet, and that gay open-air life of the
 
 ciiAP. IV. FLEMISH LlTERATUllE. 147 
 
 people Avas forced to retreat before the measured 
 discourses of the ante-chamber. The Erench tlie- 
 atre slowly sapped the foundations of the national 
 stage. 
 
 After the example of De Conincq, Ogier called his 
 pieces comedies ; but he used this word in its most 
 enlarged dramatical sense, and distinguished it from 
 tragedy by the lower tone of the svibjects chosen. 
 In reality these pieces have nothing in common 
 Avith what is called comedy or farce ; they represent 
 vice in all its deformity. But if the justification of 
 an author is found in the applause of the public, 
 which after all is the fairest test of dramatic talent, 
 w^e ought, at the same time that we are severe upon 
 Ogier, to grant him our earnest attention. 
 
 It is not rare to see a dramatist draw to himself 
 a momentary popularity, the spirit of which is not 
 In accordance with the general taste of the nation. 
 Such was not the fate of Ogier ; his comedies not 
 only formed the delight of the Brabanters and the 
 Dutch during half a century, but after his death 
 they were read with avidity, and represented 
 throughout the whole of the Low Countries. More 
 than this, one of his pieces. Anger, under the title 
 of The Dissolute Sailor (De Mocdwillige Boots- 
 gezel), maintained its reputation upon the stage of 
 Amsterdam, even among the masterpieces of the 
 Prcnch school. Bidloo considered Ogier worthy to 
 
 L 2
 
 148 TLEMISII LITERATUllE. cuap. iv. 
 
 be placed among the great poets of the Nether- 
 lands ; after such an opinion, we cannot admit that 
 the impression produced by his pieces was nn- 
 favourable. Such a justification, emanating from 
 estimable critics, and confirmed by the public, 
 ought to be accepted ; it is of more value, in our 
 opinion, than the dry dissertation of a pedant.
 
 ciTAP. V. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 149 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 INFLUENCE OP TKENCH LITERATUKE. — ITS OPPONENTS. — JEAN LAMBKECIIT. 
 — ANTONIDES. — DESCARTES. — SPINOSA. — VAN DEB, BORCHT. — ATTEMPT 
 TO ESTABLISH A THEATRE AT BRUSSELS. — DRAMATISTS. — PEYS, ETC. — 
 
 DIDACTIC POETRY. POIRTERS. — VLOERS, CROON, ETC. — RELIGIOUS 
 
 POETRY. — DUNKIRK CHAMBER OF RHETORIC. — PELS. — DE SWAEN. 
 
 — POETS OF BRUGES. — LABARE. — PASTORAL POETRY. — WELLERENS. 
 
 — POOT. — LITERATURE OF THE SOUTH. — POETRY OF HOLLAND. — 
 FEITAMA. — THE BROTHERS VAN HAREN. — PROSE WRITERS. — PHILOLOGY. 
 — MEYER. — STEVENS. — TEN KATE. — HUYDECOPER. 
 
 "We enter upon a most whimsical epoch, a real 
 period of confusion. The Erench spirit, favoured 
 by the most contradictory statements, makes its 
 way upon all points ; on the other hand, the people 
 in Belgium are constantly deterred from every effort 
 towards a progressive civilisation ; we see two oppo- 
 site elements meet, and contribute involuntarily to 
 fetter the development of the public mind. France 
 was on the watch to take possession of the Belgian 
 provinces ; the continual military occupation of our 
 country by her armies, propagated the French lan- 
 guage among the middle classes, and the marriage 
 of Louis XIV. with the daughter of the sovereign 
 of these countries, gave rise to more amicable rela- 
 tions between the French and the Flemish. Mean- 
 while the United Provinces received thousands of 
 
 L 3
 
 150 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. v. 
 
 refugee families, driven from their country in con- 
 sequence of the Edict of Nantes, which prohibited 
 the free exercise of the reformed worship in France. 
 These exiles were welcomed with open arms, and 
 churches Avere allotted to them, known under the 
 name of Walloon churches, in which their worship 
 was performed in their own language. Like the 
 soldiers and servants of King Louis, the refugees 
 favoured exclusively Erench literature, which at this 
 period Avas really at its zenith, and eclipsed all 
 others in grammatical construction and refinement 
 of expression. Monastic ideas, which had become 
 more rigid since all apprehension of danger from 
 the Eeformation had passed away, acting in concert 
 with Prcnch influence, stifled the spirit of romance 
 in Elemish literature. Besides, these ideas spread 
 without difficulty among the people. The love of a 
 peaceful fireside existence is a fundamental trait 
 of the Plemish character ; it was only necessary 
 to ennoble this existence, and to supply it with 
 more elevated means of enjoyment. The Erench 
 spirit met with great resistance, it had to contend 
 with two secondary influences, all-powerful over the 
 people, Earce and Song ; even the clergy, foreseeing 
 the dani^'cr of Erench ascendenev, withstood it seri- 
 ously. Among those who in Elanders wished to 
 raise a bulwark against Erance, Jean Lambrecht 
 deserves to occujiy the first ])lace. llesiding at
 
 cuAP. V. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 151 
 
 Bruges, lie was present at the Ilague in a diplo- 
 matic character during- the Treaty of Munster ; he 
 even appears to have entertained the exiled King 
 James II. of England. Among his works, Lam- 
 brecht published a series of poems on the peace 
 between Spain and France, interspersed with short 
 satirical theatrical pieces against the Gallo-mania, 
 which went on increasing from day to day. Holland 
 also, whose spirit of independence, it might be ima- 
 gined, Avould keep her aloof from pernicious contact, 
 Holland imbibed still more deeply the influence 
 of French ideas. Antonides, the worthy pupil of 
 Vondel, combated ardently against this ascendency, 
 which weighed not only upon the cultivation of the 
 belles-lettres y but also upon sound philosophical 
 criticism. Descartes had resided in Holland during 
 the best years of his studious life, and had formed 
 there a great number of pupils and friends. This 
 little country was at this period especially distin- 
 guished by the study of natural and philosophical 
 sciences. After the gloomy system of Van Helmont, 
 imprisoned in Belgium as a heretic, and whose 
 Flemish works were printed in Holland, Descartes 
 introduced his rationalism, and of all the systems 
 which succeeded each other in the course of this 
 century, his perhaps found the greater number of 
 disciples. Spinoza followed him. His works were 
 originally written in Flemish, and printed in our 
 
 L 4.
 
 152 PLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. v. 
 
 language in 1G77 (the year of his death) ; but they 
 were not openly acknowledged, and his writings 
 appeared only with his initials, and without the 
 name of the publisher. 
 
 The struggle against the ascendency of Prencli 
 ideas was vigorously maintained at Brussels, where 
 Elemish literature was successfully cultivated ; 
 among its opponents were Godin*, the lawyers 
 Broomans, AValhorn, Van der Borcht, De Conde, 
 and the brothers De Grieck, all united by bonds of 
 friendship as well as by a kindred love of art and 
 patriotism. The greater number of these authors 
 devoted themselves to the drama ; and "Van der 
 Borcht was on the point of witnessing the success 
 of his plan for establishing a permanent theatre in 
 the capital of the Belgian provinces. It was the 
 first attempt of this kind since the erection of the 
 stage at Amsterdam ; for, in all probability, the 
 theatre of Antwerp was not prior to the year 16C3, 
 when the reunion of the two chambers of rhetoric 
 of this town, the Wallfioioer and the Olive Branchy 
 took place. Van der Borcht laboured at his plan 
 even before 1650, and was powerfully assisted by 
 Jacques de Conde, and Claude and Jean de Grieck. 
 Claude de Grieck brought out several pieces ; he 
 
 * He is the first who made use of the insulting term " Fran- 
 squillon" to indicate a Trenchman, wlio, in a foreign country, 
 arrogates to himself the riglit to assume the tone of a master.
 
 CHAP. V. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 153 
 
 showed himself a man of taste and tact in endca- 
 vouriiic; to imitc the romantic drama with the 
 modern Prench tragedy. If Van der Borclit's plan 
 had succeeded, Brussels might have had the honour 
 of endowing the country with a national drama. 
 If one may judge from Zenohia, that which was too 
 vivacious in tlie romantic drama would have been 
 moderated under the more dignified forms of Prench 
 tragedy ; the horrible and the licentious would 
 have given way to less hideous pictures; but, on 
 the other hand, a tame and inanimate love would 
 not have been substituted for a free and ardent 
 passion, nor a cold and chilling recital for brilliant 
 and striking action. This reform would even have 
 had a salutary influence upon comedy ; it would 
 have purged farce of its coarseness without on that 
 account forcing the Plemings to accept a style re- 
 pugnant to their manners and their habits. 
 
 Nothing then remained but to copy or to trans- 
 late the Erench authors. One of the first who 
 applied themselves to the translation of the Prencli 
 drama was Adrien Peys, a poet of Antwerp, whose 
 earliest dramatic production appeared in IGGl. He 
 translated some pieces of Eotrou, of Corncille, and, 
 above all, of Moliere. But Peys did not possess a 
 feeling for the beautiful. Incapable of appreciating 
 the gems contained in his models, he rarely fixed 
 upon the masterpieces ; in his original compositions
 
 154. FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. v. 
 
 he either followed the old school or else he wrote 
 fairy tales. In general, the French theatre was 
 imitated more from fashion than from conviction. 
 Por some length of time, pieces of every form and 
 description were represented on the stages of Am- 
 sterdam and of Antwerp ; some comic authors, such 
 as Alewyn, who remained faithful to the old system, 
 attained great success ; and Messire van den Brant, 
 the rival of Peys, and Avho appears to have best 
 understood the Erench theatre, sought to excite 
 emotion by a representation of all that was most 
 horrible. 
 
 Some of these dramatic writers are no less dis- 
 tinguished by their didactic works. Van der Borcht, 
 for instance, had been little known until now, ex- 
 cept by his Mirror of Self-knoioledge (Spieghel der 
 Eyghen-kennisse), 1643, a poem partly satirical, 
 partly elegiac, and of undeniable merit. Godin is 
 known by his Adages and other fugitive pieces, 
 written in a moral and ascetic style. Walhorn only 
 produced his Foetical Medley ; and the brothers 
 De Grieck published several works anonymously. 
 This exclusive infatuation for didactic poetry was 
 singularly influential in the propagation of what 
 may be termed monkish or monastic literature ; it 
 was narrow-minded, without heart, without eleva- 
 tion, cold, and sacrificing the cheerful aspects of 
 life to an exaggerated asceticism. Works of this
 
 CHAP.v. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 155 
 
 class especially, with some few exceptions, checked 
 the intellectual clevclopmeut of the people, urging 
 men to mortification of the mind, to religious 
 fanaticism, and even to superstition. We shall now 
 pass in review the principal writers of this class. 
 
 The first, and without dispute the most remark- 
 ahle,is the Jesuit Adrien Poirters, born at Oosterwyk, 
 in the diocese of Antwerp, in 1606, and who died 
 at Malines in 1675. Added to a prodigious acti- 
 vity, Poirters possessed great fluency of speech and 
 an inexhaustible poetical verve. Endowed with a 
 sagacious and penetrating mind, he had such an 
 intuitive perception of the ways and usages of the 
 world, that his descriptions might be taken for 
 pictures from life. Destined for the pulpit, which 
 resounded with his fervid eloquence during thirty 
 years at Antwerp, Malines, and at Lierre, he was 
 nnable to give himself freely to his natural taste 
 for poetry. Nevertheless, he bequeathed to his 
 country several volumes, which am^ong Catholics 
 made his name almost as popular as that of Cats. 
 Pather Poirters devoted his mind and attention 
 chiefly to the moral improvement of young girls. 
 His principal work, The World deprived of its 
 31aslc (Het Masker van de Wereld), which has 
 already passed through forty editions, and which 
 served as a model for several other works, is a series 
 of pictures representing the vices of women, and
 
 156 ELEiMISH LITERATURE. chap. v. 
 
 the dangers to wliicli the fair sex arc exposed. At 
 this time an unbridled luxury pervaded all ranks 
 of society : the citizens rivalled the nobility, and 
 the country-people clad themselves in velvet. The 
 sage has said, " all is vanity." Pather Poirters 
 developed this maxim with much talent. His book 
 is a series of allegorical engravings, explained by 
 short poems ; then follow, partly in prose and partly 
 in verse, allocutions to the devout soul, and epi- 
 logues, the whole accompanied with stories, witti- 
 cisms, and reflections, the style of which is easy and 
 fluent. It is a curious mixture of wit and simplicity. 
 This work has, without doubt, contributed to check 
 the licentiousness of manners ; the only reproach 
 that can be made to it is that it is sometimes weak 
 and vulgar. In the other writings of Poirters we 
 meet with the same merits and the same defects. 
 Everywhere there appears a tendency to portray 
 happiness as consisting entirely in self-mortification 
 and compression of the soul. This was an ad- 
 mirable doctrine for a people strongly attached to 
 domestic life, but dedicated to slavery, and who, in 
 despair, had only to choose between an abyss of vice 
 and complete self-annihilation. 
 
 In his attempts to reduce existence to a purely 
 passive state, Poirters at least gives evidence of 
 much intellectual power ; he depicts, with talent, 
 the happiness which is derived from inward peace.
 
 cuAr.v. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 157 
 
 There is an infinite distance between liim and 
 Patlier Vloers, of the order of the Dominicans, 
 who was also born in Brabant, and died in 1GG3, at 
 the age of sixty. Vloers possesses the miserable 
 distinction of being the poet, or rather the rhymester, 
 of superstition. His works made sufficient noise, 
 even in those sad decrepit days, to draw from the 
 extremities of Holland the shafts of ridicule against 
 the author of worthless stories, who accredited them 
 as miracles. The first work of Vloers is entitled. 
 Wonderful Jllracles of (lie Rosary described in 
 Verse ("WonderbareMirakelenvan denRoosenkrans): 
 Antwerp, 1656. The title of the second is. Nosegay 
 of Spiritual Roses (Geestelycken E-oosen-tuyl) : Ant- 
 werp, 1661. This nosegay is a collection of won- 
 derful stories upon the efficacy of the rosary : in 
 one place it is a wicked woman raised from the 
 tomb, in another a soldier condemned to death and 
 snatched from the gallows ; or else a woman whom 
 the rosary has saved from a watery grave, stolen 
 property recovered, a mad bull pacified, a murdered 
 man recalled to life, and other similar recitals, the 
 whole illustrated by analogous engravings. The 
 works of Pather Vloers passed into the hands of 
 the multitude under the protection of three eccle- 
 siastical benedictions} fortunately they have become 
 curiosities in literature. 
 
 By the side of Poirters, we may place Father
 
 158 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. v. 
 
 Croon, a canon of the cliurcli of St. Martin, at 
 Louvain, wlio died in 1683. The five volnmes of 
 this poet contain, almost exclusively, emblems ap- 
 plied to everything that struck his mind ; the vari- 
 ous professions, the difi*erent implements in use, 
 all appeared to furnish him vfith an appropriate 
 subject for moral lessons. To an easy versification 
 Pather Croon unites the talent of plunging his 
 reader into the profoundest meditation on subjects 
 apparently the most simple. 
 
 J. Jacques Moons, a canon of the order of the 
 Premontres of the Abbey of St. Michael, at Ant- 
 werp, and who was still alive in 1689, composed 
 some hundreds of fables, enriched with moral in- 
 struction, the principal merit of which consists in 
 their ease and fluency. Jean de Leenheer, of the 
 order of the Augustines, who died in 1691, about 
 the age of fifty, the author, among other works, of a 
 Theatre of Madmen (Tooneel den Sotten) : Brussels, 
 1669, pleases by the free construction of his verses. 
 Pierre Mallants, a Carthusian friar, of Lierre, whose 
 Jjife of St. Brunon (Antwerp, 1673), and The Fath 
 of the Cross (Antwerp, 1691), are well known, has 
 imitated Cats with much cleverness. The Carmelite, 
 De Crock, who died in Brussels in 1671, has occa- 
 sional happy inspirations, but affords a striking 
 example of the decline of good sense at this period, 
 and makes a confused mixture of the heathen gods
 
 cuAP. V. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 159 
 
 with the most sacred subjects of the Christian reli- 
 gion. The minor brother, Joannes A. Castro, pub- 
 lished several volumes between 1686 and 1694, in 
 which he imitated Poirters with tolerable success. 
 Several other monks distinguished themselves in 
 the same career ; the best known are Jossc van 
 der Cruyce, Nerrinck, Vichet, Scholten, Van de 
 Bempde, and De Busschere. The greater number 
 of these poets inserted prose, more or less elegant, 
 into their poetry : this was in order that the reader 
 should not be fatigued by verses often monotonous, 
 and to which this change of form gave a certain 
 degree of relief. 
 
 The monastic orders also reaped great advantages 
 from song. The collections of ascetic lays had 
 considerably multiplied since the popular ballad 
 had perished amid the religious troubles of the six- 
 teenth century. Neither of the two parties in the 
 Low Countries had, in this respect, any cause to 
 envy the other. In the United Provinces there was 
 scarcely a poet who did not exact from his lyre 
 some religious lay, either for public worship, or 
 more especially for social meetings. Even at the 
 present day, it is no rare thing to see, in the northern 
 part of the Low Countries, usually on Saturday 
 evening, all tlie family collected to sing the praises 
 of the Lord, and to give thanks to Him for His bene- 
 fits. Thus our literature abounds in songs of this
 
 160 TLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. v. 
 
 kind. The Belgian provinees are no less rich in 
 this respect ; but there is a difference in the general 
 tone of the productions of the two countries : this 
 difference arises from a disparity in religious ideas. 
 
 In Holland, the songs are for the most part im- 
 bued with a gloomy character ; in Belgium, they 
 are in general distinguished by their simplicity and 
 even their gaiety. The productions of the Pathers 
 Bolognino, Van Loemel, Lixbona, Bellemans, Van 
 Sambeck, Harts, and others, have a mild and con- 
 templative tone, through which, however, a didactic 
 and rather a severe spirit is perceptible. 
 
 The same literary taste then reigned both in 
 Belgium and Holland. In the latter country, ex- 
 clusively of the theatre, and with the exception of 
 some amorous pieces, of which those of Starter, of 
 Jonctys, and of Jean Luyken are reckoned among 
 the prettiest and most original, it was the voice of 
 religion which made itself heard among the peo- 
 ple. The distinction that we have endeavoured to 
 establish between the songs belonging to the two 
 divisions of the Low Countries, is equally appli- 
 cable to the productions which were not composed 
 for music : of this we may be convinced by reading 
 the poems of Pierre de Groot, the son of Hugo 
 Grotius, of Anslo, of Vollenhoven, and of DuUaert. 
 AH these authors evince a great taste for the sub- 
 lime, the indisputable result of the study of A^ondel.
 
 CHAP. V. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 161 
 
 Before them Krul, Jean dc Bruine the younger, 
 and others, wrote after the manner of Cats, and 
 gave themselves up to that caustic gaiety, so fre- 
 quently observed in the Belgian poets, among 
 whom it is fitting we should mention Gerard van 
 Wolschaten, of Antwerp. 
 
 We have already shown how Erench influence ab- 
 sorbed Flemish literature in the north, as well as in 
 the south. This influence was singularly promoted 
 in Holland by a kind of languor visible in the 
 greater number of the productions, and, it must be 
 also confessed, by a licentiousness which disgraced 
 many of the theatrical pieces and poetical col- 
 lections. One of the most devoted admirers of 
 Erench literature was Pels, who published, in 16G7, 
 an imitation of the Art of Foetry of Horace. A 
 man possessed of more vanity than genius, Pels 
 had the satisfaction of seeing his opinions on mat- 
 ters of taste propagated in opposition to Antonides 
 and Vollenhoven, worthy successors of Vondel. 
 He placed himself at the head of a society to which 
 he gave for a motto Nil volentibus arduum : some 
 members, indeed, endeavoured to perfect the na- 
 tional, without servilely copying the foreign drama; 
 but they soon confined themselves to translations, 
 and the Prench theatre was proclaimed the only 
 one conformable to good taste. Several other so- 
 cieties, or rather literary clubs, rendered themselves 
 
 M
 
 162 FLEMISH LITERATURE. ciiap. v. 
 
 conspicuous, and the whole of Flemish literature 
 became only a pale reflection of that of France. 
 
 It was only towards the end of the century that 
 the Belgian provinces followed, without reserve, in 
 the same path. A conquered city gave the example. 
 Dunkirk, under the Spanish rule the rival of the 
 Dutch ports, when it passed under the sceptre of 
 Louis XIV., gave a Jean Eart to this fortunate con- 
 queror. Prosperous through its naval resources, it 
 cultivated, successfully, the arts and sciences, and 
 especially poetry. Its chamber of rlietoric stood 
 at this time at the head of the literary institutions 
 of the whole of West Flanders, and it possessed in 
 De Swaen a true poet. For a moment the society 
 indulged in the delusion that the French govern- 
 ment, although, by its nature, centralising and ex- 
 clusive, would yet deign to encourage their noble 
 efforts to revive Flemish literature. De Swaen 
 translated the Cid of Corneille, and afterwards 
 produced an original piece, entitled, The Abdication 
 of Charles V, His translations are very poetical ; 
 his original drama is indisputably one of tlie most 
 perfect, according to classic rule, which was com- 
 posed in Belgium and Holland at this period. 
 
 The drama, however, does not appear to have 
 seriously occupied the genius of De Swaen. He 
 devoted himself, with greater partiality, to sacred 
 poetry ; his talent places him at the head of the
 
 CHAP. V. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 103 
 
 Belgian poets of this epoch; his principal work, 
 the poem Of the Death and Life of Jesus Christ, 
 is a series of fifty meditations on the life of our 
 Lord, and on the mysteries which preceded His 
 birth and followed His death. 
 
 The impulse which De Swaen was enabled to give 
 to the compositions of the society of Dunkirk, and 
 still more his great poetical talent, exercised a 
 salutary influence over the whole of West Flanders. 
 Bruges rivalled this celebrated seaport, and could 
 boast of several poets of great merit, — among others, 
 Smidts and Labare. The first wrote two tragedies. 
 The Death of Boece and Mustache. Labare is 
 better known as the legislator of the Flemish Par- 
 nassus. He published, in 1721, an imitation of the 
 Art Foetique of Boileau, whom he nevertheless 
 refuted on certain points, — among others, on the 
 unity of time and place, which the French, after 
 the example of the Greeks, had introduced upon 
 their stage. At the same time that he paid homage 
 to the preference of the nation, he refused to be 
 bound by the fetters which French poetry imposed 
 upon literatiu'e. 
 
 Labare showed himself superior, in point of taste, 
 to the imitators which the French school found in 
 Holland. In the northern Low Countries, litera- 
 ture appeared to be suddenly struck with sterility ; 
 the theatre existed almost exclusively by transla- 
 
 M 2
 
 1C4 FLEMISH LITERATURE. ciiAr. v. 
 
 tions and by copies, more or less imperfect. Lan- 
 gendyk acquired a certain reputation in comedy, 
 Hotgans in tragedy. The latter published, also, a 
 short descriptive poem, La Kermesse de Village, a 
 masterpiece of satire, which has remained classic, 
 and an epic poem, entitled, WilUam III., of which 
 the versification is pleasant and the style vivid, but 
 there is a too frequent abuse of the Grecian mytho- 
 logy- 
 
 This mania for adopting ideas entirely foreign to 
 modern nations, as well with regard to religion as 
 to national associations, was then very prevalent, 
 and from imitation to imitation, an infatuation for 
 the Eclogue ensued. A Flemish artist, endowed 
 with a certain poetical genius, Jean Baptiste Welle- 
 kens, born at Alost in 1658, made a journey to 
 Italy, where he acquired a taste for pastoral poetry. 
 Settling at Amsterdam, he distinguished himself by 
 works of this class and fishermen's songs : these 
 songs caused a lively sensation among the rich 
 citizens of Holland, and Wellekens soon found 
 himself surrounded by a crowd of fortunate rivals. 
 This style of poetry could not fail to be pleasing to 
 a people who were surfeited with riches, and who, 
 after long days of preoccupation, delighted in the 
 sweets of repose. It is not that rural poetry had 
 not been cultivated in the Low Countries before 
 Wellekens; since Ilooft, many poets had devoted
 
 CHAP. V. FLEMISH LITERATUBE. 105 
 
 tlicir leisure to it, and the great Vondel may even 
 be cited as the originator of the Bncolic drama. 
 The most celebrated country-houses of Holland 
 had their poets or singers, who were themselves 
 often the lords of the manor. Zorgvliet was im- 
 mortalised by Cats, Hofioyh by Huygers, Ockenhurg 
 by Westerbaen. Among the contemporaries of 
 Wellekens, those most worthy to be cited for their 
 pastoral songs are Moonen, Langendyk, Brockhui- 
 zen, and especially Vlaming, the intimate friend 
 of the poet of Alost. 
 
 At this period there lived in a hamlet near Delft, 
 a countryman gifted with a remarkably poetical 
 genius, embodying in language the sublime effusions 
 of a noble heart. Poot, while cultivating the soil, 
 worshipped nature with the enthusiasm of a deep 
 devotion. Drawing his inspirations from within, 
 his poems, by their artlessness, elevated the simple 
 peasant as far above his contemporaries as there is 
 distance between originality and imitation. Well 
 would it have been for Holland, had she given more 
 encouragement to genius like that of Poot. Well, 
 indeed, if she had not crushed such genius in its 
 vigour, to make way for a sickly and artificial eru- 
 dition. Poot, in the zenith of his noble career, 
 allowed his muse to be sullied by the meretricious 
 adjuncts of mythology, — a sad Harlequin's dress, 
 thrown over the broad shoulders of a child of 
 
 M 3
 
 IGf) FLEMISH LITERATURE. ciiai'. v. 
 
 Germany. But in spite of these defects, wliicli 
 disfigure a few of his pieces, the nursling of Aht- 
 swoud will always remain one of the ornaments of 
 the Plemish Parnassus. 
 
 Whilst in the north Literature expressed only the 
 dolce far niente, she pursued in the south her di- 
 dactic and religious course. About the commence- 
 ment of the eighteenth century, even the theatre 
 followed more exclusively in this line, as is evident 
 from the works of Plas, of Brussels, and of the 
 ^Flemings, De Muyn, J. B. Hendrix, and P. Justinus. 
 A stranger will learn with surprise that several 
 chambers of rhetoric reckoned among their mem- 
 bers, even among their heads, priests, several of 
 whom composed theatrical pieces. The priests 
 Kockaert of Brabant, and De Pape of Courtrai, 
 wrote mysteries ; Yan Solthem, a canon of the 
 Abbey of Grimberghe, and J. P. van der Borcht, 
 at Lierre, wrote tragedies. The latter published, 
 between the years 1735 and 1742, some pieces, 
 among which were St. John the Baptist, and The 
 Destruction of Jerusalem, in which we observe 
 much energy and imagination, indicative of a pro- 
 found study of Yondel. Por a long time unappre- 
 ciated in all the Low Countries, the latter regained 
 his rank in Belgium as the prince of the native poets 
 of that period. 
 
 This disposition towards a more vigorous style
 
 cjiAP. V. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 107 
 
 then became sufTicicntly general in the Austrian 
 Low Countries, and with it was united a more 
 careful, if not a more profound, study of the lan- 
 guage. The Jesuit Lievin of Meyer, born at Ghent 
 in 1655, published, in 1725, a didactic poem in 
 three cantos, entitled Anger (De Gramschap), an 
 imitation of his own Latin work, De Irct. The rich- 
 ness of its construction enhances the depth and 
 wisdom of its sentiments. 
 
 Whilst in Belgium a tendency to poetical energy 
 was manifested, Holland, on the contrary, only lent 
 an car to that which was polished and precise. 
 Eeitama appropriated to himself the sceptre of Pels, 
 and became the oracle of the Dutch Parnassus. He 
 was an elegant versifier ; he confined himself to the 
 translation of the Prench classics, and Avasted 
 twenty years in turning the Telemachus of Penelon 
 into verse. This love for liigh finish was the cause 
 of a great act of injustice towards two contemporary 
 poets. The brothers Van Haren, noblemen of Pries- 
 land, and celebrated statesmen, had lived far re- 
 moved from literary clubs. What congeniality 
 would they have found in these circles devoid of 
 talent, animated as they were by a lively patriotism 
 and an ardent poetical enthusiasm? The principal 
 work of the elder, Guillaume van Haren, is the 
 epic poem, Friso, who was supposed to be the first 
 king of the Prieslanders ; that of the younger,
 
 168 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. v. 
 
 Onno-Swier, the lyric poem, in twenty-two cantos, 
 entitled The Beggars. All that issued from the pen 
 of these two brothers bore the impress of true 
 genius ; but the imperfection of their language 
 caused their works to be condemned by those who 
 assumed the office of regulators of literary taste. 
 It happened to the Van Haren, as it always 
 happens to poetical genius w^hen half cultivated : 
 mediocre and envious minds seized upon defects 
 mostly conventional, and confounded in the same 
 sentence of reprobation both soul and body. 
 
 Prose also at this period took a retrograde move- 
 ment. Energy of style gave way to artificial forms. 
 In several Dutch works, however, belonging to the 
 second half of the seventeenth century, there exists 
 still an admirable depth of thought, which renders 
 them worthy of the days of Spinoza and his an- 
 tagonist Nieuwentyt : certainly the language showed 
 no deficiency when it was required for philosophical 
 investigations ; the proof of this is in the WTitings 
 of these two great men. But in the north, the 
 energy of the nation had become impaired, and in 
 the Belgian provinces, the Jesuits, who there took 
 the lead, rather courted a trivial style, more in har- 
 mony with a civilisation which they deemed better 
 suited to the uncultivated mind of the people. In 
 Holland, however, pulpit eloquence found worthy 
 orators in Vollenhoven, cited above as one of the
 
 cuAi'. V. FLEMISH LITERATURE. IGO 
 
 successors of Vondel, aud in the three sons of the 
 celebrated historian Brandt. But about the end of 
 the century, religious influence sensibly declined in 
 the Low Countries of the north, and it became ne- 
 cessary to seek elsewhere for a restraining power on 
 the vices of society. The works of Addison and 
 Steele passed from England to the Continent ; soon 
 a taste for the Spectator pervaded Holland; Van 
 Effen, among other Avorks, published weekly, from 
 1731 to 1735, the Dutch Spectator (De HoUandsche 
 Spectator), a selection sometimes literary, and some- 
 times dedicated to moral subjects ; the style either 
 simple or noble, according to the matter treated of, 
 and manifesting at each page the honest man and 
 the patriotic philosopher. 
 
 But at the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 the science of languages had the honour of con- 
 tributing to the development of literature. After 
 the golden age of Ilooft and Yondel, philologers 
 sought for rules of grammar in the writings of these 
 great men, taking care for the most part to compare 
 their precepts with the various dialects of the com- 
 mon language. The work of the Lambrechts, the 
 Spiegels, and the Heuiters, was nobly carried on 
 by Moonen, Verwer, Sewel, and others. 
 
 Precision of expression was a subject worthy of 
 exciting the investigating spirit of the scholars of 
 this epoch. Louis Meyer, known on the stage by a
 
 170 ' FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. v. 
 
 few tragedies, completed a work of Jean Hofman, 
 entitled, NederlandscJien Woordenschat (Treasure of 
 the Elemisb. Language) ; it is an explanatory list of 
 spurious terms, technical words, and antiquated 
 expressions. This esteemed work has remained 
 incomplete, although, even in our age, its republi- 
 cation has been considered desirable. 
 
 In the Belgian provinces, also, a sudden change 
 manifested itself in the language. A very curious 
 work, and undoubtedly the most national which 
 appeared in Planders at the commencement of the 
 eighteenth century, is the book written by Andre 
 Stevens, entitled, Nederlandschen Voorsclirifthoeh. 
 Stevens was a schoolmaster at Cassel, and wrote 
 this work about the end of the reign of Louis XIV. 
 The precepts on language given in it are few ; they 
 treat especially of pronunciation, orthography, and 
 style. The author dwells earnestly on this latter 
 point, complaining bitterly of his countrymen, who, 
 through indolence, cast away their birthright. These 
 sallies of Stevens are remarkable. Living in a 
 town subject to the King of Prance, he appears to 
 regard this prince as a foreigner. The work of the 
 estimable schoolmaster of Cassel has been preceded 
 by a grammar entitled An JEssay on Flemish Gram- 
 mar (Ontwerp van eene Nederduytsche Spraek- 
 kunst, door E. C. P. Meenen, 1713). This book 
 was considered by Bilderdyk to be of great utility.
 
 CHAP. V. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 171 
 
 But the pliilologers who at this epoch carried the 
 science of the Plemish tongue to its highest point of 
 fame are Ten Kate and Huydecoper. The former 
 ought, in justice, to he called the prince of Elemish 
 philologers. He was the first to point out the in- 
 herent beauties of the language, and to make, on a 
 methodical and extensive scale, a comparative study 
 of the national idiom with the congenerous lan- 
 guages. He began, in 1710, by a small treatise 
 upon the relation between the Gothic and the 
 Plemish tongues {Gemeenschap tussclien cle Go- 
 thisclie Spraeke en de Nederduytsche). This valuable 
 result of profound study gave rich promise of an 
 intellect destined to operate a complete revolution 
 in Germanic philology. To Ten Kate belongs the 
 honour of orioinatini? a new era, not only for the 
 study of the Plemish idiom, but for all the Germanic 
 tongues, as well ancient as modern. His chief 
 work. Introduction to the Knowledge of the Tjcst 
 JPoints of the Flemish Language (Aenliding tot de 
 Kennis van het A^erhevene Heel der Nederduitsche 
 Spraeke), serves as the groundwork to a system of 
 etymology, followed by the great modern philo- 
 logers of the Low Countries and of Germany. 
 
 Balthazar Huydecoper, although he has not be- 
 queathed to us any systematic composition, is not 
 the less worthy of our esteem, as having deeply 
 scrutinised the source of the Elemish tongue. His
 
 172 FLEMISH LITERATUKE. cuap. v. 
 
 remarks upon the ancient clironicler, Melis Stoke, 
 and those upon the translation of the Metamovplioses 
 of Ovid by Vondel, render him worthy to he ranged 
 hy the side of Ten Kate. These two men gave a 
 fresh impulse to a searching study of the idiom. 
 They inspired men with a taste for the ancient 
 monuments of the national literature. Like a 
 luminous beacon, they guided that glorious phalanx 
 of philologers to whom Plemish form of speech 
 owes, in a great measure, its perspicuity and its 
 delicacy.
 
 CHAP. vj. FLEMISH LITERATURE. ]73 
 
 CHAP. YI. 
 
 BRUSSELS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE TOUNDED. — FAVOURS FRENCH LITERA- 
 TURE. — LUCRECE VAN MERKEN. — SIMON VAN WINTER. — INFLUENCE OF 
 
 THE OPERA. NEYTS. — CAMMAERT. — PHILOLOGY. LEYDEN. — K.LUIT. — 
 
 BELLAMY. — "LITTLE ROSE." — NIEUWLAND. — VAN ALPHEN. — FAILURE OF 
 
 BLANK VERSE. INFLUENCE OF THE REVOLUTION. — UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 LOUYAIN. — EFFECTS OF FRENCH DOMINATION. — DECREE AGAINST THE 
 OFFICIAL USE OF FLEMISH. — STRUGGLES IN F.WOUR OF THE NATIONAL 
 LANGUAGE. — VERHOEVEN. — VAN DAELE. — THE FLEMISH STAGE. — 
 HOFMAN. — INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT IN HOLLAND. — SIEGENBECK. — 
 WIELAND. — VANDER PALM. — BORGER. — FORENSIC ELOQUENCE. — MEYER. — 
 
 INFLUENCE OF GERMAN LITERATURE. — FEITH. — TOLLENS. — HELMERS. 
 
 BILDERDYK. — KINKER. — FLEMISH REESTABLISHED IN THE COURTS. — 
 OBSTACLES TO ITS PROGRESS. — WILLEMS.— LEDEGANCK. — CONSCIENCE. 
 
 After a lethargy of more than a century, Belgium 
 was at length seconded by the Government in its 
 intellectual movement. Maria Theresa established 
 at Brussels an academy of science and belles- 
 lettres. Unfortunately, the men who planned and 
 organised this institution were unacquainted with 
 Flemish ; they Avere ignorant of the advantages 
 which would accrue to civilisation by adopting the 
 language of the majority of the country. The 
 academy itself took no other note of our idiom 
 than by some prize memoirs published in its annals, 
 inlanders was under the rule of those German 
 barons, who, far from paying tlie least attention to 
 the language of the greater part of Belgium, cared
 
 17 i FLEMISH LITERATURE. qiiap. vi. 
 
 but little for their own. It was tlie fashion with 
 the German aristocracy, as well Austrian as Prus- 
 sian, to affect an exclusive predilection for Prench. 
 Frederick the Great was an august example to 
 those w4io disdained their own tongue, as being in- 
 adequate to the wants of the higher classes. Eortu- 
 nately for Germany, it possessed Klopstock and 
 Gellert, and these writers had the courage to 
 address themselves to the sovereign himself, to 
 protest against the false direction given to the 
 public mind. But Belgium, still under the le- 
 thargic influence of the age, was inspired by no 
 patriotic genius, like the great men beyond the 
 Bhine, or like Mdlle. de Launoy in Holland, who 
 scourged with her wit the Gallo-mania of the 
 courtiers of the Hague ; had there even been found 
 among the Flemings some of these noble spirits, 
 there were no men at the head of affairs capable of 
 appreciating the boldness and courage of such de- 
 monstrations. In fact, the essentially Platonic voice 
 of The Blind 3Ian of the Mountain of the bishop- 
 philosopher, Nelis, was not calculated to dissipate 
 the prejudices of the nobles, and of the foreigners 
 who governed them, against a language which they 
 had not yet forgiven for having humbled the pride 
 of the Spanish king. These dominant influences 
 had for nearly two centuries successively weakened 
 the national spirit to such a degree, that with the 
 exception of the Jesuit, Van den Abeele, and some
 
 CHAP VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 175 
 
 grammarians, v\'C should be embarrassed to cite a 
 single Belgian author capable of writing his own 
 language correctly. What a contrast with the 
 literature of the United Provinces at that time ! 
 From the attitude assumed by Flanders at the be- 
 ginning of the century, one would have thought 
 that she was about to outstrip Holland in the 
 literary career ; it was but a flash of lightning, an 
 isolated effort of a few men, whose ideas had not 
 time to penetrate the masses. It is true, the so- 
 cieties of rhetoric were considerably multiplied in 
 the towns and villages ; these bodies, properly di- 
 rected, would not have failed to carry on the impulse 
 given by the Labares, the De Meyers, and the 
 Stevenses. In Holland they published periodical 
 works, in which learned discussions were entertained 
 in presence of an intelligent and impartial public. 
 
 At this period the literary movement in Holland 
 became remarkable under the influence of a female 
 poet, Lucrece van Merken, born at Amsterdam in 
 1722, and who died in her native toAvn in 1789. 
 She was the consort of a writer equally gifted 
 with genius, Simon van "Winter. Possessing a 
 considerable fortune, this couple gathered around 
 them all the -wit of the capital of the United 
 Provinces. Endowed with as much tact as taste, 
 Mdme. van Winter had the art of distinguishing 
 from amid the crowd, those youthful geniuses who 
 were destined at a later period to restore to litera-
 
 176 FLEMISH LITERATURE. ckap. vi. 
 
 ture its former splendour. This celebrated woman 
 published several poems and tragedies, which all 
 indicate a truly patriotic spirit. Her poem, On the 
 Use of Adversity (Het Nut derTegenspoeden), may- 
 bear a comparison with the best productions of this 
 class. She tried her strength in the epic style by 
 two other poems, one entitled Germanicus, the 
 pacificator of Germany, the other taken from the 
 Bible, and celebrating the glorious deeds of King 
 David. We have already had occasion to remark, 
 that, from the early time of the Reformation up to 
 Yondel, the history of the Bible had been repre- 
 sented on the stage. Hoogvliet having published, 
 at the beginning of the eighteenth century, a poem 
 entitled Abraham, which Avas much in vogue in 
 Holland and Belgium, several poets turned their 
 epic lyre to subjects taken from the sacred writings. 
 David is a very successful essay of this description. 
 As for Germanicus, the author may be reproached 
 with having chosen for a hero the conqueror of 
 our ancestors, instead of one of those bold Germans 
 who struggled successfully against Bome for the 
 independence of his native land. Perhaps, however, 
 in consequence of the epithet of barbarians, com. 
 monly applied to the Germanic nations in the time 
 of the Bomans, the author meant to celebrate the 
 accession of a new civilisation. Throughout her 
 poems, Mdme. van Winter displays an energy and 
 force uncommon to her sex. These qualities were
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 177 
 
 far surpassed by some poets wlio succeeded lier ; but 
 in this woman every impulse was noble, her whole 
 life was a reflex of the artistic enthusiasm and 
 patriotism which were her ruling principles. She 
 ushered in that great epoch, the future actors in 
 which already began to rival her. The theatre, 
 especially, profited by tlie noble direction given to 
 literature by the circle of Van AVinter ; the genius 
 of the poets was admiral)ly encouraged by the great 
 tragedian Punt and his Avife, as well as by his rivals 
 Duim and Corver. But the mania for translation 
 had taken too deep root in the national mind to 
 yield entirely to the influence of Mdme. van 
 "Winter. Art had become a simple relaxation to 
 some, a poor means of livelihood to others. One 
 other cause injured the theatre of the Low Coun- 
 tries, — the opera definitively established itself in 
 Flanders, and had soon an extensive repertory. 
 Jacques Neyts, of Bruges, formed, towards the 
 middle of the century, a company for the comic 
 opera, with which he travelled through Elemish 
 Belgium and Holland, receiving everywhere the 
 most clamorous applause. The curiosity of the 
 court of Brussels was awakened. It was the first 
 time that a dramatic company, properly so called, 
 had been seen in Planders. At Amsterdam, Neyts 
 was playing in the Grand Tlieatre, when, on the 
 11th May, 1772, during the representation of the 
 
 N
 
 178 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vi. 
 
 Deserter, this superb building became a prey to 
 the flames. This terrible accident cost several per- 
 sons their lives, and caused the ruin of the actor 
 Punt, who, as well as Neyts, resided in the building. 
 The latter returned to Belgium, but his enfeebled 
 company had to carry on a disastrous competition 
 with the societies of rhetoric ; these had risen up 
 on all sides of Plemisli Belgium, in consequence of 
 the impulse which Neyts himself had given to 
 theatrical song. 
 
 Had it not been, for the catastrophe which de- 
 stroyed the fortune of Neyts, this m.an would per- 
 haps have brought about a revolution in the phonic 
 branch of the language. The members of his com- 
 pany, who belonged to West Flanders, made use of 
 their own dialect, softer in some respects than the 
 spoken language generally received, and which was 
 much relished by the dilettanti and the ladies of 
 Amsterdam ; but the definitive retreat of the 
 [Flemish company soon restored to routine and to 
 local prejudice all the salutary influence which a 
 more prolonged predilection might have exercised 
 over the national song. The triumph of the softer 
 accent would also have had the effect of restoring 
 vocalisation to its pristine harmony, which harmony 
 had been seriously injured since the secondary accent 
 of the ij prevailed over the primitive. 
 
 Nevertheless the opera did not desert Holland
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 171) 
 
 with the company of Neyts. E-uloffs, Pypers, and 
 
 others, after the example of the poet of Bruges, but 
 
 with better taste, translated French pieces ; whilst 
 
 Uylenbroek made a fortunate essay for the Grand 
 
 Opera by his Q^dipns at Colonus. In Belgium 
 
 Neyts found a competitor in Cammaert, who, on his 
 
 side, translated for the theatre of Brussels a portion 
 
 of the pieces selected by the itinerant poet for his 
 
 repertory. Cammaert had commenced his dramatic 
 
 career by some tragedies, the first of which was 
 
 represented in 1745. He was a very prolific but a 
 
 very ordinary poet ; occasionally, however, we find 
 
 in his original pieces passages which denote a 
 
 poetical talent capable of soaring high, if, with less 
 
 presumption and more study, he had sought out the 
 
 secrets appertaining to art, and the merits inherent 
 
 in the language. A single fact will point out the 
 
 deplorable state of the study of Plemish at Brussels ; 
 
 this Cammaert, who betrays at each step a profound 
 
 ignorance of the principles of the Plemish tongue, 
 
 constituted himself a legislator of Flemish poetry, 
 
 by reproducing in Avretched verses the Art JPoetique 
 
 of Boileau. 
 
 As in Holland, so in Belgium, they began at 
 
 this time to occupy themselves especially with the 
 
 theory of art. Although they confined themselves 
 
 to essays, these efforts Avere not tlie less salutary by 
 
 directing attention to the masterpieces of the pre- 
 
 js 2
 
 180 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vi. 
 
 ceding century. The works on grammar were far 
 from remarkable, either for depth of insight or re- 
 search. Des E/OclieSj who became afterwards the 
 zealous secretary of the Academy, carried his com- 
 plaisance for routine so far as to refrain from pro- 
 posing a return to certain proprieties of language 
 which had fallen into neglect for nearly a century, 
 especially in Belgium. The force of inertia pre- 
 vented the profitable results which might have 
 ensued from the labours of the Hinlopens, the 
 Alewyns, the Tortmans, the Kluits, and the Lely- 
 velds, who worthily carried on the works of Ten 
 Kate and of Huydecoper. 
 
 The greater number of these laborious scholars 
 were members of the literary society instituted at 
 Leyden. Eounded nearly about the same time as 
 the Academy of Brussels, this society, which re- 
 ceived no assistance from the Government, soon 
 acquired a high degree of consideration. At a later 
 period, neither the literary Dutch society, instituted 
 under the auspices of the Government, nor the In- 
 stitut de Sollcmde, founded by King Louis Bona- 
 parte, after the model of the Inst it ut de Frcmce, 
 were able to tarnish its splendour. It occupied 
 itself especially with the study of the language 
 and the art of poetry ; most of its members, 
 however, were not strangers to philosophy and 
 history. Kluit especially, one of the most eminent
 
 ciur. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. LSI 
 
 names claimed by tlie University of Leydcn, has 
 acquired a distinguished place among modern histo- 
 rians. He was, moreover, a sagacious critic and a 
 profound politician. 
 
 The epoch in which Kluit lived was fertile in 
 distinguished historians : linguistic and historical 
 investigations seemed to go hand in hand. Wagc- 
 naar published his history of the Low Countries 
 of the north, a colossal work, estimable in all 
 that regards style and research, and which was 
 afterwards continued by Stuart. Simon Styl wrote 
 a profoundly philosophical book upon the causes of 
 the greatness of the United Provinces, which was 
 destined to remain a valuable literary monument. 
 Bondam, Van den Spiegel, Te Water, and others, 
 collected documents to give a better appreciation of 
 the basis on which the actual organisation of the 
 country rested. Everything announced an ap- 
 proaching intellectual revival. The belles-lettres, 
 properly so called, were not long in participating in 
 this great work of regeneration. Patriotism was 
 rekindled by the interest inspired by the Nortli 
 American war of independence against England, 
 the rival of Holland, a war in which the nation 
 soon took an active part. On the other side, Ger- 
 many paid back with interest to Holland that 
 which she had borrowed in a former century from 
 the school of Heinsius. Three men, born about the 
 
 N 3
 
 182 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vt. 
 
 middle of the century, were remarkable examples 
 of this Germanic spirit : they were Bellamy, Nieuw- 
 land, and Van Alphen. The first died in the flower 
 of his youth, at the moment when his studies had 
 procured for him the situation of pastor of a village. 
 A man governed by the impulse of his heart, Bel- 
 lamy devoted himself to love, to friendship, and to 
 his country. By his simplicity, he works upon the 
 feelings, and in his patriotic poems he knows how 
 to touch the inmost recesses of the heart. His 
 romance entitled Little Rose (Boosje) is a master- 
 piece of simple tenderness. Bellamy had every 
 quality necessary to become one of the greatest 
 poets of his country, he failed only in that depth of 
 thought which is the fruit of maturer age. 
 
 The story of Little Rose is worth telling. She 
 was a young maiden, sweet and blooming as the 
 spring. Her mother dying at her birth, she was 
 brought up by her father, amid the love and admir- 
 ation of all who knew her. No sooner had a flower 
 burst into beauty, than it was plucked for little 
 Hose. Every summer, on that coast of the North 
 Sea where she lived, the tide carries up a peculiar 
 and beautiful sort of fish, which buries itself in the 
 sand, and the young people make pleasure parties 
 to discover and capture it as a delicacy. Little 
 Bose had joined one of these parties, and as the 
 tide was very low, they had gone out far beyond the
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 183 
 
 usual distance. Digging up the little fisli, throwing 
 water at one another, and gamholling on the sands, 
 maidens and young men were full of merriment, 
 and little Rose was chased even to the edge of the 
 waves by one of her companions. "A kiss, a kiss !" 
 exclaimed her pursuer, " or I drive you still far- 
 ther." She runs on, to escape him. A scream is 
 heard, and Rose disappears in a quicksand. The 
 young man who follows disappears also, and is 
 swallowed up. The rest of the party rush forward 
 to give assistance, but the tide is rising rapidly, and 
 they must fly. The waves roll cruelly over the two 
 victims, and the silence of death succeeds to the 
 sounds of laughter and of song. 
 
 " All silently tliey looked again, 
 And silently sped home, 
 And every heart was biu'sting then. 
 But every tongue was dumb. 
 
 " And still and stately o'er the wave 
 The mournful moon arose, 
 Flinging pale beams upon the grave 
 Where they in peace repose. 
 
 " The wind sighed o'er the voiceless sea, 
 The billows kissed the sand, 
 And one sad dirge of misery 
 Filled all the mourning land." 
 
 Nieuivlcmd, a child of the people, like Bellamy , 
 and who also died in the flower of his age, was a 
 
 N 4
 
 184 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vi. 
 
 prodigy in the knowledge of the exact sciences, but 
 this in no Avay interfered with the sublimity of his 
 poetical genius, as is testified by his beautiful ode 
 entitled Orion, and his touching elegies on the 
 death of his wife and child. Van Alphen united 
 practice with theory. After having inspired his 
 countrymen with a taste for the melody and 
 grandeur of his poetry, he was desirous to initiate 
 them into the secrets of the art, which he handled 
 in a manner peculiar to himself. In his poems 
 adapted to childhood a peculiarity of Tlemish lite- 
 rature is perceptible, that didactic spirit which has 
 manifested itself in all the epochs we have passed 
 through. Van Alphen has had several imitators 
 among numerous poets of both sexes ; and national 
 education owes its most brilliant results to this style 
 of poetry. 
 
 Dr. Bowring has said of him : " Van Alphen's 
 poems for children are among the best that were 
 ever written. They are a precious inheritance for 
 the youth of the Netherlands. They teach virtue 
 in simple eloquence, and are better known in that 
 country than are the hymns of Dr. Watts or Mrs. 
 Barbauld here." Born at Plessingen, 1797, he died 
 before he had reached thirty-three years of age. 
 
 When from any cause art has declined, he who 
 traces out for himself a new route is from this very 
 circumstance a remarkable man, and is certainly
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 185 
 
 deserving of gratitude, even should his ciTorts re- 
 main without any apparent result. The three ahove- 
 mentioned poets, indignant at the deplorable state 
 in which national poetry had fallen among the so- 
 called heaux-esprits^ gave some specimens of blank 
 verse, until then but little cultivated in Flanders. 
 Stript of its magic mantle of rhyme, poetry was 
 forced to pay more especial attention to accuracy of 
 expression and elegance of construction ; and if, in 
 the long run, blank verse could not maintain the 
 contest with rhyme, either on account of the pre- 
 judice engendered by long habit, or that the accusa- 
 tion of monotony applies with justice to most of the 
 attempts of this description made by the Elemish, 
 certain it is that it contributed much to restore to 
 poetry that superiority which it had lost since Von- 
 del had laid aside his lyre. 
 
 In these memorable days a social revolution was 
 effected in Holland and Belgium, but in both coun- 
 tries it was for a while repressed by brute force. 
 The men most implicated in it sought refuge on the 
 Prench territory, soon to serve as guides and aux- 
 iliaries to the soldiers of the republic. The two 
 countries were conquered in the name of liberty, 
 but at the price of some millions ; Holland pur- 
 chased only a phantom of independence, and Bel- 
 gium was forced, at the point of the sword, to ask 
 to be incorporated with France. This state of war-
 
 186 FLEMISH LITERATURE. ciiap.vi. 
 
 fare was very differently represented in the literary 
 productions of tlie two coimtries. While in Hol- 
 land everything denoted the happy result of solid 
 intelligent labour, in Belgium literature betrayed 
 the feverish efforts of a worn-out framoc In Hol- 
 land public instruction was national ; if in the 
 universities the language of the country did not as 
 yet form a prominent part of the teaching, at least 
 some professors suitably supplied the omission by 
 their publications. On the other hand, education 
 was provided for by the establishment of a society 
 for the public weal (Maetschappij tot Nut van 't 
 Algemeen), which owed its foundation to the phi- 
 lanthropic and patriotic views of the pastor Nieu- 
 wenhuyzen ; and the sacred music of the Reformers 
 improved at length under the influence of a pro- 
 gressive literature. 
 
 In Belgium nothing of this sort existed. The 
 University of Louvain was absorbed by scholastic 
 disputes and domestic occupations, so that its 
 professors could give no serious thought to public 
 progress and welfare. The instruction produced no 
 result testifying to a searching study of the lan- 
 guage. The Jesuits had made use in the Low 
 Countries of a mixed pronunciation, peculiar to 
 themselves, and generally well received. After the 
 destruction of this society, the preachers adopted, 
 for the most part, the local dialects. How was it
 
 CHAP. VI. JFLEMISH LITERATURE. 1S7 
 
 possible that amid this indifference, both for the 
 written and the spoken language, joined to a com- 
 plete absence of criticism on literary productions, 
 how was it possible that any works of merit could 
 issue from a people unaccustomed for so long a 
 period to see anything else in the literary career 
 than an agreeable pastime without any essential 
 aim or object ? Thus when the revolution in Bra- 
 bant broke out, the poetical productions were by no 
 means worthy of a nation inflamed with a spirit of 
 independence. Prose, however, revived under better 
 auspices, and showed symptoms of putting forth an 
 equal degree of power to that it had already mani- 
 fested in the Low Countries of the north. Verloo 
 and Vonck, the leaders of the patriotic party which 
 bears their name, gave promise by their writings of 
 the brilliant future awaiting the successful results 
 of the revolution. But after the fatal conclusion of 
 the struggle with Austria, most of the liberals 
 became exclusive partisans of France, and, under 
 the safeguard of this powerful protector and ruler, 
 deemed themselves dispensed from any ulterior 
 efforts towards national emancipation. Everything 
 fell into disorder; and as a consequence of the 
 defection of the educated classes, the ignorance of 
 the language continued to increase. The arbitrary 
 measures of the Trench Government against the 
 ofBcial use of Elemish were no less fatal. A decree of
 
 188 I'LEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vi. 
 
 the 14tli Prairial, An XI. (13th June, 1803), says : 
 " In a year, reckoning from the publication of the 
 present ordinance, the public acts in the depart- 
 ments once called Belgium ... in those on the 
 left bank of the Uhine . . . where the cus- 
 tom of drawing up acts in the language of these 
 countries may have been preserved, they are from 
 henceforth to be written in Erench." It was thus 
 they enacted laws in the name of liberty and 
 humanity. These vexatious measures of the re- 
 public were surpassed by an imperial decree of the 
 22nd December, 1812, by which it was enjoined that 
 all Elemish papers should appear with a Prench 
 translation. After some opposition, Brussels sub- 
 mitted to these humiliating conditions ; the ancient 
 capital of the country laid aside its national spirit. 
 Everywhere else, however, a better feeling was 
 awakened, and this struggle of moral force against 
 the absolute will of a foreign government main- 
 tained itself valiantly against the decrees of the 
 republic and of the empire. "West Elanders, es- 
 pecially, beheld the defenders of literature form 
 themselves into organised bodies. Several towns 
 and villages gave fetes, at which were celebrated all 
 the recollections of Elemish nationalities, and the 
 victors received homage for their patriotic efforts. 
 In 1809, the Society of Ypres proposed the com- 
 position of a poem upon any celebrated Flemish
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 189 
 
 hero. The folloAving year that of Alost selected, as 
 a suhject for competition, The Glory of the BeU 
 gianSy and a man of letters who had already, under 
 the Austrian dominion, distinguislied himself as a 
 historian and poet, Verhoeven, of Malines, wrote an 
 epic poem, in fifteen cantos, entitled Belgium^ 
 which remained unpublished for want of encou- 
 rao-ement. Some men deluded themselves with the 
 idea that the Prcnch Government would at least, 
 through the medium of its prefects, lend a helping 
 hand to the mother tongue of Planders. At Ghent, 
 it is true, they succeeded in evading the prohibition 
 to give theatrical representations in Flemish, and 
 even Napoleon gave his consent to the meeting of 
 the Fontainistes of that town, after having ascer- 
 tained the favourable intentions of this society 
 towards the Government. 
 
 One author, especially, sought to induce the local 
 rulers to interpose in the ^Flemish cause ; this was 
 Van Daele, of Ypres, the first who published a 
 literary review in these provinces. His chief merit 
 consists in having contributed to the improvement 
 of the style and the construction of the versification 
 which was so lamentably neglected. There was an 
 evident progress in Plemish poetry after the pul)li- 
 cation of his periodical work and his new edition 
 of the free translation of the A^'t Foetique of 
 Boileau, by Labare. This progress was powerfully
 
 100 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vi. 
 
 assisted by the more intimate relations established 
 •with Holland, which had also become an integral 
 part of the Erench empire. Some Dutch poets 
 took part in the literary assemblies in Planders, 
 and the first actors on the stage of Amsterdam 
 gave utterance to the national accent there, where 
 the chambers of rhetoric had been forbidden to 
 speak the ancient idiom of the country. In spite 
 of persecution, the Elemish theatre struggled on 
 courageously. Belgium, perhaps, has never counted 
 so many good actors and actresses as at that time. 
 Among these, the most distinguished was AYattie, 
 who died in the flower of his age, at Ghent, his 
 native city. Among the dramatic authors of this 
 epoch, Hofman, of Courtrai, deserves honourable 
 mention. This man owed everything to himself, 
 and under circumstances more favourable to public 
 education, he would have become, without doubt, 
 one of the brio-htest ornaments of Flemish litera- 
 ture. Hofman wrote several tragedies for the 
 people, a few comedies, and one or two comic operas. 
 With a genius eminently poetical, he possessed, in 
 a high degree, the faculty of improvisation, and 
 several of his dramatic pieces have been written 
 Avith a rapidity of which the literary annals of 
 Inlanders afford few examples. 
 
 It is now time to take a retrospective view of the 
 north, where an extraordinary intellectual move-
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 191 
 
 ment agitated the whole nation. "We have just seen, 
 that about the end of the eighteenth century, the 
 reverend Nieuwenhuyzen laid the foundation of the 
 society Tot Nut van 't Algemeen, a society whose 
 object was to popularise the different branches of 
 human knowledge, and which from the early days 
 of its existence might boast of the most successful 
 results. At the revolution of 1795, the reformed 
 worship ceased to be the religion of the state ; and 
 the members of other religious communities were 
 declared admissible to public offices. This was a 
 great event for a country like Holland, where there 
 are such numerous sects, and which comprised 
 within its territory departments governed like con- 
 quered countries. Moreover, the new representative 
 organisation developed the power of oratory, at the 
 same time that it drew together men of different 
 dialects. This popular administration was not long 
 in removing the fetters which until then had op- 
 posed the progress of literature. Professorships 
 were established in the Universities of Leyden and 
 Praneker ; in accordance with the wishes of the 
 society Tot Nut van 7 Algemeen^ the Government 
 undertook to put an end to the irregularities which 
 still existed in the orthography of the language. 
 The Professor Siegenbeck was charged with this 
 difficult task, and, considering the circumstances, 
 acquitted himself of it in a praiseworthy manner.
 
 192 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vi. 
 
 Wieland, on liis side, in concert with other philo- 
 logists, published a dictionary of the language, and 
 one of synonymes, works which were much re- 
 quired; moreover, this author published a grammar 
 which was officially introduced into all the institu- 
 tions of the state. This orthography, quasi official, 
 found in Holland violent antagonists, among whom 
 it will suffice to mention Bilderdyk. But the 
 system of Siegenbeck, supported by Vander Palm, 
 triumphed over all obstacles ; this was a real boon 
 to letters, as from that time attention was no longer 
 limited to mere form. 
 
 We have just spoken of Vander Palm. He was 
 a Protestant minister and professor of Oriental 
 literature at the University of Leyden, when the 
 revolutionary movement placed him for some time 
 at the head of Public Instruction. He was the 
 first clerical orator and prose writer of his day, 
 and in both these capacities conferred immense 
 obligation on Plemish literature. About the middle 
 of the seventeenth century, prose had insensibly 
 lost somewhat of its force, of its Plemish character- 
 istics, and it was only at the end of the last cen- 
 tury that it recovered itself. But had it not been 
 for the newly founded courses of lectures upon 
 national literature, there is reason to believe it 
 would have been limited to some masterpieces of 
 pulpit and parliamentary eloquence, leaving to
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 193 
 
 poetry the position of honour. It is to Yander 
 Palm that the Plcmish prose of our century owes 
 in a great measure its halo of glory. His numerous 
 writings hear at every page the impress of that 
 vast genius which knew how to unite the severest 
 logic and the deepest research to a style varied, 
 rich, and free in its construction. A considerahle 
 number of sermons, dissertations, and academical 
 discourses, some more remarkable than others, were 
 the production of the indefatigable pen of this 
 celebrated professor. He devoted especial attention 
 to the Bible, and published a translation of the 
 Scriptures, enriched with notes ; his extensive 
 acquaintance with Oriental antiquities makes it 
 perhaps the first work of the kind in the litera- 
 ture of any nation. He also published a Bible for 
 the use of youth, and paraphrases on the Proverbs 
 of Solomon, a real treasure of wisdom. Vandcr 
 Palm shone among a crowd of men who were re- 
 miarkable in the various branches of literature 
 which he himself cultivated ; pulpit eloquence 
 reckoned many celebrities in all the Christian 
 communities. Borger, Kist, Ypey, Clarisse, Mun- 
 tinghe, Stuart, and many others, distinguished 
 themselves as reformed preachers. Borger espe- 
 cially might have disputed tlie palm with the cele- 
 brated professor of Leyden, if his career had not 
 been brought to so early a close. Descended from
 
 19-i FLEMISH LITERATURE. ctiap. vi. 
 
 Prieslancl citizens, liis mind was as powerfully 
 tempered as that of any of his countrymen. His 
 vast genius made him the absolute master of all 
 the sciences to which he applied himself. Before 
 he had attained the age of manhood, he produced 
 several masterpieces of eloquence and philosophy, 
 among which his Treatise on Mi/sticism merits par- 
 ticular mention. 
 
 Porensic eloquence, like that of the pnlpit, soon 
 experienced the beneficial influence of the national 
 awakening, and Holland might feel convinced that 
 she had no longer any cause to envy other nations, 
 when the eloquence of such men as Kemper and 
 Meyer took up the cause of adversity. Meyer is 
 sufficiently known in the learned world by his work, 
 published in Prench, JEsiirit, Origine et J^rogres 
 des Institutions judiciaires des j)i"inci2:)aucc |:>«?/5 de 
 VJEiirope; but his eminent qualities were no less 
 resplendent in his Elemish writings. Possessing a 
 universal fame, he remained, nevertheless, almost 
 isolated in his own country ; an exclusive partisan 
 of the Prench codes, he would make no concession 
 in this respect to the self-love of the nation. This 
 line of conduct irritated his countrymen, and the 
 more so as Meyer, being a member of the Israelitish 
 commnnion, might be supposed a cosmopolite in 
 his ideas. Ho\a ever that may be, the Plemish writ- 
 ings of Meyer are strongly tinged with Prencli
 
 ciTAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 195 
 
 phraseology ; tliey merit particular mention, both 
 on account of their construction and spirit. They 
 denote that powerful mental energy which may be 
 observed in many authors of this epoch, and which 
 makes itself felt in every branch of human know- 
 ledge. 
 
 The impulse given to poetry by Bellamy, Nieuw- 
 land, and Van Alphen, seconded by causes already 
 mentioned, stirred the Batavian lyre with a force 
 which scarcely permitted a recollection of the lim- 
 ited territorial extent of the country, and of the 
 ruinous influence of the republic over the destinies 
 of Europe. It was symbolic of a desperate struggle 
 maintained by a nation on the eve of perishing. 
 This energy saved Holland ; for after the fall of the 
 ephemeral kingdom erected by Napoleon in favour 
 of one of his brothers, Holland became incorporated 
 with the Erench empire, and was in a condition to 
 sustain, without being crushed, the overbearing 
 administration of the conquering powers. 
 
 In a literary point of view, Germany had a special 
 influence over Holland towards the close of the last 
 century. A dreamy and sentimental literature had 
 at all epochs sprung up on Elemish soil, but it had 
 only unfolded itself to a certain extent when the 
 novels of Bichardson, and the poetry of Ossian and 
 of Young, crossed the Northern Ocean. Equally 
 prepared with Germany for English literature, IIol- 
 
 o 2
 
 ]'J6 ILEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vr. 
 
 land received with enthusiasm the Werther of 
 Goethe. Eeith was the apostle of the new school ; 
 he gave a direction to the leaning towards senti- 
 mentalism hy some of his letters, (JBrieven over 
 verscheidene Onderwerpen,) hy his novels, and his 
 poems. The Tomb (Het Graf) and Old Age (De 
 Ouderdom). A taste for the gloomy, and an ex- 
 travagant sensihility, were the distinctive charac- 
 teristics of this school. E/Cpuhlican virtues were 
 associated in tender minds with poetical reveries, 
 emhracing, in a Platonic love, the whole of nature ; 
 sentiment alism was sensuality under a religious 
 garb, coupled with vague tendencies towards pan- 
 theism ; an earthly Paradise was the dream of the 
 philosophers of the eighteenth century. But if 
 the tendency of this school endangered energy of 
 character, it served, at least in the Low Countries, to 
 discard from literature those obscene works, the 
 influence of which made itself felt even on the 
 stage. 
 
 The school of dreamers may claim the honour of 
 having guided the first steps of men who in later 
 years became bright ornaments in the great crowd 
 of poets. Besides Peith, their leader, who was 
 also one of our first lyrics, and who wrote some 
 classical tragedies of great merit, it will sufl&ce to 
 cite the name of Tollens. 
 
 This amiable author, born at Botterdam, whose
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. l'J7 
 
 parents were of Ghent, is perhaps of all our modern 
 poets the one who has best sympathised with the 
 lower classes. In general, the Flemish minstrels 
 make too great a parade of erudition : a serious 
 defect in a small nation, where already the number 
 of readers is sufficiently limited. ToUens is the 
 poet of the people, — a title decreed by the unani- 
 mous voice of the public, as well in Belgium as in 
 Holland. This popularity ToUens owes to his 
 Flemish characteristics. A poet of the fireside, his 
 verses breathe the pure enjoyment of life; whether 
 he celebrates family events or recites a ballad, or 
 whether his enthusiasm be kindled at the glory of 
 his ancestors, or whether he advocates religious and 
 political tolerance, he sheds on all encouragement, 
 consolation, and cheerfulness. These qualities are 
 heightened by a brilliant imagination, a correct 
 style, a versification easy and yet without mono- 
 tony. Thus the poems of ToUens constitute the 
 delight of all classes of society ; and in a country 
 moreover reputed as but slightly favourable to the 
 cultivation of belles-lettres, a second edition, en- 
 couraged by 10,000 subscribers, has been closely 
 followed by a third and a fourth. 
 
 The poems of ToUens date from the existence of 
 the kingdom of the Low Countries. The Dutch 
 Nation of Helmers was published in 1812, when 
 France pressed upon IloUand with its whole im- 
 
 o 3
 
 108 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vi. 
 
 perial wciglit. The work of the poet of Amsterdam, 
 AA ho was saved only by death from prison, is of a 
 mixed style, between the epic and didactic. He 
 celebrates the glory acquired by the Batavian people 
 by land and by sea, in science, literature, and the 
 fine arts. It is worthy of remark, that The Dutch 
 Nation appeared nearly at the same time as the 
 prize pieces in the city of Alost, in Glanders, on 
 The Glory of Belgium ; and we are inclined to think 
 that the Elemish Assembly, prompted by a people 
 unwilling to perish, may have inspired the Dutch 
 poet. We may perhaps attribute to this cause the 
 early circulation of the poem of Helmers in Belgium. 
 This masterpiece has, if we may say so, opened the 
 gates of Elanders to the modern poets of Holland. 
 Helmers justly merits this honour, for, with the 
 exception of some high-flown passages belonging to 
 the character of the poem, and to the epoch in whicli 
 it was written, he is remarkable for the vigour and 
 grace of his descriptions, and he will always remain 
 one of the noblest ornaments of this period, so rich 
 in masterpieces of every kind. 
 
 Loots, the son-in-law of Helmers, was, like him- 
 self, destitute of literary education, but a sublime 
 and true poet. He is more correct in style, and is 
 not tainted with the sentimentality which in some 
 degree detracts from the poetry of Helmers. Hol- 
 land then possessed several distinguished men who
 
 CHAP. VI. ELEMISH LITERATURE. 109 
 
 were debarred from a regular course of study. 
 Such are the two brothers, Klyn and Messchert. 
 In the absence of the ancient writers as models, 
 many of them took other means to arrive at the 
 brilliant position attained by the modern authors 
 of England and Germany. The ballad and the 
 romance, once passionately cultivated in the Low 
 Countries as well as in the entire north of the 
 Germanic provinces, were restored to their place 
 of honour, and Tollens especially showed, by his 
 happy imitations, all the simplicity and softness 
 existing in this class of poetry which had been so 
 unjustly consigned to oblivion. If this does not 
 form one of the chief merits of Tollens in the eyes 
 of his countrymen, we ought to render him more 
 justice, for it is owing to him essentially that song 
 and fable have recovered much of the ground 
 which they had lost for two centuries. Their re- 
 storation to public favour will be only productive 
 of results, when poetry and music shall unite to 
 restore to the Plemish language that sweetness of 
 which it stiU boasted in the days of Hooft. Be- 
 sides, the mission of poetry is not to serve espe- 
 cially as a vehicle for the lucubrations of the 
 student. The poet belongs to the entire nation, 
 and it is by enlarging as much as possible the circle 
 of his auditory, by addressing himself to every 
 hearth and home of his fatherland, that he earns 
 
 O 4:
 
 200 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vi. 
 
 the riglit to "be styled national. It is in this man- 
 ner, by depicting social life in small narrative 
 poems, that poets, removed from the sphere of the 
 masses, by their erudition as well as by their po- 
 sition in life, have succeeded in acquiring a certain 
 amount of popularity. We will only cite Staring, 
 who, at the end of the last century, was one of the 
 first to produce the national ballad. Nervous and 
 caustic in expression, he transposed into verse the 
 history and customs of his native country, Guel- 
 ders, the land of the warriors and minstrels of the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
 We will pass over in silence many remarkable 
 poets, in order that we may dwell somewhat longer 
 on the greatest of them all — the illustrious Bilder- 
 dyk. 
 
 Dying in 1831, at the age of seventy-five, nearly 
 at the same period at which two other great lu- 
 minaries extinguished their light, Walter Scott 
 and Goethe, William Bilderdyk held the sceptre of 
 poetry for more than half a century. Nurtured in 
 the school of the ancients, of an upright mind 
 and a brilliant imagination, he had at his disposal 
 all the resources which language can offer to 
 an author. Initiated into the accurate sciences, 
 moral, political and natural, as well as the fine 
 arts, familiar with the classical languages of the 
 East and West, and most of the modern tongues of
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 201 
 
 Europe, — in a word, endowed with a gigantic in- 
 tellect, — he represented rather those ancient United 
 Provinces, toAvering* over all the earth, than the 
 Batavian Uepnhlic, struggling in its last convulsions, 
 or that kingdom of Holland, created for the most 
 pacific of the Bonaparte family. Everything in 
 this man was great, his personal misfortunes as 
 well as his literary success, his faults and his vir- 
 tues. Ostracised by his countrymen, he was re- 
 called, after ten years of exile, by a foreigner, and 
 after having enjoyed all the honours due to so 
 transcendent a genius, he was more than once 
 on the point of dying of hunger under a national 
 government. In domestic life he was scarcely 
 more fortunate than in his public career. He was 
 stretched upon a bed of sickness up to the ago 
 of fifteen, and experienced nothing but afiliction 
 in his first marriage; and when, after a divorce, 
 Heaven seemed to have granted him a companion 
 more congenial to his disposition, the unhappy 
 father mourned, successively, the loss of a numerous 
 offspring. More than 150 volumes are the produce 
 of this agitated existence, all indicating that mas- 
 culine vigour which makes a whole people bend 
 under the despotism of genius. As a poet he is 
 often equal to Vondel for elevation and boldness, 
 and is always his superior in accuracy. He essayed 
 every style except comedy, and in all produced
 
 203 FLEMISH LITERATURE. chap. vi. 
 
 masterpieces. Amorous poetry, religious poetry, 
 satires, didactic and epic poems, tragedies, all that 
 issued from his fertile pen, excited general admira- 
 tion. His numerous imitations of tjie principal 
 authors of ancient, oriental, and modern literature 
 equal his original poems, and form a selection of 
 quite a peculiar character. With the exception, 
 perhaps, of the smooth verses of Anacreon, the 
 softness of which, in our opinion, is lost when 
 passing under the pen of Bilderdyk, his trans- 
 lations, or rather his free imitations, bear an 
 advantageous comparison with the originals : of 
 this we may convince ourselves by reading his 
 version of L' Homme des Champs, by Delille. Bil- 
 derdyk, who, from his first entrance upon a literary 
 career, gave indications of favouring a monarchical 
 government, became, at a later period, an advocate 
 of divine right, — a system which he maintained to 
 an extreme length, inveighing freely against the 
 opinions of . the age. Bilderdyk thus drew upon 
 himself the anger of his political opponents, and 
 from that period (1808) his works ceased to find 
 any favour. It was at this time he commenced 
 writing for the theatre, and was prevented by the 
 cabal from representing his pieces. The favourable 
 position he occupied at the court of Louis Bona- 
 parte gave him leisure to begin an epic poem on the 
 Deluge {De Ondergcmg der eerste Wereld) ; the
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 2U3 
 
 abdication of the king, and the consequent ruin of 
 Bilderdyk, deprived the latter of energy to continue 
 his great intellectual work. His enemies ironically 
 reproached him with this impotent effort; and when 
 later he consented to publish the five books which 
 he had finished, — astonishing the reader by the 
 grandeur of the poetry, — they attacked the political 
 opinions of the author. Even his works upon the 
 science of language, which he then began to pub- 
 lish, and which gave rise to a revolution in the 
 appreciation of the Plemish tongue, occasioned him 
 some sharp combats. These combats, it must be 
 confessed, he himself provoked. Driven from his 
 native land for opinions which were not the fashion 
 of the day, they gathered fresh strength on a foreign 
 soil, and his own misfortunes, added to the decline 
 of his country, were little calculated to inspire a 
 disposition at once irritable and haughty with in- 
 dulgence for ideas contrary to those he himself held. 
 Thus the most deplorable quarrels ensued with 
 many of the eminent men of the period, Vander 
 Palm, Kinker, &c., which give to certain of his 
 writings a grievous accrl)ity. But such is the as- 
 cendancy of genius, such the prestige of those 
 giant-thrusts, that we, placed upon neutral ground, 
 and removed from his violence, remain astonished 
 in the presence of that depth of thought, that
 
 20i FLEMISH LITEEATUUE. ciiap.vi, 
 
 severe logic, and those bold assertions, clad in the 
 sparkling garh of the richest poetry. 
 
 Bilderdyk was essentially a Pleming, and his 
 patriotism, sometimes carried to fanaticism, made 
 him attack successively England, Prance, and Ger- 
 many. Hence his judgments, often so dissimilar, 
 on Napoleon, whom at one time he invokes as the 
 liberator of Europe against the mercantile despotism 
 of aristocratic England, and at another overwhelms 
 with the thunderbolts of his indignation. Germany 
 in its turn experienced the fire of his attacks. Here, 
 however, there was no question of an enemy me- 
 nacing the independence of the mouths of the 
 Hhine and Meuse, or preparing a sudden blow at 
 the fleet or the colonies ; that which irritated him 
 was the unpractical nature of the German mind, 
 ao'ainst the influence of which he thou2:ht the srood- 
 nature of his countrymen too little protected. The 
 progress of modern philosophy and the taste for 
 romance, kept him constantly on the alert ; on one 
 side Christianity, on the other classic literature, 
 seemed to be menaced. In fact, it cannot be said 
 that he was entirely wrong in his apprehensions, 
 only that he carried his impetuous resistance too 
 far. Goethe and he are the two contrasts in the 
 modern struggle of intelligence : to make use of a 
 common simile, the German poet resembles a fiery 
 courser in full career, while the Dutchman is the
 
 CHAi'. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 205 
 
 bold rider who wishes to control his steed. He 
 Avas quite aware of his power, but his impetuosity 
 prevented his bringing any system to maturity : 
 his wounded self-love destroyed his calmness, and 
 prevented his treating subjects relating to language 
 with all the care and accuracy of which he was 
 capable. The same may be said with regard to 
 national history, which he taught during several 
 years, and which he treated in a way to suit his 
 own political and religious opinions. His adlierence 
 to the rules of Aristotle made him an exclusive 
 partisan of the French theatre. This is not, how- 
 ever, the cause of the failure of his tragedies, for 
 nowhere has the Prench theatre been imitated so 
 generally, and with so much success, as in Holland. 
 It was his system of philosophy which showed itself 
 throughout, and was rejected, as an obstacle to the 
 progress of civilisation. Nevertheless this great 
 genius founded a school of history, and even of phi- 
 losophy, which produced men of great talent, who 
 each in his peculiar branch disputed the palm with 
 his master. 
 
 A parallel has been attempted to be drawn be- 
 tween Feitli and Bilderdyk. As men of genius and 
 even of learning, this is absurd. Feith is a correct 
 poet, there are even occasional signs of inspiration 
 in his odes, and he has written agreeably on the 
 theory of the art ; but he only skims the surface
 
 •206 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap, vi. 
 
 of things, while Bilderclyk treats the subject tho- 
 roughly. If we compare The Tomb of the one 
 with The Disease of Wise Men of the other, the 
 best pieces of Peith with the Ode to Napoleon of 
 Bilderclyk, the Mucius Scevola of the republican 
 with the Floris V. of the absolutist, we must, at 
 the same time that we pay homage to the talents of 
 Feith, and to the services he has rendered to litera- 
 ture, be convinced of the enormous distance which 
 separates these two authors. 
 
 If among the literary celebrities which shone at 
 the beginning of our century there is any one able 
 to stand a comparison with this intellectual giant, 
 it is, indisputably, Kinlcer. We even think that 
 the study of the works of the professor of Liege 
 follows as a necessary consequence those of Bil- 
 derdyk. Both of them poets, grammarians, and 
 philosophers, they have continually found themselves 
 opposed to each other on the same ground. Kinker 
 represented the philosophy of Kant and Pichte; 
 he even wrote a pantheist poem entitled Soul in the 
 World (Het Alleven of de Wereldziel). It was 
 entirely in opposition to his antagonist, who made 
 a long dissertation on grace and original sin. Bil- 
 derdyk never encountered so rough and so firm an 
 adversary, as may be seen by the argumentative 
 criticism on his grammar ; they occasionally met 
 on the theory of art, a subject which they both
 
 CHAT. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 207 
 
 treated with equal depth, and with an equal feeling- 
 for the beautiful. Kinker wielded with success the 
 weapon of satire ; the Letters of Sophia to Feith^ 
 in ansAVcr to Letters to Soplda^ from the author of 
 The TomJ), are a satirical defence of the German 
 philosopliy; he bitterly censured the etymological 
 system of Bilderdyk, in his Farewell to the River 
 Y, and applied the homoeopathic treatment to the 
 mania for the horrible in domestic tragedy. He 
 took part in the formation of the best political and 
 literary reviews Avhich appeared from 1789 to 1815. 
 The poetry of Kinker is sometimes obscure, like 
 the philosophy which he defended against the whole 
 nation. Although he overwhelmed Peith with the 
 weight of his sarcasms, he succeeded no better in 
 "upholding in verse the system of the philosopher of 
 Konigsberg than Van Hemert had done in prose ; 
 his pantheism passed, so to speak, unnoticed, and 
 his disputes with Bilderdyk did not draw upon him 
 all the attention he deserved. His promotion to 
 the professorship of Flemish philosophy and litera- 
 ture at the University of Liege was an honourable 
 ostracism, in order to remove him from Amsterdam, 
 where the peculiar turn of his mind was trouble- 
 some to some of the magnates. Teaching was the 
 proper vocation of this profound thinker. It is 
 only to be regretted that Kinker was not rather 
 sent into Planders, where a more refined taste for
 
 208 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. vi. 
 
 poetry might have been cultivated side by side with 
 a growing appreciation of the language. Certainly 
 at Ghent and Louvain his philosophical opinions 
 would have occasioned embarrassment to the Go- 
 vernment, which was not likely to be the case at 
 Liege, where the frankness of Kinker procured him 
 a friendly sympathy. But in truth, the mission to 
 the Plemish provinces did not hold out more 
 favourable prospects to the Catholic priest than to 
 the pantheist. It seemed decided that every pro- 
 fessor of Elemish literature should meet with a sys- 
 tematic opposition on the part of those who directed 
 the public mind. 
 
 If blind party spirit is always dangerous, it is 
 especially so in a country whose homogeneity is 
 not firmly constituted. The kingdom of the Low 
 Countries consists almost entirely of the Thioise 
 provinces, and of some Walloon districts of the 
 ancient appanage of the Dukes of Burgundy, and 
 was looked upon by some as an accession of terri- 
 tory in compensation for losses beyond sea ; by 
 others as a realisation of the monarchy of Albert 
 and Isabella. The national language having been 
 excluded from public affairs by the French adminis- 
 tration, it was reinstated by King "William, and at 
 first energetically supported by him ; but, from 
 causes which this is not perhaps the proper time to 
 discuss, there soon arose in the Flemish provinces
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 209 
 
 an opposition against the would-l)C Dutch, whom 
 they wished at all hazards to distinguish funda- 
 mentally from the Flemish. This change in the 
 opinions of those who took part in public instruc- 
 tion was very detrimental to the study of the lan- 
 guage in Elanders. Thus, being abandoned by the 
 legal profession, who had lived during a quarter of 
 a century mider Prench rule, ridiculed by foreigners 
 who were receiving Belgian hospitality, it saw itself 
 forsaken by those very individuals who had only 
 lately been its firm supporters, and the people were 
 excited against the most valuable of their national 
 possessions. 
 
 By the side of these various obstacles to the re- 
 establishment of the Plemish tongue in the pro- 
 vinces, must be placed the half-measures of the 
 Government. It is true that in the different branches 
 of instruction men of talent were employed, who 
 initiated the people into the secrets of the language 
 which had been lost for two centuries; but we 
 must impute it as a fault that it confined itself ex- 
 clusively within the strict limits of duty. Thus it 
 did not encourage in the youth of the University 
 the exclusive and professional study of Flemisli 
 literature ; it made no sacrifice to organise the 
 theatre, which might easily have been done, from 
 the large choice offered by the chambers of rhe- 
 toric in Flanders and Brabant, and in the dramatic 
 
 p
 
 210 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. vi. 
 
 companies of Holland ; the most eminent cliaracters 
 of whicli, and especially the tragic actress Wattier, 
 had elicited applause from Napoleon and from 
 Talma. They confined themselves to the en- 
 couragement, at rare intervals, of excursions by 
 the actors to Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent, and to 
 bestowing gracious words upon the societies of rhe- 
 toric. Under its auspices were formed some literary 
 reunions in the royal residence and in the two 
 capitals of Planders ; but these learned bodies, far 
 from being organised according to the peculiar taste 
 of the Belgians, were rather arenas, open to intrigue 
 for places, and by no means calculated to serve the 
 national cause. Thus they were swallowed up in 
 the tempest of 1830, scarcely leaving a few wrecks 
 floating on the surface. Another grave fault was 
 the withholding from the [Flemings the facility of 
 access to the best authors, while the republication of 
 the production of Prench literature was encouraged. 
 The fate of the language remained then in a 
 great measure in the hands of the chambers of 
 rhetoric. If these chambers had not yet freed 
 themselves from the routine which fettered the 
 flight of genius, they had at least the privilege of 
 having belonged for centuries to the soil, and of 
 having represented real evils. With more tact, 
 these societies might have regained the eclat which 
 they enjoyed in the sixteenth century ; they would
 
 ciiAF. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 211 
 
 have become once more a brilliant focus of civilisa- 
 tion. The various meetings which they held attest 
 that the taste for, and study of the language, made 
 in fact rapid progress. 
 
 But the chambers of rhetoric kept themselves 
 too isolated to be of use in stimulating the energy 
 of the people; their labours were too much re- 
 stricted within the narrow circle of their own 
 members. At Antwerp there was a more extended 
 communication between the public and literary 
 men. There the accents of the poet found a wider 
 sphere, and the claims of the language a more 
 energetic defence. It was in the first years of the 
 existence of the kingdom of the Low Countries 
 that our Willems appeared, the true personification, 
 during more than a quarter of a century, of the 
 Flemish literary movement. Born in 1793, in the 
 neighbourhood of Antwerp, he felt himself at an 
 early age attracted towards the metropolis of the 
 arts, where the national literature had secured for 
 itself, in the society Tot Nut der Jeugd (Eor the 
 Benefit of Youth), a sanctuary in the midst of many 
 destructive elements. Willems, crowned in 1812, 
 at a meeting in Ghent, where the venerable octo- 
 genarian Cornelissen had the courage to sound 
 the praises of all that has constituted the glory of 
 Planders, rendered himself famous in 1818 by an 
 address in favour of his country, under the form of 
 
 ?2
 
 212 FLEMISH LITERATURE. ciur. \i. 
 
 an Bpistle to the Belgians. This address, full of 
 energy, was perhaps the most perfect specimen of 
 poetry Avhich for half a century had issued from a 
 Plemish pen. Willems attached to his poem a 
 translation in prose, and some Erench notes, for 
 the henefit of those who did not read Elemish, and 
 also, as a direct answer to tlie attacks of some gen- 
 tlemen of the long rohe, Avho had heen already partly 
 refuted by the Belgian Spectator. As the question 
 at issue regarded the validity of the claims of the 
 Plemish to the use of their language for official 
 purposes in the provinces, where such language was 
 actually in use, Willems made it his task to prove 
 these claims from the history of the country. This 
 was to avenge the right of nations upon the French 
 propaganda, the holy alliance of the people upon 
 a usurpation of twenty years' duration. Erance 
 vanquished at Leipsic and at Waterloo, the influ- 
 ence of the Erench language destroyed in Germany 
 and in Holland, it had nevertheless preserved its 
 vitality in the Elemish part of Belgium. Willems 
 gained his cause, hut to the detriment of the 
 vivacity of his poetical spirit; this must be re- 
 garded in some respects as a misfortune, consider- 
 ing the very small number of poets of merit which 
 these first days of struggle produced in Elanders, 
 and the apathy shown by the Government when 
 called upon to take efficacious measures to encou- 
 rage the revival of literature.
 
 CUA1?. vr. TLEMISH LITERATURE. 213 
 
 While Willcms was combating the lawyers, he 
 had at the same time to maintain another contest 
 against several members of the clergy, — on the 
 subject of his History of Netherlandish Literature 
 in Belgium (Verhandeling over de Nederduytsche 
 Tael- en Letterkunde, opzigtelyk de Zuydelyke Pro- 
 vintien der Nederlanden, 1819 — 1821), a refined 
 work, of sound criticism and profound erudition, 
 but which, in the opinion of some, extolled the 
 Dutch to the detriment of the Flemish poets. The 
 members of the clergy who attacked our author 
 the most vigorously Avere Buelens and Thys. The 
 first, who carried on simultaneously a paper war 
 with the Vicar-General of Malines, respecting a 
 sermon which the latter had just published, proved 
 by his own writings that in reality there is no dis- 
 tinction between Flemish and Dutch, where each 
 is careful to pay due attention to style. Thys, for- 
 merly hagiographer of the Abbey of Tongerloo, 
 and member of the Academy of Brussels, had ob- 
 tained a reputation among those liberal-minded 
 men who, at the end of the eighteenth century 
 and the beginning of the nineteenth, enriched Bel- 
 gium with works upon agriculture. Thys lost 
 himself when, in answer to a question proposed by 
 the Literary Society of Antwerp, he became involved 
 in the labyrinth of a linguistic argument. Like 
 Scrieckius and Becanus, as well as his contemporary 
 
 r 3
 
 214 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. vi. 
 
 De Grave, lie attributed a fabulous antiquity to the 
 Elcmisli tongue. Willems was wiser ; like Ypcy, 
 the author of The History of the Lcmgtmge of the 
 Nethertands (Beknopte Geschieclenis tier Neder- 
 landsche Tale, 1812), he considered Plemish to be 
 the modern Teutonic branch, the nearest allied to 
 the ancient Indo- Germanic languages. Among the 
 Belgians who at this period gave themselves up to 
 the study of their own idiom, he was one of the 
 very few who entered closely into its composition, 
 which had been already greatly improved by Eil- 
 derdyk, and still more perfected by Hamaker in his 
 Akademische Voorlesingen^ a remarkable work upon 
 the filiation of languages, published a few days 
 before the death of the author (in 1835). But let 
 us return to Willems. It was left to him to prove 
 the identity of the Elemish and the Dutch, and to 
 demonstrate the causes of an apparent distinction. 
 He accomplished his mission in a dissertation 0]i 
 the Flemish and Dutch Mode of writing the Lan- 
 guage of the Netherlands (Over de lloUandsche 
 en Vlaemsche Schryfwyzen van het Nederduitsch, 
 1824). In this treatise he proposed a mixed ortho- 
 graphy, which he afterwards carried out, and which 
 served as a basis for the discussions of the Lin- 
 guistic Congress held at Ghent in 1841. But during 
 the existence of the kingdom of the Low Countries, 
 his system was accepted by no one. The Insti- 
 tution, which favoured the study of Tlemisli,
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEMISH LITERATURE. 215 
 
 adopted the orthography of Siegenbeck, while liis 
 adversaries put forward the miserable grammar of 
 Des E/Oches. 
 
 The kingdom enjoyed a moment of calm. It 
 w^as then that the new generation in Planders first 
 tried its wings. D' II ulster, its most classical and 
 correct poet, had then reached the climax of his 
 age ; and Willems himself, although engaged in 
 philological and historical studies, drew from his 
 muse some fine verses. The union between the 
 Catholics and the Liberals soon revived the war 
 against the use of the language, and Willems de- 
 fended it anew, with all the energy of a profound 
 conviction, against the most eminent men of the 
 opposition. The revolution broke out : it treated the 
 Elemish form of speech as vanquished, and exiled 
 to a small town its noble defender, — a melan- 
 choly but sublime symbol of the fate reserved for 
 the Elemish tongue, which, notwithstanding a con- 
 siderable loss of ground, has remained the language 
 of the majority. Let us not, however, bring unjust 
 accusations. If the Elemings lost their preponder- 
 ance, they had long been prepared for their fall. 
 It is no less true that it became the duty of every 
 generous heart, as soon as the horizon began to 
 clear, to consider the means of re-establishing the 
 national dialect in its honours and its rights. 
 
 Willems prefaced his translation of the Renard 
 
 p 4
 
 216 TLEMISII LITERATURE. chap. vr. 
 
 into modern Elemisli, in 183 1<, by an animated but 
 true picture of the state of desolation in wliicli the 
 Flemish language was plunged. This bold tone 
 released Willems, already restored to the post of 
 historian, from his place of exile, and opened to him 
 the doors of the Academy, which had been closed 
 against him even before the revolution, under pre- 
 tence that the Government was seeking an oppor- 
 tunity to Netlierlandise this learned body. 
 
 Willems had consecrated the five years of his 
 retreat to opening for the Flemings a passage to the 
 literature of the Middle Ages, an epoch so well cal- 
 culated to awaken a national feeling. These studies 
 brought to light the deep learning of the author in 
 philology and history, at the same time that they 
 stimulated the zeal of the rising generation who 
 had remained faithful to the language of their 
 country, and caused Willems to be justly regarded 
 as the leader of the march of intellect in Planders. 
 The chambers of rhetoric roused themselves, and 
 fresh literary reunions were formed in the principal 
 towns. It had been asserted that the new order of 
 things had destroyed the Flemish language ; its 
 revival was, in the opinion of its enemies, but the 
 dying notes of the swan. A very poetical idea 
 truly : to collect together a brilliant youthful choir, 
 full of zeal and ardour, that tliey might chant a 
 requiem on their expiring country ! This hymn
 
 cHAr. VI. ELEMISn LITERATUKE. 217 
 
 Avas transformed into an energetic protest, ad- 
 dressed to the Chamber of Representatives by the 
 people against the injustice done to the speech of 
 their forefathers, and was closely followed by a 
 solemn festival in Ghent on the occasion of a lin- 
 guistic congress held there, 23rd October, 1811. 
 This fete^ all the more significant that the members 
 of the Government spoke in Flemish, was the first 
 solemn act of the revival in Elanders. 
 
 We have still a word to say on the first public 
 encouragement which Flemish literature received 
 from the Government. In 1831^ an appeal was 
 made to the Belgian poets for the composition of a 
 poem on the independence of Belgium. In this 
 appeal the literature of the country was placed on 
 a level with that of France. The number of Bel- 
 gian poets who disputed the palm was very inferior 
 to that of the French. Only thirty-two competi- 
 tors presented themselves ; but the comparative ex- 
 amination of the successful pieces was entirely to 
 the advantage of Flanders. We do not cite this 
 in order to draw a parallel between Flemish and 
 French poetry, we are too well aware how much 
 is accidental in the result of these literary exer- 
 cises; but the conclusion we wish to arrive at is, 
 that after so glorious a test, the Flemish did not at 
 least deserve, in analogous circumstances, to be after- 
 wards put aside.
 
 218 FLEMISH LITERATURE. cuap. vr. 
 
 The laureate of Planders was Ledeganck, of 
 wliom liis country has recently been bereaved, 
 some months after Willems, and, like the latter, in 
 the vigour of life. If we especially recognise in 
 the prose of Willems purity and correctness of 
 style, the same qualities are inherent in the poetry 
 of Ledeganck. He deserved a place in the first 
 rank, not that he was the most original or the 
 boldest of Flemish modern poets, but because the 
 productions of the last ten years of his life were 
 indisputably of the first intellectual order. 
 
 After Willems, one of the magnates of modern 
 jFlemish literature is Henri Conscience, born at 
 Antwerp in 1812. Self-educated, he made himself 
 remarkable from his youth by his poetical impro- 
 visations. His first work, published at twenty-five 
 years of age, showed that his soul was fired by an 
 ardent love for his fatherland, and in his numerous 
 publications since then, he has ever made her the 
 n-uiding star of his imagination and of his pen. 
 Ereshness of ideas, and exactitude in the details, 
 are his great qualities. His novels have received 
 an honour rarely bestowed upon works of that kind ; 
 they have been translated into French, English, 
 German, and Swedish. 
 
 We do not intend to enter the field of modern 
 literature, and therefore will not speak of the 
 many other prose writers and poets, whose works,
 
 CHAP. VI. FLEAIISH LITERATURE. 219 
 
 published during the last twcnty-fivc years, show 
 that the love of their mother-tongue is still as 
 vivid in Plemish hearts as in olden times. 
 
 We will only add, that Flemish literature, con- 
 stantly attacked, has been obliged to apply its re- 
 sources rather to combat its enemies than to raise 
 an edifice of its own ; that in its moments of repose 
 it has rather sought to captivate the heart than to 
 shine by intellectual power. But its great merit, 
 which cannot be contested, is that of being essen- 
 tially national : this is the only distinctive character 
 which it had the power to make thoroughly appa- 
 rent. Will this vital principle save the Plemish 
 language, and thus realise the maxim, " God helps 
 those who help themselves " ? or will the Govern- 
 ment effectually second the literary efforts in 
 Elanders, and so restore sufficient energy to its 
 people, to enable them to surmount the material 
 and moral obstacles which prevent jPlemish authors 
 from resuming the rank which they formerly occu- 
 pied, and of which they are certainly still worthy ? 
 Time will solve these questions, which are of greater 
 importance for the country than at first it would 
 seem.
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 Abeelc, Van clcn, 171. 
 Adriani, 92. 
 Alewyn, 154. 
 Alphen, Van, 182, 195. 
 Antonides, 151. 
 Artevelde, Jacques, 61. 
 Artevelde, Philippe van, 31. 
 Augustynken, 33. 
 
 Baecker, Louis dc, 60, n. 
 
 Baerle, Van, 126. 
 
 Baudaert, 113. 
 
 Becanus, 214. 
 
 Beechey, Sir W., 124. 
 
 BeUamy, 182, 195. 
 
 Bellemans, Father, 160. 
 
 Bellet, Jean, 134. 
 
 Bempde, Van de, 159. 
 
 Bilderdyk, 123, 192, 200. 
 
 Blommaert, M., 34. 
 
 Bogerman, 113. 
 
 Bolognino, Father, 160. 
 
 Bondam, 181. 
 
 Bongar, 38, n. 
 
 Borcht, Van der, 138, 152, 166. 
 
 Borg, Jacques van der, 92. 
 
 Born, Van der, 138. 
 
 Bosworth, Dr., 5. 
 
 Brande, Van den, 1 10. 
 
 Brandt, Gerard, 125. 
 
 Brant, Van den, 154. 
 
 Bredero, 107, 139. 
 
 Brockhuizen, 165. 
 
 Broomans, 152. 
 
 Bruine, Jean dc, the Younger, 161. 
 
 Buclcns, 213. 
 
 Burgundia, Antoine a, 138. 
 Busschere, De, 159. 
 Byns, Anna, 74. 
 
 Cammaert, 179. 
 Casteleyn, 76. 
 
 Castellione, Philippe de, 20. 
 Castro, Joannes, A., 159. 
 Cats, Jacob, 3, w., 34. 
 Caudron, Guillaume, 135. 
 Caxton, William, 27. 
 Claeskyn, 49. 
 Clerck, Claude de, 134. 
 Coiusi, Waltherus de, 29. 
 Colm, Jean, 105. 
 Colpaert, 34. 
 Comestor, Petrus, 40, n. 
 Conde, De, 152. 
 Conincq, De, 140. 
 Conscience, 2, «., 218. 
 Coornliert, 98. 
 Cornelissen, 211. 
 Corver, 177. 
 Coster, 107. 
 Costerus, 92. 
 Crock, De, 158. 
 Croon, Father, 158. 
 Cruyce, Josse van der, 159. 
 
 Daele, Van, 189. 
 Dale, Jean van den, 81. 
 Damman, Sebastian, 113. 
 D'Asscncde, Thicrri, 11, 19. 
 Dathenus, 86, 88.
 
 223 
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 D'Audcnarde, 71 . 
 Decker, Jercmias de, 120. 
 Deere, Luc de, 87. 
 Descartes, 151. 
 Despars, Nicolas, 100. 
 D'Hulster, 215. 
 Dieregodgaf, Siger, 19. 
 Diest, Van, 72. 
 Dille, Jean, 31. 
 Dodone, 101. 
 Duim, 177. 
 DuUaert, 160. 
 Duym, 73, 114. 
 Duyse, Van, 2, n. 
 
 Effen, Van, 169. 
 Elst, Van der, 138. 
 Engelen, Van, 140. 
 Everaert, Corneille, 71. 
 
 Fallersleben, Hoffman von, 14. 
 
 Faukeel, 113. 
 
 Feith, 196. 
 
 Fruytiers, John, 78, 88. 
 
 Fuclis, 100. 
 
 Gellert, 174. 
 
 Gerard, 52. 
 
 Gerson, 49. 
 
 Gheschier, 138. 
 
 Ghistel, Jogs van, 99. 
 
 Ghistelle, Corneille van, 78, 98. 
 
 Godin, 152. 
 
 Goetman, Lambert, 81. 
 
 Goinmarus, 113. 
 
 Grieck, De, the brothers, 152. 
 
 Grimm, T., 29, n. 
 
 Grimm, William, 23. 
 
 Groete, Geert, 49. 
 
 Groot, Pierre de, 160. 
 
 Haecht, Guillaume van, 71. 
 Ilallam, 3. 
 Uamaker, 214. 
 LCamme, Van den, 50. 
 Uarduyn, Juste, 137. 
 
 Haren, Van, tlie brothers, 167. 
 
 Harts, Father, 160. 
 
 Heinsius, Daniel, 114, 128. 
 
 Helmers, 197. 
 
 Helmont, Van, 151. 
 
 Helu, Van, 3, «., 45. 
 
 Hembjse, 88. 
 
 Hemert, Van, 207. 
 
 Hendrick, 24. 
 
 Hendrix, T. B., 166. 
 
 Heniker, Pontus de, 96, 169. 
 
 Heyns, Zacharie, 105. 
 
 Hildegaertsberge, Guillaume van, 31, 
 
 190. 
 Hofman, Jean, 170. 
 Hollant, Heinric van, 49. 
 Hollant, Jean van, 34. 
 Hooft, 107, 118. 
 Hommius, 113. 
 Hoogvliet, 176. 
 Houwaert, 31, 73, 88. 
 Hugo, 132. 
 Huydecoper, 47, 171. 
 
 Isidore, 8. 
 
 Jean I., 43. 
 Jonckbloet, 18. 
 Jonctys, 160. 
 Junius, Adrien, 97. 
 Justinus, P., 166. 
 
 Kate, Ten, 171. 
 
 Kercklioven, Van, 113. 
 
 Kervyn, Mr., 60, n. 
 
 Keyaert, 73. 
 
 Kilian, 
 
 Kinker, 206. 
 
 Klerk, Jean de, 48. 
 
 Klopstock, 174. 
 
 Kluit, 180. 
 
 Klyn, 199. 
 
 Knubber, J. de, 72. 
 
 Kockaert, 166. 
 
 Koniiigh, Abraham do, 105, 
 
 Krul, 161.
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 
 
 Labarc, 1G3. 
 
 Lambrcclit, Jean, 150, 1G9. 
 
 Lambrcclit, Joos, 9fi, 160. 
 
 Langendyk, IGl, 105. 
 
 Lauiioy, Mdllo. de, 174. 
 
 Ledcganck, 218. 
 
 Lecnhccr, Jean dc, 15S. 
 
 Lieuliout, Gheraert van, 49. 
 
 Lievin, 167. 
 
 Lixbonir, Father, 160. 
 
 Lodcwike, 3.3. 
 
 Loemel, Father van, IGO. 
 
 Loots, 198. 
 
 Loren, Baiidoin van der, 34. 
 
 Luyken, Jean, IGO. 
 
 Maehet, FranQois, 72, 
 
 Maerlant, Van, 3, »., 11, 19, 27, 31, 3G. 
 
 Mallants, Pierre, 158. 
 
 Mander, Van, 73, 88, 98, 105. 
 
 Manilius, 73. 
 
 Marnix, PhiHppe de, 87. 
 
 Meeuen, E. C. P., 170. 
 
 Meon, 28, «. 
 
 Merken, Lucrece van, 175. 
 
 Mcsschert, 199. 
 
 Meyer, Professor, 52, 1G9, 194. 
 
 Milo, 53. 
 
 Mone, 21, 28, n. 
 
 Moonen, 165, 169. 
 
 Moons, J. Jacques, 158. 
 
 Munster, Tliierry de, 81. 
 
 Muyn, De, 1G6. 
 
 Nelis, 174, 
 
 Nerrinck, 159. 
 
 Neyts. 177. 
 
 Nieuwelandt, Guillaume van, 112, 140. 
 
 Nieuwenhuyzen, 180, 
 
 Nieuwlaiid, 182, 195, 
 
 Noot, Jean van der, 114. 
 
 CEhlenschliiger, 4, 
 Ogier, 143. 
 Opitz, 115. 
 Oudaen, 143. 
 
 Palui, Vandor, 192. 
 
 Pape, De, 166, 
 
 Pels, 161. 
 
 Peys, Adrien, 153. 
 
 tlantyn, Christollb, 97. 
 
 Plas, 166. 
 
 Poirtcrs, Adrien, 155. * 
 
 Poot, 165. 
 
 Potter, Dire, 31, 
 
 Pypers, 179, 
 
 Eoches, 180. 
 Koelants, Gorai-d, 81. 
 Roovere, De, 73. 
 Eoquefort, 32, 
 Eotgans, 1G4. 
 Euloffs, 179. 
 Euysbroek, Jean, 51. 
 Eyssel, Colyn van, 72. 
 
 Sanibeck, Father van, 160, 
 
 Scholten, 159. 
 
 Sehweren, G. van der, 97. 
 
 Scrieckius, 214. 
 
 Servilius, 97. 
 
 Sewel, 169. 
 
 Siegenbeck, Professor, 191. 
 
 Smidts, 103. 
 
 Snellaert, 2, w. 
 
 Soltliem, Van, 106. 
 
 Spiegel, 97, 169, 181. 
 
 Spiere, Eyssaert van, 71. 
 
 Spinoza, 157. 
 
 St. Maure, Benoit de, 19. 
 
 Staring, 200, 
 
 Starter, 160. 
 
 Steven, Simon, 113. 
 
 Stevens, Andre, 170. 
 
 Stoke, Melis, 47, 172. 
 
 Strypen, 140. 
 
 Stuart, 181. 
 
 Styl, Simon, 181. 
 
 Swaen, De, 102, 
 
 Tersele, Pietcr van, 31, 
 Thorout, Martin van, 51, 
 Thymo, A., 48.
 
 221 
 
 INDEX Oi'^ AUTHORS. 
 
 Tliys, 113, 213. 
 Tollens, 196. 
 Tsestich, Ant., 9G. 
 
 UlphQas, 7. 
 Utenhove, Jean, 8G. 
 Utenhove, Willem van, 11. 
 Uyleubroek, 179. 
 
 Vaernewyck, Marc van, 100. 
 
 Valckgrave, Jean de, 112. 
 
 Vega, Lo^Dez de, 1 10. 
 
 Verlioeven, 189. 
 
 Verloo, 187. 
 
 Verwer, 169. 
 
 Vichet, 159. 
 
 Vilt, Jacob, 81. 
 
 Visscher, Marie Tessulscliade and 
 
 Anna, 115. 
 Visscher, Eoemer, 98. 
 Vitry, Jacques de, 38, n. 
 Vlaming, 165. 
 Vloers, Father, 157. 
 Vonck, 187. 
 Vondel, 105, 172. 
 
 Voort, Jerome van der, 88. 
 
 Vos, Jean, 136. 
 
 Vos, Lambert do, 138. 
 
 Wackernagel, 9. 
 
 Wagenaar, 181. 
 
 Walaeus, 113. 
 
 Walhorn, 138, 152. 
 
 Water, Te, 181. 
 
 Wellekens, Jean Baptiste, 161. 
 
 Wevel, Gilles de, 52. 
 
 Wieland, 192. 
 
 Willems, 2, »., 10, 27, 29, 43, 211. 
 
 William, 52. 
 
 Winter, Simon van, 175. 
 
 Wolschaten, Gerard van, 161. 
 
 Wree, Olivier de, 138. 
 
 Ymraeloot, Jacques, 133. 
 Ypermans, Jean, 50. 
 Ypey, 214. 
 Ysermans, 140. 
 
 Zevecote, Jacques van, 127. 
 Zuylen, Guillaume van, 79. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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