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FLEMISH LITERATURE

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 496 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FLEMISH LITERATURE . The older Flemish writers are dealt with in the See also:

article on DUTCH LITERATURE; after the separation of See also:Belgium, however, from the See also:Netherlands in 183o there was a See also:great revival of Flemish literature. The immediate result of the revolution was a reaction against everything associated with Dutch, and a disposition to regard the See also:French See also:language as the speech of See also:liberty and See also:independence. The provisional See also:government of 183o suppressed the See also:official use of the Flemish language, which was relegated to the See also:rank of a See also:patois. For some years before 183o See also:Jan Frans See also:Willems 1 (1793–1846) had been advocating the claims of the Flemish language. He had done his best to allay the irritation between See also:Holland and Belgium and to prevent a separation. As archivist of See also:Antwerp he made use of his opportunities by See also:writing a See also:history of Flemish letters. After the revolution his Dutch sympathies had made it necessary for him to live in seclusion, but in 1835 he settled at See also:Ghent, and devoted himself to the cultivation of Flemish. He edited old Flemish See also:classics, Reinaert de Vos (1836), the rhyming See also:Chronicles of Jan See also:van Heelu and Jan le Clerc, &c., and gathered See also:round him a See also:band of Flemish enthusiasts, the See also:chevalier Philipp Blommaert (1809–1871), Karel Lodewijk Ledeganck (1805-1847), Fr, Hens (1805–1874), F. A. Snellaert (1809–1872), Prudens van Duyse (1804–1859), and others. Blommaert, who was See also:born at Ghent on the 27th of See also:August 1809, founded in 1834 in his native See also:town the Nederduitsche letleroefeningen, a See also:review for the new writers, and it was speedily followed by other Flemish See also:organs, and by See also:literary See also:societies for the promotion of Flemish.

In 1851 a central organization for the Flemish propaganda was provided by a society, named after the See also:

father of the See also:movement, the " Willemsfonds." The See also:Catholic Flemings founded in 1874 a See also:rival " Davidsfonds," called after the energetic J. B. See also:David (1801–1866), See also:professor at the university of See also:Louvain, and the author of a Flemish history of Belgium (Vaderlandsche histori-e, Louvain, 1842-1866). As a result of this propaganda the Flemish language was placed on an equality with French in See also:law, and in See also:administration, in 1873 and 1878, and in the See also:schools in x883. Finally in 1886 a Flemish See also:Academy was established by royal authority at Ghent, where a course in Flemish literature had been established as See also:early as 1854. The claims put forward by the Flemish school were justified by the See also:appearance (1837) of In't IVonderjaar 1566 (In the Wonder- 1 See Max Rooses, Keus van. Dichl- en Prozawerken van J. F. Willows, and his Rrievcn in the publications of the \Villcrosfonds (Ghent, 1872-187.0ful See also:year) of Hendrik See also:Conscience (q.v.), who roused See also:national See also:enthusiasm by describing the heroic struggles of the Flemings against the Spaniards. Conscience was eventually to make his greatest successes in the description of contemporary Flemish See also:life, but his See also:historical romances and his popular history of See also:Flanders helped to give a popular basis to a movement which had been started by professors and scholars. The first poet of the new school was Ledeganck, the best known of whose poems are those on the " three See also:sister cities " of See also:Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp (See also:Die drie zustersteden, vaderlandsche trilogie, Ghent, 1846), in which he makes an impassioned protest against the See also:adoption of French ideas, See also:manners and language, and the neglect of Flemish tradition. The See also:book speedily took its See also:place as a Flemish classic.

Ledeganck, who was a See also:

magistrate, also translated the French See also:code into Flemish. Jan Theodoor van Rijswijck (1811–1849), after serving as a volunteer in the See also:campaign of 183o, settled down as a clerk in Antwerp, and became one of the hottest champions of the Flemish movement. He wrote a See also:series of See also:political and satirical songs, admirably suited to his public. The romantic and sentimental poet, Jan van Beers (q.v.), was typically Flemish in his sincere and moral outlook on life. Prudens van Duyse, whose most ambitious See also:work was the epic Artavelde (1859), is perhaps best remembered by a collection (1844) of poems for See also:children. See also:Peter Frans Van See also:Kerckhoven (188–1857), a native of Antwerp, wrote novels, poems, dramas, and a work on the Flemish revival (De Vlaemsche Beweging, 1847). Antwerp produced a realistic novelist in Jan Lambrecht See also:Damien Sleeckx (1818–r9o1). An inspector of schools by profession, he was an indefatigable journalist and literary critic. He was one of the founders in 1844 of the Vlaemsch Belgie, the first daily See also:paper in the Flemish See also:interest. His See also:works include a See also:long See also:list of plays, among them Jan See also:Steen (1852), a See also:comedy; See also:Gretry, which gained a national See also:prize in 1861; De Vissfhers van Blankenberg (1863); and the patriotic See also:drama of Zannekin (1865). ITis See also:talent as a novelist was diametrically opposed to the See also:idealism of Conscience. He was precise, sober and See also:concrete in his methods, relying for his effect on the See also:accumulation of carefully observed detail.

He was particularly successful in describing the life of the See also:

shipping See also:quarter of his native town. Among his novels are: In':Schipperskwartier (1856), See also:Dirk See also:Meyer (r86o), Tybaerts en KC (1867), Kunst en Liefde (" See also:Art and Love," 1876), and Vesdlius in Spanje (1895). His See also:complete works were collected in 17 vols. (1877-1884). Jan Renier Snieders (1812–1888) wrote novels dealing with See also:North See also:Brabant; his See also:brother, August Snieders (b. 1825), began by writing historical novels in the manner of Conscience, but his later novels are satires on contemporary society. A more See also:original talent was displayed by Anton Bergmann (1835–1874), who, under the See also:pseudonym of " Tony," wrote Ernest Staas, Advocat, which gained the quinquennial prize of literature in 1874. In the same year appeared the Novellen of the sisters Rosalie (1834-1875) and Virginie Loveling (b. 1836). These See also:simple and touching stories were followed by a second collection in 1876. The sisters had published a See also:volume of poems in 1870. Virginie Loveling's gifts of See also:fine and exact observation soon placed her in the front rank of Flemish novelists.

Her political sketches, In See also:

ooze Vlaamsche gewesten (1877), were published under the name of "W. G. E. See also:Walter." Sophie (1885), Een dure Eed (1892), and Het See also:Land der Verbeelding (1896) are among the more famous of her later works. Reimond Styns (b. 185o) and Isidoor Teirlinck (b. 1851) produced in collaboration one very popular novel, See also:Arm Vlaanderen (1884), and some others, and have since written separately. See also:Cyril Buysse, a See also:nephew of Mme Loveling, is a See also:disciple of See also:Zola. Het Recht van den Sterkste (" The Right of the Strongest," 1893) is a picture of vagabond life in Flanders; Schoppenboer (" The See also:Knave of Spades," 1898) deals with brutalized See also:peasant life; and Sursum corda (1895) describes the narrowness and religiosity of See also:village life. In See also:poetry See also:Julius de Geyter (b. 1830), author of a rhymed See also:translation of Reinaert (1874), an epic poem on See also:Charles V. (1888), &c., produced a social epic in three parts, Drie menu-See also:hen van in de wieg tot in het See also:graf (" Three Men from the See also:Cradle to the See also:Grave," 1861), in which he propounded See also:radical and humanitarian views, The songs of Julius Vuylsteke (1836—1903) are full of liberal and patriotic ardour; but his later life was devoted to politics rather than literature.

He had been the leading spirit of a students' association at Ghent for the See also:

propagation of " flamingatzt " views, and the " Willemsfonds" owed much of its success to his energetic co-operation. His Ilit het studenten See also:leven appeared in 1868, and his poems were collected in 1881. The poems of Mme van Ackere (1803-1884), nee Maria Doolaeghe, were modelled an Dutch originals. JoannaCourtmans (1811—1890), nee Berchxnans, owed her fame rather to her tales than her poems; she was above all a moralist, and her fifty tales are sermons on See also:economy and the See also:practical virtues. Other poets were See also:Emmanuel Hiel (q.v.), author of comedies, See also:opera libretti and some admirable songs; the See also:abbe Guido Gezelle (1830—1899), who wrote religious and patriotic poems in the See also:dialect of rWest Flanders; Lodewijk de See also:Koninck (b.1838), who attempted a great epic subject in Mensehdon Verlost(1872); J. M..Dautzenberg (1808—1869), author of a volume of charming Volksliederen. The best of Dautzenberg's work is contained in the See also:posthumous volume of 1869, published by his son=in-law, Frans de Cott (1834-1878), who was himself a See also:song-writer, and translated songs from See also:Burns, from See also:Jasmin and from the See also:German. The Makamen en Ghazelen (1866), adapted from See also:Ruckert's version of Hariri, and other volumes by " Jan Ferguut " (J. A. van Droogenbroeck, b. 1835) show a growing preoccupation with See also:form, and with the work of Theodoor Antheunis (b. 1840), they prepare the way for the ingenious and careful workmanship of the younger school of poets, of whom Charles Polydore de Mont is the See also:leader. He was born at Wambeke in Brabant in 1857, and became professor in the academy of the fine arts at Antwerp.

He introduced something of the ideas and methods of See also:

con-temporary French writers into Flemish See also:verse; and explained his theories in 1898 in an Inleiding tot de Poezie. Among Pol de Mont's numerous volumes of verse dating from 1877 onwards are Claribella (1893), and See also:Iris (1894), which contains amongst other things a curious " Mt de Legende van Jeschoea-See also:ben-Josief," a version of the See also:gospel See also:story from a Jewish peasant. Mention should also be made of the • history of Ghent (Gent van den vroegsten Tijd tot heden, 1882-1889) of Frans de See also:Potter (b. 1834), and of the art criticisms of Max Rooses (b. 1839), See also:curator of the See also:Plantin museum at Antwerp, and of Julius Sabbe (b. 1846). See See also:Ida van Duringsfeld, Von der Schelde bis zur See also:Maas. See also:Des ggeistige Leben der Vlamingen (See also:Leipzig, 3 vols., 1861), J. Stecher, Histoire de la litterature neerlandaise en Belgique (1886) ; Geschiedenis der Vlaamsche Letterkunde van het jaar 183o tot heden (1899), by Theodoor Coopman and L. Scharpe; A. de Koninck, Bibliographie nationale (3 vols., 1886—1897); and Histoire politique et littiraire du mouvement flamand (1894), by See also:Paul Hamelius. The Vlaamsche Bibliographie, issued by the Flemish Academy of Ghent, by Frans de Potter, contains a list of publications between 183o and 189o; and there is a See also:good See also:deal of See also:information in the excellent Biographisch woordenboeck der Noord- en Zuid - Nederlandsche Letterkunde (18r) of Dr W. J.

A. Huberts and others. (E. G.FLENSBURG (Danish, Flensburg), a seaport of See also:

Germany, in the Prussian See also:province of See also:Schleswig-See also:Holstein, at the See also:head of the Flensburg See also:Fjord, 20 M. N.W. from Schleswig, at the junction of the See also:main See also:line See also:Altona-Vamdrup (See also:Denmark), with branches to See also:Kiel and See also:Glucksburg. Pop. (1905) 48,922. The See also:principal public buildings are the Nikolai Kirche (built 1390, restored 1894), with a See also:spire 295 ft. high; the Marienkirche, also a See also:medieval See also:church, with a lofty See also:tower; the law courts; the See also:theatre and the See also:exchange. There are two gymnasia, schools of marine See also:engineering, See also:navigation, See also:wood-See also:carving and See also:agriculture. The See also:cemetery contains the remains of the Danish soldiers who See also:fell at the See also:battle of Idstedt (25th of See also:July 1850), but the See also:colossal See also:Lion See also:monument, erected by the Danes to commemorate their victory, was removed to See also:Berlin in 1864. Flensburg is a busy centre of See also:trade and See also:industry, and is the most important town in what was formerly the duchy of Schleswig. It possesses excellent wharves, does a large-import trade in See also:coal, and has See also:shipbuilding yards, breweries, distilleries, See also:cloth and paper factories, See also:glass-works, See also:copper-works, See also:soap-works and See also:rice See also:mills.

Its former extensive trade with the See also:

West Indies has lately suffered owing to the enormous develops ment of the North See also:Sea ports, but it is still largely engaged in the See also:Greenland See also:whale and the See also:oyster See also:fisheries. Flensburg was probably founded in the 12th See also:century. It attained municipal privileges in 1284, was frequently pillaged by the Swedes after 1643, and in 1848 became the See also:capital, under Danish See also:rule, of Schleswig. See•Holdt, Flensburg (richer and jetzt (1884).

End of Article: FLEMISH LITERATURE

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