Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck
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By far the most scathing of Maeterlinck's detractors is a Belgian critic born in Ghent, Louis Dumont-Wilden, a critic who, as he confesses, was in his youth enchanted by the "morning charm" of The Treasure of the Humble with "its violent and sustained effort to soar to a kind of philosophical lyrism," who has still a good word to say for the early dramas, but who condemns "the adulterated æstheticism of Monna Vanna, the cold allegory, the elementary philosophy of Joyzelle and The Blue Bird." Already in La Nouvelle Revue Française for February, 1910, Dumont-Wilden attempted to shatter the idol in the following terms:
"Le succès permet toujours aux hommes de lettres le supporter très bien l'angoisse métaphysique, et Maeterlinck, grâce à ses admirateurs et à ses amis, était devenu un homme de lettres. Prisonnier de ses premiers livres, et de son premier public, il trouva l'art subtil d'accomoder les balbutiements effarés de Mélisande, le naturisme ingénu qui fait le fonds de sa sensibilité de flamand, et ce vague optimisme 'humanitaire,' ce socialisme esthétique et scientifard, qui règne aujourd'hui parmi ceux que Nietzsche appelle 'les philistins de la culture.' Il est vrai qu'un peu de mysticisme arrange tout; mais tout de même, quel chef-d'œuvre de 'literature': faire croire à Monsieur Homais qu'il appartient à l'élite, et à l'élite qu'elle peut se permettre les sentiments de M. Homais!
"D'abord la prose de Maeterlinck, sauce merveilleusement onctueuse, fit passer ce singulier ragoût intellectuel, que le grand public international, le public des liseurs de magazines et des institutrices polyglottes continue à prendre pour le chef-d'œuvre de la cuisine française."
As to the last item in this fierce diatribe, it would appear to be true that Maeterlinck's greatest public is composed of "the philistines of culture." Maeterlinck is an antagonist of Christianity; and yet perhaps the majority of his admirers are those who love him because he has such beautiful things to tell them about their immortal souls. Like Voltaire, he fights 'l'infâme'; and yet to many a Christian virgin his works are an edifice which he might have inscribed with the device: Deo erexit Maeterlinck. Again, he has prophesied the inevitable victory of socialism; but has he helped the socialists? Is he counted one of the paladins of socialism? It might be argued that he has not the zest in hard fighting which alone can help a fighting cause: he stands apart from the mêlée with a wise face imperturbable: he would persuade, not fight, and he is too persuasive to persuade. Those who waver or resist must be shattered into conviction, the fanatic might urge. In short, Maeterlinck is a socialist much as Goethe was a patriot.
Well, probably the fact is that Maeterlinck is no more a "socialist" than Goethe was a "patriot." All such terms may be interpreted variously. Goethe was a patriot if you consider that his fatherland was the world. Maeterlinck is a socialist if you look away from the din of the mere present to the future his writings undoubtedly prepare. Maeterlinck is first and foremost a futurist, a seer of the future. Even as a dramatist (apart from his later dramas, which must, on the whole, be rejected) he is a futurist. And in this sense he has his public among the élite. M. Dumont-Wilden would not call Johannes Schlaf a philistine of culture? And to Johannes Schlaf, as to me, Maeterlinck's importance lies in the fact that he is the perfect type of Nietzsche's New European, in himself a prophecy of the race our descendants will be when patriotism is: to be a citizen of the whole world, and religion is: to be noble for nobility's sake. As for his Christian readers, why should they not, if they can, find confirmation of their own creed in the teaching of an enemy of it? The fact of Maeterlinck's vogue with Christian readers only proves that Christianity has much in common with the religion of the future.
In an article, which created a sensation, in La Nouvelle Revue Française for September, 1912, M. Dumont-Wilden compares Maeterlinck's popularity with that of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre three generations ago. He says:
"La gloire de Bernardin n'est point négligeable, et la comparaison s'impose d'elle-même entre Maeterlinck et lui. En écrivant Les Etudes de la Nature, cet auteur vieilli dont on ne lit plus guère qu'une bluette charmante qu'il composa en se jouant, apportait une nourriture salutaire au public de son temps, à ce public moyen que Jean-Jacques dépassait. Son finalisme ingénu calmait les inquiétudes de ceux que la sécheresse d'une morale utilitaire et d'un matérialisme sans grandeur avait déçus et qui, pourtant, se refusaient à faire, même avec Chateaubriand, le voyage du pénitent vers les autels délaissés."
Now, if Jean-Jacques was to Bernardin de Saint-Pierre what Nietzsche is to Maeterlinck, it would not be difficult to prove that Maeterlinck appeals to Nietzscheans, and that his teaching has points of contact with that of Nietzsche. To be quite short, Maeterlinck's man of the future is essentially the superman. And even if it were true that Maeterlinck's writings will be no more read in the future than are those of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre to-day, that would not reduce him to the rank of a minor writer. Voltaire's writings, which prepared a revolution, are now little read; and yet how much of Voltaire's thinking, or abstract of thinking (was Voltaire "original"?) is woven into the fabric of the mental life of to-day? We cannot, it is true, draw a close comparison between Voltaire and Maeterlinck, for Maeterlinck has no venom, and no disposition to thrust himself forward into the forefront of public interest; but it would be possible to compare his present position with that of Goethe (another writer the great mass of whose writings, as far as the non-German reading public is concerned, is dead). What Goethe was to the élite of Europe in the opening decades of the nineteenth century, Maeterlinck is to-day. His position, too, was assailed by a younger school of authors; but they could not shake it. Goethe, by the final moral of Faust, taught his generation to channel their activities and, confident of the result, to pour their strength into unselfish work; Maeterlinck teaches the same doctrine, and it may be said again of him, as he has said of Goethe, that he has brought us to the shores of the sea of serenity.
So much for Maeterlinck's philosophy. But his critics, especially M. Dumont-Wilden, are apt to forget one thing – his poetry. It is possible, of course, to state even his dramas in terms of philosophy; but when you have interpreted the symbols, there still remains something that cannot be set down in equations – the poetry. Granted that Maleine = the human soul: does she not still remain a beautiful dream, a Sadist's dream of a girl?91 Against M. Dumont-Wilden's criticism
Albert Mockel, La Wallonie,June and July, 1890it must be urged that Maeterlinck, besides being a thinker, is also a poet – not a lyric poet, of course (his rank is low here), but a creator of new things, a master of atmosphere and suggestion – in short, when all deductions are made, a great writer. The philosophy will be absorbed by everyday life and become commonplace; but Interior and The Sightless will always be the first-fruits of a new poetry and deathless works of art.
There is one other thing to be said. There have been thinkers whose private life did not bear comparison with the ideals proclaimed in their writings. Of Maeterlinck the man nothing but good is known. The man he is would stand unshaken if all his literary works withered like bindweed round a tree at the first breath of winter. A eulogy of his character based on the long list of his good deeds is impossible; for these are unknown – suspected merely, or secrets of his friends and not to be revealed without offending him. But the sage needs no approbation save his own; and Maeterlinck's good deeds were done, not for praise, but because he was Maeterlinck.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. WORKS. II. SELECTIONS. III. PREFACES. IV. APPENDIX.
Biography, Criticism, Works set to Music, etc., Newspaper Articles.
V. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WORKS.
WORKSSerres Chaudes. Poèmes, frontispice et culs-de-lampe de Georges Minne. Paris: Vanier, 1889, 155 copies.
–Another Edition. Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1890 and 1895.
–Suivies de quinze chansons, nouvelle édition. Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1900.
La Princesse Maleine. Twenty-five copies on vellum and five on Holland, printed on a hand-press by Maeterlinck for private circulation.
–Drame en cinq actes (couverture et fig. de Georges Minne). Ghent: Imprimerie Louis van Melle, 1889.
–Second Edition. Ghent: Imprimerie Louis van Melle, 1889, 155 copies.
La Princesse Maleine. Third Edition. Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1890.
The Princess Maleine. Translated by Gérard Harry. London: Heinemann, 1890.
Les Aveugles ["L'Intruse" (1). "Les Aveugles" (2).] Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1890, 150 copies.
–Second Edition. Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1891.
L'Ornement des Noces spirituelles de Ruysbroeck l'Admirable. Traduit du flamand et accompagné d'une introduction. Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1891.
–Second Edition. Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1900.
Les sept Princesses. Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1891.
Blind. The Intruder. Translated from the French of Maurice Maeterlinck by Mary Vielé.92 Washington: W.H. Morrison, 1891.
The Princess Maleine and The Intruder. With an Introduction by Hall Caine. London: Heinemann, 1892. (The Princess Maleine, translated by Gérard Harry; The Intruder, "based upon a rough sketch of a translation by Mr Wm. Wilson.")
Pelléas et Mélisande. Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1892.
–Nouvelle édition, modifiée conformément aux représentations de l'Opéra-Comique. Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1902.
Pelleas and Melisanda and The Sightless. Translated by Laurence Alma Tadema. London: Walter Scott (1892). The Scott Library.
Alladine et Palomides, Intérieur, et La Mort de Tintagiles. Trois petits drames pour marionettes, et culs-de-lampe par Georges Minne. Brussels: Collection du "Réveil," chez Ed. Deman, 1894.
Ruysbroeck and the Mystics, with selections from Ruysbroeck by Maurice Maeterlinck. Translated by Jane T. Stoddart. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1894.
Pelléas et Mélisande. Translated by Ewing Winslow. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1894.
Annabella ("'Tis Pity she's a Whore"). Drame en cinq actes de John Ford. Traduit et adapté pour le Théâtre de l'Œuvre. Paris: Ollendorff, 1895.
Les Disciples à Saïs et les Fragments de Novalis. Traduits de l'allemand et précédés d'une introduction. Bruxelles: P. Lacomblez, 1895.
The Massacre of the Innocents and other Tales by Belgian Writers. Translated by Edith Wingate Rinder. Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1895.
Le Trésor des Humbles. Paris: Société du Mercure de France, 1896.
Douze Chansons. Illustrées par Charles Doudelet. Paris: P.V. Stock, 1896. Tirage 600 exemplaires sur papier Ingres. (Reprinted with alterations at the end of Serres Chaudes. Brussels: P. Lacomblez, 1900.)
Aglavaine et Selysette. Paris: Société du Mercure de France, 1896.
Aglavaine and Selysette. A drama in five acts, translated by Alfred Sutro, with an Introduction by J.W. Mackail. First Edition published by Grant Richards (1897); all subsequent Editions by George Allen & Sons, London.
The Treasure of the Humble. Translated by A. Sutro. With an Introduction by A.B. Walkley. London: Geo. Allen, 1897.
–(Reprinted from the translation of Mr Alfred Sutro.) London: Arthur L. Humphreys, 1905.
Aglavaine and Selysette. Acting Version. London: George Allen, 1904.
Aglavaine and Selysette. Pocket Edition, 1908.
La Sagesse et la Destinée. Paris: Fasquelle, 1898. Wisdom and Destiny. Translated by A. Sutro. London: George Allen, 1898.
–Pocket Edition. London: George Allen, 1908.
Alladine and Palomides. Interior. The Death of Tintagiles. Three little dramas for marionettes. London: Duckworth & Co., 1899. (Modern Plays, edited by R. Brimley Johnson and N. Erichsen.) (Alladine and Palomides and The Death of Tintagiles, translated by Alfred Sutro. Interior by Wm. Archer. Interior had appeared in the New Review for Nov., 1894; The Death of Tintagiles in The Pageant for Dec, 1896.)
Schwester Béatrix. Translated from the manuscript by Fr. von Oppeln-Bronikowski. Berlin and Leipzig, 1900.
La Vie des Abeilles. Paris: Fasquelle, 1901.
The Life of the Bee. Translated by A. Sutro. London: George Allen, 1901.
–Illustrated by E.J. Detmold. London: George Allen, 1911.
Sister Beatrice and Ardiane and Barbe-Bleue. Two plays translated into English verse from the manuscript of Maurice Maeterlinck by Bernard Miall. London: George Allen, 1901.
–American Edition. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1902.
Théâtre I. La Princesse Maleine. L'Intruse. Les Aveugles. Aglavaine et Selysette. Ariane et Barbe-Bleue. Sœur Béatrice. Bruxelles: P. Lacomblez, 1901, 2 vols. Théâtre II. Pelléas et Mélisande. Alladine et Palomides. Intérieur. La Mort de Tintagiles. Bruxelles: P. Lacomblez, 1902.
Le Temple Enseveli. Paris: Fasquelle, 1902.
The Buried Temple. Translated by A. Sutro. With portrait. London: George Allen, 1902.
Monna Vanna. Pièce en trois actes, représentée pour la première fois sur la scène du Théâtre de l'Œuvre, le 17 mai 1902. Paris: Fasquelle, 1902.
Théâtre de Maurice Maeterlinck (La Princesse Maleine. L'Intruse. Les Aveugles. Pelléas et Mélisande. Alladine et Palomides. Intérieur. La Mort de Tintagiles. Aglavaine et Selysette. Ariane et Barbe-Bleue. Sœur Béatrice), avec une préface inédite de l'auteur, illustré de 10 compositions originales lithographiées par Auguste Donnay. Bruxelles: Ed. Deman, 1902, 3 vols., 8vo. [100 copies printed.]
Joyzelle. Pièce en trois actes représentée pour la première fois au Théâtre du Gymnase, le 20 mai 1903. Paris: Fasquelle, 1903.
Monna Vanna. Translated by A. Sutro. London: George Allen, 1904.
Le double Jardin. Paris: Fasquelle, 1904, in 18 – . (Twenty copies in 8vo were printed for the Société des XX, and signed by the author.)
The Double Garden. Translated by A. Teixeira de Mattos. London: George Allen, 1904.
Das Wunder des Heiligen Antonius. Uebersetzt von Fr. von Oppeln-Bronikowski, Leipzig, 1904.
My Dog. Translated by A. Teixeira de Mattos. Illustrated by G. Vernon Stokes. London: George Allen, 1906.
Old-fashioned Flowers and Other Open-air Essays. Translated by A. Teixeira de Mattos. With illustrations by G.S. Elgood. London: Geo. Allen, 1906.
Joyzelle. Translated by A. Teixeira de Mattos. London: George Allen, 1907 [1906].
L'Intelligence des Fleurs. Paris: Fasquelle, 1907.
Life and Flowers. Translated by A. Teixeira de Mattos. London: George Allen, 1907.
Interior. A play. Translated by Wm. Archer. (Gowans's International Library, No. 20.) London: Gowans and Gray, 1908.
The Death of Tintagiles. A play. Translated by Alfred Sutro. (Gowans's International Library, No. 26.) London: Gowans and Gray, 1909.
L'Oiseau bleu. Féerie en cinq actes et dix tableaux. Paris: Fasquelle, 1909.
The Blue Bird. A fairy play in six acts. Translated by A. Teixeira de Mattos. London: Methuen, 1909.
–Eighteenth Edition. With an additional act. London: Methuen, 1910.
–With twenty-five illustrations in colour, by F. Cayley Robinson. London: Methuen, 1911.
–London: Methuen (Methuen's Shilling Books), 1911.
The Seven Princesses. A Play. Translated by Wm. Metcalfe. (Gowans's International Library, No. 28.) London: Gowans & Gray, 1909.
Macbeth, par W. Shakespeare. Traduction nouvelle de Maurice Maeterlinck. L'Illustration Théâtrale. Paris: 28th August, 1909. (Contains interesting photographs of the Abbey of Saint Wandrille.)
William Shakespeare. La Tragédie de Macbeth. Traduction nouvelle, avec une introduction et des notes, par Maurice Maeterlinck. Paris: Fasquelle, 1910.
Mary Magdalene. A play in three acts. Translated by A. Teixeira de Mattos. Methuen: 1910. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1910.
Mary Magdalene. Shilling Edition. Methuen, 1912.
Alladine and Palomides. Interior. The Death of Tintagiles. Three plays by Maurice Maeterlinck, with Introduction by H. Granville Barker. London and Glasgow: Gowans & Gray, Ltd., 1911. (Gowans's Copyright Series, No. 2.)
La Mort. Figaro, 1911.
Death. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. London: Methuen, 1911.
La Mort. Paris: Fasquelle, 1913.
SELECTIONSThoughts from Maeterlinck. Chosen and arranged by E.S.S. London: George Allen, 1903.
The Inner Beauty. London: Arthur L. Humphreys, 1910. (Reprint of The Inner Beauty, Silence, and The Invisible Goodness.)
Morceaux choisis. Par Maurice Maeterlinck. Induction par Mme Georgette Leblanc. Paris, Londres, Edinbourg, et New York: Nelson (1910).
Hours of Gladness. By M. Maeterlinck. London: Allen, 1912.
Selections from Maeterlinck's works have appeared in the following anthologies, etc.:
Parnasse de la Jeune Belgique. Paris: Léon Vanier, 1887. (Twelve poems reprinted in Serres Chaudes.)
Poètes belges d'expression française, par Pol-de-Mont. Almelo: W. Hilarius, 1899. (Twenty-one poems selected from Serres Chaudes and Douze Chansons).
Poètes d'aujourd'hui, morceaux choisis accompagnés de Notices biographiques et d'un essai de Bibliographie, par Ad. van Bever et Paul Léautaud. Paris: Société du Mercure de France, 1900. (Eight poems from Serres Chaudes and Douze Chansons.)
Anthologie des Poètes français contemporains, par G. Walch, Vol. ii. Paris: Ch. Delagrave [no date]. (Eight poems from Serres Chaudes and Douze Chansons.)
Die belgische Lyrik, von 1880-1900. Eine Studie und Uebersetzungen von Otto Hauser. Groszenhain: Baumert und Ronge, 1902. (Thirteen poems from Serres Chaudes.)
Anthologie des Poètes lyriques français de France et de l'etranger depuis le moyen âge jusqu'à nos jours, par T. Fonsny et J. van Dooren. Verviers: Alb. Hermann, 1903. (Two poems from Serres Chaudes and Douze Chansons.)
Die Lyrik des Auslandes in neuerer Zeit, herausgegeben von Hans Bethge. Leipzig: Max Hesses Verlag [no date]. (Seven poems translated from Serres Chaudes and Douze Chansons.)
Contemporary Belgian Poetry. Selected and translated by Jethro Bithell. London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., 1911. (Twenty-five poems from Serres Chaudes and Douze Chansons.)
Toutes les Lyres. Anthologie-Critique ornée de dessins et de portraits (nouvelle série). By Florian-Parmentier. Paris: Gastein-Serge (1911). [Contains: Masque, par Djinn, criticism, etc., of nine pages, and three poems from Serres Chaudes.]
Drey, Agnes E. Poems after Verlaine, Maeterlinck and Others. London: St Catherine Press, 1911.
PREFACESSept essais d'Emerson. Traduits par I. Will avec une préface de Maurice Maeterlinck. Bruxelles: P. Lacomblez, 1894 and 1899.
Expositions des Œuvres de M. Franz, M. Melchers, chez le Bare de Boutteville, 47 Rue Le Peletier (ouverture le vendredi 15 novembre 1895), préface de Maurice Maeterlinck. Paris: Edm. Girard [no date].
Jules Laforgue, par Camille Mauclair, avec une introduction de Maurice Maeterlinck. Paris: Mercure de France, 1896.
The Cave of Illusion. A play in four acts by Alfred Sutro. With an Introduction by Maurice Maeterlinck. London: Grant Richards, 1900.
Martin Harvey. Some pages of his life. By George Edgar. With a foreword by M. Maeterlinck. London: Grant Richards, 1912.
APPENDIX
BIOGRAPHY, CRITICISM, ETCArcher, William. Study and Stage. A year-book of Criticism. London: Grant Richards, 1889.
Bacaloglu-Densuseannu, E. Despre simbolizm si Maeterlinck. Bucuresti, 1903.
Bahr, Hermann. Renaissance: Neue Studien zur Kritik der Moderne. Berlin: S. Fischer, 1897.
Barre, André. Le Symbolisme. Essai historique sur le mouvement symboliste en France de 1885 à 1900, suivi d'une Bibliographie de la Poésie symboliste. Paris: Jouve et Cie, 1912.
Beaunier, André. La Poésie nouvelle. Paris: Société du Mercure de France 1903.
Bever, Adolphe van. Maurice Maeterlinck, biographie précédée d'un portrait-frontispice, illustrée de divers dessins et d'un autogr. suivie d'opinions et d'une bibliographie. Paris: Sansot, 1904.
Bever, Ad. van et Paul Léautaud. Poètes d'aujourd'hui, morceaux choisis accompagnés de notices biographiques et d'un essai de bibliographie. Paris: Mercure de France, 1900. Boer, Julius de. Maurice Maeterlinck– (Mannen en Vrouwen van beteekenis in onze dagen). Haarlem: H.D. Tjeenk Willink en Zoon, 1908.
Brisson, Adolphe. La Comédie littéraire. Paris: A. Colin, 1895.
–Portraits intimes, 3e série. Paris: A. Colin, 1897.
Courtney, W.L. The Development of Maurice Maeterlinck and other Sketches of Foreign Writers. London: Grant Richards, 1904.
Crawford, Virginia M. Studies in Foreign Literature. London: Duckworth, 1899.
Dijk, Dr Is. van, Maurice Maeterlinck. Een Studie. Nijmegen, Firma H. Ten Hoet, 1897.
Doumic, René. Les Jeunes. Etudes et portraits. Paris: Perrin et Cie, 1896.
Gilbert, Eugène. En Marge et quelques Pages. Paris: Plon, 1900.
Gilbert, Eugène. France et Belgique. Etudes littéraires. Paris: Plon, 1905.
Gourmont, Remy de. Le Livre des Masques. Portraits symbolistes, gloses et documents sur les écrivains d'hier et d'aujourd'hui. Les masques, au nombre de xxx, dessinés par F. Vallotton. Paris: Société du Mercure de France, 1897.
Hale, Edward Everett, jun. Dramatists of To-day. London: George Bell & Sons, 1906.
Hamel, A.G. van. Het letterkundig Leven van Frankrijk. Studiën en Schetsen, derde Serie. Amsterdam: P.N. van Kampen en Zoon [1907].
Harry, Gérard. Maurice Maeterlinck. [Annexe: Le Massacre des Innocents.] Bruxelles: Ch. Carrington, 1909.
Harry, Gérard. Maurice Maeterlinck. A biographical study, with two essays by M. Maeterlinck. Translated from the French by Alfred Allinson. With nine illustrations and facsimile. London: George Allen & Sons, 1910.
Heine, Anselma. Maeterlinck. ("Die Dichtung," Bd. 33). Berlin: Schuster and Loeffler, 1905.
Henderson, Archibald. Interpreters of Life and the Modern Spirit. London: Duckworth & Co., 1911.
Heumann, Albert. Le Mouvement littéraire belge d'expression française depuis 1880. With preface by Camille Jullian. Mercure de France, 1913.
Horrent, Désiré. Ecrivains belges d'aujourd'hui, 1re série. Bruxelles. P. Lacomblez, 1904.
Hovey, R. Introduction to the American translation of La Princesse Maleine, L'Intruse, Les Aveugles, Les sept Princesses, Pelléas et Mélisande, Alladine et Palomides, Intérieur, La Mort de Tintagiles. Chicago; Stow & Kimball,
Hulsman, G. Karakters en Ideeën, Haarlem: Vincent Loosjes, 1903.
Huneker, James. Iconoclasts, a Book of Dramatists. New York: Ch. Scribner's, 1905; London: Werner Laurie, [1906].