_April 1911._
[1] Charles van Lerberghe was directly inspired by Rossetti and
Burne-Jones. Verhaeren has written much art criticism. Fontainas, who
has translated Keats, and Milton's _Samson Agonistes_ and _Comus_, is a
historian of painting (_Histoire de la Peinture francaise au xixeme
siecle 1801-1900_, Mercure de France, 1906). Max Elskamp illustrates his
own books with quaint, mediaeval woodcuts; see, especially, his _Alphabet
de Notre Dame la Vierge_ (Antwerp, 1901). Mockel has written a study of
Victor Rousseau (1905). Le Roy is an amateur painter.
[2] Verhaeren heard Wagner's _Walkuere_ twenty times running. Mockel is a
learned musician; of his two volumes of verse _Chantefable un peu naive_
and _Clartes_ contain musical notations of rhythms. Gilkin found it
difficult to decide whether to be a musician or a poet.
[3] Verhaeren, who is a Fleming _pur sang_, and who was brought up in an
exclusively Flemish-speaking district, knows practically no Flemish.
Maeterlinck, on the other hand, might have written equally well in
Flemish.
[4] See Georges Rency, _Physionomies litteraires_, pp. 120-122.
[5] See Gilkin, _Origines estudiantines de la Jeune Belgique._
[6] Gilkin, _Quinze annees de litterature_.
[7] Founded by the lawyer Edmond Picard, who discovered "l'ame belge."
He advocated a literature which should be specifically Belgian.
[8] "Ma race," Les Forces tumultueuses.
[9] Stefan Zweig. _Emile Verhaeren_.
[10] "La Belgique sait mieux que toute autre jouer dans la paille avec
l'enfant de Bethleem." (Thomas Braun.)
[11] Gregoire Le Roy, _Le Masque_, May 1910.
[12] _Propos de litterature_,1894; _Emile Verhaeren_, 1895; _Stephane
Mallarme. Un Heros_. Mercure de France, 1899; _Charles van Lerberghe_,
Mercure de France, 1901.
[13] Mercure de France (1908).
Contemporary Belgian Poetry.