WILLEMS, JAN FRANZ, a distinguished Flemish philologistand writer, and noted as one of the originators of the great national movement, was b. in 1793, at the little village of Bouchout, near Antwerp. Willems, at the age of twelve, was sent to the town of Lierre, to learn singing and music, for which he had early evinced considerable aptitude. At Lierre, which continued to be the seat of some of those ancient Belgian literary associations known as " R6cletyk•Kamers," or chambers of rhetoric, mysteries and other scenic representations were given from time to tune in connection with these institutions; and during Willents's residence in the town he was frequently called upon to take part in these singular entertainments, a circumstance to which he ascribed his first impulse toward the study and cultivation of the old Flemish language and litera ture. The talents which lie exhibited in his acting. and in the composition of satirical verses, attracted the notice of several influential persons at Lierre, through whose agency he was sent to Antwerp, to study in the office of a notary; and in 1811 he contended successfully for the prize awarded for the best poem on the battle of Friedland and the peace of Tilsit. From this period his poetical and dramatic compositions followed each other iu rapid succession. His ode den de Belgen (To the Belgians), which appeared in 1818, in which he exhorted his countrymen to resume the use of their native Flemish, and his clever treatise on De Nederdnytsche Teel en Letterkunde (1819-24), in which he traced the history of the Flemish and Dutch tongues from their common origin to their gradual but slight divergencies, marks an epoch in the literary history of Belgium. The Dutch government showed their sense of his anti-French tendencies by giving him the post of keeper of the archives at Antwerp, while the royal institute at Amsterdam elected him a member of its learned corporation; hut the Catholic party in Belgium, resenting the attempt made by Willems to refer the deelire of Belgian national renown to the abandonment of the Flemish vernacular, looked upon his writings with mistrust; and in 1830, when Belgium was definitely separated from Holland. the dominant Bel
gian party deprived Willems of his office, and left him for a time in obscurity and neg lect. In 1835, chiefly through the influence of his old opponent, S. Van de Weyer, he was, however, promoted to the place of keeper of the archives at Ghent. where lie con tinued to reside in the enjoyment of numerous literary successes and national honors till the period of his death, which took place in 1846. Wilkins had the satisfaction, during the latter years of his life, of seeing the gradual growth of the Flemish movement, which, since his death, has continued to advance with steady progress, and has resulted in the formation of many literary societies, the publication of numerous literary :old historical remains of the old Flemish, and a more general cultivation of the vernacular. .Among the numerous Flemish works published b33• Wilkins, special notice is due to his version of the mediaeval poem of Rebuke Yoe or ynard the Foe, for which he claims a Flemish origin; while among the more important of his strictly national works, we may instance his editions of the rhymed'clironieles of Jan de Klerk and Jan van Heelu, and his ilengelingen ran Vaderlandschen Inhond. '