FLEMISH LANGUAGE ANE LITERATURE. The Vlaemisch or Flemish is a form of Low German still spoken in•the Belgian provinces of East and West.Flanders, Limburg, Antwerp, North-Brabant, and in some parts of Holland and the Walloon provinces of Belgium. So little change has taken place in this dialect, that the form of speech in which the council of Liptiues drew up (in 742) the creed, in which pagans were made to express their renunciation of idolatry on being converted to Christianity, requires only the alteration of a few letters to make it intelligible to a modern Fleming. Flemish has much affinity with the Frisian, and constitutes, together with modern Dutch (which was originally identical with it, and now only differs from it ,in a few ortho graphical and otherwise unessential particulars), the national tongue of the whole of the Low Countries. The most ancient record of Flemish, is a fragment of a transla tion in prose of the Psalms a thousand years old. In the l 3th c., public deeds began to be drawn up in the vernacular, which are perfectly intelligible in day (as the ordinance of Henry I. of Brabant, 1229, in the Brussels Book of Privileges). In the same century, J. van Maerlaut, the "father of Flemish poets," author of The Historical Mir ror; TVapen Martin; Bymbihel; etc., and W. van Utenhove composed numerous poems, and translated from the French and German, and very probably from the Latin. Wil lems and other critics believe that to the Flemish must be ascribed the honor of the original and entire poem of Reinart the first part of which they refer to the middle of the 12th c., while the second part is attributed to W. van Utenhove, and supposed to have been written about 1250. The 14th b. was remarkable for the numbers and excel lence of the Flemish Sprekkers, Zeggers, and Vinders, or wandering poets, some of whose works have been published by Blommaert; and for the origin of the chambers of rhetoric, which exerted a marked lutinence on the progress of literature during succeeding ages, and became the arbiters of literary and dramatic fame through the Netherlands gener ally. In the 16th c., the French element gained ascendency, and the old Flemish lost much of its original terseness and purity. Numerous translations of the Scriptures appeared; among the most remarkable of which_are the Psalms by Dathenus (1556), and by Marnix (1580), the author of the 1?oomsche Biekmf (1569). Tlpe translation of the entire Bible was not effected till 1618, when the general synod of Dort decided to employ learned men capable of giving a correct version from the Hebrew and Greek texts; and this great work was finally completed by two Flemings, Baudaert and Walons, two Dutchmen, Bogermann and Hommius. Strenuous efforts were also made, at this period, to give greater to the Flemish language; and hence this original Flemish ver sion of the Bible has become a standard in regard to the construction and orthogra phy of the language. Hooft, Vondel, and Cats are the three men whose names stand
foremost among the Flemish writers of the 17th century. Hooft was a poet, but he is best known by of the Netherlands, which is held in high esteem by his coun trymen. Voudel, who was one of the leading men of his day, made his tragedies the vehicles of hurling the most cutting satire on every obnoxious measure of the govern ment; and his works still maintain their ground. • He had great versatility of powers; and in his latter years, his talents were directed to the exaltation of Catholicism, to which he had been converted. Cats was essentially the poet of the people; and for 200 years, his works, popularly known as the Household Bible, have been cherished alike among the poor and wealthy. Although Cats was a skillful lawyer, an active statesman, and a profound scholar, he found time to compose a great number of works, as the Zorgvliet; Trouwring (the Wedding Ring); Houwelwyck which exhibit the most intimate acquaintance with the everyday life of his countrymen. His entitled Moral . .Emblems was translated into English in 1859, and published by Messrs. Longman & Co. The 18th c. was barren of poetic genius in the Low Countries, but it produced several good philologists, as Stevens, Huydecoper, and Ten Kate, the latter of whom is the author of a work on the Flemish language, which has served as a fundamental authority for modern writers. The arbitrary measures, of the French government, under Napo leon, against the official use of Flemish• had the effect of crushing for a time the very spirit of nationalism, while it completely annihilated native literature; and it was not till after the revolution of 1830, that the Flemish language regained its footing in the Belgian provinces. This revival of the national form of speech is mainly due to the unremitting efforts of such writers as Willems, Bilderdijk, Cornelissen, Blommaert, Conscience, Delecourt, Ledeganek, etc., whose works have imparted fresh vigor, and greater grammatical precision to the Flemish. In 1841, on the occasion of a linguistic congress held at Ghent, the members of the government for time publicly rec ognized the existence of the Flemish element in the people, and addressed the meeting in the national dialect. The last 30 years have confirmed this movement; and while the best foreign works have been rendered into Flemish, the writings of Blommaert, • Conscience (q.v.), and other native authors have been- translated into many of the Euro pean tongues. Sleecx on the History of the Flemish, and its Relation to other Lan guages; Willems (1819-24), Yerhandl. on. d. Nederduyt.; O. Delepierre, History of Flern isle Literature (1860).