MAETERLINCK, met'er-link, Maurice (Gallicized from the original MOORIS MATER uNcK), Belgian author : b. Ghent, 29 Aug. 1862. He was educated in a Jesuit school in Belgium, then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1887, but was from the first more interested in letters, and in 1896 settled in Paris as an au thor. His work may be divided into three parts,—his lyric verse, his dramas and his philosophical essays. Of the first the two vol umes (1889) ; (1892) ; (Alladine et Palamides' (1894); (1896); (Ariadne et Barbeblue (1899); (1903) ; (The Blue Bird,' a sublimated Fairy Tale (1909) ; (1913). Several of these were translated into English by Richard Hovey (q.v.), and was rendered by Alexis I. du P. Cole man. The dramas are Maeterlinck's most strik ing work. Their eery symbolism can hardly be explained, hut must be appreciated at first hand. Though they inaugurated a new theatric
school— the (Drame In time'— they are prop erly reading plays, and lose their subtlety, mys tic qualities and impressiveness in presentation. (Pelleas et Melisande was given in the United States by Mrs. Patrick Campbell. To many the essays are his ultimate test as a force in litera ture, the most interesting things that Maeterlinck has done. The volumes are (Le Tresor des Humbles' (1896); (1902); (Le double jardin> (1904); (1913) ; (The Unknown Guest> (1914). The first is somewhat mystical, all are somewhat dif fuse; but he has been called by virtue of them a true successor of Swedenborg and Bohme. See BLUE Bum, THE; MONNA VANNA ; PELLEAS AND MELISANDE Consult Courtney,
ment of Maurice Maeterlinck' (1904) ; Harry, (Maurice Maeterlinck; a Biographical Study' (1910); Thomas, (Maurice Maeterlinck' (1911); Sturgis, (The Philosophy of Maeterlinck> (1914) ; Clark, (Maurice Maeterlinck: Poet and Philosopher' (1915) ; (The Wrack of the Storm> (1916).