MAERLANT, JACOB DE COSTER VAX (c.1235-c.1291). A Flemish poet, called, not un justly, the father of Dutch literature, for in him are combined its learning, its practical sense, its didactic zeal, and its aversion to chivalrous ideals. He was born near Bruges and died at Damme, near Bruges. At first Maerlant yielded to the universal vogue of the romance of chiv alry. Ile was parish clerk at Maerlant when he adapted from the French an _tied-ander (1257 ; printed 1860-61 and 1882) and a History of Troy (1•64, printed in part, 1874 and 1889). lie also rendered into Dutch a History of the Grant and the Book of Merlin. Then, moving to Damme and becoming chancellery clerk, he first turned his mind to present social conditions in three strophic poems. called the First, Second, and Third Martin (printed 1880), and then began the series of didactic works with which his name is especially associated by The Secret of Sccrets, a treatise on government (printed 1S3S).
( TR of Nature (printed 1S7S) followed, an adaptation of Cantimprivs Latin De Rcrum Na ture'. Then came the most famous of his hooks, The Rhymed Bible, based on the Scholastira of Comestor with an addition from Josephus on the fall of Jerusalem (1271 ; printed 1S5S-69), a work that brought him into conflict with sonic of the clergy, though the Franciscans soon after employed him to translate into Dutch Saint Bona venture's Life of Saint •ra»ris (printed 1848). Ile then (1283) began his most extensive work. a popularization of the Mirror of history by Vin cent of Beauvais (printed 1857-63), which lie did not live to finish. He wrote also in his last years a line crusader's song. Of the Land 0rer-Sea. Consult: Serrure, J. ran .11acrlant, in zijne jeer ken (Ghent. 1867); J. to Winkel, Maerlants Werken, etc. ( Leyden, 1877) and Geschicdrnis der Nob Handsel+ e Let terkunde, part i. ( ib., 1887).