The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-04-12
THE EVOLUTION OF A MYSTIC.
MAURICE MAETERLINCK'S PLAYS
AND THEORIES.
His Curiously Consistent Development
Latent Gifts Of . High Order shown
Eariy-The Mystic Element In His
writings-Maeteriinck ~ = Moralit.


Latent GIFTS Of q High Order shown
Eariy-JThe Mystic Element In His
wrftings-Maeteriinck as = Moralist.
The dramatioal evolution Of Maurice
Maeterlirra<
When this Belgian poet, dramatist, nnys-
tio. became known In America his plays,
avowedly written for marionettes. were re-
ceived with open-eyed wonder or else pro-
longed laughter. Any idea that he be taken
seriously was secuted by serious critics,
and the usual fate befell his early efforts
well-meaning amateurs seized them as legiti-
mate prey. There Is no denying the fact
that at one time Maeterlinck meant for
most people a crazy crow incorporating
In tail feathers plucked from the Swan OF
Avon. A clever parody which had great
vogue gave a coup de main to the tender
reputation Of the new poet. In 1t were
cable cars, Cinnamon. queer old women
and q oross-eyed dog that exclaimed at
intervals my Godl Ny Godl' Then the
oocksure Max Nordau pronounced Maeter-
linck "a pitiable mental cripple" and that
blocked his progress with the very ele-
mont to whom he now appeals most farce
fully.
But caricature and critical malignity
did not retard the growth Of this very re-
markable young mamie was born 1850
and presently We heard more Of him. After
~ had finished The Treasure Of the Lowry
wisdom and Destiny 1t was conceded
that q mistake had been made-as In
Browning's case. A mystic-yes, and one
who had adjusted his very sensitive scheme
OF thought to the practical work-a-day
world. A Belgian Emerson, rather than q
Belgian Shakespeare; but an Emerson
who had In him much Of Edgar Allan Poe
Again Peel Torjours Poe, when any oon-
sideration OF modern Continental poets Is
undertaken.
Maeterlinck began with a volume OF
poems entitled -Serres Chaudes,' often
compared to the unrhymed. loose rhythmic
prose OF Walt Whitman. They do bear q
certain superficial resemblance to Whit
mans efiusion, though not In idea. It Is
rather a, cataloguing. aimless apparently,
OF widely disparate subjects. But the sub
stance derives more from that extraor-
binary book Of an extraordinary poet,
LES nluminations' Of Arthur Rimbaud,
than from the ragged epical lines Of Whit
man. Take for example the following
specimen from Maeterlinck's Anne In
'Serres Chaudes':
'One day there was q poor little festival
In the suburbs OF my soul. They moved
the hemlock there one Sunday morning
and all the convent virgins saw the ships
pass by on the canal one sunny fast day
while the swans suffered under poisonous
bridge. The trees were Topped about
the prison: medicines were brought one
afternoon in June and meals for the patients
were spread over the whole horizon
Now read Rimbaud: As soon a. the
Idea OF the Deluge had sunk back into its
place, q rabbit halted amid the sainfoin
and the small swinging bells and said its
prayers to the rainbow. through the spiders
web . The caravans started. And
the splendid hotel was erected upon the
chaos Of ice and night at the Pole.
In hours Of bitterness imagine balls Of
sapphire, Of metal. I am master Of the
Whence. Why should the semblance Of .
went hole seem to pale up there at the cor
ner OF a vault?'
Both these Authorizations are magnih-
cent illustrations Of what Remy do Gour-
mont would call disassociation Of ideas.
= Maeterlinck fervently studied the English
dramatic classics. The result was q wild
ferment. In 1889 he published Princess
Maleine" and such an impress did it's
whirling words create that Octave Mirbeau
wrote his famous article In the Paris Figaro
Aug. "a, 1890. In the course OF which he
made this statement: M. Maurice Maeter-
linck nous q dome reuvre la plus geniale
l.. It.xAs
IA plus naive aussi, comparable et-oserai-
je le dire2-superieure en- beaute ce qui
Il y de plus beau dams Shakespeare -
plus tragiQue que 'Macbc tn, plus eItraor-
dinaire en- pensee que Hamlet.
Either NJ. Mirbe au. who has played the
role OF poet-anarchist. had not read Shake
speare reasonably. or else was indulging in
q pleasing mystification. All, that fatal
! plus, the uncritical overplus. how 1t does
jump up from the page smiting the optics
with rude humorl As q matter Of sheer
fact, "Prinoess Maleine" il an undige sted
compound Of Macbeth Hamlet. Lear
and. as Arthur Symons sagely remarks.
with more OF the ,Elizabethan violence
We find In Webster and Tourneur than in
Shakespeare. And its author was only q
youth in his twenties.
However, with all its crudties. It's imita-
tons, it's impossible mtldnoe Of blood. lust.
tears, terror, there are several elements
hi the crazy play that indicate latent gifts
.-ef high order. The range Is narrow and
Poe-like. Fear is the theme, and a strange
repetition the method Of expression. There
n a young Prince. a Hamlet who has fed on
the art Of the modern decadents. He Ia
spiritual half brother to Laforgue's Hamlet.
shorn OF this ironistS humor. Never could
Prince Hjairnar OF the Maeterlinck tragedy
utter such a sublimely ironio solloquy
as Laforgue's. more Shakespearean than
Shakespeare:
Alas! poor Yorick! As one seems to
hear. in one little shell. all the multitudinous
roar of the ocean. 10 here seem to perceive
the whole quenchless symphony OF the
universal soul. OF whose echoes this box
was az the cross-roads. And do you i'm
aginc a human race that would look no
further, that would abide by this vaguely
immortal sound. which one hears In hollow
skull, by way Of explanation Of death. by
way Of religion' They also had
their time, all these small folk Of history;
EARNING to read pairing their nails, illum-