Maurice Maeterlinck Biography and List of Works

Belgian playwright and poet who was awarded in 1911 the Nobel Prize for Literature. Maeterlink was closely associated with the French literary Symbolism movement.

"Indeed, it is not in the actions but in the words that are found the beauty and greatness of tragedies that are truly beautiful and great; and this not solely in the words that accompany and explain the action, for there must perforce be another dialogue besides the one which is superficially necessary. And indeed the only words that count in the play are those that at first seemed useless, for it is therein that the essence lies. Side by side with the necessary dialogue will you almost always find another dialogue that seems superfluous; but examine it carefully, and it will be borne home to you that this is the only one that the soul can listen to profoundly, for here alone is it the soul that is being addressed."
(from 'The Tragigal in Daily Life' by Maurice Maeterlinck in The Treasure of the Humble, 1916)

Maeterlinck was born in Ghet, Belgium, into a prosperous family. His father, Polydore Maeterlinck, was a retired notary and a small landowner. His mother, Mathilde (Van den Bossche) Maeterlinck, was the daughter of an affluent lawyer. Maeterlick attended the Jesuit Collège de Ste.-Barge and became interested in poetry in his youth. However, his family objected to their son's trifling with poetry and he was sent to study law at the University of Ghent.

At the age of 21 Maeterlinck published his first poem, 'The Rushes.' After graduating in 1885 Maeterlinck continued his studies in Paris. There he met the symbolist poets Stéphane Mallarmé and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and published translation of Jan van Ruysbroeck L'Ornement des noces spirituelles.

After returning to Ghent, Maeterlinck practiced law and continued his writing. In 1899 Maeterlinck produced his first volume of poetry, LES CHERRES CHAUDES (Hot House Blooms) and his first play, LA PRINCESSE MALEINE. In the1890s he wrote several symbolist plays, among them PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE, with musical setting by Claude Debussy and also by Jean Sibelius. The play used dark stage sets and haunting sound effects to create an emotional response from the audience. Maeterlinck lived quietly at Oostacher, his family's country home, in the summer, and returned to Ghent for the rest of the year.

"It is always a mistake not to close one's eyes, whether to forgive or to look better into oneself."
(from Pelléas at Mélisande, 1892)

In 1895 Maeterlinck met Georgette Leblanc, an actress and opera singer. She was unable to get a divorce from her Spanish husband, but they lived together for the next twenty-three years. He wrote for her several plays: AGLAVAINE ET SÉLYSETTE (1896), ARIADNE ET BARBEBLEUE (1901), MONNA VANNA (1902) and JOYZELLE (1903). In 1896 he moved with Leblanc from Ghet to Paris. By 1896 Maeterlinck had moved away from his symbolist-inspired writing into a more realistic approach.

From this period dates his metaphysical essays LE TRÉSOR DES HUMBLES (1896), LA SAGESSE ET LA DESTINÉE (1898) and LA VIE DES ABEILLES (1901), which draws analogies between the activity of the bee and human behaviour. Bee-keeping had been Maeterlinck's hobbies since youth. In these essays Maeterlinck moved away from Schopenhaurian negativism to a view tempered with Occidental optimism. It is possible, he thought, for human beings to alter the destiny if he or she so wills. A human being is double: he or she lives both an inner and exterior existence.

Maeterlinck's most famous play, The Blue Bird, was first produced in 1909 by Konstantin Stanislavski at the Moscow Art Theater. The work, an allegorical fantasy conceived as a play for children, has been translated and adapted onto the screen several times.

During World War I Maeterlinck lectured for the Allied cause in Europe and in the United States. His relationship with Leblanc ended and in 1919 he married Renée Dahon, who had acted in The Blue Bird. They made their home outside Paris at the Château de Médan and wintered at a villa near Nice called Les Abeilles.

Between the wars, Materlinck wrote essays and plays, among others LA VIE DES TERMITES (1926), where totalitarian systems were examined compared with the life of the termite. On the eve of World War II, Maeterlinck moved to Portugal under the protection of Antonio Salazar and then fled to the United States. These years were hard for the writer because his works were ignored and he was unable to collect royalties from the sales of his books in Europe. In 1947 he returned to his home in Nice.

Maeterlinck died of a heart attack on May 6, 1949. He was buried according to his agnostic world-view without religious ceremony. His last book, BULLES BLEUES, a collection of happy reminiscences, appeared in 1948.

L'oiseau bleu, 1908 - The Blue Bird - Mytyl and Tyltyl, the children of a poor woodcutter, fall asleep after a disappointing Christmas. They dream that the fairy Berylune sends them to find 'the bird that is blue'. They set out the journey with a diamond with which they are able to see the souls of the objects that surround them. The children visit the Land of Memory. In the forest they are attacked by animals and trees but the faithful Dog saves Tyltyl's life. Their journey continues through the Palace of Happiness and Kingdom of the Future before they return home and are awakened by their mother. Their neighbour Berlingot (the fairy Berylune) begs Tyltyl's little bird for her dying children and Tyltyl notices that the bird is blue and the one they have been looking for. The child recovers but the bird escapes and the children ask the audience to return it. - The play ran for nearly a year at the Moscow Art Theatre (1908), in late 1909 it was produced at the Haymarket Theatre in London, a New York performance followed in October 1910 and in 1911 the play was produced in Paris at the Théâtre Réjane.

For further reading: Souvenirs: My Life With Maeterlinck by G. Leblanc (1932); Magic of Maeterlinck by P. Mahony (1951); Maurice Maeterlinck by W.D. Halls (1960); Prophets of Dissent by O. Heller (1968); Maeterlinck by A. Bailly (1974); Maurice Maeterlinck by B.L. Knapp (1975); Maeterlinck's Symbolism by H. Rose (1977); Modern Drama in Crisis: The Case of Maurice Maeterlinck by L.B. Konrad (1986); Nobel Prize Winners, ed. by Tyler Wasson (1987) - Note: Georgette Leblanc's brother Maurice Leblanc created the famous gentleman criminal Arsène Lupin.