1862-1949
French speaking symbolist Belgium playwright Maurice (Mooris) Polydore (Poidore) Marie Bernard (Bernhard) Maeterlinck was born on this day in Gent, Flanders, Belgium into a very wealthy family. Naturally, he had a Catholic upbringing and in 1874 he was sent to a Jesuit college to study. Mostly on the educational "menu" were religious studies and literature and immersion in French Romantic writing; the experience was not a good one for him. In fact, it left him with a life-long distrust for organized religions in general and a strong dislike for the Catholic Church in particular. He had, however, started writing on his own while he was in school; his volume of work was quite impressive--they included poetry and several short novels. Though he clearly possessed a great talent for writing and preferred it as a line of work, his father insisted that he study the law instead. He eventually finished his law degree in 1885 at the University of Ghent. After this, he promptly left for Paris. While there, he became acquainted with several members of the new Symbolism movement--an artistic philosophy that would have great influence over him. This is when he began to write plays. His first play made him an instant sensation in Paris. As he wrote more plays, the themes became gradually darker and more symbolic--many of which included Death as a character. His own personal experience of life tended toward the depressed, though he was diagnosed with an actual physical complaint in 1906--a condition that in modern times would be associated with actual physical pain caused by certain types of clinical depression. Upon the diagnosis of what was then called Neurasthenia, he rented a partially ruined abbey in Normandy, France. He set about restoring the place to some extent (his rental of the space saved it from being turned into a chemical factory--a fact not lost on Pope Pius X, who bestowed a blessing on Maeterlinck despite his personal split from the church). To move about the large property, he used roller skates. During this period of time his writing took on a more socialist world view, and he, in fact, contributed personal monies to worker's unions and various socialist groups. He then began to suffer from writers block apparently brought on by more bouts of depression. He did recover eventually and began writing again, though his vigor as a writer was permanently compromised and the volume of his literary output dropped significantly. His socialist standings on political matters landed him in trouble with The Vatican and by 1914 much of his work was placed on the official list of prohibited works by The Church. Through it all though, when Germany invaded Belgium that same year, Maeterlinck's patriotism was stirred and he attempted to join the French Foreign Legion, but was refused due to his age. So he lent his voice to the war effort instead, giving speeches lauding the bravery of his fellow countrymen fighting the invasion. In 1919, he accepted an invitation by Samuel Goldwyn to write scenarios for film. He left for the United States for this purpose and did produce a number of scripts. None of them was ever used (what a shame) and only two are known to survive today. After this, his writing turned back inward to subjects that he knew best: natural history, occultism and philosophical works based on ethics placed within these themes. His writing powers, however, were of such a diminished capacity that he resorted to plagiarism by the mid 1920's (read more at the Wikipedia site link below). During the 1930's he lived in a chateau in Nice, France. By 1940 he was in Lisbon, from which he fled to the United States to avoid a yet another encroaching German invasion. He stayed in the US throughout World War II, returning to Nice in August of 1947. He lived there until his death in 1949 on the 6th of May of a heart attack. I can find no information as his burial or cremation. Though none of his actual screenplays made it into production, films have been made from his work since the year 1910 (which, of course, pre-dates his short turn in the American film industry). The first film made from his other work is based on the one work that he is largely remembered for today. The Blue Bird was an UK production, based on his play of the same name. In all, seven films were made from his writings during the silent era (which fell completely within his lifetime), with the UK production The Burgomaster of Stelmond of 1929 being the last. One more feature length film was made during his lifetime: 20th Century Fox's The Blue Bird was released in 1940. Shortly before his death, his work made it onto to early television in Brazil's Grande Teatro Tupi series in the episode Pelease e Melisande. The most recent use of his work for a film came in 2012 with a made for television musical film in the German produced, French language Pelléas et Mélisande.
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| Still from Pelleas and Melisande 1913 |
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