Editing Maurice Maeterlinck (section)

==Biography==
{{More citations needed | section|date=April 2024}}

===Early life===
Maeterlinck was born in [[Ghent]], [[Belgium]], to a wealthy, French-speaking family. His mother, Mathilde Colette Françoise (née Van den Bossche), came from a wealthy family.<ref>Bettina Knapp, ''Maurice Maeterlinck'', Boston: Thackery Publishers, 1975, p. 18.</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fqQjAQAAIAAJ&q=Mathilde+Colette+Maeterlinck|title=Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 331: Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature, Part 3: Lagerkvist-Pontoppidan|first=Thomson|last=Gale|date=1 March 2007|publisher=Gale / Cengage Learning|isbn=9780787681494|via=Google Books}}</ref> His father, Polydore, was a notary who enjoyed tending the [[greenhouse]]s on their property.

In September 1874, he was sent to the [[Jesuit]] College of [[Sint-Barbaracollege|Sainte-Barbe]], where works of the French [[Romanticism|Romantics]] were scorned and only plays on religious subjects were permitted. His experiences at this school influenced his distaste for the [[Catholic Church]] and organized religion.<ref>Knapp, pp. 22–23.</ref> One of his companions at that time was the writer [[Charles van Lerberghe]], the poems and plays of whom went on to act as mutual influences on each other at the start of the [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist period]].<ref>Jethro Bithell, ''Life And Writings Of Maurice Maeterlinck'', [https://freeditorial.com › Freeditorial pp. 7-8]</ref>

Maeterlinck had written poems and short novels while still studying, but his father wanted him to go into law. After gaining a law degree at the [[University of Ghent]] in 1885, he spent a few months in Paris, France. He met members of the new Symbolist movement; [[Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam|Villiers de l'Isle Adam]] in particular, who would have a great influence on Maeterlinck's subsequent work.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

===Career===
[[File:Maurice de Maeterlinck.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Maeterlinck early in his career]]
Maeterlinck instantly became a public figure when his first play, ''[[Princess Maleine]]'', received enthusiastic praise from [[Octave Mirbeau]], the literary critic of ''[[Le Figaro]]'', in August 1890. In the following years he wrote a series of [[Symbolism (arts)#Theatre|symbolist plays]] characterized by [[fatalism]] and [[mysticism]], most importantly ''[[Intruder (play)|Intruder]]'' (1890), ''[[The Blind (play)|The Blind]]'' (1890) and ''[[Pelléas and Mélisande]]'' (1892).

He had a relationship with the singer and actress [[Georgette Leblanc]] from 1895 until 1918. Leblanc influenced his work for the following two decades. With the play ''Aglavaine and Sélysette'' (1896) Maeterlinck began to create characters, especially female characters, who were more in control of their destinies. Leblanc performed these female characters on stage. Even though mysticism and metaphysics influenced his work throughout his career, Maeterlinck slowly replaced his Symbolism with a more existential style.<ref name="Knapp, 87-92">Knapp, pp. 87–92.</ref>

In 1895, with his parents frowning upon his open relationship with an actress, Maeterlinck and Leblanc moved to the district of [[Passy]] in Paris. The Catholic Church was unwilling to grant her a divorce from her Spanish husband. The couple frequently entertained guests, including Mirbeau, [[Jean Lorrain]], and [[Paul Fort]]. They spent their summers in [[Normandy]]. During this period, Maeterlinck published his ''Twelve Songs'' (1896), ''[[The Treasure of the Humble]]'' (1896), ''The Life of the Bee'' (1901), and ''Ariadne and Bluebeard'' (1902).<ref name="Knapp, 87-92"/>
[[Image:1902MarbledTheLifeOfTheBeeByMaeterlinck.jpg|thumb|150px|A 1902 [[paper marbling|marbled]] edition of ''The Life of the Bee'', [[Dodd, Mead and Company]], Pub.]]

In 1903, Maeterlinck received the Triennial Prize for Dramatic Literature from the Belgian government.<ref>Knapp, p. 111.</ref> During this period, and up until the Great War of 1914–1918, he was widely looked up to, throughout Europe, as a great sage, and the embodiment of the [[higher thought]] of the time.

In 1906, Maeterlinck and Leblanc moved to a villa in [[Grasse]] in the south of France. He spent his hours meditating and walking. As he emotionally pulled away from Leblanc, he entered a state of depression. Diagnosed with [[neurasthenia]], he rented the [[Abbey of Saint Wandrille|Benedictine Abbey of St. Wandrille]] in Normandy to help him relax. By renting the abbey he rescued it from the desecration of being sold and used as a chemical factory and thus he received a blessing from the Pope.<ref>{{cite news |title= The Banning of Bergson |url=https://archive.org/stream/independen79v80newy#page/n77/mode/1up |newspaper= The Independent |date= 20 July 1914 |access-date= 21 August 2012}}</ref> Leblanc would often walk around in the garb of an abbess; he would wear roller skates as he moved about the house.<ref>Knapp, 129.</ref> During this time, he wrote his essay "The Intelligence of Flowers" (1906), in which he expressed sympathy with socialist ideas. He donated money to many workers' unions and socialist groups. At this time he conceived his greatest contemporary success: the fairy play [[The Blue Bird (play)|''The Blue Bird'']] (1908, but largely written in 1906).

Stanislavsky's 1908 Moscow production, of extraordinary visual beauty, is still over a century later regularly performed in Moscow, in a shortened version as a children's matinee. After the writing of "The Intelligence of Flowers", he suffered from a period of depression and writer's block. Although he recovered from this after a year or two, he never became so inventive as a writer again. His later plays, such as ''Marie-Victoire'' (1907) and [[Mary Magdalene (1910 play)|''Mary Magdalene'']] (1910), provided with lead roles for Leblanc,<ref>Knapp, pp. 127–28.</ref> were notably inferior to their predecessors, and sometimes merely repeat an earlier formula. Even though alfresco performances of some of his plays at St. Wandrille had been successful, Maeterlinck felt that he was losing his privacy. The death of his mother on 11 June 1910 added to his depression.<ref>Knapp, pp. 133–34.</ref>

In 1910 he met the 18-year-old actress [[Renée Dahon]] during a rehearsal of ''The Blue Bird''. She became his companion. After having been nominated by [[Carl Bildt (1850-1931)|Carl Bildt]], a member of the [[Swedish Academy]], he received the [[Nobel Prize for Literature]] in 1911,<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=2143.|title= The official website of the Nobel Prize - NobelPrize.org|website=NobelPrize.org|date= April 2020}}</ref> which served to lighten his spirits. By 1913, he had become more openly socialist and sided with the Belgian trade unions against the Catholic party during a strike.<ref>Knapp, 133–36.</ref> He began to study mysticism and lambasted the Catholic Church in his essays for misconstruing the history of the universe.<ref>Knapp, pp. 136–38.</ref> By a decree of 26 January 1914, the [[Roman Catholic Church]] placed his ''opera omnia'' on the [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]].

When [[German invasion of Belgium (1914)|Germany invaded Belgium]] in 1914, Maeterlinck wished to join the [[French Foreign Legion]], but his application was denied due to his age.{{cn|date=April 2025}} He and Leblanc decided to leave Grasse for a villa near [[Nice]], where he spent the next decade of his life. He gave speeches on the bravery of the Belgian people and placed the blame upon all Germans for the war.{{cn|date=April 2025}} His reputation as a great sage who stood above current affairs was damaged by his political involvement.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

While in Nice, he wrote ''The Mayor of Stilmonde'' (1918), which the American press quickly labeled a "Great War Play", and which became [[The Burgomaster of Stilemonde|a British film]] in 1929. He also wrote ''The Betrothal'' ({{langx |fr| Les Fiançailles}}, 1922), a sequel to ''The Blue Bird'', in which the heroine of the play is clearly not a Leblanc archetype.<ref>Knapp, 147–50.</ref>
[[File:Maurice Maeterlinck's Portrait.jpg|thumb|Maeterlinck in 1915]]
On 15 February 1919, Maeterlinck married Dahon. He accepted an invitation to the United States, where [[Samuel Goldwyn]] asked him to produce a few scenarios for film. Only two of Maeterlinck's submissions still exist; Goldwyn didn't use any of them. Maeterlinck had prepared one based on his ''The Life of the Bee''. After reading the first few pages Goldwyn burst out of his office, exclaiming: "My God! The hero is a bee!"{{cn|date=April 2025}}

After 1920, Maeterlinck ceased to contribute significantly to the theatre, but continued to produce essays on his favourite themes of occultism, ethics and natural history. The international demand for these fell off sharply after the early 1920s, but his sales in France remained substantial until the late 1930s. Dahon gave birth to a stillborn child in 1925.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

===Plagiarism===
In 1926, Maeterlinck published ''La Vie des Termites'' (translated into English as ''The Life of Termites'' or ''The Life of  White Ants''), an [[entomology|entomological]] book that [[plagiarism|plagiarised]] the book ''The Soul of the (White) Ant'', by the Afrikaner poet and scientist [[Eugène Marais]],<ref>"Die Huisgenoot", ''Nasionale Pers'', 6 January 1928, cover story</ref> David Bignell, in his inaugural address as Professor of Zoology at the [[Queen Mary, University of London|University of London]] (2003), called Maeterlinck's work "a classic example of academic plagiarism".<ref name="bignell">{{cite web |url=http://www.biology.qmul.ac.uk/research/staff/bignell/Inaugural.htm |title=Termites: 3000 Variations On A Single Theme |access-date=28 July 2009 |author=David E. Bignell |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070827211941/http://www.biology.qmul.ac.uk/research/staff/bignell/Inaugural.htm |archive-date=27 August 2007 }}</ref>
Marais accused Maeterlinck of having appropriated Marais' concept of the "organic unity" of the [[termitary|termite nest]] in his book.<ref name="swart">{{cite journal|title=The Construction of Eugène Marais as an Afrikaner Hero |author=Sandra Swart |journal=Journal of Southern African Studies |year=2004 |volume=December |issue=30.4 |url=http://www.oulitnet.co.za/seminarroom/marais_swart.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100308014642/http://www.oulitnet.co.za/seminarroom/marais_swart.asp |archive-date=8 March 2010 }}</ref> Marais had published his ideas on termite nests in the South African Afrikaans-language press, in ''[[Die Burger]]'' (January 1923) and in ''[[Huisgenoot]]'', which featured a series of articles on termites under the title "Die Siel van die Mier" (The Soul of the (White) Ant) from 1925 to 1926. Maeterlinck's book, with almost identical content,<ref name="bignell" /> was published in 1926. It is conjectured that Maeterlinck had come across Marais' articles while writing his book, and that it would have been easy for him to translate Afrikaans into French, since Maeterlinck knew Dutch and had already made several translations from Dutch into French.<ref name=d'Ass>V. E. d'Assonville, ''Eugene Marais and the Waterberg'', Marnix, 2008, pp. 53–54.</ref> It was common at the time, moreover, for worthy articles published in Afrikaans to be reproduced in Flemish and Dutch magazines and journals.

Marais wrote in a letter to Dr. Winifred de Kock in London about Maeterlinck that

<blockquote>The famous author had paid me the left-handed compliment of cribbing the most important part of my work ... He clearly desired his readers to infer that he had arrived at certain of my theories (the result of ten years of hard labour in the veld) by his own unaided reason, although he admits that he never saw a termite in his life. You must understand that it was not merely plagiarism of the spirit of a thing, so to speak. He has copied page after page verbally.<ref>L. Rousseau, 1974, ''Die Groot Verlange'', Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, p. 398.</ref><ref name=d'Ass/></blockquote>

Supported by a coterie of [[Afrikaner]] Nationalist friends, Marais sought justice through the South African press and attempted an international lawsuit. This was to prove financially impossible and the case was not pursued. All the same, he gained a measure of renown as the aggrieved party and as an Afrikaner researcher who had opened himself up to plagiarism because he published in [[Afrikaans]] out of nationalistic loyalty. Marais brooded at the time of the scandal: "I wonder whether Maeterlinck blushes when he reads such things [critical acclaim], and whether he gives a thought to the injustice he does to the unknown [[Boer]] worker?"<ref name="swart" />

Maeterlinck's own words in ''The Life of Termites'' indicate that the possible discovery or accusation of plagiarism worried him:
<blockquote>It would have been easy, in regard to every statement, to allow the text to bristle with footnotes and references. In some chapters there is not a sentence but would have clamoured for these; and the letterpress would have been swallowed up by vast masses of comment, like one of those dreadful books we hated so much at school. There is a short bibliography at the end of the volume which will no doubt serve the same purpose.</blockquote>

Whatever Maeterlinck's misgivings at the time of writing, the bibliography he refers to does not include Eugène Marais.

Professor V. E. d'Assonville referred to Maeterlinck as "the Nobel Prize winner who had never seen a termite in his whole life and had never put a foot on the soil of Africa, least of all in the Waterberg".<ref name=d'Ass/>

[[Robert Ardrey]], an admirer of Eugène Marais, attributed Marais' later suicide to this act of plagiarism and theft of intellectual property by Maeterlinck,<ref>[[Robert Ardrey]], ''[[The Territorial Imperative]]: A Personal Inquiry into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations'' (1966).</ref> although Marais' biographer, Leon Rousseau, suggested that Marais had enjoyed and even thrived on the controversy and the attention it generated.<ref>Leon Rousseau, ''The Dark Stream'', (Jonathan Ball Publishers:Cape Town, 1982).</ref>

Another allegation of plagiarism concerned Maeterlinck's play ''Monna Vanna'', which was said to have been based on [[Robert Browning]]'s little-known play ''Luria''.<ref>William Lyon Phelps, PhD, "Maeterlinck and Browning", Vol.55 No.2831 (5 March 1903) ''The Independent'', New York.</ref>

===Later life===
In 1930, he bought a [[château]] in Nice, France, and named it ''Orlamonde'', a name occurring in his work ''Quinze Chansons''.<ref>Maurice Maeterlinck. 
[http://www.kellscraft.com/maeterlinckbioch8.html ''Quinze Chansons'', 1896–1900 (VII)]:<br>  {{blockquote|''"Les sept filles d'Orlamonde,<br> Quand la fée fut morte,<br> Les sept filles d'Orlamonde,<br> Ont cherché les portes."''}}</ref>

He was made a count by [[Albert I of Belgium|Albert I, King of the Belgians]] in 1932.<ref>Joris Casselman, ''Etienne De Greeff (1898–1961): Psychiatre, criminologue et romancier''.[https://books.google.com/books?id=8_UvBwAAQBAJ&dq=Etienne+De+Greeff++comte++Maeterlinck&pg=PT340 9. "Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949). 9.1 Sa vie et son oeuvre" ]. Bruxelles : Larcier, DL 2015 {{ISBN|9782804462819}}  Primento Digital Publishing, 2015 e {{ISBN|9782804479831}}.</ref>

According to an article published in ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1940, he arrived in the United States from [[Lisbon]] on the Greek Liner ''Nea Hellas''. He had fled to Lisbon in order to escape the [[Nazism|Nazi]] invasion of both Belgium and France. While in Portugal, he stayed in Monte Estoril, at the Grande Hotel, between 27 July and 17 August 1939.<ref>[[Exiles Memorial Center]].</ref> The ''Times'' quoted him as saying, "I knew that if I was captured by the Germans I would be shot at once, since I have always been counted as an enemy of Germany because of my play, ''The Mayor of Stilmonde,'' which dealt with the conditions in Belgium during the German Occupation of 1918." As with his earlier visit to America, he still found Americans too casual, friendly and [[Francophile|Francophilic]] for his taste.<ref>Knapp, 157-58.</ref>

He returned to Nice after the war on 10 August 1947. He was President of [[PEN International]], the worldwide association of writers, from 1947 until 1949. In 1948, the [[French Academy]] awarded him the Medal for the French Language. He died in Nice on 6 May 1949 after suffering a heart attack.