ame Maurice Maeterlinck), has rendered this play
in story form for children, under the title "The Children's Blue
Bird," and in this form it has now been carefully edited and arranged
for schools.

Maurice Maeterlinck was born in Ghent, Belgium, August 29, 1862.
Although trained for the practice of the law and moderately successful
in it, he very early became dissatisfied with the prospect of a career
at the bar. In 1887, the young man moved to Paris and turned his
attention to writing. Shortly after, at the death of his father,
Maeterlinck returned to Belgium where he has since resided most of the
time. His career as an author practically began in 1889, when he
published two plays. At this time he was quite unknown, except to a
small circle, but soon, because of his remarkable originality, we find
him being called "The Belgian Shakespeare," and his reputation firmly
established.

Amidst his Belgian roses he continued to work and dream, and upon his
youthful dreams he built his plays. They are all shadowy, brief
transcripts of emotion, and illustrate beautifully his unity of
purpose, of mood and of thought. Whether in philosophy, drama or
poetry, Maeterlinck is exclusively occupied in revealing or indicating
the mystery which lies only just out of sight beneath the ordinary
life. In order to produce this effect of the mysterious he aims at
extreme simplicity of style and a very realistic symbolism. He allows
life itself to astonish us by its strangeness, by its inexplicable
elements. Many of his plays are really pathetic records of unseen
emotions.

Of all his writings, it is conceded that "The Blue Bird" makes the
strongest appeal to children. Maeterlinck has always had much in
common with the young. He has the child's mysticism and awe of the
unknown, the same delight in mechanical inventions, the same gift of
"making believe."

In "The Blue Bird" Maeterlinck takes little account of external fact.
All along he has kept the child's capacity for wonder; all along he
has preserved youth's freshness of heart. He has, therefore, never
lost the key which unlocks the sympathies of childhood; he still
possesses the passport that makes him free of the kingdom of
Fairyland.

This story of "The Blue Bird" may remind one somewhat of "Hansel and
Gretel," for here Maeterlinck, like Grimm, shows to us the adventures
of two peasant children as they pass through regions of enchantment
where they would be at the mercy of treach