Edmund William Gosse and an anonymous contributor

“ It is supposed that as early as the 12th century the idiom of the people may have been used in songs which are now lost, unless echoes of them are preserved in the curious Noëls, partly in French, partly in patois, which were orally collected by M. Doutrepont and published in 1888. Several Flemish works in old French, containing Walloon expressions, and in particular the so-called Poème moral of the 13th century, have been claimed as precursors of a local literature, but they are really to be considered as composed in French with a certain admixture of Liégeois phrases. ”

“ In these early songs and plays the Walloon humour is displayed with great crudity; anything like sentiment or elevated feeling is unknown.
The Revolution of 1789 inspired numerous Liégeois patriots with popular songs; of these pasquêyes, as they are styled, Albin Body collected more than 250, but they are almost entirely devoid of literary merit. Under their new government, Liége and Namur allowed the national patois to withdraw into the background, and it was not until the middle of the 19th century that Walloon literature began seriously to be cultivated. ”

“ Their style, however, was not greatly varied, and they have mainly confined themselves to songs, satirical lampoons and farces. The founder of the Société Liégeoise was J. F. E. Bailleux (1817–1860) , to whom the revival of an interest in early Walloon literature is mainly due; in conjunction with J. V. F. J. Dehin (1809–1871) he published a translation of Lafontaine into patois. Among writers of the younger generation, special credit must be given to Henri Simon (b. 1856) , for his humoristic tales and sketches ”