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DUTCH LITERATURE
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DUTCH LITERATURE . The See also:languages now known as Dutch and Flemish did not begin to take distinct shape till about the end of the 11th See also:century. From a few existing fragments—two incantations from the 8th century, a version of the See also:Psalms from the 9th century, and several charters—a supposed Old Dutch See also:language has been recognized; but Dutch literature actually commences in the 13th century, as See also:Middle Dutch, the creation of the first See also:national See also:movement in See also:Brabant, See also:Flanders, See also: The earliest existing fragments of the epic of Reynard the See also:Fox were written in Latin by Flemish priests, and about 125o the first See also:part of a very important version in Dutch was made by Willem the Minstrel, of whom it is unfortunate that we know no more See also:save that he was the translator of a lost romance, Madoc. In his existing See also:work the author follows See also:Pierre de See also:Saint-See also:Cloud, but not slavishly; and he is the first really admirable writer that we meet with in Dutch literature. The second part was added by another hand at the end of the 14th century.
It is not necessary to dwell at any length on the monkish legends and the See also:hymns to the Virgin See also:Mary which were abundantly produced during the 13th century, and which, though destitute of all See also:literary merit, were of use as exercises in the See also:infancy of the language. The first lyrical writer of Holland was See also: The founder and creator of this original Dutch literature was See also:Jacob van Maerlant Maeriant. (q.v.). His Naturen Bloeme, written about 1263, forms an See also:epoch in Dutch literature; it is a collection of moral and satirical addresses to all classes of society. With his Rijmbijbel (Rhyming See also:Bible) he foreshadowed the courage and See also:free-thought of the See also:Reformation. It was not until 1284 that he began his masterpiece, De Spieghel Historiael (The See also:Mirror of See also:History), at the command of Count Floris V. Of his disciples, Boendale. the most considerable in See also:South Holland was See also:Jan van Boendale (1280–1365), known as Jan de Klerk. He was See also:born in Brabant, and became clerk to the justices at See also:Antwerp in 1310. He was entrusted with various important See also:missions. His See also:works are historical and moral in See also:character. In him the last trace of the old chivalric and romantic See also:element has disappeared. He completed his famous See also:rhyme See also:chronicle, the Brabantsche Yeesten, in 1350; it contains the history of Brabant down to that date, and was brought down to 1440 by an See also:anonymous later writer. For See also:English readers it is disappointing that Boendale's other See also:great historical work (Van den derden Edewaert, coninc van Ingelant ..., ed. J. F. See also:Willems, See also:Ghent, 1840), an See also:account of See also:Edward III. and his expedition to Flanders in 1338, has survived only in some fragments. The See also:remainder of Boendale's works are didactic poems, pursuing still further the moral See also:thread first taken up by Maerlant, and founded on medieval scholastic literature. In See also:Ypres the school of Maerlant was represented by Jan de Weert, a surgeon, who died in 1362, and K,eert. who was the author of two remarkable works of moral
See also:satire and exhortation, the Nieuwe Doctrinael of Spieghel der Sonden, and a Disputacie van See also:Rogier end van Janne. In the beginning of the 13th century Gielijs van Molhem wrote a Dutch version of part of the See also:Miserere of the See also:Picard poet who concealed his identity under the name of the recluse of Moiliens. The poem consisted of meditations on the origin and destiny of See also:man, and on the sins of See also:pride, envy, &c. The See also:translation, completed later by an author calling himself Heinrec,was critically edited (See also:Groningen, 1893) by P. Leendertz. In North Holland a greater See also:talent than that of Weert or of Boendale was exhibited Stoke, by Melis Stoke, a See also: Knightly romances came once more into See also:vogue, but the new-born didactic poetry contended vigorously against the supremacy of what was lyrical and epical. It will be seen that from the very first the literary spirit in Holland began to assert itself in a homely and utilitarian spirit. Jan van Heelu, a Brabanter, was the author of an epic poem' on the See also:battle of Heelu. Woeronc (1288), dedicated to Princess See also:Margaret of See also:England, and to him has been attributed the still finer romance of the See also:War of Grimbergen.2 Still more thoroughly aristocratic in feeling was Hein van See also:Aken, a See also:priest of See also:Louvain, who Aken. lived about 1255–1330, and who combined to a very curious extent the romantic and didactic elements. As See also:early as 128o he had completed his translation 3 of the See also:Roman de la See also:rose, which he must have commenced in the lifetime of See also:Jean de Meung. More remarkable than any of his translated works, however, is his original romance, completed in 1318, Heinric en Margriete van See also:Limborch,4 upon which he was at work for twenty-seven years. During the Bavarian See also:period (1349–1433) very little original See also:writing of much value was produced in Holland. Buodewijn van der Loren wrote one excellent piece on the Maid of Ghent, in 1389. Augustijnken van Dordt was a peripatetic minstrel of North Holland, who composed for the See also:sheriff Aelbrecht and for the count of Blois from 1350 to 1370. Such of his verses as have been handed down to us are allegorical and moral. Willem van Hildegaersberch (1350-1408) was another See also:northern poet, of a more strictly political See also:cast. Many of his writings exist still unpublished, and are very rough in See also:style and wanting in See also:form. Towards the end of the 14th century an erotic poet of considerable See also:power arose in the See also:person of the See also:lord See also:Dirk of Waddinxsveen and Hubrechtsambacht, Dirk See also:Potter potter. van der See also:Loo (c. 1365–1428), who was secretary at the See also:court of the See also:counts of Holland. During an See also:embassy in See also:Rome (1411—1412) this eminent diplomatist made himself acquainted with the writings of See also:Boccaccio, and commenced a vast poem on the course of love, Der Minnen Loep,5 which is a wonderful mixture of classical and Biblical instances of amorous adventures set in a framework of didactic See also:philosophy. In Dirk Potter the last traces of the chivalric element died out of Dutch literature, and See also:left poetry entirely in the hands of the school of Maerlant. Many early songs, with some of later date, are preserved in a Liedekens-Boeck printed by Jan Roulans (Antwerp, 1544). The unique copy in the See also:Wolfenbuttel library was edited by See also:Hoffmann von Fallersleben in Horae Belgicae (vol. xi., 1855)• It is now time to consider the growth of See also:prose literature in the See also:Low Countries. The See also:oldest pieces of Dutch prose now in existence are charters of the towns of Flanders and Zealand, dated 1249, 1251 and 1254. A prose translation of the Old Testament was made about 1300, and there exists a See also:Life of Jesus about the same date. Of the mystical preachers whose religious writings have reached us, the See also:Brussels See also:friar, Jan van Ruysbroec (1294–1381), is the most important. But the most interesting See also:relics of medieval Dutch prose, as far as the formation of the language is concerned, are the popular romances in which the romantic stories of the trouveres and minstrels were translated for the benefit of the unlettered public into See also:simple language. As in most See also:European nations, the religious See also:drama takes a prominent Religious See also:place in every survey of medieval literature in Holland. drama. Unfortunately the See also:text of all the earliest mysteries, the language of which would have an extraordinary See also:interest for us, has been lost. We possess records of dramas having been played at various places— Our Lord's Resurrection, at the See also:Hague, in 1400; Our See also:Lady the Virgin, at Arnheim, in 1452; and The Three See also:Kings, at See also:Delft, in 1498. The earliest existing fragment, however, is part of a See also:Limburg-See also:Maastricht See also:Passover See also:Play 6 of about 1360. The latest Dutch See also:miracle play was the See also:Mystery of the ' Edited by J. F. Willems (Brussels, 1836). 2 Edited by C. P. Serrure and Ph. Blornmaert (Ghent, 1852-1854). 3 Edited by Dr E. Verwijs (See also:Leiden, 1868). 4 Edited by L. P. C. v. den Bergh (Leiden, 1846-1847). ' Edited by P. Leendertz (Leiden, 1845-1847). e Edited by Dr Jul. Zacher in See also:Haupt's Zeitschrift See also:fur deutsches Altertum, vol. ii. (See also:Leipzig, 1842). John 1., duke of Brabant. Holy See also:Sacrament, composed by a certain Smeken, at See also:Breda, and performed on St John's See also:day, 1500. This play was printed in '867. With these purely theological dramas there were acted mundane farces, performed outside the churches by semi-religious companies; these curious moralities were known as " Abelespelen " and " Sotternieen." In these pieces we discover the first traces of that See also:genius for low See also:comedy which was afterwards to take perfect form in the dramas of Breder6o and the paintings of See also:Teniers. The theatrical companies just alluded to, " Gesellen van den Spele," formed the germ out of which See also:developed the famous " See also:Chambers of See also:Rhetoric "' which See also:united within chambers themselves all the literary movements that occupied the Rhetoric. Low Countries during the 15th and '6th centuries.
The poets of Holland had already discovered in See also:late
medieval times the value of See also:gilds in promoting the arts and
See also:industrial handicrafts. The See also:term " colleges de rhetorique " is
supposed to have been introduced about 1440 to the courtiers of
the Burgundian See also:dynasty, but the institutions themselves existed
See also:long before. These literary gilds lasted till the end of the 16th
century, and during the greater part of that time preserved a
completely medieval character, even when the influences of the
See also:Renaissance and the Reformation obliged them to modify in
some degree their outward forms. They were in almost all cases
absolutely middle-class in See also:tone, and opposed to aristocratic ideas
and tendencies in thought. Of these remarkable bodies the
earliest were almost entirely engaged in preparing mysteries and
miracle-plays for the populace. Each chamber, and in See also:process
of time every See also:town in the Low Countries, possessed one, and took
as its See also:title some fanciful or heraldic sign. At Diest " The Eyes of
See also:Christ," dated from 1302, and an earlier one, the " See also:Lily," is
mentioned. " The See also:Alpha and Omega," at Ypres, was founded
about 1398; that of the " See also:Violet," at Antwerp, followed in 1400;
the" See also:Book," at Brussels, in 1401; the " Berberry," at Courtrai,
in 1427; the " Holy See also:Ghost," at See also:Bruges, in 1428; the " Floweret
See also:Jesse," at 1bliddelburg, in 1430; the " See also:Oak See also:Tree," at See also:Vlaardingen,
in 1433; and the "See also:Marigold," at See also:Gouda, in 1437. The most
celebrated of all the chambers, that of the " See also:Eglantine " at
Amsterdam, with its See also:motto In Liefde Bloeyende (Blossoming in
Love), was not instituted until '496. Among the most influential
chambers not above mentioned should be included the " Foun-
See also:tain " at Dort, the " See also:Corn See also:Flower " at the Hague, the " See also: Their See also:wealth was in most cases considerable, and it very soon became evident that no festival or procession could take place in a town unless the " Kamer " patronized it. Towards the end of the '5th century the Ghent chamber of " Jesus with the Balsam " began to exercise a See also:sovereign power over the other Flemish chambers, which was emulated later on in Holland by the " Eglantine " at Amsterdam. But this See also:official recognition proved of no conse- quence in literature, and it was not in Ghent, but in Antwerp, that intellectual life first began to stir. In Holland the burghers only formed the chambers, while in Flanders the representatives of the noble families were honorary members, and assisted with their See also:money at the arrangement of ecclesiastical or political pageants. Their pompous landjuwcelen, or tournaments of rhetoric, at which See also:rich prizes were contended for, were the great occasions upon which the members of the chambers distinguished themselves. Between 1426 and 1620 at least 66 of these festivals were held. There was a specially splendid landjuweel at Antwerp Sn 1496, in which 28 chambers took part, but the gayest of all was that celebrated at Antwerp on the 3rd of See also:August 1561. To this the " Book " at Brussels sent 340 members, all on horseback, and clad in See also:crimson mantles. The town of Antwerp gave a ton of See also:gold to be given in prizes, which were shared among '893 1 See Schotel, Geschiedenis der Rederijkers in Nederland (1862-1864, Amsterdam.rhetoricians. This was the See also:zenith of the splendour of the " Kamers van Rhetorica," and after this time they soon See also:fell into disfavour. We can trace the progress of literary See also:composition under the chambers, although none of their official productions has descended to us. Their dramatic pieces were certainly of a didactic cast, with a strong farcical flavour, and continued the tradition of Maerlant and his school. They very rarely dealt with historical or even Biblical personages, but entirely with allegorical and moral abstractions, until the See also:age of See also:humanism introduced upon the See also:stage the names without much of the spirit of See also:mythology. Of the pure farces of the rhetorical chambers we can speak with still more confidence, for some of them have come down to us, and among the authors famed for their skill in this sort of writing are named Cornelis Everaert of Bruges and See also:Laurens See also:Janssen of Haarlem. The material of these farces is extremely raw, consisting of rough jests at the expense of priests and foolish husbands, See also:silly old men and their light wives. Laurens Janssen is also deserving of remembrance for a satire against the See also:clergy, written in 1583. The chambers also encouraged the composition of songs, but with very little success; they produced no lyrical genius more considerable than Matthijs de Casteleyn (1488–1550), the founder of the Flemish chamber of " See also:Pax Vobiscum " at Oudenarde, and author of De Conste van Rhetorijcken (Ghent, 1573), a personage whose influence as a fashioner of language would have been more healthy if his astounding metrical feats and See also:harlequin See also:tours de force had not been performed in a See also:dialect debased with all the worst See also:bastard phrases of the Burgundian period. In the middle of the '6th century a See also:group of rhetoricians in Brabant and Flanders attempted to put a little new life into the stereotyped forms of the preceding age by introducing Houwaert. in original composition the new-found branches of Latin and See also:Greek poetry. The See also:leader of these men was Jean Baptista Houwaert2 (1533–1599), a personage of considerable political influence in his See also:generation. Houwaert held the title of " Counsellor and See also:Master in See also:Ordinary of the See also:Exchequer to the Dukedom of Brabant "; he played a prominent part in the revolution of the Low Countries against See also:Spain; and when the See also:prince of Orange entered Brussels victoriously (See also:Sept. 23rd, 1577), Houwaert met him in pomp at the See also:head of the two chambers of rhetoric—the " Book " and the " Garland of Mary." He did not remain faithful to his convictions, for he composed in 1593 a poem in See also:honour of the See also:cardinal-See also:archduke Ernestof See also:Austria, the See also:governor of the See also:Spanish See also:Netherlands. He considered himself a devout See also:disciple of Matthijs de Casteleyn, but his great characteristic was his unbounded love of classical and mythological See also:fancy. His didactic poems are composed in a wonderfully See also:rococo style, and swarm with misplaced Latinities. In his bastard Burgundian See also:tongue he boasted of having " poetelijck geinventeert ende rhetorijckelijck ghecomponeert " for the Brussels chamber such dramas as See also:Aeneas and See also:Dido, See also:Mars and See also:Venus, See also:Narcissus and See also:Echo, or Leander and Hero— named together the See also:Commerce of Amorosity (1583). But of all his writings, Pegasides Pleyn (Antwerp, 1582–1583), or the See also:Palace of Maidens, is the most remarkable; this is a didactic poem in sixteen books, dedicated to a discussion of the variety of earthly love. Houwaert's contemporaries nicknamed him " the See also:Homer of Brabant "; later See also:criticism has preferred to see in him an important See also:link in that See also:chain of homely didactic Dutch which ends in See also:Cats. His writings are composed in a Burgundian so See also:base that they hardly belong to Flemish literature at all. Into the same miserable dialect Cornelis van Ghistele of Antwerp translated, between 1555 and '583, parts of See also:Terence, See also:Virgil, See also:Horace, and See also:Ovid, while the painter Karel van See also:Mander (1547–1609) put a French version of the Iliad and of the Eclogues of Virgil into an equally See also:ill-fitting Flemish See also:dress. In no country of See also:Europe did the humanism of the '6th century at first affect the national literature so slightly or to so little purpose. The stir and revival of intellectual life that arrived with the Reformation found its first expression in the composition of 2 For Houwaert, see a study by K. F. Stallaert in the Nederlandsch Museum (1885). Psalms. The earliest printed collection appeared at Antwerp in 1540, under the title of Souter-Liedekens, and was dedicated to a Dutch nobleman, Willem van Zuylen van Nieuvelt, Psalms by whose name it is usually known. This collection, and hymns. however, was made before the Reformation in Hol- See also:land really set in. For the See also:Protestant congregations Jan Utenhove printed a volume of Psalms in See also:London in I566; See also:Lucas de Heere (1534-1585), and immediately after him, with much greater success, Petrus Datheen (1531-1590), translated the hymns of See also:Clement See also:Marot. For See also:printing this last volume,
in 1567, Herman See also:Schinkel of Delft was burned to See also:death in 1568.
Datheen was not a rhetorician, but a person of humble origin,
who wrote in the vulgar tongue, and his hymns spread far and
wide among the See also:people. Until 1773 they were in See also:constant use
in the state See also: See also:Modern Dutch 1595). Against the See also:crowd of rhetoricians and See also:psalm-makers of the early part of the 16th century she stands out in See also:relief as the one poet of real genius. The language, oscillating before her time between French and German, formless, corrupt and invertebrate, took shape and comeliness, which none of the male pedants could give it, from the impassioned hands of a woman. See also:Anna Bijns, who is believed to have been born at Antwerp in 1494, was a schoolmistress at that See also:city in her middle life, and in old age she still " instructed youth in the See also:Catholic religion." She died on the loth of See also:April 1575. Hendrik Peppinck, a Franciscan, who edited her third volume of poems when she was an old woman in 1567, speaks of her as " a See also:maiden small of descent, but great of understanding, and godly of life." Her first known volume bears the date 1528, and displays her as already deeply versed in the mysteries of religion. We gather from all this that she was a See also:lay nun, and she certainly occupied a position of great honour and influence at Antwerp. She was named " the See also:Sappho of Brabant " and the " Princess of all Rhetoricians." She See also:bent the powerful weapon of her See also:verse against the faith and character of See also:Luther. In her volume of 1528 the See also:Lutherans are scarcely mentioned; in that of 1538 every See also:page is occupied with invectives against them; while the third volume of 1567 is the See also:voice of one from whom her age has passed. All the poems of Anna Bijns which we possess are called refereinen or refrains? Her mastery over verse-form was extremely remarkable, and these refrains are really modified chants-royal. The writings of Anna Bijns offer many points of interest to the philologist. In her the period of Middle Dutch closes, and the modern Dutch begins. In a few grammatical peculiarities—such as the formation of the genitive by some verbs which now govern the See also:accusative, and the use of ghe before the infinitive—her language still belongs to Middle Dutch; but these exceptions are rare, and she really initiated 1 Ed. Dr W. L. van Helten (1875). that modern speech which Filips van Marnix adopted and made classical in the next generation. In Filips van Marnix, lord of St Aldegonde (1538-1598), 'a much greater personage came forward in the ranks of liberty and reform. He was born at Brussels in 1538, and began life ,ya,ntx as a disciple of See also:Calvin and See also:Beza in the See also:schools of See also:Geneva. It was as a defender of the Dutch See also:iconoclasts that he first appeared in See also:print, with his See also:tract on The Images thrown down in Holland in August 1566. He soon became one of the leading See also:spirits in the war of Dutch independence, the intimate friend of the prince of Orange, and the author of the glorious Wilhelmuslied. It was in the autumn of 1568 that Marnix composed this, the national hymn of Dutch liberty and Protestantism. In 1569 he completed a no less important and celebrated prose work, the Biencorf or Beehive of the Romish Church. In this satire he was inspired in a great measure by See also:Rabelais, of whom he was an intelligent disciple. It is written in prose that may be said to See also:mark an epoch in the language and literature of Holland. Overwhelmed with the See also:press of public business, Marnix wrote little more until in 158o he published his Psalms of See also:David newly translated out of the See also:Hebrew Tongue. He occupied the last years of his life in preparing a Dutch version of the Bible, translated See also:direct from the original. At his death only See also:Genesis was found completely revised; but in 1619 the See also:synod of Dort placed the unfinished work in the hands of four divines, who completed it. In Dirck Volckertsen Coornhert2 (1522–1590) Holland for the first time produced a writer at once eager to compose in his native tongue and to employ the weapons of See also:Coornhert. humanism. Coornhert was a typical burgher of North Holland, equally interested in the progress of national emancipation and in the development of national literature. He was a native of Amsterdam, but he did not take part in the labours of the old chamber of the Eglantine, but quite early in life proceeded to Haarlem, and was See also:notary, secretary and finally See also:pensionary of the town. In 1566 he was imprisoned for his support of the Reformers, and in 1572 he became secretary to the states of Holland. He practised the See also:art of See also:etching, and spent all his spare time in the pursuit of classical learning. He was nearly See also:forty years of age before he made any See also:practical use of his attainments. In 1561 he printed his translation of the De officiis of See also:Cicero, and in 1562 of the De beneficiis of See also:Seneca. In these volumes he opposed with no less zeal than Marnix had done the bastard forms still employed in prose by the rhetoricians of Flanders and Brabant. During the next See also:decade he occupied himself chiefly with plays and poems, conceived and expressed with far less freedom than his prose, and more in the approved conventional fashion of the rhetoricians; he collected his poems in 1575. The next ten years he occupied in polemical writing, from the evangelical point of view, against the Calvinists. In 1585 he translated Boethius, and then gave his full See also:attention to his original masterpiece, the Zedekunst (1586), or Art of See also:Ethics, a philosophical See also:treatise in prose, in which he studied to adapt the Dutch tongue to the grace and simplicity of See also:Montaigne's French. His humanism unites the Bible, See also:Plutarch and See also:Marcus Aurelius in one See also:grand See also:system of ethics, and is expressed in a style remarkable for brightness and purity. He died at Gouda on the 29th of See also:October 1590; his works, in three enormous See also:folio volumes, were first collected in 1630. Towards the end of the period of transition, Amsterdam became the centre of all literary enterprise in Holland. In 1585 two of the most important chambers of rhetoric in Amster. Flanders, the " White See also:Lavender " and the " Fig See also:dam the Tree," took See also:flight from the south, and settled them- centre of selves in Amsterdam by the See also:side of the " Eglantine." I' The last-named institution had already observed the new tendency of the age, and was prepared to encourage intellectual reform of every See also:kind, and its influence spread through Holland and Zealand. In Flanders, meanwhile, crushed under the yoke of See also:Parma, literature and native thought absolutely expired. From this time forward, and until the emancipation of the 2 For Coornhert see also J. ten Brink, D. V. Coornhert en zijne wellevenkunst (Amsterdam, 1860). o ttl tion later by the victorious Reformers, the " Geuzen " Anna literature practically begins with Anna Bijns (c. 1494- Bijns. See also:southern provinces, the domain of our inquiry is confined to the See also:district north of the See also:Scheldt. In the chamber of the Eglantine at Amsterdam two men took a very prominent place, more by their intelligence and Spleghe! modern spirit than by their original genius. Hendrick Laurengsen Spieghel (1549-1612) was a humanist of a type more advanced and less polemical than Coornhert. He wrote a charming poem in praise of dancing; but his See also:chief contributions to literature were his Tweespraeck van de nederduytsche letterkunst, a philological exhortation, in the manner of See also:Joachim du Bellay's famous tract, urging the Dutch nation to purify and enrich its tongue at the fountains of antiquity, and a didactic epic, entitled Hertspieghel (1614),4 which has been greatly praised, but which is now much more antiquated in style and more difficult to enjoy than Coornhert's prose of a similar tendency. That Spieghel was a Catholic prevented him perhaps from exercising as much public influence as he exercised privately among his younger See also:friends. The same may be said of the man who, in 1614, first collected Spieghel's writings, and published them in a volume with his own verses. See also:Roemer Pieterssen Roemer Visscher2 (1547-1620) proceeded a step further than Vlsscher. Spieghel in the cultivation of polite letters. He was deeply tinged with a spirit of classical learning that was much more genuine and nearer to the true See also:antique than any that had previously been known in Holland. His own disciples called him the Dutch See also:Martial, but he was at best little more than an See also:amateur in poetry, although an amateur whose See also:function it was to perceive and encourage the genius of professional writers. Roemer Visscher stands at the See also:threshold of the new Renaissance literature, himself practising the faded arts of the rhetoricians, but pointing by his counsel and his conversation to the See also:naturalism of the great period. It was in the See also:salon at Amsterdam which the beautiful daughters of Roemer Visscher formed around their See also:father and themselves The Ile- that the new school began to take form. The See also:republic nalssaace. of the United Provinces, with Amsterdam at its head, had suddenly risen to the first See also:rank among the nations of Europe, and it was under the influence of so much new emotion and brilliant ambition that the country no less suddenly asserted itself in a great school of See also:painting and poetry. The See also:intellect of the whole Low Countries was concentrated in Holland and Zealand, while the six great See also:universities, Leiden, Groningen, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Harderwijk and See also:Franeker, were enriched by a See also:flock of learned exiles from Flanders and Brabant. It had occurred, however, to Roemer Visscher only that the path of literary honour lay, not along the utilitarian road cut out by Maerlant and Boendale, but in the study of beauty and antiquity. In this he was curiously aided by the school of ripe and enthusiastic scholars who began to flourish at Leiden, such as See also:Drusius, See also:Vossius and See also:Hugo See also:Grotius, who themselves wrote little in Dutch, but who chastened the style of the rising generation by insisting on a pure and liberal Latinity. Out of that generation arose the greatest names in the literature of Holland—Vondel, Hoof t, Cats, Huygens—in whose hands the language, so long left barbarous and neglected, took at once its highest finish and See also:melody. By the side of this serious and aesthetic growth there is to be noticed a quickening of the broad and farcical See also:humour which had been characteristic of the Dutch nation from its commencement. For fifty years, and these the most glorious in the See also:annals of Holland, these two streams of influence, one towards beauty and melody, the other towards lively comedy, ran side by side, often in the same channel, and producing a rich See also:harvest of great works. It was in the See also:house of the daughters of Roemer Visscher that the tragedies of See also:Vondel and the comedies of Bredero, the farces of Coster and the odes of See also:Huygens, alike found their first admirers and their best critics. Of the famous daughters of Roemer, two cultivated literature with marked success. Anna (1584-1651) was the author of 1 The best edition is by P. Vlaming (Amsterdam, 1723). 2 On Visscher and his daughters see N. See also:Beets, Al de gedichten van Anna Roemers Visscher (1881), and E. See also:Gosse, Studies in the Literature of _Northern Europe (1879).a descriptive and didactic poem, De Roemster van den Aemstel (The See also:Glory of the Aemstel), and of various See also:miscellaneous writings; Tesselschade (1594-1649) wrote some lyrics which still place her at the head of the See also:female poets of Roemer Holland, and she translated the great poem of See also:Tasso. daughs.
daughtterers.
They were women of universal accomplishment,
graceful See also:manners and singular beauty; and their See also:company attracted to the house of Roemer Visscher all the most gifted youths of the time, several of whom were suitors, but in vain, for the hand of Anna or of Tesselschade.
Of this Amsterdam school, the first to emerge into public nctice was Pieter Cornelissen See also:Hooft (1581-1647). His See also:Achilles and See also:Polyxena (1598) displayed a precocious ease in the use /loose. of rhetorical artifices of style. In his See also:pastoral drama
of Granida (16o5) he proved himself a See also:pupil of See also:Guarini. In tragedy he produced Baeto and Geraad van Velsen; in history he published in 1626 his Life of See also: His influence in purifying the language of his country, and in enlarging its See also:sphere of experience, can hardly be overrated. r
Very different from the long and prosperous career of Hoof t was the brief, painful life of the greatest comic dramatist that Holland has produced. Gerbrand Adriaanssen Bredero. Bredero 3 (1585-1618), the son of an Amsterdam
shoemaker, was born on the 16th of See also: He died on the 23rd of August 1618. See also:Theodore Rodenburg'(d. 1644), ridiculed by Bredero for his pretentiousness, had a wider know-ledge of contemporary See also:foreign literature than the other dramatists. He adapted some of the dramas of Lope de See also:Vega, which he had witnessed at See also:Madrid, into Dutch, and in 1618 he adapted See also:Cyril See also:Tourneur's Revenger's Tragedy. The only individual at all clearly connected with Bredero in talent was Dr See also:Samuel Coster,4 who was born at Amsterdam on the 16th of See also:September 1599. He studied See also:medicine at Leiden, and practised at Amsterdam. He is chiefly remembered for 3 See J. ten Brink, G. A. Brederoo (Utrecht, 1859; 3rd ed. 1887-1888) ; also J. H. W. Unger, Brederoo, eine Bibliographie (1884). His works were edited (3 vols., 1885—189o) by J. ten Brink and others. 4 See R. A. Kollewijn's edition of Samuel Cosier's Werken (1883). having been the first to take See also:advantage of the growing dissension in the See also:body of the old chamber of the Eglantine to form a Coster. new institution. In 1617 Coster founded what he called the First Dutch See also:Academy." This was in fact a See also:theatre, where, for the first time, dramas could be publicly acted under the patronage of no chamber of rhetoric. Coster himself had come before the See also:world in 1612 with his farce of Teuwis the Boor, based on a folk-song in Jan Roulans's Liedekens Boeckh, and he continued this See also:order of composition in direct emulation of Bredero, but with less talent. In 1615 he began a See also:series of " See also:blood-and-See also:thunder " tragedies with his horrible Itys, and he continued this coarse style of tragic writing for several years. He survived at least until after 1648 as a supreme authority in Amsterdam upon all dramatic matters. The first work of the greatest of all Dutch writers, Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679), was Het Pascha (1612), a tragedy or vondel. tragi-comedy on the See also:exodus of the See also:children of See also:Israel, written, like all his succeeding dramas, on the recognized Dutch See also:plan, in alexandrines, in five acts, and with choral interludes between the acts. There is comparatively little promise in Het Pascha. It was much inferior dramatically to the plays just being produced by Bredero, and metrically to the clear and eloquent tragedies and pastorals of Hoof t; but it secured the See also:young poet a position inferior only to theirs. Yet for a number of years he made no See also:attempt to emphasize the impression he had produced on the public, but contented himself during the years that are the most fertile in a poet's life with translating and imitating portions of du Bartas's popular epic. The See also:short and brilliant life of Bredero, his immediate contemporary and greatest See also:rival, burned itself out in a See also:succession of dramatic victories, and it was not until two years after the death of that great poet that Vondel appeared before the public with a second tragedy, the See also:Jerusalem laid Desolate. Five years later, in 1625, he published what seemed an See also:innocent study from the antique, his tragedy of See also:Palamedes, or Murdered Innocence. All Amsterdam discovered, with smothered delight, that under the name of the See also:hero was thinly concealed the figure of Barneveldt, whose See also:execution in 1618 had been a triumph of the hated Calvinists. Thus, at the age of forty-one, the obscure Vondel became in a See also:week the most famous writer in Holland. For the next twelve years, and till the See also:accession of Prince See also:Frederick Henry, Vondel had to maintain a hand-to-hand combat with the " See also:Saints of Dort." This was the period of his most resolute and stinging satires; Cats took up the cudgels on behalf of the See also:counter-See also:Remonstrants, and there raged a war of See also:pamphlets in verse. A purely fortuitous circumstance led to the next great triumph in Vondel's slowly developing career. The Dutch Academy, founded in 1617 almost wholly as a dramatic gild, had become so inadequately provided with stage See also:accommodation that in 1638, having coalesced with the two chambers of the " Eglantine " and the " White Lavender," it ventured on the erection of a large public theatre, the first in Amsterdam. Vondel, as the greatest poet of the day, was invited to write a piece for the first See also:night; on the 3rd of See also:January 1638 the theatre was opened with the performance of a new tragedy out of early Dutch history, the famous Gysbreght van Aemstel. The next ten years were rich in dramatic work from Vondel's hand; he supplied the theatre with heroic Scriptural pieces, of which the See also:general reader will obtain the best See also:idea if we point to the Athalie of See also:Racine. In 1654, having already attained an age at which poetical See also:production is usually discontinued by the most energetic of poets, he brought out the most exalted and See also:sublime of all his works, the tragedy of See also:Lucifer. Very late in life, through no See also:fault of his own, See also:financial ruin fell on the aged poet, and from 1658 to 1668—that is, from his seventieth to his eightieth year—this See also:venerable and illustrious person, the See also:main literary glory of Holland through her whole history, was forced to See also:earn his See also:bread as a See also:common clerk in a See also:bank, miserably paid, and accused of wasting his masters' time by the writing of verses. The city released him at last from this wretched bondage by a See also:pension, and the wonderful old man went on writing odes and tragedies almost to his ninetieth year. He diedat last in 1679, of no disease, having outlived all his contemporaries and almost all his friends, but See also:calm,.sane and See also:good-humoured to the last, serenely conscious of the See also:legacy he left to a not too grateful country. Vondel is the typical example of Dutch intelligence and See also:imagination at their highest development. Not merely is he to Holland all that See also:Camoens is to See also:Portugal and See also:Mickiewicz to See also:Poland, but he stands on a level with these men in the See also:positive value of his writings. Lyrical art was represented on its more spontaneous side by the songs and ballads of Jan Janssen Starter (b. 1594), an Englishman by See also:birth, who was brought to Amsterdam starter. in his thirteenth year. Very early in life he was made a member of the "Eglantine," and he worked beside Bredero for two years; but in 1614 he wandered away to See also:Leeuwarden, in See also:Friesland, where he founded a literary gild, and brought out, in 1618, his plays Timbre de Cardone, Fenicie van Messine, the subject of which is identical with that of See also:Shakespeare's Much See also:Ado about Nothing, and Daraida. But his great contribution to literature was his exquisite collection of lyrics, entitled the Friesche Lusthof, or Frisian Pleasance (1621). He returned to Amsterdam, but after 1625 we hear no more of him, and he is believed to have died as a soldier in See also:Germany. The songs of Starter are in close relation to the lyrics of the English Elizabethans, and have the same exquisite simplicity and audacity of style. While the genius of Holland clustered around the circle of Amsterdam, a school of scarcely less brilliance arose in See also:Middelburg, the See also:capital of Zealand. The ruling spirit of cars. this school was the famous Jakob Cats (1577–1660). In this voluminous writer, to whom modern criticism almost denies the name of poet, the genuine Dutch See also:habit of thought, the utilitarian and didactic spirit which we have already observed in Houwaert and in Boendale, reached its zenith of fluency and popularity. During early middle life he produced the most important of his writings, his pastoral of. Galathea, and his didactic poems, the Maechdenplicht and the Sinne- en Minne-Beelden. In 1624 he removed from Middelburg to Dort, where he soon after published his tedious ethical work called Houwelick, or See also:Marriage; and this was followed from time to time by one after another of his monotonous moral pieces. Cats is an exceedingly dull and prosaic writer, whose alexandrines See also:roll smoothly on without any power of riveting the attention or delighting the fancy: Yet his popularity with the middle classes in Holland has always been immense, and his influence extremely hurtful to the growth of all branches of literary art. Among the disciples of Cats, Jakob Westerbaen (1599–1670) was the most successful. His works included See also:translations from Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, Terence and See also:Juvenal, besides original poems. The Jesuit Adriaen Poirters (1606–1675) closely followed Cats in his remarkable Masquer of the World. A poet of Amster-dam, Jan Hermansz Krul (1602–1644), preferred to follow the southern fashion, and wrote didactic pieces in the Catsian manner. A poet of dignified imagination and versatile form was See also:Sir Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687), the diplomatist. He threw in his See also:lot with the great school of Amsterdam, and Huygens. became the intimate friend and See also:companion of Vondel, Hoof t and the daughters of Roemer Visscher. His famous poem in praise of the Hague, Batava See also:Tempe, appeared in 1622, and was, from a technical point of view, the most accomplished and elegant poem till that time produced in Holland. His collected poems, Otiorum libri See also:sex, were printed in 1625. Oogentroost, or See also:Eye See also:Consolation, was the fantastic title of a remarkable poem dedicated in 1647 to his See also:blind friend, See also:Lucretia van Trello. He printed in 1654 a topographical piece describing his own See also:mansion, Hofwijck. Huygens represents the direction in which it would have been desirable that Dutch literature, now completely founded by Hoof t and Vondel, should forthwith proceed, while Cats represents the tame and mundane spirit which was actually adopted by the nation. Huygens had little of the sweetness of Hoof t or of the sublimity of Vondel, but his genius was eminently See also:bright and vivacious, and he was a consummate artist in metrical form. The Dutch language has never proved so light and supple in any hands as in his, and he attempted no class of writing, whether in prose or verse, that he did not adorn by his delicate taste and See also:sound See also:judgment. A blind admiration for John See also:Donne, whose poems he translated, was the greatest fault of Huygens, who, in spite of his conceits, remains one of the most pleasing of Dutch writers. In addition to all this he comes down to us with the See also:personal recommendatign of having been " one of the most lovable men that ever lived." Three Dutchmen of the 17th century distinguished themselves very prominently in the movement of learning and philosophic See also:Bekker. thought, but the illustrious names of Hugo Grotius (1583—1645) and of See also:Baruch See also:Spinoza (1632—1677) can scarcely be said to belong to Dutch literature. Balthasar Bekker (1634—1698), on the contrary, a Reformed preacher of Amsterdam, was a disciple of See also:Descartes, who deserves to be remembered as the greatest philosophical writer who has used the Dutch language. His masterpiece, Betoverde Wereld, or the World Bewitched, appeared in 1691—1693. Bekker is popularly remembered most honourably by his determined attacks upon the system of a penal See also:code for See also:witchcraft. From 160o to 165o was the blossoming time in Dutch literature. During this period the names of greatest genius were first made known to the public, and the vigour and grace of literary expression reached their highest development. It happened, however, that three men of particularly commanding talent survived to an extreme old age, and under the See also:shadow of Vondel, Cats and Huygens there sprang up a new generation which sustained the great tradition until about 168o, when the final decline set in. Jan Vos (d. 1667) gained one illustrious success with his tragedy of See also:Aaron and See also:Titus in 1641, VOS• and lost still more in 1642 by his obscene farce of Gene. His second tragedy of See also:Medea, in 1665, and his collected poems in 1662, supported his position as the foremost pupil of Vondel. Geeraerdt Brandt (1626—1685), the author of a History Brandt of the Reformation (4 vols., 1671-1704), deserves remembrance less as a tragic dramatist than as a consummate biographer, whose lives of Vondel and of De Ruyter are among the masterpieces of Dutch prose. Johan Antonides van der Goes Goea. (1647—1684) followed Vos as a skilful imitator of Vondel's tragical manner. His See also:Chinese tragedies, Trazil (1665) and Zungchin (1666), scarcely gave promise of the brilliant force and fancy of his Yslroom, a poem in praise of Amsterdam, 1671. He died suddenly, in early life, leaving Anslo unfinished an epic poem on the life of St. See also:Paul. See also:Reyer Anslo (1626—1669) marks the decline of taste and vigour; his once famous descriptive epic, The See also:Plague at See also:Naples, is singularly tame and rococo in style. Joachim Oudaen (1628 1692) wrote in his youth two promising tragedies,Zoeteboom in his Zaanlandsche See also:Arcadia (1658), and by Lambertus See also:Bos in his Dordtsche Arcadia (1662). A far more [fetnslus. spirited and original romance is the Mirandor (1675) of Nikolaes See also:Heinsius the younger (b. 1655), a book which resembles Gil Blas, and precedes it. The drama fell into Gallicized hands at the death of Vondel and his immediate disciples. Lodewijck Meijer translated See also:Corneille, and brought out his plays on the stage at Amsterdam, where he was manager of the national theatre or darter Schouwburg after Jan Vos. In connexion with gists, Andries Pels (d. 1681), author of the tragedy of Dido's Death, Meijer constructed a dramatic See also:club, entitled " Nil Volentibus Arduum," the great See also:object of which was to inflict the French taste upon the public. Pels furthermore came forward as the See also:censor of letters and satirist of barbarism in Horace's Art of Poetry expounded, in 1677, and in his Use and Misuse of the Stage, in 1681. Willem van Focquenbroch (1640—1679) was the most voluminous comic writer of this period. The close of the century saw the rise of two thoroughly Gallican dramatists, Jan van Paffenrode (d. 1673) and Pieter Bernagie (1656-1699), who may not unfairly be compared respectively to the Englishmen See also:Farquhar and See also:Shadwell. See also: Sybrand Feitama(1694—1758),who translated See also:Voltaire's Henriade (1743), and wrote much dreary verse of the same class himself, is less worthy of notice than Dirk Smits (1702-1752), the mild and elegiac See also:singer of Rotterdam. Tragic drama was more or less capably represented by Lucretia See also:Wilhelmina van Merken (r722—1789), wife of the very dreary dramatist Nicholaas See also:Simon van See also:Winter (1718—1795).
writer arose who revived an interest in literature, and gave to Dutch prose the classical grace of the 18th century.
Justus van Effen r (1684—1735) was born at Utrecht, van
Effen. fell into poverty early in life, and was thrown very
much among the company of French emigres, in connexion with whom he began literary life in 1713 by editing a French See also:journal. Coming to London just when the Taller and Spectator were in their first vogue, Van Effen studied See also:Addison deeply, translated See also:Swift and See also:Defoe into French, and finally determined to See also:transfer the beauties of English prose into his native language. It was not, however, until 1731, after having wasted the greater part of his life in writing French, that he began to publish his Hollandsche Spectator, which his death in 1735 soon brought to a close. Still, what he composed during the last four years of his life, in all its freshness, manliness and versatility, constitutes the most valuable legacy to Dutch literature that the middle of the 18th century left behind it.
The supremacy of the poetical clubs in every town produced a very weakening and Della-Cruscan effect upon literature, from which the first revolt was made by the famous See also:brothers Van
1 See Dr W. Bisschop, Justus van Effen . . (Utrecht, 1859).
Oudaen.
Johanna See also: The I In the midst of this See also:complete See also:dissolution of poetical style, a Amsterdam section of the school of Cats produced Jeremias de See also:Decker (16og—1666), author of The Praise of Avarice, a satirical poem in See also:imitation of See also:Erasmus, and Joannes Vollenhove (1631—1708), voluminous writers of didactic verse. The engraver Jan L 1ken. Luiken (1649—1708) published in 1671 a very remark- able volume of poems. In lyrical poetry Starter had a single disciple, See also:Daniel Jonctijs (1600-1652), who published a volume of love songs in 1639 under the affected and untranslatable title of Rooselijns oochjens ontleed. None of these poets, except in some slight degree Luiken, set before himself any more ambitious task than to repeat with skill the effects of his predecessors. Meanwhile the romantic and voluminous romances of the French school of See also:Scudery and Honore d'See also:Urfe had invaded Holland and become fashionable. Johan van Heemse k erk. k. kerk ( 1 597—1656) , a councillor of the Hague, set himself B to reproduce this product in native form, and published in 1637 his Batavian Arcadia, the first original Dutch romance, in which a party of romantic youths See also:journey from the Hague to Katwijk, and undergo all sorts of romantic adventures. This book was extremely popular, and was imitated by Hendrik Haren,l so honourably known as diplomatists in the history of the Netherlands. Willem van Haren (1710-1768) wrote verses from The his earliest youth, while Onno Zwier van Haren (1713-brothers 1779), strangely enough, did not begin to do so until he van had passed middle life. They were friends of Voltaire, See also:Harem and they were both ambitious of success in epic writing, as understood in See also:France at that period. Willem published in 1741 his Gevallen van Friso, a historical epos, and a long series of odes and See also:solemn lyrical pieces. Onno, in a somewhat lighter See also:strain, wrote Piet and Agnietje, or See also:Pandora's See also:Box, and a long series of tragedies in the manner of Voltaire. The baroness
Juliana See also:Cornelia de See also:Lannoy (1738-1782) was a writer of Baroness considerable talent, also of the school of Voltaire; her
de
Lamm,. poems were highly esteemed by See also:Bilderdijk and she has a
neatness of See also:touch and clearness of penetration that give vivacity to her studies of social life. Jakobus See also:Bellamy (1757-1786) was the son of a Swiss See also:baker at See also:Flushing; his pompous Bellamy. odes (Gezangen myner Jeugd, 1782; Vaderlandsche
Gezangen, 1782) struck the final See also:note of the false taste and Gallic pedantry that had deformed Dutch literature now for a century, and were for a short time excessively admired.
The year 1977 has been mentioned as the turning-point in the history of letters in the Netherlands. It was in that year that
See also: The ladies were residing in France at the breaking out of the Revolution, and they escaped the See also:guillotine with difficulty. After this they wroteno more, having secured for themselves by their three unrivalled romances a place among the foremost writers of their country. The last years of the 18th century were marked in Holland by a general revival of intellectual force. The romantic move- ment in Germany made itself deeply See also:felt in all branches fflemw- of Dutch literature, and German lyricism took the land. place hitherto held by French classicism. Pieter Nieuwland (1764-1794) was a feeble forerunner of the revival, but his short life and indifferent powers gave him no See also:chance of directing the transition that he saw to be inevitable. One volume of poems appeared in 1788, and a second, posthumously, in 1797. The real precursor and creator of a new epoch in letters was the famous Willem Bilderdijk (1756-1831) (q.v.). This remarkable BllderalJk. man, whose force of character was even greater than his genius, impressed his See also:personality on his generation so indelibly that to think of a Dutchman of the beginning of the 19th century is to think of Bilderdijk. In poetry his taste was strictly national and didactic; he began as a disciple of Cats, nor could he to the end of his life tolerate what he called " the puer- ilities of Shakespeare." His early love-songs, collected in 1781 and 1785, gave little promise of talent, but in his epic of See also:Elias in 1786, he showed himself See also:superior to all the Dutch poets since Huygens in mastery of form. For twenty years he lived a busy, See Dr J. van Vloten, See also:Leven enwerken can Willem en Onno van Haren (1'874), and Busken-See also:Huet, De van Harens (1895). 2 See Dr J. van Vloten, Elisabeth Wolff . . . (188o).eventful life, writing great quantities of verse, and then commenced his most productive period with his didactic poem of The Disease of the Learned, in 1807; in 18o8 he imitated See also:Pope's See also:Essay on Man, and published the tragedy of Floris V., and in 1809 commenced the work which he designed to be his master-piece, the epic of De Ondergang der eerste Wereld (The Destruction of the First World), which he never finished, and which appeared as a fragment in 182o. To the foreign student Bilderdijk is a singularly uninviting and unpleasing figure. He unites in himself all the unlovely and provincial features which deform the worst of his countrymen. He was violent, ignorant and dull; his view of art was confined to its declamatory and least beautiful side, and perhaps no writer of equal talent has shown so complete an See also:absence of taste and tact. Ten Brink has summed up the character of Bilderdijk's writings in an excellent passage:—" As an artist," he says, " he can perhaps be best described in short as the cleverest versemaker of the 18th century. His admirable erudition, his power over language, more extended and more See also:colossal than that of any of his predecessors, enabled him to write pithy and thoroughly original verses, although the general tone of his thought and expression never rose above the ceremonious, stagy and theatrical character of the 18th century." But in spite of his outrageous faults, and partly because these faults were the exaggeration of a marked national failing, Bilderdijk long enjoyed an unbroken and unbounded popularity in Holland. Fortunately, however, a sounder spirit has arisen in criticism, and the See also:prestige of Bilderdijk is no longer preserved so religiously. Bilderdijk's scorn for the dramas of Shakespeare was almost. rivalled by that he felt for the new German poetry. Notwithstanding his opposition, however, the romantic fervour found its way into Holland, and first of all in the persons of Hieronymus van Alphen (1746-1803) and Pieter Leonard van de Kastiele (1748-1810), who amused themselves by composing funeral poems of the school of See also:Gessner and See also:Blair. Van Alphen at one time was extolled as a writer of verses for children, but neither in this nor in the elegiac See also:line did he possess nearly so much talent as Rhijnvis See also:Feith (1753-1824), burgomaster of See also:Zwolle, the very type of a prosperous and sentimental Dutchman. In his Julia (1783), a prose romance, Feith proved himself as completely the disciple of Goethe in Werther as Wolff and Deken had been of Richardson in Sara Burgerhart. In Johannes Kinker (1764-1845) a comic poet arose who, at the instigation of Bilderdijk, dedicated himself to the ridicule of Feith's sentimentalities. The same See also:office was performed with more dignity and less vivacity by See also:Baron W. E. van Perponcher (1741-1819), but Feith continued to hold the popular See also:ear, and achieved an immense success with his poem The See also:Grave in 1792. He then produced tragedies for a while, and in 1803 published Antiquity, a didactic epic. But his popularity waned before his death, and he was troubled by the mirth of such witty scoffers as Arend Fokke Simons (1755-1812), the disciple of See also:Klopstock, and as P. de Wacker van Zon 0758-1818), who, in a series of very readable novels issued under the See also:pseudonym of See also:Bruno Daalberg, sharply ridiculed the sentimental and funereal school.
Under the Batavian republic a historian of great genius arose in the person of Johannes Henricus van der See also:Palm (1763-1840), whose brilliant and patriotic Gedenkschrift van Neder-
lands Herstelling (1816) has somewhat obscured PalVanmder
. his great fame as a politician and an Orientalist.
The work commenced by Van der Palm in prose was continued in verse by Cornelis Loots (1765-1834) and Jan Frederik See also:Helmers (1767-1813). Loots, in his Batavians of the Time of Loots. See also:Caesar (18o,5), read his countrymen a See also:lesson in patriot-
ism, which Helmers far exceeded in originality and force by his Dutch Nation in x812. Neither of these poets, however, had sufficient art to render their pieces classical, or, indeed, Helmers. enough to protect them during their lifetime from
the sneers of Bilderdijk. Other political writers, whose lyrical
energies were stimulated by the struggle with France, were
Maurits Cornelis van See also: His romantic stories of medieval life, especially his See also:Charlotte van See also:Bourbon, are curiously like shadows cast forward by the Waverley Novels, but he has little of Sir Walter See also:Scott's historical truth of See also:vision. His production was incessant and his popularity great for many years, but he was conscious all through that he was at best but a disciple of the authoresses of Sara Burgerhart. Another disciple whose name should not be passed over is Maria See also:Jacoba de Neufville (1775-1856), author of Little Duties, an excellent See also:story somewhat in the manner of Mrs See also:Opie. A remarkable poet whose romantic genius strove to combine the power of Bilderdijk with the sweetness of Feith was Hendrik Tot/ens. Tollens (1780—1856), whose verses have shown more vitality than those of most of his contemporaries. He struck out the admirable notion of celebrating the great deeds of Dutch history in a series of lyrical romances, many of which possess a lasting See also:charm. Besides his folk-songs and popular ballads, he succeeded in a long descriptive poem, A Winter in Nova Zembla, 1819. He lacks the full accomplishment of a literary artist, but his See also:inspiration was natural and abundant, and he thoroughly deserved the popularity with which his patriotic Messchert ballads were rewarded. Willem Messchert (1790 1844), a friend and follower of Tollens, pushed the domestic and See also:familiar tone of the latter to a still further point, especially in his genre poem of the See also:Golden See also:Wedding, 1825. Both these writers were natives and residents of Rotterdam, which also claims the honour of being the birthplace of Eogaers. Adrianus Bogaers (1795—1870), the most considerable poetical figure of the time. Without the force and profusion of Bilderdijk, Bogaers has more truth to nature, more sweetness of imagination, and a more genuine See also:gift of poetry than that clamorous writer, and is slowly taking a higher position in Dutch literature as Bilderdijk comes to take a See also:lower one Bogaers printed his famous poem Jochebed in 1835, but it had then been in existence more than thirteen years, so that it belongs to the second period of imaginative revival in Europe, and connects the name of its author with those of See also:Byron and See also:Heine. Still more beautiful was his Voyage of See also:Heemskerk to See also:Gibraltar (1836), in which he rose to the highest level of his genius. In 1846 he privately printed his Romances and Ballads. Bogaers had a great objection to publicity, and his reputation was long delayed by the secrecy with which he circulated his writings among a few intimate friends. A poet of considerable talent, whose powers were awakened by personal intercourse with Bogaers and Staring Tollens, was Antoni Christiaan Winand Staring (1767 1840), who first at the age of fifty-three came before the world with a volume of Poems, but who continued to write till past his seventieth year. His amorous and humorous lyrics recall the best period of Dutch song, and are worthy to be named beside those of Starter and Vondel. After 183o Holland took a more prominent position in European thought than she could claim since the end of the 17th century. In scientific and religious literature her men of letters 19th showed themselves cognizant of the newest shades century of See also:opinion, and freely ventilated their ideas. The influen nces. language resisted the pressure of German from the outside, and from within See also:broke through its long stagnation and enriched itself, as a See also:medium for literary expression, with a multitude of fresh and colloquial forms. At the same time, no very great genius arose in Holland in any See also:branch of literature. The vast labours of Jakobus van See also:Lennep (1802—1868) consist of innumerable translations, historical novels and national romances, which have gained for him the title of the leader of the Dutch romantic school. The novels of Sir Walter Scott had a great influence on Dutch literature, and the period was rich in historical novels. J. vander Hage (1806—1854), who wrote under the pseudonym of Jan Frederick Oltmans, was the author of the famous novels, See also:Castle Loevenstein in 1570 (1834), and The Shepherd (1838), both dealing with the national history. Other popular works were the antique romance Charikles and See also:Euphorion (1831) of Petrus van Limburg-See also:Brouwer (1795—1847), author of a history of Greek mythology; the Mejuffrouw Leclerc (1849), and the Portretten van Joost van den Vondel (1876) of the literary historian and critic J. A. A. Alberdingk Thijm (1820—1899); the Jan Faessen (1856) of Lodewijk Mulder (b. 1822); and the Lucretia d'See also:Este of W. P. Walters (1827—1891). Johannes Kneppelhout (1814—1885) sketched university life at Leiden in two amusing volumes of Studententypen (1841) and Studentenleven (1844). Reinier Cornelis Bakhuizen van den Brink (1810—1865) was the chief
critic of the romantic movement, and Everhard Johannes
See also:Potgieter (1808—1875) its mystical philosopher and See also:esoteric
lyrical poet. The genius and influence of Potgieter were very considerable, but they were exceeded by the gifts of See also:Nicolaes Beets (q.v.), author of the famous See also:Camera Obscura (1836), a masterpiece of humour and character. Johannes Pieter Hasebroek (1812—1896), who has been called the Dutch See also: Willem Hofdijk (1816—1888) wrote a collection of ballads, Kennemerland (1849—1852), and a series of epic and dramatic poems in the romantic style. See also:Bernard ter Haar (1806-1881), an Amsterdam pastor and, in the last year of his life, a See also:professor at Utrecht, made a reputation as a poet by his Johannes and Theagenes, a See also:legend of apostolic times (1838). His poems were collected in 1866 and 1899. A poet of unusual power and promise was lost in the early death of Pieter See also:Augustus de Genestet (1803—1861). His See also:Eve of Saint See also:Nicholas appeared in 1849, and was followed by two volumes of verse in 1851 and 1861, the second of which contains some poems that have attained great popularity. Among the poets should not be forgotten two writers of verse for children, Jan Pieter Heije (1809—1876) and J. J. A. Gouverneur (1809—1889). Criticism was represented by W. J. A. Jonckbloet (1817—1885), author of an excellent History of Dutch Literature (1868—1870), C. Busken Huet, and Jan ten Brink (1834—1901), author of a great number of valuable works on literary history, notably of a history of Dutch literature (1897), and a series of See also:biographies of 19th century Dutch writers (new edition, 1902). His novels were collected in 13 volumes in 1885. With Isaak da See also:Costa (q.v.), W. J. van Zeggelen (1811—1879), and J. J.L. Ten Kate (q.v.), the domestic tendency of Cats and Bilderdijk overpowered the influence of romanticism. The romantic drama found its best exponent in H. J. See also:Schimmel (q.v.), who found a disciple in D. F. van Heyst (b. 1831), whose See also:George van See also:Lalaing was produced in 1873. Hugo Beijerman (ps. Glanor) produced a good play in his Uitgaan (1873), which was followed by other successes. Rosier Faessen (b. 1833) published his dramatic works in 1883. The See also:recent literature of Holland presents the interesting phenomenon of an aesthetic revolution, carefully and cleverly Recent develops ments. planned, crowned with unanticipated success, and dying away in a languor encouraged liy the complete absence of organized resistance. It would perhaps be difficult to point to another European example so well defined of the vicissitudes which keep the history of literature varied and fresh. For the thirty or forty years preceding 1880 the course of belles-lettres in Holland was smooth and even sluggish. The Dutch writers had slipped into a conventionality of treatment and a strict See also:limitation of form from which even the most striking talents among them could scarcely See also:escape. In 1880 the most eminent authors of this early period were ready to pass away, and they appeared to be preparing no successors to take their place. The greatest humorist of Holland, Nicolaas Beets, had See also:drawn his works together. The most interesting novelist, Mrs Gertrude Bosboom-See also:Toussaint, had in her last psychological stories shown an unexpected sympathy with new ideas. M. G. L. van Loghem (b. 1849), known under the pseudonym of " Fiore delle Neve," made a great success by his Een liefde in het Zuiden (1881), followed in 1882 by Liana, and in 1884 by Van eene Sultane. Among the novelists were See also:Gerard See also:Keller (b. 1829), author of From See also:Home (1867); Johan See also:Gram (b. 1833), of whose novels De Familie Schaffels (1870) is the best known; Hendrik de Veer (1829–1890), author of Frans See also:Holster (1871); Justus van Maurik (b. 1846), who wrote plays and short sketches of Amsterdam life (Uit het See also:Volk, 1879), and Arnold Buning (b. 1846), whose Marine Sketches (1880) won great popularity. The colonial novels of N. See also:Marie C. Sloot, born in Java in 1853, are widely read in Holland and See also:Belgium, and many of them have been translated into German. A number of them were collected (Schiedam, 1900–1902) as Romantische Werken. Adele Opzoomer (b. 1856; pseud. A. C. S. See also:Wallis) made her first success in 1877 with In Days of Strife. The two leading Dutch men of letters, however, besides Beets and Douwes See also:Dekker, were critics, See also:Conrad Busken-Huet (q.v.) and Carel See also:Vosmaer (q.v.). In Huet the principles of the 1840–188o period were summed up; he had been during all those years the fearless and trusty See also:watch-See also:dog of Dutch letters, as he understood them. He lived just long enough to become aware that a revolution was approaching, not to comprehend its character; but his accomplished fidelity to literary principle and his wide knowledge have been honoured even by the most See also:bitter of the younger school. Vosmaer, although in certain directions more sympathetic than Huet, and himself an innovator, has not escaped so easily, because he has been charged with want of courage in accepting what he knew to be inevitable. In November 1881 there died a youth named Jacques Perk (186o–1881), who had done no more than publish a few sonnets in the Spectator, a journal published by Vosmaer. He was no sooner dead, however, than his See also:posthumous poems, and in particular a cycle of sonnets called Mathilde, were published (1882), and awakened extraordinary emotion. Perk had rejected all the formulas of rhetorical poetry, and had broken up the conventional rhythms. There had been heard no See also:music like his in Holland for two See also:hundred years. A group of young men, united in a sort of esoteric See also:adoration of the memory of Perk, collected around his name. They joined to their See also:band a man somewhat older than themselves, See also:Marcellus Emants (born 1848), poet, novelist and dramatist, who had come forward in 1879 with a symbolical poem called See also:Lilith, which had been stigmatized as audacious and meaningless; encouraged by the admiration of his juniors, Emants published in 1881 a treatise on Young Holland; in the form of a novel in which the first open attack was made on the old school. The next appearance was that of Willem Kloos (born 1857), who had been the editor and intimate friend of Perk, and who now undertook to See also:lead the See also:army of See also:rebellion. His violent attacks on recognized authority in See also:aesthetics began in 1882, and created a considerable See also:scandal. For some time, however, the new poets and critics found a great difficulty in being heard, since all the channels of periodical literature were closed to them. But in 1883 Emants expressed his intellectual aspirations in his poem The See also:Twilight of the Gods, and in 1884 the young school founded a See also:review, De Nieuwe Gids, which was able to offer a direct See also:challenge to De Gids, the ultra-respectable Dutch quarterly. In this year a new element was introduced: hitherto the influences of the young Dutch poetry had chiefly come from England; they were those of See also:Shelley, Mrs See also:Browning, the Rossettis. In 1884 Frans See also:Netscher began to imitate with avidity the French naturalists. For some time, then, the new Dutch literature became a sort of mixture of Shelley and See also:Zola, very violent, heady and bewildering. In 1885 the Persephone and other Poems of See also:Albert Verwey (b. 1865) introduced a lyrical poet of real merit to Holland; Emants published his novel Goudakker's Illusions. This was the great flowering moment of the new school. It was at this juncture that the See also:principal recent writer of Holland, See also: The talent of Couperus is like a rich but simple tropical flower laden with See also:colour and odour. He separated himself, as he developed, from the more fanatical members of the group, and addressed himself to the wider public. Another writer, of a totally different class, resembling Couperus only in his See also:defiance of the ruling system of aesthetics, is the prominent Ultramontane politician and See also:bishop, E. J. A. M. Schaepmann (born 1844), whose poem of Aja See also:Sofia originally appeared in 1886. Recent novelists of some polemical vigour are H. See also:Borel and van Hulzen. A very delightful talent was revealed by Frederick van Eeden in Little Johnny (1887), a prose See also:fairy-See also:tale; in Ellen (1891), a cycle of mysterious and musical elegies; and in From the See also:Cold Pools of Death (1901), a very See also:melancholy novel. Another poet of leas refinement of spirit, but even greater sumptuousness of form, appeared in Helene Swarth-Lapidoth (born 1859), whose Pictures and Voices belongs to 1887. In that year also, in which Dutch literature reached its height of fecundity, was published the powerful and scandalous naturalistic novel, A Love, by L. van Deyssel (K. J. L. Alberdingk Thijm) who had hitherto been known chiefly as a most uncompromising critic. After 1887 the See also:condition of modern Dutch literature remained comparatively stationary, and within the last decade of the 19th century was definitely declining. In 1889, it is true, a new poet Herman Gorter, made his appearance with a volume of See also:strange verses called May, See also:eccentric both in See also:prosody and in treatment. He held his own without any marked advance towards lucidity or variety. Since the recognition of Gorter, however, no really remarkable talent has made itself prominent in Dutch poetry, unless we except P. C. Boutens, whose Verses in 1898 were received with great respect. Willem Kloos, still the acute and somewhat turbulent leader of the school, collected his poems in 1894 and his See also:critical essays in 1896. L. van Deyssel, though an effective reviewer, continued to lack the erudition which years should have brought to him. Gorter remained tenebrous, Helene Swarth-Lapidoth still gorgeous; the others, with the exception of Couperus, showed symptoms of sinking into silence. The entire school, now that the struggle for recognition is over, and its members are accepted as little See also:classics and the tyrants of taste, rests on its triumphs and seems to limit itself to a repetition of its old experiments. The leading dramatist of the close of the century was See also:Hermann See also:Heijermans (b. 1864), a See also:Jew of strong realistic and socialistic tendencies, and the author of innumerable gloomy plays. His See also:Ghetto (1898) and Ora et Labora (1901) particularly display his peculiar talent. Other notable products of drama are those of de Koo, whose Tobias Bolderman (1900) and Vier Ton (1901) are effective comedies. Dutch literature presented features of remarkable interest between 1882 and 1888, but since that time the general heightening of the See also:average of merit, the See also:abandonment of the old dry conventions, and a recognition of the See also:artistic value of words and forms, are more evident to a foreign observer than any very important single expression of the national genius in literary art. An exception should be made in favour of the powerful See also:peasant-stories of Steijn Streuvels (See also:Frank Lateur), a young baker by See also:trade, whose Summer Land (Igor) was a most promising production. Dr J. van Vloten, Schets van de Geschiedenis der Nederlandschen Letteren (1879); L. See also:Schneider, Geschichte der niederlandischen Literatur (Leipzig, 1887) ; G. Kalif, Literatuur en tooneel to Amsterdam in de zeventiende Eeuw (Haarlem, 1895). Interesting observations on the development of the new school in Dutch literature will be found in Willem Kloos, Veertien Jaar Literatuur-Geschiedenis (2 vols.., 188o-1896), and in L. van Deyssel, Verzamelde Opstelen (4 vols., 1890-1897), and in the series of mono-graphs and See also:bibliographies by Prof. J. ten Brink, Geschiedenis der Noord-Nederlandsche Letteren in de XIX' Eeuw (Rotterdam, new ed. 1902, &c.). (E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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