DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY

dutch east india company, the (_oostindische vereenigde maatschappij_), a body founded by a charter from the netherlands states-general on the 20th of march 1602. it had a double purpose: first to regulate and protect the already considerable trade carried on by the dutch in the indian ocean, and then to help in prosecuting the long war of independence against spain and portugal. before the union between portugal and spain in 1580-81, the dutch had been the chief carriers of eastern produce from lisbon to northern europe. when they were shut out from the portuguese trade by the spanish king they were driven to sail to the east in order to make good their loss. unsuccessful attempts were made to find a route to the east by the north of europe and asia, which would have been free from interference from the spaniards and portuguese. it was only when these failed that the dutch decided to intrude on the already well-known route by the cape of good hope, and to fight their way to the spice islands of the malay archipelago. a first expedition, commanded by cornelius houtman, a merchant long resident at lisbon, sailed on the 2nd of april 1595. it was provided with an itinerary or book of sailing instructions drawn up by jan huyghen van linschoten,[1] a dutchman who had visited goa. the voyage was marked by many disasters and losses, but the survivors who reached the texel on their return on the 20th of august 1597 brought back some valuable cargo, and a treaty made with the sultan of bantam in java. these results were sufficient to encourage a great outburst of commercial adventure. companies described as "van ferne"--that is, of the distant seas--were formed, and by 1602 from sixty to seventy dutch vessels had sailed to hindustan and the indian archipelago. on those distant seas the traders could neither be controlled nor protected by their native government. they fought among themselves as well as with the natives and the portuguese, and their competition sent up prices in the eastern markets and brought them down at home. largely at the suggestion of jan van oldenbarneveldt, and in full accordance with the economic principles of the time, the states-general decided to combine the existing separate companies into one united dutch east india company, which could discharge the functions of a government in those remote seas, prosecute the war with spain and portugal, and regulate the trade. a capital estimated variously at a little above and a little under 6,500,000 florins, was raised by national subscription in shares of 3000 florins. the independence of the states which constituted the united netherlands was recognized by the creation of local boards at amsterdam, in zealand, at delft and rotterdam, hoorn and enkhuizen. the boards directed the trade of their own districts, and were responsible to one another, but not for one another as towards the public. a general directorate of 60 members was chosen by the local boards. amsterdam was represented by 20 directors, zealand by 12, delft and rotterdam by 14, and hoorn and enkhuizen also by 14. the real governing authority was the "collegium," or board of control of 17 members, of whom 16 were chosen from the general directorate in proportion to the share which each local branch had contributed to the capital or joint stock. amsterdam, which subscribed a half, had eight representatives; zealand, which found a quarter, had four; delft and rotterdam, hoorn and enkhuizen had two respectively, since each of the pairs had subscribed an eighth. the seventeenth member was nominated in succession by the other members of the united netherlands. a committee of ten was established at the hague to transact the business of the company with the states-general. the "collegium" of seventeen nominated the governors-general who were appointed after 1608. the charter, which was granted for twenty-one years, conferred great powers on the company. it was endowed with a monopoly of the trade with the east indies, was allowed to import free from all custom dues, though required to pay 3% on exports, and charged with a rent to the states. it was authorized to maintain armed forces by sea and land, to erect forts and plant colonies, to make war or peace, to arrange treaties in the name of the stadtholder, since eastern potentates could not be expected to understand what was meant by the states-general, and to coin money. it had full administrative, judicial and legislative authority over the whole of the sphere of operations, which extended from the west of the straits of magellan westward to the cape of good hope. the history of the dutch east india company from its formation in 1602 until its dissolution in 1798 is filled, until the close of the 17th century, with wars and diplomatic relations. its headquarters were early fixed at batavia in java. but it extended its operations far and wide. it had to deal diplomatically with china and japan; to conquer its footing in the malay archipelago and in ceylon; to engage in rivalry with portuguese and english; to establish posts and factories at the cape, in the persian gulf, on the coasts of malabar and coromandel and in bengal. only the main dates of its progress can be mentioned here. by 1619 it had founded its capital in batavia in java on the ruins of the native town of jacatra. it expelled the portuguese from ceylon between 1638 and 1658, and from malacca in 1641. its establishment at the cape of good hope, which was its only colony in the strict sense, began in 1652. a treaty with the native princes established its power in sumatra in 1667. the flourishing age of the company dates from 1605 and lasted till the closing years of the century. when at the summit of its prosperity in 1669 it possessed 150 trading ships, 40 ships of war, 10,000 soldiers, and paid a dividend of 40%. in the last years of the 17th century its fortunes began to decline. its decadence was due to a variety of causes. the rigid monopoly it enforced wherever it had the power provoked the anger of rivals. when pieter both, the first governor-general, was sent out in 1608, his instructions from the board of control were to see that holland had the entire monopoly of the trade with the east indies, and that no other nation had any share whatever. the pursuit of this policy led the company into violent hostility with the english, who were also opening a trade with the east. between 1613 and 1632 the dutch drove the english from the spice islands and the malay archipelago almost entirely. the english were reduced to a precarious footing at bantam in java. one incident of this conflict, the torture and judicial murder of the english factors at amboyna in 1623, caused bitter hostility in england. the success of the company in the malay archipelago was counterbalanced by losses elsewhere. it had in all eight governments: amboyna, banda, ternate, macassar, malacca, ceylon, cape of good hope and java. commissioners were placed in charge of its factories or trading posts in bengal, on the coromandel coast, at surat, and at gambroon (or bunder abbas) in the persian gulf, and in siam. its trade was divided into the "grand trade" between europe and the east, which was conducted in convoys sailing from and returning to amsterdam; and the "indies to indies" or coasting trade between its possessions and native ports. the rivalry and the hostilities of french and english gradually drove the dutch from the mainland of asia and from ceylon. the company suffered severely in the war of american independence. but it extended and strengthened its hold on the great islands of the malay archipelago. the increase of its political and military burdens destroyed its profits. in the early 18th century it was already embarrassed, and was bankrupt when it was dissolved in 1798, though its credit remained unshaken, largely, if its enemies are to be believed, because it concealed the truth and published false accounts. in the later stages of its history its revenue was no longer derived from trade, but from forced contributions levied on its subjects. at home, the directors, who were accused of nepotism and corruption, became unpopular at an early date. the company was subject to increasing demands and ever more severe regulation on the successive renewals of its charters at intervals of twenty-one years. the immediate causes of its destruction were the conquest of holland by the french revolutionary armies, the fall of the government of the stadtholder, and the establishment of the batavian republic in 1798. authorities.--the great original work on the history of the dutch east india company is the monumental _beschryving van oud en niew oost indien_ (dordrecht and amsterdam, 1724), by francois valentyn, in 8 vols., folio, profusely illustrated. two modern works of the highest value are: j.k.j. de jonge, _de opkomst van het nederlandsch gezag in oost indien_ (the hague and amsterdam, 1862-1888), in 13 vols.; j. j. meinsma, _geschiedenis van de nederlandsche oost-indische bezittingen_ (3 vols., delft and the hague, 1872-1875). see also john crawford, _history of the indian archipelago_ (edinburgh, 1820); clive day, _the dutch in java_ (new york, 1904); sir w.w. hunter, _a history of british india_ (london, 1899); and pierre bonnassieux, _les grandes compagnies de commerce_ (paris, 1892). footnote: [1] linschoten was born at haarlem in or about 1563. he started his travels at the age of sixteen and, after some years in spain, went with the portuguese east india fleet to goa, where he arrived in september 1583, returning in 1589. in 1594 and 1595 he took part in the dutch arctic voyages, and in 1598 settled at enkhuizen, where he died on the 8th of february 1611. his _navigatio ac itinerarium_ (1595-1596) is a compilation based partly on his own experiences, partly on those of other travellers with whom he came in contact. it was translated into english and german in 1598; two latin versions appeared in 1599 and a french translation in 1610. the famous english version was reprinted for the hakluyt society in 1885. large selections, with an introduction, are published in c. raymond beazley's _voyages and travels_, vol. ii. (_english garner_, london, 1903). dutch language. when the romans reached the territory now forming the kingdom of holland, they found a number of tribes south of the rhine, who--though here and there mixed with germans--belonged to a non-germanic race, and who, closely related to the belgian tribes, spoke a language belonging to the celtic group. possibly they were also situated on the more elevated grounds north of the rhine, at least vestiges of them may still be traced. we do not know anything about their being mixed with or subdued by the intruding german tribes. we can only guess it. at that time the fertile delta of the rhine was already occupied by german tribes who in language and national customs must have stood in some relation to the tribes living along the rhine in germany, later called franks. the consonantal system of their language was in accordance with the other low-german dialects, which is proved by the remains we have in the glosses of the lex salica, for the greater part handed down in a bad condition. these tribes, whom we shall take together under the name of low-franks--the romans called them batavi, caninefates, chamavi, &c.--were spread over gelderland, overysel, part of utrecht and south holland, and the south-western part of north holland. when in the sixth century allied tribes from the present north germany, who named themselves saxons after one of those tribes living alongside the elbe, conquered the territory occupied by the franks a great many retreated from the eastern parts, and then the franks, who already in the time of the romans had begun to invade into the territory of the belgian tribes, continued their wars of conquest in a southward direction and subdued all the land south of the branch of the rhine that is called the "waal." since that time the frankish dialect came there, and the celtic-speaking population of the south suffered its language to be entirely supplanted by that of the conquerors. hence in the formerly celtic-speaking parts of brabant and limburg we find but frankish dialects, somewhat corresponding with those of part of gelderland, utrecht and holland. the deviation that is perceptible concerns less the use of words than the way of laying the stress. in part of gelderland, east of the ysel, and in overysel, the older frankish dialect (of the salian franks) was given up and the language of the victorious saxons was assumed, perhaps here and there strongly mixed with the older language. the language which is spoken there, and farther to the north through drente as far as in some parts of groningen, is called saxon. indeed, these dialects correspond in a great many respects with the language of the old-saxon poem heliand (q.v.) and with the north-german dialects--from the latter they deviate considerably in some respects. the chief point of conformity is the formation of the plural of the verb: _wi loopt, wi gat_, _heliand_: _wi hlopad, wi gangad_, which are _wei loopen, wei gaan_ in the frankish dialects. in the vocal system, too, there are peculiar differences. in the north of holland there lived, and still lives alongside the coast, a tribe with which caesar did not come in contact. the frisians were spread over a large distance along the shore as far as the mouth of the elbe, and in the west at least as far as the country north of haarlem. in the time of the romans they cannot have extended their power farther southward. later, however, this seems to have been the case. maerlant and melis stoke (13th century) tell us that time was when their power extended even over part of flanders. about the year 339 they were repelled as far as the mouth of the meuse, and ever afterwards the franks, led by their counts, pushed their dominion back farther and farther to the north, as far as the country north of alkmaar. after all, a great many frisian peculiarities may be perceived in the language of the country people of the parts which were once in their power. to begin with the south: in zeeland the population has quite given up the former probably non-germanic language. frisian influence is still perceptible in many words and expressions, but for all that the language has lost the frisian character and assumed the nature of the neighbouring frankish dialects in the present belgium and brabant. if it was then influenced by the south, later it was influenced rather by the language of holland. farther to the north frisian elements may be perceived in holland at the seashore and also in many respects still in north holland. the real frisian tongue has only been preserved in the province of friesland, where intrusion of the dialect spoken in holland is already perceptible since the 13th century. with the frisian tongue this formed a new dialect in the towns, the "stadfriesch," whereas the country people in the villages and the peasants have preserved the old frisian tongue as "boerenfriesch." the more eastward dialects of frisian in groningen, the eastern part of friesland (_stellingawerf_) and west-drente were first strongly mixed with saxon; at the same time we find a strong mixture of frisian and saxo-frankish east of the zuider zee. later the saxon dialect of the town of groningen, once the capital of east-drente, became prominent over the whole province. in all parts, however, the language of holland, mixed with and changed by the living speech, is getting more and more influence, issuing from the towns and large villages. this influence over the whole country began at the opening of the 17th century, and, in connexion with the prevalent written language, gradually produced a colloquial language, deviating from the written language as well as from the native idioms of the country, though assuming elements from both. in this colloquial speech the idiom of holland forms the basis, whereas the written language formed itself on quite different principles. if we compare the colloquial speech and the native idiom with the written language, we find remarkable differences, which are caused by the origin of the dutch written language. the first to write in any of the idioms of the dutch language, if we leave apart the old version of the psalms in east low frankish, was an inhabitant of the neighbourhood of maastricht, henrik van veldeke, who wrote a servatius legend and an _aeneid_; the latter we only know by a mid high german copy. this dialect deviates from the western dialects and has likeness to the middle-frankish. his work had no influence whatever on the written language. in the west of belgium, in the districts of antwerp, east and west flanders and brabant, great prosperity and strong development of commerce caused a vivid intellectual life. no wonder we find there the first writings in the west-low-frankish native idiom. this language spread over the neighbouring districts. at least in 1254 we find the same language used in the statute (i.e. privilege) of middelburg. in those parts a great deal was written in poetry and prose, and the writings in this language are known under the name of middle-dutch literature. if originally the south took the lead in all departments, later the north gradually surpasses the south, and elements from the northern native idiom begin to intrude into the written language. north of the meuse and the rhine little was written as yet in the 13th century. not until about 1300 does literary life begin to develop here (melis stoke's _rijmcronijk_), and these writings were written in the language of the south with slight deviations here and there. chancery and clergy had taken a written language to the north, deviating considerably from the native idiom in vogue there, which belonged to the frisio-frankish idioms. so this written language gradually spread over the west of the netherlands and belgium. the east of the netherlands agreed in its chancery style more with the districts of low germany. there was a great difference between the written language and the dialect spoken on the banks of the y. this becomes quite conspicuous if we compare what roemer visscher, coster, bredero borrow from their native idiom with the language of huygens or cats, in the latter of which the southern elements predominate, mixed with the dialects of zeeland and holland. vondel, too, in his first period was influenced by the idiom of brabant. only after 1625 does he get on more familiar terms with the amsterdam dialect. in the various editions of his poems it may be seen how not only loan-words, but also words belonging to the southern idiom, are gradually replaced by other words, belonging to the vocabulary of north holland, and still to be heard. the written language passed from the south to the north, and, considerably changed at amsterdam, was also assumed in the other provinces in the 17th century, after the union of utrecht. in the north, in groningen and friesland, the official writings and laws were still noted down in a frisian or saxo-frisian idiom as late as the 15th and 16th centuries. when the contact with holland grew stronger, and the government officials ever and again came in contact with holland, chancery, too, gradually assumed the holland idiom. the same took place in the eastern provinces. this, however, did not yet make the written language popular, which did not happen before the population of the dutch provinces got its _statenbybel_, the well-known authorized version of the bible, made at dordrecht between 1626 and 1637. by the frequent use of this so-called _statenvertaling_ the language of holland obtained its vogue in all provinces on the point of religion, and many expressions, borrowed from that bible, were preserved in the native idiom. by the remarkable vicissitudes of these parts from the earliest time up to the moment when holland became an independent kingdom, during which alternately german elements under the bavarian counts and french influences under the burgundian princes were predominant, and also later in the 16th and 17th centuries elements from these languages were mixed with the language in common use. moreover, various words passed from the eastern languages into dutch by the colonial and commercial connexions, while at the same time many words were borrowed from latin, the language of the learned people, especially in the 16th century, and from french, under the influence of the poetic clubs of the 17th and 18th centuries. in the time of the rhetoricians, in the 16th century, and of coornhert, as well as in the days of bredero, hooft and vondel, we repeatedly find opposition against these foreign words, often successful, so that in 1650 vondel could say: "_onze spraak is sedert weinige jaren herwaart van bastaard-woorden en onduitsch allengs geschuimt._"[1] some people, e.g. hooft, went even so far as to make very clumsy versions of latin and french bastard words, handed down of old. under the influence of the club "_nil volentibus arduum_" and the predominant literary clubs of the 18th century, people became inclined towards expressing their thoughts as much as possible in pure dutch. therefore a large number of rules were given, with respect to prose as well as to poetry, in consequence of which the written language grew very stiff in choice of words and forms, and remains so till the latter half of the 19th century. the obtrusion of the french language during the reign of napoleon had no effect. but the subsequent union of holland and belgium strengthened the french element, especially in the higher ranks of society. king william i. had tried to make dutch more popular in belgium by a general teaching of the dutch language. when north and south were separated, the french became predominant in the south. only in the flemish provinces of belgium the people tried to preserve the native idiom and to do away with french words. these endeavours, called "de vlaamsche beweging", begun by f. v. willems, heremans and others in the south, were supported in the north by professor de vries at leiden. in order to get a pure dutch language, the idea of composing a general dutch dictionary was introduced. m. de vries and his partner l. te winkel, however, did not begin this task before having given a new formulation of the rules for spelling. these rules, deviating in many respects from the spelling then in vogue, introduced by siegenbeek in 1806, have been predominant up to the present moment. since 1891 dr r. a. kollewyn and dr f. buitenrust hettema have been engaged in trying to bring about a simplification in the spelling. as this simplification is not generally considered efficient, their principles are not yet generally adopted; see for instance c.h. den hertog, _waarom onaannemelyk?_ (groningen, 1893). excepting belgium (flanders, antwerp, brabant) the dutch language is heard outside holland in dutch east india and in the west indies. in east india pure dutch has been preserved, though some javanese and malay bastard words may have slipped in by the habit of speaking to the population in the malay tongue or in the native idiom. hence no indo-dutch was formed there. this is different in the west indies, where a great number of negro words and english words as well as english syntactical constructions have slipped in. in the 17th century a number of dutchmen, for the greater part from holland and zeeland, under jan van riebeek, had settled in south africa, in cape town, where the dutch navigation called into being a dutch port. in course of time they were joined there by french emigrants (most of them huguenots who left their country about 1688 and joined with other huguenots from holland in assuming the dutch language), perhaps also by portuguese and by malay people, who, together with the english who settled there and after 1820 became numerous in cape colony, mixed some peculiarities of their language with the dutch idioms. thus in the first half of the 18th century the language arose which is now called the south african dutch. since 1880 the present dutch language has became more frequently used in official writings, though with certain adaptations agreeably to the native idiom. in order to offer an example of the middle-dutch language beside the present language, we give here a single strophe from maerlant's _wapene martyn_, with a metrical translation in modern dutch from the pen of nikolaas beets (1880). god, diet al bi redene doet, | god, die het al met wijsheid doet, gaf dat wandel ertsche goet | gaf dit verganklijk aardsche goed der menschelt gemene, | den menschen in't gemeen, dattere mede ware gevoet, | op dat zij zouden zijn gevoed, ende gecleet, ende gescoet, | het lijf gekleed, geschoeid de voet ende leven soude rene. | en leven rein van zeen. nu es giericheit so verwoet, | maar zie nu hoe de hebzucht woedt dat elc settet sinen moet | dat iedereen in arren moed om al te hebbene allene. | 't al hebben wil alleen' hieromme stortmen menschenbloet, | hierom vergiet men menschenbloed hieromme stichtmen metter spoet | en bouwt met roekeloozen spoed borge ende hoge stene | burchtsloten, zwaar van steen, menegen te wene. | tot smart van menigeen. _a survey of the sounds used in dutch._--_the consonants._ as regards the consonants, dutch in the main does not differ from the other low german languages. the explosive _g_ and the _th_ are wanting. instead of the former there is a _g_ with "fricative" pronunciation, and as in high german the _th_ has passed over into _d_. the final consonants in middle dutch are sharpened, and the sharp sounds are graphically represented; in modern dutch, on the other hand, the historical development of the language being more distinctly kept in view, and the agreement observed with the inflexional forms, the soft consonant is written more frequently than it is sounded; thus we have middle dutch _dach_, modern dutch _dag_, in analogy with the plural _dagen_. the gutturals are _g_, _k_, _ch_ and _h_. _g_ is the soft spirant, not used in english. in middle dutch this letter was also indicated by _gh_. _k_ was pronounced like english _k_. in middle dutch _c_ was sometimes used instead of _k_; now this is no longer done. _ch_ (pronounced as german _ch_ without the _i_-sound, not as english _ch_) loses its sound when combined with _s_ to _sch_ at the end of a syllable, for instance, _vleesch_, but the _s_-sound is not purely dental as in _dans_. as an initial consonant _sch_ is nearly pronounced as _sg_ (_schip_, english ship); only in frisian and saxon dialects the old consonant _sk_ in _skip_, _skool_ is retained. _h_ has the same pronunciation as in english. the dentals are _d_ and _t_. the _d_ is formed by placing the point of the tongue against the upper teeth. at the end of a word _d_ is sharpened into _t_, but written _d_, for instance, _goed_, pronounced _gut_. in the idiom of the east of the netherlands final _d_ is preserved. when between two vowels after _oe_ (engl. _o_ in do), _o_, or _ui_, _d_ is not pronounced, though it is written. after it has been left out, a _j_-sound has developed between the two vowels, so, for instance, _goede_ became first _goe:e_ and then _goeje_. thus it is pronounced, though it is still spelled _goede_. after _ou d_ disappeared and _ou_ became _ouw_, for instance _koude > kouw_. _t_ has the same pronunciation as in english. in some dialects final _t_ is dropped, for instance, _heef_ for _heeft_, _nie_ for _niet_. _s_ has the pronunciation of english _s_ in sound, _z_ that of english _z_ in hazel; only in _zestig_ and _zeventig z_ has the pronunciation of _s_. the labials are _b_, _f_, _v_, _p_. at the beginning and in the body of a word _b_ has the same sound as in english. at the end of a word, when shortened from _bb_, followed by a vowel, it became _p_ in the pronunciation, so older _krabbe_ became _krabb_, _krab_ (the present spelling), which is now pronounced _krap_. _f_ has the same pronunciation as english _f_. in many cases older initial _f_ passed into _v_, hence most words which have _f_ in english have initial _v_ in dutch, for instance _vader_, _vol_, _vechten_. this _v_, initial and between vowels, has the pronunciation of english _v_ in lover. dutch _p_ is the same as english _p_, also the liquids and nasals. the _w_ in dutch is mostly labiodental; in the eastern parts before vowels bilabial pronunciation is heard. _vowels._--_a_ has in open syllables the sound of english _a_ in father, in closed syllables that of english _a_ in ass, but more open; when there is a clear sound in closed syllables the spelling is _aa_ (_jaar_), in open syllables _a_ (_maken_), pronounced as _a_ in ask; in _bad_, _nat_, _a=a_. an original short _a_ and a long _a_ in open syllables are even in middle dutch pronounced alike, and may be rhymed with each other (_dagen_, _lagen_, a rhyme which was not permitted in middle high german). in the saxon dialects _a_ was expressed by _ao_, _a_ or _a_ in the frisio-saxon districts passes into _e_ before _r_, as _jer_ (_jaar_). middle dutch preserved _a_ in several words where in modern dutch it passes into _e_ before _r_ (_arg_, _erg_; _sarc_, _zerk_; _warf_, _werf_); in others, as _aarde_, _staart_, _zwaard_, the middle dutch had _e_ and _a_ (_erde_, _stert_, _swert_, _swart_, _start_; modern dutch _zwaard_, _staart_). in foreign words, likewise, _e_ before _r_ has become _a_; _paars_, _perse_; _lantaarn_, _lanterne_ (in the dialects _e_ is still frequently retained). _e._ the sound of the _e_ derived from _a_ does not differ from that of an original _e_, or of an _e_ derived from _i_, as they appear in open syllables (_steden_, _vele_, pronounced as _a_ in english name). if the _e_ derived from _a_ or _i_ or the original _e_ occurs in closed syllables, it has a short sound, as in english men, end, modern dutch _stem_. the _e_ in closed syllables with a full sound (as english _a_; sweet, _ei_) is spelled _ee_: _veel_, _week_ (_e_ from _i_), _beek_. the sharp, clear _ee_ is indicated by the same letters in both open and closed syllables: _eer_, _sneeuw_, _zee_. in some dialects this _ee_ is pronounced like english _ee_, not only in the present dialects, but also in the 17th century. the pronunciation of _ei_ (from _ai_, or _eg_: _ag_, french _ai_, _ei_, _ee_) is that of english _i_, for instance, dutch _ei_, english egg, is pronounced like english _i_. _i_ is pronounced short (somewhat like _i_ of english pit), for instance in _pit_, _binden_, _sikkel_; it has a clear sound in _fabrikant_, though it has no stress. _ie_ is pronounced like english _ee_ in see, but somewhat shorter; so, _fabriek_, _fabrieken_, _pieter_; also in _bieden_, _stierf_, &c. for original long _i_, middle dutch _ii_ and _ij_, afterwards _y_, was used. this vowel, though still written _y_, is pronounced like english _i_ in i, like; so in _sysje_ (english siskin), _lyken_, &c. the letter _o_ represents three sounds:--(1) the short sharp _o_ and (2) the short soft _o_, the former like the _o_ in english not and french _soldat_ (dutch _bod_, _belofte_, _tocht_, _kolf_), the latter like the english _o_ in don, the french _o_ in _ballon_ (dutch _dof_, _ploffen_, _ochtend_, _vol_), and (3) the full, clear _o_ as in english note, french _noter_ (dutch _kolen_, _sloten_, _verloren_). the sharp clear _oo_, in _stroom_, _dood_, has almost the same sound as the full _o_, in some dialects (among others the saxon) it is pronounced as _o_ with a glide _o_, in others (flemish and hollandsch) somewhat like _au_. in middle dutch, the lengthening of the vowels was frequently indicated by _e_ (before _r_ sometimes by _i_, as in _oir_); hence _ae_ for _a_, _oe_ for _o_. where _oe_ occurs in the modern language, it has the sound of _u_ (pronounced like the _u_ in high german, and answering to the gothic _o_), which in middle dutch was frequently represented by _ou_. _oe_ is pronounced _ou_ (_au_; sweet, p. 6) in west flemish and the groningen dialects. before labials and gutturals _oe_ in middle dutch was expressed by _ue_ and _oe_ (_bouc_, _souken_, and also _guet_, but usually _goet_, _soeken_, _boec_). the saxon dialects still preserve an _o_ sound which agrees with the dutch _oe_ (_bok_, _moder_); in two words--_romer_ (_roemer_, however, is also used) and _spook_--_o_ has passed from these dialects into dutch. as the _u_ (old german _u_), which in the dutch tongue has passed into _ui_ except before _r_ and _w_, retains the _u_-sound in the saxon districts, some words have come into dutch from these dialects, being written with _oe_ from the similar sound of _oe_ (from _o_) in dutch and _u_ in saxon (_snoet_, _boer_, _soezen_), by the side of which are frankish words (_snuit_, _suizen_, &c.). in the language of the people _oe_ before _m_ is often pronounced as _o_, for instance _bloem_ and _blom_. _eu_ is not a diphthong, but the modification (_umlaut_) of the clear _o_; it has the same sound as german _o_ in _schon_; so in _vleugel_, _leugen_, _keuken_. _u_ before a double consonant or before a consonant in monosyllables has about the same pronunciation as in english stuff, rug; so in _kunnen_, _snurken_, _put_. when used in open syllables it has the same sound as in french _nature_. in the 16th and 17th centuries, middle dutch _u_ passed over through _oi_ into _ui_ by the influence of the holland dialect. in the saxon districts _u_ kept the old pronunciation, but only in the language of the peasants. the common language has everywhere _ui_, pronounced nearly as german _eu_, english _oy_; so in _duizend_, _vuil_, _buigen_, &c. _ou_ and _au_ in _vrouw_ and _blauw_ are nearly pronounced in the same way, very much like english _ow_ in crowd. authorities.--for a full survey of a history of the dutch language the reader is referred to jan te winkel, "geschichte der niederlandischen sprache," _grundriss der germ. philologie_, 2, p. 704 (strassburg, k. grubner). here an elaborate account may be found on p. 704 of the different works on the grammar and phonology of the various periods of the dutch language. for explanation and history of words of the current language see the _woordenboek der nederlandsche taal_, by de vries and te winkel, continued by a. kluyver, a. beets, for a time by j.w. muller and de vreese, who left at their nomination as professors at utrecht and ghent. the middle dutch language may be known from the _middelnederlandsch woordenboek_, first by e. verwys and j. verdam, after the death of verwys by verdam alone. for the dialects the different grammars and glossaries issued at martinus nyhoff (the hague) and kemink & son (utrecht) are of great importance. the flemish dialect may be found in de bo, _westvlaamsch idioticon_; other belgian dialects are recorded in the publications of the _vlaamsche academie_ (ghent). phonetic explanations are given in roorda's or in ten bruggencate's _phonetic works_, and a survey of the pronunciation in branco van dantzig's _dutch pronunciation_ and dykstra's _dutch grammar_. (j. h. g.) footnote: [1] i.e. "within a few years our language has been gradually skimmed of bastard words and non-dutch elements." dutch literature. the languages now known as dutch and flemish did not begin to take distinct shape till about the end of the 11th century. from a few existing fragments--two incantations from the 8th century, a version of the psalms from the 9th century, and several charters--a supposed old dutch language has been recognized; but dutch literature actually commences in the 13th century, as middle dutch, the creation of the first national movement in brabant, flanders, holland and zealand. willem the minstrel. from the wreck of frankish anarchy no genuine folk-tales of dutch antiquity have come down to us, and scarcely any echoes of german myth. on the other hand, the sagas of charlemagne and arthur appear immediately in middle dutch forms. these were evidently introduced by wandering minstrels and jongleurs, and translated to gratify the curiosity of the noble women. it is rarely that the name of such a translator has reached us, but we happen to know that the fragments we possess of the french romance of _william of orange_ were written in dutch by a certain klaas van haarlem, between 1191 and 1217. the _chanson de roland_ was translated about the same time, and considerably later _parthenopeus de blois_. the flemish minstrel diederic van assenede completed his version of _floris et blanchefleur_ about 1250. the arthurian legends appear to have been brought to flanders by some flemish colonists in wales, on their return to their mother-country. about 1250 a brabantine minstrel translated walter map's _lancelot du lac_ at the command of his liege, lodewijk van velthem. the _gauvain_ was translated by penninc and vostaert before 1260, while the first original dutch writer, the famous jakob van maerlant, occupied himself about 1260 with several romances dealing with merlin and the holy grail. the earliest existing fragments of the epic of _reynard the fox_ were written in latin by flemish priests, and about 1250 the first part of a very important version in dutch was made by willem the minstrel, of whom it is unfortunate that we know no more save that he was the translator of a lost romance, _madoc_. in his existing work the author follows pierre de saint-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. john i., duke of brabant. it is not necessary to dwell at any length on the monkish legends and the hymns to the virgin mary which were abundantly produced during the 13th century, and which, though destitute of all literary merit, were of use as exercises in the infancy of the language. the first lyrical writer of holland was john i., duke of brabant, who practised the _minnelied_ with success, but whose songs are only known to us through a swabian version of a few of them. in 1544 the earliest collection of dutch folk-songs saw the light, and in this volume one or two romances of the 14th century are preserved, of which _het daghet in den oosten_ is the best known. almost the earliest fragment of dutch popular poetry, but of later time, is an historical ballad describing the murder of count floris v. in 1296. a very curious collection of mystical medieval hymns by sister hadewych, a nun of brabant, was first printed in 1875 by heremans and ledeganck. maerlant. boendale. weert. stoke. hitherto, as we have seen, the middle dutch language had placed itself at the service of the aristocratic and monastic orders, flattering the traditions of chivalry and of religion, but scarcely finding anything to say to the bulk of the population. with the close of the 13th century a change came over the face of dutch literature. the flemish towns began to prosper and to assert their commercial supremacy over the north sea. under such mild rulers as william ii. and floris v., dort, amsterdam, and other cities contrived to win such privileges as amounted almost to political independence, and with this liberty there arose a new sort of literary expression. the founder and creator of this original dutch literature was jacob van maerlant (q.v.). his _naturen bloeme_, written about 1263, forms an epoch in dutch literature; it is a collection of moral and satirical addresses to all classes of society. with his _rijmbijbel_ (rhyming bible) he foreshadowed the courage and free-thought of the reformation. it was not until 1284 that he began his masterpiece, _de spieghel historiael_ (the mirror of history), at the command of count floris v. of his disciples, the most considerable in south holland was jan van boendale (1280-1365), known as jan de klerk. he was born in brabant, and became clerk to the justices at antwerp in 1310. he was entrusted with various important missions. his works are historical and moral in character. in him the last trace of the old chivalric and romantic element has disappeared. he completed his famous rhyme chronicle, the _brabantsche yeesten_, in 1350; it contains the history of brabant down to that date, and was brought down to 1440 by an anonymous later writer. for english readers it is disappointing that boendale's other great historical work (_van den derden edewaert, coninc van ingelant ..._, ed. j.f. willems, ghent, 1840), an account of edward iii. and his expedition to flanders in 1338, has survived only in some fragments. the remainder of boendale's works are didactic poems, pursuing still further the moral thread first taken up by maerlant, and founded on medieval scholastic literature. in ypres the school of maerlant was represented by jan de weert, a surgeon, who died in 1362, and who was the author of two remarkable works of moral satire and exhortation, the _nieuwe doctrinael of spieghel der sonden_, and a _disputacie van rogier end van janne_. in the beginning of the 13th century gielijs van molhem wrote a dutch version of part of the _miserere_ of the 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 man, and on the sins of pride, envy, &c. the translation, completed later by an author calling himself heinrec, was critically edited (groningen, 1893) by p. leendertz. in north holland a greater talent than that of weert or of boendale was exhibited by melis stoke, a monk of egmond, who wrote the history of the state of holland to the year 1305; this work, the _rijmkronik_, was printed in 1591, and edited in 1885 for the utrecht historical society; and for its exactitude and minute detail it has proved of inestimable service to later historians. heelu. aken. dirk potter. with the middle of the 14th century the chivalric spirit came once more into fashion. a certain revival of the forms of feudal life made its appearance under william iii. and his successors. knightly romances came once more into vogue, but the newborn 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[1] on the battle of woeronc (1288), dedicated to princess margaret of england, and to him has been attributed the still finer romance of the _war of grimbergen_.[2] still more thoroughly aristocratic in feeling was hein van aken, a priest of louvain, who lived about 1255-1330, and who combined to a very curious extent the romantic and didactic elements. as early as 1280 he had completed his translation[3] of the _roman de la rose_, which he must have commenced in the lifetime of jean de meung. more remarkable than any of his translated works, however, is his original romance, completed in 1318, _heinric en margriete van limborch_,[4] upon which he was at work for twenty-seven years. during the bavarian period (1349-1433) very little original 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 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 northern poet, of a more strictly political cast. many of his writings exist still unpublished, and are very rough in style and wanting in form. towards the end of the 14th century an erotic poet of considerable power arose in the person of the lord of waddinxsveen and hubrechtsambacht, dirk potter van der loo (c. 1365-1428), who was secretary at the court of the counts of holland. during an embassy in rome (1411-1412) this eminent diplomatist made himself acquainted with the writings of 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 philosophy. in dirk potter the last traces of the chivalric element died out of dutch literature, and 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 wolfenbuttel library was edited by hoffmann von fallersleben in _horae belgicae_ (vol. xi., 1855). religious drama. it is now time to consider the growth of prose literature in the low countries. the 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 _life of jesus_ about the same date. of the mystical preachers whose religious writings have reached us, the brussels friar, jan van ruysbroec (1294-1381), is the most important. but the most interesting 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 simple language. as in most european nations, the religious drama takes a prominent place in every survey of medieval literature in holland. unfortunately the text of all the earliest mysteries, the language of which would have an extraordinary interest for us, has been lost. we possess records of dramas having been played at various places--_our lord's resurrection_, at the hague, in 1400; _our lady the virgin_, at arnheim, in 1452; and _the three kings_, at delft, in 1498. the earliest existing fragment, however, is part of a _limburg-maastricht passover play_[6] of about 1360. the latest dutch miracle play was the _mystery of the holy sacrament_, composed by a certain smeken, at breda, and performed on st john's day, 1500. this play was printed in 1867. 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 genius for low comedy which was afterwards to take perfect form in the dramas of brederoo and the paintings of teniers. chambers of rhetoric. the theatrical companies just alluded to, "gesellen van den spele," formed the germ out of which developed the famous "chambers of rhetoric"[7] which united within themselves all the literary movements that occupied the low countries during the 15th and 16th centuries. the poets of holland had already discovered in late medieval times the value of gilds in promoting the arts and industrial handicrafts. the term "colleges de rhetorique" is supposed to have been introduced about 1440 to the courtiers of the burgundian dynasty, but the institutions themselves existed 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 renaissance and the reformation obliged them to modify in some degree their outward forms. they were in almost all cases absolutely middle-class in 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 process of time every town in the low countries, possessed one, and took as its title some fanciful or heraldic sign. at diest "the eyes of christ," dated from 1302, and an earlier one, the "lily," is mentioned. "the alpha and omega," at ypres, was founded about 1398; that of the "violet," at antwerp, followed in 1400; the "book," at brussels, in 1401; the "berberry," at courtrai, in 1427; the "holy ghost," at bruges, in 1428; the "floweret jesse," at middelburg, in 1430; the "oak tree," at vlaardingen, in 1433; and the "marigold," at gouda, in 1437. the most celebrated of all the chambers, that of the "eglantine" at amsterdam, with its motto _in liefde bloeyende_ (blossoming in love), was not instituted until 1496. among the most influential chambers not above mentioned should be included the "fountain" at dort, the "corn flower" at the hague, the "white columbine" at leiden, the "blue columbine" at rotterdam, the "red rose" at schiedam, the "thistle" at zierikzee, "jesus with the balsam" at ghent, and the "garland of mary" at brussels. and not in these important places only, but in almost every little town, the rhetoricians exerted their influence, mainly in what we may call a social direction. their 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 15th century the ghent chamber of "jesus with the balsam" began to exercise a sovereign power over the other flemish chambers, which was emulated later on in holland by the "eglantine" at amsterdam. but this official recognition proved of no consequence 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 money at the arrangement of ecclesiastical or political pageants. their pompous _landjuweelen_, or tournaments of rhetoric, at which 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 in 1496, in which 28 chambers took part, but the gayest of all was that celebrated at antwerp on the 3rd of august 1561. to this the "book" at brussels sent 340 members, all on horseback, and clad in crimson mantles. the town of antwerp gave a ton of gold to be given in prizes, which were shared among 1893 rhetoricians. this was the zenith of the splendour of the "kamers van rhetorica," and after this time they soon fell into disfavour. we can trace the progress of literary 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 age of humanism introduced upon the stage the names without much of the spirit of 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 laurens janssen of haarlem. the material of these farces is extremely raw, consisting of rough jests at the expense of priests and foolish husbands, silly old men and their light wives. laurens janssen is also deserving of remembrance for a satire against the 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 "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 harlequin _tours de force_ had not been performed in a dialect debased with all the worst bastard phrases of the burgundian period. houwaert. in the middle of the 16th century a group of rhetoricians in brabant and flanders attempted to put a little new life into the stereotyped forms of the preceding age by introducing in original composition the new-found branches of latin and greek poetry. the leader of these men was jean baptista houwaert[8] (1533-1599), a personage of considerable political influence in his generation. houwaert held the title of "counsellor and master in ordinary of the exchequer to the dukedom of brabant"; he played a prominent part in the revolution of the low countries against spain; and when the prince of orange entered brussels victoriously (sept. 23rd, 1577), houwaert met him in pomp at the 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 honour of the cardinal-archduke ernest of austria, the governor of the spanish netherlands. he considered himself a devout disciple of matthijs de casteleyn, but his great characteristic was his unbounded love of classical and mythological fancy. his didactic poems are composed in a wonderfully rococo style, and swarm with misplaced latinities. in his bastard burgundian tongue he boasted of having "poetelijck geinventeert ende rhetorijckelijck ghecomponeert" for the brussels chamber such dramas as _aeneas and dido_, _mars and venus_, _narcissus and echo_, or _leander and hero_--named together the _commerce of amorosity_ (1583). but of all his writings, _pegasides pleyn_ (antwerp, 1582-1583), or the 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 homer of brabant"; later criticism has preferred to see in him an important link in that chain of homely didactic dutch which ends in cats. his writings are composed in a burgundian so base that they hardly belong to flemish literature at all. into the same miserable dialect cornelis van ghistele of antwerp translated, between 1555 and 1583, parts of terence, virgil, horace, and ovid, while the painter karel van mander (1547-1609) put a french version of the _iliad_ and of the _eclogues_ of virgil into an equally ill-fitting flemish dress. in no country of europe did the humanism of the 16th century at first affect the national literature so slightly or to so little purpose. psalms and hymns. battle-songs. the stir and revival of intellectual life that arrived with the reformation found its first expression in the composition of 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, by whose name it is usually known. this collection, however, was made before the reformation in holland really set in. for the protestant congregations jan utenhove printed a volume of psalms in london in 1566; lucas de heere (1534-1585), and immediately after him, with much greater success, petrus datheen (1531-1590), translated the hymns of clement marot. for printing this last volume, in 1567, herman schinkel of delft was burned to 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 people. until 1773 they were in constant use in the state church of holland. but the great events of the period of reformation are not marked by psalms only in dutch literature. two collections of hymns and lyrical pieces, printed in 1562 and 1569, perpetuate the fervour and despair of the martyrs of the mennonite church. similar utterances of the persecuted protestants were published at haarlem and leeuwarden, at ghent and at bruges. very different in tone were the battle-songs of liberty and triumph sung a generation later by the victorious reformers, the "geuzen" or "gueux" (q.v.). the famous song-book of 1588, the _geusen lieden boecxken_, was full of ardent and heroic sentiment, expressed often in marvellously brilliant phrases. in this collection appeared for the first time such classical snatches of dutch song as the ballad of heiligerlee, the ballad of egmond and horn, and the song of the storm of leiden. the political ballads, with their ridicule of the spanish leaders, form a section of the _boecxken_ which has proved of inestimable value to historians. all these lyrics, however, whether of victory or of martyrdom, are still very rough in form and language. anna bijns. the first writer who used the dutch tongue with grace and precision of style was a woman and a professed opponent of lutheranism and reformed thought. modern dutch literature practically begins with anna bijns (c. 1494-1575). against the crowd of rhetoricians and psalm-makers of the early part of the 16th century she stands out in 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. anna bijns, who is believed to have been born at antwerp in 1494, was a schoolmistress at that city in her middle life, and in old age she still "instructed youth in the catholic religion." she died on the 10th of 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 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 lay nun, and she certainly occupied a position of great honour and influence at antwerp. she was named "the sappho of brabant" and the "princess of all rhetoricians." she bent the powerful weapon of her verse against the faith and character of luther. in her volume of 1528 the lutherans are scarcely mentioned; in that of 1538 every page is occupied with invectives against them; while the third volume of 1567 is the voice of one from whom her age has passed. all the poems of anna bijns which we possess are called _refereinen_ or refrains.[9] 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 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 that modern speech which filips van marnix adopted and made classical in the next generation. marnix. 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 as a disciple of calvin and beza in the schools of geneva. it was as a defender of the dutch iconoclasts that he first appeared in print, with his tract on _the images thrown down in holland in august 1566_. he soon became one of the leading 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 rabelais, of whom he was an intelligent disciple. it is written in prose that may be said to mark an epoch in the language and literature of holland. overwhelmed with the press of public business, marnix wrote little more until in 1580 he published his _psalms of david newly translated out of the hebrew tongue_. he occupied the last years of his life in preparing a dutch version of the bible, translated direct from the original. at his death only genesis was found completely revised; but in 1619 the synod of dort placed the unfinished work in the hands of four divines, who completed it. coornhert. in dirck volckertsen coornhert[10] (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 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 notary, secretary and finally 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 art of etching, and spent all his spare time in the pursuit of classical learning. he was nearly forty years of age before he made any practical use of his attainments. in 1561 he printed his translation of the _de officiis_ of cicero, and in 1562 of the _de beneficiis_ of 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 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 attention to his original masterpiece, the _zedekunst_ (1586), or art of ethics, a philosophical treatise in prose, in which he studied to adapt the dutch tongue to the grace and simplicity of montaigne's french. his humanism unites the bible, plutarch and marcus aurelius in one grand system of ethics, and is expressed in a style remarkable for brightness and purity. he died at gouda on the 29th of october 1590; his works, in three enormous folio volumes, were first collected in 1630. amsterdam the centre of letters. 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 flanders, the "white lavender" and the "fig tree," took flight from the south, and settled themselves in amsterdam by the side of the "eglantine." the last-named institution had already observed the new tendency of the age, and was prepared to encourage intellectual reform of every kind, and its influence spread through holland and zealand. in flanders, meanwhile, crushed under the yoke of parma, literature and native thought absolutely expired. from this time forward, and until the emancipation of the southern provinces, the domain of our inquiry is confined to the district north of the scheldt. spieghel. roemer visscher. in the chamber of the eglantine at amsterdam two men took a very prominent place, more by their intelligence and modern spirit than by their original genius. hendrick laurenssen 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 chief contributions to literature were his _tweespraeck van de nederduytsche letterkunst_, a philological exhortation, in the manner of 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),[11] 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 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. roemer pieterssen visscher[12] (1547-1620) proceeded a step further than 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 antique than any that had previously been known in holland. his own disciples called him the dutch martial, but he was at best little more than an amateur in poetry, although an amateur whose function it was to perceive and encourage the genius of professional writers. roemer visscher stands at the threshold of the new renaissance literature, himself practising the faded arts of the rhetoricians, but pointing by his counsel and his conversation to the naturalism of the great period. the renaissance. it was in the salon at amsterdam which the beautiful daughters of roemer visscher formed around their father and themselves that the new school began to take form. the republic of the united provinces, with amsterdam at its head, had suddenly risen to the first 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 painting and poetry. the intellect of the whole low countries was concentrated in holland and zealand, while the six great universities, leiden, groningen, utrecht, amsterdam, harderwijk and franeker, were enriched by a 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 drusius, vossius and hugo 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, hooft, cats, huygens--in whose hands the language, so long left barbarous and neglected, took at once its highest finish and melody. by the side of this serious and aesthetic growth there is to be noticed a quickening of the broad and farcical humour which had been characteristic of the dutch nation from its commencement. for fifty years, and these the most glorious in the 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 harvest of great works. it was in the house of the daughters of roemer visscher that the tragedies of vondel and the comedies of bredero, the farces of coster and the odes of huygens, alike found their first admirers and their best critics. roemer visscher's daughters. of the famous daughters of roemer, two cultivated literature with marked success. anna (1584-1651) was the author of a descriptive and didactic poem, _de roemster van den aemstel_ (the glory of the aemstel), and of various miscellaneous writings; tesselschade (1594-1649) wrote some lyrics which still place her at the head of the female poets of holland, and she translated the great poem of tasso. they were women of universal accomplishment, graceful manners and singular beauty; and their 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. hooft. of this amsterdam school, the first to emerge into public notice was pieter cornelissen hooft (1581-1647). his _achilles and polyxena_ (1598) displayed a precocious ease in the use of rhetorical artifices of style. in his pastoral drama of _granida_ (1605) he proved himself a pupil of guarini. in tragedy he produced _baeto_ and _geraad van velsen_; in history he published in 1626 his _life of henry the great_, while from 1628 to 1642 he was engaged upon his master-work, the _history of holland_. hooft desired to be a severe purist in style, and to a great extent he succeeded, but, like most of the writers of his age, he permitted himself too many latinisms. in his poetry, especially in the lyrical and pastoral verse of his youth, he is full of italian reminiscences both of style and matter; in his noble prose work he has set himself to be a disciple of tacitus. motley has spoken of hooft as one of the greatest historians, not merely of holland, but of europe. his influence in purifying the language of his country, and in enlarging its sphere of experience, can hardly be overrated. bredero. very different from the long and prosperous career of hooft was the brief, painful life of the greatest comic dramatist that holland has produced. gerbrand adriaanssen bredero[13] (1585-1618), the son of an amsterdam shoemaker, was born on the 16th of march 1585. he knew no latin; he had no taste for humanism; he was a simple growth of the rich humour of the people. he entered the workshop of the painter francisco badens, but accomplished little in art. his life was embittered by a hopeless love for tesselschade, to whom he dedicated his dramas, and whose beauty he celebrated in a whole cycle of love songs. his ideas on the subject of drama were at first a mere development of the medieval "abelespelen." the "oude kammer," one of the chambers of rhetoric, furnished an opening for his dramatic powers. he commenced by dramatizing the romance of _roderick and alphonsus_, in 1611, and _griane_ in 1612, but in the latter year he struck out a new and more characteristic path in his _farce of the cow_. from this time until his death he continued to pour out comedies, farces and romantic dramas, in all of which he displayed a coarse, rough genius not unlike that of ben jonson, whose immediate contemporary he was. his last and best piece was _jerolimo, the spanish brabanter_, a satire upon the exiles from the south who filled the halls of the amsterdam chambers of rhetoric with their pompous speeches and preposterous burgundian phraseology. the piece was based on a dutch version (delft, 1609) of an early spanish picaresque romance, _la vida de lazarillo de tormes_ (burgos, 1554). bredero was closely allied in genius to the dramatists of the shakespearian age, but he founded no school, and stands almost as a solitary figure in the literature of holland. he died on the 23rd of august 1618. theodore rodenburg (d. 1644), ridiculed by bredero for his pretentiousness, had a wider knowledge of contemporary foreign literature than the other dramatists. he adapted some of the dramas of lope de vega, which he had witnessed at madrid, into dutch, and in 1618 he adapted cyril tourneur's _revenger's tragedy_. coster. the only individual at all clearly connected with bredero in talent was dr samuel coster,[14] who was born at amsterdam on the 16th of september 1579. he studied medicine at leiden, and practised at amsterdam. he is chiefly remembered for having been the first to take advantage of the growing dissension in the body of the old chamber of the eglantine to form a new institution. in 1617 coster founded what he called the "first dutch academy." this was in fact a 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 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 order of composition in direct emulation of bredero, but with less talent. in 1615 he began a series of "blood-and-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. vondel. the first work of the greatest of all dutch writers, joost van den vondel (1587-1679), was _het pascha_ (1612), a tragedy or tragi-comedy on the exodus of the children of israel, written, like all his succeeding dramas, on the recognized dutch 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 hooft; but it secured the young poet a position inferior only to theirs. yet for a number of years he made no 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 short and brilliant life of bredero, his immediate contemporary and greatest rival, burned itself out in a 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 _jerusalem laid desolate_. five years later, in 1625, he published what seemed an innocent study from the antique, his tragedy of _palamedes, or murdered innocence_. all amsterdam discovered, with smothered delight, that under the name of the hero was thinly concealed the figure of barneveldt, whose execution in 1618 had been a triumph of the hated calvinists. thus, at the age of forty-one, the obscure vondel became in a week the most famous writer in holland. for the next twelve years, and till the accession of prince frederick henry, vondel had to maintain a hand-to-hand combat with the "saints of dort." this was the period of his most resolute and stinging satires; cats took up the cudgels on behalf of the counter-remonstrants, and there raged a war of 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 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 night; on the 3rd of 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 general reader will obtain the best idea if we point to the _athalie_ of racine. in 1654, having already attained an age at which poetical production is usually discontinued by the most energetic of poets, he brought out the most exalted and sublime of all his works, the tragedy of _lucifer_. very late in life, through no fault of his own, financial ruin fell on the aged poet, and from 1658 to 1668--that is, from his seventieth to his eightieth year--this venerable and illustrious person, the main literary glory of holland through her whole history, was forced to earn his bread as a common clerk in a 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 pension, and the wonderful old man went on writing odes and tragedies almost to his ninetieth year. he died at last in 1679, of no disease, having outlived all his contemporaries and almost all his friends, but calm, sane and good-humoured to the last, serenely conscious of the legacy he left to a not too grateful country. vondel is the typical example of dutch intelligence and imagination at their highest development. not merely is he to holland all that camoens is to portugal and mickiewicz to poland, but he stands on a level with these men in the positive value of his writings. starter. lyrical art was represented on its more spontaneous side by the songs and ballads of jan janssen starter (b. 1594), an englishman by birth, who was brought to amsterdam 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 leeuwarden, in 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 shakespeare's _much 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 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. cats. while the genius of holland clustered around the circle of amsterdam, a school of scarcely less brilliance arose in middelburg, the capital of zealand. the ruling spirit of 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 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 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 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 translations from virgil, ovid, seneca, terence and juvenal, besides original poems. the jesuit adriaen poirters (1606-1675) closely followed cats in his remarkable _masquer of the world_. a poet of amsterdam, jan hermansz krul (1602-1644), preferred to follow the southern fashion, and wrote didactic pieces in the catsian manner. huygens. a poet of dignified imagination and versatile form was sir constantijn huygens (1596-1687), the diplomatist. he threw in his lot with the great school of amsterdam, and became the intimate friend and companion of vondel, hooft and the daughters of roemer visscher. his famous poem in praise of the hague, _batava 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 sex_, were printed in 1625. _oogentroost_, or eye consolation, was the fantastic title of a remarkable poem dedicated in 1647 to his blind friend, lucretia van trello. he printed in 1654 a topographical piece describing his own mansion, _hofwijck_. huygens represents the direction in which it would have been desirable that dutch literature, now completely founded by hooft 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 hooft or of the sublimity of vondel, but his genius was eminently 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 sound judgment. a blind admiration for john 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 personal recommendation of having been "one of the most lovable men that ever lived." bekker. three dutchmen of the 17th century distinguished themselves very prominently in the movement of learning and philosophic thought, but the illustrious names of hugo grotius (1583-1645) and of baruch 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 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 code for witchcraft. vos. brandt. goes. anslo. oudaen. luiken. from 1600 to 1650 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 shadow of vondel, cats and huygens there sprang up a new generation which sustained the great tradition until about 1680, when the final decline set in. jan vos (d. 1667) gained one illustrious success with his tragedy of _aaron and titus_ in 1641, and lost still more in 1642 by his obscene farce of _oene_. his second tragedy of _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 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 (1647-1684) followed vos as a skilful imitator of vondel's tragical manner. his 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 unfinished an epic poem on the life of st. paul. reyer anslo (1626-1669) marks the decline of taste and vigour; his once famous descriptive epic, _the plague at naples_, is singularly tame and rococo in style. joachim oudaen (1628-1692) wrote in his youth two promising tragedies, _johanna gray_ (1648) and _konradyn_ (1649). the amsterdam section of the school of cats produced jeremias de decker (1609-1666), author of _the praise of avarice_, a satirical poem in imitation of erasmus, and joannes vollenhove (1631-1708), voluminous writers of didactic verse. the engraver jan luiken (1649-1708) published in 1671 a very remarkable volume of poems. in lyrical poetry starter had a single disciple, 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. heemskerk. heinsius. meanwhile the romantic and voluminous romances of the french school of scudery and honore d'urfe had invaded holland and become fashionable. johan van heemskerk (1597-1656), a councillor of the hague, set himself 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 journey from the hague to katwijk, and undergo all sorts of romantic adventures. this book was extremely popular, and was imitated by hendrik zoeteboom in his _zaanlandsche arcadia_ (1658), and by lambertus bos in his _dordtsche arcadia_ (1662). a far more spirited and original romance is the _mirandor_ (1675) of nikolaes heinsius the younger (b. 1655), a book which resembles _gil blas_, and precedes it. gallican dramatists. the drama fell into gallicized hands at the death of vondel and his immediate disciples. lodewijck meijer translated corneille, and brought out his plays on the stage at amsterdam, where he was manager of the national theatre or schouwburg after jan vos. in connexion with andries pels (d. 1681), author of the tragedy of _dido's death_, meijer constructed a dramatic club, entitled "nil volentibus arduum," the great object of which was to inflict the french taste upon the public. pels furthermore came forward as the 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 farquhar and shadwell. thomas asselijn (1630-1695) was a writer of more considerable talent and more homely instincts. he attempted to resist the dictatorship of pels, and to follow the national tradition of bredero. he is the creator of the characteristic dutch type, the comic lover, jan klaaszen, whom he presented on the stage in a series of ridiculous situations. abraham alewijn (b. 1664), author of _jan los_ (1721), possessed a coarse vein of dramatic humour; he lived in java, and his plays were produced in batavia. finally pieter langendijk, the author of a farce borrowed from _don quixote_, claims notice among the dramatists of this period, although he lived from 1683 to 1756, and properly belongs to the next century. with him the tradition of native comedy expired. decline of poetry. the augustan period of poetry in holland was even more blank and dull than in the other countries of northern europe. of the name preserved in the history of literature there are but very few that call for repetition here. arnold hoogvliet (1687-1763) wrote a passable poem in honour of the town of vlaardingen, and a terrible biblical epic, in the manner of blackmore, on the history of abraham. hubert cornelissen poot (1680-1733) showed an unusual love of nature and freshness of observation in his descriptive pieces. sybrand feitama (1694-1758), who translated 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 singer of rotterdam. tragic drama was more or less capably represented by lucretia wilhelmina van merken (1722-1789), wife of the very dreary dramatist nicholaas simon van winter (1718-1795). van effen. in the midst of this complete dissolution of poetical style, a writer arose who revived an interest in literature, and gave to dutch prose the classical grace of the 18th century. justus van effen[15] (1684-1735) was born at utrecht, 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 journal. coming to london just when the _tatler_ and _spectator_ were in their first vogue, van effen studied addison deeply, translated swift and defoe into french, and finally determined to 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 brothers van haren. baroness de lannoy. bellamy. 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 brothers van haren,[16] so honourably known as diplomatists in the history of the netherlands. willem van haren (1710-1768) wrote verses from his earliest youth, while onno zwier van haren (1713-1779), strangely enough, did not begin to do so until he had passed middle life. they were friends of voltaire, and they were both ambitious of success in epic writing, as understood in france at that period. willem published in 1741 his _gevallen van friso_, a historical epos, and a long series of odes and solemn lyrical pieces. onno, in a somewhat lighter strain, wrote _piet and agnietje, or pandora's box_, and a long series of tragedies in the manner of voltaire. the baroness juliana cornelia de lannoy (1738-1782) was a writer of considerable talent, also of the school of voltaire; her poems were highly esteemed by bilderdijk, and she has a neatness of touch and clearness of penetration that give vivacity to her studies of social life. jakobus bellamy (1757-1786) was the son of a swiss baker at flushing; his pompous odes (_gezangen myner jeugd_, 1782; _vaderlandsche gezangen_, 1782) struck the final 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 ladies wolff and deken. the year 1777 has been mentioned as the turning-point in the history of letters in the netherlands. it was in that year that elizabeth (betjen) wolff[17] (1738-1804), a widow lady in amsterdam, persuaded her friend agatha (aagjen) deken (1741-1804), a poor but extremely intelligent governess, to throw up her situation and live with her. for nearly thirty years these women continued together, writing in combination, and when the elder friend died on the 5th of november 1804, her companion survived her only nine days. madam wolff had appeared as a poetess so early as 1762, and again in 1769 and 1772, but her talent in verse was by no means very remarkable. but when the friends, in the third year of their association, published their _letters on divers subjects_, it was plainly seen that in prose their talent was very remarkable indeed. since the appearance of heinsius's _mirandor_ more than a century had passed without any fresh start in novel-writing being made in holland. in 1782 the ladies wolff and deken, inspired partly by contemporary english writers, and partly by goethe, published their first novel, _sara burgerhar_. in spite of the close and obvious following of richardson, this was a masterly production, and it was enthusiastically received. another novel, _willem leevend_, followed in 1785, and _cornelia wildschut_ in 1792. the ladies were residing in france at the breaking out of the revolution, and they escaped the guillotine with difficulty. after this they wrote no more, having secured for themselves by their three unrivalled romances a place among the foremost writers of their country. nieuwland. the last years of the 18th century were marked in holland by a general revival of intellectual force. the romantic movement in germany made itself deeply felt in all branches of dutch literature, and german lyricism took the 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 chance of directing the transition that he saw to be inevitable. one volume of poems appeared in 1788, and a second, posthumously, in 1797. bilderdijk. the real precursor and creator of a new epoch in letters was the famous willem bilderdijk (1756-1831) (q.v.). this remarkable man, whose force of character was even greater than his genius, impressed his 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 puerilities of shakespeare." his early love-songs, collected in 1781 and 1785, gave little promise of talent, but in his epic of _elias_ in 1786, he showed himself superior to all the dutch poets since huygens in mastery of form. for twenty years he lived a busy, 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 1808 he imitated pope's _essay on man_, and published the tragedy of _floris v._, and in 1809 commenced the work which he designed to be his masterpiece, 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 1820. 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 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 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 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 gessner and blair. van alphen at one time was extolled as a writer of verses for children, but neither in this nor in the elegiac line did he possess nearly so much talent as rhijnvis feith (1753-1824), burgomaster of 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 office was performed with more dignity and less vivacity by baron w.e. van perponcher (1741-1819), but feith continued to hold the popular ear, and achieved an immense success with his poem _the 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 klopstock, and as p. de wacker van zon (1758-1818), who, in a series of very readable novels issued under the pseudonym of bruno daalberg, sharply ridiculed the sentimental and funereal school. van der palm. loots. helmers. under the batavian republic a historian of great genius arose in the person of johannes henricus van der palm (1763-1840), whose brilliant and patriotic _gedenkschrift van nederlands herstelling_ (1816) has somewhat obscured 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 helmers (1767-1813). loots, in his _batavians of the time of caesar_ (1805), read his countrymen a lesson in patriotism, which helmers far exceeded in originality and force by his _dutch nation_ in 1812. neither of these poets, however, had sufficient art to render their pieces classical, or, indeed, 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 hall (1768-1858), samuel iperuszoon wiselius (1769-1845) and jan ten brink (1771-1839), the second of whom immortalized himself and won the favour of bilderdijk by ridiculing the pretensions of such frivolous tragedians as shakespeare and schiller. loosjes. the healthy and national spirit in which the ladies wolff and deken had written was adopted with great spirit by a novelist in the next generation, adriaan loosjes (1761-1818), a bookseller at haarlem. his romantic stories of medieval life, especially his _charlotte van bourbon_, are curiously like shadows cast forward by the waverley novels, but he has little of sir walter scott's historical truth of 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 jacoba de neufville (1775-1856), author of _little duties_, an excellent story somewhat in the manner of mrs opie. tollens. messchert. bogaers. staring. a remarkable poet whose romantic genius strove to combine the power of bilderdijk with the sweetness of feith was hendrik 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 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 inspiration was natural and abundant, and he thoroughly deserved the popularity with which his patriotic ballads were rewarded. willem messchert (1790-1844), a friend and follower of tollens, pushed the domestic and familiar tone of the latter to a still further point, especially in his genre poem of the _golden wedding_, 1825. both these writers were natives and residents of rotterdam, which also claims the honour of being the birthplace of 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 gift of poetry than that clamorous writer, and is slowly taking a higher position in dutch literature as bilderdijk comes to take a 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 byron and heine. still more beautiful was his _voyage of heemskerk to 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 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. 19th century influences. after 1830 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 showed themselves cognizant of the newest shades of opinion, and freely ventilated their ideas. the language resisted the pressure of german from the outside, and from within broke through its long stagnation and enriched itself, as a 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 branch of literature. the vast labours of jakobus van 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. van der hage (1806-1854), who wrote under the pseudonym of jan frederick oltmans, was the author of the famous novels, _castle loevenstein in 1570_ (1834), and _the shepherd_ (1838), both dealing with the national history. other popular works were the antique romance _charikles and euphorion_ (1831) of petrus van limburg-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'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 potgieter (1808-1875) its mystical philosopher and esoteric lyrical poet. the genius and influence of potgieter were very considerable, but they were exceeded by the gifts of nicolaes beets (q.v.), author of the famous _camera obscura_ (1836), a masterpiece of humour and character. johannes pieter hasebroek (1812-1896), who has been called the dutch charles lamb, wrote in 1840 an admirable collection of essays entitled _truth and dreams_. willem hofdijk (1816-1888) wrote a collection of ballads, _kennemerland_ (1849-1852), and a series of epic and dramatic poems in the romantic style. bernard ter haar (1806-1881), an amsterdam pastor and, in the last year of his life, a professor at utrecht, made a reputation as a poet by his _johannes and theagenes, a legend of apostolic times_ (1838). his poems were collected in 1866 and 1879. a poet of unusual power and promise was lost in the early death of pieter augustus de genestet (1803-1861). his _eve of saint 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 biographies of 19th century dutch writers (new edition, 1902). his novels were collected in 13 volumes in 1885. with isaak da 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. schiminel (q.v.), who found a disciple in d.f. van heyst (b. 1831), whose _george van 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. recent developments. the recent literature of holland presents the interesting phenomenon of an aesthetic revolution, carefully and cleverly planned, crowned with unanticipated success, and dying away in a languor encouraged by 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 limitation of form from which even the most striking talents among them could scarcely 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 drawn his works together. the most interesting novelist, mrs gertrude bosboom-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 gerard keller (b. 1829), author of _from home_ (1867); johan gram (b. 1833), of whose novels _de familie schaffels_ (1870) is the best known; hendrik de veer (1829-1890), author of _frans holster_ (1871); justus van maurik (b. 1846), who wrote plays and short sketches of amsterdam life (_uit het volk_, 1879), and arnold buning (b. 1846), whose _marine sketches_ (1880) won great popularity. the colonial novels of n. marie c. sloot, born in java in 1853, are widely read in holland and 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. wallis) made her first success in 1877 with _in days of strife_. the two leading dutch men of letters, however, besides beets and douwes dekker, were critics, conrad busken-huet (q.v.) and carel vosmaer (q.v.). in huet the principles of the 1840-1880 period were summed up; he had been during all those years the fearless and trusty watch-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 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 (1860-1881), 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 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 music like his in holland for two hundred years. a group of young men, united in a sort of esoteric adoration of the memory of perk, collected around his name. they joined to their band a man somewhat older than themselves, marcellus emants (born 1848), poet, novelist and dramatist, who had come forward in 1879 with a symbolical poem called _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 lead the army of rebellion. his violent attacks on recognized authority in aesthetics began in 1882, and created a considerable 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 twilight of the gods_, and in 1884 the young school founded a review, _de nieuwe gids_, which was able to offer a direct 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 shelley, mrs browning, the rossettis. in 1884 frans 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 zola, very violent, heady and bewildering. in 1885 the _persephone and other poems_ of 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 principal recent writer of holland, louis couperus (b. 1863), made his first definite appearance. born in the hague, the opening years of his boyhood were spent in java, and he had preserved in all his nature a certain tropical magnificence. in 1884 a little volume of lyrics, and in 1886 the more important _orchids_, showed in couperus a poet whose sympathies were at first entirely with the new school. but he was destined to be a novelist, and his earliest story, _eline vere_ (1889), already took him out of the ranks of his contemporaries. in 1890 he published _destiny_ (known as _footsteps of fate_ in the english version), and in 1892 _ecstasy_. this was followed in 1894 by _majesty_, in 1896 by _world-wide peace_, in 1898 by _metamorphosis_, a delicate study of character, in 1899 by fidessa, in 1901 by _quiet force_, and in 1902 by the first volume of a tetralogy called _the books of small souls_. of all these later books, some of which have been translated into english, by couperus, it is perhaps _ecstasy_ in which the peculiar quality of his work is seen at present to the greatest advantage. this is an extreme sensitiveness to psychological phenomena, expressed in terms of singular delicacy and beauty. the talent of couperus is like a rich but simple tropical flower laden with 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 defiance of the ruling system of aesthetics, is the prominent ultramontane politician and bishop, e.j.a.m. schaepmann (born 1844), whose poem of _aja sofia_ originally appeared in 1886. recent novelists of some polemical vigour are h. borel and van hulzen. a very delightful talent was revealed by frederick van eeden in _little johnny_ (1887), a prose fairy-tale; in _ellen_ (1891), a cycle of mysterious and musical elegies; and in _from the cold pools of death_ (1901), a very melancholy novel. another poet of less 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 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 strange verses called _may_, eccentric both in 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 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 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 hermann heijermans (b. 1864), a jew of strong realistic and socialistic tendencies, and the author of innumerable gloomy plays. his _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 average of merit, the abandonment of the old dry conventions, and a recognition of the 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 peasant-stories of steijn streuvels (frank lateur), a young baker by trade, whose _summer land_ (1901) was a most promising production. authorities.--dr w.j.a. jonckbloet, _geschiedenis der nederlandsche letterkunde_ (4th ed., 1889-1892); dr j. ten brink, _kleine geschiedenis der nederlandschen letteren_ (haarlem, 1877); and the same author's _geschiedenis der nederlandsche letterkunde_ (1897), with elaborate illustrations, facsimiles of mss. and title pages, &c.; dr j. van vloten, _schets van de geschiedenis der nederlandschen letteren_ (1879); l. schneider, _geschichte der niederlandischen literatur_ (leipzig, 1887); g. kalff, _literatuur en tooneel te 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., 1880-1896), and in l. van deyssel, _verzamelde opstelen_ (4 vols., 1890-1897), and in the series of monographs and bibliographies by prof. j. ten brink, _geschiedenis der noord-nederlandsche letteren in de xix^e eeuw_ (rotterdam, new ed. 1902, &c.). (e. g.) footnotes: [1] edited by j.f. willems (brussels, 1836). [2] edited by c.p. serrure and ph. blommaert (ghent, 1852-1854). [3] edited by dr e. verwijs (leiden, 1868). [4] edited by l.p.c. v. den bergh (leiden, 1846-1847). [5] edited by p. leendertz (leiden, 1845-1847). [6] edited by dr jul. zacher in haupt's _zeitschrift fur deutsches altertum_, vol. ii. (leipzig, 1842). [7] see schotel, _geschiedenis der rederijkers in nederland_ (1862-1864), amsterdam. [8] for houwaert, see a study by k.f. stallaert in the _nederlandsch museum_ (1885). [9] ed. dr w.l. van helten (1875). [10] for coornhert see also j. ten brink, _d.v. coornhert en zijne wellevenkunst_ (amsterdam, 1860). [11] the best edition is by p. vlaming (amsterdam, 1723). [12] on visscher and his daughters see n. beets, _al de gedichten van anna roemers visscher_ (1881), and e. gosse, _studies in the literature of northern europe_ (1879). [13] 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., 1885-1890) by j. ten brink and others. [14] see r.a. kollewijn's edition of _samuel coster's werken_ (1883). [15] see dr w. bisschop, _justus van effen ..._ (utrecht, 1859). [16] see dr j. van vloten, _leven enwerken van willem en onno van haren_ (1874), and busken-huet, _de van harens_ (1875). [17] see dr j. van vloten, _elisabeth wolff ..._ (1880).