PT 
 
 5061 
 
 B69 
 
 1829 
 
 MAIN 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 flSt, 
 

SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 
 
 OF 
 
 HOLLAND. 
 
 BY JOHN BOWRING. 
 
 BEING A SEQUAL TO HIS 
 
 BATAVIAN ANTHOLOGY. 
 
 DIEDERICHS BROTHERS. 
 
 1829. 
 

 The announcing of two important publications , 
 TIZ: the Precis de V Histoire Litter aire des 
 Pays-Bas, tradu.it du Hollandais de M. Sie- 
 genbeek, par H. S. Lebrocquy, Ayocat. Gand. 
 1827. i8mo. and 
 
 The Verhandeling van den Heer Willem de 
 Clercq, ter beantwoording der vrage: welken in- 
 vloed heeft vreemde Letterkunde, inzonderheid de 
 Italiaansche , Spaansche, Fransche en Duitsche 
 gehad op de Neder -lands die Taal en Letterkunde, 
 sints het begin der vijftiende Eeuw tot op onze 
 
 ~ dagen? -Met den Gouden Eerepenning bekroond 
 en uitgegeven door de Tweede Klasse van 
 het Koninklijke Nederlandsche Instituut, etc. 
 Tweede Druk. Amsterdam. 1825. 8vo. (Trea- 
 tise of Mr. William de Clercq, in reply to the 
 Inquiry What has been the Influence of Fo- 
 reign Literature ; and particularly the Italian, 
 Spanish, French and German, on the Language 
 and Literature of the Netherlands, from tha 
 fifteenth century to the present time? etc.) 
 
 4981 13 
 

 The announcing of two important publications , 
 viz: the Precis de V Histoire Litter aire des 
 Pays-Bas, traduit du Hollandais de M. Sie- 
 genbeek, par H. S. Lebrocquy, Ayocat. Gand. 
 1827. i8mo. and 
 
 The V "erhandeling van den Heer Willem de 
 Clercq, ter beantwoording der vrage: welken in- 
 vloed heeft vreemde Letterkunde , inzonderheid de 
 Italiaansche , Spaansche, Fransche en Duitsche 
 gehad op de Neder lands die Taal en Letterkunde, 
 sints het begin der vijftiende Eeuu> tot op onze 
 
 - dagen? -Met den Gouden Eerepenning bekroond 
 en uitgegeven door de Tweede Klasse van 
 het Koninklijke Nederlandsche Instituut, etc. 
 Tweede Druk. Amsterdam. 1825. 8vo. (Trea- 
 tise of Mr. William de Clercq, in reply to the 
 Inquiry What has been the Influence of Fo- 
 reign Literature, and particularly the Italian, 
 Spanish, French and German, on the Language 
 and Literature of the Netherlands, from the 
 fifteenth century to the present time? etc.) 
 
 4981 13 
 
V THE LANGUAGE 
 
 in the Foreign Quarterly Review, for April 1829, 
 gave birth to the following treatise, which we 
 deem of sufficient moment to be extracted from 
 that Review, in order to publish it separately for 
 the pleasure of our countrymen. A critical in- 
 vestigation into the merits of the, most eminent 
 Butch poets, from the former ages down to the 
 present time, exemplified by a selection of cha- 
 racteristic beauties from their works, produced 
 by an Englishman, is no doubt a very interesting 
 novelty, which may be considered as a more sin- 
 gular phenomenon than even the translation of 
 Dutch poetry into English verse, which has re- 
 cently appeared in the Batavian Anthology of 
 JOHN Bo WRING. We therefore may trust the follow- 
 ing Essay will highly engage the interest and 
 pique the curiosity of every Dutchman, to whom 
 it is not altogether indifferent what notions our 
 enlightened British neighbours have conceived 
 with regard to /the talents and exertions of the 
 Dutch Muse. 
 Mtu SIEGENBEEK, the author of the work, with the 
 
AND LITERATURE QF.IIGLIAND. 3'- 
 
 title of the French translation of which, as likely 
 to be more accessible to our readers, we haye 
 headed the present article, is one of the most 
 extensively known of the literary men of Holland* 
 The volume itself is a very useful compendium 
 of Dutch literary history, with one drawback a 
 disposition rather too easily pleased, and more 
 willing to set forth the beauties than to record 
 the defects of his countrymen, Mr. Siegenbeek 
 is an itmrablc, patriotic, exploring historiographer, 
 who, without seeking to be eloquent, quietly points 
 out the way to the inquirer, evidently acquaint- 
 ed, and in good humour with every body, and 
 with every thing he meets. Happy the authors 
 who fall into such gentle hands! It was he 
 also who created that Orthography,* which was 
 
 * Though much has been done, the orthography of the 
 Dutch language can hardly be considered as positively 
 fixed. A witty writer, (Witsen Geysbeek,) and one who 
 has biographized the Dulch poets with some severity, but 
 much talent, says 
 
 A 3 
 
o-f THE LANGUAGE 
 
 adopted by a decree of the government, and 
 which has since become almost universal in the 
 Netherlands. 
 
 ' The second volume is the work of a man of 
 industry and genius. Neither is he unknown to 
 us; for we ; Englishmen, heard with amazement, 
 some years ago, of an improvisatore who poured 
 forth streams of beautiful and forcible poetry- in 
 the Nether-Dutch. That improvisatore was Wil- 
 
 Spell "wEreld"-~-so sets up Siegenbeek, and then 
 Gomes Bilderdyk, and flings it down again. 
 He will have "wAreld" "Tis a pretty quarrel- 
 Shall I determine who shall wear the laurel? 
 Not I! I like them both and so I'll say 
 "WAEreld" and each shall have his own dear way. 
 
 Spel "wEreld" eischt de wet door Siegenbeek gegeven; 
 
 En "wAreld" wordt door Bilderdyk 
 Als de echte spelling voorgeschreven 
 
 Wie ongelijk hebbe of gelijk 
 
 Is me onverschillig. 'k Wil met beiden yrienden hlijven ; 
 'Kneembeiderleltersaan, enzaldus "wAEreld"schrijven. 
 
 Puntdichten, p. 7. 
 
AND LITERATURE Otf HOLLAND. S 
 
 liam de Clercq, and this work of his, which won 
 and deservedly won a popular prise, contains 
 irrefragable evidence of extensive reading, great 
 sagacity, and generally of sound criticism. Against 
 some of its decisions we might fairly and success- 
 fully appeal; they are those,, in which the ingeni- 
 ous writer has contented himself with a second- 
 hand acquaintance with some of the hooks of 
 which he speaks. But no one can doubt that he 
 has read much and thought much, and an essay 
 like this, the first effusion of a youthful mind, 
 is indeed and in truth, no trifling literary tri- 
 umph. Its title very sufficiently explains its con- 
 tents, and it will be found a very agreeable com- 
 panion in an inquiry as to the merits, defects, 
 and peculiarities of Batavian literature. 
 
 The remnants of a remote antiquity in Holland 
 are few and scattered.* It has been in all time 
 a country the dispositions and the habits of 
 
 * Many curious facts respecting ancient Holland are 
 collected in van Wijn's Histonsche en Letterkundige 
 
 A 3 
 
'6 .'' ','.': WRETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 whose people have been quiet as its inland-wa- 
 ters, yet easily affected by external circumstan- 
 ces too weak to be the arbiter of its own fate- 
 and too closely hemmed in by mightier nations, 
 not to feel every shock which agitated them. The 
 ebb and flow of its political vicissitudes have swept 
 away most of its national traditions. Of all the 
 Teutonic branches the Netherlanders have pre- 
 served the smallest portion of the old popu- 
 lar literature. We have made many inquiries, 
 and have not been recompensed by the dis- 
 covery of a single fragment, composed in 
 the spirit of those romantic compositions which 
 for so many centuries were the heritage of 
 the German and Scandinavian nations. If the 
 Minnesingers of the North, or the Trouba- 
 dours of the South, ever wandered over the 
 plains of Holland and Flanders, they elicited 
 nothing national there. The interest of in- 
 
 'Avondstonden, 8vo. Amsterdam. 1800. But the form of 
 dialogue, which the author has adopted, is tiresome. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 7 
 
 quiry into the early literature of the Low 
 Countries is almost wholly philological. The 
 works of imagination that have come down to us 
 have, little poetry- the ethical writings have little 
 philosophy: the historical records have little au- 
 thority. The light is only light Because it is 
 surrounded by darkness. It is idle, however, to 
 he dreaming of what we might have had, instead 
 of diligently using what we have. 
 
 A few explanatory words are necessary, in or- 
 der to explain what we mean Ly the literature 
 of Holland. Up to a certain period,, the langua- 
 guages of Holland and Flanders were one and 
 the same. The closer connection, growing out of 
 similarity of religion and geographical contact, 
 with France, has gradually undermined the lan- 
 guage of Belgium; and to such a degree has the 
 French established itself, that through a great por- 
 tion of the southern Netherlands, it is deemed a 
 degradation to read the works of Yondel or Bil- 
 derdijk; while many Flemings have denied even 
 the existence of a national tongue, employing 
 
 A4 
 
8 SKETCH' OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 French for all the purposes of social conversation 
 and correspondence, and disdaining the use of 
 the Flemish, except towards yassals and servants. 
 A patriotic Fleming, Willems of Antwerp, has 
 lately endeavoured, and with success,* to vindi- 
 cate his country's ancient language and litera- 
 ture. In truth, the father of the Dutch poetical 
 school, Van Maerlant, and many of its most dis- 
 tinguished writers, were Flemings; and down to 
 the seventeenth century, the names of Batavians 
 and Belgians are blended without distinction. 
 Since then, only one Flemish work of reputation 
 has appeared the Gramschap (De Ira) of the 
 Jesuit De Meyer. But it is a curious fact that 
 the Rhetoric Chambers, the schools of poetry of 
 the Netherlanders during many centuries, have 
 still their existence in Flanders though in Hol- 
 land they are wholly extinguished; and among 
 the lower classes, to this hour, Cats is the favou- 
 
 * Verhandeling over de Nederduitsche Tael en Letter- 
 Tcunde, opzigtelijJc in de zuydelijke Provincien der Neder- 
 landen. 2 yols. 8yo. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 9 
 
 rite and every-where-found author. It is not 
 difficult to track the decline of the Low Dutch 
 in the Flemish provinces: the Dukes of Burgundy 
 and their dependants opened the flood-gates to 
 Gallic corruptions. In the provinces of Holland, 
 redeemers were found to purify and establish the 
 old language of the land in Flanders none. The 
 nohles hated the idiom of freedom, of commerce, 
 of a commonwealth; the clergy yet more that 
 of protestantism and free inquiry. A severe cen- 
 sorship rooted up every plant which patriotism 
 had sown, and the ancient tongue qf Belgium 
 gradually sunk into degradation and disuse. Un- 
 der Maria Theresia an attempt was made to fix 
 the rules of the Flemish dialect, and a grammar 
 edited for the use of schools. Instead of adapting 
 that grammar to the then state of the language 
 and literature of Holland, the author chose to 
 invent a new orthography to establish differen- 
 ces between the Dutch and Flemish tongues to 
 recognise the corruptions which the French had 
 introduced; in a word, he set up his Antwerp 
 A 5 
 
1O SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 dialect, his own times, and himself, against the 
 authorities of the Netherlands, of many ages, and 
 of thousands of illustrious men. By the word 
 Dutch, or more properly Low Dutch (Nederduitsch^) 
 we must he understood to embrace Belgium and 
 Holland equally, so long as the literary language 
 of the two countries continued to be the same. 
 
 There are few feelings stronger in Holland than 
 that of contempt for the language of France. Its 
 prevalence in Belgium is likely to be an insupe- 
 rable bar, if others were wanting, which assu- 
 redly they are not, to any thing like a cordial 
 co-operation between the northern and the southern 
 states. Of the abhorrence with which the Dutch 
 regard the French tongue, the following lines of 
 Bilderdyk are an amusing example : 
 
 Begone, thou bastard-tongue ! so base so broken 
 By human jackals and hyenas spoken j 
 Formed for a race of infidels, and fit 
 To laugh at truth and scepticize in wit; (cely dare, 
 What stammering, snivelling sounds, which scar- 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 1 1 
 
 Bravely through nasal channels meet the ear 
 .Yet helped by. apes' grimaces and the devil, 
 Have ruled the world, and ruled the world for evil!* 
 
 ; 
 
 While the Latin prose writers of Holland had 
 obtained a high reputation, and were exerting an 
 extensive influence over the World, how 'happened 
 it that their poets were unknown and in truth, 
 little worthy of notice? A very obvious reason 
 is, that the intellect of the country, seeking to 
 exercise itself on the widest field of fame or 
 profit, would use the fittest instruments for that 
 purpose would choose the subjects which excited 
 
 * Maar weg met u, o spraak van basterd klanken, 
 Waarin Hyeen en valsche Schakals janken; 
 Verloochnares van afkomst en geslacht, 
 Gevormd voor spot die met de waarheid lacht: 
 Wier staamlarij bij eeuwig woord verbreken 
 lu't neusgehuil zicb-zelf niet uit duift spreeken : 
 Verfoeilijk Franscb I alleen den duivel waard, 
 Die met uw aapgegrijns zich meester maakt yan d$ aard, 
 
12 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 most attention, and employ the language which 
 could command the greatest number of listeners.- 
 Latin was the tongue of science, and as all man- 
 kind haye a much deeper interest in the deve- 
 lopement of facts than in the exercise of the ima- 
 ginative powers, minds of the highest order will 
 rather aim to instruct than to amuse the world. 
 But as respects poetry, the fancy does not easily 
 clothe itself in the garb of a foreign language, 
 however profoundly studied or thoroughly un- 
 derstood. Song is the natural breathing of the 
 mind it can hardly wear any other garment 
 than that of the habitual thoughts. In some of 
 its departments care and labour may produce a 
 beautiful result, just as a painter finishes a fault- 
 less cloud. But the genuine poet rolls it forth 
 in its grandeur he makes it not up of separate 
 exquisite touches it is first a conception then, 
 and suddenly, an existence. Again, the political 
 influence of Holland led its great men to occupy 
 themselves with subjects bearing an immediate 
 relation to her position: they became legislators 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. l5 
 
 for mankind their study was the law of nations 
 their morals warn ..mnant. to ho universal their 
 voice was "to go forth to the ends of the earth." 
 Then came the necessary reaction upon their 
 universities : Latin was established as the sole 
 instrument of instruction, and to this day so far 
 maintains its ground,., that lessons on the, litera- 
 ture of modern Holland are delivered in the lan- 
 guage of ancient Rome. When the influence of 
 Holland declined when it was easier to find 
 readers in Holland than out of it -a new era 
 arrived hooks were written for the people: 
 but the Dutch people are few at the best, and 
 the demand for literature is too smal to give to 
 men of letters the means of existence. The trade 
 of authorship is unknown in Holland. There is, 
 we believe, scarcely an instance of any man 
 getting a livelyhood by his literary productions. 
 Meanwhile, it must be owned, the language of 
 conversation has been grossly corrupted. It now 
 overflows with French words and sounds -which 
 are at open war with the Teutonic euphonies. 
 
l4 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 The written Taal, or tongue, has to a great ex- 
 tent escaped the intrusion. of these Gallic barba- 
 risms; but as they are gradually polluting the 
 sources of purity, it would seem at first sight 
 to he feared that the Dutch language ? which 
 has been the most untainted of the Germanic 
 idioms, would become unworthy to be considered 
 as the language of an independent people, and 
 be flung aside as a jargon of ill-assorted and 
 incongruous sounds. A reformation is, however, 
 taking place, and the language of conversation 
 will probably henceforward assimilate itself more 
 and more to the language of books. 
 
 The remnants of old Dutch poetry are more 
 ancient than any thing which exists in French, 
 though not of so remote a date as some of our 
 fragments of Anglo-Saxon antiquity. But many 
 of the Dutch writers seem disposed to claim some 
 parentage in their language with that of Olfrid, 
 the Benedictine Monk, of Weissenburg, who pu- 
 blished his rhymed version of the four Evange- 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. l5 
 
 lists, under Louis the Debonnair.* It is a fusion 
 of the whole into one history, a not uncommon 
 practice, and one which was adopted by Maerlant, 
 and in that very curious MS. in the British Mu- 
 seum, which bears the title of King Canute's 
 Bible. But nothing is known to us which can 
 be deemed a specimen of the language of the 
 Netherlands till the time of Maerlant. 
 
 The Rymbybel of Jakob van Maerlant, (who 
 was born in 1235, and died in i3oo,) which he 
 completed in 1270, is one of the earliest and 
 most curious productions in the Dutch language; 
 it is in fact a rhymed translation of Comestor's 
 Historia Scholastica. He frequently refers to ear- 
 lier poets to William Utenhove Een priester 
 
 * A few lines will show the very slight resemblance 
 between the Low Dutch of this period and the high. 
 Dutch of Olfrid, which he himself calls the " Frenskisga 
 Zungun," the Frankish tongue : 
 
 Sie hintarquamum gahun, 
 loh sie alter imo sahun, 
 Sih ununtorohun harto 
 Sulichero jerto. 
 
16 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 van goeden love a priest *of good fame; who 
 translated the Bestiares of Guillaume. He speaks 
 of the fables of Esop, rhymed by 
 
 Let the Dutch student try to interpret this. The whole pas- 
 sage is a very sublime one. It will be found in Schiller's 
 Thesaurus, 1. 358-359- 
 
 Compare, as a curious specimen of the difference between 
 the Frankish language of the loth century, and the Dutch, 
 an extract from the poem on Louis III. of West France. 
 
 Sang uuas gesmigen, De zang was gezongen, The song was sung, 
 Uuig unas bigunnen, De stryd was begonnen, The strife was begun, 
 Bluot skein in uuangou Het bloed scheeu up do Blood shone on the cheeks 
 Wan gen, 
 
 Spilondunder Vrankon, Der speelende Franken ; Of the sporting Franks, 
 Thar raht thegono gelih, Vogt geen der Helden daar, There fought no hero, 
 Nich em so, so Hluduuig ; Gelyk als Lodewyk; Not one like Lewis: 
 
 Snel indi Kuoni Snel ende koen Swift and keen 
 
 Thans uuas imo gekunni, Dat was hem aangebooren, That was inborn, 
 Suman thuruch-sluog her,Sommigeu doorsloeg hy, Some he struck through, 
 Suman thuruch-stag her ; Sommigen doorstak hy, Some he stuck through ; 
 Her skancta ce hanton Hy schonk dan He filled then 
 
 Siman Fianton Zynen vyanden To his foea 
 
 Bitteres lides, Bittere dranken, Bitter drinks, 
 
 So uuehin hio thes libes. Zo weken zy uit het leven. So they stepped out their 
 ScUlter, II. 90-112. Van VTyn, 229. life. 
 
 It will be remarked we have introduced into our translation 
 none but Saxon words except the word Hero (one of the few 
 for which we remember no Saxon synonyme in our language.) 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 1 7 
 
 CalfstafF and Noydekijn, 
 
 In verses fair and fine ; "* 
 of Claes van Brechten's translations from the 
 
 "Walsche:" and of Cato's 
 
 . . . 
 
 Bouc van zeden, 
 Dien vindt men, in vele .steden, 
 
 In Dietsch gemaect 
 
 . 
 
 " the Book of Manners, found in many towns, 
 translated into Dutch." But of these no MS. 
 remains. Their names are rescued from obscu- 
 rity their works are probably lost for ever. 
 
 The most extraordinary of Maerlant's works, 
 as far as poetical merit is concerned, is undoubt- 
 edly his " Dialogues between Jacob and Mar- 
 tin." These verses flow very agreeably: 
 
 Hi en es niet vroet, 
 
 Die iemand tyet ; dat hi misdoet, 
 
 Kent hi vrome of scade 
 
 . 
 
 Ic sie die zee, ic sic die vloet, 
 
 . 
 
 * Die heuet Calfstaf en Noydekyn, 
 Ghedicht in rime scoiie en fyn. 
 
l8 SKETCH OF THE LANCTAGtf * 
 
 Ic set er ; willens in die voet, 
 By euen dommen rade.* 
 
 And then, in answer to an inquiry, not an un- 
 common one among the Troubadours, how many 
 sorts of loye are there? 
 
 D'eerste is caritate dats waer, 
 Si es sonder pine ende yaer, 
 
 Ende dat woeiit God inne; 
 D'ander trect die warelt naer, 
 Cm ees om goet, es al haer gaer, 
 
 Dats eene bastaerdinne. 
 Die derde minne eyshet de iaer, 
 Als bi nature elc doet syn paer.-f- 
 
 * " It is not \vise 
 
 T' unveil man's errors to his eyes, 
 
 "Whether for loss or profit - 
 If when the sea the stream are seen 
 I put my heedless footstep in, 
 
 I make bad counsel of it." 
 
 | The first is Charity ; 
 
 She has no grief no terror she 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 1 9 
 
 Maerlant's diction is remarkably pure, and es- 
 pecially at a period when one dialect borrowed 
 of another without any hesitation the words which 
 were thought appropriate- Maerlant wrote the 
 Spiegel Historiael (G'las of History), a translation 
 from Segebrecht and Beauvais, the Naturen Bloe- 
 me (Flowers of Nature), and other works in which 
 are many references to books which had then 
 circulation, some of which are well known , and 
 particularly those romances thai, like the Knights 
 of the Round Table, circulated with such extra- 
 ordinary rapidity oyer the whole of Europe. 
 The Spreekers and the Zangers (speakers and 
 
 With her dwells God above ; 
 The world the other drags aside, 
 For honour, riches, and for pride. 
 
 That is a bastard love. 
 The third belongs to mutual state. 
 'Tis Nature's law, to mate with mate." 
 
 5 The continuation was brought by Van Velthem down 
 to i3i6. 
 
20 SKETCH OF TttE LANGUAGE 
 
 singers), who accompanied the festivities of what 
 has been called the age of chivalry are fre- 
 quently referred to. What we have of their pro- 
 ductions suffices to giye us a pretty complete 
 idea of what we have not. In the Netherlands, 
 the "War of Grimberg,"* "the Knight of the 
 Swan,"-j- "the Children of Count Hemann,"$ and 
 above all, that extraordinary and wellknown 
 composition, Reintjen den Vosf* are spoken 
 
 * Bulk, i. 36, 87. 
 
 fOm dat van Brabant die Hertogherij 
 Voormaels dicke syn beloghen, 
 Alse dat sy quamen metten Swane. 
 Daar by hebbies my genomen ane, 
 Dat ic die warheit wit ontdecken, 
 Ende in Duitsche Rime vertrecken. Nikolaesde Clerc, p. i3. 
 
 _5 Van Heyman oil ende van sinen Kinden 
 En kan man nerghet yinden, 
 Dat hy leefde in Kerles tiden. Maerlant, De Clerc, 9. 
 
 ** The best printed Dutch edition is that of Gouda, i479 
 An excellent edition of the Dutch translation has just ap- 
 peared, (1828). 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 2 1 
 
 of as the sources of instruction and amusement. 
 The RymchronyJc of Melis Stoke (whether this 
 is a feigned or a real name is very doubtful,) fol- 
 lows the writings of Maerlant, whose language is 
 purer than that of the Rhymed Chronicles which 
 end with the year i3o5, after giving a historyof 
 the early Counts of Holland. Van Wijn* is of opini- 
 on, and with good reason, as we think, that it is not 
 the work of a single hand. Melis Sto^.e had one at 
 least of the qualities of a poet, namely, restlessness 
 
 "I will not that my spirit quit be."-j- 
 
 Of Melis Stoke an admirable edition was print- 
 ed by Huydecoper in three volumes, with many 
 notes and illustrations. The three oldest MSS. 
 which he collated, -and he appears to have done 
 so with much care, are in the Royal Library 
 at the Hague. We have had an opportunity of 
 
 * Hist. Avondst. p. 281. 
 
 fOm dat ick niet en wille, 
 
 Dat myn Geest zal blyyen stille. 
 
32 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 examining them, arid believe that two of them, 
 at least, are of the beginning of the fourteenth 
 century. Almost contemporaneous with Stoke, is 
 Jan Van Hcelu, who celebrated the daring deeds 
 of Duke John the First of Brabant, in a poem of 
 ten thousand -verses, some of which are vigorous, 
 and all of them breathing admiration upon the 
 feats of the hero, showing how he 
 
 "A true knight's name obtain' d, 
 And fame at joutst and tourneys gained; 
 And with his weapons in his hand, 
 Sought honour out from land to land."* 
 
 There is another poem, called Natuurkunde 
 (Natural Philosophy), belonging to the thirteenth 
 century. The author is unknown. In it the stars 
 are called "candles of the air," and are said to 
 
 * Bidders name gewan, 
 
 Voer bi tornieren en de iosleren, 
 
 Ende die wapene hanteeren, 
 
 Eerlike van land te lande. vv. 1^11 1 $* 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 23 
 
 "sing wondrous songs," (music of the spheres, no 
 doubt). He introduces 
 
 "Devils living in the air, 
 Doing mortals mischief there. 
 Knights of darkness." 
 
 He says that exhalations gathered many suns to- 
 gether} that rainhows are clouds which the sun 
 shines on; he recommends all doctors to study 
 astronomy, and let us into all the secrets of the 
 locality of hell. Much resembling the Natuur- 
 kunde in manner is a short octosyllabic com- 
 position of Heynric (Henry) of Holland, the 
 title of which is the "Power of the Moon," 
 (De KracJit der Maane]. Van Wijn speaks also 
 of a poetical romance entitled Karel en Elegast, 
 which is an account of the visit of an angel to 
 Charlemagne, and of divers adventures in which 
 he was concerned with Elegast and Eggerik, 
 whose castle the king honours with his presence: 
 Eggerik attempts his life, but he is sayed by 
 
24 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 gast, who (after the mortal punishment of Egge- 
 rik) obtains his beautiful wife as his recompense: 
 
 "De coninc gaf hem Eggerik's wijf, 
 
 Si waren tsamen al haar lijf."* 
 
 * 
 
 This is not the proper occasion, however, to 
 dwell on these compositions ; they illustrate the 
 progress and the state of a language, but they af- 
 ford no subjects for critism; nor, as we have 
 remarked, is the period one which affords many in- 
 teresting topics. It was a period in which the 
 great mass of the community were the objects of 
 such general contempt, that a poet of the time, 
 speaking of the serfs, declares "they have no 
 share in Paradise, so say the scriptures (!!) mi- 
 serable on earth, driven out of heaven, rejected 
 
 * The king gave him Eggerik's wife 
 
 They were together all her life. 
 
 How slight the difference between the English and the Low 
 Dutch of this period ! 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 25 
 
 even by hell whither shall the wretches re- 
 pair?"* 
 
 But a period follows rich in historical events, 
 
 * L'Indigestion du Villain, in Le Grand, vol. II, p. i3. 
 
 By the way, false quotations of scripture were much, 
 the practice. In the Conines Summe, printed at Delft in 
 1478, being a translation of the Sommo le Roi, is the 
 following curious passage: "Job says that man's life 
 upon earth is like knighthood and burghership. And 
 behold that the young burgher and the new knight, as 
 they have different thoughts, so they have different de- 
 sires. The burgher thinks of his commonalty (comans- 
 cap), and of his gains; and the end of his intentions? 
 (meninghe) is to become rich and honoured in his life. 
 The new knight goes altogether a different way : he thinks 
 of high deeds (hoecheit) to be done liberally to give- 
 nobly to live to go to feats of arms (in de wapenen)*- 
 to suffer trouble to show courage and to climb to a 
 high state. These two states we manyfestly see in two 
 manners of men.' 1 
 
 Of the old domestic manners, dresses, food, c. of the 
 Dutch, many curious particulars have been collected by 
 
 B 
 
26 SKETCH OP THE LANGUAGE 
 
 though miserable barren of literary interest.* 
 The people were occupied and sacrificed by in- 
 ternal dissentions and civil wars, during which 
 figured that romantic Jacqueline, who equally 
 renowned for her beauty and her lasciviousness, 
 has been called, not inappropriately, the Helena 
 of Holland. Out of the tyranny and the discord 
 of the Seigneurs, rose the influence of the towns 
 and the powers of commerce ; and little aristocra- 
 tic republics fought the battles of popular interest 
 
 Van Wyn, in the second volume of his " Historical Eve- 
 nings." 
 
 *Some of the decrees of this period are very curious, 
 as illustrating the struggle between the French and the 
 Flemish languages. An ordonnance of Ghent, dated of 
 1409? says, <c S'ilz sont en debatz le Flemeng aura 1'option 
 de playder en Flameng s'il lui plaist"- and there is, of 
 John Count of Flanders, a determination of the year i4o5, 
 that u il tiendroit 1'audience et court accoutume'e en ^Flan- 
 dre fiamengent dechea le lys et en langaige Flameng." 
 Wiiiemg, L 19$. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 2/ 
 
 against the exactions of the nobles. Chambers of 
 Rhetoric sprung from the habit of association, and 
 by introducing a very exaggerated standard, and 
 a passion for foreign literature, they injured the 
 language, and deteriorated the taste of the people. 
 The parade of erudition led to an overflow of 
 French and Latin words and phrases, while al- 
 legories, forced and far-fetched, overwhelmed all 
 naturel feeling. 
 
 One work, however, ought to be specially poin- 
 ted out. It belongs to the close of the fifteenth 
 century. It is the Dutch translation of the Old 
 Testament from the Vulgate a monument of 
 language the first printed edition of which (1477,) 
 is not less remarkable as a specimen of typogra- 
 phy. A translation of Glanville, De proprietati* 
 bus rerum, appeared in 1485. 
 
 The grand movement of the Reformation was 
 at hand. The clergy had encouraged a spirit, 
 whose developement was fatal to their influence. 
 The priests had been accustomed to consider the 
 mysteries and moralities of the stage as helping 
 B 2 
 
28 SKETCH OP THE LANGUAGE 
 
 to establish their hold upon opinion; but men, 
 like the Rhetorikers, whose imaginations were in 
 a state of great activity, and who 'only sought 
 occasion to ingratiate themselves with the many, 
 soon found new topics of interest. The people 
 were not blind they could not be blind to the 
 abuses and immoralities of the clergy; and when 
 these became the objects of satire and of animadver- 
 sion, the charm of " the Church" was broken. Gro- 
 wing knowledge was the spear of Ifhuriel, whose 
 touch made impiety and tyranny assume their natu- 
 ral forms; and the cataract being once removed, the 
 eye turned to every object around it, and not to 
 those alone, which it was permitted to dwell on. 
 Such enfranchisement is however slow, and some of 
 the best writers of the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century Anna Byns, for example were as in- 
 dignant as could be desired against Lutheran he- 
 resies. This lady was lauded as the Sappho of 
 her day, but her productions have really very 
 little merit; nor is there any name worth dwel- 
 ling 011, till in the midst of the fierce war, which 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 2Q 
 
 desolated the Low Countries, three men arose, 
 whose influence, exerted in different ways, was 
 mainly instrumental in regenerating the language 
 of Holland. These were Spieghel, Visscher, and 
 Goornhert. Spieghel's Hertspiegel (Heart-glass) 
 is a didactic poem, whose morality is better than 
 its versification. His death followed the violation 
 of an order that he should not enter the apart- 
 ment where his children were ill of the small-pox. 
 "He came by night," caught the disease, and 
 died. Spieghel had the Scaligers, Lipsius, and 
 Douza for his friends, and exercised a great, and 
 a beneficial influence on the taste of his age. 
 
 Roemer Visscher was an epigrammatist. Exag- 
 geration has called him the Dutch Martial. His 
 language is pure, much purer often than the 
 ideas. This is one of his compositions 
 
 "Jan sorrows sorrows far too much 'tis true; 
 A sad affliction hath distressed his life; 
 Mourns he that death hath ta'en his children two? 
 O no ! he mourns that death hath left his wife." 
 B 3 
 
3o SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 Visscher was one of the principal luminaries 
 of the most renowned of the Chambers of Rhe- 
 toric: In Liefde bloeyende (Blooming in Love) of 
 Amsterdam, he published a series of allegories 
 entitled Zinne-Poppen ; hut the did better than 
 this by cultivating the taste of his two daughters, 
 whose names are sung in every variety of flattering 
 homage by almost every Dutch poet of their day 
 and generation. They were highly accomplish- 
 ed they rendered popular the study of other 
 languages, and though their literary works are 
 not numerous, they exercised an important and 
 a purifying influence on the compositions of 
 their countrymen. 
 
 Coornhert was the translator of Cicero, and 
 (what does him far greater honour) the teacher 
 of literature in an age of ignorance the vindi- 
 cator of toleration in the days of intolerance. 
 He had been an engraver, became a notary, and 
 at last was nominated secretary to the town of 
 Haarlem. He was imprisoned on account of the 
 part he took against the Spaniards. His writings 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. Ol 
 
 are far above most of his contemporaries. He 
 translated Homer and Boetius. His prose works 
 (three volumes) consist of moral and polemical 
 essays. 
 
 The triumvirate here spoken of grew out of the 
 academy of Rlietorikers of Amsterdam. Some 
 other writers belong to this period. Dathenus 
 translated the Psalms better than Sternhold and 
 Hopkings or the Scotch paraphrasers. Marnix 
 became great more by his writings, though the 
 latter entitle him to distinction. His Byencorf 
 der H. RoomscJie Kerb, (Hive of the Holy Ro- 
 man Church) was a terrible blow to the papal 
 authority. To him is attributed the famous song 
 of William of Nassau, which soon became the 
 touchstone of political feeling.* Van Mander and 
 
 * We are glad to find that the popular songs of the 
 Dutch are at length rescued from oblivion in a volume 
 just published : Letterkundig Overzigt en Proeven van 
 de Nederlandsche Folkszangen sedert de XV e Eeuw door 
 J. C t L. le Jeune, 9 s Gravenliage^ 1828. The collection 
 is an exceedingly interesting one. 
 
32 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 Numan belong to this epoch. They were both 
 Belgians; and both published much. We cannot 
 say that they wrote well, though van Mander's 
 Biography of Painters is a collection of interesting 
 facts. Kiliaan, whose valuable dictionary of the 
 Low Dutch, is now republishing by Bilderdyk, 
 died in 1607. 
 
 Bredero followed. He had genius to invent, 
 and power to describe, but he had not the taste 
 which sets the other qualities of the mind in or- 
 der, and makes the result interesting and attrac- 
 tive. He was a mind wholly uncultivated. His 
 comedies had much success, but they would not 
 be tolerated now. 
 
 A name greater than any that Dutch literature 
 had yet seen, now appears on the stage. Peter 
 Cornells Hooft* was born at Amsterdam in i58i. 
 At an early period of life he travelled in France 
 and Italy, and on his return gave, by his perfect 
 
 * Consult Siegenbeek's Redevoering for an industrious 
 criticism on the writings of Hooft. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 33 
 
 mastery over the language of Holland, the most 
 striking examples of its literary capahilities. Hooft 
 was appointed to the bailiwick of Muiden, and 
 hence, as from an intellectual circle, rays of 
 light were spread over the country. His writings 
 give evidence of extensive reading, and of a fine, 
 though sometimes frivolous taste. Compared with 
 any thing that preceded this period, the works 
 of Hooft are master-pieces, and there are passa- 
 ges in his tragedies for example, the chorus of 
 girls in Bato, with which the most fastidious criti- 
 cism may be satisfied. If, however, Hooft be 
 measured by a very exalted standard, he will be 
 found wanting. The great creative power of 
 poetry he does not possess his language is cor- 
 rect his style agreeable and he did much to 
 introduce a better epoch. Some specimens of 
 Hooft's compositions will be found in Bowling's 
 Batavian Anthology, to which we refer our rea- 
 ders, as it supersedes the necessity of our giving 
 quotations from any of the poets of Holland, at 
 least till after the period at which the Anthology 
 B 5 
 
54 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 terminates, viz. the beginning of the last centu- 
 ry.* Hooft's van Vehen and Bato will give a 
 very correct picture of his literary character. The 
 expressions are usually energetic, though often 
 far fetched and extravagant, and he fell into the 
 verbal-trickeries and antithesis-hunting, which 
 were so common to his day. But Hooft is one 
 of the best prose writers of his country. His 
 translation of Tacitus is condensed and happy. 
 His History of the Netherlands is a fine speci- 
 men of writing, so far as language is concerned, 
 but wants the philosophy which makes historical 
 facts subservient to human improvement. The 
 daughters of Roemer Visscher, Anna and Maria, 
 whose virtue, beauty, and wit, filled the pages 
 of their contemporaries; Barlseus, the renowned 
 Latinist, Huygens, and other distinguished men 
 of letters, were accustomed to associate in Hooft's 
 dwelling. Within the circle of his friends we 
 
 * We understand it is the translator's intention to bring 
 it dovrn to the present time. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 35 
 
 also meet with Huig de Groot (for we must give 
 him his genuine title.) Of Grotius's extraordi- 
 nary literary merits, there is only one opinion. 
 His Dutch productions would have heen long 
 ago forgotten, but for his distinguished reputa- 
 tion, though his Loevestein was, at the time of 
 its appearance, translated from a Latin version 
 into several European languages. 
 
 Of Huygens there is a piece of poetry addres- 
 sed from London to the fair Visschers. His ver- 
 sification is sometimes harsh and hard. The per- 
 plexities of rhyme he could not always unravel, 
 and his Alexandrines are not unfrequently eked 
 out with expletives the curse, be it permitted 
 us to say, of the poetry of Holland. The Alex- 
 andrines offer a fatal attraction to the indifferent 
 poet. One rhyme in four-and-twenty or six- 
 and-twenty syllables is no great discovery, in a 
 language possessing an immense number of rhy- 
 ming sounds. Huygens wrote in several tongues 
 with facility, and his Lcdige Uren (Leisure 
 Hours) have specimens in Latin, French and 
 
36 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 Italian. Notwithstanding some very obvious af- 
 fectations, he is a writer whose vigour of expres- 
 sion is remarkable. His Batava Tempe* especi- 
 ally, has many very striking passages some in 
 very bad taste but very ingenious and emphatic. 
 In De Clercq's estimate of Huygens we cordially 
 agree. He has more originality than most of the 
 Dutch poets, and more variety, although he is 
 one of those who are least read. He is frequently 
 obscure from over-strained effort infelicitous in 
 his selection of words and images and scarcely 
 less so in the choice of the foreign sources, from 
 whom he has largely borrowed.' Huygens was 
 
 * The Constantia Society of Leeuwarden has published 
 a quarto edition of this work, with elaborate notes and 
 annotations. He calls Queen Elizabeth in it tl the jewel 
 of the worthy British lands j" and visits London in the 
 course of his poetical peregrinations, where he notices 
 with ravishment "its proud bridges with four and four- 
 teen arches ;" which the annotators opine was the "West- 
 minster Bridge 1 ' the poet we suppose haying had a vision 
 of what was to be. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 5/ 
 
 not merely a literary benefactor to his country. 
 The beautiful road from the Hague to Scheve- 
 ning, on the left side of which resided old 
 Father Cats, owes its existence to him. 
 
 Camphuizen, who was born in i586, is a very 
 amiable, and by no means an indifferent poet. 
 Like most of the writers of his time, he was 
 much given to moralize, and even to make mo- 
 rality the test of poetical merit 
 
 "Take care your writings tally with your deeds, 
 Do as you say, he ought to do who reads." 
 
 And again 
 
 " What boots it that the pen its moral lessons hold, 
 If in the writer's live a different tale is told? (ventions, 
 What is it, though the tongue pours wisdom'sbestin- 
 If deeds b.eak wisdom's laws in spite of her preten- 
 
 (sions?" 
 
 His "Wat is de meester wijs en goed' 7 "How 
 
58 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 wise and good the master is!" may be reckoned 
 among the most admired specimens of Dutch 
 poetry.* 
 
 Vondel was not a Netherlander. He was Lorn 
 at Cologne, hut educated in Holland. Of the 
 Dutch poets, his name is the only one that can 
 be said to ha\ r e forced its wayjnto any thing 
 like general notoriety. He revels in all the af- 
 fluence of language clothes all his thoughts in 
 poetical expression hut those thoughts are not 
 thoughts of the suhlimest range, nor have they 
 much in them of the music of philosophy. He 
 a Shakspeare of a lower order overflows equally 
 with beauties and defects. He had not sufficient 
 power to break the fetters and the forms which 
 had already too much imprisoned the awakening 
 literature of what had been pure and classical- 
 though not by any study of the Greeks in their 
 original dress and to this notions he formed 
 himself as far as he was able. Hardly great 
 
 * It is translated in the Batayian Anthology, p. 119. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 5g . 
 
 enough to create an epoch and too great to be 
 wholly suhjectet by the influence around him, 
 Vondel appears to us like a fine vessel upon a 
 wide sea, on a voyage of discovery beating 
 about making no important port and returning 
 home without remarkable treasure. Vondel just 
 preceded him, of whom a kindred genius has 
 beautifully and appropriately said ; "his soul 
 was like a star, and dwelt apart." Compare 
 him with Milton, for his Lucifer gives the fai- 
 rest means of comparison, how weak are his 
 highest flights compared with those of the bard 
 of Paradise ; and how much does Vondel sink 
 beneath him in his failures ! Now and then the 
 same thought may be found in both, but the 
 points of resemblance are not in passages which 
 do Milton's reputation the highest honour. His 
 first remarkable production was Palamedesy which 
 drew down upon him the hatred of many, but 
 obtained for him the admiration of more. He 
 lived to the age of 91, but his latter days were 
 disturbed and distracted by domestic afflictions. 
 
o SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 He developed, with far greater success than 
 any of his predecessors, the varied powers of 
 the Dutch language, and perhaps his authority 
 more than any other has recommended the Alex- 
 andrine verse to such general adoption in Holland. 
 
 Vondel has rather been judged of hy extracts, 
 which are in every hody's mouth in Holland, 
 than hy any entire piece of composition, or hy 
 the whole of his writings; and undoubtedly he 
 would sink very rapidly if the test of criticism 
 were applied to the mass of his works. He has 
 of late been rather sharply criticised hy Witsen 
 Geysheek in his Biographical Dictionary of the 
 Netherland Poets; hut the critic has called down 
 upon himself volumes of hitter anidmadversions. 
 We think him, however, right in the main, and 
 that his observations are likely to do much ser- 
 vice to the taste of his country. 
 
 His religious dramas were suited to the taste 
 of his times. Of these, the one on the Destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, and Joseph, are the most re- 
 markable. But the piece which has left the dee- 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 4 1 
 
 pest impression, and still keeps the strongest hold 
 of his countrymen, is the Gysbrecht van 4msteL 
 The suhject is well fitted to excite patriotic fee- 
 lings, and it has many passages of pomp and 
 power. It would be difficult to produce in a 
 foreign land that state of the passions and affec- 
 tions on which such a tragedy works its won- 
 ders; but the poet who can touch all the strings 
 of the popular mind possesses an influence awful 
 and majestic. 
 
 Vondel mingled much with the public events 
 of his day, and his correspondence serves to il- 
 lustrate many facts of which he was cognizant. 
 He translated Virgil in his old age; and after 
 having been the passionate advocate of Arminia- 
 nism, was at last gathered into the bosom of the 
 Church of Rome, whose imposing ceremonies 
 whose superb alliance with the arts whose loud 
 and lofty pretensions had captivated his imagi- 
 nation. Its mysteries were to him gorgeous at- 
 tractions, and he celebrated them in his Altaar- 
 geheimenissen. Poets are ordinarily indifferent 
 
42 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 polemics and certainly Vondel is no exception 
 to the general rule. 
 
 His prose style is extremely pleasing. His 
 Sketch of the National Poetry, which introduces 
 the first volume of his works, is a very fair ex- 
 ample of it. 
 
 Vondel had for his contemporary a man, of 
 whose popularity we can hardly give an idea, 
 unless we say that to speak Dutch and to have 
 learnt Cats by heart, are almost the same thing. 
 Old Father Jacob Cats (we beg to apologize for 
 his unhappy name and know not why, like the 
 rest of his countrymen, he did not euphonize it 
 into some well-sounding epithet, taken from Gree- 
 ce or Rome Elouros, for example, or Felisius; 
 Catsius was ventured upon by his contemporaries, 
 but the honest grey-beard stuck to his paterni- 
 ties,) was a man of practical wisdom great ex- 
 perience much travel .considerable learning- 
 and wonderful fluency. He had occupied high 
 offices of state, and retired a patriarch amidst 
 children and children's children, to that agreable 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 43 
 
 retreat which we mentioned at not far from the 
 Hague, where we have often dreamed his sober 
 and serious hut withal cheerful and happy spi- 
 rit, might still preside. His moralities are some- 
 times prolix, and sometimes rather dull. He often 
 sweeps the bloom away from the imaginative an- 
 ticipations of youth and in that does little ser- 
 vice. He will have every thing substantial, useful, 
 permanent. He has no other notion of love than 
 that it is meant to make good husbands and 
 wives, and to produce pains-taking and obedient 
 children. His poetry is rhymed counsel kind, 
 wise, and good. He calculates all results, and 
 has no mercy for thoughts, or feelings, or acti- 
 ons, which leave behind them weariness, regret, 
 or misery. His volumes are a storehouse of 
 prudence, and worldly wisdom. For every state 
 of life he has fit lessons, so nicely dovetailed 
 into rhyme, that the morality seems made ex- 
 pressly for the language, or the language for 
 the morality. His thoughts all running about 
 among the duties of life voluntarily move in 
 
44 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 harmonious numbers, as if to think and to rhyme 
 were one solitary attribute. For the nurse who 
 wants a song for her babe the boy who is 
 tormented by the dread of the birch the youth 
 whose beard begins to grow the loyer who 
 desires a posey for his lady's ring for the hus- 
 band father grandsire for all there is a store- 
 to encourage to console and to be grateful for.* 
 Of Cats Bilderdyk asks 
 
 "Goede, dierbre Vader Cats 
 Wat behelst ge niet al Schats?"f 
 
 * The Dutch poets are not always very close observers. 
 They sometimes roll out their cumbrous phrases without 
 much thought. Thus Cats represents the lightning as 
 breaking a sword into hundred pieces. 
 
 De blixem kan het sweert in honderd stucken breeken 
 Maar laet de schede gaef, daarin het heeft gesteken. 
 Into a hundred parts the lightning breaks the blade, 
 But leaves the sheath untouch'd in which the sword was laid. 
 
 f Good, beloved Father Cats ! 
 "What dost thou contain but treasure? 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 45 
 
 It is all treasure, no doubt though sometimes 
 not very valuable. 
 
 Cats was a lawyer a professor an ambassa- 
 dor to England a farmer a philosopher an 
 historian as well as a moralist and poet. The 
 titles of his works are indices to their contents. 
 Among them are De Ouderdom, Old Age; Buy- 
 ten Leven, Out- of-Doors Life; Hofgedachten, 
 Garden Thoughts; Gedachten op Slapelooze 
 Nachten, Thoughts of Sleepless Nights; Troutv- 
 ring, Marriage Ring; Zelfstrijt, Self-struggle, etc. 
 Never was a poet so essentially the poet of the 
 people. He is always intelligible always sen- 
 sible and, as was well said of him by de Kruijff. 
 
 ' Smiling he teaches truth, and sporting wins to 
 
 (virtue."* 
 
 This was an epoch in which the great men 
 
 * " Haar lagchend wysheid leert, haar spelend vormt 
 ter deugd. 1 ' 
 
46 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 of Holland exercised no little influence on Eu- 
 rope. It was the age of Schryyer (Scriyerius), 
 Heins (Heinsius), Seyecote (Zeyecotius), VanBaerle 
 (Barlaeus), and others, whose works, like those 
 of De Groot, obtained for them the applause of 
 the learned of many nations* There are one 
 or. two tolerable poets at this time in Holland, 
 besides those we haye mentioned. Laurence 
 Reaal was the friend and fellow-labourer of 
 Vondel; and Coster, an Amsterdam doctor, was 
 almost the founder of the stage in the place of 
 his birth. John de Brune's Emblemata contain 
 some ingenious translations, and at the end about 
 three-and-fifty excellent moral aphorisms, in the 
 style of Cato. Flanders had at this period two 
 writers of some merit, Van der Ust, who pu- 
 blished a yolume of sacred poems (Geestelijke 
 Gedic7iten\ and Van de Nieuwlandt, the author 
 of seyeral dramas and an Essay on Man. 
 
 The Wetsteen der Vernuften (Whetstone of 
 Wits) of Jan de Brune the younger, is a collec- 
 tion of humorous stories and cleyer sayings, 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 4 7 
 
 gathered up from all quarters, and recorded in 
 a very piquant and agreeable style. One of the 
 chapters is a very glowing dissertation on kisses, 
 where an enamoured one may find all the phra- 
 seology that exaggeration ever brought to the 
 altars of the fair. In one of the poems he ex- 
 presses his wonder that the fire and flames from 
 the eyes of his mistress do not melt the mirror 
 on which she is looking; and then discovers that 
 it is only her mild benevolence which checs her 
 scorching power. 
 
 Dordrecht became at this period the seat of a 
 new school of poetry, and Joncktys was one of 
 the most distinguished of its professors. Roselijn's 
 Oochies (Rosalind's Eyes) a collection of amato- 
 ry poems, in which this are the most remarka- 
 ble was one of the productions of that diseased 
 and exaggerated taste whose allegorical expressi- 
 ons are so overwhelming, that sense and nonsen- 
 se, folly and wisdom are equally entangled, and 
 one is puzzled to discover either the true "no- 
 meaning" or the hidden wit. You poke your 
 
48 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 finger into a fire, and hardly know whether it 
 is to rescue a gem or to draw out an iron nail. 
 Decker, his contemporary, was undoubtedly a 
 greater man than Joncktys. He was horn at 
 Dort, hut left it in very early youth with his 
 father, who hecame a hroker at Amsterdam. The 
 Praise of Avarice (Lof der Geldzucht), Good Fri- 
 day (Goeden Vrijdag), and, more than all, his 
 domestic elegies (of which some translations are 
 given hy Bowring, p. 171 183), are among the 
 most touching poems in the Dutch language. 
 They hreathe very pathetic sentimens in a flo- 
 wing and graceful style. Jan Krull, a labouring 
 blacksmith, published a volume of erotic poetry, 
 which is a happy imitation of the manner of Cats. 
 And here we may remark by the way, that 
 the great men of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 century, who throw such a splendour over the 
 literature of Holland, are seldom connected in 
 our thoughts with the country to which they 
 belong. They write the learned language of 
 Europe, not that of their native land; and when 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 4g 
 
 we hear of Erasmus , Grotius, Boerhaave , Vos- 
 sius, the Elzevirs, Spinosa, Barlaeus, and Armini- 
 us, the associations of the place of their birth, 
 or of their abode seem scarcely in any way lin- 
 ked with their illustrious names. In fact, the 
 old and absurd habit of Helenizing or Latinizing 
 their surnames, frequently leads to great confu- 
 sion in their patronymics. The name of Aure- 
 liusj the preceptor of Erasmus, was no better than 
 Hermanszoon Canisius was Mynheer De Hondt 
 Fullonius is Willem Gaaeffe and the magnifi- 
 cent Johannes Palceonydorus, without his mask, 
 is simply Jan Oudewater. One great name of 
 Holland shines in all its pristine glory]: it is that 
 of Cornelis Bynkershoek. But what shall we say 
 to the vanity of Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus, 
 with his Latin and Greek names, each meaning 
 the same thing? His mother knew him only as 
 Gherardt Gherardts. Then was there Jan van 
 Gorp, who wrote a book to prove that Adam and 
 Eve spoke Dutch alone, but was ashamed to em- 
 ploy the language of Paradise to introduce him- 
 
50 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 self to the learned world, and took thereupon the 
 title of Goropius Becaims. * 
 
 It is true, that in the sentimentality of the old 
 versifiers there is little poetry, but there is so- 
 metimes much wisdom; and they frequently bring 
 the sanctions and the requirements of religion to 
 bear upon the everyday pursuits of life in em- 
 phatic rhymes, which leave a deep impression 
 on the mind. No language has so yast a collec- 
 tion of such moral aphorisms as the Dutch. Books 
 of emblems, once so popular in the religious 
 world, exist in innumerable varieties; and volu- 
 mes, like that of which Isaak Walton's Complete 
 Angler may be called a piscatorial specimen, 
 garnished and adorned with, moralizations and 
 amatory verses, occupy the whole field of litera- 
 ture. We have a specimen before us which ran 
 through many editions in its day, and obtained 
 unbounded praises for its author. It is the 
 
 * J. F. Willems Verbandeliog, I. 27. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 5l 
 
 tavische Arcadia of John van Heemskerk, who 
 starts his travellers " the hopeless Reynhert," tor- 
 mented with his " deceitful dreams, and harassed 
 by fruitless anxieties one who extracted restless- 
 ness even out of repose/' and " the never-enough 
 to-be-vaunted Rosamond." that they, in the garb 
 of Arcadians, accompanied by other shepherds 
 and shepherdesses, may visit and talk over the 
 beauties of Holland, Exquisite moralists these, 
 and sweet companions he all knowledge, she all 
 kindness. Heemskerk is far more erudite than 
 Walton. He sports with many languages, talks 
 of high affairs of state, and, in the midst of the 
 smiles and kisses which he lavishes upon his be- 
 autiful maiden, he can smoke his pipe, discuss 
 the rise and fall of empires, decide on questions 
 of international law, criticise critics, and recount 
 the battles of De Ruytcr with Egyptian crocodi- 
 les. When the white-handed Rosamond says 
 neither "yes," nor "no," to Reynhert's petition 
 that he may sit by her side, he quotes a hundred 
 authorities from the laws of Goths and Greeks, 
 c a 
 
52 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 and Romans, to prove that silence gives con- 
 sent " Qui tacet consentire videtur" He is a 
 
 
 
 poet too, with minnesongs ever flowing from his 
 impassioned tongue, and makes all the objects 
 around him minister to his passions. So when 
 they look upon the rapid Rhine together, he re- 
 minds his fair one 
 
 Thou hast been cruel and how long 
 
 While prayers and plaints were pour'd in vain; 
 
 May not the lover's moral song 
 
 The sweet, sad song thy smiles obtain? 
 
 Look at that passing stream its waves 
 Flow on, flow on and ne'er return j 
 
 So martals hasten to their graves; 
 So even thy beauty seeks its urn* 
 
 Yes! so thy years depart, sweet maid, 
 Ere thou hast dreamt they fly so fast: 
 
 They cannot be redeemed, nor paid 
 With bags of gold if such thou hast. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 
 
 Come then, enjoy them for regret 
 Will come too late when joy is fled ; 
 
 The hour for bliss is dawning yet 
 But there is darkness o'er the dead. * 
 
 * Yerharde herdcrinnen, 
 
 Die noch Let smeeken noch de klacht 
 Van uw getrouwe herders acht, 
 Afkeerig van hct soete miimeu. 
 
 Siet hoe de vlugge baren, 
 
 Eens weggeyloeyd, nooit komen weer, 
 En laet u dat zijn tot een leer, 
 
 Dat even soo gaen deur uw jareu. 
 
 Uw jaren, haest verloopen, 
 En eer gij 't gist in korten ttjt 
 Haar smakelijke jeugdje kwijt, 
 
 Zijn met geeu naberouw te koopen. 
 
 Gael aan, gaet met woeden, 
 
 Uw wreedheid teelt haar eigen straf, 
 Die gy suit dragen in het graf 
 
 En met uw leed ons lecd vergoeden. 
 c 3 
 
54 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 The good man is rather credulous in his way, 
 and relates with terror-struck simplicity divers 
 witch and wizard stones, " awful to tell/' with 
 the evidence arrayed in irresistible majesty at 
 the foot of the page. But this was the creed of 
 his day, which every body was ready to swear 
 to y and he ventures to introduce a few doubts 
 and inquiries well befitting the occasion, though 
 with becoming reverence and timidity. When 
 he discourses of his country, it is in all the pride 
 and glory of a patriot: her deeds he loves to 
 dwell on her great names he is delighted to 
 honour the laudatory testimony of strangers he 
 industriously gathers together and celebrates her 
 foreign conquests as if he had been appointed 
 the laureate of his day. The dissertation on " su- 
 garsweet kisses" is worthy of an historian and 
 a philosopher; he piles up mountains of proofs 
 of their antiquity and utility, and the sacrifices 
 made to obtain them, shows how they were ho- 
 noured by all nations, and celebrated by all 
 orators: he classifies them as if they were speci- 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 55 
 
 mens of natural history (and so they are), and 
 makes out so strong a case to the " coral-lipped 
 shepherdess," that she could not but reward the 
 petitioner with the prize he had so exalted. But 
 as we proceed deeper and deeper into the volu- 
 me, the learning smothers the love, and the be- 
 autiful descriptions of dewy delights and green 
 woods, and fields and pastures, are overwhelmed 
 by a prodigious display of historical research, 
 vituperations of the Duke of Alva, and refined 
 discussions about the Roman law all which the 
 author tells us was listened to with great delight 
 by "the Arcadians/ 7 but which we confess w 
 have not been able to digest. We expected the 
 narrative would end in the espousals of Pure- 
 heart and Rosemouth, but they are no farther ad- 
 vanced at the end of the volume than that the 
 gentleman is allowed free liberty to toast the 
 lady j and midnight being past, every one retires 
 to his bed of rest. This volume is only one of 
 many with similar titles; that of Haarlem, by 
 Loosjes, is of our day; but even the dismal sandj 
 
56 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 and stagnant pools of Holland have had thefr 
 " Arcadian" celehrations. Heemskerk's Art of Love 
 {Mijinekunst), has been lately introduced into 
 notice bj an eminent archaeologist (J.Scheltema). 
 It is an agreeable and harmonious composition. 
 Heemskerk had a friend, Van der Burg, whom 
 Scheltema has brought forth from obscurity. He 
 had also Westerbaen for his contemporary, 
 whose Ockenburg and Reply to Voiidel's Altar- 
 mysteries have often been highly spoken of. But 
 though he wrote with readiness, there is nothing 
 easy or emphatic in his works. An amusing 
 prose satire appeared in 1612, entitled Comoedia 
 Vetus, or Seaman's Talk (Bootsmans Praetje). It 
 attacked the Protestant Clergy as little better than 
 their B.omish predecessors. Mathematical works 
 began at this period to appear in the popular 
 tongue. Beverwyk first wrote on the medical art, 
 Paffenrode on strategics , and Witsen on naval 
 architecture. 
 
 There is no dearth of literary names at this 
 period, but there are few raised above media- 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 7 
 
 crity. Peter de Groot, the son of the great Hugo, 
 owes distinction to the circumstance of his being 
 the son of his father." The Mask of the World 
 (Masker van de Wereldt) , ofPoirtiers, a Brahant 
 
 poet, went through six-and-thirty editions ; itsui- 
 
 
 ted the religious temper of the times , and , like 
 
 Wolschaten's Death Ummasked with the World's 
 Vanity (De Dood ontmaskert met des Werelts 
 :Ydelheyf) , had its origin in Hans Holhein's Dance 
 of Death , a composition which exercised for ages 
 an almost unbounded influence. Jan Vos's Arau 
 and Titus filled his country with expectations 
 which were never realized ; he fell into an ab- 
 surd bombastic style, which was fostered by the 
 foolish praises of his contemporaries. Anslo sins 
 against simplicity too, but his poem on the Pla- 
 gue of Naples will well repay the trouble of rea- 
 ding. Oudacn and Dullaert., two Rotterdam, 
 poets , are honoured by Professor Siegenbeek with 
 a portion of praise which we cannot echo back. 
 The seventeenth century closes to introduce a 
 melancholy successor. The last name of interest 
 c 5 
 
58 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 "in it is that of Gerard Brandt, who did his best 
 to cover the heroes" of Holland" with glory/' 
 and whose epigrams are still quoted with admira- 
 tion. We do not think them by any means en- 
 titled to the good opinion which has so long ho- 
 
 
 
 noured them. But his mind was strong and cul- 
 tivated, and his historical works are undoubtedly 
 among the best that Holland has produced. We 
 need not mention his well-known History of the 
 Reformation; but his Life of De Ruiter and his ac- 
 count of the Trial of Oldenbarnevelt are admi- 
 rable specimens of prose. 
 
 The persecuted Protestants , whom the reYoca- 
 tion of the Edict of Nantes led to settle in Hol- 
 land , while they brought with them virtue , 
 knowledge, and industry, brought with them, 
 too ; their affection for the language of their fa- 
 ther-land ; and its influence was much increased 
 by the eminent abilities which distinguished many 
 of those illustrious refugees. Bayle and Saurin 
 especially excited the attention of the European 
 world; and the very prohibition of their writing* 
 
A ND T.TTTCH A TURE OP HOLLAND. 5g 
 
 by the vainglorious Louis XIV gave them addi- 
 tional recommendation. They fell, too, as we have 
 remarked, on an era when few eminent Hollanders 
 were on the public stage. Their hatred towards 
 Louis and the profligate women of his court, was 
 a feeling very congenial to the Dutch, who easily 
 fell into the footsteps of those who gave eloquence 
 to their antipathies, and illustrated their preju- 
 dices with erudition, and the French school esta- 
 blished its domination over the whole of the Ne- 
 therlands. 
 
 Antonides van der Goes had the enthusiasm, 
 but not the high talents necessary to redeem his 
 country's literature from the affectation and ser- 
 vility into which it was rapidly falling. He thus 
 expresses his indignation at the corrupting in- 
 fluence of the French in the following words, in 
 a letter to his friend Oudaen: 
 
 What turbulent spirit rules the land, and stains 
 With its pullution Hoi] raid's patriot plains, 
 Poisons our pens, infects the very air, 
 
60 SKETCH OF THE 
 
 Long ere we know the hideous monster's there? 
 For unperceived it rears a monarch's head, 
 Insults our language, and confers instead, 
 The bastard speech the wantonness of Gaul.* 
 
 Antonides followed Vondel as far as he was 
 able. His principal work is his poem on the 
 Iliver Y. There is an episode, where the spirit 
 of the Peruvians, Ataliba, appeals to the Hollan- 
 ders in the waters of the tropics, imploring them 
 to avenge the tyranny of the Spaniards, which 
 has been much praised. The idea is obviously 
 borrowed from Camoens' Adamastor, but Anto^ 
 nides' creation is at infinite distance from that 
 huge and sublime creation, that mass of intelleo- 
 
 * Wat tuimelgeest beheerscht het land? Wat bastaerdy 
 Valt in ons eigendora, en smet als een harpy 
 Tot ons schandael geteelt, met haer vergifte pennen, 
 De gausche luft, zelfeer wy't gruwzaena monster kennen? 
 Dat reukeloos het hooft yerhefiende als vorstin, 
 De tael van Neerlant schopt en dringt er Vraxikrijk ia 
 Met zyne bastertsprueck eu dartele 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOfXAND. 6l 
 
 tual granite rolling about amidst the storms of 
 the Capo, tormrntprl by mortal passions^ and ship- 
 wrecked in more than mortal disappointment. An- 
 tonides 7 Bellona was received with great enthusiasm; 
 it sang the triumphs of Holland over England. 
 Sad suhjects these for song; the triumphs pass 
 away, but not the hatred j and the malignant pas- 
 sions, awakened for the purposes of an hour, remain 
 behind to torment many generations. A very 
 acute author (Witsen Geysbeek ; ) who has lately 
 published an edition of the Ystroom, places An- 
 tonides at the head of all the poets of the seven- 
 teenth century. He was the favourite child of 
 Vondel's affection; the effect of his works is much 
 diminished by his mythological machinery, but 
 there are very few compositions which can be 
 read with such a sustained pleasure as is River 
 Y. Hoogstraten wrote the life of Antonides, which 
 is placed at the head of his works. 
 
 There is little but weariness now and for some 
 time forward. Rotgans is hardly entitled to Le 
 mentioned, nor Langendyk, who seems to havs 
 
62 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 been a joyous creature, but not a very wise one. 
 There is an absolute deluge of rhymsters. Somo 
 few eminent men appeared in the field of philology, 
 particularly Ten Kate, whose knowledge of the prin- 
 cipal sources of the Dutch tongue enabled him to 
 treat the subject with originality and with success. 
 Perhaps the only poetical name that ought to be 
 rescued from amidst these obscurities, is Foot, tho 
 poet of the plough, whom we mention more be- 
 cause he was a ploughman, than because we deem 
 him a poet. Of himself he says: 
 
 I am a peasant's son, no wealth have I, 
 For wanton Fortune turns her back on me, 
 Even to this hour my hands my food supply, 
 
 * * * X: 
 
 Though young, I hail'd the light of poetry, 
 With Hooft and Vondel ever in mine eye, 
 Lost in her wastes, and sought, at distance long, 
 To follow her proud swans, and imitate their song.* 
 
 * 'k Ben Pool een landmans zoon, misdeeld van njke 
 De dartele Fortuin keert mij den rugge toe (schatten, 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 63 
 
 His best pieces are his De Maan lij Endymion 
 (The Moon by Endymion), Wachten (Watching), 
 and liet Landleven (Country Life). De Clercq has 
 fancied a resemblance between him and B urs: 
 it goes no further than that they both followed 
 the wain, and both made verses Burns, full of 
 nature, beauty, truth and power Poot, usually 
 bombastic, mythological, false, and feeble. 
 
 One Matthew Gorgon, of Flushing, wrote the 
 Walcheren Arcadia, in which he makes out that 
 island to be another Paradise. We imagine the 
 planners of a certain famous Expedition had stu- 
 died him. Assuredly the " Gorgon" was to them 
 a "chimera dire." 
 
 Abraham Hoogvliet sinned against the reigning 
 taste of his time, by disregarding the unities; he 
 
 Ik leef tot heden van den arbcid mijncr haucleii. 
 * * * * * 
 
 Ik ben noch jong ; maar heb de dicblkunst lang geprezen, 
 "Waarin ik "wild en woest, bij wijlen iet begon 
 Tot Hooft en Vondel mij bet beste dichlspoor wezen 
 Ocb, of mijn trage vlugt die zwauen volgen kon I 
 
64 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 put, however ; little better in their stead. His 
 narrative poem of Abraham de jiartsvader, is 
 little more than a rhymed and elaborated history 
 of the Patriarch. We are hound to confess on 
 our critical integrity that we have not read it, 
 though for years the quarto volume has lain on 
 the duty-to-be-done shelf, and we have made dM 
 vers heroic attempt, which, without having much 
 fault to find with the garrulous narrator, have 
 always ended in a sudden though not a peevish 
 divorce. M. Siegenbeek speaks of his immortality! 
 We fear that a very little gust would blow it away. 
 Holland was next deluged with a flood of trans- 
 lations, imitations, arid adaptations of the master- 
 pieces of the French drama ; the effect was to in- 
 troduce a false and foreign taste, and a deter- 
 mination to sacrifice all nationality on the altar 
 of the unities. A handful of pedants took pos- 
 session of the whole field of literature, with their 
 oversettings (overzettingen), mis speechifyings (ver- 
 talingen), and dislocations (verplaatsingen), of 
 the dramatists of France. Individually weak^ they 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 65 
 
 tried to become strong by association, and they 
 banded together to bring the histrionic genius of 
 the Seine to preside over the Gragts of the Am- 
 fitel. We feel the peculiar beauties of the French 
 theatre, but they are stately and cold, of artifi- 
 cial growth, and uncongenial to the general mind. 
 Every attempt to plant them elsewhere, however 
 favourable the occasion, has failed. Their roots 
 do not descend deep enough into our everyday 
 feelings; to enjoy them a man must move out of 
 his own breast, and accustom himself to an at- 
 mosphere foreign to his habitual existence. They 
 are fine, and so was Catherina's palace of ice, 
 and so is the Pantheon; but there are things far 
 finer, temples more sublime. We do not object 
 to the particular order of French dramatic ar- 
 chitecture, but it must not be the only one. Let 
 it be a standard among those who follow it, but 
 never let it become the law and the testimony 
 for the whole intellectual world. The next step 
 in Holland was to make French prose the text of 
 Duth poetry j the versified translation of Fcnelons 
 
66 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 admirable romance occupied no less than twenty 
 years of the life of a man who was the great 
 authority of his day and generation, but who is 
 now forgotten Feitama. His translation was us- 
 hered into the world with a "flourish of trum- 
 pets" sufficient to shake the w r alls of Jericho. The 
 art of puffing was then but imperfectly under- 
 stood, yet year after year the progress of the 
 mountain's labour was announced, a thousand 
 minute guns told mankind the hour of parturi- 
 tion was come: et nasciiur amidst the roar of 
 the artillery, a trumpery brat that died in child- 
 hood, whose story is already in oblivion, and 
 whose name was Feitama's Telemachus. Feitama 
 was a pernicious literary fop, who settled all 
 matters of taste in his day, and got round him 
 a circle of worshippers. The delusion was soon 
 dissipated, and we need not linger about it. Schim 
 is tasteless, De Marre diffuse, Zweerts altogether 
 worthless, and Didier Smits, whose "brilliant qua- 
 lities" the too laudatory professor too precipita- 
 tely praises, was a very virtuous citizen, but no- 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLlAND. 6? 
 
 thing more. Steenwyk, who was Feitama's fa- 
 vourite follower, published two bombastic epics, 
 in which divers grand allegorical personages tread 
 on the heels of one another in fine confusion. 
 
 The brothers Van Haren, two Frisian noble- 
 men, rank among the restorers of a better taste. 
 William's Leonidas, though scarcely equal to that 
 of our Glover, is notwithstanding very superior 
 to most of the contemporary works, and is full 
 of patriotic sentiment ; the Friso aspires to the 
 honours of the epic. It is the tale of the fabu- 
 lous founders of the Frisian people, and has some 
 poetical pictures. It is very obviously an imi- 
 tation of Telemachus, though not in the extre- 
 mely servile spirit of most of the writers of this 
 epoch. His Menschelijk Leven (Human Life), 
 is found in almost every collection of Dutch poe- 
 try. The measure of it, though original, is not 
 very agreable. It is thus: 
 
 Alas! Alas! how swift our days are leaving J 
 How every fleeting hour a faded lustre bears! 
 
68 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 What transient bliss what constant grieving* 
 How few delights how many tears! * 
 
 But it is too long to be given at length. 
 
 The Geuzen (Beggars) of Onno Zwier vanHa- 
 ren, is one of the most popular poems, or collec- 
 tion of poems, in the Dutch language. It is a 
 congregation of odes, not united by any common 
 thread, of which, in fact, any one may be deta- 
 ched from the rest. Onno Zwier published a 
 specimen of biography of the illustrious men of 
 the Netherlands, which though apparently writ- 
 ten with haste, is highly esteemed, and seems to 
 have given the idea to the anonymous author, 
 (believed to be Simon Styl,) of a work in ten 
 volumes, inSvo., printed 1777-88, containing Noti- 
 ces of eminent men and women, mostly Nether- 
 
 * Helaas, helaas! hoe vlieden onze dagen, 
 Hoe spocdt zich ieder uur met onzen luister been! 
 
 Hoe flaauwe vreugd, hoe bittre plageD, 
 Hoe min yermaak, hoe veel geween! 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 69 
 
 landers. Onno Zwier's episode of Rosamond is 
 known, by hearth, to every child in Holland. 
 
 Trip's Ti}dwinst in ledige Vren, (Time-saving 
 of leisure hours,) is one of those gloomy works, 
 which like Young's Night Thoughts, seem made 
 rather to destroy, than to excite, enjoyment. We 
 think nothing is more opposed to the true cha- 
 racter of religion, than those lugubrious views 
 of it, which mischievously interfere with happi- 
 ness. But besides this, Trip is frequently obscure, 
 and sometimes affected. Voet, his contemporary, 
 has the same faults, with fewer excellencies, 
 though his version of the Psalms continues to 
 enjoy some applause. Bakker (Huisinga) has 
 among his Gedicliten y of which there are three 
 volumes some short pieces, which, as Siegenbeek 
 truly says, are energetic and forcible. We would 
 mention, for example, his Birth-greeting to Hylas, 
 Geloortegroet aan Hylas. 
 
 The Hollandsche Spectator of Van Effen, brought 
 to the Netherlands the spirit of the British Essay- 
 ists, modelling it to the temper and the manners 
 
70 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 of his day, admirably representing the then cha- 
 racter of the Dutch. It was published in num- 
 bers, like the English Spectator, and contains three 
 hundred and sixty Essays on a great variety of 
 topics. 
 
 For their travels and voyages the Dutch have 
 in all times been distinguished, more so than for 
 their descriptions of them. Witsen's Account of 
 Tartary is, however, well known. 
 
 We set but little value, to own the honest 
 truth, on the Dutch historians. The great twen- 
 ty-volume work of Wagenaar is a very elaborate 
 assemblage of facts, doggedly and industriously 
 dug out of such stores as the author had access 
 to. It is an unadorned and cumbrous chronicle, 
 in which by no chance is any new light elicited, 
 or any philosophical deduction stumbled upon* 
 It is the proces- verbal of history* written by a 
 notary's clerk. Simon Slyl, the author of the 
 Opkojnst en Bloei der F'ereenigde Nederlanden, 
 (Rise and Prosperity of the United Netherlands,) 
 i* a writer of a far more lively, though not of 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 71 
 
 a very sagacious stamp. He flings his thoughts 
 about him, and if they do not always fix upon 
 truth, they frequently give valuable materials 
 for the more correct thoughts of others. Van 
 Loon's Nederlandsche Historic Penningen 9 (His- 
 tory of Netherland Coins,) is a work in five folio 
 volumes, which records with considerable interest 
 all the political events from i555 to 1718, that 
 are in any way connected with numismatics. 
 
 To this period belongs a woman of considera- 
 ble learning, and not without poetical talent, 
 Juliana Cornelia de Lannoy, of whose poem on 
 the Saviours of Ley den some strophes are admi- 
 rable. Two of her tragedies Het Beleg van 
 Haarlem (the Siege of Haarlem) and Leo de 
 Groote, (Leo the Great) are good. Bilderdyk 
 published her posthumous works. This was a 
 period of female literature. Elizabeth Wolff and 
 Agatha Deken wrote a series of novels or roman- 
 ces, which though somewhat diffuse, are happy 
 pictures of manners. The most remarkable are 
 Sarah Burgerhart, in two volumes, William Le- 
 
72 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE? 
 
 vend, in eight volumes, and the Letters of Abrcf* 
 ham Blank aart and Cornelia Wilds chut. The 
 best national novels are those of Loosjes. They 
 are very numerous, and some of them, particu- 
 larly Maurits lAjnslager and Hildegonda Buisman, 
 contain very accurate pictures of Dutch society j 
 he introduces, as does Sir Walter Scott, (we do 
 not mean to draw a comparison, lest it should 
 make too awful a contrast hetween them) many 
 real characters, and though his invention is 
 neither very creative, nor his groupings very 
 sagacious, there are events and varieties enough 
 to make his volumes attractive. 
 
 Mrs. Van Merken was very instrumental in 
 forming a new era. She was herself a writer of 
 no mean standing. She produced several trage- 
 dies, the suhjects of most of them taken from the 
 history of Holland ; and her didactic poem on 
 the uses of adversity JFfef nut der tegenspoeden 
 is of a very motherly and moral character. Her 
 Germanicus is an attempted flight, upon leaden 
 wings with some tolerable passages, particulary 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 7$ 
 
 the beginning of the second book, but on the 
 whole dull, laboured and prosaic. Her David is 
 no better though twelve chapters are given to 
 t.is history and some other matters are worse. 
 But she was superior to most of those of her 
 time the trumpery Hayley-period of Holland 
 and compared to the dictator Feitama, to whom 
 she succeeded, we are willing to give her almost 
 any title but that of "glorious," with which the 
 learned, but too gallant professor, honours her. 
 She was the wife of Van Winter, the translator 
 of Thomson's Seasons a fair return for Thom- 
 son's having sung him. The lady was the dee- 
 pest "blue of her time, and used to gather round 
 her all the young geniuses that they might hear 
 her spout her own poetry is was of the best 
 that was then manufactured. We have heard 
 the society described over which she swayed her, 
 queenlike and imperial sceptre when however 
 despotic her authority, she had the sagacity to 
 separate the sheep from the goats. Bilderdyk was 
 one of them, and though he used to laugh at her 
 
7^ SKET CH OF THE LANGU AGE 
 
 vanity, he found much instruction from her talents. 
 
 Sara Maria van der Wilp was also a lady verse- 
 
 maker of this period, in whose writings the good 
 
 professor sees great delicacy of expression and a 
 
 flowing versification. We can discover nothing 
 
 in them but feeble generalities vague and prosaic. 
 
 Huydecoper made a new dramatic experiment, 
 
 that of replacing the chorus of the ancients by 
 
 monologues. That of Achilles, in the first act, 
 
 beginning- 
 
 Ik heb u wederom doen keeren, 
 
 is frequently spoken of with approbation. In 
 our ears it dances like a song without music, 
 and every verse ends with the assurance of the 
 himself, that 
 
 Hero-Achilles lives not without honour 
 
 is very well for the world to know, on 
 the best authority, that is from his own mouth, 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 7 5 
 
 which repeats the self-eulogium five times over. 
 Huydecoper's commentaries; Loth on the ancient 
 poets of Holland, in his edition of Melis Stoke 
 and on Vondel's translation of the Metamorpho- 
 ses of Ovid, are acute and valuable. 
 
 Jaqueline of Bavaria is a fine subject for the 
 drama of De Marre ; of his treatment of it the 
 most that can be said is, to use a French phra- 
 seology, that it "leaves much to desire." 
 
 Whe consider Bellamy to haye introduced a 
 new epoch. 
 
 The Hollanders compare him to the German 
 Holty. He died in his early days, (aet. 29) after 
 winning much honourable laud. A ballad of his 
 [Roosje] is perhaps the most touchingly told story 
 which the Dutch possess. It is of a maid a 
 beloved maid born at her mother's death bred 
 up 'midst the tears and kisses of her father- 
 prattling thoughtlessly about her mother- every 
 one's admiration Tor beauty, cleverness and vir- 
 tuegentle as the moon shining on the downs. 
 Her name was to be seen written again and again 
 D 2 
 
76 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 on the sands by the Zeeland youths and scar- 
 cely a beautiful flower bloomed but was gathe- 
 red for her. Now in Zeeland, when the south- 
 winds of summer come, there comes too a deli- 
 cate fish, which hides itself in the sand, and 
 which is dug out as a luxury by the young 
 people. It is the time of sport and gaiety and 
 they venture far far over the flat coast into the 
 sea. The boys drag the girls among the waves 
 and Roosje was so dragged, notwithstanding many 
 appeals. "A kiss, a kiss, or you go further," 
 cried her conductor she fled he followed, both 
 laughing : " Into the sea into the sen," said all 
 their companions he pushes her 011 it is dee- 
 per, and deeper she shrieks she sinks they 
 sink together the sands were faithless there was 
 no succour the waves rolled over them there 
 was stillness and death : The terrified playmates 
 looked 
 
 "All silently, they look'd again 
 And silently sped home 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 77 
 
 And every heart was bursting then, 
 But every tongue was dumb. 
 
 And still and stately o'er the wave, 
 
 The mournfull moon arose, 
 Flinging pale beams upon the grave, 
 
 Where they in peace repose. 
 
 The wind glanced o'er the voiceless sea, 
 
 The billows kissed the strand 
 And one sad dirge of misery 
 
 Filled all the mourning land."* 
 
 * De jeugd ging, zwijgend, van het strand, 
 
 En 7,ag gedurig om : 
 Een ieders hart was vol gevoel, 
 Maar ieders tong was stom ! 
 
 De maan klom stil en statig op, 
 
 En scheen op 't aaklig graf, 
 Waarin het lieve, jonge paar 
 
 Het laatste zuchtje gaf. 
 D 3 
 
f 8 . SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 His Verrader des Vaderlands, (betrayer of his 
 country) is a fine specimen of vituperative in- 
 dignation, and his Ode aan God makes an ap- 
 propriate counterpart to Nieuwland's Orion. Many 
 yet live who knew him, (he died in 1786) and 
 who still speak of him with strong affection. 
 Some of his writings were translated into German, 
 and published at Vienna, in 1790. Van der 
 Palm wrote an eloquent eulogium on Bellamy, 
 who was his friend and companion. There were 
 many interesting young men attached to Bellamy 
 whose compositions met with great applause, 
 particularly Hinlopen's address to Bilderdyk, on 
 his return from exile in 1806. Rau, another of 
 his friends, has been distinguished as an orator, 
 and Kleyn, as a poet, whose lyrics are worthy 
 of praise. 
 
 De wind stak bevig op uit zee 
 De golven beukten *t strand j 
 
 En schielijk was de droeve maar 
 Verspreidt door Y ganlsche Land. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 7 CJ 
 
 Nieuwland rose from the retirement of a little 
 village to excite the attention and admiration of 
 all the literary men of Holland. He was one 
 of those through whom his country received back 
 again the light she had given to Germany, two 
 centuries before.* Nieuwland's most remarkable 
 productions are his Orion, of which a translation 
 has been published in English, and his ode Op 
 den Dood mijner Echtgenoote (On the Death of 
 my Wife). He obtained great distinction for his 
 philosophical knowledge, but died at the age of 
 thirty, disappointing many hopes. 
 
 Van Alphen's poems for children are among 
 the best that were ever written. They are a 
 
 * Ihr Heinsius, ihr Phoenix unserer Zeiten, 
 Ihr, Sohn der Ewigkeit, begiinstigt auszubreiten 
 Die Fliigel der Vernunft 
 
 Ich auch, weil ihr nur seyd in Schreiben vorgegangen 
 Was ich fur Ehr und Ruhrn durch Hochdeutsch werd 
 Will meinem Yateiland erofFnen rund und frei (erlangeii 
 Dass eure Poesie, der meinen Mutter sei Opitz. 
 
80 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 precious inheritance for the youth of the Nether- 
 lands. They teach virtue in simple eloquence, 
 and are better known in Holland (which is saying 
 much), than are the Hymns of Dr. Watts or Mrs. 
 Barbauld here. His Starry Heaven (Starren He- 
 mel\ is an ode of great sublimity, and perhaps 
 the most popular piece in the whole extent of 
 Dutch literature. He appears to us decidedly 
 one of the most harmonious of the modern wri- 
 ters of the Netherlands: though the influence of 
 Germany is strong upon him, nothing can be 
 more natural than the sentiments of many of his 
 compositions, There is one beginning "Nederland 
 is opgerezen/' which is a fine patriotic outpouring 
 on the peace of Munster and the independence 
 of Holland. 
 
 There is no want of historical materials in the 
 Netherlands: there is no want of erudite chro- 
 niclers and very industrious collators of facts. 
 What is wanting, is that sound philosophy which 
 can apply judicious and appropriate tests to the 
 narratives of the past, and enlighten the resear- 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 8l 
 
 ches of the industrious by the novel conceptions 
 or combinations of sagacity. Te Water's Historic 
 van kef Verbond en de Smeekschriften der Neder- 
 landsche Edelen (History of the Alliance and 
 Petitions of the Netherland Nobles), is an admi- 
 rable detail of perseverance, nor less so De Alow- 
 de Staat der Vereenigde Nederlanden (Ancient 
 State of the United Netherlands), by Engelberts. 
 Meerman the bibliopolist's History of William 
 the Second is a monument of learning; so is 
 Kluit's History of the States' Government of Hol- 
 land. Kluit, however, is rather more adventu- 
 rous in his theories than is usual among the 
 Dutch historiographers. 
 
 Feith is entitled to rank among the most influ- 
 ential restorers of the literature of Holland. He 
 is spoken of with respect by all, with hishest 
 admiration by many. The Ouderdom (Old Age), 
 is the best representation of his peculiar merits. 
 Het Graf (the Grave), and his Ode to God are 
 not wanting in some of the higher attributes of 
 poetry; neither is his Ode to Providence. Th 
 
82 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 latter part of his literary* career was an impro- 
 vement on the earlier, for he began in a mean 
 imitative spirit, was often betrayed into an un- 
 healthy Sentimentality, which he had vigour and 
 wisdom to subdue, to that he went on improving 
 even to the end of his career. We do not think, 
 however:, that Feith had power to redeem the 
 Alexandrine versification from its besetting sin 
 monotony. This is Bilderdyk's great merit, with 
 whom it has been but too much the fashion to 
 set up Feith in contrast. There are scarcely any 
 points of resemblance between them. Bilderdyk 
 is always ordinal, though often irregular always 
 learned, though often precipitate always agitated 
 by some passion of love or hate, though profes- 
 sing to look down upon mankind with scornful 
 pity. Feith is an imitator of the German school, 
 though he may be often tracked to Dr. Young's 
 Night Thoughts. He is a pure and pleasing, but 
 not an erudite writer a man of quiet and hou- 
 sehold virtue, whose domestic and social excel- 
 lences served undoubtedly as a passport to his 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 85 
 
 very agreeable, but not very elevated, composi- 
 tions. He is at the topmost point of mediocrity. 
 On one occasion he got into a controversy with 
 Kinker, but Rinker overwhelmed him with irony; 
 it was a vessel of brass against one of clay. Feith; 
 like most of the poets of Holland, seems always 
 under the influence of a grave and sober mora- 
 lity. If now and then the muse wander into the 
 field of imagination, she always returns, and re- 
 turns speedily, to discuss the great interests of 
 virtue. 
 
 The reputation of Helmers a considerable re- 
 putation too was owing rather to the circum- 
 stances that surrounded him than to any very 
 distinguishing merit of his own. He lived at a 
 period when, though a strong national spirit 
 existed in Holland, it was deep, it was buried, 
 it was silent no one had appealed to it no 
 one had effectually touched the cord which was 
 strong in every bosom. It was not that his voice 
 was strong but that it was strongest when the 
 rest were few and feeble; and if his expres- 
 
84 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 sions want orginality and power, his feelings are 
 always pure, and his writings fitted to elevate 
 others to a higher station than his own. His 
 JJollandsche Natie was printed during the French 
 domination. It is a strong appeal in favour of 
 a people whose national existence the mad policy 
 of Napoleon had doomed to annihilation. When 
 his poetry is forgotten, his patriotism will be 
 remembered, though there are a few of his smal- 
 ler works, De Roos, for example, which will not 
 soon die. His Antoninus Pius and Antonius 
 JHambroek, too, are probably destined to live. 
 Helmers died in i8i3. 
 
 Of Borger, another poet of this epoch, who 
 died a few years ago, we cannot resist the desire 
 of making our readers acquainted with a beauti- 
 ful ode To the Rhine." 
 
 In the Borean regions stormy 
 
 There's silence battling hail and rain 
 
 Are hush'd. The calm Rhine rolls before me, 
 Unfettered from its winter chain. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 
 
 Its streams their ancient channels water, 
 And thousand joyous peasants bring 
 The flowery offerings of the spring 
 
 To thee, Mount Gothard's princely daughter ! 
 Monarch of streams, from Alpine brow, 
 
 Who rushing, whelm'st with inundations, 
 
 Or, sovereign-like, divid'st the nations; 
 Lawgiyer all-imperial, thou! 
 
 I have had days, like thine, unclouded 
 Days passed upon thy pleasant shore; 
 
 My heart sprung up in joy unshrouded, 
 Alas! it springs to joy no more. 
 
 My fields of green, my humble dwelling, 
 Which love made beautiful and bright, 
 To me to her my soul's delight, 
 
 Seem'd monarch's palaces excelling, 
 When in our little happy bower 
 
 Or 'neath the starry vault at even, 
 
 We walked in love, and talked of Heaven, 
 And pour'd forth praises for our dower. 
 
86 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 But now I could my hairs well number, 
 
 But not the tears my eyes which wet: 
 The Rhine will to their cradle-slumber 
 
 Roll back its waves, ere I forget 
 Forget the blow that twice hath riven 
 
 The crown of glory from my head. 
 
 God! I have trusted duty-led, 
 'Gainst all rebellious thoughts have striven, 
 
 And strive and call thee Father, still 
 Say all thy will is wisest, kindest 
 Yet twice the burthen that thou bindest 
 
 Is heavy I obey thy will! 
 
 At Katwyk, where the silenced billow 
 Thee welcomes, Rhine, to her own breast, 
 
 There, with the damp sand for her pillow, 
 I laid my treasure in its rest. 
 
 My tears shall with thy waters blend them, 
 Receive those briny tears from me, 
 And when exhaled from the vast sea, 
 
 To her own grave in dew-drops send them 
 A heavenly fall of love for her. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 8/ 
 
 Old Rhine! thy waves 'gainst sorrow steel them. 
 
 no ! man's miseries thou can'st feel them, 
 Then be my griefs interpreter. 
 
 And greet the babe, which earth's green bosom 
 Had but received, when she who bore 
 
 That lovely undeveloped blossom 
 
 Was struck by death the bud the flower. 
 
 1 forced my daughter's tomb her mother 
 Bade me and laid the slumbering child 
 Upon that bosom undefiled. 
 
 Where where could I have found another 
 So dear so pure ? 'Twas wrong to mourn. 
 
 When those so loving slept delighted. 
 
 Should I divide what God united? 
 I laid them in a common urn. 
 
 There are who call this earth a palace 
 
 Of Eden, who on roses go 
 I would not drink again life's chalice, 
 
 Nor tread again its paths of woe. 
 I joy at day's decline the morrow 
 
88 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 Is welcome. In its fearful flight 
 
 I count and count with calm delight 
 My five-and-thirty years of sorrow 
 
 Accomplished. Like this river, years 
 Roll. Press,, ye tombstones, my departed 
 Lightly, and o'er the broken-hearted 
 
 Fling your cold shield, and veil his tears.* 
 
 Bilderdyk has undoubtedly the rare and en- 
 yiable power of seizing at a glance the charac- 
 teristics of genius. He cannot be called critically 
 profound: there is scarcely a quotation from his 
 
 *Zoo rust dan eindlijk 't rirwe noorden 
 
 Van hageljagt en stormgeloei, 
 En roll de Rijn weer langs zijn boorden, 
 
 Ontslagen van de waterboei. 
 Zijn waatren drenken de oude zoomen, 
 
 En f t landvolk, spelende aan zijn' yloed j 
 
 Brengt Yader Rijn den lentegroet, 
 Als Groolvorst van Europa's stroomen, 
 
 Hie, van der Alpen top gedaald, 
 De sli^andeu kust of scheurt de dijken, 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 89 
 
 pen in any language which is not full of errors, 
 yet he has so accurate a perception of the dis- 
 tinguishing points of an author, that his transla- 
 tions bring the orginal home with wonderful 
 vividness and truth. He is precisely the man to 
 lead the way into new fields of literature, to 
 generalise to draw results the details he can- 
 not stoop to. Among these he fails, as Mr. Broug- 
 ham did, when writing about hydraulics. Men'* 
 
 De wereld splitst in koningnjken, 
 En 't yorstelijk regtsgebied bepaalt. 
 
 Ook ik heb onbewolkte dagen 
 Aan dezen oever doorgebragt, 
 
 En warm hceft mij het hart geslagen, 
 Bij 't levenslot mij toegedacht. 
 
 Een morgen gronds, een kleine woning, 
 Verheerlijkt door de liefde en trouw, 
 Was mij en mijne brave Vrouw 
 
 De lustbof van den rijksten koning, 
 Als wij, in 't kunsteloos prieel, 
 
go SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 minds are not like the probosces of elephants, 
 made to wrench trees from the ground, and to 
 pick up pins. 
 
 But Bilderdjk is the commander in chief of a 
 new and triumphant legion. Hs may be vitu- 
 perated, and may deserve it, but he is an illus- 
 trious man: he may have to bear with merited 
 reproaches, but he is a great poet notwithstanding. 
 His is a character not to be estimated by witlings 
 
 Of onder 't ruim der starredaken, 
 Van God en 't eeuwig leyen spraken, 
 En danktea voor 't bescheiden deel. 
 
 En nu ik kan mijn haren tellen, 
 Maar wie telt mijner tranen tal? 
 
 Eer keert de Rijn vveer tot zjjn wellen, , 
 Eer ik den slag vergeten zal. 
 
 Dien slag, die mij ten tweede male 
 
 De kroon deed vallen van het hoofd. - 
 f k Heb sleeds mijn God! aau U geloofd 
 
 En zal, zoo lang ik adem hale, 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 91 
 
 and triflers, neither to be judged of by the ex- 
 aggerated praises of blind disciples, nor the less 
 justifiable abuse of political or polemical anta- 
 gonists. His works have no popularity; he will 
 have no truce with what he deems vice or folly ; so he 
 flings about his firebrands in the sportiveness of 
 his power, to show that fire and light are in him. 
 We neither approve of his opinions, nor justify 
 his manner of advocating them; but when we 
 
 Mij sterken in Uw vadertrouw, 
 Die Dimmer plaagt uit lust tot plagen : 
 Maar toch, bet valt mij zwaar, 1e dragen 
 
 Dien zwarcn last van dubbelen rouw t 
 
 Te Katwijk, \vaar de zoute golven, 
 O Rijnl u \vacbten in baar 7 schoot, 
 
 Daar ligt in 't schrale zand bedolven 
 Mijn kosibaar offer aan den dood. 
 
 *k Wil tranen met uw waalren mengenj 
 Belast u met dien zilten vloed : 
 De droeye zauger heeft geeu' moed, 
 
92 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 see such a man made the scorn of uninstructed, 
 unimaginative minds, we would throw a shield 
 over his vulnerableiiess, and insist on his being 
 respected. His views are of the darker ages : we 
 do not understand, and cannot sympathize with 
 them; hut the halo of genius is around him, and 
 we feel every insult done to him as we have felt, 
 and as all Europe has felt, the miserable venge- 
 ance take upon the memory of Byron vengeance 
 
 Die tranen op het graf te plengen 
 
 Der Gade, nooit genoeg beschreid. 
 Gij, oude Rijn! wees gij mijn bode, 
 En yoer ter rustplaats mijner Doode 
 De tolken mijner menschlijkheid. 
 
 Groet ook het kind, welks lijkje de aarde 
 Reeds had ontyangen in haar' schoot, 
 
 Eer zij, die mij dat lijkje baarde, 
 Voor 't levenslichl hare oogen sloot; 
 
 Ik beb mijn docbtertje opgegraven, 
 Toen ; t pleit der moeder was beslist, 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. g3 
 
 taken in the name of religion (but why should 
 we give wings to the disgraceful story?) by de- 
 nying to his monument a place among the poets 
 of England. 
 
 Bilderdyk is perhaps more than any man the 
 representative of the old Dutch feeling, though 
 in his case it has certainly taken an unattractive, 
 nay, a repulsive shape. Engaged in bitter con- 
 troversies, and under the influence of a sense of 
 
 En lei het in de groote kist, 
 En aan de borst, die 't wicht inoest laven, 
 
 Dat nimmer laafnis noodig had : 
 Ik dacht, een huis behoort aan beiden : 
 Wat God vereent, zal ik niet scheideu; 
 
 En sloot in de urn den dubbleu schat. 
 
 Noem bij deze aarde een hof van Eden, 
 Wie altijd mogt op rozen gaan: 
 
 Ik wensch geen' stap terug te treden 
 Op de afgelegde levensbaan. 
 
 Ik rekeu ieder dag gewonnen, 
 
<)4 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 power which enabled him frequently to crush 
 his adversaries, and when he could not crush 
 them, to overwhelm them with the hitterest vitu- 
 peration he presents no amiable picture of the 
 character of the Hollanders. His mastery over 
 his language is very remarkable, though he is 
 sometimes led astray by the use of a too emphatic 
 or too imposing phraseology. We should have 
 great difficulty in selecting from him any long 
 passage which will give a just idea of his beau- 
 ties and defects; they are both indeed very proe- 
 minent, but present themselves in a shape not to 
 be easily transplanted into our language, though 
 ours is perhaps the language of all others best 
 
 Met moeite en tranen doorgesloofd, 
 
 God dank, mi; draaiden boven 't hoofd, 
 Reeds meer dan vijf en dertig zonnen ! 
 
 De tijd roll, als dees bergstroom, voort. 
 Druk zacht mijn dooden, lijkgesteente I 
 Eu dek ook eerlang mijn gebeente, 
 
 En *t oyerschot, dat mij behoort. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. g5 
 
 adapted for their transfusion. Bilderdyk writes 
 nothing that bespeaks not strength intellectual 
 strength, and it is generally accompanied with 
 evidence of knowledge, extensive reading, and 
 sometimes of rare sagacity. But the passions,, 
 and too frequently those of antipathy and hatred 
 are mighty within him, and they are constantly 
 betraying him into expressions which invite hos- 
 tility, and destroy moral influence. It is a fact 
 in our minds most undoubted, that Bilderdyk a 
 man of genius, the first of the poets of Holland, 
 a man who has, if any living Dutch writer have, 
 an European name, is almost wholly without 
 power in his native land. His multifarious 
 works follow one another with incredible speed, 
 but, we understand, they meet with little encou- 
 ragement. On the minds of a few he has strong- 
 ly operated , and those few are among the most 
 remarkable men in Holland ; but as the influen- 
 ce of sober thought is stronger than that of sar- 
 casm and bitterness and it is well there is a 
 stronger influence to set wits and stoics and 
 
96 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 "good-haters" right with the future time the 
 quiet sense of the many corrects the impetuosity 
 of the few, and makes it in the end subservient 
 to knowledge and to virtue. For let the truth 
 be uttered ; the moral influence of Bilderdyk has 
 been clearly pernicious. His great powers have 
 been arrayed against every party, every man in 
 turn. Napoleon was once the deity of his pro- 
 strate idolatry. He is a sort of classical Cobbett 
 more prone to hate than to love, to condemn than 
 to acquit, to attack than to defend. 
 
 But he has also written most memorable and 
 most eloquent things. The Address to the Ne- 
 therlands' literary Society, delivered during the 
 worst period of Napoleon's oppressions, is a noble 
 a heart-stirring appeal, for which he deserves to 
 be crowned with garlands. Bilderdyk has not, 
 we think, been treated kindly or fairly by the, 
 authorities in Holland. He is a fierce and in- 
 temperate man we know, aud one who keeps no 
 rein upon the expression of the bitterness, the 
 contempt, the scorn, the hatred he feels. He has 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 97 
 
 indulged in vituperations foreign to the habits of 
 his nation. We would have forgiven him all 
 this and more. He is undoubtedly one of the 
 most remarkable men of modern times. He has 
 a small pension, we believe of 1000 florins, about 
 i5o/. per annum. It is too much to allow him 
 to die too little to enable him to live- He is 
 old, and has been for years ailing. 
 
 The first work of Bilderdijk that was really 
 remarkable, was one entitled De Ziekten der Ge* 
 leerden (Disease of the Learned), next in reputa- 
 tion to which is the unfinished Ondergang der 
 Eersto fFareld (^Overthrow of the First World). 
 A hundred volumes would scarcely comprise his 
 productions. We heard of an imperfect copy, 
 consisting of between eighty and ninety, which 
 was sold the other day at Amsterdam for 2o/. 
 His dramatic efforts are all failures. There is a 
 stiffness, a bitterness, a repulsiveness about them 
 which are so unamiable that no quality of mere 
 poetical merit can excuse or qualify them. And 
 the old man's pen in as busy and as fervid as 
 
98 , SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 was that of the boy. Year after year he pours 
 out torrents of poetry. We recommend to the 
 especial attention of our readers his Het Geweten 
 (Conscience), Ode aan Napoleon, De Drie Zuster* 
 kunsten (The Three Sister Arts), Holland, and 
 his last work, F"ermaking, in which the " Entry 
 of Jezus into Jerusalem" is a splendid piece of 
 poetry. As a specimen of his dexterity in the 
 use of language, his translation of the wellknown 
 Moorish Romance of the "Earrings," beginning 
 
 " Ach, mijn oorring, ach mijn oorring is geval- 
 len in den vliet."* 
 is well worth examining. 
 
 The most agreeable, the most popular living 
 poet of Holland, is Toll ens. That among three 
 millions of people an edition of ten thousand 
 copies of three volumes of poetry, should haye 
 been promptly sold, is a very remarkable fact* 
 This itself is no small merit, and implies no small 
 sagacity to have so happily touched the feelings 
 
 * Nayonkeling, I, 184. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 99 
 
 of an entire nation. His power is descriptive^ 
 his characteristic is originality, at least in Holland. 
 It would not Le difficult to trace in his writtings 
 the influence of Engcland and Germany; hut it 
 is veiled from the common eye, and the thoughts 
 and the expression he has found elsewhere are 
 so chastened, so delicately whrougt, that plagia- 
 rism cannot put her stigma upon him. It would 
 be easy to select passages, and many such, which 
 have no recommendation hut their harmony, 
 where the hand of the artist had given smooth- 
 ness and polish to a threadbare fancy. In the 
 circle of the social and domestic affections. Tol- 
 lens is admirable. There a cordial fervent hou- 
 sehold tone animates all his verses. His master- 
 pieces, in our opinion, are Jiet gevallen Meisje 
 (The Fallen Maid), De Moeder (The Mother)' 
 Aan een pasgeboren Wees (To a newly -born 
 Orphan), Nova Zembla, and, among his romances, 
 which are many, Kenau Hasselaar. He has 
 translated admirably Pope's letter of Heloisa to 
 Abelard. A complete change took place in his 
 
100 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 religious opinions not long ago, which was hrought 
 about by a very interesting and eloquent Remon- 
 strant preacher, des Amorie van derHoeyen. Toll ens 
 had been a Catholic, sincere and devout; he is now 
 a Protestant, with not less sincerity and devotion, 
 yet one of those happy spirits in whom religion 
 plants many seeds of joy and roots out none. The 
 following is one of his latest compositions:* 
 
 9 
 
 WINTER EVENING'S SONG. 
 
 The storm-winds blow, but sharp and sere, 
 
 The cold is bitter rude- 
 Thank heaven, with blazing coals and wood 
 
 We sit in comfort here ! 
 The trees as whitest down are white, 
 
 The river hard as lead. 
 Sweet mistress! why this blank to night? 
 There's punch so warm and wine so bright, 
 
 And sceltering roof and bread. 
 
 And if a friend should pass this way 
 
 ^f > 
 
 We give him flesh and fish; 
 
AND LITERATURES \)K ROI^ASD. ?. 
 
 And sometimes game adorns the dish, 
 
 It chances as it may; 
 And every birth-day festival 
 
 Some extra tarts appear, 
 An extra glass of wine for all 
 While to the child, or great or small, 
 
 We drink the happy year. 
 
 Poor beggars! all the city thro' 
 That wander, pity knows 
 
 That if it rains, or hails or snows, 
 No difference 'tis to you. 
 
 Your children's birthdays come, no throng 
 Of friends approach your door, 
 
 'T is a long suffering, sad as long; 
 
 No fire to warm to cheer, no song- 
 No presents for the poor. 
 
 And should not we far better be, 
 
 We far more best than they, 
 Our winter hearth is bright and gay, 
 
 Our wine cups full and free; 
 E 3 
 
Q? SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 And we were wrought in finer mould 
 
 And made of purer clay. 
 God's holy eyes, that all behold, 
 Chose for our garments gems and gold, 
 
 And made them rags display. 
 
 I! better I? O would 't were so, ' 
 
 I am perplexed in sooth; 
 I wish, I wish you'd speak the truth. 
 
 You do not speak it no; 
 Who knows, I know not, but that vest 
 
 That's pieced and patched all thro', 
 May wrap a very honest breast, 
 Of evil purged by good possest, 
 
 Generous and just, and true! 
 
 And can it be? Indeed it can. 
 
 That I so favoured stand ; 
 And he, the offspring of Gods' hand, 
 
 A poor- deserted man. 
 And then I sit to muse; I sit 
 
 The riddle to unravel; 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 1OD 
 
 I strain my thoughts, I tax my wit, 
 The less my thougts, can compass it, 
 The more they toil and travel. 
 
 And thus, and thus alone I see, 
 
 When poring o'er and o'er , 
 That I can giye unto the poor , 
 
 But not the poor to me- 
 That having more than I require, 
 
 That more I'm bound to spread , 
 Give from my hearth a spark of fire, 
 Drops from my cup, and feed disire 
 
 With morsels of my bread. 
 
 And thus I found, that scattering round 
 
 Blessings in mortal track, 
 The riddle ceased my brains to rack, 
 
 And my torn heart grew sound. 
 The storm winds blow both sharp and sere , 
 
 The cold is bitter rude; 
 Come beggar , come , our garments bear , 
 A portion of our dwelling share, 
 . A morsel of our love. 
 
104 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 List ! boys and girls , the hour is late * 
 
 There's some one at the door; 
 Run, little ones, the man is poor 
 
 Who first unlocks the gate? 
 What do I hear, run fast, run fast; 
 
 What do I hear so sad, 
 'Tis a poor mother in the blast, 
 Trembling, I heard her is she past, 
 
 And weeping o'er her lad. 
 
 I thank thee, Source of every bliss, 
 
 For every bliss I know; 
 I thank thee, thou didst train me so 
 
 To learn thy way in this : 
 That wishing good, and doing good, 
 
 Is labouring, Lord , with thee. 
 That charity is gratitude, 
 And piety, best understood, 
 
 A sweet humanity. * 
 
 * * Hct Oosten blaast , het wintert fel , 
 T t Is builen vinnig koud : 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. lo5 
 
 The character of Da Costa has been formed hy 
 the reverential study of the Bible. When the 
 evidences of Christianity first engaged his atten- 
 tion, his understanding and his will lay equally 
 
 God dank! wij hebben turf en hout; 
 
 Wij zitten warm en wel. 
 Al zijn de boomen -wit als dons, 
 
 De gragten hard als lood , 
 Wat, wijfjelief! wat deert het ons 
 "Wij hebben warmen wijn en pons , 
 
 Wij hebben dek en brood. 
 
 En nooden we eens een vriend te gast, 
 
 Wij zetten yleesch en visch 
 En somUjds wildbraad op den clisch , 
 
 Met wat daarneyen past. 
 En als er een van 't huis yerjaart, 
 
 Hoe jong de kleene zij , 
 Wij bakken, hem ter eer' , een taart, 
 Of eten wafels aan den haard, 
 
 En drinken slemp er bj. 
 
106 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 prostrate before the overwhelming influences of 
 the Gospel. The passionate feelings of the pro- 
 selyte are still upon him, and he cannot under- 
 stand that, perhaps less happy, but not uncom- 
 
 Dat kan die arme stumpert niet, 
 
 Die langs de straten schooit , 
 En , of het yriest , en of het dooit , 
 
 Verbleekt van honger ziet. 
 Yerjaar' zijn kind, verjaar' zijn yrouw , 
 
 Geen gast betreedt zija kluis j 
 Hij lijdt altijd gebrek en kou , 
 Hij stookt geen yuurtjen in zijn schouw , 
 
 Hij krijgt geen tulband t' huis ! 
 
 Wat moeten wij niet beter zijn , 
 
 Bedeeld met zoo veel goedj 
 Den winterhaard in yollen gloed , 
 
 Den beker vol van wijn! 
 Wij zijn uit andre klei gekneed, 
 
 Uit beter leem dan hij, 
 En God , die alle dingen weet , 
 Gaf ons met regt een fraaijer klecd f 
 
 En hem een ruwer pij. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 107 
 
 mon state of the judgment which doubts and 
 ponders, which demands proofs and hesitates about 
 their reception. Into Da Costa's mind the great 
 truths of religion threw a burning and a blazing 
 
 It beter zijn...? Vermctel lied, 
 
 Is 't waarheid , \vat gij slaakt? 
 Ik wenschte dat gij waarheid spraakt, 
 
 Ik yrees dat doet gij niet! 
 Wie weet , of onder 7 t slecht gewaad , 
 
 Genaaid uit stuk en brok , 
 Geen minbedorven harte slaat, 
 Met meerder goed en minder kwaad, 
 
 Dan onder dezen rok! 
 
 Zou 't mooglijk wezen... ? Goede God, 
 
 Zoo 't mooglijk wezen mogt , 
 Waarom dan hem zoo bang bezocht 
 
 En mij dat blijder lot? 
 Ik zit en mijmer, peins en gis 
 
 En dring bet raadsel in, 
 Maar wat mij vreemd en duister ia t 
 Ook mijn bezit en mijn gemis 
 
 Heeft mij te diep eea' zin, 
 
lo8 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 light, but he has little charity for that less envi- 
 able state of intellect where misgivings mingle 
 with conviction. He has formed his creed, we 
 are sure, in sincerity and honesty, and it ap- 
 
 Doch d?it voor 't minst, hoe blind ik zij, 
 
 Begrijp ik toch er van, 
 Dat ik den arme geven kan, 
 
 Wat hij niet kau aan mijj 
 Dat, van wat God ons ruimer schonk f 
 
 Hem hulp behoort in nood; 
 Van onzen haard een enkle voiik, 
 Een enkle drop van onzen dronk, 
 
 Een kruimel van ons brood. 
 
 En daarom dan den pligt yoldaan, 
 
 Dien 't hart zoo luid gebiedt! 
 Verdiepen we ons in raadsels niet: 
 
 Dat droogt geen enklen traan. 
 Het Ooslen blaast, het wintert wreed, 
 
 't Is buiten bitter koud; 
 Den stumpert, die geen uilkomst weet, 
 Behoort een vlokje van ons kleed, 
 
 Een spaander van ons hout. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. log 
 
 pears to him so wise, so beautiful, so perfect, that 
 he has little patience with those who see things 
 with other eyes than his. He supposes, and con- 
 scientiously, that his thruth is God's truth, and 
 
 Hoort, maagd en knaap! hoc laat bet zij , 
 
 Wie ktbppen mogt , ontslu.it! 
 Dringt oud noch jong de huisdeur uit 
 En zeadt geen mensch voorbij... 
 Wat hoor ik ? vliegt! doet op, gezwind! 
 
 *t Is buiten ruw en guur! 
 o Zond ons God , door weer eu wind , 
 * Eene arme moeder met haar kind , 
 Zij kwam ter goeder uur ! 
 
 Ik dank u, bron van alle goed! 
 
 Voor Wat uw gunst mij schonk ; 
 Ik dank u voor de liefdevonk, 
 
 Mij tintlende in 't gemoed ; 
 Maar driewerf dank , algoede God ! 
 
 Yoor elke eryarenis , 
 Dat uw bevel ons reinst genot 
 Ons zoetst genoegen uw gebod 
 
 Dat weldoen zalig is. 
 
1 10 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 that to deny it, or to slight it, is to act offen- 
 sively to the Supreme Being. A Jew dwelling 
 011 his high and holy origin, and resting on the 
 sublime but awful thought, that his progenitors 
 were the chosen favourites of the God of Israel 
 looking upon himself as one of the representati- 
 ves and descendants of those through whom it 
 pleased the Almighty to reveal his sacred will 
 feeling the odorous ointment descending on his 
 garments which was poured on the head of his 
 forefathers, and, while under the influence of 
 these impressions, receiving te Gospel of Christ, 
 in the humility and abasement of mind, who can 
 wonder at the peculiar tone and character of his 
 writings? His poetry is that which he himself 
 has described- 
 music 
 Vibrating 'twixt earth and heaven.* 
 
 *Wat is Dichtkunst? Harmonij 
 Tusschen Hemelen ei* Aarde Venes to W* de Clercq, 
 Y. II. p. i65. 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. Ill 
 
 But a passionate fanaticism has led him far astray. 
 His poetry has assumed a fierce and ungentle 
 character, his mysticism has shaken his humanity, 
 and his torch, once heautiful and glorious, has 
 been quenced in the dark and troubled waters 
 of religious controversy. Alive to the word, he 
 seems dead to the spirit of the New Testament. 
 We give a late specimen, not heing able to find 
 room for any of the compositions of his earlier 
 and better days : 
 
 Op den Zevenden der dagen heeft de Almaclitige 
 gerust. 
 
 On the seventh day reposing, lo ! the great Crea- 
 tor stood. 
 
 Saw the glorious work accomplished, saw and felt 
 
 that it was goodj 
 
 Heaven, earth, man and beast have being, day and 
 
 night their courses run, 
 
 First creation infant manhood earliest Sabbath- 
 it is done* 
 
1 1 2 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 On the seventh day reposing, Jesus filled his sain- 
 ted tomb, 
 
 From-his spirit's toil retreating, while he broke 
 
 man's fatal doom; 
 
 'Twas a new creation bursting, brigther than the 
 
 primal one, 
 
 3 Tis fulfillment reconcilement 'tis redemption 
 
 it Is done. 
 
 The brothers (Barend and H. H.) Klijn, have 
 published several volumes. Barend's prose and 
 poetry are the very personification of a respecta- 
 ble Dutchman. He is strong minded, unpreten- 
 ding, sensible, and serious. While the ink is yet 
 wet on our paper, we receive the news of his 
 death. 
 
 Loots is a living "poet. He some what resembles 
 Helmers, but, we think he is more correct, and 
 often far more energetic. His Taal (Language), 
 and Schilderkunst (Painting), have some very fine 
 passages 5 and his Beurs van Amsterdam, too, must 
 not be passed oven He b^s frequently an original 
 

 AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. Il3 
 
 air, though wild and strange, and wants that 
 cultivation which classical studies give. His por- 
 trait of De Ruiter is prettily drawn. 
 
 Van Lennep, a young poet, on whom the clas- 
 sical spirit of his father has descended, has alrea- 
 dy done enough to awaken hope and to give 
 promise for the future. His hest productions are 
 translations from French, Latin, and English; 
 and among the latter, the Bride of Abydos is ad- 
 mirably and correctly versified. We thought 
 the following couplet pretty; 
 
 The rose flings down its diadem, 
 
 Scattering each cheerful crimson leaf- 
 The thorn clings ever to its stem, 
 The image and the hadge of grief. 
 
 Nierstrasz must he considered a follower of 
 Tollens, though inferior to him in every parti- 
 cular. He is lately dead, and those who think 
 that words may he "daggers to slay," have attri- 
 buted his death to a dose of hellebore, which in 
 
SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 the shape of a pamphlet called " Nieskruid voor 
 Nierstrasz" was administered to him. It was a 
 bitter attack upon an amiahle man, hecause the 
 satirist deemed him an indifferent poet. We 
 much doubt, however, the mortal potency of such 
 literary poisons. Nierstrasz was not the indivi- 
 dual who should have been fixed on as the re- 
 presentative of the school of mediocrity- he has 
 been overrated, no doubt, and on one or two 
 occasions, shown too much self-esteem. But it 
 is difficult to disassociate the man from his wri- 
 tings, and Nierstrasz's good deeds have saved his 
 indifferent poetry. 
 
 Kinker is one of the most remarkable men in 
 Holland ; his writings arc tainted with the mys- 
 ticisms of the Kant school, but he is evidently 
 a man of genius and erudition, whose power and 
 influence would be much greater if he could see 
 his way, which no body can, through the mists 
 and clouds of a philosophy which is darkness; 
 with a few sparks of light; a philosophy per- 
 plexing alike by its encumbrance of phrase and 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. Il5 
 
 its vagueness of conception a sort of moral 
 opium, exciting for a while and then leaving the 
 mind distressed and perplexed. This confusion 
 of ideas, conveyed in a very energetic phraseo- 
 logy, is found even in the poetry of Kinker. In 
 truth, his verses are frequently unintelligible, 
 though they leave the impression, that if we 
 could but understand them, they would be very 
 fine. The same tone of mind gives a too common 
 harshness even to his versification, though no 
 man can discourse more fitly than he on the 
 prosody and harmony of language. Yet it would 
 seem as if his art produced his hard verses, for 
 most of his off-band and humorous pieces ate 
 smooth and flowing. His verses to Haydn are 
 striking, and his Adieu to the Y and the Amstel, 
 on his removal to Liege, is among the best of 
 modern compositions. 
 
 Staring van den Wildenbosch, though someti- 
 mes rough and rude, has in him the true spirit 
 of song, and is not, we think, placed in the 
 position by his countrymen to which he really 
 
Il6 SKETCH OF THE LA N GUAGE 
 
 is entitled. Much power breaks through his 
 seemingly unpolished effusions. His laniben 
 (Iambics), JoodscJie Loofhut (Jewish Tabernacle)^ 
 and especially his ZepJiir en Chloris, will better 
 enable his readers to weigh his merits. 
 
 Spandaw is a domestic and social poet, whose 
 verses are never wanting in smoothness and 
 harmony. Had we space we would quote his 
 Taal der Oogen (Language of the eyes), and 
 Zaligst Levensuur (Happiest Hour of Life.) 
 
 Withuis is a liying poet. We think his Ode 
 to Time well worthy of preservation. 
 
 " Ye paint me old ! and why? ye fuuls shortsighted I 
 
 And doth my speed eld's frozen blood betray ? 
 
 Methinks the storm wind is not swifter flighted 
 
 The raped lightning scarce o'ertakes my way. 
 
 Ye think your hurrying thoughts perchance out- 
 
 (run me, 
 
 Go race with sunbeams when they have outdo- 
 
 (ne me 
 Talk of my age I fly more swift than they. 
 

 AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 
 
 " Ye call me gray ! now, try me. I'll confound ye 
 With youth's most vigorous arm. One glance 
 
 (but one 
 O'er the huge tombs of vanished time around ye 
 
 Mountains of ruins piled Ly me alone 
 I did it I smote yesterday to morrow, 
 I wait to smite your cities you go, borrow 
 Safety and strength they shall avail you none* 
 
 t( Eternity was mine and stil eternal 
 
 I hold my course God's being is my stay 
 I saw worlds fashioned by his word supernal : 
 
 I saw them fashioned saw them pass away. 
 I bear upon my checks unfading roses; 
 Man sees me as he flits and, fool ! supposes 
 I have my grave, and limits to my sway. 
 
 if Take from my front the white locks folly fancies : 
 
 My hair is golden and my forehead curl'd 
 
 My youth but sports with years fire are my 
 
 (glances 
 My brow resists the wrinklings of the world 
 
Il8 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 Not for the scythe alone my hand was 
 
 (shapen, 
 
 Twas made to crush give me the cluh that 
 
 (weapon 
 Oft hath my power in awful moments hurl'd. 
 
 "But give me, too, the hour-glass ever raining 
 
 Exhaustless streams untired for I am he 
 Who pours forth gems and gold, and fruits 
 
 (undraining 
 
 And treasures ever new. Or can it be 
 For desolation only ? Do not new drops ? 
 
 Fresh flowers replace each flower that's crus- 
 
 (hed by me. 
 
 "1, the destroyer do it without measure 
 
 I fill creation's cup of joy man's lot 
 That vibrates restlessly 'twixt pain and plea- 
 
 (sure 
 
 Determine in my youth his years forgot; 
 Worlds crumble virtue mounts to heaven no 
 
 (sleeping 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 1 19 
 
 In dust for me but with bright angels keeping 
 God's throne with God I dwell and perish 
 
 not." * 
 There are several living writers of whom we 
 
 *Gij schetst mij oud? Waarom? Bekrompen dwazen ! 
 
 Veraadt mijn vlugt u dan een trager bloed? 
 Nog bruist hct, als een zee wen stormen razen ; 
 
 Geen bliksemflits bereikt mijn' snellen Toet. 
 Meent gij dat uw gedachten me achterhalen ? 
 Gaat eer, verwaatnen, met de zonnestralen 
 
 Een' wedloop aan, en proeft uw' slakkenspoed. 
 
 Gij noemt mij grijs! ontweken dan mijn krachten, 
 En is mijn arm ontspierd? Blik de aarde rond, 
 
 Gij ziet er 't graf van vroegere geslachten* 
 Een handvol puin waar eens hun zetel stond. 
 
 Ik trof 't yoorheen, en wat beschut u heden? 
 
 Uw levens vaag ik weg en uwe steden? 
 Ziet of hun vesten hechter zijn gegrond I 
 
 Van eeuwigheid, om eeuwig voort te leven, 
 Besta ik; 't aanziju Gods is miju bestaan. 
 
120 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 should have Leen glad to speak. We shall men- 
 
 
 
 tion their names as they occur to us, without 
 endeavouring to arrange them in those gradations 
 of merit to which they appear entitled. Some 
 
 Ik zag Hem werelden het leyen geven, 
 En blijf ze zien yervorraen en vergaan. 
 
 Mijn aanzigt bloost van onvenvelkbre rozen. 
 
 Gij kent me een uur van eeuwen slcchts, o broozen, 
 En geeft me een graf en greuzen aan mijn baan ! 
 
 Ontneemt mijn kruin die krans van grijze baren; 
 
 Mijn lok is blond , mijn voorlioofd ongefronst , 
 En vuur mijn blik! Mijn jeugd bespot de jar en; 
 
 Geen zonnevlam heeft nog mijn vel gebronst. 
 Mijn hand is voor geen zeis alleen gescbapen, 
 Zij pleltert ook ; geeft mij de knods ! Dat wapen 
 
 Voegt aan de kracbt , die in mijne aadren bonst. 
 
 Maar geeft mij ook den onuitputbren horen, 
 Die altijd vloeit en mmmer ledig wordt! 
 
 Ben ik bet niet , die overyloed van koren, 
 En goud en ooft in uw trezoren stort? 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 121 
 
 future occasion may arrive when we shall treat 
 of them more particulary. W. Messchert is a 
 very agreeable descriptive poet. There are pas- 
 sages from his Gouden Bruiloft (Fiftieth Wedding 
 Day), which are very agreeahle and veracious 
 sketches of common life. Boxman is frequently 
 energetic. His Hollandsche Vlag is a fine pa- 
 triotic effusion. Van Lennep the Elder, whose 
 classical reputation has long passed over the 
 Dutch frontiers, and whose translation of Hesi- 
 od's Works and Days is an admirable work, has 
 also written some excellent verses. His Duinzang 
 
 Of ben ik enkel ter vcrwoesting? Brengen 
 Mijn boden u geen' dauw in 't zomerzengen; 
 
 Geene andre bloera voor elke die verdort ? 
 Ondankbren, ja, de onmeetbre zonnekringen 
 
 Vervul ook ik, de dooder, met genof, 
 Het beeld des mans, dien liefde en raced doordringen, 
 
 Is 't mijne ; uw grijsheid mijner jeugd een spot. 
 *t Heelal verga, de deugd voere u ten hemel, 
 Mij toeft geen graf. Ik wacht u in *t gewemel 
 
 Der englen, ik, die eeuwig ben als God. 
 
122 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 (Song of the Downs) is very graceful and poeti- 
 cal. Van Hall is better known by his transla- 
 iions from the . Latin, than by his own creati- 
 ons his " Het vijfentwintig jarig Huwelijkstogtje 
 van Jakob en Kootje" (Jacob and Kitty's Five- 
 and-Twentieth Marriage Day) is light and agree- 
 able. The event was in 
 
 the happy golden time! 
 
 Ere damask beds of down were stufFd; 
 Embargo* were not understood; 
 Ships sailed both when and where they wou'd, 
 And in no port were lufFd. 
 
 Wiselius is a scholar Warnsinck, an excellent 
 man- Lulofs, a good translator. Immerzeel has 
 taste Van Walre, gaiety. Are these all? No! 
 there are many more, who have done valuable 
 services to their country's reputation. Van Kam- 
 pen's Beschrijving der Nederlanden (Description 
 of the Netherlands) is an excellent statistical 
 work. Scheltema is another eru dite inquirer 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 125 
 
 and so is De Jonge, the archivist of the Hague. 
 Westendorp has brought much information to 
 many historical questions. Ypey has gone suc- 
 cessfully over the whole history of the Christian 
 church, and has written a very useful work on 
 the language of the Netherlands. * 
 
 Hamaker's merits as an Orientalist are well 
 known; while Rheinwardt and Temminck are 
 not less distinguished for their contributions to 
 natural history. 
 
 One word on the general character of the 
 poetry of Holland. It has been objected to the 
 Alexandrines, which are the common measure 
 of all the longer Dutch poems, that they are 
 monotonous and unrelieved, and it must be own- 
 ed, we think, that the reproach is not without 
 foundation. But we must except from it the 
 Alexandrines of Vondel and Bilderdijk, who have 
 so broken through their sameness so varied their 
 inflexions, and their cadences, that they become 
 
 * Beknopte Geschiedenis der Nederduitsche Taal. 
 F 2 
 
124 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 not inappropriate instruments of poetry in their 
 master hands. So against our English heroics, 
 and to our blank verses, when employed by 
 mediocrity, the same objection may fairly be 
 brought* Time would fail us to show the won- 
 derful sagacity with which Milton varies the 
 position of his emphatic words, and the care 
 with which he avoids appearing to string togeth- 
 er tones of equal height and depth, in an un- 
 varied order. In fact, this is port of the mys- 
 terious secret of the masters of song; and though 
 the unpractised will find the everlasting Alex- 
 andrine wearisome, by whomsoever employed, it 
 soon when wielded by a true poet, becomes easy 
 and agreeable. But it is a stanza that gives far 
 too much facility to inferior verse-makers; and 
 we do not think it will endure many generations. 
 Yan dcr Palm (as far as style is concerned) 
 is the purest prose writer that Holland ever pro- 
 duced, and this merit is, we believe, accorded 
 to him by men of every party. He has assuredly 
 done far more service to Holland by his admi- 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 125 
 
 rable prose than a hundred writers have by their 
 indifferent verses. There is in the Netherlands 
 no literary want so urgent as a band of histo- 
 rians > romancers, essayists, or moralists, who shall 
 rescue the unrhymed language of the country 
 from the impurities with which conversation 
 taints it. The fact would hardly be believed, 
 that were a man, in the common intercourse of 
 society aye, even of literary intercourse, to 
 refrain from the employment of those infinite 
 Gallicisms which have been allowed to deluge 
 the land, he would be deemed and treated as an 
 insufferable pedant. The language of Holland 
 is sadly wanting in good prosaists. Whether the 
 versifying spirit has crushed the competition of 
 prose, we know not, but such a nation of rhy- 
 mesters as the Dutch never before were allowed 
 to twist and torment an idiom into sing-song. 
 Rhymes are everlasting irecreations for ttte poor 
 and the richthey are hung upon every cradle, 
 and flung upon every grave they are painted 
 upon the houses, and carved upon the trees 
 F 3 
 
126 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 they go with the treckschuits by -water, and they 
 " cover the land." Melancholy trash most of it 
 is and tormenting like a thumb-screw applied 
 to language till the vein hursts; at least, so cri- 
 ticism would say, from her throne of dogmatism 5 
 yet may not the rhymes which afford delight 
 and give instruction to thousands he allowed to 
 hope for mercy from the severely-judging few? 
 .Van der Palm is the founder of pulpit eloquen- 
 ce in Holland, though he would fain have giv^n 
 that honour to Hulshoff. 
 
 Holland is suffering under the visitation of an 
 overflowing mediocrity. Many excellent and 
 amiable men, whose poetry would sound sweetly 
 by the firesides of their little social circle, have 
 received but too much encouragement to break 
 through it, in order to fascinate the world. Ans 
 in numerous cases an affection for these person, 
 has interposed between them and their workp 
 Sound and severe criticism is wanting the cris 
 ticism which while it smites hard, smites wel- 
 And of this healthy and needful discipline there 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 
 
 are some symptoms. Witsen Geysbeek, for in- 
 stance, has done something, as we before noticed, 
 by an article in his poetical dictionnary, to des- 
 troy the blind idolatry with which Vondel has 
 been worshipped in the Netherlands. Even if 
 Vondel deserved the incense of all time, it should 
 not be wasted upon him blindly. Like Lope de 
 Vega he is as prolific in defects as in beauties. 
 He is represented in the minds of the Dutch by 
 a few passages which are Vondel's truly, but 
 which do not constitute Vondel. Literature has 
 no consecrated recess no hallowed, unapproach- 
 able ground. Wherever it is, criticism should 
 follow, canvassing with cautious care its beauties 
 and deformities, and distinguishing its dross while 
 treasuring up its precious ore. 
 
 In fine the Dutch, like all other nations, so- 
 metimes fall into the error of exaggerating the 
 number and the merits of their great men. In 
 the criticism which now and then appear in 
 Holland, it is amusing to see a string of these 
 comparatively obscure writers classed with the 
 
128 SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE 
 
 great intellectual names of the world. All this 
 is every natural. Many a man, whose name has 
 hardly passed the Netherlands' borders, exerts 
 a great influence within them and the man 
 who exerts a great influence on society, whet- 
 her for good or evil, is entitled to the attention 
 of the statesman, the critic, and the philosopher. 
 The susceptibility of the Dutch, who are, ac- 
 cording to the decisions of common parlance, 
 naturally cold and phlegmatic, to the opinions 
 of others, and their disposition to avail themsel- 
 ves of every testimony, which they imagine will 
 serve to set their literary character right with 
 the world, have led them to cling, with won- 
 derful tenacity, to the sometimes undiscrimina- 
 ting praises of a few writers who have, as they 
 think, honoured them with particular notice. The 
 fact is simply this that the Dutch have paid 
 their fair and full contributions to the great 
 intellectual treasury. They have paid them in 
 their own way, and with their own. It is not 
 that this merit has been denied them but the 
 
AND LITERATURE OF HOLLAND. 129 
 
 inquiry respecting it has seldom been made. A 
 few impertinent scribblers, as superficial as pre- 
 sumptuous, have, we know, poured out their con- 
 temptuousness upon the language and literature of 
 Holland ; but the general mind is a blank sheet 
 upon the matter, in which we wish to trans- 
 cribe the impressions we haye received impres- 
 sions full of kindness towards the Dutch people, 
 who only require to be better known in order 
 to be more highly thought of. 
 
 And if among the writers of Holland, an 
 Englishman should sometimes smile at the exag- 
 gerations of patriotic feeling, he will not be 
 angry, if he haye wisdom, and if he haye bene- 
 yolence he will speedily forgive aberrations which 
 breathe unfriendliness to his country. The Dutch 
 have frequently been taught to consider England 
 as a noxious rival and malignant enemy and 
 the lesson was urged upon them with most of- 
 fensive repetition under the Bonapartean dynasty. 
 A portion of the feeling may be attributed to the 
 preponderance which England has obtained by 
 
1.5o SKETCH OF THE LANGUAGE, ETC. 
 
 her position, among many other causes, over 
 a country which has had its triumphs even on 
 the Thames. But we are sure we speak the 
 sentiments of Englishmen, when we assure our 
 Netherland neighbours that no unfriendly feeling 
 towards them exists. In the great commercial 
 contest they have undoubtedly come badly off, 
 but if they will look a little more closely into 
 the matter, they will perhaps discover how much 
 they have departed from that system of free 
 trade which of old made their greatness, their 
 wealth and their glory and they will, at every 
 step of that departure, find they have sown 
 seeds of decay, and of adversity. 
 
 THE END. 
 

 (P2001 
 

 C053533bOO 
 
 4981 13 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LJBRArY