Dutch Literature

I

Introduction

Dutch Literature, literature written in the Dutch language. The earliest extant samples are the works of 12th-century Heinrich van Veldeke, who wrote a life of St Servatius based on a Latin source, an Eneïde (Aeneid) after a French original, and various love songs. He was the earliest known poet to use a Dutch dialect. A significant literature began to appear after 1250 with the work of Jacob van Maerlant. Called the father of Dutch literature, he wrote didactic poetry, romances of chivalry, and treatises on history and government. The new literature declined under the Burgundian domination of the Netherlands (1363-1477), when French words and forms became assimilated into Dutch. During the first half of the 16th century, however, the work of the Dutch scholar and humanist Desiderius Erasmus (written in Latin) led to an intensification of literary activity in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. Two later 16th-century writers, Dirk Volkertszoon Coornhert and Philip van Marnix, directly influenced the golden age of Dutch literature. Coornhert wrote poetry, drama, and prose. Marnix is the author of one of the most acrimonious satires ever written against the Roman Catholic Church, Biencorf der heiligher Roomscher Kercke (1569; The Beehive of the Romish Church, c. 1578).

II

The Influence of Humanism

The golden age of Dutch literature was coexistent with the establishment of the republic and a period of great commercial prosperity. It lasted for most of the 17th century and is characterized by intellectual independence, an emphasis on humanist values, and the suppression of foreign terms and idioms in the language. Jacob Cats, known as “Father” Cats, enjoyed wide popularity as a poet. His simple moral precepts and workaday philosophy, expounded in such works as Houwelijck (1625, Marriage) and Trou-ringh (1637, The Wedding Ring), exercised great influence on the middle class. Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, in contrast, reflects the spirit of the Renaissance; his works, culturally and intellectually sophisticated, include the tragic dramas Geeraerd van Velsen (1613) and Baeto (1626), which were modelled after the dramas of the Roman philosopher and dramatist Seneca. Gerbrand Bredero, one of the founders of the Amsterdam Theatre, first wrote romantic plays but achieved his greatest success in low-comedy farces. His most popular play was De Spaansche Brabander (1617, The Spaniard from Brabant).

Joost van den Vondel was the greatest and most prolific of the poets and playwrights of the golden age. Of his 24 poetic dramas in the classical form, the masterpiece was Lucifer (1654), concerning the revolt of the angels against God. It has been the subject of literary controversy, one school of critics holding that Lucifer served as the model and source for the epic poem Paradise Lost, by the English writer John Milton.

In the latter part of the 17th century there was a gradual slackening of this literary activity. Pieter Langendijk, one of the important writers of the first half of the 18th century, was the author of comedies that are still performed in the Netherlands. His best-known work, The Mirror of Dutch Merchants (1760), was finished posthumously by two unknown writers. Another noteworthy writer of this period was Justus van Effen, who imitated contemporary English periodicals with his Hollandsche Spectator (1731-1735).

III

The Verlichting

The last quarter of the 18th century is marked by a movement known as the Verlichting (“enlightenment”), which was characterized by an opposition to the rules and forms of Classicism. Among the distinguished contributors to this movement were Betje Wolff-Bekker and her friend Aagje Deken, whose collaboration produced a number of novels in letter form, among them Sara Burgerhart (1782) and Willem Leevend (1784-1785). Willem Bilderdijk became the hero of a political and religious movement called the Réveil (“revival”). His works include the epic poem De ondergang der eerste wereld (1820, The Destruction of the First World) and the famous Ode van Napoleon (1806).

IV

Romanticism

The 19th century opened inauspiciously with writing marked by conventionality, lack of originality, and an emphasis on form. The prose of this period includes the literary criticism of Jacob Geel and the historical novels of Jacob van Lennep, which were influenced by the Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott. Everhardus Johannes Potgieter, apart from his own creative writing, was the founder, in 1837, of the review De Gids (The Guide), which served as an organ for the Romantic movement in literature. His masterpiece is Florence (1868), a study of medieval Italy. Nicolaas Beets, one of the most famous writers of this period, owes his reputation to a single collection of essays and stories, Camera Obscura (1839), a gently humorous reflection of the life and manners of middle-class society. Anna Louise Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint, also associated with De Gids, was the author of novels influenced by the English Romantics. Her works include a cycle (1845-1855) on the adventures of the English soldier Robert Dudley in the Netherlands.

Eduard Douwes Dekker, who wrote under the pseudonym Multatuli, anticipated the revolutionary movement in Dutch letters by some 20 years. In the novel Max Havelaar (1860), a satire on Dutch colonialism, his style was simple and free from the formalism that had become a literary standard of the language. The success of his work did much to emancipate the next generation of writers from meaningless restrictions.