Handbook of Universal Literature, From the Best and Latest Authorities

by Anne C. Lynch Botta

5. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.—At the close of the sixteenth century, although the language was established, it still remained hard and inflexible, and the literature was still destitute of dramatic, erotic, and the lighter kinds of poetry; but an earnest, patriotic, religious, and national character was impressed upon it, and its golden age was near at hand.

The commencement of the seventeenth century saw the people of the United Provinces animated by the same spirit and energy, preferring death to the abandonment of their principles, struggling with a handful of men against the most powerful monarchy of the time; conquering their political and religious independence, after more than half a century of conflict, and giving to the world a great example of freedom and toleration; covering the ocean with their fleets, and securing possessions beyond the sea a hundred times more vast than the mother country; becoming the centre of universal commerce, and cultivating letters, the sciences, and the arts, with equal success. Poetry was national, for patriotism predominated over all other sentiments; and it was original, because it recognized no models of imitation but the classics.

The spirit of the age naturally communicated itself to the men of letters, who soon raised the literature of the country to a classic height; first among these were Hooft, Vondel, and Jacob Cats.

Hooft (1581-1647), a tragic and lyric poet as well as a historian, greatly developed and perfected the language, and by a careful study of the Italian poets imparted to his native tongue that sonorous sweetness which has since characterized the poetry of Holland. He was the creator of native tragedy, as well as of erotic verse, in which his style is marked by great sweetness, tenderness, and grace. He rendered still greater service to the native prose. His histories of "Henry IV.," of the "House of Medici," and above all the history of the "War of Independence in the Low Countries," without sacrificing truth, often border on poetry, in their brilliant descriptions and paintings of character, and in their nervous and energetic style. Hooft was a man of noble heart; he dared to protect Grotius in the days of his persecution; he defended Descartes and offered an asylum to Galileo.

Vondel (1587-1660), as a lyric, epic, and tragic poet, far surpassed all his contemporaries, and his name is honored in Holland as that of Shakspeare is in England. His tragedies, which are numerous, are his most celebrated productions, and among them "Palamedes Unjustly Sacrificed" is particularly interesting as representing the heroic firmness of Barneveldt, who repeated one of the odes of Horace when undergoing the torture. Vondel excelled as a lyric and epigrammatic poet, and the faults of his style belonged rather to his age than to himself.

No writer of the time acquired a greater or more lasting reputation than Jacob Cats (1577-1660), no less celebrated for the purity of his life than for the sound sense and morality of his writings, and the statesmanlike abilities which he displayed as ambassador in England, and as grand pensioner of Holland. His style is simple and touching, his versification easy and harmonious, and his descriptive talent extraordinary. His works consist chiefly of apologues and didactic and descriptive poems. No writer of Holland has been more read than Father Cats, as the people affectionately call him; and up to the present hour, in all families his works have their place beside the Bible, and his verses are known by heart all over the country. An illustrated edition of his poems in English has been recently published in London.

Hooft and Vondel left many disciples and imitators, among whom are Antonides (1647-1684), surnamed Van der Goes, whose charming poem on the River Y, the model of several similar compositions, is still read and admired. Among numerous other writers were Huygens (b. 1596), a poet who wrote in many languages besides his own; Heinsius (b. 1580), a pupil of Scaliger, the author of many valuable works in prose and poetry; Vallenhoven, contemporary with Antonides, a religious poet; Rotgans, the author of an epic poem on William of England; Elizabeth Hoofman (b. 1664), a poetess of rare elegance and taste, and Wellekens (b. 1658), whose eclogues and idyls occupy the first place among that class of poems. As a historian Hooft found a worthy successor in Brandt (1626-1683), also a poet, but best known by his "History of the Reformation in the Netherlands," which has been translated into French and English, and which is a model in point of style. At this period the Bible was translated and commented upon, and biographies, criticisms, and many other prose works appeared. The voyages and discoveries of the Dutch merchants and navigators were illustrated by numerous narratives, which, for their interest both in style and detail, deserve honorable mention.

From the commencement of the last quarter of the seventeenth century, however, many causes combined to produce a decline in the literature of the Netherlands. The honors which were accorded not only by the Dutch universities, but by all Europe to their Latin writers and learned professors, were rarely bestowed on writers in the native tongue, and thus the minds of men of genius were turned to the study of the classics and the sciences. The Dutch merchants, while they cultivated all other languages for the facilities they thus gained in their commercial transactions, restricted by so much the diffusion of their own. Other causes of this decline are to be found in the indifference of the republican government to the interests of literature, and in the increasing number of alliances with foreigners, who were attracted to Holland by the mildness of its laws, in the growing commercial spirit and taste for luxury, and especially in the influence of French literature, which, towards the close of the seventeenth century, became predominant in Holland as elsewhere.

6. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.—For the first three quarters of the eighteenth century the literature of Holland, like that of other countries of Europe, with the exception of France, remained stationary, or slowly declined. But in the midst of universal mediocrity, a few names shine with distinguished lustre. Among them that of Poot (1689-1732) is commonly cited with those of Hooft and Vondel. He was a young peasant, whose rare genius found expression in a sweet and unaffected style. He excelled in idyllic and erotic poetry, and while he has no rival in Holland, he may perhaps be compared to Burns in Scotland, and Béranger in France. The theatre of Amsterdam, the only one of the country, continued to confine itself to translations or imitations from the French. There appeared, however, at the commencement of this period, an original comic author, Langendijk (1662-1735), whose works still hold their place upon the stage, partly for their merit, and partly to do honor to the only comic poet Holland has produced.

Hoogvliet (1689-1763) was distinguished as the author of a poem entitled "Abraham," which had great and merited success, and which still ranks among the classics; for some years after it appeared, it produced a flood of imitations.