Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/103

91 LITERATURE.] HOLLAND 91 little original writing of much value WPS produced in Holland. Buodewiju van der Loren wrote one excellent piece on tlie Maid of Ghent, in 1389. Augustijnken van Dordt was a peripatetic minstrel of North Holland, who composed for the sheriff Aelbrecht and for the count of Blois from 1350 to 1370. Such of his verses as have been handed down to us are allegorical and moral. Willem van Hilclegaersberch (1350-1408) was another northern poet, of a more strictly political cast. Many of his writings exist still unpublished, and are very rough in style and wanting in form. Towards the end of the 15th century an erotic poet of considerable power arose in the person of the lord
 * of Waddinxsveen and Hubrecbtsambacht, Dirk Potter.

t er&amp;gt; During a stay of three years in Rome, from 1409 to 1412, this eminent diplomatist made himself acquainted with the writings of Boccaccio, and commenced a vast poem on the course of love, Der Minnen Loep&amp;gt; which is a wonderful mixture of classical and Biblical instances of amorous adventure, set in a framework of didactic philosophy. In Dirk Potter the last traces of the chivalric element died out of Dutcli literature, and left poetry entirely in the hands of the school of Maerlant. It is now time to consider the growth of prose literature in the Low Countries, The oldest pieces of Dutch prose now in existence are charters of the towns of Flanders and Zealand, dated 1249, 1251, and 1254. A prose translation of the Old Testament was made about 1300, and there exists a Life of Jesus of about the same date. Of the mystical preachers whose religious writings have reached us, the Brussels friar, Jan van Ruysbroec (1294-1381), is the most important. But the most interesting relics of mediaeval Dutch prose, as far as the formation of the language is concerned, are the popular romances in which the romantic stories of the trouveres and minstrels were translated for the benefit of the unlettered public into simple language. As in most European nations, the re- ijious ligious drama takes a prominent place in every survey of llia - mediaeval literature in Holland. Unfortunately the text of all the earliest mysteries, the language of which would, have an extraordinary interest for us, has been lost. We possess records of dramas having been played at various places Our Lord s Resurrection, at the Hague, in 1400;. Our Lady the Virgin, at Arnheim, in 1452 ; and The Three Kings, at Delft, in 1498. The earliest existing fragment, however, is part of a Limburg-Maestricht Passover Play of about 1360. The latest Dutch miracle play was the Mystery of the Holy Sacrament, composed by a certain Smeken, at Breda, and performed on St John s Day, 1500. This play was printed in 1867. With these purely theological dramas there were acted mundane farces, performed outside the churches, by semi-religious companies ; these curious moralities were known as &quot; Abelespelen&quot; and&quot; Sotternieen.&quot; In these pieces we discover the first traces of that genius for low comedy which was afterwards to take perfect form in the dramas of Brerleroo and the paintings of Teniers. 1 iibers The theatrical companies just alluded to, &quot;Gesellen van den Spele,&quot; formed the germ out of which developed the &quot; famous &quot; Chambers of Rhetoric &quot; which united within them selves all the literary movements that occupied the Low Countries during the 15th and 16th centuries. The poets of Holland had already discovered in late mediaeval times the value of guilds in promoting the arts and industrial handi crafts. The term &quot;colleges de rhetorique&quot; is supposed to have been introduced about 1440 by the courtiers of the Burgun- dian dynasty, but the institutions themselves existed at least from 1400. These literary guilds lasted for two centuries, and during the greater part of that time preserved a com pletely mediaeval character, even when the influences of the Renaissance and the Reformation obliged them to modify in some degree their outward forms. They were in almost all cases absolutely middle class in tone, and opposed to aristocratic ideas and tendencies in thought. Of these remarkable bodies the earliest were almost entirely engaged in preparing mysteries and miracle-plays for the populace. Each chamber, and in process of time every town in the Low Countries, possessed one, and took as its title some fanciful or heraldic sign. The earliest of all, &quot; The Alpha and Omega,&quot; at Ypres, was founded about 1398; that of the &quot;Violet,&quot; at Antwerp, followed in 1400 ; the &quot;Book,&quot; at Brussels, in 1401 ; the &quot; Berberry,&quot; at Courtrai, in 1427 ; the &quot;Holy Ghost,&quot; at Bruges, in 1428 ; the &quot;Floweret Jesse,&quot; at Middelburg, in 1430; the &quot;Oak Tree,&quot; at Vlaarclingen, in 1433; and the &quot;Marigold,&quot; at Gouda, in 1437. The most celebrated of all the chambers, that of the &quot;Eglantine&quot; at Amsterdam, with its motto In Liefde Bioeyende (Blossoming in Love), was not instituted until 1496. Among the most influential chambers not above mentioned should be included the &quot;Fountain&quot; at Dort, the &quot; Corn Flower &quot; at the Hague, the &quot; White Columbine &quot; at Leyden, the &quot; Blue Columbine &quot; at Rotterdam, the &quot; Red Rose &quot; at Schiedam, the &quot; Thistle &quot; at Zierikzee, &quot; Jesus with the Balsam&quot; at Ghent, and the &quot;Garland of Mary&quot; at Brussels. And not in these important places only, but in almost every little town, the rhetoricians exerted their influence, mainly in what we may call a social direction. Their wealth was in most cases considerable, and it very soon became evident that no festival or procession could take place in a town unless the &quot;Kamer&quot; patronized it. Towards the end of the 15tb century the Ghent chamber of &quot; Jesus with the Balsam &quot; began to exercise a sovereign power over the other Flemish chambers, which was emu lated later on in Holland by the &quot; Eglantine&quot; at Amsterdam. But this official recognition proved of no consequence in literature, and it was not in Ghent, but in Antwerp, that intellectual life first began to stir. In Holland the burghers only formed the chambers, while in Flanders the representa tives of the noble families were honorary members, and assisted with their money at the arrangement of ecclesias tical or political pageants. Their pompous landjuu eelen, or tournaments of rhetoric, at which rich prizes were con tended for, were the great occasions upon which the members of the chambers distinguished themselves. Between 1426 and 1620 at least 66 of these festivals were held. There was a specially splendid landjiiweel at Antv/erp in 1496, in which 28 chambers took part, but the gayest of all was that celebrated,at Antwerp on the 3d of August 1561. To this the &quot; Book &quot; at Brussels sent 340 members, all on horseback, and clad in crimson mantles. The town of Antwerp gave a ton of gold to be given in prizes, which were shared among 1893 rhetoricians. This was the zenith of the splendour of the &quot; Kamers van Rhetorica,&quot; and after this time they soon fell into disfavour. We can trace the progress of literary composition under the chambers, although none of their official productions have descended to us. Their dramatic pieces were certainly of a didactic cast, with a strong farcical flavour, and continued the tradition of Maerlant and his school. They very rarely dealt with historical or even Biblical personages, but entirely with allegorical and moral abstractions, until the age of humanism introduced upon the stage the names without much of the spirit of mythology. Of the pure farces of the rhetorical chambers we can speak with still more con fidence, for some of them have come down to us, and among the authors famed for their skill in this sort of writing are named Cornells Everaert of Bruges and Laurens Janssen of Haarlem. The material of these farces is extremely raw, consisting of rough jests at the expense of priests and foolish husbands, silly old men and their light wives. Laurens Janssen is also deserving of remembrance for a satire against the clergy, written in 15 S3. The chambers also