Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/108

96 HOLLAND [LITERATURE. Sffen. by forty years. It was written when the author was only twenty years of age, and gave promise of very great talent in the future ; but unfortunately Heinsius committed a murder only two years afterwards, and, escaping to Paris, was never heard of again. allican The drama fell into Gallicized hands at the death of ; a- Yondel and his immediate disciples. Lodewijck Meijer atists. translated Corueille, and brought out his plays on the stage at Amsterdam, where he was manager of the national theatre or Schouwburg after Jan Vos. In connexion with Andries Pels, author of the tragedy of Dido s Death, Meijer constructed a dramatic club, entitled &quot; Nil Volentibus Arduum,&quot; the great object of which was to inflict the French taste upon the public. Pels furthermore came forward as the censor of letters and satirist of barbarism in Horace s Art of Poetry expounded, in 1G77, and in his Use and Misuse of the Stage, in 1681. Willem van Focquenbroch (1640-1679) was the most voluminous comic writer of this period. The close of the century saw the rise of two thoroughly Gallican dramatists, Johan van Paffenrode and Pieter Bernagie, who may not unfairly be compared respec tively to our own Farquhar and Shadwell. Thomas Asselijn (1630-1695) was a writer of more considerable talent and more homely instincts. He attempted to resist the dictatorship of Pels, and to follow the national tradition of Brederoo. He is the creator of the characteristic Dutch type, the comic lover, Jan Klaaszen, whom he presented on the stage in a series of ridiculous situations. Abraham Alewijn, author of Jan Los (1721), possessed a coarse vein of dramatic humour ; he lived in Java, and his plays were produced in Batavia. Finally Pieter Langendijk claims notice among the dramatists of this period, although he lived from 1683 to 1756, and properly belongs to the next century. With him the tradition of native comedy expired. &amp;gt;ecline The Augustan period of poetry in Holland was even f poetry, more blank and dull than in the other countries of Northern Europe. Of the names preserved in the history of litera ture there are but very few that call for repetition here. Arnold Hoogvliet (1687-1763) wrote a passable poem in honour of the town of Vlaardingen, and a terrible Biblical epic, in the manner of Blackmore, on the history of Abraham. Hubert Cornelissen Poot (1689-1733) showed an unusual love of nature and freshness of observation in his descriptive pieces. Sybrand Feitama (1694-1758), who translated Voltaire s Henriade, and wrote much dreary verse of the same class himself, is less worthy of notice than Dirk Smits (1702-1752), the mild and elegiac singer of Rotterdam. Tragic drama was more or less capably represented by Lucretia Wilhelmina van Merken (1722-1789), wife of the very dreary dramatist Nicholaas Simon van Winter (1718-1795). /an In the midst of this complete dissolution of poetical style, a writer arose who revived an interest in literature, and gave to Dutch prose the classical grace of the 18th century. Justus van Effen (1684-1735) was born at Utrecht, fell into poverty early in life, and was thrown very much among the company of French emigres, in connexion with whom he began literary life in 1713 by editing a French journal. Coming to London just when the Tatler and Spectator were in their first vogue, Van Effen studied Addison deeply, translated Swift and Defoe into French, and finally deter mined to transfer the beauties of English prose into his native language. It was not, however, until 1731, after having wasted the greater part of his life in writing French, that he began to publish his Hollandsche Spectator, which his death in 1735 soon brought to a close. Still, what he composed during the last four years of his life, in all its freshness, manliness, and versatility, constitutes the most valuable legacy to Dutch literature that the middle of the 18th century left behind it. Lanncv The supremacy of the poetical clubs in every town pro duced a very weakening and Della-Cruscan effect upon literature, from which the first revolt was made by the famous brothers Van Ilaren, so honourably known as diplo- The matists in the history of the Netherlands. Willem van brothel Haren (1710-1768) wrote verses from his earliest youth, JL. au while Ornio Zwier van Haren (1713-1779), strangely enough, did not begin to do so until he had passed middle life. They were friends of Voltaire, and they were both ambitious of success in epic writing, as understood in France at that period. Willem published in 1741 his Gevallen van Friso, an historical epos, and a long series of odes and solemn lyrical pieces. Onno. in a somewhat lighter strain, wrote Piet and Agnietje, or Pandora s Box, and a long series of tragedies in the manner of Voltaire. The Baroness Barorn Juliana Cornelia de Lannoy (1738-1782) was a writer of considerable talent, also of the school of Voltaire ; her poems were highly esteemed by Bilderdijk, and she has a neatness of touch and clearness of penetration that give vivacity to her studies of social life. Jakobus Bellamy Bell am (1757-1786) was the son of a Swiss baker at Flushing; his pompous odes struck the final note of the false taste and Gallic pedantry that had deformed Dutch literature now for a century, and were for a short time excessively admired. The year 1777 has been mentioned as the turning-point The in the history of letters in the Netherlands. It was in that year that Betjen Wolff (1738-1804), a widow lady in Amsterdam, persuaded her friend Aagjen Deken (1741- Dekkei 1804), a poor but extremely intelligent governess, to throw up her situation and live with her. For nearly thirty years these women continued together, writing in combination, and when the elder friend died on the 5th of November 1804, her companion survived her only nine days Madame Wolff had appeared as a poetess so early as 1762, and again in 1769 and 1772, but her talent in verse was by no means very remarkable. But when the friends, in the third year of their association, published their Letters on Divers Subjects, it was plainly seen that in prose their talent was very remarkable indeed. Since the appearance of Heinsius a Mirandor more than a century had passed without any fresh start in novel-writing being made in Holland. In 1782 the ladies Wolff and Deken, inspired partly by contemporary English writers, and partly by Goethe, published their first novel, Sara Burgerhart. In spite of the close and obvious following of Richardson, this was a masterly production, and it was enthusiastically received. Another novel, Willem Leevend, followed in 1785, and Cornelia Wildschut in 1792. The ladies were residing in France at the breaking-out of the Revolution, and they escaped the guillotine with diffi culty. After this they wrote no more, having secured for themselves by their three unrivalled romances a place among the foremost writers of their country. The last years of the 18th century were marked in Holland by a general revival of intellectual force. The romantic movement in Germany made itself deeply felt in all branches of Dutch literature, and German lyricism took the place hitherto held by French classicism. Pieter Nieuwland (1764-1794) was a feeble forerunner of the Nieuwl, revival, but his short life and indifferent powers gave him no chance of directing the transition that he saw to be inevitable. The real precursor and creator of a new epoch in letters was the famous Willem Bilderdijk (1756-1 831). Bilderd This remarkable man, whose force of character was even greater than his genius, impressed his personality on his generation so indelibly that to think of a Dutchman of the beginning of the present century is to think of Bilderdijk. He was born at Amsterdam on the 7th of September 1756, and through an accident in early childhood was obliged to rest almost constantly, thus attaining habits of long and