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In any definition of terms, Dutch literature must be taken to mean all literature written in Dutch, thus excluding literature in Frisian, even though Friesland is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the same way as literature in Welsh would be excluded from a history of English literature. Simi larly, literature in Afrikaans (South African Dutch) falls outside the scope of this book, as Afrikaans from the moment of its birth out of seventeenth-century Dutch grew up independently and must be regarded as a language in its own right. . Dutc:h literature, then, is the literature written in Dutch as spoken in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the so-called Flemish part of the Kingdom of Belgium, that is the area north of the linguistic frontier which runs east-west through Belgium passing slightly south of Brussels. For the modern period this definition is clear anough, but for former times it needs some explanation. What do we mean, for example, when we use the term 'Dutch' for the medieval period? In the Middle Ages there was no standard Dutch language, and when the term 'Dutch' is used in a medieval context it is a kind of collective word indicating a number of different but closely related Frankish dialects. The most important of those were the dialects of the duchies of Limburg and Brabant, and of the counties of Flanders and Holland.
E-Book Content
LITERATURE OF THE
LOW COUNTRIES
For Edith
LITERATURE OF THE
LOW COUNTRIES A SHORT HISTORY OF DUTCH LITERATURE IN THE NETHERLANDS AND BELGIUM
BY
REINDER P. MEIJER PROFESSOR OF DUTCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
MARTINUS NIJHOFF THE HAGUE/BOSTON 1978
First published in 1971 by Van Corcum & Compo N.V., Assen New edition with corrections and additional material, 1978 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague/Boston
© Reinder P. Meijer, 1978. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1978
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the copyright holder.
ISBN-13: 978-90-247-2100-9 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-9734-9
e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-9734-9
Reproduced and printed by photolithography and bound in Great Britain at The Pitman Press, Bath
CONTENTS
Preface
vii
Preface to the Second Edition
ix
I. The Early Stages Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries II. Instructors and Entertainers
25
Fourteenth Century III. Rulers and Rhetoricians
47
Fifteenth Century IV. Reformers and Humanists
72
Sixteenth Century V. The Golden Age Seventeenth Century
104
VI. Classicists and Romanticists Eighteenth Century
152
VII. Moralists and Anti-Moralists Nineteenth Century
193
VIII. The Modern Period Twentieth Century
260
Select Bibliography
376
Index
381
PREFACE
In any definition of terms, Dutch literature must be taken to mean all literature written in Dutch, thus excluding literature in Frisian, even though Friesland is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the same way as literature in Welsh would be excluded from a history of English literature. Similarly, literature in Afrikaans (South African Dutch) falls outside the scope of this book, as Afrikaans from the moment of its birth out of seventeenth-century Dutch grew up independently and must be regarded as a language in its own right. . Dutc:h literature, then, is the literature written in Dutch as spoken in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the so-called Flemish part of the Kingdom of Belgium, that is the