Part 41

The novels of Sir Walter Scott had a great influence on Dutch literature, and the period was rich in historical novels. J. van der Hage (1806-1854), who wrote under the pseudonym of Jan Frederick Oltmans, was the author of the famous novels, _Castle Loevenstein in 1570_ (1834), and _The Shepherd_ (1838), both dealing with the national history. Other popular works were the antique romance _Charikles and Euphorion_ (1831) of Petrus van Limburg-Brouwer (1795-1847), author of a history of Greek mythology; the _Mejuffrouw Leclerc_ (1849), and the _Portretten van Joost van den Vondel_ (1876) of the literary historian and critic J.A.A. Alberdingk Thijm (1820-1899); the _Jan Faessen_ (1856) of Lodewijk Mulder (b. 1822); and the _Lucretia d'Este_ of W.P. Walters (1827-1891). Johannes Kneppelhout (1814-1885) sketched university life at Leiden in two amusing volumes of _Studententypen_ (1841) and _Studentenleven_ (1844). Reinier Cornelis Bakhuizen van den Brink (1810-1865) was the chief critic of the romantic movement, and Everhard Johannes Potgieter (1808-1875) its mystical philosopher and esoteric lyrical poet. The genius and influence of Potgieter were very considerable, but they were exceeded by the gifts of Nicolaes Beets (q.v.), author of the famous _Camera Obscura_ (1836), a masterpiece of humour and character. Johannes Pieter Hasebroek (1812-1896), who has been called the Dutch Charles Lamb, wrote in 1840 an admirable collection of essays entitled _Truth and Dreams_. Willem Hofdijk (1816-1888) wrote a collection of ballads, _Kennemerland_ (1849-1852), and a series of epic and dramatic poems in the romantic style. Bernard ter Haar (1806-1881), an Amsterdam pastor and, in the last year of his life, a professor at Utrecht, made a reputation as a poet by his _Johannes and Theagenes, a legend of apostolic times_ (1838). His poems were collected in 1866 and 1879. A poet of unusual power and promise was lost in the early death of Pieter Augustus de Genestet (1803-1861). His _Eve of Saint Nicholas_ appeared in 1849, and was followed by two volumes of verse in 1851 and 1861, the second of which contains some poems that have attained great popularity. Among the poets should not be forgotten two writers of verse for children, Jan Pieter Heije (1809-1876) and J.J.A. Gouverneur (1809-1889). Criticism was represented by W.J.A. Jonckbloet (1817-1885), author of an excellent _History of Dutch Literature_ (1868-1870), C. Busken Huet, and Jan ten Brink (1834-1901), author of a great number of valuable works on literary history, notably of a history of Dutch literature (1897), and a series of biographies of 19th century Dutch writers (new edition, 1902). His novels were collected in 13 volumes in 1885. With Isaak da Costa (q.v.), W.J. van Zeggelen (1811-1879), and J.J.L. Ten Kate (q.v.), the domestic tendency of Cats and Bilderdijk overpowered the influence of romanticism. The romantic drama found its best exponent in H.J. Schiminel (q.v.), who found a disciple in D.F. van Heyst (b. 1831), whose _George van Lalaing_ was produced in 1873. Hugo Beijerman (ps. Glanor) produced a good play in his _Uitgaan_ (1873), which was followed by other successes. Rosier Faessen (b. 1833) published his dramatic works in 1883.

Recent developments.

The recent literature of Holland presents the interesting phenomenon of an aesthetic revolution, carefully and cleverly planned, crowned with unanticipated success, and dying away in a languor encouraged by the complete absence of organized resistance. It would perhaps be difficult to point to another European example so well defined of the vicissitudes which keep the history of literature varied and fresh. For the thirty or forty years preceding 1880 the course of _belles-lettres_ in Holland was smooth and even sluggish. The Dutch writers had slipped into a conventionality of treatment and a strict limitation of form from which even the most striking talents among them could scarcely escape. In 1880 the most eminent authors of this early period were ready to pass away, and they appeared to be preparing no successors to take their place. The greatest humorist of Holland, Nicolaas Beets, had drawn his works together. The most interesting novelist, Mrs Gertrude Bosboom-Toussaint, had in her last psychological stories shown an unexpected sympathy with new ideas. M.G.L. van Loghem (b. 1849), known under the pseudonym of "Fiore delle Neve," made a great success by his _Een liefde in het Zuiden_ (1881), followed in 1882 by _Liana_, and in 1884 by _Van eene Sultane_. Among the novelists were Gerard Keller (b. 1829), author of _From Home_ (1867); Johan Gram (b. 1833), of whose novels _De Familie Schaffels_ (1870) is the best known; Hendrik de Veer (1829-1890), author of _Frans Holster_ (1871); Justus van Maurik (b. 1846), who wrote plays and short sketches of Amsterdam life (_Uit het Volk_, 1879), and Arnold Buning (b. 1846), whose _Marine Sketches_ (1880) won great popularity. The colonial novels of N. Marie C. Sloot, born in Java in 1853, are widely read in Holland and Belgium, and many of them have been translated into German. A number of them were collected (Schiedam, 1900-1902) as _Romantische Werken_. Adele Opzoomer (b. 1856; pseud. A. C.S. Wallis) made her first success in 1877 with _In Days of Strife_. The two leading Dutch men of letters, however, besides Beets and Douwes Dekker, were critics, Conrad Busken-Huet (q.v.) and Carel Vosmaer (q.v.). In Huet the principles of the 1840-1880 period were summed up; he had been during all those years the fearless and trusty watch-dog of Dutch letters, as he understood them. He lived just long enough to become aware that a revolution was approaching, not to comprehend its character; but his accomplished fidelity to literary principle and his wide knowledge have been honoured even by the most bitter of the younger school. Vosmaer, although in certain directions more sympathetic than Huet, and himself an innovator, has not escaped so easily, because he has been charged with want of courage in accepting what he knew to be inevitable.

In November 1881 there died a youth named Jacques Perk (1860-1881), who had done no more than publish a few sonnets in the _Spectator_, a journal published by Vosmaer. He was no sooner dead, however, than his posthumous poems, and in particular a cycle of sonnets called _Mathilde_, were published (1882), and awakened extraordinary emotion. Perk had rejected all the formulas of rhetorical poetry, and had broken up the conventional rhythms. There had been heard no music like his in Holland for two hundred years. A group of young men, united in a sort of esoteric adoration of the memory of Perk, collected around his name. They joined to their band a man somewhat older than themselves, Marcellus Emants (born 1848), poet, novelist and dramatist, who had come forward in 1879 with a symbolical poem called _Lilith_, which had been stigmatized as audacious and meaningless; encouraged by the admiration of his juniors, Emants published in 1881 a treatise on _Young Holland_, in the form of a novel in which the first open attack was made on the old school. The next appearance was that of Willem Kloos (born 1857), who had been the editor and intimate friend of Perk, and who now undertook to lead the army of rebellion. His violent attacks on recognized authority in aesthetics began in 1882, and created a considerable scandal. For some time, however, the new poets and critics found a great difficulty in being heard, since all the channels of periodical literature were closed to them. But in 1883 Emants expressed his intellectual aspirations in his poem _The Twilight of the Gods_, and in 1884 the young school founded a review, _De Nieuwe Gids_, which was able to offer a direct challenge to _De Gids_, the ultra-respectable Dutch quarterly. In this year a new element was introduced: hitherto the influences of the young Dutch poetry had chiefly come from England; they were those of Shelley, Mrs Browning, the Rossettis. In 1884 Frans Netscher began to imitate with avidity the French naturalists. For some time, then, the new Dutch literature became a sort of mixture of Shelley and Zola, very violent, heady and bewildering. In 1885 the _Persephone and other Poems_ of Albert Verwey (b. 1865) introduced a lyrical poet of real merit to Holland; Emants published his novel _Goudakker's Illusions_. This was the great flowering moment of the new school. It was at this juncture that the principal recent writer of Holland, Louis Couperus (b. 1863), made his first definite appearance. Born in the Hague, the opening years of his boyhood were spent in Java, and he had preserved in all his nature a certain tropical magnificence. In 1884 a little volume of lyrics, and in 1886 the more important _Orchids_, showed in Couperus a poet whose sympathies were at first entirely with the new school. But he was destined to be a novelist, and his earliest story, _Eline Vere_ (1889), already took him out of the ranks of his contemporaries. In 1890 he published _Destiny_ (known as _Footsteps of Fate_ in the English version), and in 1892 _Ecstasy_. This was followed in 1894 by _Majesty_, in 1896 by _World-wide Peace_, in 1898 by _Metamorphosis_, a delicate study of character, in 1899 by Fidessa, in 1901 by _Quiet Force_, and in 1902 by the first volume of a tetralogy called _The Books of Small Souls_. Of all these later books, some of which have been translated into English, by Couperus, it is perhaps _Ecstasy_ in which the peculiar quality of his work is seen at present to the greatest advantage. This is an extreme sensitiveness to psychological phenomena, expressed in terms of singular delicacy and beauty. The talent of Couperus is like a rich but simple tropical flower laden with colour and odour. He separated himself, as he developed, from the more fanatical members of the group, and addressed himself to the wider public. Another writer, of a totally different class, resembling Couperus only in his defiance of the ruling system of aesthetics, is the prominent Ultramontane politician and bishop, E.J.A.M. Schaepmann (born 1844), whose poem of _Aja Sofia_ originally appeared in 1886. Recent novelists of some polemical vigour are H. Borel and van Hulzen. A very delightful talent was revealed by Frederick van Eeden in _Little Johnny_ (1887), a prose fairy-tale; in _Ellen_ (1891), a cycle of mysterious and musical elegies; and in _From the Cold Pools of Death_ (1901), a very melancholy novel. Another poet of less refinement of spirit, but even greater sumptuousness of form, appeared in Helene Swarth-Lapidoth (born 1859), whose _Pictures and Voices_ belongs to 1887. In that year also, in which Dutch literature reached its height of fecundity, was published the powerful and scandalous naturalistic novel, _A Love_, by L. van Deyssel (K.J.L. Alberdingk Thijm) who had hitherto been known chiefly as a most uncompromising critic. After 1887 the condition of modern Dutch literature remained comparatively stationary, and within the last decade of the 19th century was definitely declining. In 1889, it is true, a new poet Herman Gorter, made his appearance with a volume of strange verses called _May_, eccentric both in prosody and in treatment. He held his own without any marked advance towards lucidity or variety. Since the recognition of Gorter, however, no really remarkable talent has made itself prominent in Dutch poetry, unless we except P.C. Boutens, whose _Verses_ in 1898 were received with great respect. Willem Kloos, still the acute and somewhat turbulent leader of the school, collected his poems in 1894 and his critical essays in 1896. L. van Deyssel, though an effective reviewer, continued to lack the erudition which years should have brought to him. Gorter remained tenebrous, Helene Swarth-Lapidoth still gorgeous; the others, with the exception of Couperus, showed symptoms of sinking into silence. The entire school, now that the struggle for recognition is over, and its members are accepted as little classics and the tyrants of taste, rests on its triumphs and seems to limit itself to a repetition of its old experiments. The leading dramatist of the close of the century was Hermann Heijermans (b. 1864), a Jew of strong realistic and socialistic tendencies, and the author of innumerable gloomy plays. His _Ghetto_ (1898) and _Ora et Labora_ (1901) particularly display his peculiar talent. Other notable products of drama are those of de Koo, whose _Tobias Bolderman_ (1900) and _Vier Ton_ (1901) are effective comedies. Dutch literature presented features of remarkable interest between 1882 and 1888, but since that time the general heightening of the average of merit, the abandonment of the old dry conventions, and a recognition of the artistic value of words and forms, are more evident to a foreign observer than any very important single expression of the national genius in literary art. An exception should be made in favour of the powerful peasant-stories of Steijn Streuvels (Frank Lateur), a young baker by trade, whose _Summer Land_ (1901) was a most promising production.

AUTHORITIES.--Dr W.J.A. Jonckbloet, _Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Letterkunde_ (4th ed., 1889-1892); Dr J. ten Brink, _Kleine Geschiedenis der Nederlandschen Letteren_ (Haarlem, 1877); and the same author's _Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Letterkunde_ (1897), with elaborate illustrations, facsimiles of MSS. and title pages, &c.; Dr J. van Vloten, _Schets van de Geschiedenis der Nederlandschen Letteren_ (1879); L. Schneider, _Geschichte der niederlandischen Literatur_ (Leipzig, 1887); G. Kalff, _Literatuur en tooneel te Amsterdam in de zeventiende Eeuw_ (Haarlem, 1895).

Interesting observations on the development of the new school in Dutch literature will be found in Willem Kloos, _Veertien Jaar Literatuur-Geschiedenis_ (2 vols., 1880-1896), and in L. van Deyssel, _Verzamelde Opstelen_ (4 vols., 1890-1897), and in the series of monographs and bibliographies by Prof. J. ten Brink, _Geschiedenis der Noord-Nederlandsche Letteren in de XIX^e Eeuw_ (Rotterdam, new ed. 1902, &c.). (E. G.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Edited by J.F. Willems (Brussels, 1836).

[2] Edited by C.P. Serrure and Ph. Blommaert (Ghent, 1852-1854).

[3] Edited by Dr E. Verwijs (Leiden, 1868).

[4] Edited by L.P.C. v. den Bergh (Leiden, 1846-1847).

[5] Edited by P. Leendertz (Leiden, 1845-1847).

[6] Edited by Dr Jul. Zacher in Haupt's _Zeitschrift fur deutsches Altertum_, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1842).

[7] See Schotel, _Geschiedenis der Rederijkers in Nederland_ (1862-1864), Amsterdam.

[8] For Houwaert, see a study by K.F. Stallaert in the _Nederlandsch Museum_ (1885).

[9] Ed. Dr W.L. van Helten (1875).

[10] For Coornhert see also J. ten Brink, _D.V. Coornhert en zijne wellevenkunst_ (Amsterdam, 1860).

[11] The best edition is by P. Vlaming (Amsterdam, 1723).

[12] On Visscher and his daughters see N. Beets, _Al de gedichten van Anna Roemers Visscher_ (1881), and E. Gosse, _Studies in the Literature of Northern Europe_ (1879).

[13] See J. ten Brink, _G.A. Brederoo_ (Utrecht, 1859; 3rd ed. 1887-1888); also J.H.W. Unger, _Brederoo, eine Bibliographie_ (1884). His works were edited (3 vols., 1885-1890) by J. ten Brink and others.

[14] See R.A. Kollewijn's edition of _Samuel Coster's Werken_ (1883).

[15] See Dr W. Bisschop, _Justus van Effen ..._ (Utrecht, 1859).

[16] See Dr J. van Vloten, _Leven enwerken van Willem en Onno van Haren_ (1874), and Busken-Huet, _De van Harens_ (1875).

[17] See Dr J. van Vloten, _Elisabeth Wolff ..._ (1880).

DUTCH WARS, a convenient general title for a series of European wars between 1652 and 1678, which centred chiefly upon the political and commercial relations of the Netherlands with England and France. By Englishmen the term "Dutch Wars" is usually applied to the two purely naval wars of 1652-53 and 1663-67 and to the Anglo-Dutch or naval part of the war that began in 1672. But the last of these was part of a much wider struggle by land, known to Continental historians as the Dutch War of 1672-78, and the second part of this article deals with their struggle on the various frontiers of France, which was illustrated by the genius of Turenne and Conde.

I. NAVAL OPERATIONS

_First Dutch War (1652-53)._--Though political causes were at work, the main incentive to hostility between the peoples was commercial rivalry. It was therefore natural that their first encounters should have taken place between fleets engaged in convoying trade, or in endeavouring to intercept the trade of their enemy. Blows were exchanged before war was formally declared. On the 12th of May 1652 an English officer, Captain Young, stopped a Dutch convoy near the Start in order to enforce the salute to the English flag, which England then demanded from all who used the seas round her coast. The demand was resisted, and was only yielded to after a sharp conflict. Though the Dutch were still endeavouring to negotiate a peace with the Council of State which governed in the British Isles after the execution Of King Charles I., they made ready for war. In May forty sail of their war-ships appeared off Dover under command of Martin Harpertzoon Tromp--then the best known of their admirals. There were then 8 British ships in Dover under Rear-Admiral Nicholas Bourne, and 15 near Rye under Robert Blake, a member of parliament, and soldier who had gained a great reputation in the Civil War. Blake came into the Straits of Dover with his ships, and on the 19th of May a sharp collision took place between him and Tromp. Bourne joined his countryman after the action began. The encounter, which the Dutch attributed to the English, and the English to the Dutch, made war inevitable, even if the relations of the two powers had allowed of the maintenance of peace. The first operations on both sides took the form of attacks on trade. Sir George Ayscue, who had lately returned from the West Indies, whither he had been sent to subdue the Royalist party in Barbados, had a sharp encounter with a Dutch convoy while on his way up Channel to the Downs, and had captured several prizes. The Council of State, being mainly anxious to destroy the Dutch trade and fisheries, began by reinforcing Blake, and sending him north to scatter the Dutch herring fleet. He had with him 60 vessels. Ayscue remained in the Downs with 16. Soon after Blake had gone, Tromp appeared in the Downs with a stronger force and threatened an attack on Ayscue. Want of wind prevented the operation. Tromp was also most intent on collecting the home-coming Dutch convoys, and seeing them safe into port. He therefore also sailed north to meet the Baltic trade. No meeting, however, took place between him and Blake, while bad weather scattered the Dutch. Their herring fishery was ruined for the year, and the outcry against Tromp was loud. He was notoriously no friend to the Loevenstein party then prevalent in Holland, and was displaced, his place being taken by Cornelius de Witt and Michiel Adriaanzoon de Ruyter. De Ruyter was sent into the Channel to convoy the outward-bound convoys, and meet the home-coming trade. On the 16th of August he had an encounter off Plymouth with Ayscue, whom he worsted, and then cruised at the Land's End. The failure of Ayscue, who was not employed again in this war, induced the Council of State to send Blake, who had now returned from the north, into the Channel. He was not, however, more successful. His fleet was allowed to become scattered, and the Dutchman brought his convoy back safe after a partial action with Penn, Blake's subordinate, on the 16th of August.

So far the operations had been confined to commerce destroying, or to the protection of trade by convoy. The next moves were more purely warlike. In the 27th of September the Dutch appeared in force off the mouth of the Thames, and Blake, whose fleet was collected in the Downs, stood to sea. On the 28th of September the first real battle of the war was fought off the Kentish Knock, a shoal opposite the coast of Essex. The English fleet standing to the north passed to west of the Dutch, and then turned. In the close engagement which followed, the Dutch were defeated. They did not fight well, and their failure was attributed in part to the discontent of their seamen with the removal of Tromp, and the unpopularity of de Witt. The states-general found it necessary to replace Tromp, who was at once sent to sea, again with the charge of seeing the outward-bound trade down Channel, and waiting for the homeward-bound. Blake had not remained on the coast of Holland, for the Council of State was still almost as intent as the Dutch on convoying trade or molesting the enemy's. It brought its fleet back, and then divided the ships, sending some to the north with Penn, and keeping the others, 40 in all, with Blake in the Downs. Thus when Tromp appeared "at the back of the Goodwins" with a fleet of 80 war-ships and a crowd of merchant vessels on the 29th of November, Blake was not in a position to engage him with any assured prospect of success. But he made the attempt, and a hot engagement took place off Dungeness on the 30th. Two English vessels were taken, and the loss would have been greater if some of the English captains had not shown themselves backward. Many of the ships were merchant vessels pressed or hired, and commanded by their own skippers, who displayed little military spirit. Blake, who offered to resign, complained of the conduct of many of them, and some were punished. The Council of State saw the necessity for making a strong effort against Tromp, who ranged the Channel unopposed. Penn was recalled from the north, Richard Deane and George Monk were united with Blake as "admirals and generals at sea," and a competent force was collected by the middle of February. The legend (for it is nothing more) that Tromp hoisted a broom at his mainmast-head to announce his intention to sweep the English off the sea, refers to this period.

On the 18th of February 1653 the Dutch admiral, who had now collected the homeward-bound convoys, was off Plymouth on his way back to Holland, and was attacked by the English fleet. The encounter, which lasted from the 18th to the 20th of February and ranged from Plymouth to Calais, is commonly named the "Three Days' Battle" and was described by Clarendon as "stupendous." The Dutch admiral brought his charge of merchant ships up Channel between him and the French shore. His war-ships were arranged in what was called a half-moon, and was in fact an obtuse angle with his flagship, the "Brederode," at the apex. During the 18th and 19th, the attacks of the English though fierce were partial, and met with no great success. Tromp had to complain of the conduct of several of his captains. On the 20th his line was broken and some 60 of his merchant ships were captured. He anchored in some confusion in Calais roads. Yet by taking advantage of the dark, and the turn of the tide, he succeeded in carrying the great majority of his merchant ships home. The English fleet had suffered severely, Blake himself was seriously wounded, and his colleague Deane was also hurt. Blake's wound disabled him greatly through the remainder of the war.