'Een Beytie Hollansche'

Dutch Compositions

[p. 8]

3: c. 3 February

‘Dag Mynheer!’, dat is een reght Hollansche Salutatie en of U sall door die straaten van Utreght waandelen, u sal it en duyzenmaalen tuschens s'morgens en s'aavonds hooren. Men zeg ook: ‘Dinar, Heer’, maar met een zoo corte uytspreken dat een freemdeling sal dinken dat it ‘Ja, Mynheer’ is. Waan ik bin eerst te Hollande gekomen, ik bedogt dat Het zoo worden en ik heb allteyd ‘Ja, mynheer’ gezeyden. Het seecker is dat een heel goed oor can zoo bedriegen weezen om zyn zelven segen, ‘D ja, mynheer’. Het is verwonderlyk dat zoo veel engelshen hebben in Hollande gestudeer'd zonder hebben van de taal daarom geleer'd.

Men zeg dat de hollansche taal is een taal voor den Paarden. Zo zeyd de heer Castilion over dat hy verscheiden Jaaren t Utrecht geleef'd hadden. Hy was in de Amsterdamsche Schuyt terwyl hy heft de bovegemelde gekelyk spreek gemaakt en of een heer dat hen van aanzien kenne, niet dar heft geweest, ik geloove dat een sterk Hollander sou hem te de gracht uytwerpen hebben.

[p. 9]

3: c. 3 February

‘Good day, Sir!’, that is a proper Dutch greeting, and walking through the streets of Utrecht, you will hear it a dozen times between morning and evening. They also say, ‘Your servant, Sir!’, but with such a clipped pronunciation that a foreigner will think that it is ‘Yes, Sir!’. When I first arrived in Holland, that is what I thought it was, and always said, ‘Yes, Sir!’. Certainly a very good ear can be so deceived as to find himself saying, ‘Yes, Sir’. It is amazing that so many Englishmen have studied in Holland without learning any of the language.

People say that Dutch is a language for horses. So said Monsieur Castilion^3. after he had lived in Utrecht for several years. He was on the Amsterdam schuit^4. when he made this foolish remark, and if a gentleman who knew him by sight had not been there, I believe that a strong Dutchman would have thrown him into the canal.^5.

3. Giovanni Francesco Salvernini di Castiglione, originally from Florence, was professor of mathematics, philosophy and astronomy in Utrecht, 1759-1763. In 1764 he left Utrecht for Berlin to teach mathematics and philosophy at the Prussian Military Academy, where Boswell met up with him again (see Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland 1764, passim). On 27 July 1764 Belle de Zuylen wrote to Constant d'Hermenches that ‘Monsieur Castillon was the only man she enjoyed discussing metaphysics with’ (Isabelle de Charrière, Une Liaison dangereuse: Correspondence avec Constant d'Hermenches 1760-1776, eds Isabelle and Jean-Louis Vissière, Paris, 1991, 118).

4. See Introduction, n. 5 above.

5. Boswell's attitude towards Dutch was commended by his father in a letter sent from Auchinleck in December 1763: ‘I applaud you for not condemning the Dutch language; our countrymen commonly do. One good reason for it is that they don't understand it. It is not a polite language, 'tis true, except in the mouth of a handsome woman. I must make this exception, for I remember well when I have heard a pretty lady saying “O hemel!” I thought it musical’ (Boswell in Holland, 107).