Briefwisseling. Deel 5: 1649-1663

5338. Aan Utricia Swann⁹⁾. (K.A.)

Seeing my embassadors are more powerfull then my letters, to make a silent woman talke, I would fayne employ such a minister againe to entreate your ladyship, that by her favour I may be informed of what may be come to your notice about our precious Sibylla and the altering of her religion¹⁰⁾,

9) Een paar zinnen uit den brief zijn uitgegeven door J.A. Worp in Tijdschrift der Vereen. voor Noord-Nederlands muziekgeschiedenis, V, 1897, blz. 134.

10) Anna Maria Schurman had in 1652 Utrecht verlaten en was met twee oude tantes te Keulen gaan wonen, waar zij tot 1655 bleef, om zich toen te Leksmond bij Vianen te vestigen. Intusschen liep hier te lande het praatje, dat zij katholiek was geworden.

[p. 201]

so much talked of in these parts. But having no fitt orator at hand to save you the paines of writing, I fall to my ancient importunities and require most earnestly your ladyship to be pleased to lett me know, what may have given occasion to this calumnie, for so indeed I doe stile it, nor will I ever be able to give any further credit to it. My imagination is, that she will have beene in conference with one Jesuite or other, and that those rogues runne bragging of an apparent victorie and conviction of her noble soule, which God forbid we should ever live to see. - I doe not love to see your ladyship stepp so farr back from the intention of her journey hither. But every one is to take the measures of his owne commoditie. Whensoever you come and find me alife, you are to heare wonderfull new compositions, both upon the lute - in the new tunes - and the virginals, lessons, which, if they will not please your eares with their harmonie, are to astonish your eyes with their glorious titles, speaking nothing lesse then Plaintes de Mad. la Duchesse de Lorraine, Plaintes de Mad. la Princesse, sa fille, Tombeaux et funerailles de M. Duarte, and such gallantrie more. Doe not you thinke, Madam, to heare me cry out at the shop of an exchange: What doe you love, lady, gloves, stockings, what doe you lack? For indeed I am provided of all kind of stuffs. Doe but venture to come and see it. But at your owne commoditie, as I have said, for in earnest, there is nothing here worth your seeing or hearing, unlesse you will take the patience to heare me sing and tell you many times over, I am ..... 17/27 March 1654.