Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature
(1916)–Tiemen de Vries–
Auteursrecht onbekend
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Chapter XXXVIII Holland's Glory of the Past Remains Inspiring. Motley, Macaulay, Walter Scott, Washington Irving, and Paulding, Longfellow, Charles Reade and Robert Louis Stevenson. English Translations of Dutch Works. Inspiration from Dutch Art. Walter Cranston Larnet's Novel - Rembrandt.After a period of decline like that of the eighteenth century, the downfall of the Dutch Republic during the French Revolution followed rapidly. When the whirlwind of revolutionary enthusiasm swept over the nations of Western Europe, it could not be expected that a nation whose strength was neither in the vastness of its area, nor in the many millions of its inhabitants, should remain intact. And when that terrible storm had passed by, and the battle of Waterloo was fought, Holland reappeared among independent nations, but to start a new history; a history entirely different from that of the great Dutch Republic; a history more in accordance with the natural limits of the country and the number of its inhabitants. Nevertheless, by its central location between England, France and Germany, Holland, although one of the minor states, will always remain a remarkable spot on the globe, and as long as the balance of the great powers leaves to her the possessions of her vast colonies, it will count as one of the commercial nations of greater importance. Holland | |||||||||||
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came into the position in which Greece has been for centuries, and into which Italy at last has come, and a comparison with Greece and Italy illustrates the present situation of Holland. When a traveler visits Greece, he may enjoy the life and the pleasures of the present Greek people, but his main purpose is to see the places where the warriors of Homer lived, where Apelles and Phidias displayed their art, where Plato and Aristoteles were teaching. Whoever goes to Italy may admire the Italian art of later centuries, may enjoy the beauty of the Italian climate, but before everything else, his thoughts are on ancient Rome, on the empire of the Caesars, his longings are to see the sacred places where the first Christians were persecuted and murdered, in the Catacombs and in the Coliseum, to stand on the forum Romanum, to walk through the palace of the Palatine, to look down from the Tarpeian rock, to ride along the via Appia, to stand quietly in many places and recall all the greatness and glory that was one time and now is no more. And here in the comparison with Italy we find the hope for Holland's present condition and its future. Italy never again has played the part of a world-empire, never has regained its glorious days of ancient Rome, but Italy, after having been reduced to more natural and fitting conditions, and after its great task in history has passed long ago, has nevertheless developed a wonderful splendor in art and in literature, in science and in every other respect. So, when anybody visits Holland, if he is not an ‘innocent abroad,’ he will look first for Holland's glory of the past, he may see first the many places, sacred in history, remarkable as any places on the face of the earth; places connected with tragedies, more tragic than any history ever saw; places of martyrdom and | |||||||||||
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heroism for the liberties now enjoyed in the most remote countries, and we can only pity those poor tourists whose entire interest consists in seeing the wooden shoes of some poor fisher people, because they do not see that they themselves in a spiritual sense are just as poor as those people begging at the side of the sea. But besides all those glorious remainders of the past, in sacred places and in art, there is still a modern civilization in Holland, a national energy, which is illustrated by the fact that, in proportion, the scholars and scientists of Holland in our days get more Nobel prizes than those of any country in the world, and that the modern school of Dutch art, the school of Josef Israels and Maris, Mesdag and Mauve can stand comparison with any school in the world. Only in the field of language and literature we must not expect much from Holland, because there competition is on too unequal terms. Art and science speak in a world-language, but literature is largely confined to a certain language. The Dutch language is spoken only by comparatively a few, while, for instance, English is the language of the English Empire, and of the United States. Consequently a literary work written in Dutch becomes important for the world at large only in translation, while in the original it is limited to that comparatively very small part of the civilized world where the Dutch language is spoken. But what will remain inspiring for the whole world, and for the literary artists of all nations, is the grand history of the Dutch republic, with its deeds of great heroism and martyrdom, of stubborn steadfastness in standing for freedom and independence, deeds written in the language of the human heart, as | |||||||||||
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well as in the books of the world's history. Names like those of Motley and Macaulay may prove at once how far this is true; two men whose volumes take their place of honor in the literature of England and America, and whose inspiration holds immediate contact with the history of Holland. As Southey and Henry Taylor came into personal contact with Bilderdÿk, so Motley and Macaulay, half a century later, made the acquaintance of the great pupil of Bilderdÿk, the archivist of the House of Orange and great historian, G. Groen van Prinsterer. John Lothrop Motley (1814-1877), born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, after having finished his studies at Harvard, and after having made a trip through Europe, became, in 1841, secretary of the Ambassador of the United States at St. Petersburg; lived in the United States from 1842-1851; from 1851 until 1856 at Berlin, Dresden and Brussels; was Ambassador at Vienna 1861-1868, and after 1870 at London, until he died in England, in Kingston Russel House, near Dorchester (Dorsetshire), in 1877. Motley began his literary career in 1839 by writing a novel, Morton's Hope, and ten years later he published another novel called Merry Mount. After that he gave himself, as much as his diplomatic career allowed him time for it, entirely to historical researches, and it was the history of the Netherlands that became the great source of inspiration of his life. In 1856 Motley published his Rise of the Dutch Republic, in three volumes; after that he wrote the History of the United Netherlands, in four volumes 1860-1868; and finally in 1874 his Life and Death of John of Barnevelt, in two volumes. The first of these works brought the name of Motley at once into fame all over the world, and not without reason. It is | |||||||||||
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splendid in every respect. The second work, his History of the Netherlands, is not as trustworthy and contains many mistakes. His last work, the Life and Death of Olden Barnevelt, is another masterpiece of literary merit, but, as a work of history, it is a complete failure, because on the main question he goes absolutely wrong. The best historians of the most different parties, like the liberal Robert Fruin, and the conservative Groen van Prinsterer, agree in this point against Motley. I am sorry that, according to these historians, we have to go still further. Motley was not only wrong, but he was so much prejudiced that he took no notice of the very best documents which were put at his disposal from the archives of the House of Orange. The main idea of Motley, in the great question between Prince Maurits and Olden Barnevelt, was, that Prince Maurits was ambitious, that he tried to get the sovereignty instead of being Stadholder, that Olden Barnevelt refused in that point his assistance, and that therefore the Prince hated Olden Barnevelt. This presumption, once accepted, dominated the whole work of Motley, and he could not change this idea, he could not admit that he was wrong, without changing his whole work, and its pervading spirit from start to finish. Groen van Prinsterer published, in the meantime, the secret correspondence between Prince Maurits and his cousin, Willem Lodewÿk, Stadholder of Friesland, who stood side by side with the Prince against Olden Barnevelt. In those letters, during the most critical years of the conflict, Prince Maurits writes his intimate thoughts and feelings to a cousin, whom he perfectly trusts, and who stands with him. Those secret letters have to decide the question of Maurits' intentions, and they do. But they decided against Motley, and Motley knew it before his book was published, but he refused | |||||||||||
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to change the whole work, and stuck to his story. How to explain prejudices like these? How Motley got the prejudices can easily be explained, but why he stuck to them nobody can explain without touching the character of Motley as an honest and sincere historian. Motley was a Unitarian, and had a strong feeling of antipathy against the Calvinistic party, of which Prince Maurits was the head. Motley, when he lived at the Hague for some time in a house on the Kneuterdÿk, was a great friend of Queen Sophia, at that time living separately from her royal husband, King William III, whom she hated and despised. A life-size portrait of Motley is still hanging in the Palace in the woods near the Hague, where Queen Sophia lived. No princess ever did so much harm to the House of Orange as she did. She was better suited to be the editor of a magazine or the teacher of a high school than to be the wife of a king like William III. This wrong conception of her life's task was so terrible in its consequences that really the whole royal family was destroyed, and not before the queen died, and another and better Princess, viz., Queen Emma, came in her place, was the sensitive character of William III, by her soft and wise hand, led in the right way. That Motley, starting with a prejudiced mind, and favored with the friendship of a queen, who hated the House of Orange, and whose literary abilities were acknowledged, but who neglected the great task of her life, hardly could change his mind, is easily understood. And yet that he, knowing better, as an honest man, preserved and gave his book to the world as he did, looks psychologically like the fall of an angel. After the publishing of Motley's book, Groen van Prinsterer told Motley personally that he was obliged to write against him, and | |||||||||||
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he published his ‘Maurice et Barnevelt,’ a book of about 600 pages, written in French in order that the whole world should be able to read it. In the family archives of Mr. Groen van Prinsterer, now in the State-Archives at the Hague, are only six letters of Motley written to Groen, and only three copies of letters written by Groen to Motley. I take here, finally, the opportunity of publishing two letters of Motley, which came into my possession by purchase at the Antiquariat of Van Stockum at the Hague. They may be valuable for the biographer of Motley, and once printed they cannot be lost any more to historical research. The paper of the first letter is stamped - 31 Hertford street, May Fair, and dated ‘13 July, '60.’ Dear Sir: - Since sending my letter of yesterday, I have cut the leaves of the last portion of the Olden Barneveld papers received. I find that the instructions to Leicester sent by me to Mr. van Deventer, have already been printed by you. It is unnecessary therefore to trouble that gentleman or yourself with any more questions. The other letter is written at the Hague to Professor P.G. Frederiks: 6 neuterdÿk, The Hague, 8 April, '72. | |||||||||||
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Zutphen fourteen years ago and of the interesting and instructive conversation of the gentleman, Mr. Tadema, who was so good as to show me all that was interesting there.Ga naar voetnoot1 I read with interest what you tell me of the papers in the Wÿnhuistoren. I thank you sincerely for your friendly intentions in my behalf as well as for the indulgent manner in which you are pleased to speak of my labors to illustrate the history of your noble country and of the honor recently done me by the time-honored University of Leyden. Macaulay, as well as Motley, was personally acquainted with the Dutch historian, Groen van Prinsterer, and without any painful difference of opinion such as overshadowed the friendship of Groen and Motley. Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire; died at Holly Lodge, Campden Hill, and was given a resting place in the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. Among the tombs of Johnson and Garrick, Handel and Goldsmith, and at the feet of the statue of Addison, lies the tombstone of the man who spent the best part of his life in writing the story of William III, Prince of Orange and King of England, in a monumental work that bears the name of History of England. Four of the five volumes are devoted to the time of William and Mary, and the great hero of the work, the hero of Macaulay's life was the illustrious Prince of Orange. Several times Macaulay travelled on the | |||||||||||
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European Continent, and at least in 1844 he made a journey through Holland, hut I have not been able to find out how far he visited the Netherlands during his later trips. That he was well acquainted with Groen van Prinsterer is apparent from the thirty-one letters of Macaulay, which are in the family-archives of Groen, now in the State-Archives at the Hague, and that he knew the Dutch language may be proved by the following letter, the original of which is in my possession. London, August 14, 1855. An admiration for the great hero of his history Macaulay seems to have gained at a very early time of his life, when during the years 1818-1824 he was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge. During the year 1821, the same year in which the great Dutch historian, Groen van Prinsterer, got his double doctor's degree in law and in philosophy at Leyden, a certain Mr. Greaves of Fulbourn had provided a | |||||||||||
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reward of ten pounds for the junior bachelor of Trinity College, who wrote the best essay on ‘the conduct and character of William the Third.’ ‘It is more than probable,’ says Trevelyan, the biographer of Macaulay, ‘that to this old Cambridgeshire Whig was due the first idea of that “History” in whose pages William of Orange stands as the central figure.’ The essay by which the student Macaulay won the prize is still in existence, and it is interesting how, at that time, he already outlines the characters of the two great antagonists, Louis XIV and William III. Mr. Trevelyan gives us two passages. He thus describes William's life-long enemy and rival, whose name he already spells after his own fashion: ‘Lewis was not a great general. He was not a great legislator. But he was, in one sense of the word, a great king. He was a perfect master of all the mysteries of the science of royalty - of all the arts which at once extend power and conciliate popularity - which most advantageously display the merits, or most dexterously conceal the deficiencies of a sovereign. He was surrounded by great men, by victorious commanders, by sagacious statesmen. Yet, while he availed himself to the utmost of their services, he never incurred any danger from their rivalry. He was a talisman which extorted the obedience of the proudest and mightiest spirits. The haughty and turbulent warriors whose contests had agitated France during his minority yielded to the irresistible spell, and, like the gigantic slaves of the ring and lamp of Aladdin, labored to decorate and aggrandize a master whom they could have crushed. With incomparable address he appropriated to himself the glory of campaigns which had been planned and counsels which | |||||||||||
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had been suggested by others. The arms of Turenne were the terror of Europe. The policy of Colbert was the strength of France. But in their foreign successes and their internal prosperity the people saw only the greatness and wisdom of Lewis.’ His favored hero, William III, the young Macaulay, describes as follows: ‘To have been a sovereign, yet the champion of liberty; a revolutionary leader, yet the supporter of social order, is the peculiar glory of William. He knew where to pause. He outraged no national prejudice. He abolished no ancient form. He altered no venerable name. He saw that the existing institutions possessed the greatest capabilities of excellence, and that stronger sanctions and clearer definitions were alone required to make the practice of the British constitution as admirable as the theory. Thus he imparted to innovation the dignity and stability of antiquity. He transferred to a happier order of things the associations which had attached the people to their former Government. As the Roman warrior, before he assaulted Veii, invoked its guardian gods to leave the walls, and to accept the worship and patronize the cause of the besiegers, this great prince, in attacking a system of oppression, summoned to his aid the venerable principles and deeply-seated feelings to which that system was indebted for protection.’ This admiration that had inspired the student, remained with him during his whole life; the grand, inspired style of this essay, developed into the most splendid art of history-writing, and the first success of the youth was a prophecy of the glory with which the whole world was going to crown his head. Since Macaulay's bones went to their resting place in Westminster Abbey, his name and the name of William III of Orange are forever connected. | |||||||||||
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The influence of Holland on Walter Scott (1771-1832) attracted at first my attention when I read the footnote on Page 244 of Charles H. Herford's Studies in the literary relations of England and Germany in the sixteenth century, where the author says: ‘The chapter on Diversoria in Erasmus' Colloquia, - a chapter from which Scott drew nearly every detail of the tavern described in Anne of Geierstein.’ I found that the chapter in Anne of Geierstein mentioned by Mr. Herford is Chapter Nineteen, and after comparing it with the chapter of Erasmus' Colloquia entitled Diversoria, I saw that Mr. Herford was right. Walter Scott mentions his source only in so far as in the beginning of that chapter he says: ‘The social spirit peculiar to the French nation had already introduced into the inns of that country the gay and cheerful character of welcome upon which Erasmus, at a later period, dwells with strong emphasis, as a contrast to the saturnine and sullen reception which strangers were apt to meet with in a German caravansera.’ In reading this statement at the beginning, the reader certainly could not expect that every detail of the chapter is taken from Erasmus, and Walter Scott certainly is not far from putting a literary description of value over his own name for which the honor belongs entirely to Erasmus, which, according to Erasmus himself, is one of the greatest crimes a literary man can commit. In this respect the moral standard of honesty in the days of Erasmus seems to be considerably higher than in the days of Walter Scott, and in our own. In another novel of Walter Scott, entitled Quentin Durward, the descriptions of conditions in the fifteenth century are drawn from the history of the Southern Netherlands, the city of Liege being one | |||||||||||
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of the central places of this romance. But Walter Scott was not the right man to describe the rise of Democracy; his enthusiasm is aroused by the chivalry of the feudal knights, and the freedom and the rights of the masses of the citizens does not inspire him any more than did Erasmus' standard of honesty in respecting the rights of literary men concerning the production of their own genius. In this respect Walter Scott perfectly harmonizes with his intimate friend Washington Irving (1783-1859), the author of the History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker and the Sketchbook. In both these books Irving writes about the first Dutch settlers of New York State. His style is splendid and his continuous humor attractive, but his stories are too often accepted at least in part in many books on American history as truthful to history. For this reason, it was quite natural that the Dutch people took offense at Irving's ridicule of their ancestors. The greatest humor of this story is, however, that in the very pages of his Sketchbook, and in the most famous of his stories; viz., the story of Rip Van Winkle, in which he brings to ridicule the Dutch people, he was purloining the whole attractive tale from a son of that same Dutch nation; viz., from Erasmus.Ga naar voetnoot1 Washington Irving was a great friend of Walter Scott, and it certainly is not accidental that both these authors purloined from the same Dutch author, Erasmus. Probably through Scott, Washington Irving | |||||||||||
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got acquainted with the Colloquies, the Praise of Folly and the letters of Erasmus, those inexhaustible sources of humor, and of such detailed collected descriptions as are found in the works of the two friends Scott and Irving. Both had in their character something of that same poor imitation of English aristocracy that made them laugh at the Dutch people, even of the seventeenth century, and that prevented them from the honesty of mentioning the source of some of their best descriptions, giving themselves the literary honor, that belonged to the Dutchman from whom they purloined. Closely connected with Washington Irving was James Kirke Paulding (1778-1860), who tried his literary abilities on two Dutch subjects one entitled The Dutchman's fireside, published in 1841, and the other The book of Saint Nicholaes, a series of stories of the old Dutch settlers, published in 1837. Paulding's inclinations, so far as the Dutch people is concerned, are better than those of his friend Washington Irving; only his capacities are much poorer, and not to be compared with those of Irving. As Vol. 44 of the Standard Literature Series, the Dutchman's Fireside takes a decent place among America's popular literature, a place which it fully deserves. A better inspiration from Dutch history we find in the poem of Longfellow. (1807-1882), who, in his Belfry of Bruges, sings the splendor and glory of the grand history of Flanders: ‘Then most musical and solemn, bringing back the olden times
With their strange, unearthly changes, rang the melancholy chimes.’
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Like the psalms from some old cloister, when the nuns sing in the choir;
And the great bell tolled among them, like the chanting of a friar
I beheld the pageants splendid, that adorned those days of old;
Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bore the Fleece of Gold;
Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep laden argosies
Ministers from twenty nations; more than royal pomp and ease.’
In these few lines taken from the poem, we taste the author of the Psalm of Life and the Footsteps of Angels, of the Songs of Hiawatha and the Courtship of Miles Standish. In another poem, entitled ‘A Dutch Picture,’ the poet describes Simon Danz, one of those Dutch sea-captains who fought the Spaniards on all seas, and who now having come home for a while, sits at his fireplace, smokes his pipe and makes plans for a new campaign when the winter is over. Charles Reade (1814-1884) wrote several novels, but the only one that made his name famous in literature and is known by everybody is ‘The Cloister and the Hearth,’ published in 1861, in which the author describes the story of the parents of Desiderius Erasmus. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), the great Scotch novelist, in his David Balfour takes Holland as the scene for a great part of his story, and the trip which David and Catriona make from Hellevoetslius to Rotterdam and then to Delft, the Hague and Leyden, is certainly unique among all the trips made | |||||||||||
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by foreigners in the Netherlands, and as unique as the circumstances under which David studies law from the textbook of Heinneccius at Leyden. Caroline Atwater Mason in her well known novel A Lily of France gives us a beautiful description of Charlotte Bourbon, the third wife of Prince William the Silent, and makes us familiar with an interesting period in the life of the great Prince of Orange. This novel by a talented American authoress, has been translated from English into Dutch by Miss Henrietta Kuyper, and belongs now, even in Holland, to popular literature. | |||||||||||
Literary Inspiration From Dutch ArtIn our modern life art takes a considerable place. Love and admiration for things beautiful is so closely connected, and affiliated with praise and worship in religion, that wherever religion is losing ground, it is art that comes to the rescue, to lead the affections and feelings back from materialistic tendencies to the admiration of the sublime and beautiful. The works of Rembrandt are like sermons preached in the language of art, addressing directly our deepest consciousness and our feelings, uplifting our souls to things sublime and unseen; the pictures of Jan Steen and Gerard Dow tell us in a glance, as much as a chapter of Erasmus' Colloquies or Praise of Folly can do in an hour; the masterpieces of Joseph Israels, as his Alone in the World, his Along the Churchyard, and others, are full of tragic poetry, and the lyric songs presented by the best of our modern landscape-painters are impressive and charming beyond description. Books about Dutch art published during the last fifty years in the English language are so numerous that they would fill a little library by themselves. Re- | |||||||||||
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productions of the masterworks are seen in almost every home. Many of the descriptions in books about art are of high literary value. That this predominance of art in our modern life should give inspiration to poets and novelists is therefore easily understood. The novel of Walter Cranston Larned, entitled Rembrandt, A Romance of Holland, New York, 1898, may serve as an example of the movement. Besides giving the inspiration for these contributions to English literature during the nineteenth century, many works of Dutch authors have been translated into English during this period. One Dutch author, J.M.W. Schwartz, wrote his novels directly in English under the pseudonym of Maarten Maartens, well known in England and America. He wrote: The Morning of a Love, and other poems, 1885; Julian, a Tragedy, 1886; A Sheaf of Sonnets, 1888; The Son of Joost Avelnigh; An Old Maid's Love; and, God's Fool.Ga naar voetnoot1 Mr. De Hoog gives the following list of authors of whom works have been translated from the Dutch:
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Of course, these translations of Dutch books and the possible influence they may have on English literature, can be easily overestimated, because at present nearly everything that is written in the whole world and that amounts to anything, is translated into English. The whole classic literature of Greece and Rome, the literature of France and Germany, lie before us in English translations, and the few translations from the Dutch are like a glass of water in the ocean of English translations from foreign authors. I agree with De HoogGa naar voetnoot1 when he says that even the best authors of Dutch literature, like ‘Vondel, Bilderdÿk, Cats, Tollens, Da Costa, van Lennep and Beets do not belong to the world-literature,’ only I would make some exceptions; e.g., for Vondel's Lucifer. Even some novels of the best authors in Germany and in France have been inspired by great events or by great characters in the history of Holland, and | |||||||||||
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have been translated from the German and from the French into English. Some of these novels are among the most popular books in America. As an example from Germany, I think of George Ebers and his novel - The Burgomaster's Wife, for which inspiration is taken from the history of the siege of Leyden in 1574 and the life of burgomaster Adriaen van der Werff. As an example from France, I may take Alexander Dumas' novel The Black Tulip, read in nearly every family in America, the hero of which is Cornelius van Baerle, the friend of Cornelius and John De Witt. This book gives us a glance at the character of Prins William the Third. Yet, the influence of Holland on English literature is not to be looked for in our present age but in the everlasting glory of the past. |
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