Feb. 8. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



103 



DrXCH TRANSLATION OF A TRACT BY ROBERT 

 GREENE. 



I was thinking of sending you a note or two on 

 an e-arly Dutch translation of a very celebrated 

 Eryglisli tract when your last number came to 

 hand, by ^vhich I find that so much interest has 

 been produced by "Notes and Queries" in 

 Holland, that certain literati are about to establish 

 a similar work in that country. If I mistake not, 

 what I now transmit will be acceptable to your 

 Bataviiin friends, and not unwelcome to those who 

 approve of your undertaking on this side of the 

 water. 



A good deal has been advanced lately regard- 

 ing the interest taken by the inhabitants of Hol- 

 land, Belgium, and Germany^ in our ancient 

 drama ; and in consistency with what was said 

 by Thomas Heywood more than 200 years ago, 

 some new information has been supplied respect- 

 ing the encouragement given to English players 

 abroad. The fact itself was well-known, and the 

 author last cited (Shalcspeare Society's reprint of 

 the Apology for Actors, 1841, p. 58.) furnishes 

 the name of the very play performed on one oc- 

 casion at Amsterdam. The popularity of our 

 drama there perhaps contributed to the popula- 

 rity of our lighter literature, (especially of such as 

 came from the pens of our most notorious play- 

 wrights,) in the same part of Europe, and may ac- 

 count for the circumstance I am about to mention. 

 At this time of day I need hardly allude to 

 the reputation the celebrated Robert Greene 

 obtained in England, both as a dramatist and a 

 pamphleteer; and although we have no distinct 

 evidence on the point, we need hardly doubt that 

 some of his plays had been represented with ap- 

 plause in Holland. The Four Sons of Apnon, 

 which Heywood tells us was acted with such 

 strange effect at Amsterdam, must have been a 

 piece of precisely the same kind as Greene's Or- 

 lando Furioso, which we know was extraordinarily 

 popular in this kingdom, and may have been 

 equally so abroad. We may thus suppose that 

 ! Greene's fame had spread to the Netherlands, and 

 that anything written by him would be well re- 

 ceived by Batavian readers. 



His Quip for an Upstart Courtier, or, a Quaint 

 Dispute between Velvet-breeches and Cloth-hreeches, 

 was published in London in 1592, and went 

 through two, if not three, impressions in its first 

 year. It was often reprinted, and editions in 

 1606, 1G1.5, 1620, 162.5, and 163.5, have come 

 down to us, besides others that, no doubt, have 

 entirely disappeared. Tliat tlie fame of this pro- 

 duction extended to Holland, I have the proof 

 before me : it is a copy of the tract in Dutch, 

 with the following imprint: — " Tot Lei/den. By 

 Thomas Basson. m.d.ci." A friend of mine writes 

 me from Kottcrdam, that he has a copy, without 



date, but printed about twenty or five-and-twenty 

 years after mine of 1601, which shows how long 

 the popularity of the tract was maintained ; and I 

 have little doubt that mine is not by any means 

 the earliest Dutch impression, if only because the 

 wood-cut of the Courtier and the Countryman 

 (copied with the greatest precision from the 

 London impression of 1592) is much worn and 

 bim-red. The title-page runs as follows, and the 

 name of Robert Greene is rendered obvious upon 

 it for the sake of its attraction : — 



" Een Seer verraakelick Proces tusschen Fluweele- 

 Broeck ende Laken-Broeck. Waer in verhaldt werdt 

 het misbruyck van de meeste deel der Menschen. 

 Ghcslireven int Engelsch door Robert Greene, ende 

 nu int Neder-landtsch overglieset. Wederom over- 

 sien." 



At the back of this title is printed a short ad- 

 dress from the translator to the Edele ende loelg- 

 hesinde Leser, which states little more than that 

 the original had been received from England, and 

 concludes with the subsequent quatr.iin : — 

 " Ghemerckt dit Dal vol van ydelheyt 

 Soo lachet vrij als Democrilus dede : 

 Doch zy glieraeckt met vvat Barmherticheyt : 

 Als Heraclyt, bevveen ons qualen mede. " 

 The spelling and punctuation are the same as in 

 the original, and the body of the tract follows 

 immediately : 



" Staende eens smorghens op van eene onrustige 

 nacht rust, ende vindende mijn ghemoet noch wat 

 onstelt, gingli ick wandelen nae de vermacklyche vel- 

 den, cm mijn Gheest wat te vermacken, dan wesende 

 noch in een Melancholijcke humeur, seer eensaem 

 sender eeniglie ghese'.schap, worde ick seer slaperich : 

 alsoo dat ick droomde. Dat ick een Dal sach wel 

 verceirt, &c." 



As few of your readers will have the means of 

 referring to the original English, I quote Greene's 

 opening words from an edition of 1592 : — 



" It was just at that time when the Cuckoulds. 

 quirister began to bewray April), Gentlemen, with his 

 never-changed notes, that I, damped with a melancholy 

 luimor, went into the fields to cheere up my wits 

 with the fresh aire : where solitarie seeking to solace 

 my selfe, I fell in a dreame, and iu that drowsie slum- 

 ber I wandered into a vale, &c." 



The Dutch version fills thirty-two closely 

 pi-inted pages, and ends with the succeeding 

 literal translation of Gi'eene's last sentence : — 



" Tot dese Sententie (aldus by de Ridder ghepro- 

 nuncieert) alle de omstaende Stemde daer toe, ende 

 klapten in haere handen, ende maeckte een groot ge- 

 kiyde, waer door eck waeker worde, ende schoot uyt 

 niynen Droom, soo stout ick op, ende met een vrolijck 

 ghemoet, gingh ick schryven, al her gone, dat ghy 

 liier ghehoort hebt." 



The above is one of the few bonks I purchased 

 when I was in Holland some thirty years ago ; 

 and as I have quoted enough for the purpose of 



