HOLLAND 



745 



French and Italian. At Mui<len he formed a 

 literary club which oxerdMid \er\ great iiitliience. 

 Moot! wrote liiH Ilixturiiii, but he also excelled in 

 jMtetiy and in tin- drama. Among his famous 

 eontemporariM in Vondel ( 1587 \i\~\\), who is con- 

 -idci-ed the greatest of Holland's poets, and who, 

 indeed, soars high in his <lraiiuiN, -i ill performed 

 before appreciative audiences in our days. Milton, 

 it in Haul, liorrowed from Vondel, and passages 

 taken from tin- masterpieces of the two pods cer- 

 tainly hear a curious resemblance. Vondel, Mime 

 of whose dramatic works have been translated into 

 German and English, was a very prolific jxiet. 

 Yet his poetry can hardly be called so popular sis 

 that of Jacob Cats (1577-1660), whose maxims 

 were for a long time, with the Bible, the only Iniok 

 found in every cottage. Cats is witty, but coarse ; 

 and Bredero, whose comedies deserve mention, is 

 scarcely better in this respect. Van der Goes, 

 who composed a beautiful poem on Amsterdam, 

 ranks among the best of Vondel's disciples ( 1647- 

 84); Oudaen (1628-92) is noted for his political 

 poems and his dramas ; Constantyn Huyghens, the 

 father of the great mathematician, for his epigrams 

 and his didactic poetry ( the Korenbloemen, ' corn- 

 flowers,' is still read and admired); and Brandt, 

 for his historical writings. 



This is the great period of literary activity in 

 Holland previous to the revival which marked 

 the end of the 18th century. Writers who were 

 desirous of lieing read beyond the limits of their 

 vernacular had to use Latin; and Erasmus, Boer- 

 haave, Grotius, Spinoza, to mention only a few of 

 the most famous, would scarcely hcive been so well 

 known had they written exclusively in the lan- 

 guage of Vondel. 



The 18th century is the period also of literary 

 decadence in Holland ; the only great names are 

 those of Feith and Bilderdijk (1756-1831). The 

 latter wrote poetry such as has not been equalled 

 since in the -Dutch language, and it is a national 

 loss that his great epic poem, The Destruction of 

 tin' Firxt World, remained unfinished. Bilderdijk 

 also ranks high as a historian, and his philological 

 studies deserve credit, though his learning was 

 sometimes misled by his ingenuity. Among 

 Bilderdijk's contemporaries are Helmers, whose 

 patriotic songs against the French created in 

 Holland as profound a sensation as Korner's in 

 Cenuany, and the two literary ladies, Deken and 

 Bekker, whose novels (one of them translated into 

 German), written in conjunction, are true pictures 

 of Dutch life in those days. The poems of Tollens 

 (1780-1856) came later, 'and still retain their hold 

 on the popular fancy (especially in the words of 

 the national hymn) notwithstanding the appear- 

 ance of numerous still more modern competitors, 

 among whom we can only mention here Van Beers, 

 Beets, Da Costa, Schimmel, Hofdijk, and J. Van 

 Lennep. Schimmel is also noted for his dramas 

 and historical romances, the plots whereof he loves 

 to place in Kngland, when not in Holland. Beets 

 has been truly called the Charles Dickens of the 

 Dutch, as his inimitable Camera Obscura (sketches 

 of Dutch life) proves. These two authors are not 

 unknown in England and America, as portions of 

 their work have been translated. So nave some 

 of the stirring novels of Van Lennep. Hofdijk, 

 who died in 1S8S, is known for his faithful and 

 eloquent historical writings not less than for his 

 lyrical poetry. Potgieter, Ter Haar, Heye, Ten 

 Kate, and many others have each excelled in a 

 particular branch of poetry. Among noteworthy 

 novelist* we must mention Hendrik Conscience, 

 'Miss Wallis' (a daughter of Dr Opzoomer), and 

 Mrs Bosboom Toussaint ; and we cannot conclude 

 without paying a tribute to the undoubted gifts 

 of 'Multatuli* (Douwes Dekker), whose Max 



- ho* lieen translated into nearly e\-ery 

 European language. '.Maailen MaarteiiM ' write* 

 powerful novels in English; ami Maeterlinck IIOM 

 been called 'the Flemish Shakenjieare. ' In law and 

 theology the name* of <>p/oomer, Kucnen, and 

 Kern are almost as well known without a* within 

 the kingdom. 



In this necessarily rapid sketch we have made no 

 distinction between Dutch writers in Belgium and 

 Dutch writers in Holland. In fact, there is no dis- 

 tinction ; they express their thoughts in the name 

 language. The words ' Flemish ' and ' Flemlan<i< i 

 have l>een invented by the French, and only serve 

 to oliscure what is a fact viz. that there never ha* 

 l>een a greater difference between the Dutch as 

 taught at Antwerp arid the Dutch as taught in 

 Amsterdam than lietween Boston, Edinburgh, or 

 Manchester English. There have been slight 

 varieties in the spelling; but these have disappeared 

 since the orthography of 1864 has Keen adopted in 

 both the north and the south, and modern Nether- 

 landish is now the language of some 7,000,000 

 Netherlander, of whom 2,500,000 jMilitically belong 

 to Belgium. This is perfectly well understood in 

 the two countries themselves,' where Dutch philo- 

 logical and literary congresses are annually held in 

 a northern and a southern centre bv turns. In 

 Belgium there are more Dutch than Walloons, and 

 the Belgian constitution does not recognise a pre- 

 ponderating French language. No doubt the Dutch 

 Belgians have only latterly insisted upon the main- 

 tenance of their rights in this respect ; but ever 

 since the so-called ' Flemish movement' commenced 

 they have steadily gained ground, and all the 

 French encroachments are being swept away. 

 Dutch is bein" taught everywhere in the schools, 

 and a knowledge of Dutch is essential in many 

 functions, even in those of the king, who was 

 taught Netherlandish by the great novelist Hendrik 

 Conscience. The latter was one of the prime 

 movers in the Dutch reaction in Belgium, where- 

 with the names of \Villems, BlommaerVSnellaert, 

 Snieders, Hiel, Van Beers, &c. will for ever remain 

 associated some as fiery poets, some as noted 

 prose-writers. 



For statistics, consult the annual Staattalmanak, which 

 possesses a semi-official character ; the publications of the 

 Dutch Statistical Society, Amsterdam, particularly Jaar- 

 cijfers, a statistical annual in French and Dutch, in two 

 parts, one of which deals with the colonies ; the Alye- 

 meene Statistiek, in several volumes, which is an official 

 survey of the kingdom, with full particulars, hut now 

 somewhat antiquated in many details ; the annual re- 

 ports of British consuls in the Netherlands ; the 

 Almanack de (tut ha, &c. For general descriptions and 

 travel, see the works of Montegut, Esquiros, and particu- 

 larly Henri Havard ; his volumes in plr.-i-aiit French 

 (three of which, The Heart of Holland, J'ictuitsque Hol- 

 land, and The Dead Cities of the Zuiider Zee, exist in Eng- 

 lish ) have much contributed towards propagating sound 

 knowledge of the land and people. D'Amicis' Ollandu 

 ( t raiis. into English ) is also useful. For history, the writ- 

 ings of I rt'.-cott, Motley, Thorolii Rogers, Wagi-naar, 

 the very valuable collections of Uachard and Groen, the 

 histories of Th. Juste, Bilderdijk, Fruiu, A rend, Xuijens, 

 Hofdijk, &c. (all in Dutch, except Juste, who wrote in 

 French ) should bo consulted. The most accessible liter- 

 ary history is Schneider's (t'rtchichte der JViwfcr/. Litera- 

 tur (Leip. 1888), which is also the best in many ways. 



Holland, in contradistinction to the kingdom 

 of that name, is the oldest, wealthiest, and most 

 populated part thereof, forming two provinces. 

 North and South Holland. The province of North 

 Holland has an area of 1070 sq. m., and a population 

 of 906,136 in 1895. It comprises the peninsula to 

 the west of the Zuyder Zee, and also the islands 

 that fringe this great gulf on its northern side. 

 To the west North Holland is bounded by the 

 German Ocean, and to the south by the province 



