Dutch literature: Encyclopedia II - Dutch literature - Decline 1670–1795

Dutch literature - Decline 1670–1795

Unlike English literature, where the Augustan period and the Age of Enlightenment sustained the high level of the Jacobean age, eighteenth-century Dutch literature mainly saw tame, formalistic, ever-diminishing returns of Golden Age themes and forms. After the great division of the Low Countries into the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands formalised in the Peace of Westphalia (1648), "Dutch literature" almost exclusively meant "Republican literature", as the Dutch language fell into disfavour with the southern rulers. A notable exception was the Dunkirk writer Michiel de Swaen (1654–1707), who wrote comedies, moralities and biblical poetry. During his lifetime (1678) the Spanish lost Dunkirk to the French and so De Swaen is also the first French-Flemish writer of importance.

After Vondel's death, Dutch theatre fell into sharp decline. The playwrights of the day followed the French model of Corneille and others, led by Andries Pels (d. 1681). None of the poets of this age set before himself any more ambitious task than to repeat with skill the effects of his predecessors, with the possible exception of Jan Luyken (1649–1712). In the midst of this dissolution of poetical style, a writer arose who revived an interest in literature. Justus van Effen (1684–1735) was born at Utrecht and was influenced by Huguenot émigrés who had fled for the Republic after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Van Effen wrote in French for a great part of his literary career but, influenced by a visit to London where the Tatler and Spectator were on the rise, from 1731 began to publish his Hollandsche Spectator ("Dutch Spectator") magazine, which his death in 1735 soon brought to a close. Still, what he composed during the last four years of his life is considered by many to constitute the most valuable legacy to Dutch literature that the middle of the 18th century left behind.

The year 1777 is considered a turning point in the history of letters in the Netherlands. It was in that year that Elizabeth “Betjen” Wolff (1738–1804), a widow lady in Amsterdam, persuaded her friend Agatha “Aagjen” Deken (1741–1804), a poor but intelligent governess, to throw up her situation and live with her. For nearly thirty years these women continued together, writing in combination. In 1782 the ladies, inspired partly by Goethe, published their first novel, Sara Burgerhart, which was enthusiastically received. Two further, less successful novels appeared before Wolff and Deken had to flee France, their country of residence due to persecution by the Directory.

The last years of the 18th century, which had seen decline in the Republic on all fields, including the arts and international politics, mainly caused by weak in-fighting government, were marked by a general revival of intellectual force. The romantic movement in Germany made itself deeply felt in all branches of Dutch literature and German lyricism took the place hitherto held by French classicism, in spite of the country falling to French expansionalism (see also History of the Netherlands).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Decline 1670–1795", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki