De Achttiende Eeuw 25 (1993) 2
Jacqueline de Man,
Ideas on laughter in Dutch courtesy-books and Spectators from the eighteenth century
Dutch courtesy-books from the late seventeenth and eighteenth century show much interest in the subject of jesting (scherts), which was treated as part of the art of conversation. These books were intended as a guide to pleasing behaviour. Consequently they taught how to jest in a polite and friendly manner. The courteous ideas about jesting as such derive from classical rhetorics, especially Cicero’s Oratore and were transmitted by Castiglione’s Courtier and his French adapters. Within the Dutch Republic this essentially aristocratic tradition was adapted to the specific needs of the Dutch burgher. The authors of Dutch Spectators, in their popular essays on ethics, drew special attention to sociability (gezelligheid). They legitimated jest as a subtle, enlightened way of behaviour. According to them, jesting should be an act of sociability. One should not show off too much esprit, but instead one should display a friendly and sociable kind of wit. The enlightened emphasis on sociability as such seems to have prepared a new appreciation of humour in the arts of the eighteenth century.
omhoog
Jan de Vet,
Letter to Pichegru: a peculiar pamphlet from 1794
The preceding essay deals with a pamphlet of 1794 in the form of a letter, published without a printer’s address and entitled Lettre de Robespierre Au Général Pichegru. It is an in-4ş of seven pages, printed in two columns with a Dutch translation parallel on the right. We have made use of the copies available in the Royal Library in The Hague and the Provincial Library in Frisia. The letter was executed by means of a technique which is known as manuscript fiction in the field of literary texts. When the text was published, Robespierre had died, which is clear from the note among other things.
The text of the letter is interesting especially because of the psychological mechanism working in it: the emotions expressed in it and the effects aimed at for the reader by uttering these emotions. Robespierre addresses general Pichegru to unfold a complex scenario for the destruction of the Republic of the United Provinces, which the latter is supposed to carry out, beginning with the military annihilation of the Dutch – they will have no chance at all to escape – and after that the extinction of their existence as a people. This announcement might have had the psychological effect that the threatened nation would make the greatest possible effort to escape its fate, but there is a hidden meaning: nearly everything that is said about the Dutch breathes a palpable contempt.
Pichegru hears from Robespierre that Holland is temporarily of the greatest importance for the French Republic, among other things as a vital factor in the anti-French cooperation of the allied powers. The Dutch are characterized by Robespierre as clever economists and as nonentities in the field of politics. Internationally they are dangerous because they instigate conspiracies everywhere, out of opportunism and fickleness, which they sustain with their immense economical power. Giving a mini survey of the political situation Robespierre mentions three parties. The only good one is the party of the Stadholder which is independent of the commercial elite and which is the only one capable of curbing the arbitrariness of the magistrates to some extent. Next, the Patriots, the moneymakers, aiming at equality in politics in order to suppress others as soon as they have gained this for themselves. Finally, the caste of magistrates, composed of the two foregoing categories and playing them off against each other.
As to his military task, Pichegru receives a warning from Robespierre that the army of the United Provinces will fight courageously: it has been inspired by the brave behaviour of the two Princes of Orange. Their resistance, however, will be in vain, but not because of the interventions of the patriots who will prove to be able of no more than some failing treason against the state. Once he has won Pichegru is to liquidate the party of the Stadholder immediately. He will have to protect the faction of the magistrates against the revenge of the Patriots for some time, until they have given him enough information on the political ideas and finance of the elite. After the extermination of the magistrates the Patriots will get the order to meet in their societies to discuss a new constitution. Of course this will take ages, so that Pichegru will see no other way than annexing Holland into the French Republic, a moment at which the letter shows distinct satiric touches. It ends in an absurd fantasy: the financial claims of the French will be so high that the Dutch will no longer be able to pay the maintenance of their dikes. Holland will disappear below the water level, the population will be deported to France.
The anonymous author of this letter could not be identified, but somebody was found whose ideas are completely similar to those of the letter: Jean Manzin, editor of the gazette Le Courier dus Bas-Rhin which was published in Cleve. Manzon too felt the same contempt for certain groups in Holland as did the author of the letter. He took up the Lettre in his gazette integrally, commending it warmly.
The pamphlet certainly raised an interest with the public as is shown by the fact that there are two versions.
omhoog
Paul Peucker,
‘Godts Wonderen met Zyne Kerke’(God’s wonders with His Church): Isaäc le Long (1683-1762) and the Moravians
In 1735 Isaäc le Long, a well known Amsterdam publicist of his day, published a book entitled: Godts Wonderen met Zyne Kerke, which described the pietist community in Herrnhut, Saxony. The book was widely read in the Netherlands and it gave the Herrnhuters (or Moravians) publicity throughout Holland, enabling to extend their work to this country and the Dutch colonies. Le Long, with his family then joined the Unity of the Brethren (Moravian Church). However, for reasons which remain unclear, they left the Church in 1746/1747. Although leading Moravians later tried to deny their own contribution to Le Long’s publication of Godts Wonderen – which had served to not only enhance support for the Moravians, but also precipitated intense protest amongst contemporary reformed theologians – they had been actively involved in the preparations for the book.
omhoog
Karl de Leeuw en Hans van der Meer,
A turning grille of Alexander baron van Spaen
After the retreat of the English and Russian troops from Dutch soil in 1799, the Batavian Directory sought means to end its participation in the war against England. It wanted to end hostilities bilaterally, that is to say without negotations for a general peace. It hoped for mediation from Prussia, that already negotiated a separate peace with France in 1795. The Directory tried to make the idea acceptable to the British – who wanted to see the former Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic back in charge – by asking the Stadtholder’s son, the Hereditary Prince William, to act as new head of the state, more or less modelled on the French example of Napoleon’s ‘consulate’.
The former Stadtholder and his family were to be approached by Alexander van Spaen, a young nobleman who was a personal friend, both of the Batavian Director in charge of Foreign Affairs, Maarten van der Goes, and the Hereditary Prince. The diplomatic manoeuvring that accompanied the mission of Alexander van Spaen required the exchange of several letters between the hereditary Prince and Alexander, most of them during the summer of 1800. The letters were enciphered by means of a remarkable variant of the turning grille, a device described for the first time only five years before in a mathematical magazine. The origin of this particular variant remains unknown, but its application shows profound understanding of cryptography.
omhoog
Steef Post,
The conversion of Bernard Nieuwentijt
In 1715 Bernard Nieuwentijt published his apology Het regt gebruik der wereltbeschouwingen ter overtuiginge van ongodisten en ongelovigen (The right use of contemplating the works of the creator, designed for the conviction of atheists and infidels). From this book appears a strong emotional involvement and everything points to the fact that a personal religious change was one of the motives to write the book. About a possible conversion many stories are current, none of which seems to be based on historical facts. In this article an account of Nieuwentijt’s conversion is discussed, which is not only some 25 years older but also more concrete and less stereotype than those up to now. Nieuwentijt is supposed to have come to repentance after the preachting of a sick-visitor from The Hague, Jacobus Schuts. The account of this conversion has been included in a manuscript by Pieter de la Ruë (1695-1770).
omhoog
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