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Achttiende Eeuw 41 (2009) nr.1
Themanummer 'Maskerade en ontmaskering'
Herman Roodenburg
‘Tranen op het preekgestoelte. De achttiende-eeuwse kanselwelsprekendheid tussen toneel en authenticiteit’
During the eighteenth century pulpit oratory underwent some major changes. After the middle of the century treatises on the subject brought aspects of actio or pronuntiatio to the fore and advised preachers to not only address the minds of the faithful but also their hearts. In the process, pulpit oratory found a welcome ally in the contemporary culture of sensibility and in various Pietist variants. In this article, the new affective oratory is explored in its English, German, and especially its Dutch developments. Partly patterning itself on the bodily eloquence of actors, it also condemned their actio as deceitful and inauthentic.
Theo van der Meer
‘Demasqué van het weten. Seksuele ontologie en homoseksualiteit ten tijde van de Republiek’
For centuries masquerades and homosexuality have been closely associated. From the moment homosexuals developed an identity, ‘wearing a mask to hide their true selves’ had become part of common parlance among them. ‘The mask’ preceded the American expressions about being in or out of ‘the closet’ that started to be used also in Holland in the 1970’s. In early modern Holland a different kind of masquerade existed that was less literal: until early modern Europe’s most violent outburst of persecutions of so-called sodomites occurred in the Dutch Republic in 1730, homosexual behaviour was supposed not to exist in this country. The denial was part and parcel of a sexual ontology that not only explained eroticism and gender in a religious context, but also accounted for the prominent place the Republic held in the world. Any disruption of this ontology, in the words of Erving Goffman, was dealt with backstage, through secret executions and the destruction of records. Even while the public at large knew better, until the discovery of a nation-wide network and subculture of sodomy, the myth of the non-existence of same-sex behaviour in the Republic was maintained to uphold the existing ontology. Only the discoveries of 1730 put sodomy in the spotlight and changed the roles of all involved, including the audience, which from then on was to witness public executions of sodomites. Especially these executions generated new meanings and a new ontology, which in time required more literal forms of masquerade for those who desired their own sex.
Jeroen Duindam
‘Het vroegmoderne hof als maskerade’
‘Masquerade’ not only literally means disguising or ballet in disguise; it also indicates camouflaging intentions or emotions. This essay discusses the relevance of both meanings for the early modern court – putting into perspective the literary reputations of the court, while at the same time providing an analysis of dressing up at court from Reformation to Revolution.
Courts have traditionally been seen as places where dissimulation and intrigue dominated. This critical approach intertwined with a literary tradition that idealized the court as centre of suave manners and easy sophistication. Courtier and anti-courtier literature alike conveyed an image of the court that stressed control of impulses and a detached approach to social interaction. This could easily be read as cynical behaviour, akin to Machiavelli’s portrayal of the Renaissance prince. Machiavelli and Castiglione reinvigorated the age-old debate on the morality of rulers and courtiers. Their works occupied centre stage when religious strife swept across Europe. Politico-religious upheaval created an atmosphere of intense distrust, labeled an ‘age of dissimulation’ by Perez Zagorin.
In recent years, the study of courts shifted its focus from published literary sources to archival materials; this reorientation underlined the simple every day patterns in princely households. Isolated highpoint, taken up in Rulers’ propaganda and embellished in literary responses, have too long obscured the down to earth realities. Among court festivities the phase of disguising and dressing-up from Epiphany to Ash Wednesday occupied an important place. Typically these masquerades included the social antithesis of courtiers: shepherds, peasants, inn-keepers, artisans. The cast of the meals, dances and ballets involving disguises was carefully determined: the hierarchies were as a rule conspicuously visible even if they reverted daily practices. The eighteenth-century opening up of courts, mixing court and city in bals masqués and ridotti, did not fundamentally change this pattern.
Late eighteenth-century critique reiterated the old moral complaints about the court in more vehement form. Interestingly, the French Revolution, ousting the king and his court, also forbade carnival and the wearing of masks. Both elite politesse and popular carnival were seen as inappropriate for the true patriot.
Tanja Holzey
‘Morele en immorele’ maskerades in de toneelstukken van Nil Volentibus Arduum’
This article aims to demonstrate the didactic use of masquerardes in the theatre plays of the early modern Dutch art society Nil Volentibus Arduum (Nil). It will show and explain significant differences between the use of masquerardes in comedies and tragedies. Furthermore the article will discuss the influcence of poetical and philosophical ideas on the composition of the character in the plays of Nil as well as the diverse forms of masquerade that accompany the different kinds of character types.
Jan Rock
‘‘De Ezel die een Leeuwenhuid aangedaan hadt.’ De ontmaskering van Klaas Kolijn en de Nederlandse filologie (1709-1777)’
The chronicle of Klaas Kolijn pretended to be a thirteenth-century account of the history of the counts of Holland, but it was a forgery. Written around 1700 by Reinier de Graaf, it was held genuine until as late as 1777. This article tries to explain why the forgery was able to confuse serious scholars during three quarters of a century. It looks for answers in the history of Dutch philology, in the aims of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century antiquarian research and in contemporary epistemologic theories of probability. The debates on Kolijn were held on three moments throughout the century. Around 1710, Kolijn’s text was edited for the first time, as it fitted perfectly in an antiquarian quest for more knowledge on the earliest history of Holland. Around 1745, debates on Kolijn shifted the focus from the text itself to its constitutional consequences and to the epistemological and moral reliability of the scholars Gerard van Loon and Pieter vander Schelling, who edited and studied Kolijn. Finally, in the 1770s, Balthasar Huydecoper focused back on Kolijn’s text, ascertaining with linguistic arguments that it could not be written at the time it pretended. The final argument discrediting Kolijn, brought up by historian Jan Wagenaar at the learned society of the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, was the absence of an old manuscript. Thus, Wagenaar transferred an old antiquarian epistemological requirement of material evidence to the Dutch philology, newly organised in a learned society.
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