I was thinking of sending you a note or two on an early Dutch translation
of a very celebrated English tract when your last number came to hand, by
which 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 Batavian friends, and not unwelcome to those who approve of your
undertaking on this side of the water.
A good deal has been advanced lately regarding the interest taken by the
inhabitants of Holland, 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 respecting the encouragement given
to English players abroad. The fact itself was well-known, and the author
last cited (Shakspeare Society's reprint of the _Apology for Actors_, 1841,
p. 58.) furnishes the name of the very play performed on one occasion at
Amsterdam. The popularity of our drama there perhaps contributed to the
popularity of our lighter literature, (especially of such as came from the
pens of our most notorious playwrights,) in the same part of Europe, and
may account 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 applause in Holland.
_The Four Sons of Aymon_, 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 _Orlando 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 received by Batavian readers.
His _Quip for an Upstart Courtier, or, a Quaint Dispute between
Velvet-breeches and Cloth-breeches_, 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, 1615, 1620, 1625, and 1635, have come down
to us, besides others that, no doubt, have entirely disappeared. That the
fame of this production extended to Holland, I have the proof before me: it
is a copy of the tract in Dutch, with the following imprint--"_Tot Leyden.
By Thomas Basson_. M.D.CI." A friend of mine writes me from Rotterdam, 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 blurred. 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 vermakelick Proces tusschen Fluweele-Broeck ende
Laken-Broeck. Waer in verhaldt werdt het misbruyck van de meeste deel
der Menschen. Gheshreven int Engelsch door Robert Greene, ende nu int
Neder-landtsch overgheset. Wederom oversien."
At the back of this title is printed a short address from the translator to
the _Edele ende welghesinde Leser_, which states little more than that the
original had been received from England, and concludes with the subsequent
quatrain:--
"Ghemerckt dit Dal vol van ydelheyt
Soo lachet vrij als Democritus dede:
Doch zy gheraeckt 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, gingh ick wandelen nae de vermacklyche
velden, om mijn Gheest wat te vermacken, dan wesende noch in een
Melancholijcke humeur, seer eensaem sonder eenighe gheselschap, worde
ick seer slaperich: alsoo dat ick droomde. Dat iek 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
Aprill, Gentlemen, with his never-changed notes, that I, damped with a
melancholy humor, 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 in that drowsie slumber I wandered into a vale, &c."
The Dutch version fills thirty-two closely printed pages, and ends with the
succeeding literal translation of Greene's last sentence:--
"Tot dese Sententie (aldus by de Ridder ghepronuncieert) alle de
omstaende Stemde daer toe, ende klapten in haere handen, ende maeckte
een groot geluyde, waer door eck waeker worde, ende schoot uyt mynen
Droom, soo stout ick op, ende met een vrolijck ghemoet, gingh ick
schryven, al her gene, dat ghy hier ghehoort hebt."
The above is one of the few books I purchased when I was in Holland some
thirty years ago; and as I have quoted enough for the purpose of {104}
identification, I may conclude with asking some of your Dutch
correspondents, whether the tract, in this or in any other edition, is of
considerable rarity with them? In England I never saw a copy of it but that
in my possession. I may add that every paragraph is separately numbered
from 1 to 110, as if the production were one of importance to which more
particular reference might be made than even by the pagination.