AbstractThis article explores how the publisher Cornelis vander Plasse managed to promote the literary career of the Dutch playwright Gerbrand Bredero (1585–1618) by using Amsterdam as a place. It is concerned with the way in which this Amsterdam-based publisher took decisions both to comply with Bredero's work and to derive maximum benefit from its publication. One of his strategies was to deploy the city as a recognizable trademark to Bredero's work. By using the advantages that the ‘place’ of Amsterdam offered him, he proved himself an expert in marketing and advertising, laying the foundation of Bredero's reputation as both an Amsterdam-based and national author in the centuries to follow.
This contribution focuses on two editions of G.A. Bredero's Klucht van de molenaar (Farce of the miller), written in 1613. It illustrates that the first edition of 1618 (by publisher-bookseller Niclaes Verberg) contains different words, half lines and in one case even whole lines that are missing or changed in comparison with the second edition of 1619. This is what Bredero's regular publisher Cornelis vander Plasse claims himself. Bredero's play is written in a vernacular-like style resembling the variety spoken in Amsterdam at the time. The analysis of the two editions on the representation of dialect in a written form leads to a number of notable observations. In the 1619 edition all characters have a relatively stronger dialect than in the first edition, except in a few striking scenes. The opening monologue and the moralising end of the play offer dialect variants that are slightly more refined in the 1619 edition of this play.
This contribution focuses on two editions of G.A. Bredero’s Klucht van de molenaar (Farce of the miller), written in 1613. It illustrates that the first edition of 1618 (by publisher-bookseller Niclaes Verberg) contains different words, half lines and in one case even whole lines that are missing or changed in comparison with the second edition of 1619. This is what Bredero’s regular publisher Cornelis vander Plasse claims himself. Bredero’s play is written in a vernacular-like style resembling the variety spoken in Amsterdam at the time. The analysis of the two editions on the representation of dialect in a written form leads to a number of notable observations. In the 1619 edition all characters have a relatively stronger dialect than in the first edition, except in a few striking scenes. The opening monologue and the moralising end of the play offer dialect variants that are slightly more refined in the 1619 edition of this play.
Are there any limits to the effectiveness of a written text? An interesting question perhaps, asking for the conditions under which the reader holds opinions in resistance to the writer’s framing or reframing. In 1606 Jacob Duym, a Leiden rhetorician, published a ‘Memory Book’ (Ghedenck-boeck), a compilation of six stage plays based on and recalling collective experience. They dramatize episodes of the Dutch Revolt against Spain (1568–1648) to remind the readers of the atrocities committed by the Spaniards and the hardship endured by the Princes of Orange. Since the 1560s, the Netherlands became involved in a revolt against ardent militant religious policies of Spain. After a war of iconoclasm and violent attacks by Protestants on churches and monasteries spread through the Netherlands in 1566, the catholic Spanish king Philip II send the duke of Alba (nickname: ‘The Iron Duke’) to Brussels, to repress the rebellion and root out Protestantism. Alba acted with extraordinary rigour to suppress heresies. Thousands of people facing accusations of rebellion fled to England and Germany or were executed. In this paper I will focus on framing aspects in the first play of Duym’s Ghedenck-boeck: the Nassausche Perseus, i.e. a member of the House of Nassau as Perseus, thus a combination of the myth of Perseus and Andromeda and historical topicality.1 The myth of the ill-fated Andromeda is well-known.2 The girl had been chained to a rock and fallen prey to a sea monster because of her mother’s pride. She was saved by the hero Perseus who fell in love and took her as his bride. According to the subtitle of the Ghedenck-boeck, Duym used the dramatized episodes to have his readers
In the Ghedenck-boeck (1606) Jacob Duym presents events from the Dutch Revolt as stage plays to argue that a fair war was better than a fake peace. Six plays show examples of the treacherous Spanish enemy and the brave and fearless actions of the Dutch. Some of these plays, such as the one about the siege and relief of Leiden in 1574, stage lower-class characters. This contribution will investigate the role of lower-class characters in this play as manipulations of the reader’s cognitive frame by way of framing. Lower-class figures evoke a complex analogy with the reader that emphasises difference as well as similarity, and in any case empathy and responsibility. Reasoning devices invite the public to read a word or a message within a narrative account of a specific issue that has a causal interpretation, an evaluation and a solution. Moreover, the application of lower-class characters enables Duym to move over from ideas about general themes to the particular and the other way around, alternating thematic and episodic framing.
Like many authors in the early seventeenth century, the Dutch poet and prose writer Gerbrand Bredero prided himself on his defence of the mother tongue. The main reason for Bredero's preference can be found in his consideration for the 'unlearned' public, perhaps to be associated with his being 'unlearned' himself. In his appreciation of the mother tongue, he closely responds to predecessors like Dirck Coornhert and Hendrik Spiegel. Moreover, he shared ideas about purism and 'language building' with the leading voices of the Amsterdam chamber of rhetoric, of which Bredero was a member. In this article, it will be shown how and to what extent linguistic aspects of Bredero's prose are in line with his Amsterdam predecessors. Some of the imagery used by Bredero fits in with the idiom of Coornhert, while Spiegel's writing exemplified the use of innovative compound words and genitives. Though Bredero is far less extreme in his experimentation with both forms, he did not refrain from leaving his own creative mark on language use, as a supposed result of a direct and active focus on common, Amsterdam burghers.
No AccessGerbrand Bredero's handling of Antiquity. Transfer of classical knowledge into seventeenth century vernacular cultureJeroen JansenJeroen Jansenhttps://doi.org/10.14220/9783737003100.211SectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail About Previous chapter Next chapter FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited by'Sincere Simplicity': Gerbrand Bredero's Apprenticeship with Coornhert and Spiegel18 March 2016 | Dutch Crossing, Vol. 41, No. 1 Download book coverVolume 19 1ISBN: 978-3-8471-0310-3 eISBN: 978-3-7370-0310-0HistoryPublished online:January 2015 PDF download
In a letter to Badens, his painting teacher, Gerbrand Bredero asks for the loan of a painting to make a copy of it. The act of writing (a letter) requires a proactive role in managing the reader’s reactions. In what at first sight may look like a simple, insignificant and most of all polite letter, it is argued that, from the viewpoint of argumentation theory, negotiation and bargaining tactics, this politeness may be considered as a carefully devised and potentially effective strategy, contributing to pinning Badens to a promise, and to remove any possible objections from the latter in fulfilling his promise. Whilst starting the letter from the relatively powerless situation of a pupil asking his master to act, by showing a mutual interest and by applying anticipated argumentation and negotiation, Bredero seeks a reasonable balance which he simultaneously turns to his own advantage.
Around 1610 the Dutch author Gerbrand Bredero wrote a letter to his painting teacher Francesco Badens, asking for the loan of a painting to make a copy of it. The act of writing (a letter) asks for a proactive role in managing the reader(s)' reactions. Although at first sight the letter may look like no more than a simple, insignificant and most of all polite piece of correspondence, it is argued that, from the viewpoint of strategic maneuvering, Bredero's approach may be considered as a well-thought-out and potentially effective strategy, contributing to pinning Badens to a promise. An analysis from the perspective of argumentation theory allows us a better understanding of certain characteristics in this letter. Bredero's choice from the 'topical potential' especially finds expression in proleptic formulated objections of the addressee to fulfilling his promise. Starting the letter from the seemingly low power situation of a pupil asking his master to do something, in every stage of the communication Bredero is aiming at a reasonable balance and turning this balance to his own advantage at the same time.
