BENJAMIN B. ROBERTS Sex and Drugs before Rock ’n’ Roll Youth Culture and Masculinity during Holland’s Golden Age Amsterdam University Press amsterdam studies in the dutch golden age 1 2 3 4 SEX AND DRUGS BEFORE ROck ’n’ ROLL 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age Editorial Board H. Perry Chapman, University of Delaware Lia van Gemert, University of Amsterdam Benjamin J. Kaplan, University College London Henk van Nierop, University of Amsterdam Eric Jan Sluijter, University of Amsterdam Marc van Vaeck, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Published in this Series Christopher D.M. Atkins, The Signature Style of Frans Hals (isbn 978 90 8964 335 3) Peter de Cauwer, Tranen van bloed. Het beleg van ’s-Hertogenbosch en de oorlog in de Nederlanden, 1629 (isbn 978 90 8964 016 1) Margriet van Eikema Hommes, Art and Allegiance in the Dutch Golden Age (isbn 978 90 8964 326 1) Liesbeth Geevers, Gevallen vazallen. De integratie van Oranje, Egmont en Horn in de Spaans- Habsburgse monarchie (1559-1567) (isbn 978 90 8964 069 7) Jonathan Israel, Stuart Schwartz, Michiel van Groesen [Inleiding], The Expansion of Tolerance. Religion in Dutch Brazil (1624-1654) (isbn 978 90 5356 902 3) Robert Parthesius, Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters. The Development of the Dutch East India Com- pany (VOC) Shipping Network in Asia 1595-1660 (isbn 978 90 5356 517 9) Benjamin B. Roberts, Sex and Drugs before Rock ’n’ Roll. Youth Culture and Masculinity during Holland’s Golden Age (isbn 978 90 8964 402 2) Jochai Rosen, Soldiers at Leisure. The Guardroom Scene in Dutch Genre Painting of the Golden Age (isbn 978 90 8964 204 2) Eric Jan Sluijter, Rembrandt and the Female Nude (isbn 978 90 5356 837 8) Monica Stensland, Habsburg Communication in the Dutch Revolt (isbn 978 90 8964 413 8) Erik Swart, Krijgsvolk. Militaire professionalisering en het ontstaan van het Staatse leger, 1568-1590 (isbn 978 90 5356 876 7) Anna Tummers, Koenraad Jonckheere, Art Market and Connoisseurship. A Closer Look at Paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens and Their Contemporaries (isbn 978 90 8964 032 1) Anna Tummers, The Eye of the Connoisseur (isbn 978 90 8964 321 6) Natascha Veldhorst, Zingend door het leven. Het Nederlandse liedboek in de Gouden Eeuw (isbn 978 90 8964 146 5) Griet Vermeesch, Oorlog, steden en staatsvorming. De grenssteden Gorinchem en Doesburg tijdens de geboorte-eeuw van de Republiek (1570-1680) (isbn 978 90 5356 882 8) Thijs Weststeijn, Margaret Cavendish in de Nederlanden. Filosofie en schilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw (isbn 978 90 8964 029 1) Thijs Weststeijn, The Visible World. Samuel van Hoogstraten’s Art Theory and the Legitimation of Painting in the Dutch Golden Age (isbn 978 90 8964 027 7) 1 2 3 4 SEX AND DRUGS BEFORE 5 6 ROck ’n’ ROLL 7 8 9 10 11 Youth Culture and Masculinity during Holland’s Golden Age 12 13 14 15 16 Benjamin B. Roberts 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Amsterdam University Press 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Founded in 2000 as part of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Amsterdam Centre for Study of the Golden Age (Amsterdams Centrum voor de Studie van de Gouden Eeuw) aims to promote the history and culture of the Dutch Republic during the ‘long’ seventeenth century (c. 1560-1720). The Centre’s publications provide an insight into lively diversity and continuing relevance of the Dutch Golden Age. They offer original studies on a wide variety of topics, ranging from Rembrandt to Vondel, from Beeldenstorm (iconoclastic fury) to Ware Vrijheid (True Freedom) and from Batavia to New Amsterdam. Politics, religion, culture, economics, expansion and warfare all come together in the Centre’s interdisciplinary setting. Editorial control is in the hands of international scholars specialized in seventeenth-century his- tory, art and literature. For more information see www.aup.nl/goudeneeuw or http://cf.uba.uva. nl/goudeneeuw/ The publication of this book has been made possible by grants from OAPEN.nl, the J.E. Jur- riaanse Stichting, the Dr. Hendrik Muller’s Vaderlandsch Fonds and the Stichting Charema. Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam Cover illustration: Willem Buytewech, detail of Merry Company (c. 1620-1622), painting (72.6 x 65.4 cm) (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, inv.nr. 3821) Lay-out: Heymans & Vanhove, Goes isbn 978 90 8964 402 2 e-isbn 978 90 4851 570 7 (pdf ) e-isbn 978 90 4851 571 4 (ePub) nur 694 © Benjamin B. Roberts / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2012 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. 1 2 3 4 To my grandparents 5 who were always young 6 7 John F. Malta Milo (1908-2000) 8 & 9 Lizette G. Malta Milo-Jansen (1913-2002) 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 1 2 3 4 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 6 7 8 9 10 In the summer of 1982 I was a sixteen-year-old American teenager who backpacked across Eu- 11 rope on a Eurail Pass together with my eldest brother. Bright-eyed and curious, I was on a quest 12 to discover – and witness – everything ‘civilized’ that European culture had to offer, as opposed to 13 the ‘uncouthness’ we Americans felt about our own culture. One of our first stops from Amster- 14 dam was to the picturesque, medieval university town of Heidelberg, which included a climb to 15 the Gothic alte Schoss perched up high above the Neckar River, an afternoon at the University of 16 Heidelberg, Germany’s oldest university that was founded in 1386 and later bastion of Humanist 17 and Reformation thought in the sixteenth century, and a visit to the university’s studentenkarzer 18 or student prison, where pupils that misbehaved were incarcerated for short periods of time. To 19 my surprise, the prison walls were clad with graffiti and lewd texts. They reminded me of the 20 drawings of oversized genitals and ‘reefers’, the marijuana cigarettes, and coarse inscriptions about 21 sex, masturbation, and drugs that I enjoyed reading on the walls of my high school restroom back 22 in the US. My initial thoughts were: ‘Could it be that young men three hundred years ago were 23 just as obsessed with the same profanities as me? And this was the “civilized culture” Americans 24 aspired to model themselves after?’ There went my first presupposition about how ‘civilized’ Eu- 25 ropean culture was. Since then, that notion about the continuity and discontinuity of the human 26 experience, fueled by an almost innate curiosity about the dynamics of culture has intrigued me. 27 It has been a main theme in my historical research endeavors, including my dissertation about 28 child-rearing practices in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Holland. For this study, that fas- 29 cination is the leitmotif in examining how one generation of young men experienced the phase 30 of life between sexual maturation and the age of marriage during one of Holland’s most dynamic 31 economic and cultural eras. 32 This work would not have been realized without the help and encouragement of many. 33 Firstly I would like to thank Professor Willem Frijhoff, who, through our many delightful con- 34 versations, has given me countless advice, direction, and motivation from the very start of this 35 project. His intellectual acuity and creativity have been an inspiration and his leadership quali- 36 ties and emotional intelligence a role model. Professor Leendert Groenendijk, a fellow historian 37 of early modern childhood and youth, was enthusiastic about my proposal and helped have it 38 included as a postdoc research project, and component of the interdisciplinary research program 39 at the Free University of Amsterdam, ‘Interplay: Dutch identity as a result of the interaction 40 of culture, art, and religion, 1400-1700’. Leendert’s inspiration and perspicacity of more than 35 41 years in the field of historical pedagogy were welcomed gifts. 42 43 44 7 45 46 sex and drugs BEFORE rock ’n’ roll I was enriched by my colleagues at the Free University with the great wealth of knowledge and collaboration from many disciplines. Yvonne Bleyerveld, Arjan van Dixhoorn, John Exalto, Anouk Janssen, Christi Klinkert, Elmer Kolfin, Johan Koppenol, and Ilja Veldman read and commented on the manuscript at various stages. I want to thank Bianca du Mortier of the Rijks- museum Amsterdam for her treasured insight and entertaining discussions about early modern clothing and hygiene, and Wayne Franits of Syracuse University, Chris Corley of Minnesota State University at Mankato, Joel Harrington of VanderBilt University, Ilana Krausman Ben- Amos of the Ben Gurion University at Negev, and B. Ann Tlusty of Bucknell University.