19

MIEKE B. SMITS-VELDT, UNIVERSITY OF

Images of two 17th-century Dutch women: from 17th century ideal to 19th-century ~yth

In 1855 the Dutch author Everardus Potgieter, one wife of , and from the youngest ofthe prominent literary men of his time, made his daughter of Roemer Visscher, Maria Tessel­ sister Sophie a present of a beautiful set ofjewel­ schade. Their exemplary role had been lery, manufactured after his own design by the established not only by historians who studied goldsmith van Kempen. Each of the pieces of this the glorious past, but by representations of golden fmery was decorated with the portrait of a that past in literature and the visual arts as historical Dutch woman. The bracelet and the drop well. The 19th-century fame of both women, earrings displayed the images of highborn ladies however different, went back to the praise like Amalia van Solms, wife of stadholder Frederic that was bestowed on them in their own time. Henry, and the first countess of , Jacoba On the basis of these data I intend to demon­ van Beieren, while in the other pieces 17th century strate how 17th-century poets helped to lay women of non-noble birth were represented. the foundations for the 19th-century hero Sophie's chaste bosom was to be adorned by the worship of eminent forebears. image of (in the pendant of the necklace) and by that of Maria van Maria van Reigersberch in the 17th (in the brooch), each of them the wife of a famous century: the sources for the legend 17th-century Dutch statesman, respectively of Hugo Grotius and of . Maria van Reigersberch was the wife of the The cufflinks held the portraits oftwD poetesses: scholar, statesman and internationally famous Anna and Maria Tesselschade, daughters of the jurist Hugo Grotius, the once infant prodigy Amsterdam merchant-poet Roemer Visscher.! who had been described as 'the oracle of ' , with reference to his birthplace. Potgieter probably hoped that his sister would During the 12 Years' Truce with , emulate in particular those commoner women of Grotius had been the right-hand man of the the Golden Age. After all, he had already devoted Great Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, many years of his literary profession to his loftiest who came into serious conflict with ambition: to inspire his sluggish fellow­ stadholder Maurits in affairs of religion and countrymen with the strength of mind of their politics. In 1618, after the coup d'etat of energetic ancestors of the Golden Age, who once Maurits and the fall of Oldenbarnevelt, had made the great. 2 Grotius had been dragged down in the poli­ tical upheaval and had been imprisoned for In Potgieter's time, in the middle of the 19th life in the fortress of Loevestein, which century, the feminine part of the Dutch nation had served as a state prison. His wife Maria not already for some time been encouraged to take only joined him in that gloomy place, but she example from especially Maria van Reigersberch, also devised a clever plan to have him relea- 20 The Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies sed. The exciting story of Grotius' escape in a and had to endure the wrath of the governor book-chest, taken across the river Maas to the before she was allowed by the States of town of under the care of Maria's Holland to follow her husband into exile. servant-girl, must have been a favorite topic among the well-informed members of the Dutch Vondel's poem, first published in 1644, was republican party, after Grotius had taken refuge in reprinted in all editions of his poetry; the one Paris. But it was thanks to the poet Joost van den by Grotius also becaple known already during Vondel, a great admirer of Grotius, that Maria van Maria's lifetime be~ause it was published in an Reigersberch was raised to the embodiment of important anthology of Dutch poetry.4 But it feminine intelligence and conjugal fidelity. In 1632 was not until 1727 that the full story was de­ he devoted a poem to the courageous behaviour of scribed in detail in the great biography of this woman. "The deliverance of Hugo Grotius" Grotius by Caspar Brandt and Adriaan van (Huigh de Groots verlossing) contains often Cattenburgh, based on handed-down verbal quoted lines like the following: communications and letters of the protago­ nists themselves, now also including informa­ A woman laughs at all those who try to oppress her tion about the important role of the servant­ And she lets them grate their teeth. girl Elsje van Houweningen.5 Vondel's poem One woman is too terrible for a thousand men. was of course also included, just like the o eternal honour of Reigersberch: In the coming centuries people will tell portrait of Maria after a 17th century painting How you have outwitted hatred, (made in 1640), that was to be reproduced After the long :'ears that you, quite often. Like that other Maria near the cross, Had given comfort to your husband, This biography also gave attention to Maria's Who was regarded as a murderer. firm stand immediately after Grotius' arrest: (Een vrouw belacht al die haar persen her refusal to ask stadholder Maurits for En laat hen op de tanden knarsen. mercy for her husband, and her exhortation to Een vrouw is duizend mannen t' erg. Grotius not to plead guilty either. She shared o eeuwige eer van Reigersberg: this dignified defence of the honor of her De volgende eeuwen zullenspreken husband with Maria van Utrecht, the wife of Hoe gij de haat hebt uitgestreken, Nadat ge, op 't droef gevangenhuis, van Oldenbamevelt, who therefore was Gelijk Marye neffens 't kruis deemed worthy by Potgieter to adorn UW' bruigom, onder moordenaren Sophie's bosom. Gerekend, troostte hele jaren.3) In the biography of Grotius there is also a In this poem Vondel found more arguments for his reference to the three tableaux and statement about the superiority of women in this accompanying verses in a stained glass respect by comparing Maria's resourceful marital window that had been installed in 1627 in the love with the loyal·attitude of the biblical Michol, house of Abraham Daetselaer, where Grotius the wife Gf the future king David, and that of one had taken refuge after his escape in the book of the daughter~ of the mythological king Danaus. chest. (This window is now in the Gorinchem museum). In one of the tableaux can be seen Grotius himself, who used to write poetry in Latin, the classical figure of Titus Iunius, once also also devoted a Dutch poem to the compassion of hidden from his adversaries in a chest by his his brave spouse who stayed behind in Loevestein wife Tanusia: looking exactly like Grotius he Images of two Dutch women: from seventeenth-century ideal to nineteenth-century myth 21 . peeped out from under the lid, under the eyes of Amsterdam poets like Gerbrand Adriaensz his wife. Bredero and Pieter Cornelisz Hooft. It was Hooft who introduced the diplomat Con­ Maria Tesselschade Roemer Visscher in the stantijn Huygens, from , into this 17th century: the creation of a myth literary circle. After her rather late marriage in 1624 Anna withdrew from the arts. It was in fact her attitude during just one period of Tesselschade married the retired naval officer her life that made Maria van Reigersberch the Allard Crombalcn, but she had also found in I heroic wife par excellence already in her own time, Hooft a literary/friend and guide for life. As a provided with virtues like feminine courage, regular guest at Castle she also cleverness and loyalty. Maria Tesselschade, the remained in contact with Hooft's friends for daughter ofthe Amsterdam merchant poet Roemer the rest of her life. After the death of her Visscher, however, born in 1594 and thus her husband, when she was 40 years old, she junior by 4Yz years, was during her whole adult life found a new admirer in Hooft's friend praised for her all-round artistic talents, her lively Barlaeus, the learned neo-Latin poet, while at charm and wit and feminine wisdom by several the same time her contact with Huygens well-known poets.6 Thanks to an all-round became more intense. education, given by their liberal, learned and well­ to-do father, Tesselschade and her older sister Tesselschade's own poetry was only partly Anna mastered the artistic techniques of drawing, accessible, insofar as it was printed in the engraving of glass and ingenious embroidery, anthologies. But as her literary friends did not as well as those of making music and writing poet­ hesitate to publish their poems for and on her ry. Both girls learned to speak and write French in the editions of their work, she figured in and Italian, but Tesselschade played more public as the personal friend and bright Muse instruments than her sister, like the lute, of these great authors already in the 17th harpsichord and the viola da gamba, and she century. So her contemporaries could be apparently had a good singing voice. informed of the infatuation of the young poet and painter Bredero, who had died young, for In itself such a variety of accomplishments was the lovely but unapproachable young probably not so exceptional during a time when Tesselschade; one could know the light­ educated members of the upper middle class hearted poetry by Hooft, Huygens and regarded the amateur practising of many arts - Vondel, written on the occasion of her by men and women - as the creative self­ marriage, and quite a few poems by Huygens. expression of harmonious. human beings endowed He wrote about the death of her husband and with an aesthetic sense. It was again by the work daughter, and after her conversion to the of poets that these two· were immortalized. The Catholic faith he tried in vain to bring her mythologization started with poems for Anna, who back to Protestantism by means of sometimes for her unique combination of artistic gifts, highly critical poems. It was also Huygens knowledge and virtue was honored by the then who wrote a poem on her death in 1649, in famous poet and classicist Daniel Heinsius, as well which he warned his readers that nobody as by and . should dare use words "to take the measure Vondel must have met both girls already in their of her invaluable qualities" (Laat niemand youth in the Amsterdam home of their father, a zich vermeten / Haar onwaardeerlijkheid in house that was also visited by other prominent woorden uit te meten), since there were no 22 The Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies adequate words to describe the sun (AI wat men those Dutch regents who were opposed to van de zon kan zeggen gaat haar at). 7 Meanwhile the power of the stadholder. When in the only Latin scholars were able to read Barlaeus' thirties of the century playwrights started exalted poems on his admirable Muse, poems again to take their subjects from Dutch which he published when Tesselschade was still history, the story of Grotius and his wife alive, namely in a special part of his collected Latin (including their faithful maid Elsje) was poems (1646), entitled "Tessalica." But especially dramatized as well, in several plays by V ondel' s dedication of his translation of Frederik Duim.1O Sophocles' Elektra to Tesselschade (1639) must have made quite an impression. In this text the But in the last quarter of the 18th century, the prince of the Dutch poets rendered hommage to "People of Loevestein" were to become an the "wise and intelligent" (wijze en vernuftige) important issue in a political conflict between woman, who could understand his translation the so-called Patriots and the adherents of the problems, because she herself was working on the Oranges. The Patriots were republicans, who translation of Tasso's famous Italian epic poem regarded themselves as the just defenders of Gerusalemme liberata (The liberated Jerusalem). the "True Dutch freedom," which meant V ondel praised Tesselschade' s literary qualities in freedom of the autonomous cities and poetic words referring to ''the sweet dew of subtle provinces against the political power of the pieces of cleverness and spirited flowers"'(de stadholder. Their political conflict with the lieflijke dauw van aardige spitsvondigheden en Orangists had already started in the ideolo­ geestige bloemen) with which she refreshed "the gical centre of the aristocratic Patriots around Dutch Pamassus". 8 the Amsterdam professor Petrus Burmannus; another member of this group was the In the biography of Hooft by Geeraerdt Brandt militant woman author Betje Wolff. Already (1677), Tesselschade received special attention as in the sixties Burmannus used to give dinners the "intelligerLt and virtuous poetess" (de in his house to commemorate the 17th­ schrandere en zedige dichteres) who had helped to century patriotic fighters against tyranny, tum Muiden Castle into a "Mountain of the including the solemn commemoration of the Muses," full of mirth.9 But her role in the social escape of "Saint Hugo" from Loevestein and gatherings of Hooft's friends was yet to be the birthday of Grotius' wife.ll In 1773 the established by the first publication of Hooft's members of the enlightened Patriot society letters by Balthasar Huydecoper, in 1738. This Concordia et Libertate listened, some of edition was to become an often quoted source of them perhaps overcome by emotion, to a information for several later generations, just as lecture by the Amsterdam merchant Jacob the biography of Grotius, dating from about the Ploos van Amstel, who told how during a same time, was to be used for the heroic facts of (possibly imaginary) pilgrimage to Loevestein the life of Maria van Reigersberch. he had not been able to swallow his tears at the thought of Grotius' suffering in that "true Maria van Reigersberch in the 18th century: temple of conjugallove.,,12 political and national images The 18th-century biography of Grotius activated The canonisation of the heroic fighters for the memory of the great statesman, who just like republican freedom in these aristocratic Oldenbamevelt (and other adversaries and victims Patriot circles went hand in hand with a more of the Orange policy) had long been venerated by general uneasiness with the economic, Images of two Dutch women: from seventeenth-century ideal to nineteenth-century myth 23 intellectual, artistic and above all moral decline of fictional letter belonged to the old literary the nation. This uneasiness expressed itself in the genre of the heroine letter that became quite idolization of all those 17th-century men and popular again in the literary associations that women who had to be examples for the recovery were founded -towards the end of the 18th of national virtues like love of country, courage, century. So it comes as no surprise that later reasonable religiousness, constancy, diligence and in the same year the Leyden society "Art is perseverance. Their lives were described in books, the product of love" (Kunst wordt door liefde notably a lexicon in ten volumes in which a place verkregen) actu;dly held a literary compe­ was also reserved for some poets and a single tition, invltinglthe members to write a letter poetess (of the 18th century; Tesse1schade had still from Maria van Reigersberch to her husband to be rediscovered). Grotius and his Maria of after he had escaped from prison. 17 course also figured in this lexicon, just like the 17th-century learned woman Anna Maria van Meanwhile the French occupation of the Schuurman. That unmarried lady had once been Dutch Republic stimulated a strong national praised for her knowledge and artistic accom­ feeling of solidarity without political discord. plishments in poems by Cats and Huygens, but From now on Maria would be praised not as now she was rather condemned as a bluestocking, a lioness, but as a loyal and tender wife. The and accused of zealotry because of her conversion, Loevestein story made its way into several late in life, to a religious sect. 13 paintings like the one by H.W. Beekkerk (who died in 1796), in which one sees the Creative artists also played an important rote in famous couple depicted as in a marriage por­ reviving the illustrious past. The Patriots would for trait: the wife standing, the man sitting ... in a instance decorate their homes with bisque busts of chest.ls the old republican heroes (among them Maria van Reigersberch), but also with those of several naval The story continued to be the subject of heroes like Michiel de Ruyter and one of the various literary genres and schoolbooks: first legendary woman Kenau Simons Hasselaar, who of a schoolbook and a play by the had led three hundred women of HaarlemJo keep bookseller and hack writer Adriaan Loosjes, 19 the Spanish besiegers off the town walls by means and of an epic poem by the blind poetess of stones and pitch. These busts were fabricated / Petronella Moens.2o Loosjes must have loved around 1784 in the china factory of Loosdrecht.1 4 his subject, for in 1794 he even wrote a volu­ minous novel about a long part of the life of And what would be more inspiring for the Dutch Grotius and Maria, from their marriage up to nation than the images of patriotic subjects from and including the successful escape. He the glorious past, "supported by the magic of poet­ already had to admit, however, that he had ry"? These are the words of the Patriot poet Jan difficulty combining Maria's courage with her Nomsz in his preface to a 1785 volume with letters tenderness that he wanted to emphasize as in verse, made "lP by him but supposedly written we1L 21 As Loosjes wanted to inspire the entire by well-known historical figures. 15 Nomsz future generation, both rich and poor, with presented Maria van Reigersberch as writing to good Dutch virtues, he also seized the oppor­ her husband who had just been arrested. Here she tunity to present Maria's servant-girl Elsje was still the proud lioness who strongly advised van Houweningen as an example for the more her husband to keep his honor, just as she had humble classes of society. In 1794, during the refused to beg for mercy on his behalf. 16 The annual prize-giving ceremony for the 24 The Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies

Lutheran orphans of Haarlem, he eloquently had wrongly received all the honors. addressed these young children in their capacity of future servants whose loyalty was to be put to a Maria Tesselschade in the 19th century: test as well, in times of emergency and illness of images of an ideal woman their masters and mistresses.22 In the next year the children of the Haarlem poor heard Loosjes speak Unlike the fame of Maria van Reigersberch, about the manservant of Van Oldenbarnevelt, the memory of Tesselschade was not revived strongly attached to his unlucky master until his until the end ofthe 1 8th century, when people death.23 also became Interested in 17th-century literature as an outstanding reservoir of ~: Some years later, still during the French norms and values. In 1770 that same Jacob occupation, in 1807, H.A. Spandaw devoted one Ploos van Amstel who shed tears in the of the four cantos of his long poem De vrouwen Loevestein temple of marital loyalty, had an (Women) to womens moral courage. Among the engraving made after a fine portrait of an Dutch examples he recalled first the valiant Kenau unknown girl by Goltzius that was part of his Simons Hasselaar and the principled wife of art collection. This engraving he then Oldenbarnevelt, then the "Spouse of Hugo published as a portrait of Tesselschade: a Grotius, whose praise is sung so often and so mistaken identification that persisted until the beautifully" (Ga van Huig de Groot, zo vaak, zo 1950s.25 schoon bezongen). To give you some impression of his lofty style I quote: Not until 1808 were Anna and Tesselschade really rediscovered. In that year, Jacob As long as the Batavian honors the glory of the Scheltema published his influential semi­ Batavians, invented biography of both women. He The oracle of his time, the great Grotius, dedicated his book especially "To the Dutch The name of Reigersberch will be honored as highly as his name. women" of his time, who in this case were Nothing exceeds his greatness, nothing her proud not to be incited to patriotic strength and virtue. zeal, but to the cultivation of real feminine The coat of plaster of our age will never extinguish the virtues like chastity, piety, modesty and glow domesticity, that were to be so favored in the Of the pure love and unfailing loyalty 19th century.26 At the same time the image of That made you immortal, 0 invaluable woman! Maria van Reigersberch was retouched with (Zo lang de Batavier de roem der Batavieren desirable new virtues in wives and mothers, t Orakel van zijn tijd, de grote Groot vereert, whose true heroism had to express itself in Wordt Reigerbergens naam om strijd met hem vereerd. self-control, humble servitude to the husband, Niets gaat zijn grootheid, niets haar fiere deugd te self-sacrifice, care and mediation in affairs of boven. the family.27 Scheltema stressed that the t Blanketsel onzer eeuw zal nooit de gloed verdoven ., Van altijd zuivre Hefde en onbezweken trouw, daughters of Roemer Visscher had never Die u vereeuwigd heeft, 0 onwaardeerbre vroUW!)24 become savantes, "outside the circle of their destiny," because "both of them followed But Spandaw also gave a great deal of prominence their lofty mission to be wives and to Marias servant-girl Elsje van Houweningen, mothers.,,28 Nevertheless Scheltema also ad­ whose courage and loyalty he wanted to mired the spirited and imaginative qualities commemorate besides the virtues of Maria, who that Tesselschade especially had displayed in Images of two Dutch women: from seventeenth-century ideal to nineteenth-century myth 25

the circle of Hoofts friends. Scheltema now Scheltema. Now, in the second edition of projected onto this group the new ideals of 1819, he devoted some lines to Anna Roemer solidarity and reconciliation that were stimulated Visscher, and added pages full of bombastic by the French occupation. In this way, he laid the praise of Tesselschade, now for the first time foundation of a persistent myth in word and image fully represented as the singing and lively­ of the so-called ~(the Muiden circle), speaking centre of the festive gatherings in in which Tesselschade was to be represented as the that sublime tempJe of the arts, the castle of charming centre of a cultivated group of 17th­ Muiden. The new ideal of reconciliation and century poets and scholars around Hooft as well as harmony in a new state in which Holland and V ondel, who regularly came together to discuss Belgium were united under an Orange king, poetry and to play music, and who were all each reflected itself in Spandaws evocation of a others best friends. This image does not corres­ scene in which a rummer, engraved by Tessel­ pond with reality, for Vondel was never present at schade and filled with wine, is passed round Hoofts more festive gatherings. in ''the famous choir of poets" (t roemrijk dichterkoor). All those present first drink to The myth of Muyden and the admiration for Tesselschade, ''the beautiful queen of the Tesselschade was to be spread by many 19th­ national feast" (de schone koningin van t century poets, novelists, playwrights and painters, vaderlandse feest), and go on to pledge to who generally drew much more inspiration from Frederic Henry, Dutch freedom, naval Tesselschade and her literary friends than from the triumphs and commerce, to freedom of stout-hearted Maria van Reigersberch.29 Already conscience and the "cream of the Dutch before the publication of Scheltemas biography, a poets" (Hollands puikpoeten).33 It is the 19th­ late 18th- century woman poet had sung the praise century image of a 17th-century harmonious ofthe artistic, virtuous and charming Tesselschade circle of eminent men of Dutch letters, unani­ in the "Almanac for women by women" (Almanak mously proud ofthe political and moral great­ voor vrouwen door vrouwen) of 1798.30 And after ness of their own flourishing nation in which Scheltemas book the already-mentioned Adriaan the differences between republicans and Loosjes abandoned his heroine Maria van Reigers­ Orangists were accomodated. This harmony berch for her. In the then popular form of a was allegedly inspired by the Muse Maria medieval ballad he first described how "The Dutch Tesselschade. This ideal image - in fact the muse" (De Hollandse zanggodin) revived as a image of a self-made myth - was to raise the heroine of Tasso, met her future husband.3! Some hope of a national revival in the 19th century, years later he gave an important· role to· especially in the field of culture. 'resselschade in.his four-volume novel The life of Hillegonda Buisman, in which the woman prota­ In the second half of the 19th century the cult gonist meets a whole group of 17th-century of Tesselschade was to manifest itself in celebrities and is introduced into the world of art several new ways. As a Catholic convert she and literature by the wise lady Tesselschade.32 would first become the godlike image of grace, piety and goodness, invented by the After all this praise the poet Spandaw revised his leader of the emancipation of the Roman poem De vrouwen. In the third canto, devoted to Catholic Church, Alberdingk Thijm, who artistic women, he had sung the praises of some ardently hoped to meet her in heaven. 34 women poets, ~ut only of a few from the 18th During the Eighties movement, however, in century. For this he had incurred the indignation of which the individual expression of individual 26 The Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies emotions was admired so much, Tesselschade was relationship with the past for the definition of described for instance by the young Jacques Perk ones own identity. as the object of Brederos passionate love.35 NOTES Before that time, in 1847, the two 17th-century 1 Reinier Baarsen e.a. "De lelijke tijd " Pronkstukken women who together were endowed with about all van Nederlandse interieurkunst 1835-1895. the qualities that a 19th-century woman ideally [Catalogue of the exhibition] Rijksmuseum could possess, were brought together in one Amsterdam 1996, m< 86 (p. 208). painting by the historical painter Louis Moritz, / 2 On the glorification of the Dutch Golden Age in the who painted a feast in the circle of Muiden, late 18th and 19th centuries, cf. N.C.F. van Sas, comparable to the poetic image written by "Nationaliteit in de schaduw van de Gouden Eeuw. Spandaw. Moritz populated his painting not only Nationale cultuur en vaderlands verleden 1780- with poets, but with scholars and several ladies as 1914." In: De Gouden Eeuw in perspectiej Het beeld van de Nederlandse zeventiende-eeuwse schilderkunst well. During a festive dinner in the hall of the in later tijd. Ed. F.Grijzenhout and H. van Veen. castle of Muiden, Tesselschade offers a rummer Nijmegen 1992, p. 86-106. (undoubtdy engraved by herself) to the guest of 3 In: Vondel. Volledige dichtwerken en oorspronkelijk honor Marla VC1n Reigersberch. Hooft raises his proza. Ed. Albert Verwey, Mieke Smits-Veldt and glass, while Vondel, the learned professor Vossius Marijke Spies. Amsterdam 1986, p. 784. and probably Huygens are benevolently looking on, among other celebrities who were partly 4 Hugo de Groot. "Aen sijn Huisvrouw M. Reygersberch, over sijn verlossingh uyt deeuwige fashioned after existing portraits. 36 gevangenis." In: Verscheyde Nederduytsche gedichten. Amsterdam 1651, p. 103-105. It is the image of a dream, but we can be sure that Potgieter would have loved to take part in that 5 Caspar Brandt. Historie van het leven des Heeren dream, with his sister Sophie sitting at his side. Huig de Groot [... ]. En vervolgt tot zyn doodt door Adriaan van Cattenburgh. -Amsterdam 1727. Postscript 6 For the following data on Maria Tesselschade cf. Until the fifties of the 20th century generations of Mieke B. Smits-Veldt. Maria Tesselschade. Leven Dutch schoolchildren became familiar with the met talent en vriendschap. Zutphen 1994. Muiden Circle by means of one of the well-known (References: p. 113-117).

school plates by Isings, "The Muiden Circle during 7 . "Grafschrift van loff. a summer afternoon in 1632." The literary and the Tesselschade Visscher." In: idem. De gedichten. Ed. musical aspects are both well. represented, with J.A. Worp. IV. Groningen 1894, p. 154. (The spelling Tesselschade at the centre: Hooft reading from his of the quotation has been adapted). Historien, Vondel listening, Huygens, Barlaeus 8 Vondel. Volledige gedichten etc., p. 206. and Jacob Cats as musicians. Cats, a 17th century

literary celebrity who never in his life had been 9 G.Brandt. "T Leeven van [ ... ] Pieter Comeliszzoon Hoofts guest, is now included as well, just like Hooft." In: G.Brandt & R: Anslo. Pieter Corneliszoon Tesselschades husband. Hoojt, deez vermarde man. Ed. W.Hellinga and P. Tuynman. Amsterdam 1969. Here we see the myth of 17th-century Dutch \0 Frederik Duim. De vlugt van Huig deGroot uit het harmonious culture carried to extremes. This slot te Loevestein. Blyspel. Amsterdam 1742 mythical image may have lost its power of (reprinted in 1746 and 1760). In the same year 1742 persuasion, but it confirms the importance of a Duim also published a dramatic trilogy about the fate l

Images of two Dutch women: from seventeenth-century ideal to nineteenth-century myth 27

of Grotius after his escape, in 1745 followed by a tragedy Amsterdam 1790. on the trial of Van Oldenbamevelt, Hogerbeets and Grotius. 21 A. Loosjes. Huig de Groot en Maria van 11 F. Grijzenhout. Feesten voor het vaderland Patriotse en Reigersbergen. Haarlem 1794. Bataafsefeesten 1780-1806. Zwolle 1989, p. 27-29. 22 A.Loosjes. T Gedrag van Elsje van Houwening, 12 N.C.F. van Sas. "Gedenck aan Loevesteyn." In: Waar de dienstmaagd van Huig de Groot, geschetst in een blanke top dey duinen en andere vaderlandse aanspraak [ ... ]. Haarlem 1794. herinneringen. Ed. N.C.F. van Sas. Amsterdam etc. 1995, p.70-80. 23 A. Loosjes. r Gedrag van Jan Francken, dienstknecht van;J. van Oldenbarnevelt, geschetst in 13 [So Stijl e.a.]. Lzvensbeschryving van eenige voorname een aanspraak. Haarlem 1795. meest Nederlandsche mannen en vrouwen. 10 vols. Amsterdam etc., 1774-1778; Anna Maria van Schuurman 24 H.A.Spandaw. De vrouwen, in vier zangen. 2d ed. in vol. 1, Grotius and his wife in vol. 2. Groningen 1819, p. 47-50.

25 The drawing is undated but probably goes back to 14 F.Grijzenhout, N.C.F.van Sas. Voor vaderland en 1605 or some years later. There is, however, no vrijheid Revolutie in Nederland 1780-1787. [Catalogue of evidence for any identification with Tesselschade. Cf. the exhibition] Centraal Museum Utrecht sept.-okt. 1987. H. van de Waal. Drie eeuwen vaderlandsche Utrecht 1987, p. 40-41. The china factory that had been geschied-uitbeelding 1500-1800. The Hague 1952; I, started in Oud-Loosdrecht by the Reverend Johannes de p. 241; II, p. 114-116. Mol, was after his death (1782) transferred to Ouder­ Amstel. We know busts of Kenau Simonsdr. Hasselaar, of 26 Jac. Scheltema. Anna en Maria Tesselschade, Oldenbamevelt and Maria van Utrecht, of Hugo Grotius dochters van Roemer Visscher. Amsterdam 1808. and Maria van Reigersberch, of Michiel de Ruyter and Maarten Harpertsz Tromp, the brothers De Witt, Arnold 27 Cf. for instance: Jeronimo de Vries. Hugo de Groot Zoutman, Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol and en Maria van Reigersbergen Amsterdam 1827 .. Hendrik Hooft Danielsz. 28 Scheltema, p. 63-64: "beide bleven Vrouwen, en 15 J. Nomsz. Vaderlandsche brieven. Amsterdam 1785; I, traden nimmer als zoogenoemde S~avantes, buiten fol. *4r. den kring harer bestemming; beide voldeden ook aan de hooge roeping tot Echtgenooten en Moeders." Cf. 16 J.Nomsz. "Maria van Reigersbergen aan haar gemaal, also Evert M. Wiskerke. De waardering voor de Hugo de Groot; in zyn gevangenis te s Gravenhage." In: zeventiende-eeuwse literatuur tussen 1780 en 1813. idem, Vaderlandsche brieven, II, p. 18-27. Hilversum 1995, p. 328.

17 Cf. J.J. Kloek e.a. "Literaire genootschappen 1748-1800." 29 Cf. Mieke Smits-Veldt, Maria Tesselschade, p. 7- In: Documentatieblad werkgroep achttiende eeuw 15 12 and references on p. 117. (1983), p. 73. On 13 October 1784, D. Bleecker had already recited fictional letters from Grotjus to his wife and vice 30 C[ornelia] A[nna] N[ozeman]. "Aen de versa for the audience of the Amsterdam society Felix nagedachtenis van Anna Tesselschade Roemer Meritis (M. van Hattum. Lezingen en verhandelingen in Visscher" [sic, for Maria]. In: Almanak voor vrouwen "Concordia et libertate" (1769-1806) en "Felix Meritis" door vrouwen. Amsterdam 1798, p. 67-69. (dep. Letterk.) (1779-1808, 1810-1832, 1865-1873). Amstelveen 1983. 31 Adr. Loosjes. Mengeldichten I. Haarlem 1813, p. 57-68. 18 Cf. the illustration in Van Sas, "Gedenck aan Loevesteyn," p. 72. 32 A.Loosjes. Het leven van Hillegonda Buisman. Eene Hollandsche familiegeschiedenis uit de 19 A. Loosjes. Historie van Huig de Groot (een schoolboek). zeventiende eeuw. Haarlem 1814. Amsterdam 1784 (2nd ed. 1800), and Vlucht van Huig deGroot. Burger-spel (1785). 33 Spandaw. De vrouwen, p. 63-68.

20 [Petronella Moens]. Hugo de Groot, in seven zangen. 34 Several studies on Maria Tesselschade in: J.A. 28 The Canadian Journal ofNetherlandic Studies

Alberdingk Thijm. Werken. Ed. J.F.M. Sterck. Amsterdam­ der XXe eeuw [ ... ]. Amsterdam-Hilversum 1902, esp. s-Gravenhage, vols. 9 (1908, p. 21-33, 93-107), 10 (1909, "Even op t Muiderslot," p. 218-222. This romance p. 247-315) and 14 (1909, p. 227-272). Cf. Lodewijk van still figures in two novels from the 1940s: A.M. de Deyssel. De wereld van mijn vader. Ed. Harry G .M. Prick. Jong, De volle vaandrig (1947) and Ro van Oven, Amsterdam-Brussels J 986, p. 216. Tesseltje (1939, 2d ed. 1948).

35 Jacques Perk. Historische romantische schetsen. In: 36 This painting by Moritz is now part of the Betsy Perk. Jacques Perk, geschetst voor t jong Nederland collection of The Muiderslot, Muiden.

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