{"id":107,"date":"2013-02-19T16:57:04","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T16:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/?p=107"},"modified":"2013-02-19T16:59:15","modified_gmt":"2013-02-19T16:59:15","slug":"muiderkring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/?p=107","title":{"rendered":"Muiderkring"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second half of the seventeenth century is known, in the Netherlands, as the golden age of the Dutch republic or – more simply – the golden era. But just prior to this period of increased wealth and prosperity, a group of artists and intellectually met regularly at the castle of Muiden, which is just outside Amsterdam. J M Kruseman’s painting De Muiderkring<\/em>, of 1852 depicts some of the most famous participants, including the hitorian, poet and playwright\u00a0Pieter Corneliszoon\u00a0Hooft,\u00a0Constantijn Huygens (poet and composer), Dirck Sweelinck,\u00a0Vondel\u00a0(playwright),\u00a0Bredero\u00a0(poet and playwright) and the sister poets\u00a0Anna Visscher\u00a0and\u00a0Maria Tesselschade Visscher.<\/p>\n

\"Muiderkring<\/a><\/p>\n

Hooft (1581 – 1647) was the most famous member of his circle, and its powerful host. He was the ‘sheriff’ of Muiden from 1609, and the meetings of the circle were held at his official residence, Muiderslot, until his death in 1647. He was a prolific writer, producing an astonishing body of work including letters, poems and plays. From around 1617, however, his focus was on his comprehensive\u00a0Nederlandsche histori\u00ebn<\/i>: a history of the Netherlands focusing in exquisite detail on the 80 years’ war between the Netherlands and Spain. The circle was a social and political home to some of the most influential and talented, if controversial, intellectuals of the era. Hooft and two other members of the circle (Samuel Coster and Bredero) founded the\u00a0First Nederduytsche Academy<\/em> in September, 1617. The academy was founded in order to provide high quality dramatic productions, and higher education for commoners. The academy drew a great deal of criticism from the powerful Calvinist preachers of the time, but survived until at least 1665. Two figures that are particularly tantalising are the two women of the circle. The sister poets Anna (2 February 1584 \u2013 6 December 1651) and Tesselschade Visscher (March 25, 1594 \u2013 June 20, 1649).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

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Anna Vischer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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Maria Tesselschade Vischer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Anna and Tessleschade Visscher were the daughters of Roemer Visscher, a highly successful merchant, and a writer. His wealth made it possible for both of his daughters to be well educated, and to participate actively in the intellectual and artistic community of the Netherlands. The sisters were the only women known to have been part of the highly fluid Muiderkring<\/em>, and both were highly admired by the other members of the circle, though often as muses rather than as artists in their own right. Anna, for example, was described as a second Sappho, or the fourth grace, while her sister Tesselschade was described as beautiful, and as a talented translator of Greek, Latin and Italian texts. Both sisters were also engravers – examples of glass engravings by each of them are held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

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Berkemeyer tumbler engraved by Anna Visscher in 1646<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n
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Detail of glass engraved by Tesselschade Visscher, c.1625-1650<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Tessleschade, the younger of the two sisters, was a more personal and expressive poet, though even less inclined to publicise her work. Most of her poems were handwritten works of calligraphic elegance, enclosed in personal letters to members of the Muiderkring. In 1634, her oldest daughter and her husband passed away, within a few months of each other. This experience of grief, and how to overcome it, became central to some of her later poetry, and to her personal philosophy of life. When Huygens experienced his own losses many years later she wrote to advise him on how to manage his grief, and again wrote a sonnet on this theme for Hooft when his wife passed away:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To my Lord Hooft on the Death of Lady van Zuilichem<\/em>
\nThis beacon planted in a sea of mournfulness,
\nA tree that must live on though shorn of trunk and limb,
\nSends this weak aid for him who flounders, comfortless,
\nUnbearably alone, as waves close in.
\nTell him, the Constant One, that paper offers kind
\nSupport if he can find some words for his distress;
\nLet him stare eagle-eyed into love’s radiance
\nAnd set his sorrow down to ease his burdened mind.
\nFor paper was the weapon that defended me
\nWhen I felt drawn to death before God’s chosen time;
\nIt put my foe to flight and gave me victory.
\nRemind him how he wrote that pain is tamed by rhyme,
\nThat grief reined in by rhyme cannot be so fierce.
\nImplore him then to sing in measured, mournful verse.<\/td>\n		Aan mijnheer Hooft, op het overlijden van Mevrouw van Sulecom<\/em>
\nDie als een Baeck in zee van droefheidt wort gehouwen
\nGeknot van stam en tack, en echter leeven moet,
\nZeijnt uw dit swack behulp voor ‘t troosteloos gemoet,
\nGedompelt in een meer Van Baerelijcke rouwen
\nZeght Vastaert dat hij moght pampieren raet vertrouwen
\nZoo dinnerlycke smart zich schriftlyck uyten kon,
\nHij staroogh in liefs glans als Aedlaer in de Son,
\nEn stel sijn leed te boeck, zoo heeft hij ‘t niet t’onthouwen
\nPampier was ‘t waepentuijch waermee ick heb geweert
\nTe willen sterven, eer ‘t den Heemel had begeert,
\nDaer ooverwon ick mee, en deed mijn Vijand wycken,
\nZijn eijgen lesse leer hem matijghen zyn pijn
\nWant quelling op de maat en kan soo fel niet sijn
\nBesweer hem dat hij sing op maetsangh droevelijcken.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Anna spent a lot of her literary energy on translations of the works of others, including her father’s famous Sinnepoppen<\/em>, or Emblems<\/em>, but Anna also wrote many of her own poems, including the following:<\/p>\n

To the highly learned and renowned poet Daniel Heinsuis. After reading on the previous evening his Hymn to our Lord Jesus Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n

A lover’s heart will suddenly be set ablaze
\nOn hearing how the one he cherishes is praised
\nAs beautiful and good. Such words, like bellows, spark
\nthe embers buried under ashes in his heart.
\nOh you who praise my love! Oh Heins whose dulcet songs
\nArouse in me such yearning; all my spirit longs
\nFor Christ my Lord. My soul, be mute no more, but raise
\nTogether with this bard a hymn of highest praise
\nTo your dear bridegroom, who will train your rasping voice
\nTo hold the tune of His sweet story and rejoice
\nIn anthems glorifying God. Ah, tear! Burst free
\nFor you provide relief from both my joy and grief.
\nMy heart – so glad recalling thy Benevolence;
\nMy heart – so broken thinking of Thy sufferings
\nOccasioned by my sins. What praise, what gratitude
\nGood God, do you require of earth, and dust, and mud?
\nNo more than this: a broken and a contrite heart
\nThat out of deep remorse and pain resolves to start
\nAnew and (by Thy grace, oh Lord) to follow Him
\nWho keeps our feet from stumbling into snares of sin.
\nThese are the sacred ponderings, dear friend, that kept
\nMe occupied till sleep, death’s milder sister, swept
\nMe off to bed. I dearly wanted to go on.
\nBut she prevailed. By then the clock was striking one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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