A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Dekken, Agathe
DEKKEN, AGATHE,
A Dutch authoress, born in the village of Arastelveen, near Amsterdam, on the 10th. of December, 1741. When three years old she lost her parents, and being very poor, was placed in the Amsterdam orphan asylum. Her natural abilities and industry soon distinguished her from her companions, and her early and successful efforts in poetry, procured the protection and assistance of the "Diligentiae Omnia" society. When she left the asylum, she accepted a place as companion to Miss Maria Borsh, a young lady who was herself a poetess. She lived with Miss Borsh till 1773. After the death of her friend and benefactress. Miss Dekken published a collection of poems, the result of their joint labours. She then went to Jive with another friend, Elizabeth Beeker, the widow of a clergyman. Their united labours produced the first Dutch domestic novel, and they became thus the founders of a new school of novel writers. Shortly afterwards they published the "Wanderlengen door Bougogne," (1779.) In 1787 she removed to Paris, and had subsequently, during the reign of terror, some very narrow escapes from the guillotine. In 1790 she returned to Holland, when the dishonesty of a friend deprived her of her little property. She had now again to resort to her pen as a means of subsistence. She translated therefore several English novels, and published a collection of poems, which contains some patriotic and religious pieces, which are to this day esteemed master-pieces of Dutch poetry. She died on the 15th. of November, 1807.