Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/263

NETHERLANDS (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) 251 eijn or wezen, to be ; zullen, to be bound (to be about) ; and warden, to become (to be). The inflection of a regular verb, therefore, is as fol- lows: Active infinitive, beminnen, to love ; pres- ent participle, beminnende, loving ; past partici- ple, bemind, loved : indicative present, ik bemin, I love ; imperfect, ik beminde, I loved ; past in- definite, ilc heb bemind, I have loved ; pluper- fect, ilc had bemind, I had loved ; future, ik zal beminnen, I shall love, ilc zal bemind hebben, I shall have loved ; conditional, ik zoude bemin- nen, I should love ; conditional past, ik zoude bemind hebben, I should have loved ; impera- tive, bemin, love : subjunctive present, dat ilc beminne, that I may love; imperfect, dat ik beminde, that I might love : passive infinitive, bemind warden ; participles, bemind wordende, bemind geworden ; indicative present, ik word bemind, I am loved ; imperfect, ilc werd bemind, I was loved; past indefinite, ik ben bemind geworden, I have been loved, ik was bemind geworden, I had been loved ; future, ik zal be- mind worden, I shall be loved ; future perfect, ik zal bemind geworden zijn, I shall have been loved ; conditional, ilc zoude bemind worden, I should be loved, ilc zoude bemind geworden zijn, I should have been loved; imperative, word bemind, be loved ; subjunctive, dat ik bemind worde, that I may be loved ; imperfect, dat ik bemind wierde, that I might be loved ; past in- definite, dat ik bemind geworden zij, that I (may) have been loved; pluperfect, dat ik bemind geworden ware, that I had been loved. Neuter verbs are conjugated with hebben when an action is implied, and with zijn when ex- pressing a state of existence. The word it used in English for impersonal verbs is ex- pressed in Dutch by het ; but when used in the combination "it is," it is expressed by daar or er : thus, het regent, it rains ; daar or er is, it is. There is a multitude of irregular verbs ; their prominent features are, that one class having ij in the infinitive take e in the imper- fect and participle, as blijven, to remain, bleef, gebleven ; another with e or i in the infinitive takes o in the imperfect or participle, as binden, to bind, bond, gebonden ; a third with e in the infinitive and participle has short a in the im- perfect, as meten, to measure, mat, gemeten ; a fourth with a in the infinitive and participle has oe or ie in the imperfect, as dragen, to carry, droeg, gedragen, and slapen, to sleep, sliep, geslapen; a fifth with long e in the in- finitive has short a in the imperfect, long o in the participle ; a sixth with short e in the in- finitive has ie in the imperfect and short o in the participle ; a seventh changes only the par- ticiple ; and an eighth, specially known as ir- regular verbs, changes both the consonant and the vowel of the root in the imperfect and the participle, as staan, to stand, staand, gestaan; kunnen, to be able, Iconde, gekonnen. Prepo- sitions, with few exceptions, govern the ac- cusative. LITERATURE. The first development of the vernacular literature of the Netherlands was Flemish rather than Dutch. The begin- ning of Dutch literature proper (besides which the Netherlands boast of a host of eminent writers in Latin, embracing such names as Erasmus, Grotius, Chr. Huygens, Spinoza, and Boerhaave) dates from the 16th century. But as early as the beginning of the 15th liter- ary persons formed associations for holding poetical tournaments and giving theatrical rep- resentations. They were known as the cham- bers of the rederijlcers, presumably so called after the French rhetoricien, which term then signified nearly the same as " poet." Only the rederijkerskamer of Amsterdam attained the character of a literary academy. Three mem- bers of it, Coornhert (1522-'90), Spiegel (1549- 1612), and Roemer Visscher (1547-1620), may be considered the real founders of modern Dutch literature. Coornhert's productions are mostly treatises on morality and theology and poems. The posthumous poem of Spiegel, the Hartspiegel, is ethical. This triumvirate ren- dered great service by the grammatical works published under their direction by the Amster- dam learner. Linguistic labors of still greater importance were the Thesaurus Teutonics Lin- gum by the celebrated printer Plantin (1514- '89), and the Etymologicum Teutonics Lingua by Cornells van Kiel (Cornelius Kilianus). At the beginning of the 17th century, and for many years later, Holland, a powerful, wealthy, and free commonwealth, was preeminently the literary country of Europe. The devotion of the learned to the ancient languages was ar- dent and almost without parallel elsewhere; but a golden age of vernacular literature was ushered in by P. C. van Hooft (1581-1647), who gave a sweetness and harmony before unknown to Dutch speech. His amatory and Anacreontic lines have not been excelled by any later writer ; and his Nederlandsche Eis- torien, embracing the years between 1555 and 1587, is a model of stately historical narrative. Jacob Cats (1577-1660), or "Father Cats," as his countrymen love to style him, wrote for the multitude, and became their favorite. But J. van den Yondel (1587-1679) is the greatest poetical name of the century. He wrote much, dramas, lyrics, and satires, and had a multitude of disciples and imitators, one of the best of whom is Antonides van der Goes (1647-'84). J. Oudaan (1628-'92) is the author of two dramas worthy of note, Johanna Gray and Koning Konradijn ; and other dramatic wri- ters are Bredero (died in 1618), S. Coster, W. van der Nieuwelandt (1584-1635), the Fleming J. Zevecot (1604-'46), whose Belegh van Ley- den ("Siege of Leyden") may still be read with pleasure, and L. Eotgans (1645-1710), whose dramas are much better than his tedious epic, Willem III. A man of large learning and much descriptive talent, C. van Huygens (1596-1687), produced some not unpleasing didactic poems, like the Zedenprinten ("Pic- tures of Manners"), Hofwijk, and Voorhut, which with others he included in a collec- tion bearing the title of Korenblqemen ("Blue-