Horatian intertextuality in Poot s poem De Lente

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1 ACTA UNIVERSITATIS PALACKIANAE OLOMUCENSIS FACULTAS PHILOSOPHICA NEERLANDICA II 2003 Horatian intertextuality in Poot s poem De Lente Rudi T. van der Paardt (University of Leyden) Like his compatriots Virgil and Ovid, the Roman poet Q. Horatius Flaccus had an enormous influence on the history of Western literature. Especially his Odes, four books with poems in the tradition of the great Greek lyric poets, and his witty Epistula ad Pisones or Ars Poetica were often the models for imitation or adaptation. In several periods of Dutch literature we find poets, who have been strongly influenced by Horace. It is no coincidence that most of them were interested in poetical theory and that they were masters of poetic expression themselves. I mention the names of Joost van den Vondel ( ), according to many readers the best Dutch poet ever; Willem Bilderdijk ( ), the many-sided scholar and poet; and the most outstanding representative of the Dutch Romantic movement, Anthonie Staring ( ). Only the first of them, Vondel, will play a role in my paper, and this is because in 1654 he made an important translation of all of Horace s Odes. It was read by many contemporaries and remained popular with later readers. One of them, we know for sure, was Hubert Korneliszoon Poot ( ), the Farmer-Poet. His admiration of Horace is obvious from his adaptation of the famous second epode, Beatus ille. In Akkerleven (Farmer-Life), published in 1720, Poot gave an impression of the contrasts between the life of a trader in the big city and the rustic life with cows and sheep on the farm, the sort of life he lived more or less himself. The opening of the Dutch poem: Hoe genoeglijk rolt het leven / Des gerusten Lantmans heen [How full of comfort is the life / Of a farmer and his wife] has become proverbial. In his small book Mijn vriend Horatius (My friend Horace) the classicist C. Ghislain pretends that he has a conversation with Horace himself about the qualities of Akkerleven (which he reads to him, curiously enough, in Dutch) and it turns out that Horace approves of this clever piece of work from his so much younger colleague. Ghislain then notes a typical difference between the two poets. 1 Whereas Poot makes us believe that life in the countryside is the perfect bliss for mortal men, Horace puts the eulogy into the mouth of an old usurer, by the name of Alfius (it refers to the Greek word for gain), who does not possess a true predisposition for 1 C. Ghislain, Mijn vriend Horatius (My friend Horace), The Hague 1957, p

2 farming life and finally returns to his usual way of living. 2 Thus, one thing is already clear: in his imitation of Horace (and also of other classical poets, such as Ovid) Poot takes the liberty to omit certain elements of his model. It is, however, not Poot s Akkerleven that I want to discuss here, but another poem showing Horatian intertextuality: De Lente (The Spring), from Minnezangen, love- -poems in the tradition of Petrarch and the Dutch poet P. C. Hooft, which form part of his first volume of Mengeldichten, published in Specialists such as C. M. Geerars and Riet Schenkeveld have recognised that this text owes much to a Horatian ode. They both point out that in the beginning of De Lente, in the description of the flight of winter and the appearance of spring, Poot uses expressions which come from Odes 1.4. Poot did not know enough Latin to read the Latin text on his own and he consequently probably used Vondel s translation, although it is not impossible that he read the Latin with the help of a friend who translated the text for him. The aim of my paper is to show that there are at least two other spring-odes which come into account as possible Horatian models for Poot s poem, but that he did not use them in the same way. I will now give the Dutch text with my own prose-translation into English. I have tried to maintain some of the rhythm, but have had to give up the embracing rhyme and the archaic flavour of the 18 th century language. Even native Dutch speakers need some commentary for the text. I use in my translation the explanatory notes given by Geerars in his edition of Minnezangen. De Lente Aen mejuffrouwen Katharina en Debora Blokhuizen. d Ontdooide winter vlucht naer t noord op Jovis doemen. De boer verlaet den haert: het vee den muffen stal. Nu lagchen berg en dal En bosch en bron en vliet en beemt en gras en bloemen. 5 d Alvoênde zomer, daer t geluk zich aen liet binden, Is ons door zoete gunst al weder toegedaen, En fladdert herwaert aen, Met loome vleugelen van laeuwe westewinden. Nu wort het eenmael tydt de stadt om t wout te ruimen, 10 Om t aengename wout, dat, vry en ongedeert, Zoo vrolyk quinkeleert, En orgels hooren laet, vergult met zachte pluimen. Wat dunkt u, Juffertjes, Blokhuizens eedle telgen, Wilt ge in zaligh velt den blyden voglezang 15 (Gezang behaegde u lang) Eens met uwe ooren zien en met uw geesten zwelgen? Wilt ge in den morgenstont eens blanke paerlen lezen 2 Typical for the Dutch reception of Beatus ille; see M. A. Schenkeveld-van der Dussen, Het dichterschap van Hubert Korneliszoon Poot (The poetry of Hubert Korneliszoon Poot), Assen 1968, p

3 Van nuchtre klaverblaên of scheemrigh lindegroen? Welaen. ai, koomt het doen! 20 Uw minlyk wezen zal by godtheên welkom wezen. Ja koomt: zoo leide ik u daer beek en boomgodinnen Een groen fluweelen vloer bedansen, hant aen hant. Neen blyft; de minn[e]brant Wort buiten thans gestookt, daer al de dieren minnen. 25 Kupido school zich korts in lentgewas en rozen. Dies, vreest ge t Jongske nogh, zoo houdt u ongenoodt, Of plukt er groen noch root. Maer zacht, myn lier, gy doet vier schoone wangen blozen. Spring To the young ladies Catherine and Deborah Blokhuizen Melted Winter flees to the North on Jupiter s command. The farmer leaves the hearth, the cattle the musty stable. Now, mountain and valley laugh And wood, and fountain, river, meadow, grass & flowers too. 5 Nursing Summer, which was connected with happiness, Is already attached to us by sweet favour And flitters in our direction With slow wings of tepid Western winds. Now, it is time to exchange the city for the pleasant forest, 10 The forest that, free and unharmed, Carols so merrily, And plays the organ that is decorated with soft feathers. What do you think, noble shoots of Mr. Blokhuizen, Do you want to see with your ears the happy sound 15 (you were attached to warbling for a long time) Of birds in a blessed field and revel in their songs? Do you want to gather in morning-time the white pearls Of sober clover-leaf or dusky green of lindentree? Well, come and see 20 Your charming nature will be most welcome to the Gods. Yes, come: I ll bring you there, where Naiads linking arms With Dryads dance on the green velvet floor. But no, stay. The Fire of Love Is burning outside now, where all what lives is set ablaze. 25 Cupid just hid himself in spring-crops and in roses. So, if you fear the boy, stay uninvited Or if you come, avoid the flowery green. But hush, my lyre, you cause the blushing of four handsome cheeks. 127

4 Even from a formal point of view, there are some resemblances between Horace Odes 1.4 and De Lente. Both the Roman and the Dutch poet use units of four lines, while their metre also shows the same sort of variation: Horace s uneven lines are longer than his even ones, which have an iambic scheme; in Poot s poem every third line is half as long as the other three: it has three instead of six iambic units. More significant, however, are the verbal parallels. I present the Latin text, with the recent English translation by David West (1995). solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni trahuntque siccas machinae carinas, ac neque iam stabulis gaudet pecus aut arator igni nec prata canis albicant pruinis. iam Cytherea choros ducit Venus imminente luna, iunctaeque Nymphis Gratiae decentes alterno terram quatiunt pede, dum gravis Cyclopum Volcanus ardens visit officinas. nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto aut flore, terrae quem ferunt solutae, nunc et in umbrosis Fauno decet immolare lucis, seu poscat agna sive malit haedo. pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas regumque turris, o beate Sesti, vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam; iam te premet nox fabulaeque Manes et domus exilis Plutonia; quo simul mearis, nec regna vini sortiere talis nec tenerum Lycidan mirabere, quo calet iuventus nunc omnis et mox virginis tepebunt. Harsh winter is melting away in the welcome change to spring & zephyrs, Winches are pulling down dry-bottomed ships, The cattle no longer like the steading, the ploughman does not hug the fire And meadows are not white with hoar-frost. Venus of Cythera leads on the dance beneath a hanging moon, And the lovely Graces, linking arms with Nymphs, Shake the ground with alternate feet while burning Vulcan Visits the grim foundries of the Cyclopes. Now is the time to oil the hair and bind the head with green myrtle Or flowers born of the earth now freed from frost; Now too it is time to sacrifice to Faunus in shady groves Whether he asks a lamb or prefers a kid. Pale death kicks with impartial foot at the hovels of the poor And the towers of kings. O fortunate Sestius, The brief sum of life does not allow us to start on long hopes. You will soon be kept close by Night and the fabled shades 128

5 And Pluto s meagre house. When you go there You will no longer cast lots to rule the wine Nor admire tender Lycidas whom all the young men Now burn for, and for whom the girls will soon be warm. Poot s first words d Ontdooide winter ( melted winter ) come directly from Horace, or in fact from Vondel s translation; Vondel has de felle winter ontdoit, which is exactly what West made of the Latin Solvitur acris hiems: Harsh winter is melting away. The farmer and the cattle are derived, in chiastic order, from Horace s third line. Poot s polysyndetic lines three and four are an elaborate expansion of the simple prata in Horace line four. (I would like to state that Poot s mountain and valley are not exactly typical for the Dutch landscape. One only finds them in art and literature!) Horace s Favonius returns in Poot s line seven and eight, but in De Lente there is no reference to dry-bottomed ships: they would be strange in the context of Poot s poetical landscape. We have to wait for the sixth stanza before we can detect new allusions. It is the dance of the Naiads and Dryads, linking their arms, which recalls line six of Horace s ode. For the linking of the dancing goddesses, Poot employs the expression Hant aen hant, which comes from Vondel s translation of the iunctae Gratiae. The relation between the ending of both poems is rather ambivalent. In Ode 1.4 after twelve lines of description of spring we suddenly find death knocking at the door: line thirteen shows pallida Mors in her most aggressive form. But in his last lines Horace brings his friend Sestius, to whom this spring-ode is addressed, back to the preoccupation of his daily life of pleasure. 3 Horace suggests that there may be connections between Sestius and a certain Lycidas, a very attractive young man. Poot does not refer at all to death as an inevitable result of the permanent changing of the seasons, but in his last line, he too returns to his addressees, the Blokhuizen-sisters, mentioning them by name. But in De Lente there is no allusion, not even a hint, to erotics. On the contrary, having made some innocent jokes about Cupid, Poot pretends that he already went too far, and asks his topical lyre to be silent. It has all the marks of a studied contrast-imitation of the Latin model. There is another spring-ode by Horace, which has repeatedly been compared to Odes 1.4. It is Odes 4.7, written in the same metre, regarded by the famous Latinist and poet, Alfred Housman, as the most perfect poem in the Latin language. It is the only ode he translated himself: along with the Latin text, I will present his beautiful rendering. 3 L. P. Wilkinson, Horace and his lyric Poetry, Cambridge 1968, p. 40. Horatius. Relief in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston 129

6 Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis arboribusque comae; Mutat terra uices et decrescentia ripas flumina praetereunt; Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet ducere nuda choros. Immortalia ne speres monet annus et almum quae rapit hora diem. Frigora mitescunt Zephyris, uer proterit aestas interitura, simul Pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit, et mox bruma recurrit iners. Damna tamen celeres reparant caelestia lunae: nos ubi decidimus Quo pius Aeneas, quo Tullus diues et Ancus, puluis et umbra sumus. Quis scit an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae tempora di superi? Cuncta manus auidas fugient heredis, amico quae dederis animo. Cum semel occideris et de te splendida Minos fecerit arbitria, Non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te restituet pietas; Infernis neque enim tenebris Diana pudicum liberat Hippolytum, Nec Lethaea ualet Theseus abrumpere caro uincula Pirithoo. The snows are fled away, leaves on the shaws And grasses in the mead renew their birth, The river to the river-bed withdraws, And altered is the fashion of the earth. The Nymphs and Graces three put off their fear And unapparelled in the woodland play. The swift hour and the brief prime of the year Say to the soul, Thou wast not born for aye. Thaw fallows frost; hard on the heel of spring Treads summer sure to die, for hard on hers Comes autumn, with his apples scattering; Then back to wintertide, when nothing stirs. But oh, whate er the sky-led seasons mar, Moon upon moon rebuilds it with her beams; Come we where Tullus and where Ancus are And good Aeneas, we are dust and dreams. 130

7 20 25 Torquatus, if the gods in heaven shall add The morrow to the day, what tongue hath told? Feast then thy heart, for what thy heart has had The fingers of no heir will ever hold. When thou descendest once the shades among, The stern assize and equal judgment o er Not thy long lineage nor thy golden tongue, No, nor thy righteousness, shall friend thee more. Night holds Hippolytus the pure of stain, Diana steads him nothing, he must stay; And Theseus leaves Pirithous in the chain The love of comrades cannot take away. When we look again at Poot s text, in the English translation (for practical reasons we have to leave Vondel s translation out of account here), we see that the idea of the flight of winter could have come from Horace s Diffugere nives, the snows are fled away. Poot s fourth line, with his enumeration of elements in nature which come to life again shows some resemblance to Horace s first stanza as a whole, especially to his gramina, campi, and flumina. Then, there is a strong parallel between lines five and six in this ode and the same ones in 1.4, so that it is hardly possible to decide from which of the two Poot has borrowed his goddesses dancing on the green-velvet floor. (These goddesses too are only visible in Dutch art and literature, one never observes them in reality, neither did Poot himself ever see them. By the way, the nudity theme, which occurs in Horace, had been eliminated not only by Poot, but also by Housman). Poot s expression D alvoênde zomer (line five) could have been borrowed from Horace s almum diem (lines seven and eight) in this ode. I have to confess, however, that Vondel s rendering here is so different that we cannot be sure that this is a real reminiscence. The rest of the poem, beautiful as it is, does not seem relevant for our purposes: after his description of the beginning of spring, Horace deals with a favourite theme of his, human mortality. It was not to be expected that Poot in his nice and friendly invitation to the Blokhuizen sisters would end in such a moralizing note. However, in the same book of Odes there is a poem that also begins with a description of spring, which must have appealed to Poot. It is 4.12, addressed to Virgil, who according to many commentators was Horace s colleague, P. Vergilius Maro, but according to many others, amongst whom Eduard Fraenkel, certainly not the poeta maximus. 4 Most likely this is an early poem. In his commentary Kenneth Quinn surmises that Horace intended it to be recognised as such and that it was published after Virgil s death to recall the easy intimacy that had existed between old friends. 5 But whether Virgil was the famous poet or, for instance, an unknown unguentarius (perfume-seller) a theory from the ancient commentators, because Virgil is associa- 4 E. Fraenkel, Horace, Oxford 1957, p. 418 n. 1, thinks that it is improbable that 4.12 is an early poem and the more that Horace should refer to studium lucri of his beloved friend. 5 Horace, The Odes, ed. Kenneth Quinn, London etc. 1980, p

8 ted here with perfume the poem that Horace writes to him, is interesting for other reasons: for his combining, once again, the motifs of spring and death, for his choice of words and, as Fraenkel has it, 6 for the lightness of the rhythm: as in so many other poems Horace uses here a choriambic metre. As an example of the verbal and musical qualities of the poem, I will quote the first stanza, with the prose-translation by Steele Commager: 7 Iam veris comites, quae mare temperant, Inpellunt animae lintea Thraciae, Iam nec prata rigent nec fluvii strepunt hiberna nive turgidi. Already the Thracian breezes, the companions of spring, that calm the sea, are striking ships sails, and the meadows are no longer stiff with frost, nor do the rivers still roar, swollen with the winter snow. The outline of the poem is this: Winter is passing away, meadows are green again, we hear the rivers, we hear the sad sound of the swallow. The warmer weather suggests a drinking party. So, Virgil, come to my farm and drink with me: life is short, remember, and a little folly in its season is very pleasant. The strictly verbal parallels are scanty. There are, as is to be expected, prata ( meadows ), animae ( winds ), fluvii ( rivers ), and there is even the song of birds not merry, as in Poot s poem, but sad. What is striking, however, is the resemblance in the outline of both poems, which, by the way, have exactly the same number of lines. In both poems it is the arrival of spring, which inspires the invitation by the persona of the poet. In the case of Odes 4.12 it is an invitation to a friend to leave the city and come to a drinking-party; in De Lente it is an invitation to two girls to leave the city and have a walk or a ride through the woods, undoubtedly in the neighbourhood of Poot s farm. My conclusion is that Poot in his poem De Lente does not simply use one specific Horatian ode as his model: he uses at least three odes for his purposes. He leaves out what he cannot use; he picks up words, metaphors and motifs from the two springodes 1.4 and 4.7 and makes some deliberate contrasts with the Latin texts. He also uses the outline of a third spring-ode (Odes 4.12) as a whole. From all this traditional material he makes something quite new: a Dutch poem that is very pleasant to recite in these dark days of autumn. 6 E. Fraenkel, Horace, Oxford 1957, p Steele Commager, The Odes of Horace, London etc. 1962, p

9 ACTA UNIVERSITATIS PALACKIANAE OLOMUCENSIS FACULTAS PHILOSOPHICA NEERLANDICA II 2003 Understanding Carel van Mander s Schilder-boeck Better by Processing its Text Electronically. An Example 1 Ruben Pellar (Society Ne-Be, Prague) 1 Introduction If one intends to understand older Netherlandish art, in particular the painting of the 14 th 17 th centuries, one must also study texts that are relevant to this period. One of the texts is of course the Schilder-boeck by Carel van Mander, the principal work describing the beginning of Netherlandish painting. In Prague libraries, for instance in the National Library (Národní knihovna) and in the Library of the Museum of Applied Art (Knihovna Uměleckoprůmyslového muzea), the works of Carel van Mander are available in both the original editions as well as in later reprints. In order to understand Mander s text one must also possess among other things, a good dictionary of modern Dutch, for instance, the newest edition of the main Dutch dictionary Van Dale. Groot woordenboek der Nederlandse taal (see literature no. 8). In addition, a dictionary of Middle Dutch in paper or electronic form is necessary (see literature nos. 9 and 2), and of course some translations into foreign languages, such as the German translation by Hans Floerke, Carel van Mander Het Leven der Doorluchtighe Nederlandsche en Hooghduytsche Schilders. Das Leben der niederländischen und deutschen Maler. Textabdruck nach der Ausgabe von (see literature no. 4) or in modern Dutch (see literature no. 5), along with with commented reprints (lit. no. 4). In addition, other works devoted to the description of the Dutch language in the 17th century (lit. no. 10) and other special studies on history, art and so on should be available in one s reading room. Another fine tool, which can assist in making it possible for the scholar to understand Mander s book better, is an electronic form of the work itself. The electronic text can be analysed and thus understood much more deeply and quickly than the paper form. The electronic version of the Schilder-boeck has a number of advantages, as well as certain disadvantages in comparison with the printed form. It can be stored in a minimum of space, read on the screen, edited, printed, sent by , but on the other hand can also be easily erased and stolen, needs an electrically powered compu- 1 This article gives a shortened and slightly altered version of a lecture given at the conference Emblematica et Iconographia held in December 2000 in Olomouc. 133

10 ter, can be placed on the Internet and infected by viruses. These advantages and disadvantages are of course generally known, and electronically published texts appear in mass. The electronic version can be further useful for: 1. preparation of a reprint of the work; 2. translation of the text into another language, for instance the translation into Czech; 3. an analysis superior to a manual analysis of the work from the point of view of literature and history, linguistics, theory of culture etc.; 4. be the first item amongst a greater set of texts (a corpus) with a similar, or on the contrary, different theme, age, author(s) or other criteria; 5. and any other useful thing you can come up with. As the electronic form still does not exist (at least not for the Czech reader), I have decided to create it myself. In my paper I want to describe the way I went about it and to give some examples of its use. 2 Creating the electronic form of the Schilder-boeck I have made use of the still very valuable edition by Hanns Floerke from 1906 (see literature no. 4), available in the National Library in Prague, which has the advantage that it can be lent outside the Library. I proceeded to make a loose paper copy of the work on a copying machine. I then scanned the text only Mander s text, not Floerke s translation into the German and his commentary with the help of electronic scanning and optical recognition software Recognita 4.0, made by the company Recognita and a simple flat bed scanner (a Hewlett Packard product). The result of the scanning, of course, is not perfect and had to be corrected manually. To make this painstaking task easier, I made use of the spelling corrector of Corel Word Perfect (Version 9) which makes it possible to create a so-called user word list, the items of it being the strings of the text being corrected. When the strings of the text are added to the user list step by step, the corrector is able to recognize and indicate the strings that have not been added to the list yet and one can decide, whether the strings are right or wrong and correct and add them to the list if needed. To be honest, I was able to scan the complete text, but the correction of the text is not finished yet. For this reason, I will use for my explication, and as an example, only the first ten pages only (the title-page, the Voor-reden and the Dedication or Widmung, as Floerke calls it, thus the first and second part of the chapter of the Schilder-boeck). 134

11 3 Further processing of the loaded electronic text 3.1 Layout and alphanumerical indication of the text units Layout Various layouts are basically possible: 1. a layout preserving the original form of the paper copy (with an exact correspondence of line length, pages, hyphenation, font size, bold, italic, letter spacing etc., thus in fact an electronic reprint or replica; 2. a layout that does not respect the paper form fully or 3. a mixed form. I have chosen a mixed layout preserving the original division of the book into pages, but otherwise did not preserve the original layout with its graphical means as font or (varying) letter spacing, bold or italic, or the position of the text. The electronic text is in fact plain, whereas the alphanumerical indication of the text is at the left side and the text is indented by a left indentation. In addition, the hyphenation of the paper edition has not been respected. The units of the text are separated by one or two free lines (sentences and clauses) or start on a new page ( chapters ) The Numbering of the chapters Under chapters I understand the logical parts of the book larger than paragraphs. Thus not only actual chapters, but also the title page, foreword etc. The chapters are numbered by a sequence of natural numbers which are followed by an alphabetical abbreviation indicating the part of the book, for instance Tit (= Title- -page), Wid (Widmung), Voor (Voor-Reden op t Leven der Nederlandtsche en Hooghduytsche vermaerde Schilders), Eyck (Het leven van Jan en Huybrecht van Eyck, gebroeders, en Schilders van Maseyck) etc. This indication is placed as a header on the left side of the page above. After this abbreviation, the possible full title of the chapter follows The numbering of pages The pages of the text have been indicated by natural numbers corresponding with the paging in Floerke s edition, thus beginning with 2 (the title page), going on with 10, 12 and ending with the last page of Mander s text. The page numbers are placed at the top in the centre of the page, and are preceded by the word Floerke. There is also a secondary pagination with a natural number placed at the bottom centre ascending from 1 to n (thus 1, 2, 3. n). 135

12 3.1.4 The numbering of paragraphs As Floerke s edition is not, with some exceptions, divided into paragraphs, the paragraphs are not numbered The numbering of clauses and sentences Clauses (sentences) are numbered by a sequence of natural numbers from 1 to n, using the automatic numbering of WordPerfect The numbering of lines Lines are numbered on each page by a sequence of natural numbers from 1 to n, using the automatic numbering of WordPerfect 9. The result can be seen in Appendix 1 An example of the page layout The numbering of further units Even smaller units of the text can also be numbered, such as words or even signs, and of course bigger or smaller parts than the pages of the physical medium (paper) the text is written on (for instance volumes ), further figures, notes, remarks. This explanation, however, will not take this into consideration. 3.2 Help Files After scanning the text, correcting and numbering it, various help files can be created, basically: 1 Sentence file(s) 2 String file(s) 3 Word form file(s) 3.1 Retrograde word form file(s) 3.2 Representative word form file (lemma file or dictionary) 4 Various other lists, for instance a list of nouns, verbs, or terminological lists etc. 5 Various indices, for instance an index of proper names, of course a list, of notes, a table of contents and a table of authorities, etc. 6 etc Sentence file(s) A sentence file or clause file can be created, numbered and arranged for instance alphabetically. With its help one can study the syntactic structures, their length, composition and category. 136

13 3.2.2 String file(s) A string is defined as a sequence of characters separated by a space. A string must be distinguished from a word form, as the orthography in the Schilder-boeck is not uniform and correct as the word units are sometimes divided and joined differently from present usage. I made this list using the computer aided translation system Transit 2.7 sold by the company STAR GmbH, a Swiss and German company and translation agency. This system has the function Create Terminology which is able to create an alphabetically arranged list of all word forms from the text automatically. The result is shown in Appendix 2 Example of a string file based on pages 2-20 of the Schilder-boeck. One can observe that not all the forms are correct, as the text does not join divided word units in the same way as one would today. At times there is a division or joining, where we would make a connection or on the other hand divide what is understood today as two words (for instance tgheruchtighe, joining together the article t and the adjective gheruchtighe). Let us first, however, presuppose that the words or strings are grammatically correct forms of the Middle Dutch. Then one can for instance create a retrograde dictionary, for instance for the sake of a study of the morphology of Mander s text. (See Appendix 3 Example of and retrograde word form file.) In addition, one can describe these forms grammatically, define their meanings or translate them for instance into another language (for instance into modern Dutch, Czech etc.) In this way, one can create a dictionary. In Appendix 4, you can see an example of a dictionary containing words which are in some way interesting, where some 7 categories are applied, that is: 0 lemma, i. e. the representative form of the word; 1 a string, as it appears in the text; 2 the grammatical description of the string, definition, remarks; 3 the source of 2; 4 the relevant meaning of 0 in Middle Dutch and in the text itself; 5 (non) occurrence in Verdam s Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek; 6 the place, where it appears, in the text (as the dictionary is an electronic version of an old paper card file, the location of the string is still based on the paper edition of the Schilder-boeck (Floerke) and is defined as distance from the upper edge of the relevant page ; 7 the context. Electronic tools for better comprehension of Mander s text can also of course have a paper form which could be made manually. Creating them and working with them, however, would be much more tedious and involve much more time. In my paper, I have given some examples of such simple electronic tools. They do offer the possibility to understand a text better, but at the end of my paper, I would like to stress, that they are not a panacea. Even as computer-linguists or computer-scientists, 137

14 we must bow to older scholars (last but not least to Mander himself) who were not in possession of any electronic tools such as computers, files, databases and the Internet. They made use of only their pen, paper, failing memories and hearts devoted to their task of creating works of lasting and unrivalled value which are a testimony to their deep understanding of the matter and ingenuity. Literature 1. Josef ČERMÁK, Komputační lexikografie. In: Renata Blatná et al: Manuál lexikografie. Prague 1995, pp Cd-rom Middelnederlands. The Hague, Sdu Uitgevers. (without year of publishing) 3. Het Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal op cd-rom. Rotterdam, AND ElectronicPublishing. (without the year of publication) 4. Hans FLOERKE (ed.), Carel van Mander. Het Leven der Doorluchtighe Nederlandsche en Hooghduytsche Schilders. Das Leben der niederländischen und deutschen Maler. Textabdruck nach der Ausgabe von Bd. I II. Munich & Leipzig F. MIRANDE & G. S. OVERDIEP, Carel van Mander, Het Schilder-boek. Het Leven der Doorluchtighe Nederlandsche en Hooghduytsche Schilders. In hedendaagsch Nederlandsch overgebracht. Amsterdam & Antwerp Recognita Plus 4.0 for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. User s Guide. Recognita Corporation p. 7. STAR Translation Technology. Transit. Version 2.7. (Software of Star AG, Ramsen 1999). 8. G. GEERTS & H. HEESTERMANS (red.), Van Dale. Groot woordenboek der Nederlandse taal. Utrecht & Antwerp Eelko VERWIJS & Jakobus VERDAM, Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek. The Hague A. WEIJNEN, Zeventiende eeuwse taal. Zutphen (without the year of publication) 138

15 Appendix I 139

16 140 Appendix II

17 Appendix III 141

18 Appendix IV EXAMPLE OF VOCABULARY BASED UPON THE SCHILDERBOECK 1 advijs 2 znw. 4 mnl. advijs, avijs znw. o. 1) zienswijze, meening, gedachte, denkwijze 2) raad, beraad; Floerke: d. Devise (ve významu heslo, devíza) 5 Verdam ve významu heslo životní, deviza 0 6 LNHS str. 248 mm advijs-woort 2 znw. 4 mnl. advijs znw. o. 1) zienswijze, meening, gedachte, denkwijze 2) raad, beraad 6 LNHS 2 bl. 24 mm Sijn Advijs-woort, devise oft spreuck, was een aerdighe Anagramma op zijnen Naem 1 Aechte 2 znw. eigennaam vr. 5 Verdam 0 6 LNHS str. 348 mm 95 7 In de Kerck van S. Aechte Floerke: In der St. Agathenkirche 1 Aechtgen 2 znw. eigenn. vr. 4 Floerke: Agathe 6 LNHS bl. 146 mm 65 1 aelmoessen 2 znw. 4 mnl. aelmoesene znw. eig. barmhartigheid, medelijden a. doen goede werken doen; ook: almoezen geven; bewijsde a. eene aan iemand toegewezen gave 6 LNHS bl. 76 mm 80 1 aen 2 voorz. 4 mnl. aen voorz. met den 3 den en 4 den nv. Het woord drukt in het algemeen de betrekking tussen eene werking en eene zelfstandigheid uit, van wier oppervlakte een gedeelte word aangeraakt, of op eene werking is gericht. I: van plaats 5) Ter aanduiding dat eene werking op een persoon of zaak gericht is 6 LNHS str. 10 mm 65 7 Aen Eerweerde achtbare Heeren 142

19 Appendix V EXAMPLE OF A TRANSLATION OF THE SCHILDERBOECK INTO CZECH Úvod Mander Karel (nebo Carel) van (mandr kárel fan), (květen ), niz. malíř manýrismu, spisovatel a překladatel. Psal divadelní hry, básně a písně. Hlavním dílem je Het schilder-boeck (Malířská kniha) z roku 1904, obsahující mimo jiné Het leven der doorluchtige Nederlandsche en Hoogduitsche schilders (Životopisy slavných nizozemských a hornoněmeckých malířů). je to základní pramen pro poznání nizozemského malířství počínaje bratry van Eycky a konče Manderovými současníky a současně významný památník nizozemské renesanční prózy. Manderův Schilder- -boeck byl přeložen do francouzštiny, němčiny a ruštiny, snad i do jiných jazyků. Manderův Schilder-boeck jsem začal překládat do češtiny roku 1977 a překlad (který není ještě definitivní verzí) dokončil asi roku Překlad jsem neúspěšně nabídl nakladatelství Odeon. Překládal jsem podle nizozemsko-německého vydání Floerkova z roku Používal jsem přitom Verdamův středonizozemský slovník a francouzský překlad díla ve výběru R. Genailla (Hermann, Paris 1965). Jako ukázku překladu uvádím věnování, předmluvu a první kapitolu líčící životopis Jana a Huberta van Eycka. Ukázka neusiluje o naprostou věrnost originálu, text zkracuji a zjednodušuji, aby byl čtivější. Verše uvedené v kapitole o bratrech Eyckových překládám prózou. Neuvádím také poznámky, kterých je jinak k porozumění Manderově textu zapotřebí. Stylistické řešení ukázky vzniklo ve spolupráci s mojí ženou Vlastou Krautmanovou. 143

20 ŽIVOTOPISY SLAVNÝCH NIZOZEMSKÝCH A HORNONĚMECKÝCH MALÍŘŮ Ctihodným a váženým pánům, mým dobrým přátelům, Janu Mathijszu Banovi a Cornelisi Gerritszu Vlasmanovi, vzájemným dvojnásob milým švagrům, milovníkům malířského umění v Haarlemu. Známý výrok, který vkládá básník Vergilius do úst svému zamilovanému pěvci Korydonovi, že každý je unášen svou rozkoší, se potvrzuje dnes a denně a není o tom třeba vést spory; shledáváme totiž, že záliba a sklon každého člověka jsou přitahovány nejen věcmi potřebnými k životu, ale i příjemnými odpovídajícími jeho duchu a povaze. Jasní a pronikaví duchové nacházejí potěšení v krásných a velkolepých věcech, které jakoby převyšovala přírodu. Jsou to především vynikající umělecká díla, která si prohlížejí s obdivem a zalíbením, porovnávají je a hodnotí, ctí je a milují. Vážení pánové a moji dobří přátelé, domnívám se, že toto je důvod, proč i vy, spojení stejnou povahou a duchem, i tím, že jste si oba vzali za manželku sestru toho druhého, jste svorně nakloněni a příznivi dokonalosti, výsostnému půvabu a kráse malířského umění. Shromaž ujete chvalná a nádherná díla z nejdovednějších rukou, ochotně a laskavě je ukazujete významným zahraničním hostům, dalším cizincům a jiným milovníkům umění, a také jim vlídně poskytujete umění své, totiž napodobeného Bakcha nebo dokonce samotného boha. Již vaši počestní předkové provozovali od nepaměti toto užitečné umění, které vzešlo od udatného válečníka a prvního sládka Bakcha, zvaného též Dionýsos, a rozšířilo se mezi národy i tam, kde se vinná réva nedařila. A stejně jako egyptský král Bakchus vytvořil občanské zákony a naučil lidi obchodu, tak byli rodiče vás obou, vážení pánové, starosty a konšely ve slavném městě Haarlemu a provozovali s vlastními loděmi vlastní obchod. Nadto jste vy, ctihodný pane Jane Matthyzsi nejen našeho umění pouhým milovníkem, nýbrž i dovedným zlatníkem a stříbrníkem, který dlouho pobýval ve slavném městě Římě a byl věrným a kratochvilným druhem na cestách našemu Goltziovi. A proto, vážení pánové, tyto své životopisy slavných nizozemských malířů zasvěcuji vám oběma. Vždy jste hodni daru ještě tisíckrát většího. Upřímně vás prosím, abyste na můj dar, který chce být důkazem mé vroucí oddanosti k vám, pohlédli přívětivě a přijali jej s díkem. Kéž Nejvyšší sešle na vás oba, vážení pánové, prospěch, dobro a blaženost. V Amsterodamu 28. července Váš oddaný služebník a přítel Karel van Mander. Předmluva k životopisům slavných nizozemských a hornoněmeckých malířů Lze do jisté míry doufat, že v příštích staletích lidé nezapomenou a nepřestanou si vyprávět slavné příběhy vynikajících malířů. Jména, životopisy a díla proslulých mistrů našeho umění však jistě zůstanou v obecném povědomí potomků trvaleji a pevněji, a také s větší úplností a spolehlivostí, jestliže je pečlivě zapíšeme a tím navždy zachováme svěží před očima a zabráníme tomu, aby je neúprosně postupující čas vhodil lopatou stáří do jámy zapomnění a zasypal. Přesto se však budou možná někteří, ba dokonce mnozí divit, proč takovou knihu píši a proč vynakládám tolik píle a námahy na téma, které snad nebo dozajista někdo považuje za příliš nízké či nevýznamné, domnívá se totiž, že za zazna- 144