the power of “pliant stuff” - fables and frankness in seventeenth-century dutch republicanism

8/13/2019 The Power of Pliant Stuff - Fables and Frankness in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republicanism

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The Power of Pliant Stuff: Fables and Frankness in Seventeenth-CentDutch Republicanism

Arthur Weststeijn

Journal of the History of Ideas, Volume 72, Number 1, January 2011,pp. 1-27 (Article)

Published by University of Pennsylvania PressDOI: 10.1353/jhi.2011.0005

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The Power of Pliant Stuff: Fables and Franknessin Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republicanism

Arthur Weststeijn

In the preface to his 1609 collection of classical fables entitled De sapientiaveterum (On the Wisdom of the Ancients ), Francis Bacon vindicated his

choice for such a playful genre. Although the writing of fables might seemjust an exercise of pleasure for my own or my readers recreation, Baconstressed that that was not the case. On the contrary, he argued thatbeneath no small number of the fables of the ancient poets there lay fromthe very beginning a mystery and an allegory. Therefore, he continued,through such fables, as sacred relics and light airs breathing out of bettertimes, hidden meanings can be exposed and made understood to unskilledears and eyes. Indeed, the employment of parables as a method of teach-ing, whereby inventions that are new and abstruse and remote from vulgaropinions may nd an easier passage to the understanding, shows that thefable serves as a very appropriate expedient for instruction and persuasion,the higher goals of rhetoric beyond simple entertainment and delight. 1

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the conference Politics, Press and PublicDebate in the 17th Century at the European University Institute, Florence, in December2007, and at the conference Woord en beeld als wapen. Nieuws en propaganda in dezeventiende eeuw at the University of Amsterdam in August 2008. I would like to thankthe participants at both conferences and especially the anonymous reviewers for theirvaluable criticism, and Mark Jones for his comments on the nal draft.1 Francis Bacon, De sapientia veterum , in The Works of Francis Bacon , 14 vols., eds. James Spedding et al. (London: Longmans, 185774), 6: 61786. Quotes are from theEnglish translation of the preface in ibid., 69599. The third edition of De sapienta vet-erum was published in Leiden in 1633.

Copyright by Journal of the History of Ideas, Volume 72, Number 1 (January 2011)

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JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS JANUARY 2011

Yet, for all these noble purposes, Bacon could not hide his unease withthose aspects of the fable which seemed to escape his pens command.

Embarrassed by the levity and looseness with which people indulge theirfancy in the matter of allegories, he acknowledged himself to have trodslippery ground. As he asserted: I know very well what pliant stuff fableis made of, how freely it will follow any way you please to draw it, andhow easily with a little dexterity and discourse of wit meanings which itwas never meant to bear may be plausibly put upon it. For Bacon, thisintrinsic ambivalence of the fable gave rise to discomfort, and from the starthe sought to remove any potential misunderstandings about his intentions.However, not all seventeenth-century writers of fables shared his concerns.Instead, the very nature of the fable as pliant stuff, as a genre whichnecessarily conveys meanings in an ambiguous, suggestive, and indirectmanner, made it a particularly useful rhetorical device for those who wouldnot or could not articulate their opinions openly.

This article shows that a number of seventeenth-century authors delib-erately employed the fable for its political expediency as an opaque prismto diffuse unconventional ideas that could undermine authority. Central inthis overview are the Dutch merchants and fervent republican theorists Johan and Pieter de la Court, the main representatives of the radicalizationof Dutch republicanism in the decades following the Peace of Westphalia.While most mainstream republicans in the Netherlands emphasized theneed of a monarchical gure, a Stadholder , in the ideally balanced republi-can regime, the brothers De la Court claimed that such a monarchical ele-ment would necessarily entail tyranny. 2 Their writings employed twodifferent types of fables to substantiate this fundamental claim: the rstbased on the political allegories of the Italian satirist Traiano Boccalini, the

second following the Aesopian tradition as exemplied by the famous2 So far there is no comprehensive study of seventeenth-century Dutch republicanism atlarge or of the brothers De la Court in particular, but see Ernst Kossmann, Political Thought in the Dutch Republic: Three Studies (Amsterdam: KNAW, 2000); E.O.G. Hais-tma Mulier, The Myth of Venice and Dutch Republican Thought in the Seventeenth Cen-tury (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1980); Hans Blom, Morality and Causality in Politics: TheRise of Naturalism in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Political Thought (PhD diss., UtrechtUniversity, 1995); and Wyger Velema, That a Republic is Better than a Monarchy:Anti-monarchism in Early Modern Dutch Political Thought, in Republicanism: AShared European Heritage , 2 vols., ed. Martin van Gelderen and Quentin Skinner (Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 1: 925. See as well the recent work by Jona-than Israel, summarized in his The Intellectual Origins of Modern DemocraticRepublicanism (16601720), European Journal of Political Theory 3 (2004): 736. Theissue of rhetoric is almost entirely absent in these works.

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Weststeijn Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republicanism

Dutch poet and playwright Joost van den Vondel. Through an analysis of the rhetorical role of these fables, this article attempts to shed more light

on the reasons why fables were used in seventeenth-century republicanthought. It will argue that the literary aspects of the fable cannot be sepa-rated from its political function, a function that eventually can be character-ized as highly paradoxical: not in spite but because of its openness todifferent readings, the fable involved a disguised rhetorical plea for frank-ness and liberty of speech.

RHETORIC AND FABLES: THE STANDINGOF AN EMBLEMATIC GENRE

In classical antiquity, when authors such as Aesop and Phaedrus had cre-ated a distinct genre of allegorical tales, the use of such fables had beenas much reproved as their particular rhetorical force had been recognized.According to Quintilian, fables should not be a part of the linguistic armoryof the truly decent orator, for fables are specially attractive to rude anduneducated minds, which are less suspicious than others in their receptionsof ctions and, when pleased, readily agree with the arguments from whichtheir pleasure is derived. 3 The other prime authority of Roman rhetoric,Cicero, was slightly more willing to appreciate the employment of fables.As he stated, an orator can use verisimilar or plausible exempla to obtainthe trust from the audience, but sometimes even a fable, though incredible,will impress people. 4 In spite of being overtly ctitious, fables were thussaid to have a distinctive illustrative power. Creating a lively and easilyunderstandable mental picture of the issue at stake, they put a story ante

oculos , before the audiences eyes by virtue of their imaginative appeal. Inclassical rhetoric, such evocative language was considered to be one of themost signicant tools that an orator could employ to make the audiencenot only hear but actually see things and thus become truly impressed. 5

3 Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 5.11.19, 4 vols., trans. H.E. Butler (Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press, 192022), 2: 283.4 Cicero, Partitiones oratoriae 2.40, quoted in James Hankins, Rhetoric, History, andIdeology: The Civic Panegyrics of Leonardo Bruni, in Renaissance Civic Humanism:Reappraisals and Reections , ed. Hankins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2000), 14378; 168.5 See Brian Vickers, In Defence of Rhetoric (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 32021;and Quentin Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1996), 18288.

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This hesitant view on the employment of fables, wavering between dis-taste and approval, was echoed in late humanist rhetorical and pedagogical

theory. In the Protestant world, one of the main protagonists in this eldwas the prolic Dutch scholar Gerardus Joannes Vossius, whose treatiseson rhetoric were standard material for many Dutch, English, and Germanschoolboys. 6 Like his classical predecessors, Vossius frequently emphasizedthe persuasive power of gures and imaginative language. Yet he spokewith reluctance about using fables for this purpose, since fables were onlyappropriate for, as he insisted, vulgar souls and coarse characters. 7

Such qualications of course explain Bacons uneasiness about his fablecollection, but Bacons reassuring claims about the usefulness of fables alsofound many adherents. Comenius, greatly impressed by Bacons utopianprogram for an Advancement of Learning, equally commended the peda-gogical use of fables following the commonplace adage that nothing in themind is not rst in the senses. 8 Finally, towards the end of the century, John Locke argued that fables, being stories apt to delight and entertain achild, may yet afford useful reection to a grown man, and accordingly,Locke did not hesitate to include the genre in his political writings. 9

The insistence on the combination between the pedagogical and the

pictorial found its clearest expression within early modern culture in thesubgenre of the emblematic fable, which combined the imaginative appealof two literary traditions: the Aesopian tradition, and the more elitist, icon-ographical tradition of emblemata . In the 1684 edition of his treatise LArt des emblemes , the French Jesuit theorist Claude Franc ois Menestrierinsisted that fables should be seen as essentially emblems, 10 and many

6 For Vossius on rhetoric, see the extensive biography by C.S.M. Rademaker, Life and Work of Gerardus Joannes Vossius (15771649) (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1981), esp.17781; Wilfried Barner, Barockrhetorik. Untersuchungen zu ihren geschichtlichenGrundlagen (Tu bingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1970), 26574; and Jeroen Jansen, DeInstitutiones oratoriae van G.J. Vossius (15771649), Lampas. Tijdschrift voor Neder-landse classici 34 (2001): 37390. See also Thomas M. Conley, Rhetoric in the EuropeanTradition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990), 15961.7 Gerard Vossius, De artis poeticae natura, ac constitutione liber (Amsterdam, 1647) 9.6,54: Nec pueros modo, sed omnes vulgares animas, rudiaque ingenia, fabulae juvant.8 See Jayne Elizabeth Lewis, The English Fable: Aesop and Literary Culture, 16511740(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 41.9 Kirstie M. McClure, Catos Retreat: Fabula, Historia and the Question of Constitu-tionalism in Mr Lockes Anonymous Essay on Government , in Reading, Society and Politics in Early Modern England , ed. Kevin Sharpe and Steven N. Zwicker (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2003), 31750, quote on 329.10 Claude Francois Menestrier, LArt des emblems ou senseigne la morale par les guresde la fable, de lhistoire, & de la nature , ed. Karl Mo senender (Paris, 1684; Mittenwald:Ma ander, 1981), 27: Les Apologues dEsope sont aussi deux-me mes des Emblemes,

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seventeenth-century collections indeed employed emblematic engravings asillustrations to the age-old Aesopian fables, thus doubling the latters illus-

trative force.11

Accordingly, a subgenre emerged at the crossroads of popu-lar and elite culture, fusing didactic intentions with the humor of colorfulparables which, ex nugis seria , could at once delight and instructtheprime objective of deliberative rhetoric. Moreover, the rst decades of theseventeenth century saw the advent of numerous emblem collections withclear political motives, the so-called emblemata politica . One particularlypopular example was the Idea de un pr ncipe pol tico christiano represent-ada en cien empresas (1642) written by the Spanish diplomat Diego Saave-dra Fajardo. This work offered Tacitist and esoteric guidelines for politicaland moral behavior, written in a dense prose directed to the governingestablishment as an alternative mirror of princes. Another example was thecompilation Emblematum ethico-politicorum centuria , published in 1619in Heidelberg by Julius Wilhelm Zincgref, which for its focus on the com-mon welfare of the republic might be called a mirror of citizens. 12 In thewake of these emblemata politica , fable collections as well became increas-ingly politicized: the Aesopian world, populated by animals, enabled alle-gorical representations of good government and the colorful parody of

political opponents.13

BOCCALINI, VONDEL, AND THE IMAGINARYREALM OF RIDICULE AND REPREHENSION

At the start of the century, a very original collection of such highly politicalfables was published in Venice by the Italian satirist Traiano Boccalini. This

parce que ces Apologues . . . ont toujours leur instruction morale jointe aux discours &aux actions de ces animaux.11 On the relation between fables and emblems, see in particular Barbara Tiemann, Fabel und Emblem. Gilles Corrozet und die franzo sische Renaissance-Fabel (Munich: WilhemFink, 1974), and, more generally, Peter M. Daly, Literature in the Light of the Emblem:Structural Parallels between the Emblem and Literature in the Sixteenth and SeventeenthCenturies (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979).12 See Alain Boureau, Books of Emblems on the Public Stage: Co te jardin and co te cour,in The Culture of Print: Power and the Use of Print in Early Modern Europe , ed. RogerChartier (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 26189. For Fajardo, see esp.Christian Romanoski, Tacitus Emblematicus. Diego de Saavedra Fajardo und seineEmpresas Pol ticas (Berlin: Weidler, 2006).13 For some important English examples, see Lewis, English Fable , esp. 1425, MarkLoveridge, A History of Augustan Fable (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998);and Mark Kishlansky, Turning Frogs Into Princes: Aesops Fables and the Political Cul-

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collection, entitled the Ragguagli di Parnasso (161213), a series of an-nouncements from Mount Parnassus, entailed a total of two hundred alle-

gorical tales in which many famous men, above all sixteenth-century Italianwriters, historians, and politicians, gure as the characters in a timelessrealm of emblematic irony and ridicule that is governed by Apollo. In everyone of these allegories, Boccalini effectively satirized the world of lettersand politics through vivid descriptions of how its representatives run intoall kinds of bizarre encounters. Boccalinis tales are populated by humansand not by animals, yet their ctional and comical character performs thesame function of metaphor and parody as in Aesopian fables. As Boccaliniexplained his intentions in a letter toof all peopleJames I: In orderthat the open truth, to which I have paid particular attention, will not harmme through provoking the rage of those great princes, interests and opin-ions of which I have spoken, I have covered the truth with the cloaks of jokes, masked by the shades of metaphors. 14 Accordingly, below the sur-face of satire, Boccalinis allegories revealed committed political convic-tions: he heralded the aristocratic constitution of Venice as the most perfectrepublican government, while his work eloquently condemned the self-interested behavior of monarchs and courtiers, revealed by the ingenious

occhiali politici (political glasses) of the writings of Tacitus. 15Boccalini introduced his imaginary realm of ridicule and reprehension

in the very rst ragguaglio , which, in the 1657 English translation by theEarl of Monmouth, tells how people ock to a newly opened PublickWare-house in Parnassus , with large Priviledges for Politicians. 16 Amongthe inventive goods for sale are pencils which are very excellent for thosePrinces, who upon urgent occasions are forced to paint white for black

ture of Early Modern England, in Political Culture and Cultural Politics in Early Mod-ern England: Essays Presented to David Underdown , ed. Susan D. Amussen and MarkA. Kishlansky (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995), 33860.14 Quoted in Harald Hendrix, Traiano Boccalini fra erudizione e polemica. Ricerche sullafortuna e bibliograa critica (Florence: Olschki, 1995), 5: . . . afnche laperta verita` ,della quale ho fatto particolar professione, non mapporti danno concitandomi contro losdegno di quei prencipi grandi, degli interessi e pensieri de quali ho ragionato, lho cop-erta con le vesti delle facezie, mascherata con le larve delle metafore.15 Traiano Boccalini, Ragguagli di Parnasso e scritti minori , 3 vols., ed. Luigi Firpo (Bari:Laterza, 1948). On Tacituss glasses, see 2: 24749, ragg. 71. For a general discussion of Boccalinis political thought, see Maurizio Viroli, From Politics to Reason of State: TheAcquisition and Transformation of the Language of Politics 12501600 (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1992), 25766.16 Traiano Boccalini, I Ragguagli di Parnasso: or Advertisements from Parnassus; in TwoCenturies with the Politick Touchstone (London, 1657), 14. The brothers De la Courtmight have read this translation: see Hendrix, Boccalini , 135.

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unto the people, different sorts of glasses which either illuminate ordarken harsh reality, an instrument which can enlarge the jawes of unfor-

tunate Courtiers, who being to make virtue of necessity, are oft times forcedto swallow down great Pompions, instead of little Mastick Pils, and evena Paste royal, very good to sharpen the appetite of certain obstinateStoicks. No one could escape Boccalinis biting mockery, but clearly, hisintentions went beyond the purely comical. Another ragguaglio informsabout a decision taken at Parnassus that the name of Science and Disci-pline might be attributed to the exercise of War. As a result of this resolu-tion, all literary men were in despair, until a group of butchers arrived with

the statement that hearing that the Court had decided, That the Art of sacking and ring of Cities, of cutting their inhabitants in pieces . . . shouldbe termed a Science and Discipline, they also . . . demanded that their Artmight be honored by the same illustrious names. Confronted with thisreasonable claim of the butchers, the judges at Parnassus eventually decidedto withdraw their earlier decision, for the mysterie of War, though it weresometimes necessary, was notwithstanding so cruel and so inhumane, as itwas impossible to honest it with civil terms. 17

Like the element of fabula docet in the Aesopian tradition, Boccalinithus highlighted the deeper moral message of his satirical fables. Moreover,where the Aesopian enactment of animals held a mirror up to humanitysface that revealed a world in which corruption could not be shrouded underthe veil of hypocrisy, 18 Boccalinis allegories served a similar purpose.Through the frequent performance of symbols like pens and spectacles,emblematic representations of the way in which reality can be both shapedand manipulated, Boccalini playfully unmasked the disguised intentionsunderlying human behavior.

A similar play with ction and reality can be found in an importantDutch example of the Aesopian tradition, Joost van den Vondels Vorst-eliicke warande der dieren (Royal Reserve of Animals ), published in 1617at the height of the conict between Arminians and Contra-Remonstrantsthat tore apart Dutch society and politics during the Twelve Years Trucewith Spain. At the instigation of the publisher Dirk Pietersz Pers, Vondelhad written the verses to a new edition of the sixteenth-century collectionof engravings by Marcus Gheeraerts, to which Vondel also appended a new

17 Boccalini, Advertisements from Parnassus , 14344.18 See Kevin Sharpe, Remapping Early Modern England: The Culture of Seventeenth-Century Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 101.

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introduction in verse. 19 This Amusing Introduction poetically leads thereader into the emblematic reserve of animals, a fantastic realm beyond

human reality similar to Boccalinis Parnassus. Having entered this king-dom of imagination, both reader and writer get lost in a labyrinth of plea-sure and delight, but The Labyrinth seems to poke fun at us: behind atree an image of a bleeding Lucretia appears, the archetypical victim of tyrannical oppression, yet she proves to be an illusion, for It is not wom-ans blood, it is only red wine/That Bacchus is used to serve to Kings.

Writer and reader proceed to a watchtower on an oak tree, whichreveals, in the distance, a naval battle between a Dutch trading vessel and aTurkish galley. The ght ends undecided, and the attention is turned tothe skies and the birds, which aptly represent human politics. The eagle isemperor, anked by his aristocratic following of crane, swan, peacock, andturkey;

The Cock wants to be king, for he is crowned,For he proves to be brave in bloody war,And by the gauntlet he is to war lightly seducedTrusting on his courage and his sharp spores.

He has many chickens, and quenches his horny love Just as if a King could do whatever he likes.

Finally, in the deep woods, a similar animal realm is discovered, where thelion, camel, hares, and monkeys likewise reect human society. 20

Accordingly, from the very introduction to the work, Vondels readersare confronted with a highly politicized ctional world full of symbolicreferences to the victims of tyranny whose blood is served to kings, to con-temporary Dutch maritime enterprise, and to the pretensions and vices of

19 Cf. B.H. Molkenboer, De jonge Vondel (Amsterdam: Parnassus, 1950), 388415; H.J.Raup, Vondel und das Problem der Fabeldichtung nach 1600. Anmerkungen zu Vors-teliicke Warande der Dieren, in Jetzt kehr ich an den Rhein , ed. Herman Vekeman andHerbert van Uffelen (Cologne: Frank Runge Verlag, 1987), 24569; and, more generally,Paul J. Smith, Het schouwtoneel der dieren. Embleemfabels in de Nederlanden (1567ca.1670) (Hilversum: Verloren, 2006).20 Joost van den Vondel, Vorsteliicke warande der dieren (Amsterdam, 1617), ed. J.Becker (Soest: Davaco, 1974), Vermaeckelijcke Inleydinghe: De Doolhoff schijnt metons zijn spotternij te drijven/ . . . T en is geen vrouwen bloed, t is enckel rooden wijn:/ Die Bacchus is ghewoon te schencken voor de Vorsten/ . . . Den Haen wil Koningh zijn,omdat hij is ghecroont,/Omdat hij moedigh sich in t bloedich oorlogh toont,/En sich metdhandschoen licht laet tot den kamp bekoren,/Vertrouwende op sijn moet en op sijnscherpe sporen./Hij heeft der boelen veel, sijn geyle min hij bluscht,/Recht oft een Kon-ingh mocht al doen wat hem ghelust.

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aspirant monarchs. This preoccupation with the political, and especiallywith the dangers of imminent tyrannical rule, resurfaces in many of the

fables of the collection. Since Aesops day, the characters in the fabulistrealm had often performed clear political roles, the lion symbolizing thegreedy monarch, the fox the shrewd courtier, and the donkey the silly yetdiligent subject. 21 Vondel staged his animal actors in a similar way. Onetypical fable tells of an almighty lion who, pretending to be ill, summonsall animals to his court. Everyone shows up, except the fox who foreseesthe lions list. When all other animals have been devoured by the lion, thefoxs perceptive suspicion is praised:

Happy is the man, who after careful considerationEscapes the web of Princes tyranny and crueltyWho is not caught in the danger of the traps that are setIn which the poor, simple people are too easily captured. 22

Other fables entail variations on this same theme of how naivety opensup the gates for tyranny. There is the classical story of the frogs that desirea king and, unhappy with their useful but uninspiring leader, a log, endup terrorized by their new lord, a hungry stork. There is the story of thelumberjack, who asks the trees for one branch to repair his axe, with whichhe eventually chops down the entire forest. Never surrender your weaponsof self-defense, is Vondels explicit message, because they will be usedagainst you. Overall, the political message is probably the most evident inthe very rst fable of the collection. This opening story tells of a horsecarrying a heavy load, harshly whipped by his driver. The horse complains,but as an answer he only receives still tougher lashes. As Vondel comments

in terms that can hardly be misunderstood: Wretched is the country,where by erce conceit/An unbearably cruel Tyrant dominates his sub-jects.23

In the same year that these verses were published, the Dutch politicaland religious conict would enter its decisive phase when the Stadholder,

21 On the political dimensions of Aesopian fables in the early-modern period, especially inEngland, see Annabel Patterson, Fables of Power: Aesopian Writing and Political History(Durham: Duke University Press, 1991).22 Vondel, Warande , 2: Geluckich is de man, die uyt een rijp beraet/Van sPrincen tyran-nije en wreetheyd t net ontgaet/Die uyt tgevaer zich houd van stricken opgehangen/Daert arme slechte volck te licht zich in laet vangen.23 Vondel, Warande , 1: Onzaligh is het land, daer van een woest verwaten/Ondraeghlijckwreed Tyran verheert zijn dondersaten.

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Prince Maurice of Orange, openly sided with Contra-Remonstrant ortho-doxy. Hence, the question arises to what extent Vondels fables engaged

with this contemporary reality outside of the animal realm. Did his denun-ciation of Princes tyranny and his complaint of those who succumb to adespotic yoke involve a concrete warning to his fellow countrymen? Washis ridicule of the belligerent and adulterous cock who pretends to be a kingperhaps meant as a criticism of Maurice, who openly favored a resumptionof the war with Spain and who was by his adversaries often depicted as adangerously imperious and lustful man? Thus far, analysts of Vondel havebeen reluctant to interpret these verses as signs of any engagement in Dutchpolitics. The consensus is that the fables of the Warande merely conveyedgeneral opinions about good civil conduct, the relations between the pow-erful and the weak, and the detriments of deceit and delusion, and thatVondel only entered the arena of political debate in the course of the1620s. 24

However, this interpretation omits the distinct political potential of the literary genre that Vondel employed in 1617. Since antiquity, when theallegedly black slave Aesop created the genre, fables had often been a favor-ite medium of communication used by or on behalf of those without power

to denounce the political establishment: on the one hand, because fablesevidently addressed unequal power relations, on the other because theycould perform an intrinsic function of self-protection. As Boccaliniacknowledged, fables served to convey unwelcome truths under the veil of entertaining jokes and metaphors; they encoded meaning in an indirect,suggestive way, which enabled their writer to renounce any responsibilityfor how they were being interpreted. Hiding behind the independent judg-ment of the reader, the fabulist could thus escape the wrath of the ones he

or she offended.25

So does it mean anything that Vondel chose for the genre of the fablein 1617 to denunciate aspirant kings and warn for impending tyranny?Arguably, it does: employing the fables rhetorical function, Vondel couldexpound to the public his rising unease with the contemporary situation,yet without having to occupy a clearly dened and hazardous politicalstandpoint. Indeed, in 1618, the year after the publication of the Warande ,Vondel anonymously published another emblematic and satirical poem on

24 See J. Becker, Einleitung, in Vondel, Warande , ixi; Raup, Vondel, 263, and esp.Twee zeevaart-gedichten , ed. Marijke Spies, 2 vols. (Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uit-geversmaatschappij, 1987), 1: 4063.25 A point stressed by Patterson, Aesopian Writing , esp. 112, 55.

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the conict between Arminians and Contra-Remonstrants. This poem, enti-tled Op de Jonghste Hollantsche Transformatie (On Hollands Latest

Transformation ), entailed an implicitly very critical account of the way inwhich the religious dispute had been settled, and it was accompanied by alarge, elaborate engraving that elucidated Vondels intentions. The engrav-ing (g. 1) shows the two opposing camps, headed by the theologiansGomarus and Arminius, who both put their strongest arguments in thescales of a large balance that dominates the scene. Gomarus has placed onhis side of the balance a copy of Calvins Institutio and one of the works of Beza to win the contest, yet Arminius, seconded by his political supportersincluding Hugo Grotius, initially beats his rival through amassing in thescale all symbols of lawful civic government. Then, however, Maurice of Orange enters the stage and puts his sword on Gomaruss side. The scalestilt again thanks to the Stadholders forceful interference, and the balancedesignates the Contra-Remonstrants as clear yet unjustied championsatransformation represented by the fable of Apollo and Diana that isdepicted at a tapestry in the background. Then everyone worshippedGomaruss idol, and Arminius was kicked out, Vondel concluded sarcasti-cally. 26

CHANGING THE BALANCE: THE BROTHERS DE LACOURT AND THE REPUBLICAN FABLE

In 1661, when the Dutch Republic had been ruled for eleven years withouta Stadholder, a work entitled Consideratien van Staat, ofte Polityke Weeg-schaal (Considerations of State, or Political Balance ) was published in

Amsterdam by a certain V.H. Concealed behind these initials was thewealthy Leiden merchant Pieter de la Court, and the work was the secondedition of a treatise written by Pieter and his brother Johan, who had diedthe year before. The frontispiece to the work (g. 2) showed a highly sug-gestive scene in which the scales of the title, managed by a divine handcoming from a sunlit cloud, balance the two weights of politics: at the left,the ius belli, adorned with a ribbon mentioning, in rather crude Latin, servi-tus bellium , and at the right, the ius civille (sic), garlanded with libertas et

26 [Joost van den Vondel], Op de Jonghste Hollantsche Transformatie [1618]: Doen aen-bad elck Gommars pop/En Armijn die kreegh de schop. For an analysis of the politicalcontents of the poem, see N. Wijngaards, Vondels Hollantsche Transformatie, Denieuwe taalgids 59 (1966): 30212.

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iusticia . While a king and his courtiers watch at one side and two wisejurists at the other, the ius civille clearly tilts the scales, and from the

enlightened sky descends the Ciceronian maxim cedant arma togae .27

Below, a scene in which a royal family idly wastes its time in corporal plea-sures while armies clash at the background is juxtaposed with an image of ourishing maritime commerce with a diligent farmer who cultivates hisland at the forefront, the archetype of republican virtue. The book thusdirected the reader from the start with an obvious depiction of divinelyinspired good versus bad government, epitomizing the contents of thework.

Moreover, the frontispiece contained a distinct intertextual and inter-pictorial reference to Vondel which might not have escaped the eye of theattentive reader. Vondels poem and its imagery, printed several timesthroughout the century, had in time become known simply as Op de Waeg-schaal (On the Balance ), and even in 1682 it was said to be still in every-ones hands. 28 Accordingly, the frontispiece of the Politike Weeg-schaal might very well have entailed an implicit reference to Vondels populardepiction of the Arminian controversy, with the scales of the Politike Weeg-schaal being exactly asymmetrical to the ones of Vondels poem, and the

jurists at the right and the king at the left reecting the images of Grotiusand Maurice. The message, on the whole, was obvious: by now, at theheight of the Stadholderless era heralded as an epoch of True Liberty, thebalance in the Dutch Republic had changed.

The Politike Weeg-schaal comprised a critical analysis of the three clas-sical forms of government, monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Overall,it abounded in passionate attacks on the monarchical element in the Dutchrepublican constitution, the Stadholder, while pleading for a consistentopening up of the ruling class towards a broad aristocratic regime close toa popular government. Written in the vernacular and crammed with jokesand metaphors, it was a highly rhetorical work that through its use of apopular discourse manifestly intended to intervene in the public debate.Arguably the most striking characteristic of the rhetoric of the De la Courtbrothers was their frequent use of fables, which included Aesopian parablesand a number of borrowings from Boccalini.

Throughout the century, Boccalinis work enjoyed much appeal inEurope and especially in the Dutch Republic, both in terms of publications

(after Italy, most seventeenth-century editions of the Ragguagli were pub-

27 Cicero, De ofciis 1.22.77.28 Molkenboer, Vondel , 501.

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lished in the Netherlands), and in terms of direct literary and republicaninspiration. 29 From the 1660s onwards, especially, there was a clear ten-

dency to read and interpret the Ragguagli in a Dutch political context, andthe De la Court brothers did likewise: in calling Boccalinis allegoriesexplicitly Political Fables ,30 their use of Boccalini transcended a mere cor-respondence in political stance and pessimism about human nature, andserved above all a distinctly rhetorical purpose. 31

This rhetorical function is exemplied by the use made of one of Boc-calinis fables to conclude a vigorous reproof of monarchical rule. Afterhaving disclaimed all possible advantages of a monarchy, Pieter de la Courtwrote: Finally, if someone asks, why men can see so many outstanding

virtues in Monarchs, when these are not there? ; he can nd his answer inthe 59th ragguaglio of Trajano Boccalini . This ragguaglio tells the storyof a pretentious nephew of the Prince of Sparta who, when unexpectedlynot appointed as his successor, turned out to be as stupid as any otherhuman being. After a free translation of a part of the tale, De la Courtapprovingly rephrased Boccalinis conclusion that only the fortune of being in absolute authority and highness makes us often believe that thosemen are wise Salomons, while when they are common Citizens, they would

be judged to be truly brainless Boors. 32

For contemporary readers, it musthave been clear that De la Court did not just make a general remark herebut that he had a particular pretentious young man in mind: the Prince of Orange. Thus, De la Courts use of Boccalini did not only serve to illustrateand clarify the argument in a witty and attractive manner, it also made anyattentive reader aware of the obvious connotations between the unsuccess-ful Spartan Prince and the Dutch Stadholder, a comparison which thereforedid not need to be made dangerously explicit. Moreover, Boccalinis fableshowed the necessity of unveiling monarchical dissimulation and the force

of humor to convey such a truth.29 See the tables in Hendrix, Boccalini 3334, and for Boccalinis reception ibid., esp.10937. For a typically political reading of Boccalini, see e.g. the collection of poemsentitled Den herstelden Apollos Harp, versien met verscheyde nieuwe snaren [1663].30 [Johan and Pieter de la Court], Consideratien van Staat, ofte Politike Weeg-schaal ,quoted from the fourth ed. (Amsterdam, 1662) 3.1.6, 565: . . . heeft Trajano Boccaliniwel aardig konnen bespotten in zijne Politike Fabulen .31 Cf. Haitsma Mulier, Myth of Venice , 13334.32 Politike Weeg-schaal 1.1.35, 17071: Eindelik indien iemant vraagt, waarom de men-schen zoo veele uitsteekende deugden konnen zien in Monarchen; indien de zelven daarniet zijn ; die kan zijn antwoort vinden in t 59 Ragg. van Trajano Boccalini . . . dat het geluk alleen, van in een absolute authoriteit en hoogheyt te zijn, ons zeer dikwils doet gelooven, wijze Salomons te zijn, zoodanige menschen, welke gemeene Borgers weezende,zouden bevonden werden, waarelik te zijn harssenlooze Flegels .

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The same can be said of the De la Courts frequent employment of Aesopian fables, which equally combined the satirical expedients of ridiculeand reprehension, the political feature of indirectness and ambiguity, andthe moral endeavor to unmask hypocrisy. This threefold rhetorical deviceculminated in the publication of the Sinryke Fabulen (Meaningful Fables ),a collection of one hundred different fables illustrated with emblematicengravings, published in 1685 shortly after Pieter de la Courts death andtranslated into English in 1703. In the preface to this swansong, De la Courtoffered the reader an extensive discussion of his motives for writing suchfables. 33 He started with an analysis of how abstract ideae (De la Courttranslated this term to the Dutch Denkbeelden , which has the signicant

connotation of images) are imprinted on the human mind, and then hecontinued to claim, like Bacon, that the expedient of the emblematic fableis particularly appropriate to convey ideas and reveal hidden knowledge.Invoking Horace, De la Court stated that through fables one can, whilejesting and laughing, speak the Truth, and move the People through theirpleasantness, in such a way that the bodily Figures of the Fables . . . canbe very easily imprinted in our Memory or Remembrance and be recalledfor a very long time. 34

Moreover, De la Court stressed that the fable, because of its opennessto a variety of different readings, actively engages the reader independentlyto construct their own interpretation. As he wrote: It is said with Truth of all human matters, that they have two Handles , one right and one left ; andone can say of all Old F ables with more reasons, that they have countlesslevers: So no one should suspect that here a F able is made by us and shouldbe explained referring to him only: but since the Lessons or Explanationsof it are endless, so can any one make for himself the best application andexplanation. 35

33 Cf. Bettina Noak, De Sinryke Fabulen (1685) van Pieter de la Court: verhulling enonthulling in een verlicht genre, De Zeventiende Eeuw 18 (2002): 6578.34 [Pieter de la Court], Sinryke Fabulen (Amsterdam, 1685), Voorreeden, sig. **3: . . .al schertsende ende al laggende, de Waarheid seggen, ende de Menschen door haareaangenaamheid beweegen, soodanig, dat der F abulen lighaamelike Figuren , waar van syspreeken, seer ligtelik in onse Memorie ofte Geheugenisse geprent, ende seer langeonthouden konnen werden. The work was translated as Fables, Moral and Political withLarge Explications (London, 1703).35 Sinryke Fabulen , sig. **3: . . . alsoo men van alle menschelijke saaken met der Waar-heid segt, dat sy twee Hand-vatten , eene regte eene linkse hebben; ende men van alleOude F abulen met meerdere reedenen kan seggen, dat sy ontallike veele aangreepenhebben: Sulks nieman behoorde te vermoeden, dat alhier door ons eenige F abul op hemalleen gemaakt zy, ende uitgelegt behoorde te werden: nemaar alsoo de Leeringen ofteUitleggingen van dien oneindig zijn, soo kan een yder voor sig selven de beste toepassingende uitlegging maaken.

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This passage reveals that the use of fables to encode ones convictionsinvolved a signicant political move through which the authority of the text

was ultimately bestowed by the author upon the readers. Accordingly,fables enabled a writer to avoid the restrictions imposed by censorship andthe wrath of those in powera particular important expedient for uncon-ventional authors such as, in an earlier period, Vondel, and in 1685, De laCourt. Writing under and against the Stadholdership of William III, De laCourt explained that the Peoples who have lived of old mostly underTyrants and Bullies in the East . . . have become compelled . . . to teachMen in general of Truth and to recommend Virtues and to deter them fromtheir failings, through adorned Histories, Apologues, Comparisons, Para-bles, and Fables; to by this means instruct and delight Men at the same timewithout being subject to the aversion of the People, and to the bitterness orhate of the great Lords .36

To please and instruct his readers yet escape from popular and princelyaversion and hate, De la Court thus conveyed his political ideas under theguise of his fables. As in Vondel, the connotations of many of these fablesare clear, and De la Courts employment of numerous Aesopian allegoriesthat are also included in Vondels collection shows how his political stanceentailed a strong radicalization of the republican engagement of an earlierperiod. Where Vondel warned for tyranny and deceit, De la Court wentmuch further and explicitly equated tyranny with monarchy, stating thatany monarchical element will necessarily lead to the demise of republicanliberty and to the enslavement of the people. Accordingly, the fable of thefrogs who desire a king, conveyed by Vondel in neutral terms reprehendingthose who irrationally attempt to change their state, became in De la Courta much more openly republican allegory which mobilized all the elements

of the emblematic genre to expound its message. First, above the emblemitself (g. 3) there is a Dutch motto, saying Happy is he, who does notdesire to be anyones Slave or anyones Tyrant, followed by the Latin epi-gram ut servitus contra naturam, ita natura in tyrannidem proclivis . The

36 Ibid., sig. **2: . . . de Volkeren die van ouds meest onder Tyrannen ende Dwingelan-den in het Oosten geleefd, ende dien volgende gevreesd hebben, met de waarheid endenuttigheid der menschelike Saaken te beschrijven ende te leeren, deselve Tyrannen te ver-toornen; genoodsaakt , ende de vrye Grieken ook daar na vrywillig ten raade zijn gewor-den, de Menschen in het gemeen van der Waarheid te onderrigten, ten Deugden te raaden,ende van haare gebreeken af te schrikken door versierde Historien, Apologen, Vergelij-kenissen, Parabolen ende Fabulen ; om door dat middel de Menschen te gelijk te leerenende te vermaaken, sonder opgemelde afkeerigheid der Menschen, ende de verbitteringe,ofte haat der groote Heeren onderworpen te zijn.

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tyrannical gure of the Stadholder. Once more, the Dutch political balancehad changed.

PA RRHESIA : FABLES AND THERHETORIC OF FREE SPEECH

Confronted with the vicissitudes of political reality, seventeenth-centurypolitical theorists thus used the fable as a means suggestively to encodetheir unwelcome opinions in an entertaining way. Apart from such instruc-tion and delight, the fable served, as said, another goal, namely the placingof a mirror in front of two-faced behavior. This expedient is tellingly illus-trated in one of the Sinryke Fabulen that rebukes monarchical and clericalhypocrisy. The emblem of this fable (g. 4), shows, under a biblical warningfor pharisaic dissimulation, a fox in an atelier of a sculptor, intrigued bythe lifelike statue of a woman. The fox, who represents shrewdness, hastaken off his mask, the timeless symbol of duplicity. As the fable explains,the fox eventually realizes that the woman is only stone, and therefore heembodies wise and experienced people who penetrate appearances and

expose underhand Hypocrites. These elements of the foxs mask and thesculpture serve a similar metaphorical purpose as Boccalinis spectacles thatboth create and manipulate reality, and in this same fable De la Courtexplicitly stressed his agreement with Boccalini. Importantly, he alsoreproached Machiavelli, that famous Instructor of Kings and Monarchs ,for his notorious encouragement of foxlike behaviora monarchical char-acteristic that is redundant in a true republic. 41

This argument against hypocrisy and in favor of honesty and candor is

the central theme of another fable which entails a variation on the classicalallegory of two travelers, one an honest man, the other a hypocrite, whotogether visit the Kingdom of Apes. De la Courts version added a revealingnational element to the tale: a Dutchman plays the honest man while thehypocrite is personied by a Frenchman. Having discovered the Kingdomof Apes, the two are there invited to a lavish dinner and to an exquisite

41 Sinryke Fabulen , 47679: . . . den V osse , wijse ende ervaarene menschen, die denschijn ontdekken, ende de geveinsde Hypocriten ten toone stellen . . . [referring to Machi-avelli] die bekende Leermeester der Koningen ende Vorsten . On the reception of Machi-avelli in the Dutch Republic, cf. E.O.G. Haistma Mulier, A Controversial Republican:Dutch Views on Machiavelli in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, in Machiavelliand Republicanism , ed. Gisela Bock, Quentin Skinner, and Maurizio Viroli (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1990), 24763.

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ball, they are shown the luxurious Royal bedrooms, and they join the courtin a huge hunting party. After some days, the Frenchman is asked by the

King of the Apes for his opinion about this government, to which the at-tering Frenchman answers that he feels himself to be in an earthly para-dise. The King of the Apes, satised and impressed by the Frenchmanseloquence, appoints him his new counselor, and then turns to the Dutch-man with the same question. Yet this blunt and most un-apelike mananswers that he has seen nothing here that in any way tends to good gov-ernment , but only pomp and circumstance, stufng and boozing, whoring,hunting, dancing, and gambling. Having said this, the Dutchman isinstantly executed, and all the Apes said Amen. 42

With this allegory, De la Court aimed at a number of obvious targets.First, he sought to deride monarchy in general, claiming that monarchs andcourtiers, exemplied by the Frenchman, are merely apes. More in particu-lar, the fable entailed a biting ridicule of the supporters of the monarchicalprinciple in the Dutch Republic, and thus an explicit warning not to estab-lish in ones own Free Fatherland a Kingdom of Apes. Yet the most impor-tant is a third element: the praise of the Dutchman, who, though having tofear for his life, did not waver and called a spade a spade. 43 This blunt

and sincere speech of the free republican Dutchman who speaks the truthis thus juxtaposed to the slavish attery of the Frenchman who only apesthe opinions of others. In drawing this fundamental opposition, De laCourt expounded his adherence to the practice of parrhesia , the frank tell-ing of the truth even in the face of death.

Parrhesia , a prime element of the mechanisms of democracy and thedenition of citizenship in ancient Athens, was a distinct gure of speech inclassical and humanist rhetorical theory which entailed the act of bluntlytelling the truth while at the same time vindicating such candor. 44 Yet it wasnot always perceived to be a positive practice. Revealingly, the very rstfable of Bacons De sapientia veterum , entitled Cassandra, sive parrhesia, comprised a critical account of such unreasonable and unprotable liberty

42 Politike Weeg-schaal 1.1.13, 7779: . . . in een aardsch paradijs . . . deeze botte, envan der Apen-natuur zeer veel verscheelende mensch . . . rond uit zeide: hier gansch niet te hebben gezien, dat eenigzins naar een goede regeering zweem : Maar wel pragt en praal,vreeten en zuipen, hoereeren, jaagen, danssen en speelen . . . en alle de Apen seidenAmen.43 Sinryke Fabulen , 712: . . . deesen Neederlander , die een hark een hark noemde . . .die als een Vry ende regtschaapen Mensch wil spreeken, sig seer sorgvuldiglik wagtenmoet . . . van in sijnen eigen Vryen Vaaderlande een Koningrijke der Aapen te stiften.44 See David Colclough, Freedom of Speech in Early Stuart England (Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press, 2005), esp. 1260.

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in giving advice and admonition. The fable tells of the fate of Cassandra,who, having openly rejected Apollos love, encountered his revenge in the

punishment that though she should always foretell true, yet nobodyshould believe her. For Bacon, her doom offered a clear warning for thosewho will not submit to learn of Apollo, the god of harmony, how toobserve time and measure in affairs, ats and sharps (so to speak) in dis-course, the differences between the learned and the vulgar ear, and the timeswhen to speak and when to be silent. Anxious about the pliant stuff fableis made of, Bacon thus also revealed his concerns about the maintenanceof decorum, respect, and moderation in speech. 45

In De la Court, the emphasis is strikingly different, as becomes clear in

his rendering of another fable: the classical myth of the hunter Actaeonwho discovered the nudity of Diana. According to classical mythology,Actaeon was punished by the goddess for his impertinence and transformedinto a stag, whereupon his own dogs devoured him. In seventeenth-centuryDutch culture, as exemplied by the widely diffused moralistic writings of Jacob Cats, the image of Actaeon had the connotation of an immoderateand unrestrained man, a beast full of horny lust who was justly punishedfor not containing his passions and curiosity. 46 However, De la Court gavea daringly new interpretation to this Ovidian fable: in his version, Actaeonin fact represented De la Courts own intellectual endeavor. As Actaeon, Dela Court claimed, he had revealed the plainness of the bathing Diana andher nymphs who are normally splendidly dressed, for the goddess and thenymphs actually stand for Kings or Queens and their retinue, as well as. . . the Dissimulative Clerics, or the Governors of Ecclesiastical Matters, and their nudity represents Ignorance and Stupidity, Vice and Failings. 47

Playing the part of Actaeon, De la Court thus stressed that exposingthese weaknesses to the public is at all times a duty, even when confronted

with divine wrath or political oppression. Accordingly, where Baconemphasized the limits to free speech drawn by decorum, De la Court insteadclaimed the obligation to speak very openly the round truth, 48 also, if not

45 Bacon, Works , 6: 7012, and see Colclough, Freedom of Speech , 6162, 7374.46 Jacob Cats, Houwelyck (1625), quoted in Eric Jan Sluijter, De Heydensche Fabulenin de Noordnederlandse schilderkunst, circa 15901670 (PhD diss., University of Leiden,1986), 172: Een beest vol geyle sugt.47 Sinryke Fabulen , 17580: D iana ende haare N ymphen , zijn by de Ouden alle seeraansienelijke Menschen, ende insonderheid Koningen ofte Koninginnen, ende haar gev-olg: als ook daar meede verstaan konnen werden de Beveinsde Geestelijken, ofte de Bes-tierders der Kerkelijke Saaken . . . Naaktheid ende Onsuiverheid , is Onweetendheid ende Dwaasheid, Ondeugd ende Gebreeken .48 Politike Weeg-schaal , Inleyding, 3: . . . de ronde waarheid zeer opentlik tespreeken.

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especially, when decorum and respect for the authorities require the oppo-site. The veil of fables offered him the rhetorical armory to convey this

message and express his political criticism, as well as to present himself asthe embodiment of exactly this ideal of frankness. 49 Liberty of speech, forBacon a sign of hazardous licentiousness, became for De la Court a virtuethat distinguishes the citizens in a true republic from the slavish and ape-like subjects of a monarchy.

CONCLUSION

Overall, from Bacon to De la Court, the fable comprised a rhetorical gurethat dramatized the opposition between liberty and restraint, between truthand dissimulation, and between openness and ambiguity. At the start of theseventeenth century, Bacon, reecting the verdict of classical rhetoric thatfables were only apt for a vulgar public, had expressed his preoccupationwith the genres capacity to undermine authorial intentions, to enable thereader to make up his own interpretation and to indulge in uncontrolledspeech. However, in Boccalini, Vondel, and most manifestly in the work of

the brothers De la Court, these elements of the fable were not seen as detri-mental but instead as conducive to the authors aims of political critique.Because of its openness to different readings, the fable offered a fac adebehind which the author could escape from the censorship and loathing of his or her inconvenient truths. Yet, at the same time, the meaning and themessage of the fable could always be understood as they were meant. AsHegel would say later, the essential skill of the fabulist is that since he isnot allowed to articulate his message openly, he can only make it intelligible

furtively, like in a riddle which is at the same time always being solved.50

Thus, as a consequence of, rather than despite, its intrinsic opaqueness,the fable entailed a distinct rhetorical move that resulted in an indirect con-vulsion of traditional authority. 51 In an age in which the power of monarchswas represented through clear and direct signs of hierarchy and depen-dence, this convulsion involved a distinctive political endeavor to construct

49 Cf. Jennifer London, How To Do Things With Fables: Ibn Al-Muqaffas Frank Speechin Stories from Kal la Wa Dimna, History of Political Thought 29 (2008): 189212.50 G.W.F. Hegel, Aesthetik , 2 vols., ed. Friedrich Bassenge (Frankfurt: Europa ische Ver-lagsanstalt, [1955]), 1: 376: . . . weil er seine Lehren nicht offen sagen darf, sondern sienur versteckt, in einem Ra tsel gleichsam, zu verstehen geben kann, das zugleich immergelo st ist.51 See Lewis, The English Fable , 3, 20.

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FIGURE 1: Joost van den Vondel, Op de Waeg-schaal , 1618. AmsterdamUniversity Library, OTM: Pr. G16a

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FIGURE 2: Frontispiece to Johan and Pieter de la Court, PolitykeWeegschaal , 1661. Amsterdam University Library, OTM: OG 63-822

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F I G U R E 3 : T h e f r o g s a n d a l o g , f r o m

P i e t e r d e l a C o u r t , S

i n r y

k e

F a

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1 6 8 5

. A m s t e r d a m U n i v e r s i t y L i b r a r y , O

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7 9 6

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F I G U R E 4 : T h e f o x a n d t h e m a s k , f r o m P i e t e r d e l a C o u r t , S

i n r y

k e

F a

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1 6 8 5


T M : O K 6 3 - 2

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F I G U R E 5 : T h e g u i l d s a n d a c i t y ,

f r o m P i e t e r d e l a C o u r t , S

i n r y

k e

F a

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1 6 8 5


T M : O K 6 3 - 2

7 9 6

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F I G U R E 6 : T h e c h a r c o a l b u r n e r a n d t h e t e x t i l e e n t r e p r e n e u r , f

r o m P i e t e r d e

l a C o u r t , S

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1 6 8 5

. A m s t e r d a m U n i v e r s i t y L i b r a r y , O T M : O K

6 3 - 2

7 9 6

the power of “pliant stuff” - fables and frankness in seventeenth-century dutch republicanism

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