VONDEL, JOOST VAN DEN. – Dutch national poet, born in Cologne to Flemish parents on 17 November 1587, died in Amsterdam on 5 February 1679.
A prolific dramatist (26 tragedies) and vigorous lyric poet, he excelled in all literary genres, although the erotic genre is absent. His prose is also fine (introductions to the dramas, version of the Eneide). Converted to Catholicism at the age of 52, he placed his art at the service of the Church, whose dogmas and glories he sang. A humanist on account of his enormous erudition, in the form of his poetic works he belongs to the tradition of the Renaissance.
After his conversion, poetry and faith proceeded hand in hand in him; but this did not prevent him from taking an interest, as before, in historical events and the facts of life. His adherence to Catholicism could in no way benefit him in an age when Catholics were despised, barely tolerated in the country, confused with the Spaniards and therefore treated as enemies of the fatherland. V. had to face calumny and slander; never wearied of the struggle, he was always ready to sing the mysteries and splendours of his new faith, and celebrated Ugo Grotius, Urban VIII, Maria Stuart, and Cristina di Svezia. He regarded art not as a game or pastime, but as a duty: being a poet was a sublime vocation. His love for Rome
did not in the least diminish his admiration for national heroes. V. truly represents the public conscience of seventeenth-century Holland. Tyranny in all its forms (that of the Protestant pastors) was hateful to him; peace and freedom made him eloquent. The dramas Giuseppe a Dothan (1640), Pietro e Paolo (1641), Lucifero (1654), and Adamo in esilio (1664) are masterpieces still performed in our own day. The poetic language flows harmoniously through them, laden with brilliant images. But what won V. energy, and the probity and integrity of his character.
The end of his life was not happy. Because of the debts of his only son, the poet, after his wife’s death, found himself reduced to poverty. He found consolation in his daughter, who had also converted. In 1657 V., already seventy years old, was taken on as a modest employee at the Monte di Pietà; eleven years later the city, in recognition of his services to the nation, retired him while continuing to pay his allowance. This sad period was not, however, the least productive: V. sought spiritual relief in the translation of the Salmi. He was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk, in the centre of Amsterdam. A monument was erected to him in the park that bears his name, and the « Musco Vondel » serves as a centre for the study of his works. Every year the drama Gisbrecht van Aemstel (1637), which celebrates the city to which the poet had given his heart, is performed at the capital’s National Theatre.