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oa ‘De ene les na de andere deelt hij uit.’
Lering en moraal in Huygens’ Hofwijck1
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Nederlandse Letterkunde, Volume 23, Issue 2, Sep 2018, p. 187 - 208
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- 01 Sep 2018
Abstract
Abstract
Instruction or reflection? ‘Lessons’ in Huygens’ Hofwijck
Constantijn Huygens’ country house poem Hofwijck (written 1650-1651, first edition 1653) is usually regarded as a poem providing religious and moral instruction. The author has been called a moralist who ‘hands out one lesson after another’. This article challenges that view. Not only do the so-called ‘lessons’ seem quite trivial for the readers addressed by Huygens (‘friends’ and even ‘wise friends’), but also, in close reading and attention to the socio-cultural context, the poem turns out much less to ‘teach’ than to challenge and incite contradiction. It asks for an active reader.
© 2018 Amsterdam University Press