The
story of this poetess and her friends belongs more properly to
Amsterdam, or to Alkmaar, but it may as well be told here while the
Arnheim nightingale--the only nightingale that I heard in Holland--is
plaining and exulting.
Tesselschade was the daughter of the poet and rhetorician Roemer
Visscher. She was born on 25th March, 1594, and earned her curious name
from the circumstance that on the same day her father was wrecked off
Texel. In honour of his rescue he named his daughter Tesselschade,
or Texel wreck, thereby, I think, eternally impairing his right to
be considered a true poet. As a matter of fact he was rather an
epigrammatist than a poet, his ambition being to be known as the
Dutch Martial. Here is a taste of his Martial manner:--
Jan sorrows--sorrows far too much: 'tis true
A sad affliction hath distressed his life;--
Mourns he that death hath ta'en his children two?
O no! he mourns that death hath left his wife.
I have said that Visscher was a rhetorician. The word perhaps needs
a little explanation, for it means more than would appear. In those
days rhetoric was a living cult in the Netherlands: Dutchmen and
Flemings played at rhetoric with some of the enthusiasm that we keep
for cricket and sport.
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