[5]
"The example of Flanders was speedily followed by Zeeland and
Holland. In 1430, there was a Chamber at Middelburg; in 1433, at
Vlaardingen; in 1434, at Nieuwkerk; and in 1437, at Gouda. Even
insignificant Dutch villages had their Chambers. Among others, one
was founded in the Lier, in the year 1480. In the remaining provinces
they met with less encouragement. They existed, however, at Utrecht,
Amersfoort, Leeuwarden, and Hasselt. The purity of the language
was completely undermined by the rhyming self-called Rhetoricians,
and their abandoned courses brought poetry itself into disrepute. All
distinction of genders was nearly abandoned; the original abundance of
words ran waste; and that which was left became completely overwhelmed
by a torrent of barbarous terms."
Wagenaer, in his "Description of Amsterdam," gives a copy of a
painter's bill for work done for a rhetorician's performance at
the play-house in the town of Alkmaar, of which the following is
a translation:--
"Imprimis, made for the Clerks a Hell;
Item, the Pavilion of Satan;
Item, two pairs of Devil's-breeches;
Item, a Shield for the Christian Knight;
Item, have painted the Devils whenever they played;
Item, some Arrows and other small matters.
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