Michiel de Swaen

Michiel de Swaen

Michiel de Swaen (born January 20, 1654 in Dunkirk ; † May 3, 1707 there ) is considered the most important Dutch-speaking author in France .

De Swaen, Dutch-speaking citizen

Michiel de Swaen attended the Jesuit college in his hometown, where he enjoyed a humanistic upbringing. This was shaped, among other things, by the theater , which was one of the most important elements of Jesuit pedagogy. After six years of apprenticeship, including three years with a surgeon and three years in an unknown location, Michiel de Swaen settled in Dunkirk as a surgeon and barber . He took part in the literary life of the city, became a member of the Rederijkers and later named prince of this guild. Although there were fourteen surgeons in Dunkirk, he apparently had many patients, as he complained in his casual poetry that he had little time to write poetry.

Duinkerke and the lost fatherland

In the 17th century, Northern Dutch literature, like the now independent Northern Netherlands in general, saw the dawn of its golden age. In the year de Swaen was born, famous works such as all works by Jacob Cats , Trintje Cornelis by Constantijn Huygens and Lucifer by Joost van den Vondel were published. In contrast, the south, the so-called Spanish Netherlands , experienced high levels of emigration, misery and war. When Michiel de Swaen was eight years old, the Flemish city of Dunkirk was annexed to France. A year later, French became the official language of Dunkirk. Suddenly everything in Dunkirk (and in the general Westhoek ) was Frenchized, which led to the rapid disappearance of the Dutch language in public life. After 1700, the theater in Dunkirk played almost exclusively French plays. For this reason, Michiel de Swaen and his friends deliberately chose the Dutch language. That de Swaen was able to speak French is shown by his translation of Le Cid by Pierre Corneille . The standard Dutch language was hardly spoken in the towns and villages of the southern Netherlands ( Flanders ) in the 17th century . Michiel de Swaen endeavored to use a language that all Nederlanders can grasp ( that all Dutch can understand ), as his friend the Rederijker and printer Pieter Labus put it. Admiration for the lost land was a constant feature in the Dutch-language literature of French Flanders . As the surviving texts from the 18th century show, de Swaen was probably the motivating role model that led to this literary admiration.

Wat claegt gy, heer van Heel, wat doet gy Hollant faithful,

Omdat een wilde Swaen syn kust verlaten heeft?

De Swaen, met een Meerder right, dead rouwe sigh,

Nu een soo soet verblyf niet meer hm magh gebeuren.

O Hollant! vreedsaem lant, would be de vryheyt leeft,

What ik the vergeefs by uwe nagebueren,

Waer Frans en Castiliaen de rust en vrede schueren,

Waar't hooft the borgery voor vreemde heeren beeft ...

From: De zedighe doot van Carel den Vijfen; aen den heer Van Heel, my onbekent, over syne clacht, op myn vertrek, uyt Hollant , Michiel de Swaen

The Rederijkerskammer, bridge to the Netherlands

Michiel de Swaen belonged to the Dunkirker Rederijkerskammer von Sint Michiel , guild of Kassouwieren (from kersouw , Flemish for daisies ). The word Rederijker (in German rhetorician ) describes someone who is able or gifted with the art of speaking. The Rederijker movement originated in the 15th and 16th centuries. Most of the 17th century Rederijkers came from Flanders and Brabant and were in part influenced by new movements such as humanism and the Counter-Reformation . In 1687 de Swaen got the title of Prins der Rederijkers in Dunkirk. Through this literary movement, Michiel de Swaen and the Rederijkers continued to maintain a close relationship with the southern Netherlands (today's Flanders). In 1688 he and his Rederijkerkammers became a guest of the Kruys-Broeders Chamber in Veurne (today in West Flanders, Belgium ). In 1700 Michiel de Swaen took part in the literary competition Drie Santinnen in Bruges. He did not win this competition, which surprised all Rederijkers. These led him to write a letter to the Bruges Chamber of Commerce to show that they had made a mistake.

A Flemish hero

French has been the official language in France since the edict of Villers-Cotterêts . For this reason, almost no information about Dutch authors like Michiel de Swaen reached the French - even today hardly any. Many Flemings in France want a restoration of Flemish culture in French Flanders, and for this they often take Michiel de Swaen as an example, who for many remains with the Belgian Guido Gezelle the greatest author in all of Flanders and the only witness of Dutch-language quality literature in French Flanders.

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De Swaen's most famous works are: De gecroonde leerse (1688), Catharina (1702), Mauritius , Andronicus (1700), Le Cid (1694), De Menschwording (1688), Het leven en de dood van Jesus Christ (1694), Neder -duitsche digtkonde of rym-konst ( ca.1702 ), de zedighe doot van Carel den Vijfden ( ca.1707 ). De Swaen did not publish them, however. Only the translation of Andronicus appeared in Dunkirk in 1707 with his consent. In 1694 his translation of Le Cid was published by the printer Pieter Labus without his consent. While he was enthusiastic about his job at the Rederijkerskammer in his youth, he later withdrew due to his Christian ideology and refused to have his friends publish his works. All of his works were later printed in cities like Bruges or Ghent . Since many of his texts were kept in the monastery of Sint-Winoksbergen (Dunkirk's neighboring town and historic center of French Flanders) and this was on fire during the French Revolution, it is not certain that all of his works could be saved.

The influences

Guido Gezelle called Michiel de Swaen the Vondel van Duinkerke . While Michiel de Swaen was part of the Rederijkers movement, he was influenced by well-known Dutch humanists such as Joost van den Vondel and Jacob Cats . He was also bothered by the way the Rederijkers conduct their art. Michiel de Swaen claimed at the end of his life that he only remained a member of the Rederijkerskammer in order to maintain contact with friends. But he regarded his works as something more serious and took the example of Vondel and others. The denominational beliefs and his affiliation with Counter-Reformation authors are evident in many of his works, such as Het leven en de dood van Jesus Christ . After Anton van Duinkerke , Michiel de Swaen took the example of Poirtiers ' moralizing dictatorship , which is also used by Cats. He also wrote two (from the left Martelaarspel or Treurspel ) martyrs' dramas ( Catharina and Mauritius ). De Swaen was also interested in European history and wrote a historical drama de zedighe doot van Carel den Vijfden . This text about Charles V mainly shows his own attachment to the Netherlands and to the Catholic religion. Emperor Charles V is represented as a Christian hero.

His most important work, De gecroonde leerse

One day, Jacquelijn , the wife of the shoemaker Teunis , bought a capon at the market because her family has a party that evening. Next to it stands Emperor Charles V, who sees the whole thing. The emperor finds this capon so appetizing that he asks his servant to follow Jacquelijn. The servant tells Charles V where she lives. Then he decides to go there alone. To be invited, the unrecognized emperor pays wine for everyone. A day later, the shoemaker Teunis receives a summons from the emperor. Fearfully he goes to him and learns that the emperor was the good guest at his party, and is appointed by him to be the official shoemaker of the imperial court, here called crowned . De gecroonde leerse is de Swaen's only farce and his most important work. Although labeled as clucht-spel (farce, satirical comedy) by the author himself , it also contains elements of classic French comedy , such as the division of the work into five parts, the Alexandrians and the character style.

Works

• De gecroonde leerse (1688)
• Catharina (1702)
• Mauritius (1702)
• Andronicus (1700)
• Le Cid (1694)
• De Menschwording (1688)
• Het leven en de dood van Jesus Christ (1694)
• Neder- duitsche digtkonde of rym-konst (around 1702)
• De zedighe doot van Carel den Vijfden (around 1704)

literature

• M. Sabbe, Het leven en de werken van Michel de Swaen (1904)
• C. Huysmans, Hetkret van een mysteriespel , in verse. en Meded. Con. Vl. Acad. (1926)
• WJC Buitendijk, Het calvinisme in de spiegel van de Zuidnederlandse literatuur der contrareformatie (1942)
• E. Rombauts, in Geschiedenis van de letterk. der Nederlanden , dl. v (1952)
• J. Vanderheyden, Michel de Swaens Digtkonde
• A. Dacier and P. Corneille, Een bronnenonderzoek , in versl. en Meded. Con. Vl. Acad. (1954)
• R. Seys, in Twintig eeuwen Vlaanderen , 13 (1976)
• G. Landry et Georges de Verrewaere, Histoire secrète de la Flandre et de l'Artois (1982)
• Robert Noote, La vie et l'œuvre de Michel de Swaen (1994)

Web links

• DBNL
• Literature and Place
• Website of the University of Groningen
• Internet book trade