With a remarkable fertility of composition he possesses an
uncommon smoothness of versification, combined with a power, so
successful in his age, of illustration from history or romance, from
the sacred writings or the legendary lore of the people. The work was
received in those days of trouble with unbounded enthusiasm. Brabant
was thought to have given birth to a new Homer. His praises resounded
in verse and song, and the young girls of Brussels crowned him with
laurel.
The government of the Duke of Alva, and the succeeding years of
revolution, were a period of desolation for Flanders. The Guilds of
Rhetoric were dispersed; town after town was depopulated; Ghent, the
loved city of Charles V., lost six thousand families; Leyden,
Amsterdam, Haerlem, Gouda, afforded refuge to the emigrants. The
golden age of literary activity is about to dawn in the Dutch
republic. In the other provinces the national language is more and
more neglected. It gives umbrage to the foreign chiefs who act as
sovereigns. With it they identify all the opposition that has
prevailed against them. Archduke Albert carries his condescension no
farther than to address in High-German such of his subjects as can
speak only Flemish. His Walloons he treats with no more civility,
answering them but in Spanish or Latin. Ymmeloot, lord of Steenbrugge,
a native of Ypres, endeavors in 1614 to stem the current of opposition
and reawaken a love for letters. He suggests many reforms in the
versification, and gives the example.
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