Middle Dutch literature

The first Dutch language writer known by name is the 12th-century County of Loon poet Henric van Veldeke, an early contemporary of Walther von der Vogelweide.

Van Veldeke wrote courtly love poetry, a hagiography of Saint Servatius and an epic retelling of the Aeneid in a Limburgish dialect that straddles the Dutch-German language boundary.

In 1544 the earliest collection of Dutch folk-songs saw the light, and in this volume one or two romances of the fourteenth century are preserved, of which "Het Daghet in den Oosten" is the best known.

Almost the earliest fragment of Dutch popular poetry, but of later time, is an historical ballad describing the murder of Floris V, Count of Holland in 1296.

Up until now, the Middle Dutch language output mainly serviced the aristocratic and monastic orders, recording the traditions of chivalry and of religion, but scarcely addressed the bulk of the population.

Under such mild rulers as William II and Floris V, Dordrecht, Amsterdam and other cities won privileges amounting almost to political independence, and with this liberty there arose a new sort of literary expression.

It was not until 1284 that he began his masterpiece, De Spieghel Historiael ("The Mirror of History") at the command of Count Floris V. In the northern provinces, an equally great talent was exhibited by Melis Stoke, a monk of Egmond, who wrote the history of the state of Holland to the year 1305; his work, the Rijmkroniek ("Verse Chronicle"), was printed in 1591 and for its exactitude and minute detail it has proved of inestimable service to later historians.

Thoroughly aristocratic in feeling was Hem van Aken, a priest of Louvain, who lived about 1255–1330, and who combined to a very curious extent the romantic and didactic elements prevailing at the time.

Towards the end of the 14th century, an erotic poet of considerable power arose in the person of the lord of Waddinxveen, Dirc Potter van der Loo (c. 1365–1428), who was secretary at the court of the counts of Holland.

During an embassy in Rome, this eminent diplomat made himself acquainted with the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio and commenced a vast poem, Der Minnen Loep ("The Course of Love"), a mixture of classical and Biblical instances of amorous adventures set in a framework of didactic philosophy.

In Potter, the last traces of the chivalric element died out of Dutch literature, and poetry was left entirely in the hands of the school of Maerlant.

The term "Collèges de Rhétorique" ("Chambers of Rhetoric") is supposed to have been introduced around 1440 to the courtiers of the Burgundian dynasty, but the institutions themselves existed long before.

These literary guilds, whose members called themselves "Rederijkers" or "Rhetoricians", lasted until the end of the sixteenth century and during the greater part of that time preserved a completely medieval character, even when the influences of the Renaissance and the Reformation obliged them to modify in some degree their outward forms.

In Holland the burghers only formed the chambers, while in Flanders the representatives of the noble families were honorary members, and assisted with their money at the arrangement of ecclesiastical or political pageants.

The most notable examples of Rederijker theatre include Mariken van Nieumeghen ("Mary of Nijmegen") and Elckerlijc (which was translated into English as Everyman).

Of the pure farces of the rhetorical chambers we can speak with still more confidence, for some of them have come down to us, and among the authors famed for their skill in this sort of writing are named Cornelis Everaert of Bruges and Laurens Janssen of Haarlem.

The material of these farces is extremely raw, consisting of rough jests at the expense of priests and foolish husbands, silly old men and their light wives.

Bijns, who is believed to have been born at Antwerp in 1494, was a schoolmistress at that city in her middle life, and in old age she still instructed youth in the Catholic religion.

In her first volume of poetry (1528) the Lutherans are scarcely mentioned and focus lies on her personal experience of faith, but in that of 1538 every page is occupied with invectives against them.