dutch crossing, Vol. 38 No.

2, July 2014, 189–203

Dutch Poetry in Early Modern Norfolk

Christopher Joby
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea

In early modern Norfolk there were several thousand people whose mother
tongue was Dutch. A number of these wrote poems. Some of the earlier
poems were refereyns, a form of verse popular in the late medieval period.
In the seventeenth century the Norwich-born son of immigrants from
Flanders, Jan Cruso, published two volumes of poetry in which he demon-
strates mastery of the Dutch epigram and a newer form of verse, the Dutch
alexandrine. We also find Dutch alexandrines on a memorial to the renowned
minister of the Dutch church in Norwich, Johannes Elison. Taken together
these and the other poems discussed in this article demonstrate that Dutch
Strangers in Norfolk continued to use the Dutch language to write poetry
and thus keep their Dutch heritage alive well into the seventeenth century.

keywords early modern Dutch, poetry, Norfolk, Jan Cruso, Johannes Elison

Introduction
As I discuss in detail in my other article in this edition of ‘Dutch Crossing’, one of
the most persistent features of the Dutch presence in Norfolk was the continued use
of the Dutch language during the early modern period. This manifested itself in a
number of ways including the writing of poetry, and it is this aspect of the cultural
life of the Dutch and Flemish Strangers to which consideration will be given in the
present article. There are no doubt poems that have not survived, but those that have,
as well as others mentioned in the sources, provide interesting examples of verse writ-
ten in Dutch outside the Low Countries at this time. In the Netherlands of the early
modern period, there was a gradual shift from late medieval verses such as refereyns,
which included a repeated line or stokregel at the end of each strophe, to newer forms
of poetry including the alexandrine, a line of verse consisting of six iambic feet made
popular by the French poets of La Pléiade.1 In the poetry under discussion here,
although the evidence is occasionally circumstantial, we shall see a similar pattern
emerge. Unfortunately, we often do not know the names of the poets who penned
these verses, but we do know that one member of the Stranger community in
Norwich who wrote much poetry in the new style in the first half of the seventeenth
century was Jan Cruso (1592–fl.1655). He published two books of his Dutch verse

© W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2014 DOI 10.1179/0309656414Z.00000000057

190 CHRISTOPHER JOBY

and from the material that survives can be seen as the dominant figure in the produc-
tion of Dutch poetry in early modern Norfolk. However, others also wrote and
published Dutch verse in the county during the years following the arrival of the first
Strangers from the Low Countries and it is with them that we begin.

Dutch poetry published and written in Norfolk in the sixteenth century

In 1567, only two years after Queen Elizabeth had issued Letters Patent in 1565
allowing 24 ‘Dutche Masters’ (and six Walloon Masters) to settle in Norwich,
Anthoni de Solempne, a tipographus from Brabant, arrived in the city and set up a
printing business at the sign of the White Dove near the Maddermarket (ed. Rye 1887:
215). He ran his press for about two years, between 1568 and 1570, and published a
number of books in Dutch. One of these was a Dutch psalter compiled by Petrus
Dathenus, which he published in 1568.2 This psalter was considered to be an improve-
ment on a previous one compiled largely in London by Jan Utenhove. It did of course
consist of versifications of the psalms and although these were not composed in
Norfolk, the Dutch church in Norwich would have sung them on a weekly basis for
many years.3 They were probably also sung in services at the Dutch churches in
Thetford (fl.1572–1587) and Yarmouth (1570–fl.1680), and possibly even King’s Lynn
(fl.1568–1572). The psalms continued to provide inspiration to Dutch poets in
England and in the Low Countries and Psalm 8 was the source for Jan Cruso’s most
extensive Dutch poem, to which we return below. As noted in my other article in this
edition, Paul Valkema Blouw argues that De Solempne published a work entitled
Requiem aeternam, dat is, het Nederlantsche claechliedt. . . (eds. Pettegree and
Walsby 2011: item 22,230) in Norwich in 1568. The meaning of this title ‘Eternal
requiem, that is, the Dutch Elegy (Lamentation)’ is certainly suggestive of a Dutch
poem. Further research might confirm this.
Mention should also be made here of a Dutch poem that for some time was
associated with Norwich. In 1569 a Dutch translation of a book detailing the horrors
of the Spanish Inquisition was published entitled Der heyliger Hispanischer inquisitie,
etlicke listighe secrete consten ende practijcken, ontdect ende int licht ghebracht (‘The
holy Spanish inquisition, some nasty secret arts and practices, discovered and brought
to light’). On the last leaf the publication includes a 31 line Dutch poem in the old
style entitled De drucker aen den goetwillighen leser (‘The printer to the obliging
reader’). For many years it was thought that the book, and thus the poem, was
printed by Anthoni de Solempne in Norwich. Indeed, Leonard Forster, writing in
1967, reproduced it under the heading of ‘Norwich Anonymous’ in his study of Janus
Gruterus, to whom we return shortly (Forster 1967: 111–12). However, since then
doubt has been cast on whether the book was published in Norwich, and recent
scholars who have examined the typeface in detail, have supported the view that it
was in fact printed in Emden by Willem Gailliart (Sessions and Stoker 1987: 25).
There has been much scholarly ink spilt over the question of whether the anti-
clerical satire, De Historie van Broer Cornelis, was printed in the Low Countries, or
 DUTCH POETRY IN EARLY MODERN NORFOLK 191

in England. The most likely candidate for the printing of the first edition seems
to have been Norwich, in 1569. On the last page of the book is a very early Dutch
sonnet entitled Aen B. Cornelis, hooft predicant binnen de Stadt van Brugghe (‘To
B[rother] Cornelis, principal preacher in the city of Brugge’). As it is most unlikely to
have been composed in Norfolk I shall not quote it in its entirety here, but just the
last three lines, which give a taste of the satirical bile that fills the rest of the poem
and the book (Historie 1569):
Die gheeren van stront preecte, ende van teven heet:
Die de Vroukens geesselde, ooc elc beschimpte en beet
En sulck een fijn man was, daer af datter noch veel is.
[Brother Cornelis], who liked to preach about shit, and about hot bitches:
Who whipped the wanton girls, and slandered and stung each one
And was such a hypocrite, about whom there’s much more (to be told).]

There are two reports of Dutch poems being written in Norfolk in the sixteenth
century. One is from Thetford in 1583; an unnamed (church) brother was accused of
‘composing a useless scandalous little song and placing it secretly in various houses
and sending it to other communities, distributing it amongst many people in Nor-
wich’ (een onnut schaldelick liedeken te dichten ende in diversche huyzen hemelic te
legghen ende in ander ghemeenten ghezoonden ende onder veele verbreet tot Noord-
wichs) (ed. Hessels 1887–97: III, i, 699). The other verse is a ‘satirical and libellous’
poem (een spottisch ende schimpisch refereyn) that circulated in Norwich in 1598
about the wives of two elders of the Dutch church. This was reported in a letter
written by the father of Jan Cruso, also, somewhat confusingly, called Jan, who was
an elder of the church (ed. Hessels 1887–97: III, i, 1023–4). He writes that it was a
refereyn (the person accused of circulating the poem said that he had found the ref-
ereyn on the street one evening (dat hy t’refereyn t’savonts op strate gevonden heeft)),
and it is likely that this was the style in which both of these poems were
written (Forster 1967: 35). In 1576 the colloquy of the Dutch churches in England had
decided that any ‘boecken, refereynen of liedekens’ (‘books, refrains or songs’) that
members wanted to publish should be submitted to their consistory (ed. Van Toorenen-
bergen 1872: 23).4 It was doubtless for cases such as these that the church leaders
made this decision, although it clearly had not stopped them from being distributed.
The Dutch Strangers owned books containing Dutch verse. One of their number,
Lowysken van Rokegem, bequeathed a copy of a psalter, most probably that of
Dathenus, in the will she made in Norwich in October 1603 (Forster 1967: 135–36).
Another book bequeathed by a Norwich Stranger is a volume of poems and songs
about martyrs, Het offer des Heeren (‘The sacrifice of the Lord’), first published
in Emden in 1563 (Forster 1967: 125–26). Other books written in Dutch were also
bequeathed, some of which may have included Dutch poems.
Before considering Dutch verses composed in Norfolk in the seventeenth century,
it is worth briefly mentioning two well-known members of the Dutch Stranger com-
munity in Norwich in the second half of the sixteenth century, who composed Dutch
192 CHRISTOPHER JOBY

poetry, although we have no evidence that they did so in Norwich. The first of these
is Janus Gruterus. He was born in Antwerp in 1560. As a result of religious persecu-
tion, he and his family left Antwerp and settled in Norwich in 1567. He lived in the
city until he was 16, when he went up to Cambridge University. He studied there for
7 years at Gonville and Caius College, before moving to Leiden and eventually onto
Heidelberg, where he became professor of history. One contemporary, Balthasar
Venator, wrote that Gruterus penned some five hundred Dutch sonnets during his
time in Leiden, although only nine of these survive (Porteman and Smits-Veldt 2008:
121–22). It is probable that he was already writing Dutch sonnets in Cambridge, and
although it is less likely he did so in Norwich, he probably came into contact with
Dutch poetry in the city, not least in the psalm versifications mentioned above.
The second poet with a Norwich connection is Simeon Ruytinck. Little is known
of his early life, although he is recorded as having been born in Norwich (eds. Kirk
and Kirk 1907: 217).5 His father, Jan, was a notary, appearing in the city records
in the 1570s (Moens 1887–88: 35; 37), and, as I discuss in more detail in my other
article in this journal, ran a boarding school in Norwich (ed. Hessels 1887–97: II,
593–95). In 1593 Simeon was in the United Provinces, where he undertook theological
training (ed. Hessels 1887–97: III, i, 960), and in 1601 he was called to London, where
he remained as a minister of the Dutch church until his death in 1621. He wrote many
Dutch poems, although none of those that survive can be traced back to his time in
Norwich.6 The poems by Ruytinck that do survive are not necessarily of the highest
quality and are typically written in the older style of verse. However, perhaps his
greatest contribution to poetry came in his death, for this led to the production of 26
Latin and Dutch elegies which were published by Elseviers of Leiden in 1622. One of
the Dutch elegies was written by Jan Cruso and it is to this and other Dutch poetry
by Cruso that I now turn.

The poetry of Jan Cruso

Jan Cruso was born in Norwich on 6 February 1592 to parents from Hondschoote in
the county of Flanders.7 He probably attended Norwich School although it is most
unlikely that he went to university, as he was the oldest son and was required to run
the family business. This contrasts with his younger brother, Aquila, who, like Janus
Gruterus, studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. For several years before
1621, Jan, who is described in the records as a merchant and hosier, spent some time
in London, but by that year he was definitely living again in Norwich (Moens 1887–
88: 58; 190; 226). During his time in London he was a member of the Dutch church
in the city.8 There he may have met other Dutch poets who were using the alexan-
drine; a line consisting of six iambic feet, which had first been used in Dutch verse in
the middle of the sixteenth century. One of these Dutch poets was Jacobus Colius
Ortelianus (1563–1628), the nephew of the great Flemish cartographer and geogra-
pher, Abraham Ortelius, who had been living in London for a number of years. In
1604–05 Colius had written a Dutch poem on the London plague of 1603 entitled Den
 DUTCH POETRY IN EARLY MODERN NORFOLK 193

Staet van London in hare groote Peste (‘The State of London during her great Plague’),
which consisted of 900 lines of alternating masculine and feminine rhyming alexan-
drines (Cool 1962). Another Dutch poet with whom Cruso may have made contact
during his time in London was the future statesman and leading author of Dutch
verse, Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687). He visited London with a diplomatic mis-
sion in 1618, spending 5 months in and around the city, and most likely attended the
Dutch church there. By this time he was writing Dutch alexandrines. Contact with
Colius or Huygens may have influenced Cruso in his use of alexandrines.
It was also during his time in London that Cruso got to know the minister at the
Dutch church, Simeon Ruytinck, and it was to Ruytinck that Cruso dedicated his
earliest surviving Dutch poem. As I note above, in order to commemorate Ruytinck’s
death, in 1622 collections of Latin and Dutch elegies (Epicedia and Klacht-Ghedichten)
were published in Leiden (Epicedia 1622). The Latin collection included a poem by
the son of Flemish exiles, Eduardus Meetkerkius, who was Regius Professor of
Hebrew at Oxford University. It also included a 100-line poem written in hexameters
by Jan’s brother, Aquila, who by this time was a lecturer in Greek at Cambridge; and
a poem by Constantijn Huygens, adding weight to the notion that he attended the
Dutch church during his time in London. The Dutch collection of Klacht-Ghedichten
for Ruytinck included poems by the statesman and man of letters, Jacob Cats; Jan
Proost, minister of the Dutch church in Colchester; and the aforementioned Jacobus
Colius Ortelianus. It also includes a poem signed by I.C. Norvic. i.e. I.C. of Norwich.
Given that he identified himself as the author of other works with his initials, and
that the author of the poem was from Norwich, it is most likely that Jan Cruso wrote
this poem. It is written in rhyming octosyllabic couplets, is quite short, 18 lines in all,
and is reproduced here in full with my translation. It is entitled Op Het Overlyden
van den Eerweerdighen, Gheleerden, Godtsalighen D. Simeon Ruytingius. Ad
defunctum (‘On the Death of the Reverend, Learned, Late Simeon Ruytinck. To the
deceased’):
Den Eeren-Krans die ons ghemoet
Hier vlechtet uyt dees’ Bloemkens soet,
End’ die men dus vercieren tracht
Door veler arbeyt, ‘tsaem ghebracht,
(O saligh Man!) bereydtmen niet
Dijn ziel ter eeren; (Sy gheniet
Alreed’ een Kroon der heerlijckheyt
Vergoddet met onsterf’lijckheyt:)
Maer om dijn lichaem: dat het sy
Door sulck soet-geurich salven vry
Van onderganck, end’ wel bevrijdt
Voor ‘tlastrich bijten van de Nijdt.
End’ dat dijn Naems verdienden Lof
Niet liggh’ begraven in het stof,
Maer ons gheslacht gheduerich mach
Van dijn voor-treffen doen ghewagh,
194 CHRISTOPHER JOBY

End’ segghen (t’komstich eeuw’ te pass’)

Wat voor een Man dat Ruyting was.
[We do not prepare the wreath of honour,
Which our hearts weave together, using these sweet flowers here,
And which we thus try to decorate
With much work, braided together,
(O blessed man!) to honour your soul;
(She already enjoys a Crown of glory
Made divine with immortality):
But [to honour] your body: so that it,
By such sweet-scented salves, is freed
From decay, and truly liberated
From the slanderous bites of Malice;
And so that the deserved praise of your Name
Does not lie buried in the dust,
But our people may perpetually
Mention your excellence
And say (for the benefit of future ages)
What a [great] man that Ruytinck was.]

Cruso adds as a colophon the Latin device, Dignum laude Virum, Musa vetat mori
(‘The Muse will not let the man worthy of praise perish’), which is a direct quotation
from Horace’s Odes.9 This is one of a number of quotations from Latin sources in
his poetry, which demonstrate that although he did not have a university education,
he was very familiar with Latin literature. We have no details of how this collection
came into being and so do not know whether Cruso was invited to write his poem
or whether he merely submitted it to an unidentified editor. In any case it was a
noteworthy achievement to have his poem published alongside those of established
poets such as Jacob Cats and Jacobus Colius and may have inspired him to further
poetic endeavour. It would be another 20 years before Cruso published more of his
Dutch verse, but during this period he may well have been busy developing his use
of the alexandrine and writing some of the epigrams that he would publish in 1655.
In the intervening years he also wrote three elegies in English on his late friend,
Laurence Howlett, who had been a minister at St Andrew’s in Norwich, and a number
of works on military matters, for which he gained widespread recognition.
In 1642 Cruso published two Dutch poems. The first of these was an extensive
reflection on Psalm 8 entitled ‘Amplification of the eighth Psalm of David’ (Uytbrey-
dinge Over den Achtsten Psalm Davids), which shows the influence of the work of
the French poet, Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (cf. Arens 1964–65: 135). The
second was a shorter poem entitled ‘Elegy on the untimely death of the most learned
and pious Revd Johannes Elison, Faithful Servant of the Dutch Community of Christ
in Norwich’ (Treur-dicht op het ontijdigh overlijden van den Hooghgeleerden ende
Godvruchtigen D. IOANNES ELISONIUS, Getrou Bedienaer der Neder-Duytsche
Gemeynte CHRISTI in NORWITS). The poems were published together in a volume
 DUTCH POETRY IN EARLY MODERN NORFOLK 195

given the title of the first poem in the collection. On the title page their authorship
was described as door I.C. i.e. by Jan Cruso, whilst the second poem is signed
IO[HANNES] CRUSO. They were printed in 1642 by Marten Jansz. Brandt, who is
described as a Boeckverkooper in de Gereformeerde Catechismus (‘Bookseller in the
Reformed Catechism’), in Amsterdam. The first of these poems, Uytbreydinge, runs
to some 1200 lines of alternating masculine and feminine rhyming alexandrine cou-
plets with a caesura after the third iamb, which demonstrate Cruso’s mastery of this
form of verse. It begins with Cruso setting out his theme and praising the traditional
author of the Psalms, David (Jesse Soon), whose poetry inspired this work of his. The
first eight lines run,
EEN heyligh Lof-gesang (niet van geringe dingen
Maer) van hoogh-weerde stof bestaet mijn geest te singen:
Een Psalm, een Danck-ghedicht, een eer-geschalligh Liedt,
Gelijck ons Jesse Soon tot less’ en voor-schrift liet.
Dien Herder onvertsaeght, die Beir-en-Leewen-dwinger,
Die d’onbesneden Reus versloegh met sijnen slinger,
Die on-verwonnen Heldt was konstigh evenwel
In heyl’ge Poësy, Gesang, en Snaren-spel.
[A holy Song of Praise (not of trifling things
But) of most worthy matter, my spirit undertakes to sing:
A Psalm, a Poem of Thanks, a Song, which rings with honour,
As Jesse’s Son taught and prescribed to us.
That inexhaustible Shepherd, that Bear and Lion tamer,
Who vanquished the uncircumcised Giant with his sling,
That unconquered Hero was just as artful
In holy Poetry, Song, and Playing strings.]

In the poem, there are echoes of Du Bartas’ Première Sepmaine (‘First Week’). This
is illustrated by the following lines, which recount the story of the love between a
young girl and an eagle, found in Pliny the Elder’s ‘Natural History’ (X.vi.18) and in
the final section of the Fifth Day of Du Bartas’ work (Cruso 1642: 31),
Te Sestos woond’ een Maeght die gingh een Aerent queecken
Van dat hy was gekipt: De vogel (tot een teecken
Van ware danckbaerheyt) haer daeghlicks voetsel bracht,
Van allerhande slach, gevangen op de jacht;
In ’tlest de vrijster sterft. Men gaet haer lichaem branden,
(Na ’t Heydensch oudt gebruyck, en wijse van die landen)
’t Verlies van dese Maeght de vogel soo verdroot,
Dat hy sich werpt in ’t vier, en volght haer in de doodt.
[In Sestos, there lived a Maiden who reared an Eagle
From when it was hatched: The bird (as a sign of
True gratitude) brought her daily food,
Of all kinds and sorts, caught by hunting;
196 CHRISTOPHER JOBY

Finally, she dies an old maid. They burn her body,

(According to the ancient Pagan custom, and manner of those lands)
The loss of this Maiden so saddened the bird,
That it throws itself in the fire, and follows her to death.]10

In the entire poem, there is only one explicit reference to Norwich, and that concerns
the River Yare, which runs a little to the south of the city (Cruso 1642: 42):
Ja d’wijl ick dit beschrijv’, en in de groene dalen
Langst Yeri koele stroom ick gae een lochtjen halen
En keere na de Stadt de dichte Bosschen door,
Hoe word’ ick daer onthaelt van ’t Nachtegalen Choor [. . .]
[And whilst I write this, and in the green valleys
By the Yare’s cool stream, I get a breath of air
And return to the City through the thick Woods,
I am entertained by the Choir of Nightingales [. . .]]

The second poem in this collection is an elegy to the late Johannes Elison, who had
been pastor of the Dutch church in Norwich from the early 1600s until the 1630s
(Cruso 1642: 52–56).11 Elison died in 1639, and from the elegy it is clear that Cruso
considered him to have great qualities as a preacher and pastor, referring to him at
one point as ‘the great Elison’ (den grooten Elison) (line 126).12 The poem is 144 lines
long consisting of alternating masculine and feminine alexandrines with the caesura
after the third iamb, providing further evidence of his mastery of this metre. It begins,
Daer droefheydt perst het hert, en over-swaren druck
Be-angst mijn bange ziel door schielick ongeluck,
Als schrick bedwelmt den geest, en praemt ’tgemoedt van binnen,
En stadigh treur-geclagh ontstelt verstant en sinnen,
(Na eyndeloos gekarm en menigh duysent traen)
Wat wil mijn sware geest (soo onbequaem) bestaen
Soo hoogh so groot een werck, als (met geringe Dichten)
Te willen een Coloss’ van Eer en Heugh’nis stichten,
(Den Tijdt en Nijdt te spijt) daer door de snelle Faem
In dés’ en d’ander Eeuw verbreyden sou den Naem
Van weerden Elison?
[Since sadness oppresses the heart, and a most heavy burden
Fills my fearful soul with sudden unhappiness,
As fear stupefies my mind and cajoles my heart inside,
And ceaseless lamentation disconcerts mind and senses,
(After endless railing and many thousand tears)
How can my heavy mind (so unsuited) try to undertake
So high, so great a work, as (with trifling Poems)
To want to create a Colossus of Honour and Memory,
(To the regret of Time and Envy) with which swift Fame
In this and the following Age would spread the Name
Of worthy Elison?]13
 DUTCH POETRY IN EARLY MODERN NORFOLK 197

There was more than one Colossus in the Ancient World; the one at Rhodes and the
Colossus of Nero in Rome. It is not clear which one Cruso is referring to here, but
the comparison of his poetic enterprise with either Colossus indicates a certain ambi-
tion and sense of confidence. The same can be said of a reference to the famed Greek
artist, Apelles, a little later in the poem.
In 1655 Cruso published a second collection of poems in Delft. He had published
work in English on military matters in Cambridge. However, as with the 1642 pub-
lication Cruso may have preferred to have his Dutch poetry printed in Holland as a
Dutch typesetter would be less likely to make errors. The 1655 collection was entitled
EPIGRAMMATA Ofte Winter-Avondts Tyt-korting (‘EPIGRAMS or Pastimes for a
Winter’s Evening’) and contains 221 Dutch epigrams, some of which show the influ-
ence of Roman authors, above all the renowned epigrammatist, Martial, and Horace
and Virgil, and Neo-Latin authors including Erasmus, John Owen, and Julius Caesar
Scaliger.14 As with other works by Cruso, we are not told explicitly that he was the
author of this collection. However, the title page does include the words Door I.C.
(‘By I.C.’). Furthermore, the subjects of a number of the poems tell us that the author
is unlikely to have been anyone other than Jan Cruso. A number of these are now
considered.
Epigram 145 is another poem about Johannes Elison. It was inspired by an epi-
grammatic Latin quatrain by Theodore Beza on a picture of Erasmus (cf. Arens 1964–
65: 136, n. 1). Cruso introduces his poem with a Latin title: In D: Ioannem Elisonium,
Virum Doctiss. Pastorem Fideliss. Amicum singularem, cingulo tenus depictum (‘On
Revd Johannes Elison, A Very Learned Man, a Very Faithful Pastor, an exceptional
Friend, depicted as far as his belt’).15 The quatrain runs:
Van grooten Elison, (voor t’groote Rondt beroemt)
Dit stuck de helft vertoont: maar vraagtmen hoe dat komt,
Dat hy niet int’geheel hier aan te schouwen staat?
Hoe kond’ hy, wien (geheel) de werelt niet omvaat.
[Of great Elison, (famed throughout the great Sphere)
This picture gives a half: but if they ask how it happens,
That he cannot be seen here completely,
How could he be, whom (complete) the world cannot contain?]

Epigram 53 makes mention of both London and Norwich (Noorde-Wijck), providing

us with yet more evidence that Cruso is the likely author of this and the other epi-
grams in the collection. This epigram, written in rhyming alternating masculine and
feminine alexandrine couplets, also demonstrates Cruso’s sense of humour, although
it is not clear whether the story it recounts was his own invention or not:
Twee Buyren reysden ‘t saem van d’Hooft-Stadt London af
Tot daar de Noorde-Wijck de Stadt benaminch gaf:
Ian Packt syn Mantel op, en sentse by den Waaghen
Maar Klaas (uyt regens vrees) wil selfs den synen draagen.
198 CHRISTOPHER JOBY

Sy Wand’len vrolick heen: maar haast wiert Klaas gewaar

Dat hem zijn opper-kleet was veel te heet en swaar.
Ian (seydt hy) ben ick geck? ’k ben nu een Mijl gekomen
En hebb’ niet half genoech tot Reys-gelt mé genomen,
So doet my (lieve Ian) een Pont (of so) ter handt
En neemt (in Borges Sté) myn Mantel tot een pandt.
Geseyt, gedaan. De Cap (op synen s’af gehangen)
Draacht Ian (onnosel) heén. Doe (met vermoeyde gangen
En op den Vier-den-dach) sy komen by de Stadt,
Klaas geeft ’t geleende gelt, en ‘t opperkleet hervat.
[Two Neighbours travelled together from the Capital City, London,
To the City to which the name of Norwich was given:
Jan picks up his Coat, and sends it by the coach
But Klaas (fearing rain) wants to carry his own.
They set off walking happily: but Klaas quickly became aware
That his outer garment was far too hot and heavy.
Jan (he said) am I mad? I have now walked a Mile
And have not brought half enough travel money with me,
So lend me (dear Jan) a Pound (or so)
And take (in place of a guarantee) my Coat as a deposit.
No sooner said than done. Jan carries the Cape innocently
With him (hanging from his side). Then (with tired steps
And on the fourth day) they come to the City;
Klaas gives back the money he had borrowed and takes back his outer garment.]

One further piece of evidence to support Cruso’s authorship of these epigrams comes
in Epigram 136 of the collection. The poem has a Latin title: Spectatiss: tum Pietatis
tum Doctrinae Viro D. Ionae Proostio Ao. 1610 (‘To the most excellent man: both of
piety and of doctrine, Revd Jan Proost Ao. 1610’). As mentioned above, the addres-
see, Jan Proost, was a minister of the Dutch church in Colchester for many years.
Cruso was an elder of the Dutch church in Norwich and he and Proost knew each
other well. Like Cruso, Proost was also a poet, and wrote a number of verses, includ-
ing some sonnets, in the Dutch language. One of his poems was published in the
collection of Dutch elegies (Klacht-Ghedichten) on the death of Simeon Ruytinck
already mentioned.16 Cruso’s epigram is a warm tribute to his friend Proost, although
it is slightly tongue-in-cheek:
Na dien ghy (weerde Proost) my so veel eer bewijst
Dat ghy myn Veersjes leest, dat ghy myn Kluchjes Prijst
Wat schaadt oft Momus knort? Wie wort so onbesint
Te haaten (nu voortaan) wat grooten Proost bemint.
[After you (worthy Proost) have shown me so much honour
That you read my little verses, and praise my little jokes
What does it matter if Momus grumbles? Who would be so mad
As to hate (henceforth) what great Proost loves?]
 DUTCH POETRY IN EARLY MODERN NORFOLK 199

The poem is also a well-constructed quatrain in alexandrines with clear caesuras

after the third iamb in each line, and again demonstrates Cruso’s mastery of this verse
form. Reference to Momus, variously the personification of satire; a god of writers
and poets; and a spirit of unfair criticism in Greek mythology, is one of many exam-
ples of Cruso’s knowledge of classical literature, which I discuss in more detail
elsewhere.17 In short, Cruso’s Dutch epigrams embody a wonderful combination of
learning, poetic skill, and humour.

The poems of Franc de Bruynne

Another poet who wrote Dutch verses in Norfolk in the early modern period was
Franc de Bruynne. During this period, the Dutch church in Norwich met in Blackfri-
ars’ Hall, which had been the Choir of the Dominican Friary before the Reformation.18
On a wall in the Hall, there is to this day a memorial to the former minister of the
church, Johannes Elison, whom we have already met. The memorial contains two
poems in Dutch and one each in Latin and English. On the bottom right-hand side
of the memorial we are told who wrote these poems: Franc de Bruynne scripsit.19 It
must be admitted, however, that I have found no mention of De Bruynne elsewhere
in records of the Dutch community in Norwich, so it may be that this was a pseud-
onym. Nevertheless, we have been left with a number of poems that merit our
attention. At the top of the memorial is an introduction in Latin giving details of
Elison’s life and ministry:
EPITAPHIUM JOANNIS ELISON Circiter XXXVI Annos Ecclesiae Nordovico Belgicae
Pastoris Fidelissimi Nati XI Aprilis Anno MDLXXXI Denati XIX Augusti Anno MDCXXXIX.
[EPITAPH TO JOANNES ELISON, who was the Most Faithful Pastor of the Dutch
church in Norwich for around 36 years, born on 11 April in the year 1581, died 19 August
in the year 1639.]

This is followed by a Latin quatrain:

Cuius adorandum docuit Facundia Christum,
Et pia dexteritas pandit ad astra Viam,
Hic jacet exanimis tacet heu mellita Sonora
Linguaq[ue] sed posthac non habitura parem.
[One, whose Eloquence has taught that Christ should be worshipped,
And [whose] pious readiness to do good unfolds a Path to the stars,
Lies here; [his] sweet and sonorous tongue, alas, is silent,
But henceforth it will have no equal.]

Directly below this is the first Dutch poem on the memorial, a quatrain written in
alexandrines, parts of which are close in meaning to the preceding Latin quatrain,
Den waerden ELISON wiens heyl’ge leer en leven
Soo quamen overeen en maeckten paden even,
Leijdt hier in’t Stof ontzielt wiens Hemels-vloeyend stem
Nu swijght en syns gelyck en komt’er geen na hem.
200 CHRISTOPHER JOBY

[Worthy ELISON, whose holy teaching and life

Were in such harmony with each other and made paths even,
Lies here in the dust, lifeless; his Heaven-sweet voice
Is now silent and after him no more like him will come.]

This is followed by an English quatrain, which follows the same rhyme scheme as the
Dutch quatrain and contains passages that are close in meaning to some of those in
the preceding quatrains,
That worthy ELISON whose holy life and preaching,
Did equally advance with both his Dutch Flock teaching
Lies here in dust dissolv’d whose loud-sweete voice no moore [sic.],
In this Church Sounds but now Sings in that heavnly Chore.

Below this is the second Dutch poem, an eight-line verse in alternating masculine and
feminine alexandrines with a caesura after the third iamb:
Hier Rust ’t Eerwaard gebeent’ ons Vaders Elisons
Die door Godts woord ons ziel doorstraalde als de zon
Bevroore aarde doed. En deed weer als herleven,
Ons gansch bevroore ziel. Hij leijden ons ten leven
Steeds door hem zelfs betracht, daar hij is voorgegaan.
Hij leerden ons ten heijl om bij Godt wel te staan
Hij kreegh zijn avond hier en wacht een blijde morgen
Hij wrocht zijn zalicheijd, in’t leven vol VAN ZORGEN.
[Here lie the Reverend bones of our Father Elison,
Who, through God’s word, irradiated our soul as the sun does
Frozen earth. And made, as it were, our completely frozen soul come alive
Once more. He led us towards the life,
Always lived by himself, to where he has [now] gone ahead.
He taught us for our salvation to be right with God
He met his evening here and awaits a happy morn
He wrought his salvation, in this life full OF CARES.]

At the bottom of the plaque is a Latin dedication, which tells us that the plaque was
paid for by Elison’s eldest son, also called Joannes, who had become a successful
merchant in Amsterdam (‘Impensis IOANNIS ELISON, Filij natu maximi, mercatoris
Amstelodamensis’). He also paid for the portraits of his father and mother, Maria
Bockenolle, painted by Rembrandt in 1634 that now hang in the Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston, USA. It is tempting to want to ascribe the Dutch poems, and indeed the
Latin and English poems, to Jan Cruso. The author of the Dutch poems was clearly
skilled in writing alexandrines, which as we have seen, Cruso certainly was, and he
uses the epithet waerden (worthy) for Elison, which Cruso uses in his elegy, published
in 1642. However, this is insufficient evidence with which to argue for Cruso’s author-
ship and so until further details come to light, we must ascribe these poems to the
otherwise-unknown Franc de Bruynne. It is likely that other poems beyond those
discussed above were written in Dutch in early modern Norfolk. However, it is now
time to conclude.
 DUTCH POETRY IN EARLY MODERN NORFOLK 201

Conclusion
What we have seen is that a good number of poems were written in Dutch in Norfolk
in the early modern period. Most of those that survive can be attributed to Jan Cruso
and were written in Norwich, although we have also seen that at least one refereyn
was written in Thetford. The fact that Cruso published two collections in the United
Provinces, and used newer forms of verse, in particular the alexandrine, are a good
example of how cultural links between the Norfolk Strangers and the Continent per-
sisted. Furthermore the case of Cruso illustrates that although some of the Strangers
were less well-educated workers in trades such as weaving, others such as Jan and his
brother, Aquila, were very well educated indeed. It is to be hoped that more Dutch
poems written in Norfolk in the modern period may come to light in the future and
that those who write general accounts of the history of early modern Dutch literature
will include references to at least some of the poems discussed in this article.

Appendix
On the historic South Quay in Great Yarmouth a merchant’s house was built in around 1596
by Benjamin Cowper. It is now the Elizabethan House Museum. In the stained glass windows
on the first floor of the house there are four short Dutch poems. The Dutch in which they are
written is clearly from the early modern period and one of the poems is dated to 1612. They
each have a proverbial quality and are accompanied by pictures in the windows, which echo
their meaning. It is unlikely that they were written in Norfolk, as the windows in which they
have been inscribed were installed during the restoration of the house after World War II.
However, I include them here in an appendix as they clearly date from the period under
discussion and are a reminder that Dutch could be heard on the South Quay and elsewhere in
Yarmouth in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Och of haer de werlt also gewende
Ende dat een ijegelick hem selven kende
En liet deen des andren gebreken staen
Het soude beter inde werlt gaen
Daminis Cornelissoon
Steerman 1612
[Oh if the world would take this tack
And every man would know himself
And each left the others’ faults alone
Things would go better in the world.
Daminis Cornelissoon
Helmsman 1612]
Ons dochter heeft het slecht gemaeckt,
De kat die is aen ’t speck geraeckt.
[Our daughter has been misbehaving,
The cat has got the bacon.]
Schouvager gij comt wel ter wegen,
Comt vaegt mijn schoorsteen eens ter degen.
[Sweep, if you come this way again,
Come and give my chimney a good sweep sometime.]
Dient u de wint na u begeren
Siet wacker toe ’t kan haast verkeeren.
[If the wind serves you as you desire
Be on your guard, [because] things can change quickly.]
202 CHRISTOPHER JOBY

Notes
1 Norwich for Circiter XXXVI Annos, i.e. around
Use of the alexandrine in Dutch emerged in the sec-
ond half of the sixteenth century. Early exponents
of the metre were Marnix van St.-Aldegonde (Porte-
man and Smits-Veldt 2008: 67) and Jan van Hout
(Grootes and Schenkeveld-Van der Dussen 2009:
185ff.). See also Joby (2014).
2
De C. L. Psalmen Davids Wt den Franchoyschen
Dichte in Nederlantschen overghesett door Petrum
Dathenum Mitsgaders den Christelicken Catechis-
mo/Ceremonien/en Gebeden [. . .] Tot Noorwitz
Gheprint by Anthonium de Solemne Anno
MDLXVIII. This edition of Dathenus’ psalter was
bound together with a Catechism (Catechismus oft
Onderwijsinghe in de Christelicke Leere) in one
book (STC 2741). See also Joby (2012: 138).
3
The Norwich Dutch church did in fact adopt Dathe-
nus’ psalter before the Dutch church in London
decided to do so, in 1571 (Lindeboom 1950: 18).
4
For a brief introduction to refereyns in English, see
Pleij (2009: 108).
5 Mr Symeon Ruyting’).
In the Return of Aliens in London in 1618 it is
reported that Ruytinck was ‘borne at Norwich, of
strangers to his parents; hee is preacher to the Dutch
congregacion’.
6 of Norwich (1592–fl. 1655)’, International Journal
For examples of Ruytinck’s verses, see in particular
his history of the Dutch in England, S. Ruytinck
et al. 1873, and Ruytinck 1612.
7
MS Norwich, Norfolk Record Office (NRO), NCR
16a, The Mayor’s Court Books. I thank Frank
Meeres for bringing this to my attention.
8
MS London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), CLC/
180/MS07402/10, 11v, ‘Register of Members of the
London Dutch Church 1617 & c.’
9
Horace, Odes, IV.8.28 (some sources have line 29).
10
The Dutch poet, Jacobus Revius, wrote some verse
inspired by the same section of Du Bartas’ work
(Cf. Arens 1964–65: 135).
11
Moens (1887–88: 315) gives the dates of Elison’s
ministry as ‘Circa 1609–1631’. However, in the
memorial to Elison discussed below, he is said
to have been the minister of the Dutch church in
36 years.
12
Apart from writing a number of poems about
Elison, Cruso’s closeness to him is illustrated by the
fact that in his will, Elison left a book in folio to ‘Mr
John Cruso’, and Cruso was one of the supervisors
of the will (Kent 1926: 100).
13
This is a half line.
14
The title page includes the following bibliographical
details: TOT DELF Gedrukt by Arnold Bon, Boek-
verkooper woonende Op t Mart-velt. Anno 1655.
15
If, as is reasonable to assume, Cruso was inspired to
write this poem by seeing a picture of Elison, then
it would not be the one Rembrandt painted of him,
as that is a full length painting of Elison seated.
16
Der Weesen Vader ofte de Hope der Weesen
des Eerweerdighen Mr Symeon Ruyting Zal. Ghe-
dachtenis (‘Father of the Orphans or the Hope of
the Orphans, to the memory of the late Reverend
17
I discuss the classical and early modern influences
on Cruso’s epigrams in greater detail in ‘Classical
and early modern sources of the poetry of Jan Cruso
of the Classical Tradition, 2014 (forthcoming).
18
There continued to be an annual Dutch service, held
in Blackfriars’ Hall, presided over by a minister of
the Dutch church in London, until 1921, although
in this year as in the previous year the service was
entirely in English. The last service in Dutch at the
Hall took place on 13 July 1919, presided over by
the Rev. S. Baart de la Faille, when it appears that
the congregation numbered only 18. I thank Barry
Allen for this information.
19
On the bottom left hand side of the memorial,
the words Door Leendert Sijmonsz. Gesneeden
(‘engraved by Leendert Sijmonsz.’) tell us who
engraved this memorial plaque. Sijmonsz. does not
appear in Moens’ account of the Strangers in
Norwich.

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