A Living Work of Art: The Life and

Science of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz A. J.

Kox
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/a-living-work-of-art-the-life-and-science-of-hendrik-an
toon-lorentz-a-j-kox/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Principal in Balance: Leading at Work and Living a Life

Jessica M. Cabeen

https://ebookmass.com/product/principal-in-balance-leading-at-
work-and-living-a-life-jessica-m-cabeen/

The I Love My Life Challenge: The Art & Science of

Reconnecting With Your Life, A Breakthrough Guide To
Spark Joy, Innovation, and Growth Adam Markel

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-i-love-my-life-challenge-the-
art-science-of-reconnecting-with-your-life-a-breakthrough-guide-
to-spark-joy-innovation-and-growth-adam-markel/

The Work-Life Balance Myth David J. Mcneff

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-work-life-balance-myth-david-j-
mcneff/

Bounce: Living the Resilient Life 2nd Edition Robert J.

Wicks

https://ebookmass.com/product/bounce-living-the-resilient-
life-2nd-edition-robert-j-wicks/
The Art and Science of Facelift Surgery: A Video Atlas
1st Edition Joe Niamtu

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-art-and-science-of-facelift-
surgery-a-video-atlas-1st-edition-joe-niamtu/

The Ascetic Ideal: Genealogies of Life-Denial in

Religion, Morality, Art, Science, and Philosophy
Stephen Mulhall

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-ascetic-ideal-genealogies-of-
life-denial-in-religion-morality-art-science-and-philosophy-
stephen-mulhall/

Abundance: On the Experience of Living in a World of

Information Plenty 1st Edition Pablo J. Boczkowski

https://ebookmass.com/product/abundance-on-the-experience-of-
living-in-a-world-of-information-plenty-1st-edition-pablo-j-
boczkowski/

President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler

Christopher J. Leahy

https://ebookmass.com/product/president-without-a-party-the-life-
of-john-tyler-christopher-j-leahy/

The Art and Science of Social Research (First Edition)

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-art-and-science-of-social-
research-first-edition/
 “a l i v i ng wor k of a rt ”
the l ife a n d science of
hen dr ik a n toon lor en tz
 “A Living Work of Art”
The Life and Science of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz

A. J. Kox
H. F. Schatz
Institute of Physics, University of Amsterdam

1
 1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© A. J. Kox and H. F. Schatz 2021
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2021
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020952678
ISBN 978–0–19–887050–0
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198870500.001.0001
Printed and bound in the UK by
TJ Books Limited
Preface

This book is a revised and expanded edition of a Dutch-­language biography of

Lorentz by one of us (AJK) that appeared in 2019 (Kox 2019). Parts of the book
that deal with specifically Dutch situations or contexts were explained or extended
to make them more understandable for an international readership. Also, a new
chapter was added about Lorentz’s wife, whose activities and sharp observations
offer a more personal perspective on the life of the Lorentz family. In addition,
many editorial and stylistic changes were made, and some parts were completely
rewritten, in a truly joint effort to bring Lorentz to life as a man of flesh and blood,
in spite of the scarcity of personal material.
Writing the biography of a scientist is not easy under any circumstances. In the
case of Lorentz, the difficulties were particularly daunting, because virtually no
personal correspondence, diaries, or other personal material remain to shed light
on his personal life, his emotions, his motives, his triumphs, or his disappointments.
It is not known whether such materials ever even existed. What is known, though,
is that after Lorentz’s death his widow, on his explicit instructions, proceeded to
burn three sealed packages of letters “before anyone would succumb to the
temptation to open them,” as she wrote to Lorentz’s successor, Paul Ehrenfest.
What was inside the packages is anyone’s guess.
Like anyone writing a biography, the authors have had moments of doubt about
the ultimate success of their project. In the case of Lorentz the project was
especially difficult, because the essence of Lorentz’s personality continuously
seemed to evade us. The authors do not intend to go so far as Newton’s biographer,
Richard Westfall, who wrote in his masterful Never at Rest: “The more I have
studied him, the more Newton has receded from me.” Yet, we must admit that his
words have often been in our thoughts.
Now it is up to the reader to decide whether we have been successful in the task
we set out to achieve.
A. J. Kox
H. F. Schatz
Amsterdam and Torrazza
May 2020
Acknowledgments

Over the years, many people have been kind enough to provide moral or practical
support that was instrumental for the publication of this biography. To the editors
and staff at the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology,
in particular General Editor Diana Buchwald, we owe a debt of gratitude. The
staff at the Noord-­Hollands Archief in Haarlem, especially Godelieve Bolten, the
archivist in charge of scientific archives, have provided essential help and advice.
We also extend our heartfelt thanks to Jed Buchwald, Margriet van de Heijden,
Michel Janssen, Laura Kox, Jan Lepeltak, Ad Maas, Jonathan van der Meer, Jos
van der Meer, Abel Streefland, and Dalila Wallé for various forms of assistance
and support. Finally, we thank the four anonymous referees who carefully
reviewed this book for their useful and constructive comments.
Abbreviations

ASZ Archief Staatscommissie Zuiderzee, Archief Dienst Zuiderzeewerken, Nieuw Land

Erfgoedcentrum, Lelystad
CICI Commission internationale de coopération intellectuelle
CIR Conseil international de recherches
CT Collection J. Th. Thijsse, Archief Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der
Wetenschappen, NHA. (Documents concerning Thijsse’s work in the Zuiderzee
Commission.)
FAL Documents concerning the Zuiderzee Commission, Family archive of Cornelis
Lely, Nationaal Archief, Den Haag
FC Family Correspondence 1908–28 (NHA)
LA Archief H. A. Lorentz, NHA
NHA Noord-­Hollands Archief, Haarlem
PC Material from private collection of Lorentz heirs (NHA)
RB Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Leiden
UAI Union académique internationale
ZA Archief P. Zeeman, NHA
Aller seelische Wagemut liegt heute in den exakten Wissenschaften.
Nicht von Göthe, Hebbel, Hölderlin werden wir lernen,
sondern von Mach, Lorentz, Einstein, Minkowski,
von Couturat, Russell, Peano. Robert Musil, 1912.
(Gesammelte Werke, II, p. 1318.)
All intellectual daring nowadays lies in the exact sciences.
We will learn not from Göthe, Hebbel, Hölderlin, but from Mach,
Lorentz, Einstein, Minkowski, from Couturat, Russell,
Peano. Robert Musil, 1912. (Gesammelte Werke, II, p. 1318.)
Chapter 1
Childhood and student years

On the 13th of November 1852, thirty-­year-­old Gerrit Fredrik Lorentz married

his young bride Geertruida van Ginkel in Arnhem, a city roughly in the geo-
graphical middle of the Netherlands.1 Geertruida, reputedly a pretty and intelli-
gent woman, had been widowed two years earlier when she was only twenty-­four.
She was left with Hendrik Jan Jacob, or Jan, her two-­year-­old son from her mar-
riage to Jan Jacob Janssen. Gerrit Lorentz, a prosperous commercial gardener,
owned a large market garden on Musschenberg, just outside Arnhem. His grand-
father, Friedrich Gottlob Lorentz, had started a commercial garden on Steenstraat,
or Velpersteenstraat, the main road from Arnhem to Zutphen. This gardening
business, with its reputation for high-­quality cauliflower, was subsequently passed
on to his son Tobias, Gerrit’s father.
Grandfather Friedrich originated from the German town of Bautzen, sixty kilo-
meters north of Dresden, and had arrived in Arnhem in the second half of the
eighteenth century. Possibly he served as a soldier in the Prussian army that was
called in by Stadtholder2 Willem V in 1787 to suppress a patriotic uprising in the
Netherlands. The patriots in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands rose
up against the absolutist administration of the Stadtholder and demanded admin-
istrative reforms for its citizens. In 1786 and 1878 fighting broke out between the
patriots and the supporters of the Stadtholder. With the help of the Prussians,
Willem V managed to put an end to the fighting in October of 1887.
In the years around 1850, Arnhem, which had obtained city rights as early as
1233, was rapidly changing from a relatively sleepy provincial town to a flourish-
ing mid-­size city. This period of growth had started twenty years earlier, after the

1
Unless specified otherwise, all particulars about Lorentz’s childhood in this chapter were drawn
from Haas-­Lorentz 1957 (a biographical article by Lorentz’s eldest daughter, Geertruida Luberta
[mostly denoted as “Berta”]), biographical notes by his wife, Aletta Lorentz-­Kaiser (RB), reminis-
cences by Lorentz’s friend and colleague Herman Haga (PC), and documentation that was used for
the booklet De Arnhemse jaren van Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, edited by Jos Diender, Tineke Seebach,
and Wout van Ast and published by Bezoekerscentrum Sonsbeek, Arnhem.
2
In the Low Countries, a Stadtholder (place holder) was appointed to represent a feudal lord. From
the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, in the early Dutch Republic, the role had become that of a
hereditary head of state. Willem V, the last Stadtholder of the Republic, fled to England when the
French revolutionary forces established the Batavian Republic in 1795. In 1815, after the defeat of the
French army, his son was crowned King Willem I of the United Netherlands.

“A Living Work of Art”: The Life and Science of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. A. J. Kox and H. F. Schatz, Oxford University Press (2021).
© A. J. Kox and H. F. Schatz. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198870500.003.0002
 Childhood and student years 5

city’s classic fortifications had been demolished. City walls were torn down, city
gates were removed, and moats were filled in. Townhouses and mansions for the
newly wealthy were constructed along widened canals and city parks. A railroad to
connect the city with the western part of the country was built in 1845, and a few
years later a concert hall, Musis Sacrum, was the first cultural venue to be con-
structed. This development continued in the following decades. New and better
opportunities for secondary education opened up, a public library was estab-
lished, and more cultural opportunities arose after a theater opened its doors. As
a result, Arnhem became more cosmopolitan, with a lively arts scene, and increas-
ingly attractive as a city to settle and do business. Industry and trade also flour-
ished, although the number of industrial enterprises remained relatively small.
The number of inhabitants grew quickly: from 20,000 in 1850 to 50,000 by the
end of the century.3
Less than a year after their wedding, on July 18, 1853, a son was born to the
Lorentz couple. He was named Hendrik Antoon but went by the name of “Hentje.”
Five years later they had another son, Alexander Cornelis. Hendrik was rather short
for his age4 and did not start to talk until late, but that was hardly a sign of his in­fer­
ior intelligence. On the contrary, he did quite well in school and was so popular in
class that at one point his fellow students gave him a beautiful pencil—a gift that was
spoiled somewhat for Hendrik when his classmates wanted him to confirm over and
over how much he loved it. He clearly liked reading: He was so pleased with a book
his parents gave him that he wrote his initials H.A.L. on every page.
An early memory that stayed with him throughout his life shows that he was a
curious child. Young Hendrik was fascinated by the comet of 1860 which, by the
end of June, was visible to the naked eye in the night sky over the Netherlands.5 Of
course, one needed to have an unobstructed view to see the comet, as it appeared
low on the northern horizon, but living on the outskirts of Arnhem he must have
had plenty of opportunity to see it.
Though it does not appear in any of the other available sources on Lorentz, the
following story was recounted by his student Adriaan Fokker, to attest that Lorentz
did not like to get into a fight but that he was not a pushover either, even at a
young age. He calls Lorentz “already in his boyhood years a peace-­loving, but at
the same time logically thinking person.”6 The story has it that one day, when
Hendrik was still a young boy, he had to go and fetch a kettle of hot water at a
3
See Arnhem 1933 for more about the history of Arnhem.
4
His daughter Berta suggests that at the time when he went to university, Lorentz was still of short
stature, because she referred to him as a “dark little person” (Haas-­Lorentz 1957, 24). Today it is dif-
ficult to determine how tall Lorentz really was. The passport that has been preserved unfortunately
does not state his exact height. Some indication may be gleaned from a photograph showing Einstein
and Lorentz standing right next to each other. Einstein was over 1.70 meters (5 ft., 7 in.) tall and in
the picture, Lorentz is clearly quite a bit taller. It can be concluded that Lorentz was not particularly
short, and certainly not for those days, considering that around 1900 the average height for men was
1.69 meters (5 ft., 6.5 in.).
5
Probably the non-­periodical comet C/1860 M1.
6
See Fokker 1946. In terms of approach and tone, this article is completely in line with the title of
the book in which it appeared: Nederlandsche Helden der Wetenschap (Dutch Heroes of Science).
6 Childhood and student years

“water and fire woman’s shop,” since it was not always so easy in those days to
heat up water at home. On his way home, he was accosted by an alley-­kid looking
for a fight. He managed to avoid the fight by pointing out to his attacker that
­hot-­water burns are not only very painful but also leave nasty scars. Apparently,
they ended up parting company as good friends.
In 1861, Hendrik’s life changed course fundamentally. On December 1 his
mother passed away, only thirty-­five years old. A few weeks earlier, his little
brother Alexander had also died, at the tender age of three-­and-­a-­half. These
events, in such a short time-­span, must have been traumatic for eight-­year-­old
Hendrik and must have stayed with him for the rest of his life. His daughter Berta
recounts in her reminiscences that he used to visit his mother’s grave every time
he went to Arnhem, until the cemetery eventually closed.
At the time the family lived at Steenstraat, where Gerrit had inherited some
property and a few simple little houses, the “Lorentz houses.” As he had a crip-
pled hand and foot, the garden work became increasingly difficult for him, so a
small grocery store was set up in one of the houses. This was the reason why
Gerrit’s occupation on Geertruida’s death certificate was listed as “shopkeeper.”
Having been left with two young children, Gerrit did not wait long to look for a
new wife: Six months later he married the forty-­two-­year-­old widow Lubberta
Hupkes, so the children would have a stepmother—for Hendrik’s stepbrother Jan,
already his second. Lubberta, who had no children of her own, was apparently a
good mother to the two boys. At least, Hendrik was so fond of her that he named
the elder of his two daughters after her.
In the years that followed Gerrit had to close down the grocery store for lack of
customers. He sold the nearby property and had the “Lorentz houses” torn down
to replace them with three large, modern houses. The Lorentz family itself moved
to the ground floor of the middle house, while the second floor and the houses on
either side were rented out.

Primary school
When his mother died in 1861 Hendrik was still in primary school, in Master
Swaters’ class, having started school two years earlier at the age of six. After his
first year in school, in 1860, the first photograph of young Hendrik was taken at
the country fair he was visiting with his mother. A serious young boy is looking
into the lens, hair neatly combed, in a dapper little suit. As a young child he had
broken his nose, falling off a hand cart while playing. Although his nose had
become somewhat misshapen as a result, this does not really show in the picture.
No particular meaning should be attached to his serious look. In those days sitting
for a portrait photograph was something quite special and a serious business. The
ubiquitous smile of present-­day photos did not become fashionable until much
later, in the second half of the twentieth century.
 Primary school 7

After a few years with Master Swaters, Hendrik transferred to the French
School of Master Geurt Kornelis Timmer. This school, consisting of six grades for
extended primary education, offered classes in the morning and in the afternoon
and—if students wished—also in the evening. The school was expensive: tuition
amounted to around forty guilders per year. As the average pay of a blue-­collar
worker was no more than a few hundred guilders per year in those days, not
every­one could afford to send their children to such an expensive school. The fact
that Hendrik’s father was able to pay this kind of tuition was clear proof of his
relative prosperity.
Apart from Master Timmer, the school had two other teachers who taught for-
eign languages, mathematics, physics, draftsmanship, and agriculture. The school
provided a kind of Dalton education, aimed at stimulating a student’s individual
development. In Hendrik’s case this education was more than successful. When he
was nine or ten years old, he went out and bought a logarithm table, paid for with
his own pocket money, and taught himself how to use it. Hendrik himself remem-
bered later that “in the evening hours everybody worked on arithmetic as much as
they pleased. In this way, we were able to learn quite a bit of lower mathematics.”7
Master Timmer was the one who introduced his pupils to the field of physics.
He was an enthusiastic teacher and an active member—later even chairman—of
the Arnhem Natuurkundig Genootschap onder de Zinspreuk tot Nut en Genoegen
(Physics Society under the Motto for Benefit and Pleasure). The society’s mem-
bers—who changed its name to Natuurkundig Genootschap Wessel Knoops (Physics
Society Wessel Knoops) in 1879 to honor its founder—gave lectures, studied sci-
entific literature together, and, by the end of the nineteenth century, even had their
own building.8 It was founded in 1824 by Wessel Knoops, who was a pharmacist
in Arnhem, and in the first years of the society its members held their meetings in
his pharmacy. The Society can be viewed as a typical product of the Enlightenment
and its culture of scientific societies. Especially in the latter decades of the eight-
eenth century, many such societies were established to encourage the spread of
ideas generated by natural science.
Apart from being an inspiring teacher in the classroom, Timmer also authored
popular science textbooks, like his Handleiding tot Algemeene Kennis van den
Aardbol. Een Volksleesboek (Textbook for General Knowledge of the Earth: A Popular
Reader) published in 1840 by the Maatschappij tot Nut van ’t Algemeen (Society for
Public Welfare). In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, this very influential
society—still in existence today—aimed to promote the well-­being of the people
through higher levels of cultivation and civilization and specifically through better
education. In connection with Lorentz’s own activities, its role will be further dis-
cussed later on. Lorentz always spoke of Timmer with great warmth and appre-
ciation, even many years later. Not only was he a gifted and inspiring teacher, he

7
“in de avonduren ieder rekende naar zijn lust meebracht. Zoo konden wij heel wat van de lagere
wiskunde leren.” Physica 6 (1926): 24.
8
See Ven 1998 for the history of the Society.
8 Childhood and student years

was also able to create an especially attractive classroom atmosphere by doing

small experiments with the students.
Lorentz himself also became a member of the Physics Society Wessel Knoops
and in 1876 and 1880 he gave lectures there about “Magnets” and “The Essence
of Electricity” respectively. Obviously, at the Society’s 100th anniversary, in 1924,
Lorentz was the guest of honor. Before addressing the members in a lecture with
demonstrations about “old and new physics” he made a point of praising the
­science education he had received from Master Timmer.9

Secondary school
With the support and encouragement of Master Timmer, in December 1866
Lorentz took the entrance examination for the third grade of the Arnhem Hoogere
Burgerschool (HBS) that had opened a few months earlier. This new type of sec-
ondary education was introduced by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, one of the most
influential Dutch politicians of the nineteenth century. Influenced by the 1848
liberal uprisings throughout Europe, Thorbecke was instrumental in revising the
Dutch constitution and established many features of Dutch parliamentary democ-
racy that remain in place to this day.
As Prime Minister, he presided over the passage of a raft of new laws and
reforms, including election reform, tax reform, and healthcare legislation. In his
1862 Secondary Education Act, Thorbecke provided for a new type of secondary
school, geared toward educating students for managerial positions in trade and
industry. Contrary to the already existing Gymnasium, a type of grammar school
where students were instructed in the classics as well as the sciences, it was inten-
tionally not designed to prepare students for university.
Master Timmer apparently made every effort to prepare his students as best he
could for the very important entrance examination to their new school. He even
used to get up very early every morning to improve his own English before the
start of the school day, in order to be able to convey his newly acquired knowledge
to his pupils later in the day. During the entrance examination Hendrik met
Herman Haga, the son of a local minister, who was a year older. They would
remain friends until Lorentz’s death.
The HBS in Arnhem was a municipal school rather than a school run by the
state, like many HBS schools elsewhere in the country. It started the school year
in 1866 with 77 students, divided across four grades.10 The fourth grade had just
two students and the fifth, final grade would only come later, once the ­fourth-­grade
students had reached that level. Tuition was sixty guilders per year, quite

See Arnhemsche Courant, March 14, 1924.

9

Information about the HBS in Arnhem is taken from Gedenkboek 1966 and from archival material
10

in the Gelders Archief in Arnhem.

 Secondary school 9

a ­substantial fee in comparison to the salaries of the teachers, who earned between
1,200 and 1,800 guilders per year.
At the HBS Hendrik van de Stadt, who taught physics, was another teacher
who was an important influence on young Lorentz’s intellectual development. In
his anniversary lecture at the Physics Society Wessel Knoops, Lorentz mentioned
him in one breath with Master Timmer. Much later, at the celebration of his
golden doctorate, he again emphasized Van de Stadt’s important role in his
­academic development and in his choice to study physics. In his speech on that
occasion he said:

Whether physics or mathematics was the most beautiful science, that was a question
about which I was in doubt at the time, but which was decided in favor of physics
when, once admitted to the hoogere burgerschool, we enjoyed the lively teaching of van
de Stadt. Van de Stadt, who had recently received his doctorate in Leiden, transplanted
in us the enthusiasm which, in himself, had been aroused in the first place by Kaiser.11

Despite the high esteem in which he held Van de Stadt, Lorentz still attached more
value to Timmer’s teaching, at least according to his university friend Gerrit Jan
Michaelis.12 Like Timmer, Van de Stadt did not limit himself to teaching. He was
also the author of a well-­known physics textbook, Beknopt Leerboek der Natuurkunde
(Concise Textbook of Physics), first published in 1879 and reprinted many times since.
Another teacher who taught Lorentz a great deal, both in and outside the class-
room, was Jacob Maarten van Bemmelen, the school’s director, who taught chem-
istry and later became a professor in Leiden. Under his guidance, Lorentz carried
out his first science experiments:

I had to trot around a concert hall with greater or lesser speed, holding up a wind
gauge tied to a long wooden slat, and then, as much as my knowledge of mathematics
allowed at the time, I had to express in a formula the relationship between the indica-
tions on the instrument and the speed at which I had been running.13

Experiments were not only performed in a school context. In his speech on the
occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate, Lorentz remembered the

11
“Of nu natuurkunde dan wel wiskunde het mooiste vak was, dat was een vraag waaromtrent ik
toen twijfelde, maar die ten gunste der natuurkunde beslist werd toen wij, op de hoogere burgerschool
gekomen, het levendige onderwijs van Van de Stadt genoten. Van de Stadt, pas te Leiden gepro-
moveerd, plantte op ons de geestdrift over, die bij hem zelf, in de eerste plaats wel door Kaiser, gewekt
was.” See Physica 6 (1926): 21–29 for the speech. Frederik Kaiser was Professor of Astronomy in
Leiden and doctoral dissertation advisor to Van de Stadt.
12
See Michaelis to Aletta Lorentz-­Kaiser, May 1, 1928 (LA 725). Michaelis was a slightly older
peer of Lorentz, with whom he liked to played chess. After his doctorate in 1872, Michaelis took a
position as a teacher of mathematics and mechanics at the Arnhem HBS in 1873.
13
“Ik moest met een windmeter die aan een lange omhoog gehouden lat was gebonden, met grooter
of kleiner snelheid in een concertzaal ronddraven, en vervolgens, zoo goed en zoo kwaad als mijn toen­
malige wiskunde het toeliet, het verband tusschen de aanwijzingen van het instrument en de snelheid
waarmee ik geloopen had, in een formule uitdrukken.” Physica 6 (1926): 25.
10 Childhood and student years

lively discussions with Haga on walks in the woods around Arnhem, “the often
impossible experiments we devised and how at some point, rather to our satisfac-
tion, we decided what the essence of electricity was supposed to be.”14 According
to Haga, walking was actually the only “sport” that Lorentz practiced with enthu-
siasm: “fencing, ice-­skating, swimming, or gymnastics” were clearly not Lorentz’s
favorite pastimes. Riding a bicycle was a skill Lorentz did not master until 1890,
when it became more commonplace to do so, but he later spent many a day on
bicycle trips with his own children.15
Young Lorentz’s school performance at the HBS was legendary, and justifiably
so. On all his report cards he scored a five—the highest grade at the time—for
almost all subjects, even theology, a subject that was taught in the final (fifth) year.
His all-­round talent was especially remarkable: neither the exact sciences nor the
modern languages gave him any trouble at all. He also turned out to have an
exceptionally good memory, something that would stand him in good stead
throughout his life. He effortlessly gave long lectures and speeches by heart, with-
out using notes. A half hour of preparation time was enough for him.16 In later life
he also made good use of his exceptional mastery of English, French, and German
at the many international scientific meetings he attended and in his prolific con-
tacts with ­foreign colleagues.
In order to boost his mastery of French, Hendrik often attended Sunday ser-
vices in the Walloon Church, and to improve his English he read English authors
like Charles Dickens.17 This choice of reading gave cause for criticism from his
English teacher, who thought that his English usage in compositions resembled
the language of Dickens too much. Apparently, Lorentz’s good memory was
­getting in the way here.
As far as academic performance and intellect were concerned, Lorentz was far
and away better than average. He was awarded prizes for both mathematics and
literary subjects when he was moved up from grade three to four and from grade
four to five. According to an anecdote, Van de Stadt had recruited his pupils to put
together a booklet of answers to the problems in one of his textbooks. In as little
as two weeks Lorentz had solved all the problems, including the material that had
not yet been discussed in class.
In Hendrik’s final school year, 1868–1869, there were two other students in his
class: his friend Haga and W. H. de Jong.18 There is a well-­known photo of the

14
“de veelal onmogelijke proeven die wij beraamden en hoe wij eens, nog al tot onze tevredenheid
uitmaakten wat de electriciteit eigenlijk wel zou zijn.” Ibid.
15
See, for example, Lorentz to Woldemar Voigt, July 20, 1899, in which he writes that he must end
the letter because he must go bicycling with his children. (Kox 2008, 62). At the time the family was
spending the summer in a rented cottage in the seashore village of Noordwijkerhout, not far from
Leiden.
16
According to daughter Berta, Hendrik’s grandfather Lorentz also boasted a very good memory. It
enabled him to write down the Sunday sermons verbatim, and recycling of any sermon was something
he noticed immediately, even many years later. (Haas-­Lorentz 1957, 21).
17
According to Haga, he had read Dickens’s A Child’s History of England.
18
The name is spelled as in the HBS archive. Haas-­Lorentz 1957 uses the spelling De Jongh.
 Secondary school 11

three boys, taken by Van de Stadt who was an avid amateur photographer. They
pose by a ground-­floor window in the janitor’s house. The janitor had quickly
managed to insert a rifle in the picture, leaning it close to the boys. Having a rifle
in the picture at all was probably connected with the fact that military drills and
the “treatment of the rifle” had been introduced by Director Van Bemmelen as
part of the HBS curriculum. According to Haga, the three boys were discussing
their “military readiness” when they were photographed. Haga also mentions a
previous photo where Lorentz’s head was not in focus—because it had absorbed
all the ultraviolet rays, according to his classmates.
The three classmates were good friends and during long walks in the surround-
ings of Arnhem they had discussions about all sorts of things and speculated
about what the future would hold for each of them. For Lorentz they envisaged a
professorship in the German city of Jena—Jena because their German teacher had
suggested that they visit the city.
Hendrik’s final examination also became legendary. He was the number one
student in the entire province of Gelderland and, so the story goes, his exam was
consulted whenever the correctors were not quite sure about the correctness of a
solution given by another student.19 In a farewell speech to the final year’s class,
director Van Bemmelen praised Lorentz’s exceptional talents and especially
impressed upon him, “considering his well-­known humility and goodness, to take
care that others would not abuse his knowledge, that he himself would not lose
himself in it, but that he would bring science a step forward.”20
Yet, in spite of his brilliant final examination, Lorentz was not allowed to go to
university immediately. Since the HBS was not designed to prepare students for
university, the school’s final diploma did not grant automatic access to any degree
course: it still required a Gymnasium diploma. In practice, this meant that those
who had already graduated from the HBS still needed to take an additional state
examination in Greek and Latin to be allowed to enter university. Together with
Haga, Hendrik spent the following year studying the classics under the guidance
of T. T. Kroon, the deputy director of the Arnhem Gymnasium. In his recollec-
tions, Haga describes how for Latin they had focused primarily on the work of the
Roman historian Livy, because in the preceding years the candidates for the state
examination had had to translate texts by this author. Unfortunately, no such luck
in 1870. On the program this time was Ovid, a poet with a completely different
vocabulary. Haga failed the exam miserably, but Hendrik powered through. The
words that he did not know from Livy were not a problem, he said, “as one could
more or less guess those.”21

19
See J. F. van Bemmelen (son of Jacob Maarten) to Aletta, May 13, 1928 (LA 725).
20
“bij zijn bekenden nederigheid en goedheid te zorgen, dat anderen geen misbruik maken van zijn
kennis, hijzelf daar niet in opga, maar de wetenschap ene schrede voorwaarts brenge.” Quoted in
Gedenkboek 1966, 39.
21
“die kon men wel zoowat raden.”
12 Childhood and student years

Studies in Leiden
Hendrik was the only one in his class to go to university that year. He had chosen
to study physics in Leiden, the oldest and most prestigious university in the
Netherlands, which counted 600 students at the time.22 His friend Haga could not
start university until a year later, when he picked physics as well, while De Jong
opted for a training course to become a civil servant in the Dutch East Indies. As
he did not want to isolate himself, Hendrik became a member of the traditional
Leiden student association the Leidsch Studenten Corps, which boasted a lively
fraternity life. During the groentijd, the generally rough hazing period in the fresh-
man year, he showed off his exceptional memory when he had to introduce him-
self to a roomful of older students. As Haga tells it, at the end of the meeting one
student asked Lorentz “with all the usual expletives, whether he did not believe it
was worth the trouble to write down their names, to which Lorentz answered that
he believed he had already memorized all the names and proceeded to reel them
off one by one.”23 Student life was apparently something that Lorentz had mixed
feelings about. His school friend Becking, who had taken his final examination
two years after Lorentz and had gone to study at the Delft Polytechnic, reminisced
in 1871: “You have often wished the whole studentencorps [Leidsch Studenten
Corps] to damnation [. . .] you have often come home feeling wretched.”24
When Lorentz began his studies, Leiden was a mid-­size city recovering slowly
from serious economic decline. After obtaining city rights in 1277, the city had
become the flourishing hub of the Dutch textile industry during the sixteenth and
seventeenth century. By the end of the seventeenth century—the Dutch “Golden
Age”—Leiden had grown to no fewer than 70,000 inhabitants. It had become the
second largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam. Economic decline set in
early in the eighteenth century, resulting in a steady decrease in the number of
inhabitants to as few as 30,000 by around 1800. In spite of the newly constructed
railroads connecting the city to Haarlem, Amsterdam, and The Hague, it was not
until the last quarter of the nineteenth century that Leiden showed visible signs of
recovery. The number of inhabitants began to grow again and eventually reached
about 40,000 in 1870. Four years prior to Lorentz’s move to Leiden, the city had
suffered another setback, as a serious cholera epidemic took its toll. It stands to
reason that the poor were especially hard hit. Much like in other Dutch cities, the
Leiden factory workers lived in dire poverty and were housed in grimy slums
beyond the waterways and canals surrounding the elegant seventeenth-­century
city center.

22
The university was founded in 1675. Lorentz’s choice was probably also influenced by both Van
de Stadt and Van Bemmelen having received their doctorates there.
23
“met de gewone krachtuitdrukkingen of hij het niet de moeite waard vond de namen op te schrij­
ven, waarop Lorentz antwoordde dat hij de namen wel meende te kennen en ze alle achter elkander
noemde.”
24
“Gij hebt het geheele studentencorps vaak naar de maan gewenscht [. . .] ge zijt vaak beroerd thuis
gekomen.” S.W. Becking to Lorentz, October 8, 1871 (LA 651).
 Studies in Leiden 13

Even before his arrival in Leiden, Lorentz was known among the professors as
a very promising student. One such professor was Frederik Kaiser, who had heard
much about the talented Lorentz from his doctoral student Van de Stadt. Kaiser
received Lorentz warmly and welcomed him into his home. Lorentz’s presence
was an opportunity for Kaiser to resume his lectures on theoretical astronomy,
classes he had suspended earlier due to a lack of interest on the part of the stu-
dents. Lorentz quickly became the only student in the class, and at the end of the
year Kaiser decided that for Lorentz to sit a formal exam would be nothing less
than “an unnecessary sham fight.” Lorentz also had a good relationship with
Petrus Leonardus (Pieter) Rijke, Leiden’s only professor of physics. Later, on the
occasion of his golden doctorate in 1925, Lorentz praised Rijke’s “good and warm
heart,” even though the man might have looked somewhat forbidding at first sight.
The student years were characterized by hard work and frugality. Lunch was
sometimes replaced by a long walk with a student friend and later Lorentz remem-
bered “how ‘pitiful’ it was to come home like that in a city where the others had
just finished their midday meal.”25
As early as November 6, 1871, a little over a year after arriving, Lorentz had
already passed his kandidaatsexamen26 with the highest honors, magna cum laude.
This was exceptionally fast but, according to Berta, the mathematician Van Geer
was still slightly disappointed with the candidate’s performance. That disappoint-
ment quickly faded when it turned out that Van Geer had believed Lorentz was
taking the doctoraal examination instead of the kandidaatsexamen. For Lorentz
there was no question of disappointment; he was more likely very relieved, accord-
ing to his remark in a letter to Van Bemmelen the following day: “the word ‘magna’
has been more of a compensation for my examination anxiety than I had dared to
expect.”27
After the exam, Lorentz let his membership of the Leidsch Studenten Corps lapse
and in February 1872 he returned home to Arnhem. Student and fraternity life
were clearly not something he yearned for and, moreover, he was far too busy with
his studies. He had decided that he could also prepare for the doctoraal exam­in­
ation at home in Arnhem, all by himself. That decision worked out very well
indeed. On June 14 and 15, 1873 he sat for the examination, once again passing
with the highest honors.

25
“hoe ‘zielig’ het was zoo thuis te komen in een stad waar de anderen juist hun middagmaal geëin-
digd hadden.” Reminiscences of Aletta Lorentz-­Kaiser (RB).
26
In those days there were two university examinations: the kandidaatsexamen, or candidate’s exam,
an exam that was taken more or less midway through the curriculum, and the final doctoraalexamen, or
doctoral examination. This terminology is a bit confusing. The doctoraalexamen does not confer the
degree of doctor, a degree that is achieved only after the defense of a doctoral dissertation. In some
faculties, such as medicine, students also had to take a comprehensive examination after their freshman
year, the propaedeutic examination.
27
“het woord ‘magna’ heeft mij beter voor de examenkoorts schadeloos gesteld dan ik had durven
verwachten.” Lorentz to Van Bemmelen, November 7, 1871 (RB).
14 Childhood and student years

Lorentz as a schoolteacher
Meanwhile, in order to support himself, Lorentz had taken a position as a
teacher—for a yearly salary of 1400 guilders—at the Burgeravondschool, the even-
ing school that was part of the Arnhem HBS. At first, he did not find the work easy
at all. Teaching boys of his own age who worked during the day as carpenters,
bricklayers, housepainters, and the like, and who were not particularly engrossed
in their studies, turned out to be very difficult. Lorentz’s struggles to keep order in
class sometimes led to unpleasant situations: an attempt to remove one of the
students from the class even ended up in fisticuffs and resulted in a torn garment.
Yet Lorentz improved, slowly but steadily, and in the annual report for the year
1873 the school’s director Van Bemmelen was able—fortunately—to report good
progress:

Although Mr. Lorentz, who has been hired by the School on 1 October of last year
as a teacher of Mathematics, Chemistry, and Natural History, teaches in a way that
in form as well as content is excellent for the class of young men who attend evening
school, order in his classes has sorely been lacking during the academic year
1872/1873. The cause can only lie in the inexperience of Mr. Lorentz, who was as yet
unable to develop the necessary authority and decisiveness with regard to his stu-
dents. The deputy director, Dr. H. van de Stadt, together with the undersigned, has
tried in all sorts of ways to work towards an improvement. I am happy to report that
Mr. Lorentz—who is not in the least lacking in good will and diligence—has made
good progress in the art of managing a class since the summer vacation. An improve-
ment with regard to order in his class is noticeable.28

Perhaps these problems of order in the classroom were what motivated Lorentz in
the summer of 1873 to apply for a position as a teacher of mathematics at the HBS
in the town of Alkmaar, 45 kilometers north of Amsterdam. He had not yet completed
his doctorate, which was probably one of the reasons he did not get the job.29 In
contrast to the present-­day situation, it was quite normal in those days for teachers
in secondary schools to have doctorates, regardless of whether they were teaching
at a Gymnasium or a HBS. Be this as it may, Lorentz’s improvement apparently
continued, for the next annual report stated that “irregularities of any im­port­
ance” had not occurred that year. Obviously, he had become more experienced

28
“Ofschoon de Heer Lorentz, sinds 1 Oct des vorigen jaars aan de School geplaatst als leeraar in
Wiskunde, Scheikunde en Nat. historie, een onderwijs geeft, dat zoowel in vorm en inhoud uitmuntend
is voor de klasse van jongelieden, die de avondschool bezoeken, heeft evenwel aan de orde op zijne
lessen in den Cursus 1872/73 nog al wat ontbroken. De oorzaak kan alleen gelegen zijn in de onerva­
renheid van den Heer Lorentz, die nog niet de noodige kracht en vastheid tegenover zijne leerlingen
wist te ontwikkelen. De onderdirecteur Dr. H. van de Stadt heeft met den ondergeteekende getracht op
allerlei wijze aan eene verbetering mede te werken. Het is mij aangenaam mede te kunnen deelen dat
de heer Lorentz—dien het allerminst aan goeden wil en ijverig streven ontbreekt—sedert de groote
vacantie goede vorderingen heeft gemaakt in de kunst van eene klasse te besturen. Eene verbetering
wat de orde betreft is merkbaar.” Archive HBS, Gelders Archief, Arnhem.
29
See Lorentz to Van Bemmelen, July 25, 1873 (RB).
 Physics in theory and practice 15

and had gained some authority. What may have helped was that Lorentz grew a
full beard around that time to look a little older. He also took the old adage “never
turn your back on the class” to an extreme; his friend Haga remembers how
Lorentz managed to discuss extremely complicated figures with his back to the
blackboard.
Since teaching came more easily to Lorentz now, he allowed himself more time
for relaxation. Occasionally he was even able to afford a trip abroad, together with
friends or with his parents. In the summer of 1879, for example, Lorentz and his
parents traveled to Paris for a two-­week vacation. In a little notebook he kept a
day-­to-­day account of their sightseeing, the attractions they visited, and even the
restaurants where they had meals.30 In the Folies-­Bergère they saw “trained dogs,
Negroes caterwauling, strong girl with weights, ballet with electric lights.” A visit
to the morgue of Paris—a major attraction in those days—he found disappoint-
ing, because there were no bodies on display.31 In the diary he jotted down quite a
few dryly comical observations: “lady with parrot,” “taken a bath and stolen the
fragrant soap,” or “lost Baedeker [guidebook], great consternation.” On the way
back on the train he noticed “farm women speaking Walloon that no Christian
soul could understand,” and in Antwerp he “especially admired: the handsome
waiters and the politeness of a Belgian when he is asked for directions.”32
When Lorentz left the Arnhem HBS, a “parting gift accompanied by a fitting
letter,” presented to Lorentz by students and teachers together, shows that his
teaching had eventually worked out just fine. In later years, Lorentz’s teaching
would be more than just fine. Newspaper reviews of his public lectures often
commended him for his crystal-­clear presentation, while his Leiden students also
highly appreciated his lectures; his Monday morning lectures in particular
became legendary.

Physics in theory and practice

Apart from teaching evening school in those Arnhem years, Lorentz was busy
with his own physics experiments. Gerrit Jan Michaelis, his fellow student from
Leiden, wrote about this:

In 1873 I saw him again in Arnhem. He was full of new ideas about physics then and
assumed the existence of phenomena that he wanted to try and see. But there was

30
The notebook is in RB.
31
Unidentified bodies that had been found, for instance, in the Seine were displayed behind glass
windows to facilitate identifications. As an unintended consequence the morgue became a public
attraction.
32
“gedresseerde honden, Negers met kattenmuziek, sterke meid met gewichten, ballet met elec-
trisch licht,” “Dame met de papagaai,” “een bad genomen en de welriekende zeep gestolen,” “Baedeker
verloren, grote ontsteltenis,” “boerinnen die Waalsch praatten en voor geen christenmensch te ver-
staan waren,” “vooral bewonderd: de mooie kellners en de beleefdheid van een Belg als men hem de
weg vraagt.”
16 Childhood and student years

little opportunity in Arnhem to do so. In his father’s house a primitive laboratory was
set up then, equipped in part with his own handmade little instruments, or some-
times those made with the assistance of Otto Lincker, the instrument-­maker and
assistant for physics at the HBS. Sometimes we also went to the school building on
Sunday mornings, to work in the small cabinet of Van de Stadt, a teacher at the time,
but later the director of the HBS. We did this without asking his permission, but we
took care that everything was put back in place afterwards. Light experiments were
done primarily with a telescope I owned. In the cover of the brass tube that could be
slid around the glass, a round hole was drilled to allow a thin beam of light to shine
through. Thus, diffraction phenomena were investigated. Lorentz was convinced of
the existence of electrical waves and tried to observe them through discharge phe-
nomena in a Leyden jar. Sometimes he believed he did see something, but then he
declared the next day that it could also be explained by means of the old theory. It
did not work because the tools were too deficient. [. . .] During all these cozy meetings
at his house, Lorentz’s father was present as well, thoroughly enjoying himself. He
was an easy-­going, kind man, who later behaved like a hero when his leg had to be
amputated without the possibility of being anaesthetized.33

After his doctoraal examination Lorentz continued to work stubbornly in the

seclusion of his father’s home to complete a doctoral dissertation. He read the
works of the great men of the theory of electromagnetism, like the German
Hermann von Helmholtz and the Scotsman James Clerk Maxwell. He actually
began his study of Maxwell in his second year at university, when he happened to
find a still-­unopened copy in the university library of Maxwell’s difficult but most
important work: A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. His great admiration for
the Frenchman Augustin Fresnel as a pioneer in the theory of light also dates back
to those days. A portrait of Fresnel always hung in Lorentz’s study, and toward the
end of his life his admiration appeared to be as great as ever, judging by what he
said at the 100th anniversary celebration of Fresnel’s birth:

33
“In 1873 zag ik hem in Arnhem weder. Hij was toen vol van nieuwe ideeën op natuurkundig
gebied en vermoedde verschijnselen, die hij wilde trachten te zien. Maar daartoe was in Arnhem weinig
gelegenheid. In het huis van zijn vader werd toen een primitief laboratorium ingericht, ten deele met
zijn eigen gemaakte instrumentjes, ook wel met behulp van Otto Lincker, instrumentmaker en amanu-
ensis voor natuurkunde aan de H.B.S. Soms gingen wij ook wel op een Zondag ochtend naar de school,
om in het kabinet van Van de Stadt, toen leeraar, later directeur van de H.B.S., te werken. Wij deden
dat zonder hem permissie te vragen, maar zorgden, dat alles weer netjes op zijn plaats kwam.
Lichtproeven werden voornamelijk gedaan met een verrekijker van mij. In den deksel van de koperen
buis die om het glas kon geschoven worden, werd een ronde opening geboord om een dunnen lichtbun-
del door te laten. Zoo werden buigingsverschijnselen onderzocht. Lorentz was overtuigd van het
bestaan van electrische golven en trachtte daarvan iets waar te nemen door ontladingsverschijnselen
van een Leidsche flesch. Soms meende hij zoo iets te zien, maar dan vertelde hij den volgenden dag,
dat het ook door de oude theorie te verklaren was. Het gelukte niet, omdat de hulpmiddelen te gebrek-
kig waren. [ . . . ] Bij al die gezellige bijeenkomsten in zijn huis was ook de vader van Lorentz aanwezig,
die er veel pleizier in had. Hij was een gemoedelijke vriendelijke man, die zich later als een held gedra-
gen heeft, toen zijn been geamputeerd moest worden zonder dat hij onder narcose kon gebracht
worden.” Michaelis to Aletta Lorentz-­Kaiser, May 1, 1928 (LA 725).
The amputation was performed in 1887, in Lorentz’s presence (see E. van Dieren to Lorentz,
undated, LA 17).
 Physics in theory and practice 17

Fresnel has been one of those masters to whom I owe the most, and I still remember,
more than half a century ago, when my resources allowed me to buy a somewhat
more extensive book on physics than the usual textbooks, that I procured for myself
the publication of the Complete Works of Augustin Fresnel. [. . .] My admiration and
my respect had blended with my love and affection.34

On December 11, 1875, Hendrik obtained his doctorate, once again magna cum
laude, with a doctoral dissertation entitled Over de Theorie der Terugkaatsing en
Breking van het Licht (“On the Theory of Reflection and Refraction of Light”).
His dissertation advisor was Rijke. The content of this groundbreaking work will
be discussed in more depth in Chapter 4.
Having a doctorate did not bring any great changes to Lorentz’s lifestyle, at
least not yet. He continued to live in Arnhem and he also continued to study phys-
ics. Earlier in the year 1875, his first publication had already appeared: his solution
to a mathematical problem.35 During that period, Lorentz also reworked his
dissertation for publication in a German-­
­ language journal. Additionally, he
worked on an article about the propagation of light which was so important that
Rijke presented it for publication at the Academy of Sciences in September 1877.36
Teaching at secondary schools no longer presented any difficulties to him: in the
meantime he had taken on another hour of teaching more advanced students and
substituted now and again at the HBS. At the end of 1877, though, this quiet little
life came to a rather abrupt end.

34
“Fresnel a été un des maitres auxquels je dois le plus, et je me rappelle encore que lorsque, il y a plus
d’un demi-­siècle, mes ressources me permirent d’acheter un livre de physique un peu plus étendu que les
manuels ordinaires, je me suis procuré la publication des Œuvres Complètes d’Augustin Fresnel. [. . .]
Mon admiration et mon respect s’étaient mêlés d’amour et d’affection.” Lorentz 1927b, 515.
35
See Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde 1 (1875): 189–193.
36
Lorentz 1877a, Lorentz 1877b, Lorentz 1878b, Lorentz 1879a, and Lorentz 1879a.
Chapter 2
Professorship and family life

Changes in higher education

In the spring of 1876, the Dutch parliament passed a law involving a fundamental
reform of higher education. It went into effect in October of 1877.1 Following the
lead of developments abroad, in particular in Germany, the law entailed that, in
addition to intellectual and academic development, the independent pursuit of
science became an explicit objective of a university education. At the same time
the old Latin School, or Athenaeum Illustre, in Amsterdam was elevated to the level
of a full-­ fledged university, thereby creating the fourth university in the
Netherlands.2 Beside the traditional professorships, the new position of privaatdo-
cent was created at universities. A privaatdocent had the right to lecture in classes
but was not employed by the university and was paid by the students. Words were
followed by deeds, as the government also provided ample financial means to sup-
port the far-­reaching changes. By 1880 the total size of the budget for universities
had been doubled, compared to that of 1876, and the number of professorships
had risen rapidly. In the faculties of mathematics and physics the number of chairs
was increased from twenty in 1877 to twenty-­eight in 1879, and Amsterdam and
Groningen, for example, built new, state-­of-­the-­art laboratories. A fifty-­percent
raise in salary was also part of the package.
In Leiden, Lorentz’s dissertation advisor Rijke, the only professor of physics at
the time, argued for the institution of a chair specifically for mathematical physics.
Whether or not this drive would be a success was doubtful. It was feared that the
minister of education would view this expansion of the number of mathematics
professors from two to three as unnecessary. Be this as it may, there was an obvi-
ous candidate for the chair: Johannes Diderik van der Waals, who had obtained his
PhD in 1873 under Rijke. Van der Waals, a self-­made man, was director of the
HBS in The Hague at the time. His work had become world famous all at once
when his dissertation was published in 1873. As early as 1874, the prominent
physicist James Clerk Maxwell had already written a laudatory review, predicting
that “there can be no doubt that the name of Van der Waals will soon be among

1
See Berkel 1985, chaps. 4 and 5 for the complicated history of the law and its aftermath.
2
The Athenaeum educated physicians and lawyers and did not have the right to confer doctorates.

“A Living Work of Art”: The Life and Science of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. A. J. Kox and H. F. Schatz, Oxford University Press (2021).
© A. J. Kox and H. F. Schatz. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198870500.003.0003
 Appointment as professor 19

the foremost in molecular science.”3 During a lecture a short while later, he

expressed himself again in very complimentary terms about Van der Waals’ work.
It was the same lecture in which he made the often-­quoted pronouncement: “It
has certainly directed the attention of more than one inquirer to the low-­Dutch
language in which it is written.”4 At any rate, Maxwell himself had found the work
a good reason to study the Dutch language.

Changes for Lorentz

All these developments caused a drastic change in Lorentz’s quiet life. In the sum-
mer of 1877, he hatched a plan to apply for a position to teach physics at the HBS
in the predominantly Catholic town of Roermond, in the province of Limburg.
Rijke got wind of this and sprang into action.
In a letter to Lorentz dated August 23, 1877, he laid out his plan to get Lorentz
to move to Leiden.5 A job in Roermond would be difficult to get, he wrote, as
Lorentz was not a Roman Catholic and he had a competitor who was of that reli-
gion. However, through the grapevine Rijke had heard that a mathematics and
physics teaching position was about to open up at the Leiden Gymnasium. He sug-
gested that Lorentz apply for the job and, at the same time, become a privaatdocent
at the university. Rijke also wrote that it was not at all certain that Van der Waals
would come to Leiden, since there was also an offer from Amsterdam. Should he
not be coming, then Lorentz would be the right man in the right place, according to
Rijke. Van der Waals did indeed accept the offer from Amsterdam. On September
19 he was already appointed professor there.6 Rijke viewed Lorentz’s application to
teach at the Gymnasium and a subsequent position as lecturer as the first steps on
the way to a full-­fledged professorship. It would at least bring him back to Leiden,
where he could then make an extra effort to distinguish himself with his lectures.
Lorentz followed Rijke’s advice and applied for the job. On November 7 he was
nominated as the only candidate and the Municipal Council of Leiden passed a
proposal to appoint Lorentz as the third mathematics teacher at the Gymnasium.7
Nevertheless, an unexpected course of events prevented his appointment.

Appointment as professor
On November 3, Lorentz received a letter from Rijke. He was told, without much
ado, that the curators of the university8 had decided during their meeting that day

3
Maxwell 1874. 4
See Maxwell 1875.
5
All letters from Rijke to Lorentz are in LA 101.
6
See Nederlandsche Staats-­Courant, September 20, 1877.
7
See Handelingen van de Gemeenteraad van Leiden, October 31, 1877.
8
At Dutch universities the Board of Curators was responsible for academic appointments and
budgetary matters.
20 Professorship and family life

to write to the Minister of the Interior “to request with insistence that you be
appointed immediately as Professor of Mathematical Physics.” Rijke added some-
what dryly: “This news will surely mystify you.”9 He then went on to explain what
had happened.
In Utrecht, a second chair of mathematics needed to be filled. The candidate for
the job was George Baehr, professor at the polytechnic school—which later
became a technical university—in Delft.When it turned out, though, that Cornelius
Grinwis, the occupant of the existing chair, wanted to lecture on all the important
topics, Baehr declined. Meanwhile, Grinwis had reviewed the manuscript by
Lorentz that Rijke had submitted to the Amsterdam Academy a few months earl­
ier and in a report, written together with Van der Waals, he had commended it
highly. He was so impressed by the article that he even wanted to offer the chair
of mathematics to Lorentz.
This turn of events caused a slight panic in Leiden, but some fast footwork by
Rijke enabled the curators and the Faculty to send off their letter to the Minister
on November 3. As little as two weeks later, on November 17, Lorentz was
appointed by Royal Decree to the position of professor in the faculty of math­em­
at­ics and physics.10
It is interesting to note how Rijke emphasized in a later letter that Lorentz’s
assignment of mathematical physics was only meant to meet a temporary demand.
None of the mathematicians was willing to lecture on the subject at the time, so a
redistribution of tasks was expected.11 In the end, this redistribution never came to
pass. Another interesting detail is that Lorentz was the first professor in the
Netherlands, and one of the first in Europe, to occupy himself specifically with the
subject of mathematical—or theoretical—physics. In the years to follow, this field
would quickly develop internationally into an important independent discipline.12

Inaugural lecture
On January 25, 1878 Lorentz accepted his professorial duties by delivering his
inaugural lecture on molecular theories in physics, entitled De Moleculaire Theoriën

9
“met aandrang te verzoeken U dadelijk tot Professor in de Mathematische Physica te benoemen.”
“Die tijding zal U zeker wel bevreemden.”
10
See Nederlandsche Staats-­Courant, November 18 and 19, 1877. Obviously some information had
been leaked, as the daily Het Nieuws van den Dag of November 8 already mentioned the proposal of
the Leiden curators and the Utrecht efforts.
11
Rijke to Lorentz, November 7, 1877 (LA 101). In a later note (LA 192) Lorentz phrases it as
follows: “17 November 1877. Appointed to teach mathematics and physics, assigned for the time
being to teaching mathematical physics, with the prospect of a later, perhaps more desirable distribu-
tion of the mathematics teaching load among the professors.” (17 November 1877. Benoemd tot het
geven van onderwijs in de wis- en natuurkunde met de bedoeling vooralsnog onderwijs te geven in de
wiskundige natuurkunde met het oog op een latere wellicht meer gewenschte verdeeling van het onder-
wijs in de wiskunde onder hoogleeraren.)
12
See Jungnickel and McCormmach 1986 for more about this development.
 Inaugural lecture 21

in de Natuurkunde.13 It is an interesting and important piece of work that deserves

more detailed attention, especially because his observations are in part still rele-
vant today. After welcoming his audience with the unusual form of address “Zeer
gewenschte toehoorders” (Much desired audience) Lorentz began his lecture by
observing something that will sound familiar to a great many physicists from
­conversations at birthday parties or other social events:

When someone who has never seriously practiced any part of physical science
glances at our physics journals and sees what subject matter experimental research
involves, he is likely inclined to view a large part of those investigations as completely
useless.14

Lorentz continued by giving a few examples of arcane experimental work, such as

the determination of specific heat of the rare element cerium, but then went on to
point out that the purpose of the science of physics was not to collect as many
arbitrary facts as possible:

On the contrary, they only truly acquire their proper meaning if one succeeds to
uncover the relation between them, and it must be the ultimate goal of the investiga-
tion to derive the countless phenomena of nature as necessary consequences of some
basic principles.15

Lorentz then pointed out that several branches of natural science had been quite
successful in summarizing all kinds of phenomena in this scientific way and that
quantitative research in physics had made especially great advances. For this
quantitative research, the language of mathematics was indispensable, so he
asserted, and therefore mathematical—nowadays theoretical—physics had
­developed side by side with experimental physics.
To illustrate his point, Lorentz then elaborated on an important and very prom-
ising concept: molecular theory. The words he used to introduce this subject are
remarkable:

For nobody it will be unfamiliar nowadays that physicists imagine any physical body
as a system of very small particles, the so-­called molecules, each of which can be com-
posed, as chemistry teaches us, of a number of still smaller particles, the atoms.16

13
“Molecular Theories in Physics.” Lorentz 1878a.
14
“Wanneer iemand, die nog nooit eenig deel der natuurwetenschap ernstig heeft beoefend, een blik
slaat in onze natuurkundige tijdschriften en ziet, met welke onderwerpen zich het experimenteel onder-
zoek bezig houdt, is hij allicht geneigd, een groot deel dier onderzoekingen voor volstrekt nutteloos te
houden.”
15
“Integendeel verkrijgen deze eerst hunne rechte beteekenis, als het gelukt, het verband er tusschen
op te sporen en het einddoel van het onderzoek moet het zijn, de talloze verschijnselen der natuur als
noodzakelijke gevolgen uit enkele grondbeginselen af te leiden.”
16
“Wel niemand zal het tegenwoordig onbekend zijn, dat de natuurkundigen zich elk lichaam voor-
stellen als een stelsel van zeer kleine deeltjes, de zogenaamde moleculen, waarvan elke, zoals de schei-
kunde ons leert, uit een aantal nog kleinere deeltjes, de atomen, kan zijn opgebouwd.”
22 Professorship and family life

His statement was particularly remarkable because of its certainty. Actually, to

most people in the nineteenth century the existence of atoms and molecules was
not at all self-­evident. Some, like the positivistic Austrian physicist and philoso-
pher Ernst Mach, had trouble with the assumption of entities that were not ac­cess­
ible to direct observation. There was also a movement, which was gaining traction
in the latter decades of the nineteenth century, toward explaining natural phe-
nomena not by means of atomism but by assigning a central position to the con-
cept of energy. In the end, it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century
that even the final skeptics wholly accepted the idea of atomism.17
The atomistic world view, so Lorentz contended, went back to antiquity and
was further developed in the seventeenth century by assuming forces were at work
between the smallest particles, either attracting or repelling them. He emphasized,
though, that these forces cannot be understood by analogy, for example, to mus-
cular force. They occur in the mathematical equations describing the motions of
particles without the possibility of indicating a specific mechanism. As Lorentz
said, “one starts from a basic principle which itself escapes any further
explanation.”18 One should beware of an excess of illustration, he admonished.
The point of view that Lorentz expressed here was very clear and showed that he
had given serious thought to the basic principles of his discipline.
He then went on to discuss some explanatory mechanisms in which particles
and forces did not play a role and reached the conclusion that, even though room
should be left for alternative approaches, the “representation according to which
the atoms attract and repel each other is still way ahead of its competitors.”19 The
rest of his lecture he devoted to the results that had been achieved by means of the
molecular concept of matter. In rapid succession he discussed fluids, gases, and
solid bodies and explained clearly what advances had been made and what prob-
lems there still were. In particular he dwelled on the dissertation by Van der Waals,
who derived an equation—the “Van der Waals equation of state”—that provided
a much better description of the relation between pressure, density, and tempera-
ture of gases than the old gas laws. Lorentz also mentioned efforts to draw conclu-
sions from the optical properties of transparent bodies about the molecular
structure of such bodies—precisely the subject of the paper he had written at the
end of 1877.
The discussion of Van der Waals’ work, in particular a footnote in the published
version of his inaugural lecture where Lorentz stated that he had found an add­
ition to Van der Waals’ calculations, drew Van der Waals’ attention and led to a note

17
The experimental confirmation of Albert Einstein’s molecular theory for the so-­called Brownian
motion played an important role in this acceptance process. Brownian motion is the phenomenon that
observable microscopic particles, such as pollen, are in chaotic motion when placed in suspension in a
fluid. Einstein explained this motion as a result of collisions between the particles and the molecules of
which the fluid consists. His theory was quickly confirmed experimentally by the French physicist Jean
Perrin. See also Nye 1976.
18
“gaat men van een grondbeginsel uit dat zelf aan verdere verklaring ontsnapt.”
19
“de voorstellingswijze, volgens welke de atomen elkaar aantrekken of afstooten, hare mededing-
sters nog ver vooruit is.”
 Lorentz’s methodology 23

from him thanking Lorentz for his kind words and showing curiosity about
Lorentz’s new result.20 Lorentz’s addition was only published in 1881,21 but there
can be no doubt that he shared it with Van der Waals well before that time.

Lorentz’s methodology
Lorentz’s ideas about the structure of matter and his views on the field of physics
were further elaborated and clarified in a number of his lectures in the following
decades.22 Two topics were particularly important in this context: the role of
hypotheses and the central position of the concept of determinism in natural
­science.
In a lecture in 1891, Lorentz discussed the choice of hypotheses.23 Prefacing the
actual topic of the lecture entitled “Electriciteit en Ether” (Electricity and Ether),
Lorentz reflected on the method a theoretical physicist employed to acquire
knowledge about phenomena in nature:

With regard to any natural phenomenon we are more or less in the position of some-
one who, without being familiar with the working of a clock, can only observe the
hands and the pendulum. Such a person would also draw up his hypotheses and
perhaps he might be able to find more than one that would satisfy him. The same is
possible with respect to the phenomena offered to us by nature, and thus we arrive
at the difficulty of making a choice.24

In this choice of hypothesis, so Lorentz asserted, a physicist must be guided by the

question of “which hypothesis is the most satisfying because of its simplicity,”25
though he admitted that this criterion of simplicity also involves a matter of taste.
In two lectures, one in 1900 and one in 1905, Lorentz further elaborated on this
problem of choice.26 He now made an important distinction between two kinds of
theories: the “careful” or “phenomenological” theories on the one hand, and the
more “adventurous” ones on the other:27

In the first kind, one respects as much as possible what has been directly observed;
[. . .] in the theories of the second group, on the other hand, we imagine, beyond what

20
Johannes D. van der Waals to Lorentz, March 8, 1979 (Kox 2018, 1).
21
See Lorentz 1881a. 22
See also Theunissen 2000, chap. 8, for Lorentz’s concept of science.
23
Lorentz 1891b.
24
“Tegenover elk natuurverschijnsel verkeeren wij min of meer in het geval van iemand die, zonder
met de inrichting van een uurwerk bekend te zijn, alleen de beweging van de wijzers en de slinger kan
waarnemen. Zoo iemand zou ook zijne hypothesen stellen en hij zou er wellicht meer dan één kunnen
vinden, die hem bevredigde. Hetzelfde is mogelijk bij de verschijnselen, die de natuur ons aanbiedt en
zoo geraken wij in de moeilijkheid, eene keus te doen.”
25
“welke hypothese door haren eenvoud het meest bevredigt.”
26
See Lorentz 1900a and Lorentz 1905c.
27
“Voorzichtige of fenomenologische.” “gewaagde.” Lorentz 1905c. A similar distinction was made
in Lorentz 1900a.
24 Professorship and family life

we observe, a world of invisible and hidden particles, whose expressions are the
effects that are accessible to us.28

Examples of the second kind were the theory of hydrodynamics and Maxwell’s
theory of electromagnetism. Hydrodynamics was led by the macroscopic equa-
tions of motion, while Maxwell’s theory was led by the so-­called Maxwell equa-
tions for the electromagnetic field. Implicitly, Lorentz made it clear that the second
kind of theory was to be preferred, although in drawing up such a theory the
physicist should, of course, beware of being carried away too much by his
­imagination. In his 1900 lecture, Lorentz had been more explicit in stating his
preference:

The satisfaction that the general laws do not grant us, we seek, and also find in part,
in the special theories about the mechanism of the phenomena; these are the ones
that give us a vivid and clear, though limited, image of the cohesion and the essence
of things. While they teach us to recognize as necessary what has already been found,
they cause us to identify what is still hidden, and they lead us to new experiments,
perhaps to new discoveries.29

By introducing these two kinds of theories, Lorentz anticipated a similar distinc-

tion that was later made by Einstein between “theories of principle” and “con-
structive theories.” According to Einstein, thermodynamics and special relativity
were examples of the first kind, and kinetic theory, from which thermodynamics
can be derived, an example of the second, which he declared preferable.30
In his 1905 lecture, while discussing determinism, Lorentz very clearly pre-
sented his viewpoint. He asserted that natural science should be strictly determin-
istic in order to function properly:

We must assume that from the state of the physical world at one moment the state at
a following moment must follow by necessity.31

Lorentz also stated that mathematics was indispensable for drawing up theories of
physics, since the deterministic laws of physics expressed quantitative relations. A
few years later he further elaborated his views on determinism in a series of three

28
“In de eerste houdt men zich zooveel mogelijk aan het rechtstreeks waargenomene; [. . .] in de
theorieën der tweede groep daarentegen stellen wij ons achter hetgeen wij waarnemen een wereld van
onzichtbare en verborgen deeltjes voor, waarvan de voor ons toegankelijke werkingen de uitingen zijn.”
Lorentz 1905c.
29
“De bevrediging, die de algemeene wetten ons niet schenken, zoeken, en vinden wij ook ten deele,
in de bijzondere theorieën over het mechanisme der verschijnselen; deze zijn het, die ons van den samen-
hang en het wezen der dingen eene wel is waar gebrekkige, maar toch levendige en heldere voorstelling
geven. Terwijl zij ons het reeds gevondene als noodzakelijk leeren erkennen, doen zij ons het verborgene
op het spoor komen, en leiden tot nieuwe proefnemingen, misschien tot nieuwe ontdekkingen.”
30
That Lorentz anticipated Einstein was stated earlier, in Frisch 2005.
31
“Wij moeten wel aannemen dat, uit den toestand der stoffelijke wereld op één oogenblik, de toe-
stand op een volgend oogenblik met noodzakelijkheid voortvloeit.”
 Lorentz’s methodology 25

more or less similar lectures on prediction in natural science. One of them was
published and reports about the other two appeared in some of the Dutch news-
papers.32 On the basis of a few examples—like the return of Halley’s comet and
the prediction that the coefficient of heat conductivity of a gas is independent of
its density—Lorentz concluded that the laws of science permit the prediction of
many phenomena with great certainty:

One thing is certain, however, and that is that we can often predict the course of the
physical and chemical phenomena in a very satisfactory manner.33

Lorentz then proceeded to venture into the realm of speculation, though. He

posed himself the question whether this deterministic viewpoint was also valid for
the world of psychology and decided that there is a close relationship between the
material and the psychological world: “Everything leads to the belief that for each
function of our spirit there is a corresponding state that is determined by the
brain.”34 The corollary of this relationship was obvious, he believed:

If one admits that every psychical phenomenon is by necessity accompanied by

something that occurs in the material world, something that, furthermore, leads us
nat­ur­al­ly to admitting also the inverse proposition, then it is clear that one cannot be
a determinist in physics without also being one in psychology.35

This immediately confronted Lorentz with a well-­known problem: the apparent

contradiction between free will and a world ruled by deterministic laws. Lorentz
had to admit defeat here, and the only option left open to him was to simply
accept this unsatisfactory state of affairs. His resulting conclusion was rather lame:

If, on the one hand, we cannot evade the idea of determinism and if, on the other
hand, we are conscious of being able to act freely, that proves a lack of unity within
our inner being.36

Later on, in 1915, Lorentz went still further in his speculations about the relation-
ship between the material and the non-­material world, writing to the theologian

32
The lectures were held in Leiden on March 23, 1911 (reported in newspaper Het Vaderland of the
following day), in Groningen on February 20, 1912 (reported in Nieuwsblad van het Noorden of the
following day), and in Brussels, in French, on March 28, 1914 (published as Lorentz 1921c).
33
“Une chose est certaine cependant, c’est que nous pouvons souvent prévoir le cours des phé-
nomènes physiques et chimiques d’une façon très satisfaisante.”
34
“Tout porte à croire qu’à chaque fonction de notre esprit correspond un état déterminé du
­cerveau.”
35
“Si on admet que tout phénomène psychique est nécessairement accompagné de quelque chose
qui se passe dans le monde matériel, ce qui, du reste, nous conduit naturellement à admettre aussi la
proposition inverse, alors il est clair qu’on ne peut être déterministe en physique sans l’être aussi dans
la psychologie.”
36
“Si d’une part nous ne pouvons nous soustraire à l’idée du déterminisme et si d’autre part nous
avons la conscience de pouvoir agir librement, cela prouve un manque d’unité dans notre être intime.”
26 Professorship and family life

H. Y. Groenewegen, who had asked him for his opinion about a book by the
German philosopher Gustav Theodor Fechner.37 It is worth quoting this letter
because it provides a deeper perspective into Lorentz’s thinking, reaching well
beyond his image as a sober-­minded physicist:

The simple observation that the spirits of different people can understand each
other, that the emotions and opinions of one are not indifferent to another, must lead
us to the assumption of a connection between them, which many of us would like
best to imagine in such a form that all these individual spirits are part of one great
whole, a world spirit or deity. [. . .] But if the spirit is part of a great whole, just like the
body is part of the entire material world, then naturally one arrives at the generaliza-
tion that, as a rule, every event in the psychic realm responds to a change in the
material realm. [. . .] The concept one arrives at in this way is that the spiritual and
the material are inextricably connected, that they are two sides of the same thing, that
the material world is a representation of the world spirit.38

In none of his writings, apart from a letter to Einstein in which he also discussed
this “world spirit,”39 did Lorentz venture so far outside the realm of natural science.

Work in quiet seclusion

Lorentz’s appointment and his move to Leiden may have been a life-­changing
experience for him, but in one respect his life did not change all that much. He
continued to work hard and publish regularly, but apart from his lectures at the
university he did not venture much outside his study. An illustration of this volun-
tary isolation is a story remembered by his daughter Berta. Around 1892, the
family was discussing at lunch that a stranger had been spotted in town that day.
Lorentz’s immediate reaction was telling: “As long as it is not a physicist.”40
The subjects of his dissertation on electromagnetics and optics and his in­aug­
ural lecture on molecular theory would continue to be the leading topics in much
of Lorentz’s scholarly work during the first decades of his professorate. In this

37
Lorentz to Groenewegen, April 5, 1915 (copy in ZA). Fechner’s book is: Ueber die physikalische
und philosophische Atomenlehre.
38
“De eenvoudige waarneming dat de geesten van verschillende personen elkaar kunnen verstaan,
dat de gevoelens en meeningen van den een den ander niet onverschillig zijn, moet ons tot het aanne-
men van een onderling verband leiden, dat menigeen zich zeker liefst in dien vorm zal voorstellen dat
al de individueele geesten deelen van een groot geheel, een wereldgeest of godheid uitmaken. [. . .] Maar
is nu de geest een deel van een groot geheel, evenals ook het lichaam deel van de geheele stoffelijke
wereld is, dan komt men van zelf tot deze generalisatie, dat in het algemeen aan elk gebeuren op psy-
chisch gebied een verandering op materieel gebied beantwoordt. [. . .] De opvatting waartoe men aldus
komt is dat het geestelijke en het stoffelijke onverbrekelijk met elkaar verbonden zijn, dat het twee
kanten van dezelfde zaak zijn, dat de materieele wereld een verschijningsvorm van den wereldgeest is.”
39
Lorentz to Einstein before January 23, 1915 (Kox 2008, 278). In this letter he introduced the
Weltgeist to show that simultaneity could have an absolute character.
40
See Haas-­Lorentz 1957. Unless stated otherwise, the biographical information in the remainder of
this chapter is derived from this publication.
 Work in quiet seclusion 27

way, Lorentz developed a world view that created a clear separation between mat-
ter, consisting of small particles, on the one hand, and the ether, the medium
functioning as carrier of electromagnetic action, on the other. In Chapter 4 this
topic will be discussed in more detail. Lorentz also wrote a number of more gen-
eral publications on molecular theory as such, separate from electrodynamics.
During his first years in Leiden works on a range of topics were published, includ-
ing hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, and the theory of sound.
Soon after his appointment as professor, Lorentz was officially inducted into
the Dutch scientific community. In May of 1881 he was elected a member of the
Royal Academy of Sciences.41 The Academy, established in 1851, was the succes-
sor of the Royal Institute founded by King Louis Napoleon in 1808. Over time,
the Academy had developed into the leading institution of scientific endeavor in
the Netherlands.42 Since 1885 the Academy was—and still is—headquartered
in the famous and magnificent Trippenhuis on one of Amsterdam’s canals. Until
1885 the building also housed the Rijksmuseum, at which point the museum’s
collections were moved to their current location. The Academy’s two sections, one
for the sciences and one for the humanities, counted a total of fifty ordinary mem-
bers and twenty-­five foreign members, as well as fifteen corresponding members.
The departments each had their own chairman and secretary, with the chairmen
taking turns to serve as chairman of the entire Academy for two years. Both
departments held monthly meetings; for the sciences, these were on the last
Saturday of the month. One of the Academy’s stated duties was to provide so­li­
cit­ed or unsolicited advisory opinions to the Dutch government. Some such opin-
ions were concerned with arcane questions like putting lightning rods on the
cathedral in ‘s Hertogenbosch or how to combat excessive noise in prisons. In
reports on these questions in the Academy’s proceedings, the name Lorentz
appears frequently.43
Throughout his life, Lorentz was an active member of the Academy. He faith-
fully attended the meetings, published a large part of his scientific production in
both the Dutch and the English versions of its proceedings, and in the period
between 1910 and 1921 he served as his section’s chairman. This was quite a bur-
densome task that took up much of his time, especially during World War One and
its aftermath.
In 1881, Lorentz also had his first doctoral student: Eduard Otto, who defended
a dissertation on the theory of sound. He was the first of a total of twenty-­five
doctoral students. The last one, Willem van den Berg, presented his dissertation in
1921, on Einstein’s gravitational theory. According to daughter Berta, Lorentz
coached his students intensively and sometimes, if things were not moving along

41
In 1938, its name was changed to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.
42
See Berkel 2008 and Berkel 2011 for a comprehensive account of the Academy’s history.
43
See Berkel 2008, chap. 9, for more on the reports, including accounts of the friction they some-
times caused between the Academy and the government.
28 Professorship and family life

fast enough for his liking, took the bull by the horns and wrote parts of the dis-
sertation himself.44
In the list of Lorentz’s doctoral students a few details are noteworthy. In the first
place, there is an enormous variation in dissertation topics. Apart from the two
topics already mentioned, his students worked on theses about optics, radiation
phenomena, hydrodynamics, electromagnetism, electron theory, and kinetic gas
theory. Secondly, not many of his students made much of a career in physics.
Only three of them became university professors—Leonard Ornstein, Johannes
Droste, and Adriaan Fokker—while some others became secondary school
­teachers. In quite a few cases their careers were so insignificant that no further
information about them can even be found. It is also interesting that no fewer than
four of his final eight doctoral students were women—highly unusual in those
days in the male-­dominated field of science, but not surprising in view of his wife
Aletta’s strong commitment to the cause of women’s rights, which will be dis-
cussed in more detail in Chapter 3. Finally, it is worth noting that Lorentz’s
daughter Berta was also one of his PhD students, something that is frowned upon
nowadays as an undesirable conflict of interest.45
Three years after becoming a member of the Academy, in May of 1884, Lorentz
was also elected to membership in a second prominent scientific society, the
Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (Holland Society of Sciences), head-
quartered in the town of Haarlem.46 This Society, dating back to 1752, is a typical
product of the Enlightenment. Its objective was—and still is—the advancement of
science in the broadest sense. For many years its most important activity was
organizing contests and awarding prizes. These days the Society organizes lec-
tures and gives out stipends and achievement awards. Its membership consists of
persons interested in science (“directors”) and active scientists (“members”).
Starting in 1920, Lorentz became its secretary and, at the same time, the repre-
sentative for science in the Society’s board of directors.
Through his membership of the Hollandsche Maatschappij, Lorentz became
involved in an extraordinary editorial project: the publication, undertaken by the
Maatschappij, of the Œuvres Complètes of Christiaan Huygens, the most cele-
brated scientist in the Netherlands of the seventeenth century. This ambitious
edition did not only include Huygens’s published works but also his cor­res­pond­
ence, all carefully annotated. It was a costly and time-­consuming project: While
the first volume appeared in 1888, the twenty-­second and final volume did not
come off the press until 1950. All volumes were printed in a specially designed
type font on paper watermarked with the names “Christiaan” and “Huygens” on
adjacent pages. Since the volumes were published without reference to the
authors of the various annotations, it is not possible to determine precisely what
Lorentz’s contributed. Judging by his correspondence with the mathematician

Haas-­Lorentz 1957, 36.

44

Berta obtained her doctorate in 1912, with a dissertation on Brownian motion. The other women
45

were Johanna Reudler (1912), Eva Dina Bruins (1918), and Hendrika Johanna van Leeuwen (1919).
46
Royal Holland Society of Sciences since 2002.
 Lorentz as experimentalist 29

D. J. Korteweg, who directed the project for many years, the conclusion is justi-
fied that Lorentz worked on the topics of optics and mechanics and that he
invested much time in the work.47

Lorentz as experimentalist
A special event in this period was the discovery by Pieter Zeeman—in 1896—of a
new effect that was later named after its discoverer: the magnetic separation of
spectral lines. In Chapter 4 the discovery and the explanation of this Zeeman
effect is presented in more detail.
Zeeman, who had obtained his doctorate a few years earlier, made his im­port­
ant discovery in the Leiden physics laboratory where he was working as an as­sist­
ant at the time. Only a few days after Zeeman had made his discovery public,
Lorentz already came up with an explanation that naturally followed from his
earlier ideas about the existence of small charged particles. Based on his theory,
he also made an experimental prediction that was subsequently confirmed by
Zeeman, an excellent example of successful cooperation between an experimen-
talist and a theoretician.
A few months after his discovery, Zeeman was appointed lecturer in Amsterdam,
and this prompted a frequent and extensive correspondence between Lorentz and
Zeeman that has largely been preserved. In his letters, Lorentz showed a side of
himself that has received rather less attention in many descriptions of his activities:
his work in experimental physics.
Lorentz was extremely interested in the experimental side of Zeeman’s discov-
ery and in everything connected with it, so he started experimenting himself.
These experimental activities are documented in detail in their correspondence.
There is even a kind of division of labor between the two men. Lorentz devises an
experiment, but is often not sure of himself with regard to the more technical
aspects of the matter. After asking Zeeman for advice, and even sometimes bor-
rowing Zeeman’s instruments, Lorentz then presents his experimental results and
his theoretical interpretation to Zeeman. The other way around, Zeeman also per-
forms experiments, and Lorentz guides him with regard to the theoretical inter-
pretation of his results. Of course, for this intensive exchange of ideas it was
helpful that in those days mail was delivered four times a day.
All of this makes clear how great Lorentz’s enthusiasm for experimental work
really was.The difference between the two scientists also emerges clearly: Zeeman’s
professional approach and the extensive possibilities available to him in the
Amsterdam laboratory, as opposed to the primitive and more improvised approach
by Lorentz. In short, a classic case of cooperation between an experimentalist and

47
The letters from Korteweg are in LA 43, and those from Lorentz are in the library of the University
of Amsterdam.
30 Professorship and family life

a theoretician, with the added twist that the theoretician also performed ex­peri­
ments himself.

Colleagues and friends

In 1892, Lorentz was joined by a new colleague of the same age, the enthusiastic
and ambitious experimentalist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who had succeeded
Rijke as professor of experimental physics.48 Lorentz and Onnes soon became
close friends. Lorentz already knew Kamerlingh Onnes before his arrival in
Leiden. They had met at the end of their HBS years through their chemistry
teacher, Van Bemmelen, who had taught Onnes in Groningen and, subsequently,
Lorentz in Arnhem. For Onnes his chemistry teacher had played a similarly
inspiring role as Van de Stadt had done for Lorentz.
After having passed the kandidaatsexamen at the university in Groningen,
Onnes went on to study in Heidelberg, where he started working on the disserta-
tion he eventually finished in Groningen in 1879. A year earlier, he had become
the assistant to Johannes Bosscha at the Polytechnic School in Delft.
Under Onnes, a physics laboratory was established in Leiden where two im­port­
ant lines of investigation were started. One line of research was a series of ex­peri­
ments on magneto-­optics, the influence of magnetism on light. It became known
as the “Lorentz series.” The field of magneto-­optics included effects like the
modi­fi­ca­tion of light refracted by a magnetized mirror, known as the Kerr effect.
As the name of the series implied, Lorentz was closely involved in these experi-
ments, which were based for the most part on his theoretical considerations.
A second line of inquiry was the field of low-­temperature physics. In close
cooperation with Van der Waals, who took care of the theoretical aspects,
Kamerlingh Onnes started an ambitious program to achieve ever-­lower tem­per­at­
ures, with the eventual goal of liquefying the “permanent” gases. Nobody had
been able to liquefy these gases until that time, despite a number of prior efforts.
The program’s crowning glory, in 1908, was Onnes’ successful liquefaction of
helium. From that moment on, the emphasis of the Leiden research program
changed somewhat. Since it had now become possible to reach these low tem­per­
at­ures, it was felt that this opportunity should be used to systematically investigate
all sorts of physical properties at extremely low temperatures. This approach led
to a number of new findings, among which was the discovery of the phenomenon
of superconductivity.49
Aside from Onnes, there was another colleague who played an important role
in Lorentz’s life, both professionally and personally. The professor of astronomy
Hendricus Gerardus van de Sande Bakhuyzen, who had succeeded Frederik

See Delft 2007, chap. 9, for the complicated history of the appointment.
48

See Delft 2007 for a biography of Kamerlingh Onnes and a detailed overview of the experimental
49

research in Leiden.
 Lorentz’s first foreign contacts 31

Kaiser when he had passed away in 1872, became a close friend to Lorentz. In a
eulogy at his friend’s funeral in 1923, Lorentz remembered how at first he only
had a master–student relationship with Bakhuyzen, who was fifteen-­years his
se­nior, but it gradually evolved into an increasingly personal connection.50 He
called him a “counselor to whom I could always turn, full of confidence in his
insight and interest, [. . .] also when I needed to take some difficult decision that
was important to me.”51 He praised the hospitality of Bakhuyzen and his wife and
recounted how he met a group of men in their house who excelled in all kinds of
different fields and who, like himself, cherished “delightful memories” of the times
they spent there.

Lorentz’s first foreign contacts

Completely in line with his apparent desire for seclusion, Lorentz did not travel
abroad much until well into his career, and his contacts with foreign colleagues dur-
ing the period between 1987 and 1900 were mainly in writing. The Lorentz cor­res­
pond­ence archive for that period contains only some twenty letters by physicists
from outside the Netherlands. The better part of this correspondence is with the
German physicist Woldemar Voigt and the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann.52
From 1883 onwards, Voigt became a fixture in Lorentz’s correspondence, espe-
cially after the discovery and the theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect in
1896. Voigt had carried out many experiments in this field and had also developed
a theory about the phenomenon. Unlike Lorentz, he based his theory to a much
lesser extent on an explicit particle model.53
Despite their professional differences, Lorentz and Voigt got on well together.
Not surprisingly, Voigt was the first foreign colleague who was received by Lorentz
in Leiden. Actually, this visit did not take place until 1899, which speaks volumes
about the seclusion Lorentz had initially chosen for himself.
Voigt’s visit to Leiden was preceded by a visit to Voigt by Lorentz. During a
vacation in the German town of Holzhausen (in Lippe) in the summer of 1897,
Lorentz made plans for an outing to Göttingen. Voigt held a professorship there
and wanted to meet Lorentz. The visit was a resounding success. Not only did he
meet Voigt himself but he also made the acquaintance of important colleagues like
the mathematician Felix Klein and the physicist Walther Nernst.
After Voigt’s 1899 return visit to Leiden, the two men began to use the German
salutation Verehrter Freund (Esteemed Friend) in their correspondence. Voigt was

50
Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, January 11, 1923.
51
“raadsman, tot wien ik mij steeds vol vertrouwen op zijn inzicht en belangstelling kon wenden,
[. . .] ook als ik een of ander moeilijke en voor mij belangrijke beslissing had te nemen.”
52
Their correspondence to and from Lorentz has been published in Kox 2008.
53
See Voigt 1908 for a detailed explanation. Voigt calls his approach “neutral” because it is not
based on an explicit atomistic model that might be inadequate in more complicated cases (see Voigt to
Lorentz, November 15, 1899, Kox 2008, 71).
32 Professorship and family life

one of very few of Lorentz’s correspondents whom he continued to address like

this, and this unusual occurrence in Lorentz’s letters speaks to the friendship
between the two men.54 Lorentz being awarded an honorary doctorate—his first—
at the University of Göttingen on June 17, 1899 may also have had something to
do with the cordial relationship between the two men.55 Unfortunately, he was
unable to attend the award ceremony in Göttingen.
Lorentz’s correspondence with the famous Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann
is less personal and mostly of interest for its scientific content. Boltzmann, like
Lorentz, was a strong proponent of the atomistic view of matter. He was well
known because of his work on kinetic gas theory, the molecular theory of gases
and liquids, and this theory was the main topic of their correspondence. Without
going into the matter too deeply here, it is fair to say that Lorentz made a few
important improvements and additions to Boltzmann’s work.56 Boltzmann clearly
did not take Lorentz’s corrections the wrong way, judging by the beginning of one
of his letters:

Already by the postmark and the handwriting I recognized that the letter came from
you and I was delighted. It is true that any letter from you means a mistake made by
me; only, I always learn so much from them that I would almost wish that I made
more mistakes, in order to receive still more letters from you.57

As Boltzmann felt that his work was underappreciated in his own country, he also
expressed his pleasure in Lorentz’s pertinent comments: “I am very happy that
I have found in you someone who works on the further elaboration of my ideas on
gas theory. In Germany there is almost nobody who properly understands the
matter.”58
In his letters Lorentz, on his part, appeared to be pleased with Boltzmann’s
willingness to enter into a discussion with him, and it must have been satisfying
that Boltzmann, a figure he much admired, frankly acknowledged his own mis-
takes. In the eulogy Lorentz gave in 1907 in Berlin, after Boltzmann’s dramatic
suicide, he called him a “leader in our science and a groundbreaker in many fields”
and he remembered “the kindness he has shown me and the excitement I found
54
Another, and possibly the only other, correspondent who was addressed as Verehrter Freund by
Lorentz was the German physicist Eilhard Wiedemann. A more common form of address in Lorentz’s
correspondence was Verehrter Herr College (Esteemed Colleague) or variations on that theme. To
address Dutch colleagues Lorentz generally used the Latin phrase Amice (my friend), a relatively infor-
mal form of address that was commonly used among Dutch academics and professionals at the time.
55
Voigt was Dean of the Philosophische Fakultät and signatory of the official letter of the faculty
awarding him the honorary doctorate (Fakultät to Lorentz, June 17, 1899, LA 200).
56
See Kox 1990b and Kox 1993b for more detailed discussions.
57
“Schon an dem Poststempel und der Handschrift erkannte ich, dass der Brief von Ihnen stammt
und hatte eine Freude. Freilich bedeutet jeder Brief von Ihnen einen von mir gemachten Fehler; allein ich
lerne dabei immer so viel, dass ich fast wünschen möchte noch mehr Fehler zu machen, um von Ihnen
noch mehr Briefe zu erhalten.” Ludwig Boltzmann to Lorentz, December 21, 1890 (Kox 2008, 17).
58
“Ich freue mich sehr, dass ich in Ihnen jemand gefunden hat, welcher an dem Weiterbau meiner
Ideen über Gastheorie arbeitet. In Deutschland ist fast niemand, welcher die Sache ordentlich ver-
stünde.” Boltzmann to Lorentz, December 11, 1886 (Kox 2008, 3).
 Lectures in Leiden 33

in conversations with him.”59 In her reply to Lorentz’s condolence note,

Boltzmann’s widow confirmed that the feeling was mutual: “The communication
with you, Esteemed Professor, was among the most wonderful and happiest mem­
or­ies of his life.”60
One of Boltzmann’s letters contains an invitation that would mark the end of
Lorentz’s self-­imposed seclusion during his first years in Leiden.61 It was a request
to participate in the 70th annual congress of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher
und Ärzte, the national society of German natural scientists, mathematicians, and
physicians. This Naturforscherversammlung took place in Düsseldorf in September
of 1898. The invitation was prompted by the desire of the Gesellschaft’s board of
governors to increase the involvement of Dutch natural scientists in their yearly
meetings.62 The organizing committee had chosen a special topic, about which
Wilhelm Wien would be giving the keynote address. Wien was privatdozent in
Aachen, a position equivalent to that of a Dutch privaatdocent.
Lorentz was asked to present a supplementary lecture, followed by a discussion.
The topic in question was the problem of motion of material bodies through the
ether, a theme that aligned closely with Lorentz’s recent work. In Chapter 4 this
work will be presented in more detail.
Lorentz accepted the invitation and made his presentation. He met Boltzmann
for the first time and was also introduced to Max Planck and other well-­known
German colleagues. According to his daughter Berta, he thoroughly enjoyed the
visit. As she wrote in her biographical notes, “Seldom have I seen my father in
such good spirits as after his return from the congress.” Lorentz had now defini-
tively become part of the international world of physics, and his self-­imposed
seclusion had finally come to an end. In the years to come he would make regular
journeys abroad to attend congresses and conferences, visit universities, and give
lectures.

Lectures in Leiden
Immediately after giving his inaugural address, Lorentz had started his regular
lectures in Leiden. His daughter Berta provided an appealing description of the
relaxed atmosphere in Lorentz’s classes. Before the actual lecture began, he would
engage the students in some small talk while they were all warming themselves by
the coal stove. After a joke here and there and a glance at the wall-­clock, he would
invite the students, most of whom were barely younger than he was, to sit down so

59
“Führer unserer Wissenschaft, ein Bahnbrecher in manchen Richtungen [...] das Wohlwollen das
er mir zeigte und die Anregung, die ich im Gespräch mit ihm fand.” Lorentz 1907c.
60
“der Verkehr mit Ihnen hochgeehrter Herr Professor gehörte zu den schönsten und glücklichsten
Erinnerungen seines Lebens.” Henriette Boltzmann to Lorentz, January 19, 1907 (LA 8).
61
Boltzmann to Lorentz, October 13, 1897 (Kox 2008, 38).
62
See Felix Klein to Lorentz, October 20, 1897 (LA 41), repeating the invitation and requesting
Lorentz to pass on the invitation to his colleagues.
34 Professorship and family life

he could begin the class. Afterwards he would walk along Rapenburg—where the
university was located—to Turfmarkt on his way to his rented rooms on the floor
above a tobacconist’s shop.
In his first academic year, capillarity and kinetic gas theory were the topics of
Lorentz’s lectures on mathematical physics.63 He taught four one-­hour classes a
week for a small group of only seven physics students. In the following year he did
not only teach physics to physicists (optics this time); he also taught theoretical
physics to chemistry students and basic geometry to medical students. In all, he
was responsible for seven hours of lecturing every week.
Right from the start, Lorentz’s lectures were very well received by the students and
highly praised in the yearly Almanak, the yearbook of the Leidsch Studenten Corps.
Much later, in 1925, his former collaborator Balthasar van der Pol showed himself
equally taken with Lorentz’s skills as a lecturer: “A lecture by Professor Lorentz is a
scientific and esthetic pleasure.” Adding a word of caution, he con­tinued: “The
extremely clear way of treating the problems may cause the less initiated to
­underestimate the difficulty of the questions now and then, difficulties that only
come to the fore if one later attempts to reproduce what one has read or heard.”64
The well-­known Dutch writer and psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden also pro-
vided some insight into Lorentz’s appearance and teaching style with a few sharp
observations after attending one of his lectures for a general audience in 1911:65

Especially interesting was the insight I gained into the psychological circumstances
of these new discoveries, what happens inside a head like that, when it jumps from
calculation to sense of reality, and from feeling once again to calculation [. . .] Curious
in this scholar is the childlike aspect. There is a naïve, jokingly pleasant sense of fun
in the calculation and verification of the results. Lorentz kept speaking of “those
things” when he made his energy elements vibrate and collide and crisscross. [. . .]
Lorentz, with his bald, chunky head, his thick black eyebrows, his dark eyes, large flat
nose, and long beard, is more reminiscent of an old philosopher, sometimes also of a
rabbi. But from this head, between all these other scholarly heads, the genius, the

63
Information about Lorentz’s teaching is derived from the annual reports on the state of education
in the Netherlands (Verslag van den Staat der Hooge-, Middelbare en Lagere Scholen in het Koninkrijk der
Nederlanden).
64
“Een college van Professor Lorentz is een wetenschap­pelijk en aesthetisch genot.” “De uitermate
heldere wijze van behandelen van de problemen doen de minder ingewijden misschien de moeilijk­
heden van de vraagstukken wel eens onderschatten, moeilijkheden die eerst recht naar voren komen als
later geprobeerd wordt het gelezene of gehoorde te reproduceren.” Pol 1925, 323. A similar observa-
tion was made by Hendrik Casimir in a personal communication with one of the authors (AJK).
65
Van Eeden was keenly interested in natural science. In a public lecture in 1904 he praised
Lorentz’s work in physics while—unbeknownst to him—Lorentz happened to be in the audience.
They met afterwards and became friendly (see Haas-­Lorentz 1957, 86). In later years, Van Eeden met
with Lorentz several times and attended many of his public lectures. He regularly commented on them
in his diary (Eeden 1971), for example in the entry of March 3, 1913: “I attended Lorentz’s lecture
about the principle of relativity. It was good and clear, but did not learn anything new.” (Ik was bij
Lorentz’ reede oover het relativiteits beginsel. Het was goed en duidelijk, maar leerde niets nieuws.)
The lecture Van Eeden described here was one of a series of three in November 1911, entitled “De
Theorie van Energie-­Elementen” (The Theory of Energy-­Elements), at Teylers Museum in Haarlem.
 Lectures in Leiden 35

extraordinariness is immediately noticeable—just like one immediately recognizes

the hero, the great actor, among actors in a drama.66

Apart from the topics of his lectures, of course, Lorentz’s teaching remained
essentially unchanged until the academic year 1883–1884. In that year, three
hours per week were added to his course load in the form of an elementary phys-
ics course for a large class of forty medical students. In the following year, these
elementary classes were complemented by another six hours of “practical exer-
cises,” or practicum. Including his other lectures, Lorentz’s teaching by then
amounted to no less than thirteen hours a week: indeed, a heavy teaching load that
increasingly weighed on Lorentz over time.
The cause of all this was Kamerlingh Onnes. He had opted out of teaching the
medical students, even though it was officially part of his duties. For a while,
Onnes had health problems and was unable to combine the time-­consuming
classes for medical students with his activities in the laboratory. For this reason,
Onnes had foisted this job on Lorentz. Even after having recovered completely,
Onnes was more than happy to leave the situation unchanged. In 1900 he even
argued that his directorship of the laboratory placed such strenuous demands on
him that teaching medical students was out of the question.67 Lorentz continued
the classes for the medical students and the practicum. Lorentz’s wife was not
altogether happy about this situation, and later on she clearly expressed her own
viewpoint about Onnes’ role. In a letter to her daughter she wrote:

Onnes did not have a heart for the medical students, he took the physicists separately,
but did not really lecture to them, also because of his health. Pa cared about the
medical students, that is why he took over the class and did not want to let it go
before he could get a good substitute. The practicum has been Pa’s idea and started
very simply at first, but not in the first year.68

In Chapter 6 a more elaborate description shows how Lorentz was unable to put
an end to this unfortunate situation until much later. The course for medical

66
“Vooral interessant was het inzicht dat ik kreeg in de psychologische toedracht van deze nieuwe
ontdekkingen, hoe het in zoo’n hoofd toegaat, als het van berekening op realiteitsgevoel, en van gevoel
weer op berekening overspringt [. . .] Eigenaardig is bij den geleerde het kinderlijke. Er is een naïeve,
schertsend gemoedelijke pret in het berekenen en het toetsen der uitkomsten. Lorentz sprak aldoor van
“die dingen” als hij zijn energie-­elementen liet vibreeren en botsen en door elkaar heengaan. [. . .]
Lorentz, met zijn kaal, bonkig hoofd, zijn dikke zwarte wenkbrauwen, zijn donkere oogen, groote platte
neus, en langen baard doet meer aan een oude wijsgeer denken, soms ook aan een rabbi. Maar onmid-
dellijk is aan zijn kop, tusschen al die andere geleerdenhoofden, het geniale, bizondere te bemerken—
zooals men onder acteurs in een drama onmiddellijk den held herkent, den grooten speler.” Eeden 1971,
entry of November 26, 1911.
67
See Delft 2007, 354.
68
“Onnes had geen hart voor de medici, nam de natuurkundigen afzonderlijk maar gaf eigenlijk
geen college, ook al om zijn gezondheid. De medici gingen Pa ter harte daarom nam hij het college over
en wilde het ook niet afstaan voor hij een goede plaatsvervanger kon krijgen. Het practicum is een
denkbeeld van Pa geweest en eerst heel eenvoudig begonnen maar niet het eerste jaar.” Aletta Lorentz-­
Kaiser to Berta de Haas-­Lorentz, July 6, 1928 (FC).
36 Professorship and family life

s­ tudents did produce something of permanence, though. It resulted in a ­much-­used

two-­volume textbook entitled Beginselen der natuurkunde. Leiddraad bij de lessen
aan de Universiteit te Leiden (Principles of Physics: Handbook to the Lectures at the
University of Leiden). The book was reprinted and revised nine times and was
translated into German, Russian, and even Japanese.69

Marriage and family life

After Frederik Kaiser’s death in 1872, Lorentz continued to be friendly with his sons.
Kaiser’s son Pieter Jan introduced Lorentz to his cousin Aletta Catharina (informally
called “Et” or “Ettie”) in the summer of 1880. She was the youngest daughter of one
of Frederik’s brothers, Johan Wilhelm Kaiser, and five years Lorentz’s junior. Their
first meeting was rather unconventional, as Aletta’s younger brother Rudolf remem-
bered: “When she saw him for the first time, as far as I have heard, he was sitting in
a merry-­go-­round.”70 Not long afterwards they became engaged.
Aletta came from a large family: She had four brothers and three sisters. Their
father, a well-­known engraver—he designed the first Dutch postage stamp—was
a professor at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam and also the
director of the Rijks Museum van schilderijen en penningen (National Museum of
Paintings and Coins), the predecessor of the present-­day Rijksmuseum. As was
noted earlier, until 1885, when it moved to the building it still occupies today,
the museum, together with the Academy of Sciences, was housed on one of
Amsterdam’s canals in the famous Trippenhuis, the elegant building the Kaiser
family also called their home.
Lorentz’s student Adriaan Fokker later described Aletta as a “reserved woman,
somewhat severe, perhaps, in her ideas,”71 but in family correspondence that has
been preserved, she comes across as a warm and involved mother. She was also a
sharp and witty observer of the world around her, as is shown in the travel diaries
she kept during their many trips, which have been put to good use for this book.
Rudolf reported that Aletta’s sister Elisabeth (“Betsy”)—who will also be men-
tioned in later sections—was quite taken with Hendrik because of his “warm sim-
plicity.” Only his misshapen nose, which had never healed properly after having
been broken when he was a young child, did not meet with her approval, but she
believed she would surely get used to that.

69
The first edition appeared in 1888. From the fourth edition onwards (1904–1905), Lodewijk
Siertsema was co-­author. Siertsema was lecturer in physics at Leiden University until 1905, when he
became professor at the Delft Technical University. Earlier, in 1882, Lorentz had published a textbook
entitled Leerboek der differentiaal- en integraalrekening en van de eerste beginselen der analytische meet-
kunde met het oog op de toepassingen in de natuurwetenschap (Textbook of Differential and Integral Calculus
and Analytic Geometry with a View on Applications in Physics) which had resulted from his lectures to
physics students. It was also translated into German.
70
“Toen ze hem voor het eerst zag zat hij, zoals ik vernomen heb, in een draaimolen.” See Rudolf
Kaiser’s recollections of Lorentz in a letter to Berta of January 28, 1940 (PB).
71
“een ingetogen vrouw, ietwat streng misschien in haar opvattingen.” Fokker 1946, 62.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Hoe treurig ik vertrok, wanneer ik van u scheidde,
Te meer omdat ik aan het hof zo lang verbeidde;
Eén dag scheen my een maand, één uur een gansche dag;
Om dat ik daar myn lief Quiteria niet zag.
Ik was afkeerig van ’t vermaak der hovelingen,
En hoorde ik in ’t zalet een Juffer konstig zingen,
Dagt ik aan uwe stem, die zonder wedergaâ
Myn zinnen streelen kon. Voorts quam uw ongenâ,
Door ’t lang vertoeven, my te binnen. Gy hebt reden
Om met Kamacho in den echten staat te treeden.
My zy de schuld alleen. Maar ach! hoe beeft myn hart!
Gy zult dan trouwen? my verlaaten? ach! wat smart!
Quit. Ja myn Bazilius, ik kan het niet beletten,
’t Is my onmoogelyk myn’ vader te verzetten.
Ik word gedwongen, Lief. Baz. ’k Ben nog niet buiten raad,
Indien gy myn verzoek, zo billyk, niet versmaadt.
Gy kunt die trouw ontgaan, wanneer we t’zamen vlugten.
Maar ach! gy zwygt, myn lief! en antwoordt my door zuchten.
Quit. Daar ’s volk. Wy zyn bespied. Vaarwel.
Baz. Waar vlucht ge heen,
Quiteria! ei hoor myn’ klachten en gebeên.

VYFDE TOONEEL.

Don Quichot te paerd, Sanche op een ezel, schielyk uit.

Don Quichot. Staa Ridder, wat heeft die.... San. Ja oele hy gaat
fluiten.
Wou jy die veugel in zyn vlucht zo makk’lijk stuiten?
Dat ’s miskoot. Maer myn Heer, wat zellen wy nou doen?
Don Qu. Zo ras als ’t moog’lyk is, naar Saragossa spoên,
Op hoop van nog in tyds het steekspel by te woonen.
San. Wat waar ik ook een gek, dat ik me meê liet troonen!
 Sanche zegt tegen den ezel.
Myn lieve Graeuwtje wat heb ik al deurgestaan;
Wat hebben, jy en ik, al menig droeve traen
Op deezen tocht ’estort! myn hart! myn lust! myn leeven!
Myn zeun! myn graeuwtje! jy bent in myn hart ’eschreven.
Wat zyn we trouwe broêrs, in lief, in leet, in nood!
’k Zal jou in goud beslaen myn keuning, nae jou dood.
Don Qu. Laat myne Ronsinant, met Graeuwtje ginder weiên.
San. Ik zel ze gunter, daar het beste gras groeijt, leîen.
Sanche brengt de beesten weg.
Don Qu. Gaa allereêlste beest, getrouwe Ronzinant,
Gaa opperpronkjuweel der paerden van dit Land.
Uw naam zal in het kort met grooter luister pralen,
Gy zult nog meerder roem als Bucefal behaalen.
Die groote Bucefal, held Alexanders paerd,
Daar gy in trouwheid en grootmoedigheid naar aard,
Heeft door zyns meesters arm nooit grooter roem verkregen,
Als gy verwachten kunt, door myn’ gevreesden degen;
Myn degen, dien ik heb aan myn Princes gewyd,
Myn lief Dulcinea, het pronkbeeld van deez’ tyd,
De zoetste roofster van myn’ zinnen en gedachten,
Om wie ik eenzaam dool, by dagen en by nachten.
Wanneer, ô schoone! zal ’t gelukkig uurtje zyn,
Dat gy uw’ Don Quichot zult helpen uit de pyn!
Wanneer, ô wreede! zult ge ophouden my te plaagen?
Of moet ik doolen om uw’ liefde al myne dagen?
Heb ik vergeefs gestreên met menig’ kloeken held?
Sloeg ik vergeefs dan den Biskaijer uit het veld?
En heeft u Passamont, met ketenen belaaden,
En and’re boeven, niets verhaald van myne daaden?
’t Is zeker! Maar gy blyft, ô wreede! nog versteend,
En lacht, helaas! wanneer uw droeve ridder weent.
 Ik zal, indien ’t u lust, de bekkeneelen kneuzen,
Van schelmse tovenaars en schrikkelyke reuzen;
Al quam hier Sakripant, een reus van d’ ouden tyd,
Hy moest bekennen dat gy de allerschoonste zyt,
Het pronkstuk der natuur, de paerel aller vrouwen;
Of ’k zou hem met myn zwaerd den kop van ’t lichaam houwen.
San. Och Ridder Don Quichot, ’k verlang al weer naer huis!
Don Qu. Geduld, myn zoon, geduld.
San. Ja ’k zie vast munt, noch kruis,
Won ik nog geld, met al dat hongerige doolen.
Don Qu. ô Sanche! Sanche! gy begind al weêr te toolen;
Waar heeft een Schildknaap van een doolend Ridder geld
Tot loon van dienst geëischt? Zeg eens wat boek vermeldt,
Dat Roeland, Amadis of Palmeryn de Olyven,
Geld gaven, zeg? San. Ik kan niet leezen, noch niet schryven,
Wat bruid me Roeland, met jou hiele ridderschap,
Als ik gien geld heb. Don Qu. Schelm! ik dagt u op den trap
Van eer, en hoog geluk, door mynen arm te zetten
Loop naar uw wyf, loop heen, ik zal ’t u niet beletten
Gaa werken om de kost, gy zyt myn gunst niet waard.
Zo ik een koninkrijk kan winnen, door myn swaard,
Zal ik een ander, u ten spyt, tot koning maaken;
Bedenk dan, Sanche, hoe die euvel u zal smaaken.
San. Och, och, vergeef het my, ’k en hebt zo niet ’emiend.
Myn heer, ik hebje met men Graeuwtje lang ’ediend,
En overal gevolgd. Beloofje nog te geeven
Een eiland veur myn loon: ik zel jou al myn leeven
Daar veur bedanken? Don Qu. Ja, het eerste dat ik win.
San. In ’t admirantschap, heb ik ook al vry wat zin
Of maek me maer zo ’n graef, of prins, ’t ken jou niet scheelen,
Al wierd ik Keuning; als je tog bent an het deelen,
Zo leg me maer wat toe, van d’eenen brui, of d’aêr
Hy kan ligt knippen die een lap heit met een schaer.
 Maer ’k wou dat ik het zag gebeuren, zei de blinde.
Don Qu. ’k Moet lachen, Sanche.
San. Zie myn heer, zie door de linde:
Loop daer gien kaerel? Don Qu. Geef myn schild en myn geweer:
Het is een Ridder. San. Neen, het is een boer, myn heer.
Don Qu. ’k Zeg ’t is een Ridder: haal myn lancie, niet te draalen.
San. Het is een boer, heer of de drommel moet me haelen.
Don Qu. Ik ken hem aan de veer, die op zyn helmtop zit.
Is ’t Ridder Splandor, zoon van Medor. San. Ei ik bid,
Maek tog gien questie, je bend zekerlyk bedrogen.
Merlyn de Tovenaer draeijt weer een rad voor je oogen.

ZESDE TOONEEL.

Don Quichot, Sanche, Kamacho, met een veer op zyn boeremuts.

Kamacho. „Dat wangd’len van myn bruid in ’t bosch staet my niet

an;
„De boeren zeggen datze met dien edelman,
„Die zy bemint heit, stond op deeze plek te praeten;
„En dat verstae ik niet; dat zal ze moeten laeten....
„Smit Justus wie is dat! Don Qu. ô Splandor, braave held,
En doolend Ridder, daar Turpinus pen van meldt;
Aanschouw hier Don Quichot, den ridder van de leeuwen.
Kam. Gans bloet, wat vent is dat! och, och! ik moet iens schreeuwen,
Of hy vermoord me hier! Help! help! Wat ziet hy fel!
’t Is Symen langdarm, of de pikken uit de hel.
Och sinte langdarm, of hoedat je naem mag weezen,
’k Zel alle daegen, drie van je amerietjes leezen,
Voor al de songden, die je in ’t leeven hebt ’edaen.
Ei laat me leeven, en zo lang naer huis toe gaan;
Tot ik men testemengt ’emaakt heb. ’k Laet me hangen,
Zoo ’k niet weêrom kom, op parool, als krygsgevangen.
Don Qu. Heer Ridder, hoe, gy spreekt of gy betoverd waart,
Dat zyn geen blyken van uw’ ouden heldenaard
Gy zyt het, die wel eer het Turksche heir verheerde,
En in Stoelweissenburg zo heerlyk triumfeerde.
Kam. Och ja heer langdarm, ’k bin betoverd! ’k bin bedrild!
Ik bin bezeeten, ik bin al wat datje wilt.
Och myn gesuikerde sinjeurtje! laet me loopen!
Daer is myn beurs. San. Geef hier! maer bloed! ik zou niet hoopen
Dat hy betoverd was, en dat hy iens uit klucht,
Als ik er geld uit kreeg, zou vliegen naar de lucht.
Don Qu. Heer Splandor, hou uw geld, ik ben geen dief of roover.
’t Za, Sanche, geef het weêr. San. Wel dat komt zeker pover,
Zo ’n schoone beurs, en die ’k zoo mak’lyk houwen kan!
En dat regtvaerdig; want ik krygze van den man.
Don Qu. Wat draalje! geef terstond.
San. Het zinne spaense matten.
Don Qu. Geef over of... San. Ei lieve, één greepje.
Don Qu. Ik kan bevatten,
Dat u de rug wat jeukt. San. Hou daer dan, tovenaer.
Kam. Ik dankje. San. Holla, broêr. Don Qu. Ha, schelm.
San. Daer is het, daer.
Don Qu. Heer Ridder, zyt gerust; ik staa niet naar uw leeven;
Maar wil dat gy me uw’ helm tot dankbaarheid zult geeven.
Kam. Och jonker, ’k heb gien helm ooit op myn kop ’ehad,
’t Is maer een boere muts, met veeren, dat je ’t vat;
Wil jy hem hebben? ’k wil hem gaeren’ an je schenken.
Don Qu. Heer Splandor, groote held, ik kan my niet bedenken,
Hoe uw’ doorlugte geest, en groote schranderheid,
Van ’t spoor der reden, door de tov’naars is geleid,
Dat gy dien zwarten helm, dien Roeland plag te draagen,
Een boere muts noemt.
Kamacho geeft hem zyn muts.
„Och hy zoekt me wat te plaegen!
 Hou daer, daer is myn helm, ast dan een helm moet zyn.
Don Qu. ’k Ben dankbaer, groote held.
Kam. Die karel piert me fyn.
Don Qu. Wat zegt zyn edelheid? Kam. Of ik nou mag vertrekken?
Don Qu. Hoe vaart Angelika? wil my ’t geheim ontdekken:
Waar zy zich nu onthoud. Leeft uw heer vader nog?
Het moortje Medor, dat held Roeland met bedrog
De schoone Angelika, uit minnenliefde ontschaakte?
Waar door die groote held, uit spyt, aan ’t razen raakte?
Meld alles maar aan my, den dapp’ren Don Quichot.
Kam. Ik heb gien Vaer noch Moêr, heer Ridder dronke zot.
Don Qu. Is dan de schoone Moor, uw vader reeds gesturven?
Kam. Myn vaertje was geen moor. Och, och! ik ben bedurven,
Hy zietme veur een Turk, of voor een Heijen aen.
Zo hier gien volk en koomt, zel ’t mit me slegt vergaen.
Don Qu. Is dan Angelika, uw moeder, reeds ter aarde?
Die zulken braaven held, als u, ô Splandor, baarde?
Kam. Ik heb Jan Geeleslae men leeven niet ’ekent,
Ik hiet geen plankoor, en we bennen niet ’ewent
De kei’ren in ongs dorp mit zukken naem te doopen.
Ei Ridder, dronke zot, ik bidje laetme loopen.
Je heb me muts al weg, zeg maer, wat wilje meer,
Men wammes, en men broek.
Don Qu. Neen, neen, verdwaalde heer
Dien schoonen wapenrok zal ik u niet ontrooven;
’k Wil liever voor uw’ helm een koninkryk belooven;
Indien gy ’t maar begeert. Kam. Och, och, ’et is de droes,
Is dat geen paerdevoet? neen, maer een karrepoes!
Nou merk ik ’t eerst, och zo ’n hiel keuninkryk, sint felten!
Je bent een dubbelduw! San. Zen kop die rydt op stelten.
Kamacho schrijft een streep.
’k Bezweerje by den geest, van houte sint Michiel
Al waarje nou de droes, of Steven zongder ziel,
 Nagtmerri, bietebauw, of ongeboore heintje
Al wierje nou zo klein, datje in een tinne pijntje
Kon kruipen, zo je nu gien mensch bent, ken je nou
Niet over deuze striep.
Don Quichot over de streep trappende.
Ik voel myn hart vol rouw;
ô Eedle Splandor, om het missen van uw’ zinnen;
’t Verstand schynt u van ’t spoor, door ’t al te hevig minnen.
’k Omhels u, als myn vrind. Kam. Dat maekme wat gerust.
Ik loof werentig, dat je lui wat kortswil lust.
Maar alle gekken op een stokje, laet me wangdelen....
Daer’s Vetlasoep, de Kok, wat of die wil verhangdelen.

ZEVENDE TOONEEL.

Don Quichot, Sanche, Kamacho, Vetlasoepe.

Vetlasoepe. Monsieur Kamakko, ha! ze eb jou al lang kezoek.

Ze wist niet waar hum stak, ze wist niet van dit hoek.
Wat’s dat feur folke?
Kam. Dat? dat zin al raere snaeken,
Kortswillig volk, bequaem de bruiloft te vermaeken.
We leyen in ’et ierst ’eweldig overhoop.
Maer, waer’s men bruiloftsvolk?
Vetl. Hum’eb de palm keknoop,
Hum’eb de kroon kemaak, hum doet nou niet as zingen,
Hum dans nou seer kurieus, ensemble ronde kringen.
De folke is opkeskikt, zo mooij kelyk de droes.
Ze skreeuw tout allemaal, à vous! à vous! à vous!
Ze heb jou lang kewak, ze is bly, en ’t is wel koete,
Dat hum jou na lang zoek, hier in de bosch ontmoete.
Kam. Heb jy zo lang ’ewagt? ’et is me seper leet.
Maer heb jy al ’eweest om Jochem de poejeet?
 En Roel de muizekand? laet vraegen waer ze blyven.
Vetl. Fort bien Monsieur, ze zel.
Sanche, tegen Don Quichot.
Maer seldrement! gansch vyven!
Wat is dat veur een vent? Don Qu. Dat is een Indiaan,
Of Hottentotsche Prins. San. Ik ken ’m niet verstaen,
Als hier en daer ien woord. Vetl. Wat sekze, Hottentotte?
Ha! ha! ze lakker om, ze lyk warak wel zotte.
Hum is een Kok, ma foi. San. Hy ruikt braef na gebraed.
Bin jy de Kok, ik hou jou veur men beste maet,
Je hebt een lucht die ik bezonder graag mag leijen:
Me dunkt je ruikt ook wat na korsten van pasteijen?
Vetl. Oui, pastey, Monsieur, keen beter in de land,
Als hum kan maak. San. Dan ben je een kaerel van verstand.
Vetl. Je suis vôt serviteur. Kam. Hoor hier iens Vetlasoepje.
Vetl. Que ditez vous Monsieur? Kam. Maek dat’er ook een troepje
Dangsmiesters by komt. Vetl. Bon, ze zel ze jou beskik.
Kam. Toebak van volkje. Vetl. Oui, die dans ken op een prik.
Zingende binnen.

ACHSTE TOONEEL.

Don Quichot, Sanche, Kamacho.

Sanche. Dat lykt een raere haen, die Prins van de Indiaenen,
Een Kok en Prins mit ien!
Don Qu. Hoe Sanche, zoudt gy waanen
Dat zulks niet meer geschied? San. Wel neen, ik lach ’er om.
Kam. Kom geef me muts nou weer.
Don Qu. Zyt gy de bruidegom?
Met wie myn waarde vrind?
Kam. Ik mien van daeg te trouwen;
Hier zel et zelschip zyn, ’k zel hier de bruiloft houwen.
Don Qu. Wie zal uw Ega zyn, ô Splandor, wat Princes?
Kam. Ei scheer de gek niet meer.
Don Qu. Uw waerde zielsvoogdes
Is wis van Prins’lyk bloed, of koningklyke looten?
Kam. Een halleve boerin, uit d’ adel voort’esproten,
Heur Vaertje boert zo wat: maer hy’s van adel.
Don Qu. Zoon,
Wat is uw eêl verstand betoverd! groote Goôn!
Hoe is haar naam; hoe wordt de Infante toch geheeten.
Kam. Ze is gien Infangte: maer ze is mooij, dat motje weeten,
Zo blank als schaepenmelk. Heur wangetjes zyn rood,
Ze is niet te dik, te dun, te klein, noch niet te groot;
Heur veurhoofd blinkt puur, puur, gelyk een barbiersbekken.
’Er hiele bakus is vol van wongerlike trekken.
Don Qu. Maer nu, haer naam?
San. Ze’et nooit misschien geen naem ’ehadt.
Kam. Ze hiet Quiteria, heer Ridder, dat je ’t vat.
Maer zie, verstae je wel, daer quam er nog ien vreijen.
Die hiet Bazillius. Zy mocht hem vry wel leijen,
Maer ’t hulp niet: wangt hy is een arme kaele neet,
Zo’n edelmannetje, dat graeg wat lekkers eet,
Patrysjes, hoendertjes, kon hy ze maer betaelen.
Hy krygtze wel: maer moetze eerst op de jagt gaen haelen:
Daer leeft hy miest van; maer ’t is al een raere vent,
Hy ken latyn as een pastoor; ’t is een student,
Dat jy het vat Sinjeur. ô Hy kan wongdre zaeken.
Ik heb ’em van een aeij een kaerteblad zien maeken;
En hy kan dangsen als een ekster op het veld;
Hy kan ook sling’ren mit’et vaendel als een held.
En hy kan schermen, en ook kaetzen, mit de boeren;
En mit verkeeren kan hy elk zyn geld afloeren;
Hy kan ook speulen op de veel, en de schalmy.
De blind’mans zeun is maer een botterik er by.
 Hy is wel gaeuw,... maar ik heb geld, om van te kluiven.
Hy niet; en daerom zel hy ’an de veest niet snuiven.
Ik kryg de bruid, en ’t is zijn neusje effen mis.
Maer appropo, Sinjeur, weet je ook hoe laet of ’t is?
’Et was ezaid, dat ik precies te zeuven uuren
Most by de vrinden zyn, en deur je malle kuuren
Is ’t laet ’eworden, geef men muts me maer weêrom,
En gae mit my, Sinjeur; ik hiet je wellekom,
’k Noô jou te Brulloft; wangt jy lykt een snaek der snaeken,
Je kent de boeren op de Brulloft wat vermaeken.
San. Te brulloft broertje? gaet dat zeker? wel is ’t waer?
Je bent een man as spek, dat lyktme, zoete vaer.
Ik heb (och harm) lang uit men knapzak moeten blikken.
Te Brulloft, weetje ’t wel? gut kaerel, ’k ken zo slikken
Stae vast nou hoendertjes, en snipjes met je drek.
Stae frikkedilletjes. Kam. ’t is tyd dat ik vertrek:
Ei geef me muts weêrom, je kent’em niet gebruiken.
San. Gut Splandor, ik begin ’t gebraed alriets te ruiken.
Kam. Ik hiet gien plankoor, broêr, Kamacho is myn naem.
Men vaertje sageles, was Lopes Pedro daam,
In Lombrigje men moer, ’ebooren te Bregance....
Maer hoe is jou naem, broêr? San. Die is don Sanche Pance.
’k Bin deur dien goejen heer, puur uit den drek ’eraekt.
Hy heit me van een boer een Gouverneur ’emaakt.
Kam. Een Gormandeur, wel zo, wie drumpel zou het denken!
Een Gormandeurschap kan jou Heer dat an jou schenken?
San. Ja, van een Eiland, en ’k kreeg zeuven ezels toe.
Kam. Heb jy die al? San. Wel neen: ’k heb de ezels nog te goê,
En ’t Eiland zel men Heer in korte dagen winnen.
Kam. De vent is zeker gek, wie drommel zou ’t verzinnen?
Hoe hiet dat ailand, en waar laitet? an wat kangt?
San. ’t Leit in Jaerabien, digt by het heilig land,
’t Hiet mikrosko.pi.pi.pium.... ’t is me al vergeeten,
 Daer weunde een groote Reus, de mallenbrui geheeten,
Zo groot gelyk een boom. Maer hy ’s al lang kapot;
Men Heer die potste hem. Kam. Een reus! wel dat’s niet rot.
Een Reus? hoe vindt men nou nog reuzen? hoe ken’t weezen?
San. Ja Broertje, mien je dat wy veur de Reuzen vreezen?
Veur twintig Reuzen, zou men Heer staen als een pael.
Kam. Ik word waratjes aêrs van zulk een vreemd verhael.
San. Ja Reuzen alzoo groot als meulens mit vier armen,
Die steekt men Heer maer mit zyn lansie in de darmen.
In al de Legers daer hy komt, daer maekt hy schrik:
’t Is kip ik hebje! steek! slae, in een oogenblik
Is ’t hiele veld bezaeid, mit armen, en mit beenen:
Hy slaet terstongt maer deur een hiel slagorden heenen.
Kam. Gangs ligters, is dat waer! heb jy het zelfs ’ezien?
San. Ja ’k; ’t is omtrent ’eleen, nae ’k gis een maend, of tien,
Toen heit hy teugen een hiel leger nog ’evochten;
Ze vlugtten al; maer juist die beesten, die gedrochten,
Van schelmse Tovenaars, die quaemen op ’et mat.
Ze gooijden al ’er best mit steenen naer ons gat,
En maekten van ’er volk een hiele kudde schaepen!
Kam. Wel langsje, viel daer niet wat buit veur jou te raepen?
San. Ja steenen op ons bast, dat’s tovenaersmanier.
Men Heer verloor dien tyd ook wel een tand drie vier.
Kam. Je heer lykt wel bedroefd: hy is diep in gedachten.
San. Men Heer? ja die’s verliefd, hy klaegt gehiele nachten;
Je hoort niet anders als: ô schoone ondankbaerheid!
Dulcinea, princes, ô noordstar die me leid!
Wanneer zel jy me veur men trouwe dienst beloonen!
Dan zucht hy weer, en roept: ô schoonste van de schoonen,
Wanneer genaekt den tyd, dat ik.... exceterae,
’t Is al Dulcinea ondankbaer veur en nae.
Kam. Is die Dulcinea dan veur zo mooy te houwen?
Ik wed ze mooijer is, die ik van daeg zel trouwen.
Don Qu. Wat zegt gy Splandor? ha dat liegt gy, door uw’ hals.
’t Za, vat uw’ lancie. Kam. Och heer Ridder, ’et is vals,
Jou liefste is mooijer: maar wie pikken sou et droomen!
Had ik ’eweeten dat je ’t qualyk had ’enomen,
Dat ik myn Bruid wat prees, ’k had ’et wel ’emyd.
Don Qu. Neen ik wil vechten, ’t za berei u tot den stryd,
Ik geef u keur van grond. Kam. ’k Hou niet een brui van vechten.
Och! Ridder wees te vreên!
Don Qu. Zeg hoe gy ’t wilt beslechten,
’k Geef keur, te paerd, te voet, met lancie, of het zwaerd.
Kam. Gena: genade, och! och! ik zweer je by myn baerd,
Dat ik niet vechten kan.... Och! och! hoe zel ’t hier daegen?
Moord! brangd! moord! brangd! help! help! ô ongehoorde
plaegen,....
Daer’s Vetlasoep met volk!
Don Qu. ’t Za, ’t za, waar ’s uw geweer?
Kam. Help Mannen! mannen! help!
Don Qu. Hoe schreeuwt gy zo myn Heer?

NEGENDE TOONEEL.

Vetlasoepe met eenige boeren, Kamacho, Don Quichot, Sanche.

Kamacho. ’t Sa, lustig jongens, pas nou louter wat te raeken!

Don Qu. Kanailje! Tovenaars! San. Wel brui er’r veur’er kaeken.
Kam. Sla toe maer mannen! pas te raeken mannen! t’ sa.
Don Quichot en Sanche krygen stokslagen, waar op zy vallen.
San. Oei! oei! men billen, en myn kop, gena! gena!
Och! sinte Tovenaers, ’k heb niemendal bedreven.
Kam. Ei zie dien Gormandeur, dien reekel, nou iens beeven.
Hoe smaektje deuze koek? scheer nog de gek erais.
San. Genade, ô Splandor. Kam. Wel de pikken op je vlais!
Daar Plankoor, Plankoor, daar! je zelt van Plankoor heugen.
San. Myn lieve Splandertje ik en mag ’er gansch niet teugen,
Ei slae niet meer.
Kamacho slaat Sanche.
Wel dat’s een drommel van een vent.
Nog scheert de beest de gek.
San. Och! och! och! seldrement!
Is dat ook kloppen. Don Qu. Och! Princesse van Toboze!
Kroondraagster van myn hart, ô verse ontlooken’ rooze!
Hier legt uw Ridder van de Tovenaars gewond!
Vetl. Wat sekse rek’le? zyn hum Tovenaars, jou hond?
Wat opstinaater folk! terwyl dat s’hum zo kloppen,
Zo scheer ze nok de gek, en durven ons nok foppen.
Kam. ’k Zal heur betaelen, laet men nou maer iens betien.
Kamacho neemt zyn muts wederom.

TIENDE TOONEEL.

Bazilius, Valasko, Vetlasoepe, boeren, Don Quichot, Sanche.

Bazilius. Hou op Kamacho! zeg, wat is ’t dat wij hier zien?

Hoe komen deze twee zo bont en blaauw geslaagen?
Kam. ’t Zyn fielen allebai, wie drumpel zou ’t verdraegen.
Die, met het harnas, noemt zich ridder dronke zot,
En de aêre gormandeur; ze noemde my uit spot,
Heer Ridder Plankoor, zeun van Geelesla; geen smeeken,
Of bidden hulp; die Guit wou me op ’t lest deursteeken;
Had ik dat volk hier niet, ik was ’r al om koud.
Bazilius tegen Don Quichot.
Dat ’s al een vreemde zaak. Zeg, wat maakt u zo stout,
In ’t harnas op den weg de menschen aan te randen?
Wie zyt gy? spreek; of ’k geef ’t terstont ’t geregt in handen.
Don Qu. Een Ridder voor wiens arm het alles beeven moet,
Gelyk een Amadis in ’t harnas opgevoed.
San. Och, jy lykt noch een mensch. Ei word mit ongs bewogen;
We zyn onnozel van die tovenaers bedrogen!
Den vroomsten ridder, voor wiens arm de Turk zo vreest,
Den trouwsten schildknaep, die in Spanje ooit is ’eweest,
Zie jy hier liggen. Baz. „Heer Valasko, ’t zijn die menschen,
Daar gy me flus van spraakt. Myn heer, ik zou wel wenschen
Dat gy me uw naam ontdekte. Don Qu. Ik ben de Ridder van
De leeuwen, Don Quichot. San. Ja ’t is de zelve man.
Baz. Zo zyt gy Don Quichot! wees welkom roem der helden,
De faam quam ons al lang uw groote daden melden.
ô Doolend ridder, voor wiens arm en kloek gelaat,
’t Gespuis der tovenaars als ach en rook vergaat.
Koom, doe my de eer aan en vernacht in myne wooning.
Don Qu. Zyt gy ’t Arsipanpan? ô mededoogend koning,
Die my verlost hebt uit ’t geweld der Tovenaars?
Wat ben ik u verplicht! Kam. Wel dat is al wat raers,
Hy noemt Bazilius een Keuning, watte streeken!
Baz. Verzorg de heeren van al wat hen mag ontbreeken
Valasko, zo ’t u b’lieft, ik volg u zo terstond.
Kam. Die knevels zinnen ’t eens, ô bloed! ’et is een vond
Van de edelliên, om ons wat schrik op ’t lyf te zenden.
Ze hebben ’t opgestemd. San. Och! och! men ouwe lenden,
Wat bin je braef ’esmeerd! ô vrinden ’k zweer et jou,
Dat ik niet veul van zulk een tov’naers bruiloft hou.
Valasko tegen Don Quichot.
Kom Ridder laat ons gaan.
San. ’k Mot eerst men Graeuwtje haelen
Mit Rosinant. Val. ’t Is wel: maar niet te lang te draalen,
’k Gaa met uw’ Heer vooruit.

ELFDE TOONEEL.

Bazilius, Kamacho.
 Bazilius. Kamacho, schaam u, hoe?
Zo’n edel man te slaan; zeg waar by koomt dat toe?
Kam. Ei lieve zie, hoe mal dat hy ’em an kan stellen,
Puur of hy ’t niet en wist. Hoor, wil ik ’t je eens vertellen?
’t Is ien van jou konsoort, jy hebt ’em op’emaekt
Om my te bruyen. Heb ik ’t op zyn kop ’eraekt?
Baz. Ik heb hem nooit gezien; maar van zyn dapper leeven,
En wonderlyk bedryf is korts een boek geschreven,
Valasko heeft het, en vindt groote smaak daar in.
Kam. Wat is dat veur een boek? wat heit ’et veur een zin?
Baz. Van vechten en van slaan, en reuzen overwinnen,
Jonkvrouwen by te staan, getrouw’lyk te beminnen,
En honderd dingen meer die hy nog dag’lyks doet.
Hy is een Ridder van een groot verstand en moed.
Kam. Maer komje hier ook om de Bruiloft te verstooren?
Baz. Wat wisje wasjes, neen.
Kam. Ik wou wel graeg iens hooren,
Hoe ’tjou al ’an staet, dat de Bruid jou is ontvryd.
Baz. ’k Hoop dat die zwaarigheid zal slyten door den tyd.
Ik wensch u veel geluk dewyl ’t nu zo moet wezen.
Kam. Je bent bylo een borst uit duizend uitgelezen.
Hou daer, daer is myn hangd, ’k denk ummers dat je ’t mient?
Baz. Voorzeker; ’k hou u voor myn’ allerbesten vriend.
Kam. Kom meê te bruiloft, ’k zel je helder doen trakteeren;
Gut jonker, doet ’et. Baz. ’k Moet juist gaan by zek’re heeren.
Kam. Gut snaekje doet ’et.
Baz. Zo ik tyd vind, zal ik ’t doen.
Kam. Hadie dan, dat gaet na myn liefstentje om een zoen.

TWAALFDE TOONEEL.

Bazilius, alleen.
O hemel! zal die lompe Boer erlangen
Een schoone Maegd, wiens aangenaam gezicht
Myn noordstar is, myn eenig levens licht,
En die ik dagt voor myne Bruid te ontvangen.
Quiteria, hoe vaak hebt gy beloofd
Met hand en mond, my nimmer te begeeven:
Maar steeds met my in zoete min te leeven!
Heeft dan het goud uw trouwe min verdoofd?
Neen ’t was geveinsd, gy doet my eeuwig treuren,
’k Zink in een poel van jammer, en verdriet!
’k Zal sterven: want my lust het leeven niet,
Nu my ’t bezit van u niet mag gebeuren.
’t Is ydel met myn zuchten, en geween;
Ik strooij vergeefs myn’ klagten voor de winden.
Daar is geen trouw ter waereld meer te vinden:
Men mint om ’t goud, ’t geld is de liefde alleen.
Men agt verstand, noch aangenaame zeden,
Men vraagt naar konst, noch eêlheid van gemoed:
Maar naar ’t genot van schatten, geld, en goed.
’t Geld maakt een dwaas behaag’lyk in zyn reden.
Vaar wel, vaar wel, ô overschoone maagd!
Mogt ik voor ’t laatst van u dien troost verwerven,
Dat gy bedenkt wat minnaar gy doet sterven;
Een minnaar, dien u eertyds heeft behaagd.
Waar loop ik heen? waar vliegen myn gedachten?
Behaagde ik u? neen, gy behaagde my.
Myn min was ernst: maar de uwe veinzery.
Ach, kon ik dit van u, van u verwachten!
Rampzal’ge min, gy hebt my, laas! verleid;
Quiteria was voor my niet gebooren.
ô Min! gy laat my in hun strikken smooren!
Quiteria vaar wel in eeuwigheid!
Maar ach! zy koomt.
 DERTIENDE TOONEEL.

Bazilius, Quiteria, Laura.

Quiteria. Ach Lief, ’k koom u nog eens

aanschouwen;
Hoe wendt gy ’t aangezicht...
Baz. Ondankbaarste aller vrouwen,
Hebt gy myn zuchten en myn klagten aangehoord?
Of zyt gy doof voor my, die door de min versmoort?
Quit. Myn Lief!
Baz. Neen zwyg Cireen; gy zoudt het vonnis geeven
Van mynen dood. Quit. Neen, leef.
Baz. ’k Zal zonder u niet leeven,
Bruid van Kamacho; neen, blyf, blyf by uwe keur;
Trouw met dien ryken gek, terwyl ik eenzaam treur:
Maar denk in uwe vreugd, wat minnaar gy doet quynen.
Quit. Ach Lief laat deze wolk van jaloezy verdwynen.
Baz. Wat jaloezy? gy treedt van daag met hem in d’echt.
Quit. ’t Zal nimmermeer geschiên; ’k beminne u al te oprecht.
Baz. Hoe ver verschilt uw hart, van ’t geen ge u mond doet spreken,
Quit. ’k Zal om Kamacho nooit myn’ trouwbelofte breeken;
Ik walg van zyne min. Baz. Hoe zal ik dit verstaan?
Deez dag neemt gy hem voor uw’ Man en Huisvoogd aan,
’t Is alles op de been, de boeren quinkeleeren,
De bruiloft is gereed. Quit. Die vreugd kon wel verkeeren.
Ik zal Kamacho nooit aannemen tot myn man.
Ik gaf hem nooit myn hart, gy zyt ’er meester van.
Scherp uw vernuft, myn lief, en wilt een list bedenken,
Om ons van hem te ontslaan: doch zo ’t myne eer zou krenken,
Staa ik het nimmer toe. Baz. De vlucht?
Quit. Die ’s vol gevaar.
Baz. ’k Zal uw beschermer zyn, we zullen met malkaêr
 Naar Saragossa vliên. Quit. Neen lief, dat koomt my duister,
En gansch ondoenlyk voor; ik krenk myn eer en luister,
Indien ik ’t onderneem. Baz. Myn Schoone, zyt gerust:
Het is noodzaaklyk, ’k zal u leiden waar ’t u lust:
En wat uw eer belangt, hoeft gy daar voor te schroomen?
Myn liefde staat gevest op deugd.
Quit. Hoe zal ik komen
Uit myn verdriet, helaas! Baz. Myn Lief, men raakt den tyd,
Die kort is, door al die vergeefsche klagten quyt,
En wierd gy hier by my ontdekt, het waar te duchten,
Dat ons ’t geluk niet diende om onzen ramp te ontvluchten.
Lau. Het is noodzaakelyk. Quit. Ik vrees.
Baz. Daar ’s geen gevaar;
Indien wy schikken dat we hier omtrent malkaêr
Weer vinden, in een uur, ’k zal rytuig klaar doen maaken.
Quit. Helaas! wat doe ik al om uit den dwang te raaken.

Einde van het eerste Bedryf.

 TWEEDE BEDRYF.
EERSTE TOONEEL.

Kamacho, tegen iemant van binnen.

Slae jy dien weg maer in, en doe gelyk ik zeg;

Ik zel eens zien of ik ’er vind, op deuzen weg.
Kamacho, alleen. Ja wel, ik zeg noch iens, daer moet wat gaende
weezen.
ô! Al dat wandelen met Laura doet me vreezen.
’t Is koddig van de Bruid! zy is geduurig zoek.
’k Loof dat Bazilius (want hy is gaeuw en kloek)
Men bruid verleien wil. Hy zel me parten speulen!
Ik vrees warentig dat ’er iets is in de meulen!
De boeren zeggen dat hy hier staag met heur praet.
Alleenig om een hoek, wie weet hoe dat het gaat!
Ik zel hier wachten, en me zelven wat versteeken.
Zacht daar komt Jochem de Poejeet, die lykt te preeken.
De loeris ziet me niet, zo leutert hem ’t verstand.

TWEEDE TOONEEL.

Meester Jochem, Kamacho.

„Puf nou Poëetjes, ’k ben de baas van ’t gantsche land!

„Puf Salamanka, met uw alma akkademi.
„Ik Miester Jochem, hoofdpoëet van sante Remi,
„In ’t landschap Mancha, maak myn rymen aanstonds weg.
„Sonnetten in een uur. Zeg Rederykers, zeg,
„Wie zou ’t my nadoen? En myn beste referynen,
„Wel honderd regels lang, (het zal wat wonders schynen)
„Doe ’k in een halven dag: maar ’k heb natuur te baat.
 „Daar Lope Vegaas, en Quevédos geest voor staat,
„Help ik ’er deur, ja ’k weet ’er fouten aan te wyzen.
„Dat ik prys, zullen al de boeren met my pryzen.
„Die my te vrind houd, maak ik een volmaakt Poëet.
„Ik rym terwyl ik slaap, ik rym terwyl ik eet;
„En op de brillekiek bedenk ik myn rondeelen.
„’t Is alles geest, een aâr moet uit de boeken steelen;
„Ik niet, schyt boeken, ’k heb de kunst hier in myn kop,
„Ik ben geheel doorwiekt van zuiver hengste sop;
„Ja ’k ben poëet zelfs in myn moeders lyf gebooren.
Sinjoor de Bruidegom, koomt gy my hier te vooren!
Kam. Wel Miester Jochem heb jy ook myn Bruid gezien?
Jochem. Ze is by de Muzen op Parnassus berg misschien.
Kam. Wat is dat voor een berg? wat of je al uit zult stooten.
Jochem. Die Muzen en dien Berg zyn in myn brein besloten.
Kam. ’k Verstae dat niet: ik vraeg of jy myn Bruid niet weet.
Jochem. Gy vraagt my als een gek: ik andwoord als Poëet.
Kam. Wat schort je Jochem? benje dol? of benje dronken?
Jochem. Met uw verlof, jy hebt my niet een zier geschonken.
Kam. Ho ho! nou merk ik ’t al; je zelt licht moeij’lyk zyn?
Jochem. Wel ja, jou Kok, die Waal, zei dat men hier den wyn
Als water schenken zou, en nou ik ben gekomen,
Heb ik noch wyn noch Waal, noch niet een brui vernomen.
Ik zal dien rotzak weer betaalen voor dien trek.
Kam. Hy heit zyn boodschap dan niet wel gedaen, die gek.
’t Is nog te vroeg.
Jochem. Ik denk je zelt my ook tracteeren?
Kam. Wel zou ik niet? je zelt je keel ook helder smeeren.
Maar zeg, is jou myn bruid met Laura niet ontmoet?
Jochem. Ja tog, ik heb de Bruid daar even nog gegroet.
Kam. Wie was ’er by?
Jochem. Zy had haar Speelnood Laura by ’er.
Kam. Zag jy Bazilius dan niet, haar ouwe vryer?