TNTL 111

Johan Koppenol

Roem zonder rijm. Maurits verheerlijkt in het Onrijmich Vreuchden-liedt van Jan van Hout (1594)

Abstract - In 1594 Jan van Hout wrote his Onrijmich Vreuchden-liedt (Unrhymed Song of Joy) in honour of the capture of Groningen by Maurits. It is the earliest unrhymed poem extant in Dutch. This article contains an analysis of this text and establishes its relationship to humanist poetic technique and renaissance poetics. It was Van Hout's aim to elevate Dutch poetry to the Classical level by means of his rhymeless poem - to some of his contemporaries a dubious experiment.