DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68274#0279
Seventeenth Century (Dutch)
Myn staffer is myn swaerd, myn bussem is myn wapen.1
Ick kenne geene rust, ick weete van geen slaepen.
Ick denck aen geen salet, ick denck niet aen myn keel.
Geen arbeyt my te swaer, geen zorge my te veel
Om alles gladdekens en sonder smet te maken.
Ik wil niet dat de maegd myn pronkstuck aan zal raken ;
Ick selve wrijf en boen, ick flodder en ick schrob,
Ick aes op 't kleinste stof, ik beef niet voor den tob
Gelyck de pronckmadam.
(My brush is my sword, my besom is my weapon.
I know no rest, I know no sleep.
I don't think of my room, I don't think of my throat.
No labour is too heavy, no care I think too much
To make everything smooth and without blemish.
I will not let the maid touch my pretty things;
I, myself, will rub and polish, I will splash and scrub ;
I hunt the speck of dust, I do not fear the tub
Like a fine lady.)
These are samples of many speeches in the old come-
dies, where the women constantly talk about house-
cleaning and scrubbing.
English travellers of this period unanimously praised
the way the Dutch houses were kept. One wrote:
" They are not large, but neat, beautiful outside and well
furnished inside ; and the furniture is so clean and in
good order that it appears to be more an exhibition than
for daily use." The farms also attracted the attention
of the stranger. Another traveller said : " The Dutch
farmer keeps his land as neatly as a courtier trims his
beard ; and his house is as choice as a lady who comes
out of her dressing-room. A well-dressed lady cannot
look neater than the fine gable and the thatched roof of
a Dutch farmhouse."
In his Brief Character of the Low Countries, Owen
Feltham describes an Amsterdam house of the middle of
the seventeenth century. " When you are entered the
house," he writes, " the first thing you encounter is a
183
Myn staffer is myn swaerd, myn bussem is myn wapen.1
Ick kenne geene rust, ick weete van geen slaepen.
Ick denck aen geen salet, ick denck niet aen myn keel.
Geen arbeyt my te swaer, geen zorge my te veel
Om alles gladdekens en sonder smet te maken.
Ik wil niet dat de maegd myn pronkstuck aan zal raken ;
Ick selve wrijf en boen, ick flodder en ick schrob,
Ick aes op 't kleinste stof, ik beef niet voor den tob
Gelyck de pronckmadam.
(My brush is my sword, my besom is my weapon.
I know no rest, I know no sleep.
I don't think of my room, I don't think of my throat.
No labour is too heavy, no care I think too much
To make everything smooth and without blemish.
I will not let the maid touch my pretty things;
I, myself, will rub and polish, I will splash and scrub ;
I hunt the speck of dust, I do not fear the tub
Like a fine lady.)
These are samples of many speeches in the old come-
dies, where the women constantly talk about house-
cleaning and scrubbing.
English travellers of this period unanimously praised
the way the Dutch houses were kept. One wrote:
" They are not large, but neat, beautiful outside and well
furnished inside ; and the furniture is so clean and in
good order that it appears to be more an exhibition than
for daily use." The farms also attracted the attention
of the stranger. Another traveller said : " The Dutch
farmer keeps his land as neatly as a courtier trims his
beard ; and his house is as choice as a lady who comes
out of her dressing-room. A well-dressed lady cannot
look neater than the fine gable and the thatched roof of
a Dutch farmhouse."
In his Brief Character of the Low Countries, Owen
Feltham describes an Amsterdam house of the middle of
the seventeenth century. " When you are entered the
house," he writes, " the first thing you encounter is a
183