Dutch Life in Town and Country

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Discipline there is none, except in very rare cases, when the law provides
for the expulsion of offenders; only theological candidates are indirectly
restrained from undue levity by having to get a certificate of good
conduct at the end of their course. There is no chapel to keep, for the
student's religion and morals are entirely his own concern; there are no
'collections,' for if a man does not choose to read he injures no one but
himself by his idleness; and there is no Vice-Chancellor's Court, for in
theory students are on the same footing as other people before the law,
though in practice the police seldom interfere with them more than they
can help. It is not surprising that young men not long from school should
sometimes abuse such exceptional freedom, but their ideas of enjoyment are
rather strange in foreign eyes. One of their favourite amusements seems to
be driving about the town and neighbourhood in open carriages. On special
occasions all the members of a club turn out, wearing little round caps of
their club colours, and accompanied as likely as not by a band, and drive
off in a procession to some neighbouring town, where they dine; in the
night or next morning they return, all uproariously drunk, singing and
shouting, waving flags and flinging empty wine-bottles about the road. I
do not wish to imply that all Dutch students behave in this way, but such
exhibitions are unfortunately not uncommon, and show to what lengths
'freedom' is permitted to go.

There is a limit, however, even to the liberty of students, as appears
from the following anecdote. One of these young men gave a wine-party in
his lodgings, and some one proposed, by way of a lark, to wake up a young
woman who lived in the house opposite, and fetch her out of bed, so a
rocket was produced and fired through the open window. The bombardment had
the desired effect, but it also set the house on fire, and the joker's
father was called on to make good the damage. Then the police took the
matter up, and the culprit got several weeks' imprisonment for arson,
after which he returned to the University and resumed his interrupted
studies. There was no question of rustication, as the court simply
inflicted the penalty laid down in the Code, and there was no other
authority that had power to interfere in the matter at all.

As may well be imagined, students are not generally popular with the
townsfolk, who resent the unequal treatment of the two classes, not
because they wish for the same measure of license, but because anything
like rowdiness contrasts strongly with their own habits; and extravagance,
not an uncommon failing among students in Holland or elsewhere, is
absolutely repugnant to the average Dutch citizen. This feeling of
resentment seems to be growing, and has already had some slight effect
upon the civil authorities; if the students find some day that they have
lost their privileged position, they will have only themselves to thank,
and certainly the change will do them no harm.

But though a certain number go to the Universities merely to amuse
themselves or to be in the fashion, most of them work well, even if they
do not attend lectures regularly all through their course. In some
faculties private coaching offers a quicker and easier way to 'promotion'
than the more orthodox one through the class-rooms. No doubt there are
some who are in no hurry to leave the attractions of student life, but not
many cling to them so persistently as a certain Dutch student, to whom a
relative bequeathed a liberal allowance, to be paid him as long as he was
studying for his degree. He became known as 'the eternal student,' to the
great wrath of the heirs who waited for the reversion of his legacy. For
most men the ordinary course is long enough, for it averages perhaps six
or seven years, though there is no fixed time, and candidates may take the
examinations as soon as they please. The nominal course--that is, the time
over which the lectures extend--varies in the different faculties, from
four years in law to seven or eight in medicine, but very few men manage,
or attempt, to take a degree in law in four years. The other faculties are
theology, science, including mathematics, and literature and philosophy.

The degree of Doctor is given in these five faculties, and to obtain it
two examinations must be passed, the candidate's and the doctoral. After
passing the latter a student bears the title _doctorandus_ until he has
written a book or thesis and defended it _viva voce_ before the
examiners. He is then 'promoted' to the degree, a ceremony which
generally entails, indirectly, a certain amount of expense. It appears to
be the correct thing for the newly-made doctor to drive round in state,
adorned with the colours of his club and attended by friends gorgeously
disguised as lacqueys, and leave copies of his book at the houses of the
professors and his club fellows, after which he, of course, celebrates
the occasion in the invariable Dutch fashion, with a dinner. Many
students, however, are not qualified to try for a degree, not having been
through the 'Gymnasia,' and others do not wish to do so. Sometimes the
candidate's examination qualifies one to practise a profession, and is
open to all, in other cases, in the faculty of medicine for example, it
gives no qualification, and is only open to candidates for the degree,
but then there is another, a 'professional' examination, for those who do
not aim at the ornamental title.

The cost of living at the Universities naturally depends very much on the
student's tastes and habits. He pays to the University only 200 florins
(_L16 13s 4d_) a year for four years, after which he may attend lectures
free of charge, so the minimum annual expenditure is small; but it should
be borne in mind that the course is about twice as long as in England. A
good many students live with their families, which is cheaper than living
in lodgings; and as nearly all classes are represented, there is a
considerable difference in their standards of life. Some are certainly
extravagant, as in all Universities, which tends to raise prices, but, on
the other hand, many of them are men whose parents can ill afford the
expense, but are tempted by the value which attaches to a University
career in Holland, and these bring the average down. Between these two
extremes there are plenty who do very well on L150 or so a year, and L200
is probably considered a sufficiently liberal allowance by parents who
could easily afford a larger sum. Even the students' corps need not lead
to any great expense, as it consists of a number of minor clubs, and
nearly every one joins it, so that the pace is not always the same;
students who wish to keep their expenses down naturally join with friends
who are similarly situated, leaving the more extravagant clubs to the
young bloods who have plenty of money to spare.

The corps is the only tie which holds the students together where there
are no colleges, and athletics play but a very small part. Each University
has its corps, to which all the students belong except a few who take no
part in the typical student life, and are known as the 'boeven,' or
'knaves.' A Rector and Senate are elected annually from among the members
of four or five years' standing to manage the affairs of the corps. In
order to become a member, a freshman, or 'green,' as he is called in
Holland, has to go through a rather trying initiation, which lasts for
three or four weeks. Having given in his name to the Senate, he must call
on the members of the corps and ask them to sign their names in a book,
which is inspected by the Senate from time to time, and at each visit he
comes in for a good deal of 'ragging,' for, as he may not go away until
he has obtained his host's signature, he is completely at the mercy of his
tormentors. If he does not obey their orders implicitly and give any
information they may require about his private affairs, he is likely to
have a bad time, but as long as he is duly submissive he is generally let
off with a little harmless fooling. One 'green,' a shy and retiring youth,
who did not at all relish the impertinent inquiries which were made into
his morals and family history, was made to stand at the window and give a
full and particular account of himself to the passers-by, with interesting
details supplied by the company. Sometimes, however, the joking is more
brutal and less amusing. For instance, as a punishment for shirking the
bottle, the victim was compelled to kneel on the floor with a funnel in
his mouth, while his tormentors poured libations down his throat.

When the 'green time' is over the new members of the corps are installed
by the Rector, and drive round the town in procession, finishing up, of
course, with a club dinner. The corps has its head-quarters in the
Students' Club, which corresponds more or less to the 'Union' at an
English University, though differing from the latter in two important
respects: first, there are no debates, and secondly, the members are
exclusively students, for, as I have already noticed, there is no social
intercourse between the professors and their pupils. The reading-rooms at
the club are a favourite lounge of a great many of the students, but it
must be admitted that the literature supplied there is not always of a
very wholesome kind, seeing that it includes 'realism' of the most daring
description, with illustrations to match, and obscene Parisian comic
papers. Every member of the corps also belongs to one of the minor clubs
of which it is made up, and which are apparently nothing more than
messes, very often with only a dozen members, or less.

A few sport clubs exist, also under the control of the corps, but they do
not play a very prominent part, for the taste for athletic exercises is
confined to a small minority. Considering the small number of players, the
proficiency attained in the exotic games of football and hockey is
surprisingly high. The rowing is even better, and attracts a larger
number, being perhaps more suited to the physical characteristics of the
race than those games for which agility is more necessary than weight and
strength. Boat-races are held annually between the several Universities,
in which the form of the crews is generally very good. If I am not
mistaken, some of the Dutch crews that have rowed at Henley represented
University clubs. The typical student, however, though well enough endowed
with bone and muscle, has no ambition whatever to become an athlete, or to
submit to the fatigue and self-denial of training. Probably the way he
lives and his aversion to athletics, more than the length of his course of
study, account for his elderly appearance, for he is not only obviously
older than the average undergraduate, but begins to look positively
middle-aged both in face and figure almost before he has done growing.

Before leaving the subject of the students' corps, mention must be made
of the great carnival which each corps holds every five years to
commemorate the foundation of its University. The 'Lustrum-Maskerade,'
which is the chief item in the week of festivities, is a historical
pageant representing some event in the mediaeval history of Holland. The
chief actors are chosen from among the wealthiest of the students, and
spare no trouble or expense in preparing their get-up, while the minor
parts are allotted to the various clubs within the corps, each club
representing a company of retainers or men-at-arms in the service of one
of the mock princes or knights. For six days the players retain their
gorgeous costumes and act their parts, even when excursions are made in
the neighbourhood in company with the friends and relatives who come to
join in the commemoration, and the mixture of mediaeval and modern
costumes in the streets has a somewhat ludicrous effect. On the first day
the visitors are formally welcomed by the officers of the corps. Former
students of all ages meet their old comrades, and the men of each year,
after dining together, march together to the garden or park where the
reception is held. Anything less like the usual calm and serious
demeanour of these seniors than the way in which they dance and sing
through the town is not to be imagined, for the oldest and most sedate of
them are as wildly and ludicrously enthusiastic as the youngest student;
and their arrival at the reception, with bands of music, skipping about
and roaring student songs like their sons and grandsons, is, to say the
least, comical. But the occasion only comes once in five years, and they
naturally make the most of it.

The next day the Masquerade takes place, beginning with a procession to
the ground, and is repeated two or three times before huge crowds of
spectators, for the townsmen are as excited as the students and the
relatives, at least on the first two days. Great pains are always taken to
ensure historical correctness in every detail, and the leading parts are
often admirably played, and it must be the unromantic dress of the
lookers-on that spoils the effect and makes one think of a circus. If only
the crowd could be brought into harmony with the masqueraders in the
matter of clothes the illusion might be complete; as it is, one can hardly
imagine for a moment that the knights who charge so bravely down the
lists mean to do one another any serious damage. A tournament is very
often the subject of the pageant, or an important part of it, or sometimes
a challenge and single combat are introduced as a sort of _entr'acte_. For
the last four days of the feast there is no fixed order of procedure;
balls, concerts, garden-parties, and so on are arranged as may be most
convenient, while the intervals are spent in visits, dinners, and drives.
Not until the end of the week does any student lay aside his gay costume
and resume the more prosaic garments of his own times. All through the
week the influence of the corps, which is the life of the University from
the student's point of view, is manifest in the collective character of
all the festivities, everything being done either by the corps itself or
under its direction. From a comparison of this celebration with 'Commem'
week we can, perhaps, gather a very fair idea of the typical points of
difference between the students of Holland and our own country.

Chapter XV

Art and Letters

The art of a country is ever in unity with the character of the people. It
reflects their ideas and sentiments; their history is marked in its
progress or decline; and it shows forth the influences that have been at
work in the minds and very life of the nation from which it springs. If
this is true of all countries, it is nowhere so visibly true as in
Holland. There art underwent the most decided changes during the various
periods of war and armed peace through which the little country passed. It
may truly be said that 'the first smile of the young Republic was art, for
it was only after the revolt of the Dutch against the Spanish ... that
painting reached a high grade of perfection.' One is accustomed to take it
for granted too readily that the glory of Dutch art lies in the past; that
the works and fame of a Van Eyck, a Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and
Ruysdael sum up Holland's contribution to the art of the world, and that
this chapter of its history, like the chapters which deal with its
maritime supremacy, its industrial greatness, and its struggles for
liberty, is closed for ever. Nothing could be farther from the fact. Dutch
art was never more virile, more original, more self-conscious than to-day,
when it is represented by a band of men whose genius and enthusiasm
recall the great names of the past. Professer Richard Muther has well
said, in his 'History of Modern Painting,' that, 'so far from stagnating,
Dutch art is now as fresh and varied as in the old days of its glory.'

The Dutch painters of the present day include, indeed, quite a multitude
of men of the very first rank, and some of them, like the three brothers
Maris, are unexcelled. Jacob Maris, who died so recently as 1890, was
known for his splendid landscapes, and still more for his town pictures
and beach scenes. Willem Maris has a partiality for meadows in which
cattle are browsing in tranquil content. Thys Maris has a very different
style. He paints grey and misty figures and landscapes all hazy and
scarcely visible. His love of the obscure and the suggestive led to the
common refusal of his portraits by patrons, who complained that they
lacked distinctness. No painter, however, commands such large prices as
he, and from L2000 to L3000 is no rare figure for his canvases.

H. W. Mesdag is Holland's most celebrated sea painter. He pictures the
ever rolling ocean with marvellous power, and carries the song of the
waves and the cry of the wild sea birds into his great paintings, which
speak to one of the life and toil of the fishermen, the never weary
waters, and the ever varying aspects of sea and sky. In this domain he is
unrivalled, and he has certainly done some magnificent work. Mesdag has an
exhibition of his own works every Sunday morning in his studio at The
Hague, and any one who wishes is allowed to visit it, while for the
general public's benefit there is the Mesdag Panorama in the same town.

Mauve, who died in 1887, was best known for his pastoral scenes. His
pictures of sheep on the moors and fens recall pleasant memories of
summer days and sunny hours.

Josef Israels went largely to the life of fishermen for his motives,
though one of his best-known works is that noble one, 'David before Saul.'

Bosboom one naturally associates with church interiors, wonderfully well
done; Blommers, Artz, and Bles likewise paint interiors, the first two
choosing their subjects by preference from the houses of the working
classes, while Bles confines himself to the dwellings of the wealthy.

Bisschop is unquestionably the best of the Dutch portrait-painters, though
his still life is considered even more artistic than his portraits. The
foremost of the lady portrait and figure painters is Therese Schwartze,
who, like Josselin de Jong, often takes Queen Wilhelmina as a grateful
subject for her brush.

The foregoing may be regarded as painters of the old school, though every
one has so much originality as to be virtually the initiator of a distinct
direction. The newer schools are represented by men like J. Toorop,
Voerman, Verster, Camerlingh Onnes, Bauer, and Hoytema.

Toorop is the well-known symbolist. His style is Oriental rather than
Dutch, and his topics for the most part are mystical in character. He is
famous also for his decorative art. This many-sided man is probably the
greatest artist soul in Holland. He is expert in almost every domain of
art. Etching, pastel and water-colour drawing, oil-painting, wood-cutting,
lithography, working in silver, copper, and brass, and modelling in clay,
belong equally to his accomplishments, though as a painter he is, of
course, best known.

Voerman, once known for his minutely painted flowers, is now a pronounced
landscape painter. His cloud studies are marvellous, though perhaps the
landscape colours are somewhat hard and overdone in the effort to produce
the desired effects. He paints, as a rule, the rolling cumulus, and is one
of the first of the younger artists.

Verster is known best for his impressionist way of painting flowers in
colour patches, though he has now taken to the minute and mystical method
of representing them.

Onnes, like Toorop, is a decided mystic, and there is a vein of mysticism
in all his paintings. He is famous for his light effects in glass and
pottery, and has especially a wonderful knack of painting choirs in
churches ail in a dreamy light.

Bauer is better known, perhaps, by his drawings and etchings than by his
paintings. He paints with striking beauty old churches, temples, and
mosques, generally the exteriors, and the effect of his minute work is
wonderful. Bauer is also one of the finest of Dutch decorative artists.

Hoytema is known for his illustrations. Animal life is his _forte_,
especially owls and monkeys.

Among other younger painters who, though not yet of European reputation,
may still be classed with many of the older generation, are Jan Veth and
H. Haverman, both of whom excel in portraits. The lady artists who have
best held their own with the stronger sex include, in addition to those
named, Mme Bilders van Bosse, who paints woods and leafy groves with
striking power; and the late Mme. Vogels-Roozeboom, who found her
inspiration in the flora of Nature. In her day (she died in 1894) she was
the first of floral painters, and whenever she raised her brush the finest
of flowers rose up as at the touch of a magic wand. Second to her, though
not so well known by far, came Mlle W. van der Sande Bakhuizen.

The Dutch are not only a nation of painters, but a nation of
picture-lovers, though in Holland, as in other countries, one not seldom
sees upon walls from which better would be expected tawdry art, about
which all that can be said is that it was bought cheap. The country
possesses a number of good public galleries, and much is done in this way
and by the frequent exhibition of paintings to foster the love of the
artistic. The principal exhibitions are those of the Pulchri Studio and
the Kunst-kring (Art Circle) at The Hague, and the 'Arti et Amicitia' at
Rotterdam. To become a working member of the Pulchri Studio is counted a
great honour, for the artists who are on the committee are very
particular as to whom they admit into their circle, and they ruthlessly
blackball any one who is at all 'amateurish' or who does not come up to
their high standard. For this reason it is that so many of the younger
artists give exhibitions of their own works as the only way of getting
them at all known.

Sculpture is not much practised in Holland. It would seem to be an art
belonging almost entirely to Southern climes, although there was a time
when the Dutch modelled busts and heads from snow. The monument of Piet
Hein was originally made of snow, and so much did it take the fancy of the
people of Delftshaven, the place of his birth, that they had a stone
monument erected for him on the place where the one of snow had stood. It
is only recently, however, that sculpture has been re-introduced into
Holland as a fine art, and those artists who have taken it up need hardly
fear competition with their brethren of other Continental countries, for
their names are already on every tongue. The first amongst those who have
shown real power is Pier Pander, the cripple son of a Frisian mat-plaiter,
who came over from Rome (where he had gone to complete his studies) at
the special invitation of the Queen to model a bust of the Prince Consort,
Duke Hendrik of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Other notable sculptors are Van
Mattos, Ode, Bart de Hove, and Van Wyck.

There is also another art which is in considerable vogue, and in which
much good work has been done--that of wood-carving. In this the painter
and illustrator Hoytema has shown considerable skill. Needless to say,
Holland is also as famous now as ever for its pottery. Delft ware was ever
the fame of the Dutch nation, though the Rosenbach and Gouda pottery is
now gaining approval. It may be doubted, however, whether the love for the
latter is altogether without affectation. One is inclined to believe that
many of its admirers are enthusiastic to order. They admire because the
leading authorities assure them it is their duty so to do.

The Netherlands, though very limited in area and small in population, can
also boast of having contributed much that is excellent to the literature
of the world, and in its roll of famous literary men are to be found names
which would redeem any country from the charge of intellectual barrenness.
Spinoza, Erasmus, and Hugo de Groot (Grotius), to name no others, form a
trio whose influence upon the thought of the world, and upon the movements
which make for human progress, has been beyond estimation, and which still
belongs to-day to the imperishable inheritance of the race.

As illustrating the world-wide fame of Hugo de Groot it is interesting to
note that on the occasion of the Peace Conference held at The Hague in
1899 the American representatives invited all their fellow-delegates to
Delft, and there, in the church of his burial, papers were read in which
the claim of the great thinker to perpetual honour was brought to the
memories of the assembled spokesmen of the civilized world.

It is with the modern literature and literary movements of Holland,
however, that these pages must concern themselves, and for practical
purposes we may confine ourselves principally to the latter part of the
completed century. For the early part of the nineteenth century was by no
means prolific in literary achievement, and does not boast of many great
names, if one disregards the writers whose lives linked that century with
its predecessor, like Betjen Wolff and Agatha Deken. When, in 1814-15,
Holland again became a separate kingdom, that important event failed to
mark a new era in Dutch literature. Strange to say, though the political
changes of the time powerfully influenced the sister arts of music and
painting, which show strong traces of the transition of that crisis in the
nation's history, upon literature they had no effect whatever. Before 1840
no very brilliant writers came to the front, though the period was not
without notable names, such as Willem Bilderdijk, Hendrik C. Tollens, and
Isaac da Costa, all of whom possessed a considerable vogue. Bilderdijk's
chief claim to fame is the fact that he wrote over 300,000 lines of verse,
and regarded himself as the superior of Shakespeare; Tollens had a name
for rare patriotism, and wrote many fine historical poems and ballads;
while Da Costa, who was a converted Jew, had to the last, in spite of a
considerable popularity as a poet, to contend with the oftentimes fatal
shafts of ridicule.

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