A Hitherto Unidentified Source of Huygens' Satire, "T Kostelick Mal"

Abstract

THE Dutch poet Constantijn Huygens paid his third visit to England in the latter part of 1621, and resided there, in London and its neighbourhood, from December 7 of that year till the beginning of February 1623. During the earlier months of his sojourn he was occupied, in the intervals and delays of diplomatic business, with the composition of his satire, 't Kostelick Mal, a rambling but at times sufficiently incisive commentary on the extravagance of contemporary fashion. For this, says Leendertzi, 'he made serious studies. When he had once decided to write a satire upon fashion, he began to study the subject systematically. The nrst thing he did was what we also should do: he took up his encyclopaedia. But it was still the beginning of the 17th century. Although Kepler's chief work and various writings of Galilei and of Bacon had already appeared, science for the most part continued to follow her old way. Only with a second generation of students of nature, among whom Constantijn's son was to take a place of honour, was a wider sphere to he found-for speculation and scientific research. The Florilegium Mcagumvt, sive Polyanthea of Jos. Langius contained, therefore, no thorough treatment of the subjects taken up in it, but merely a great collection of quotations out of all kinds of writers, arranged in certain groups. 'The quotations from Langius which he intended to make use of were written by Huygens on the back of the sheet of paper on which he began the poem. [Many of these, as Leendertz shows, are taken simply from the article Vestis in this compilation.]... He also read, before commencing the poem, an English book by a certain Williams, the title of which I have not been able to discover. That he made use of the