EN

Gerbrand Adriaensz. Bredero

Bredero was a seventeenth-century Dutch poet.

Person

Jan Claesz ten Hoorn. Collectie Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
  • Gerbrand Adriaensz. Bredero
  • Born on: March 16, 1585
  • Born in: Amsterdam, Nederland
  • Died on: Aug. 23, 1618
  • Died in: Amsterdam, Nederland

Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero

Jan Claesz ten Hoorn. Collectie Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Publiek domein

Bredero (1585-1618) was a Dutch poet of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 't Kan verkeren' (It is all in the game) was Bredero's famous dictum.[1] He was a member of the rederijkerskamer D'Eglentier (Eglentier Chamber of Rhetoric). Under the leadership of Samuel Coster, some dissidents founded the Nederduytsche Academie. Bredero also followed Coster. In 1622 the Boertigh, amoreus, en aendachtig groot lied-boeck van G.A. Brederode, Amsteldammer (Good, Amusing and Attentive Songbook by G.A. Brederode, Amsteldammer), appeared posthumously.[2] His best-known play is Spaanschen Brabander (Spanish Brabanter). It premiered in the Nederduytse Academie. Bredero's participation in the Academy guaranteed a large audience. Bredero sketched a picture of a city overrun by foreigners, and the decay that resulted.[3]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Anne also uses this quote in her diary. Only in the English translation this quote has been mistranslated since 1952 in "things may alter", and Bredero is confused with 'Br'er Rabbit'. Anne Frank, Diary Version A, 24 January 1944, in: The Collected Works, transl. from the Dutch by Susan Massotty, London [etc.]: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019. Br'er Rabbit is a character from American folklore, who became famous thanks to the Unlce Remus books of the 19th century writer Joel Chandler Harris about Br'er Rabbit's eternal fight with Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear. Walt Disney adapted Harris' books in 1946 as the feature animated film Song of the South. The mix-up of Bredero with Br'er Rabbit caused English professor Sylvia Iskander to believe that Anne actually read the Uncle Remus stories, but that uis highly unlikely. Sylvia P. Iskander, 'Anne Frank's reading: a retrospective', in: Hyman Enzer & Sandra Solotaroff-Enzes (eds.), Anne Frank: reflections on her life and legacy, Urbana & Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2000, p. 105.
  2. ^ KB, Nederlandse poëzie, Historische dichters: Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero (1585-1618).
  3. ^ Mieke B. Smits-Veldt, "24 september 1617: Inwijding van de Nederduytse Academie", in: M.A. Schenkeveld-van der Dussen (hoofdred.), Nederlandse literatuur, een geschiedenis, Groningen: Nijhoff, 1993, p. 196-201, aldaar p. 200.