Editing Dutch-language literature (section)

==Middle Dutch literature (1150–1500)==
{{main|Medieval Dutch literature}}
{{see also|Middle Dutch|Dutch folklore}}
In the 12th and 13th century, writers starting writing [[Romance (heroic literature)|chivalric romances]] and [[hagiography|hagiographies]] (i.e. stories about the lives of saints) for paying noblemen. From the 13th century, literature became more didactic and developed a proto-national character. The primary audience was no longer the nobility, but the bourgeoisie. The growing importance of the Southern Low Countries resulted in most works being written in [[Brabantian dialect|Brabant]], [[Flanders]] and [[Duchy of Limburg|Limburg]].

In the first stages of Dutch literature, poetry was the predominant form of literary expression. It was both in the [[Low Countries]] and the rest of [[Europe]] that [[courtly romance]] and [[courtly love|poetry]] were popular [[literary genre]]s during the [[Middle Ages]]. One ''[[Minnesang]]er'' was the aforementioned Van Veldeke, the first Dutch-language writer known by name, who also wrote [[epic poetry]] and hagiographies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://users.telenet.be/gaston.d.haese/heinric_van_veldeken.html|title=Heinric van Veldeken - Biografie en bloemlezing|access-date=2011-03-22|archive-date=2012-09-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120924072135/http://users.telenet.be/gaston.d.haese/heinric_van_veldeken.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The [[chivalry|chivalric]] romance was a popular genre as well, often featuring [[King Arthur]] or [[Charlemagne]] as [[protagonist]].

As the political and cultural emphasis at the time lay in the southern provinces, most of the works handed down from the early Middle Ages were written in southern Low Franconian dialects such as [[Limburgish language|Limburgish]], [[Flemish dialects|Flemish]] and [[Brabantic]]. The first Dutch language writer known by name is Van Veldeke, who wrote courtly love poetry, and epics.

[[Beatrice of Nazareth]] (1200–1268) was the first known prose writer in the Dutch language, the author of the ''Seven Ways of Holy Love''. The [[Brussels]] [[friar]] Jan van Ruusbroec (better known in English as the [[beatification|Blessed]] [[John of Ruysbroeck]], 1293/4–1381) followed Beatrice in taking prose out of the economic and political realms and using it for literary purposes. He wrote sermons filled with [[mysticism|mystic]] thought.

A number of the surviving Dutch language epic works, especially the [[Romance (heroic literature)|courtly romances]], were copies from or expansions of earlier German or [[French language|French]] efforts, but there are examples of truly original works (such as the anonymous ''[[Elegast|Karel ende Elegast]]'') and even Dutch-language works that formed the basis for version in other languages (such as the morality play ''[[Elckerlijc]]'' that formed the basis for ''[[Everyman (15th-century play)|Everyman]]''). Another genre popular in the Middle Ages was the [[fable]], and the most elaborate fable produced by Dutch literature was an expanded adaptation of the [[Reynard the Fox]] tale, ''Vanden vos Reynaerde'' ("Of Reynard the Fox"), written around 1250 by a person only identified as Willem.

Until the 13th century, the [[Middle Dutch language]] output mainly serviced the aristocratic and monastic orders, recording the traditions of [[chivalry]] and of religion, but scarcely addressed the bulk of the population. With the close of the 13th century a change appeared in Dutch literature. The Flemish and Hollandic towns began to prosper and to assert their [[commerce|commercial]] supremacy over the [[North Sea]], and these cities won privileges amounting almost to political independence. With this liberty there arose a new sort of literary expression.

[[File:VanMaerlant.jpg|thumb|left|[[Jacob van Maerlant]]]]

The most important exponent of this new development was [[Jacob van Maerlant]] (~1235–~1300), a [[County of Flanders|Flemish]] [[scholar]] who worked in [[Holland]] for part of his career. His key works are ''Der Naturen Bloeme'' ("The Flower of Nature", c. 1263), a collection of [[morality|moral]] and [[satire|satirical]] addresses to all [[social class|classes]] of [[society]], and ''De Spieghel Historiael'' ("The Mirror of History", c. 1284). Jacob van Maerlant straddles the cultural divide between the northern and southern provinces. Up until now, the northern provinces had produced little of worth, and this would largely remain the case until the fall of [[Antwerp]] during the [[Eighty Years' War]] shifted focus to [[Amsterdam]]. He is sometimes referred to as the "father of Dutch poetry", "a title he merits for productivity if for no other reason."<ref>{{cite book|last=Warnke|first=Frank J.|editor=Alex Preminger|others=Frank J. Warnke, O.B. Richardson, Jr|title=Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics|year=1972|publisher=Princeton UP|pages=207–11|chapter=Dutch poetry}}</ref>

Around 1440, literary [[guild]]s called ''rederijkerskamers'' ("[[Chamber of rhetoric|Chambers of Rhetoric]]") arose. These guilds, whose members called themselves ''[[Rederijkers]]'' or "Rhetoricians", were in almost all cases [[middle-class]] in tone, and opposed to [[aristocracy|aristocratic]] ideas and tendencies in thought. Of these chambers, the earliest were almost entirely engaged in preparing [[mystery play|mysteries]] and [[miracle play]]s for the people. Soon their influence grew until no [[festival]] or [[procession]] could take place in a town unless the Chamber [[patron]]ized it. The Chambers' plays very rarely dealt with [[history|historical]] or even [[Bible|Biblical]] personages, but entirely with allegorical and moral abstractions and were didactic in nature. The most notable examples of Rederijker theatre include ''Mariken van Nieumeghen'' ("Mary of [[Nijmegen]]") and ''[[Elckerlijc]]'' (which was translated into [[English language|English]] as ''[[Everyman]]'').

At the close of the early period, [[Anna Bijns]] (c. 1494–1575) stands as a transitional figure. Bijns was an [[Antwerp]] [[schoolmaster|schoolmistress]] and [[lay brother|lay nun]] whose main targets were the [[faith]] and character of [[Martin Luther|Luther]]. In her first volume of poetry (1528) the [[Lutheran]]s are scarcely mentioned and focus lies on her personal experience of faith, but in that of 1538 one finds sharp words for the Lutherans on every page. With the writings of Bijns, the period of [[Middle Dutch language|Middle Dutch]] closes and the [[Dutch language|modern Dutch]] begins (see also [[History of the Dutch language]]).