Poetry
Houwelijck
Not translated into English
Jacob Cats · 1625
Synopsis
A long didactic poem on marriage and on what leads to it, in which each part answers a stage in a woman's life, from girl to widow. The author teaches a conjugal morality illustrated with examples and engravings: the superiority of man is held to be given by God, mutual love and respect to be the foundation of the household, and woman to be destined for the home and the children.
Context
The poem appeared in 1625 in Middelburg, where its author was then pensionary of the town, and was also sold in separate parts, each paginated separately. It belongs to the series of its author's great moralizing poems, which a second book on betrothal and marriage will continue twelve years later, written after the death of his wife and on the advice he was given to remarry. A German translation appeared in 1711.
Who it is for
A work in verse in a single block, in Dutch, never translated into French. One should know that the domestic morality of the Golden Age alone explains its immense success and its neglect.
Prizes and reception
For two centuries, the most widely read book in the Netherlands after the Bible, and its author one of the most widely read writers of the language.