UNIT 6: Jan Pietersz Meerhuysen, De geest van Jan Tamboer (1656)

 

 

Text Box:

 

 

 

Introduction to the Text

 

In Unit 6 you will be reading a modernised, but otherwise un-adapted fragment from De geest van Jan Tamboer (The Spirit of Jan Tambour). The work is a collection of anecdotes compiled by Jan Pietersz Meerhuysen (1618-?), a popular comedy actor from Amsterdam who died a penniless death in 1667.

Anecdotes are an interesting topic for anyone fascinated by cultural history, and more in particular the history of humour and laughter. Anecdotes have a literary history dating back as far as the Greek and Roman period. In the medieval Netherlands they were an integral part of the comic culture.

The collections of anecdotes that were compiled in the Netherlands of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries contained stories that had often been orally passed down from generation to generation. While in these medieval stories excrement and sex jokes prevailed, the comical literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a significant shift: it mocked the political situation and the Church. It became an important tool of expressing criticism on society and religion, as can also be deduced from these titles of Meerhuysen’s anecdotes: ‘The Idiotic Monk’, ‘The Deceived Catholic’, ‘The Drunk Priest’.

However, his collection contained also more innocuous anecdotes, as you will now read in this story of a painter and his ugly children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opening page of J. P. Meerhuysen’s De geest van Jan Tamboer (1659).

This image was borrowed with permission from the Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren at http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/meer017gees01/tamboer_001.htm.

 

 

 

Text Fragment

 

Er was eens een schilder die lelijke kinderen kreeg, hoewel hij er mooie kon schilderen. De mensen vroegen hem, waarom hij zulke mooie kinderen kon schilderen, terwijl hij er zulke lelijke maakte? De man antwoordde dat dit niet vreemd was: het ene werk deed hij immers in het licht, het andere in het donker.

 

 

The original text can be found in:

Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren at http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/meer017gees01/. 

 

 

Task 1: Vocabulary

 

Print this page or write down the four sentences below. Read the sentences, underline the words you do not understand and write down the meaning of the words you already know. 

   

  1. Er was eens een schilder die lelijke kinderen kreeg, hoewel hij er mooie kon schilderen.
  2. De mensen vroegen hem, waarom hij zulke mooie kinderen kon schilderen, terwijl hij er zulke lelijke maakte?
  3. De man antwoordde dat dit niet vreemd was:
  4. Het ene werk deed hij immers in het licht, het andere in het donker.

 

Click here to compare your answers and to find out the meaning of the words or phrases you do not understand.

 

 

Task 2: Grammar and Syntax

 

Now answer the following grammatical and syntactical questions. Note that this Task contains questions on the indirect speech and indirect objects.

 

Sentence 1:

  1. Identify the relative clause in sentence 1.
  2. Identify a modal verb.
  3. Identify all adjectives.
  4. Which word/words used earlier in the sentence does (the second) er refer back to?

 

Sentence 2:

  1. What tense is vroegen?
  2. Find an indirect object.
  3. Identify all infinitive forms.
  4. Identify the conjunction introducing the indirect speech. Is it a coordinating or subordinating conjunction?
  5. Which word/words in sentence 1 does hij refer back to?

 

Sentence 3:

  1. Identify the indirect speech.

 

Sentence 4:

  1. Identify the subject.

  

After finishing the exercise you can check your answers on the Feedback Page.

 

 

Task 3: Word Forms

 

You will now have to identify the head-words or stems of a series of words from the text.

 

  1. lelijke (sentence 1)
  2. kinderen (sentence 1)
  3. mensen (sentence 2)
  4. maakte (sentence 2)
  5. antwoordde (sentence 3)

 

After you have finished, please go to the Feedback Page, where you will also find some annotations to this exercise.  

 

 

Task 4: Text Comprehension

 

Now that you have worked your way through the first three Tasks of this Unit, you should be able to answer the following questions on the content of the text. Try to answer in Dutch using a sentence, a part of the sentence or a word from the text.

 

  1. Does the painter have children? In which part of sentence 1 do you find the answer to this question? You may answer this question in English.
  2. What kind of children did the painter paint (see sentence 1)?
  3. What did people ask the painter (see sentence 2)?
  4. And how did the painter react to this question (see sentences 3 and 4)? You may answer this question in English.

 

After finishing, look at the Feedback Page to check your answers.

 

 

Task 5: Translation

 

Try to make a clear, comprehensive and fluent English translation of the text. After finishing, click here to compare your translation. Note that your translation does not have to be identical to the one on the Feedback Page, as long as the meaning is the same .

 

 

Task 6: Glossary

 

Finally, you should try to memorise the following words from the text. 

 

1.      lelijk: <=> mooi [ugly; adj]

2.      hoewel: [although, even though; conj]

3.      mooi: <=> lelijk [beautiful; adj]

4.      schilderen: met verf een afbeelding maken [to paint; verb]

5.      vragen: een vraag stellen [to ask; verb]

6.      waarom: om welke reden [why; adv]

7.      de man: de mannelijke persoon [man; noun]

8.      antwoorden: een antwoord geven op een vraag [to answer; verb]

9.      vreemd: <=> gewoon [strange; adj]

10.  het een … het ander: [the one … the other]

11.  het werk: de arbeid; de klus [job, work; noun]

12.  het licht: de energie van de zon of een lamp waardoor men kan zien [light; noun]

13.  het donker: een toestand met weinig licht [dark; noun]

 

Please click here if you want to test your vocabulary knowledge.

 

Click here to go to Unit 7. Click here for the home page.