Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Medicinal and Sacred Drugs
- Part III Divine Blood for Sale
- Appendix I ‘Rariteiten te koop’
- Appendix II Family and business network of Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Bibliography
- General index
- Index of poems by Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Plate Section
8 - Drugs as Intoxicants
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Medicinal and Sacred Drugs
- Part III Divine Blood for Sale
- Appendix I ‘Rariteiten te koop’
- Appendix II Family and business network of Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Bibliography
- General index
- Index of poems by Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Plate Section
Summary
Abstract
In this chapter, I discuss the poetic inspiration that was associated in the Renaissance with such concepts as furor poeticus (poetic madness), ecstasy and enthousiasmos. I show how Joannes Six van Chandelier gives poetic madness a material foundation by linking it to exotic drugs such as cachou. I then show how Six, in a poem addressed to his doctor, Simon Dilman, and to the theologian Johannes Hoornbeeck, emphasises both the medical and the religious dangers of furor poeticus. Here Six presents himself as a weak and fragile rhymester, but in a positive sense, to distance himself from negative associations that poetic madness gave rise to, such as the thirst for divine knowledge and perfection. In other texts, some of which were addressed to the pastor Pieter Wittewrongel, we see how Six distinguishes between a Christian and a pagan ecstasy.
Keywords: Inspiration, enthusiasm, ecstasy, Calvinism, Johannes Hoornbeeck, Pieter Wittewrongel
Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination.
King LearPoetic inspiration
In one of his poems, ‘Op de pinxterbloem der straatkinderen’ (‘On the Pentecostal Flowers of the Street Children’) (J162), Joannes Six van Chandelier tells us how he would like to write. Children dressed up for Pentecost, he writes, travel around on St. Martin’s Day, singing songs and asking for treats. He tells us how he – an adherent of a ‘learned poetry on metrical feet’ in ‘a grand style’ (l. 9–11) – is captivated by their unpretentious verses and how he himself would like to follow their style. He wonders who taught the children to rhyme like this (l. 25–36):
Het spoelde nooit, in Focidis dal,
Syn lipjes, met het henghste kristal.
Het sliep niet, op den dubblen Parnas,
Waar deur ‘t zoo draa een singertje was.
Het leerde niet, als ‘t extertje doet,
Uit honger, om het kostjen, een groet.
Wie onderwees dan singen, aan ‘t wicht?
Wie onderwees, na ‘t quam in het licht,
Het oeffnen van de reedlike tongh,
Met welke ‘t zoo natuurelyk songh?
Wie is er dan een rechte Poeet,
Die meest den dank syn moeder niet weet?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Dangerous DrugsThe Self-Presentation of the Merchant-Poet Joannes Six van Chandelier (1620–1695), pp. 261 - 298Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020